I can't connect with the Memories of Vanadiel

[CidHeiral]

I don't know how people that have played through XI feel about going through this, or even how players that went through FFT/XII for Ivalice felt

I'm both and I think both raid series are fantastic, but the FFXI raid series is definitely much more of a nostalgia love letter to people who played the original, so you're naturally not going to get as much out of the experience as veterans recognizing every location and reference. If you want to learn about the context for all that stuff I recommend playing retail FFXI which has an extremely fast leveling experience these days. That or watch some youtube videos. Even if you don't play the game the story and lore are pretty interesting.

[Shinku_Tachi]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

Honestly, if you get tired of playing 14, I highly recommend picking up and trying out 11.

Sure, it's kinda archaic, basically an EQ era MMO, but it's a great game. Some of the best gaming years of my life were spent in that game.

[Keumjo]

I love FFXI and this raid is the only reason I was excited for Dawntrail. It's been nice for me to see a visually upgraded snippet of a game that I love. Having the opportunity to fill my house with FFXI music and my closet with FFXI gear makes me happy. FFXI is my one true MMO love and unfortunately any chance we'll have at a modernized version of it was slashed when they abandoned the mobile version.

That being said, I've never played Nier games before, so those were just cool looking fights and zones and nothing else to me.
I've played FFXII and Tactics, so I was familiar with the characters featured in their story, and it was fine, good fights good times.
We finally got the Twelve raid and I had everything I needed to be invested in that fully original story and, it was fine, but I wasn't exactly emotionally invested in it.

At the end of the day the raids feel so cut off from anything in my actual characters journey that I just see them as fun boss battles with usually cool armor by fight 2 and 3. The only reason I'm invested in FFXI raids is because my time in FFXI was the best in my gaming history and it's nice to be reminded of some of those feelings, but outside of that raid, I know nothing that happens in that raid matters in FFXIV, the characters will never be mentioned outside of those raids, so it's just a little pocket of joy to likely never be opened again.

[BigCheez]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

Yes and no.

FFXI paid homage to the previous games by using the same concepts and themes to tell its own stories rather than directly cutting and pasting characters and locations, i.e. resorting to "on the nose" fan-service.

[Valence]

I'm both and I think both raid series are fantastic, but the FFXI raid series is definitely much more of a nostalgia love letter to people who played the original, so you're naturally not going to get as much out of the experience as veterans recognizing every location and reference. If you want to learn about the context for all that stuff I recommend playing retail FFXI which has an extremely fast leveling experience these days. That or watch some youtube videos. Even if you don't play the game the story and lore are pretty interesting.

I'm sorry but asking me to play a whole other game, and a MMO to boot, just to experience what the story should provide me with in the first place, feels a little like it's pushing it too far.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that some XI veterans enjoy this piece of content, but I'm not sure making nostalgia content only for a specific subset of its playerbase is sound.

Honestly, if you get tired of playing 14, I highly recommend picking up and trying out 11.

Sure, it's kinda archaic, basically an EQ era MMO, but it's a great game. Some of the best gaming years of my life were spent in that game.

See, that's the problem I have. After Yoshida constantly telling us to stop playing XIV and take breaks to play other games, now we have them telling us to do the same with XI. I don't want to. It sounds interesting as a game for sure, but I play XIV. I'd like XIV to stop actually leaning on other games to provide enjoyment.

It's not about being tired of playing XIV.

[BigCheez]

Honestly, if you get tired of playing 14, I highly recommend picking up and trying out 11.

Sure, it's kinda archaic, basically an EQ era MMO, but it's a great game. Some of the best gaming years of my life were spent in that game.

+1

I revisited FFXI for the first time in 6.1 and dipped in and out a few times since. I went back to FFXI full-time last patch and I've been having so much more fun there than I can in FFXIV these days. IDK if I'll come back to XIV before 8.0 and if 8.0 doesn't at least start moving the game in a more interesting direction then I'll just stick with FFXI.

[Hallarem]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

Thats 14's thing. Its less of a "themepark" and more of an excuse for the devs to rip out storylines, characters and themes so they dont have to do any work themselves except forcefully slot in things. Its lazy, it lacks integrity and stopped being charming or nostalgic a long time ago.

Im half expecting Cloud to pop up and go "hey gang Im Bloud on a beach holiday with Bidus and Bquall. Lets go fight Bephiroth and say hi to Bifa hohoho" *you have a strange feeling you know these people* roll credits and insert silly theme used for everything in every expansion

[Loggos]

I feel the same. I have no connection whatsoever to the raids and the way they are presented doesn't really lead to me developing any interest in FF11 either. Like you said, it feels like speed-running through a slide show of different themes that are supposed to bring FF11 closer to you. But I'm not really into the visuals (which is the biggest/most impactful "selling point" to advertise it when you run the raid) and the raid's landscapes/themes feel too similar to what we have in FF14 anyways so why would I check out FF11 if I already get my share in this game.

(Of course, it's also supposed to be a treat for FF11 players but I do think if you make a whole alliance raid - one of the biggest pieces of patch content and something played by almost the whole player base - you need to account for the big group of non-FF11 players and get them on board as well, somehow.)

I'm also annoyed by the recent insistence on nostalgia and fan service. The Nier raid series was abyssmally bad. It had uninspired money grab collab written all over it. Oh well, at least we got a nice tank coat.

As somebody who hasn't played any FF except for FF14 the call backs to other games didn't bother me in the past because it felt more like nods to previous games while turning the borrowed theme into something new to fit it into FF14.
In fact, FF14 is strongest when it creates new themes and expands on its own world. Shadowbringers and original characters like Emet-Selch show this really well.

From what I've heard the Zero story line was a complete rehash of FF4 and now the same appears to be happening with FF9?

This is a shame because FF14 has a good foundation and world to build on. It doesn't need to copy its homework from other titles in the franchise to shine. All this feels like the devs don't really believe in their own game if they feel the constant need to prioritise re-using other FF game's themes over creating something new from scratch.

Even Dawntrail/Tuliyollal could have been great additions to the story and world with proper writing. The concepts are good. They just need to be handled with the care they deserve.

[Auro_Seldaris]

Thats 14's thing. Its less of a "themepark" and more of an excuse for the devs to rip out storylines, characters and themes so they dont have to do any work themselves except forcefully slot in things. Its lazy, it lacks integrity and stopped being charming or nostalgic a long time ago.

Im half expecting Cloud to pop up and go "hey gang Im Bloud on a beach holiday with Bidus and Bquall. Lets go fight Bephiroth and say hi to Bifa hohoho" *you have a strange feeling you know these people* roll credits and insert silly theme used for everything in every expansion

This x 100. Despite reading an article where Yoshida said, "Well we try to reimagine things, we don't want them to be shallow surface-level references", that's actually all they seem to be. I have a friend whose favorite game of all is FFIX and she finds all this stuff to be shallow surface-level reusing of things, and actually somewhat of an insult to FFIX. "Oh look at Not-Garnet and Not-Steiner in Totes Alexandria Fr Fr! Why's it even called Alexandria, this has nothing to do with FFIX?"

[Mecia]

I cant connect with it but im interested in it, so in a way the disneyland ride is working on me. Story is kinda whatever but ive always liked XI from the outside.

Its funny how the best music and coolest areas in DT are not from DT.