The finale of the Arcadion is an absolute disapointment.

[Daralii]

Eden's story left no impact on me other than the potential of an ascian ally and the fact that it's so pro-sapphic, which is a refreshing thing to see. FFVIII was very important to me as a teenager, so I was always very hype for those little details. but the series was more about remixing classic primal fights of FFXIV and didn't really go as hard of FFVIII as they should've.

Recontextualized references, most of which you won't know are references if you aren't familiar with the source material, are significantly better than overtly trying as hard as possible to remind you of another game.

[Astronis]

Recontextualized references, most of which you won't know are references if you aren't familiar with the source material, are significantly better than overtly trying as hard as possible to remind you of another game.

Yeah. Dawntrail's recontextualized FFX references work much better than the painfully obvious FFIX ones because of that. What they recontextualized from FFIX without making it obvious also works much better.

[Mecia]

Just awful all around, especially the music goddamn.

[Reginald_Cain]

Yeah. Dawntrail's recontextualized FFX references work much better than the painfully obvious FFIX ones because of that. What they recontextualized from FFIX without making it obvious also works much better.

I liked that characters based on ff9 characters had their own original name. R
The ff9 references were way less on the nose than the ff4 references in endwalker omg.

[Daralii]

I liked that characters based on ff9 characters had their own original name. R
The ff9 references were way less on the nose than the ff4 references in endwalker omg.

Yeah, the Garnet substitute was really improved by being named after a different gemstone.

[Hyperia]

I liked that characters based on ff9 characters had their own original name. R
The ff9 references were way less on the nose than the ff4 references in endwalker omg.

I enjoy the little nods to other games but I do not like the slaps in the face and overuse of the nostalgia music in EW. So far, DT has done a better job at that and not been annoying.

[Nightfire007]

TY this is exactly how I felt about it. My thoughts exactly

[Nightfire007]

For me the story ultimately didn’t land

I’m personally much more drawn to tragic yet heartfelt endings. I don’t think character death is a bad thing, nor do I think it undermines a happy ending by default. In fact, XIV has often shown that an ending can be hopeful because characters die, not in spite of it. Because of that, I found myself wishing Arcadion had lingered more on consequences. I would have loved to see how the deaths of Eutrope etc. affected Retsarra, Yaana, Neyuni, and the others afterward, especially Yaana. Even small sidequests focused on grief and rebuilding could have added a lot of value, particularly if the other fighters were cured and the WoL could help those grieving.

Related to that, I was also hoping the M9–12 group wouldn’t necessarily like us by the end, even if we did the right thing. XIV has portrayed this trope nicely before (Garlemald in Endwalker comes to mind), and I think it would have fit here too.

Another factor is that I have no real background for show wrestling. I’ve never watched it, I’m not especially interested in it, and exaggerated personas (IRL) for spectacle have personally grown tiring for me over time. Because of that, wrestling as the core didn’t appeal to me, and I needed the emotional arc to do more of the work than it ultimately did.

That said, I do believe a light-hearted wrestling story could still have contained something tragic or bittersweet beneath the surface and still arrived at a wholesome or even funny ending if given more room. Similar attempts in Dawntrail didn’t quite land for me emotionally, and Arcadion’s final turn felt similar. I also don’t think I had enough time to truly care about the President, despite liking the idea behind him.

I do want to be clear that there were things I enjoyed. The music and aesthetics were great, the mechanics were fun, the glamours are enjoyable, and the characters themselves are charming, at least until the P12 twist, where the story begins to unravel for me narratively. (Personally, the WoL’s reaction didn’t quite fit either for my WoL.)

In the end, P1–P11 set up a certain tone, and the way it resolved felt like the tension was defused rather than transformed. That lessened the emotional impact for me. All of this is said with respect for the team, I don’t think the story is “bad” or shouldn’t exist, but it didn’t align with what I personally look for in XIV’s storytelling, especially given how powerfully the game has handled grief and consequence in the past.

Glad other people liked it though!

Dunno why my last post didn't reply with the quote ;w;
but this is exactly how I felt about the Arcadion. Thank you for articulating it so well (and so positively, because truly I am glad that people like it)

[Sojiro_Saitama]

You can't please everyone. End of the day.

For me, Arcadion was the best part of Dawntrail alongside what we've seen of Hildy. And I have *never* watched a professional wrestling match in my life.

[Bubert]

We share the same sentiment. The story is a disaster and doesn’t make any sense at all.
Pandæmonium Raids were more interesting than this slop SE cooked.