Quote Originally Posted by GraceHorizon View Post
For real, but I find some of my favorite parts of the story of FFXIV to be when it’s doing its own original story, or at least referencing an older Final Fantasy that I’m not familiar with. The a Shadowbringers MSQ comes to mind, and also the Endwalker alliance raids, whose story was my favorite of the whole expansion. The FFXIV writers don’t always knock it out of the park with their original stories, but I think tying FFXIV to older FF games hurts as much as it helps.
This right here makes it sound like your problem isn't so much with adopting things from other games, but rather the moment you recognize it, it takes away from your enjoyment, which is kind of a you thing.

Everything is derivative, and so long as they can make something interesting enough out of it, I don't mind them deriving from the series' own past, I've said many times Eden is my favorite story in the game and that's heavily derivative of VIII, it's entirely about what comes out the other end.