Creating a Compelling World

[Altaeiu]

I agree, the story elements are so disconnected from the game at large. The life and story you see in the cutscenes (even then it can be a bit hard to follow) ends when the cutscene does. All the lore that's built up doesn't seem to apply during normal gameplay. As you mentioned, for the forest being so sacred and the constant threat of upsetting the wood, we seem to be able to quite freely run through it and do whatever we please. Kill anything, do anything.

The same goes too for the apparent beastmen threat. Unless the beastmen are a secret society they're the most non-existent immediate threat I've ever seen. The world's danger isn't very apparent and the lore is so... "other," that it doesn't feel like it's even really part of the game.

They are kind of homeless to. Sorta meandering about in place we cant really see them. Secret, and homeless. How could you Squex! Ixali Bob has a wife and 4 chicks!

[Neffie]

They are kind of homeless to. Sorta meandering about in place we cant really see them. Secret, and homeless. How could you Squex! Ixali Bob has a wife and 4 chicks!

Honestly I didn't even know what an Ixali was until R30 Story Mission. Hell i didn't even know they existed, where as in FFXI you knew about the beastmen, they were there, you encountered them on a regular basis. IMHO i think i should have encountered at least 1 beastmen before hitting the R30 mark ^^;