Awfully weak story... or is it? [WARNING:SPOILERS]

[RexValentino]

Character development was sorta missing from the storyline. If you are interested in some in-game story that has a bit of character development i recommend some of the crafting class quests. They don't last long, but they have a bit more feeling than the main story.

I wish everyone could have played 1.0 for the storyline ... if you liked ffxi's story, then you would have loved how in-depth the 1.0 story was and where it was going. There are some nice 1.0 youtube videos on all the story CS's ... you miss out on the feel of the quests and fights along the way, but if you want some good story and about 90% of what this game's story is based on you should go check it out ... just type ffxiv all cs in youtube ... 1.0 will come up since i don't think people really care to record 2.0's just yet. ;p

[Ramzal]

-snip-

You do know how conquest of an area goes, right? The area is taken over, the culture and lifestyle of the people is all but annihilated and there is a large increase in crime, murder, etc. People are resistant to change, especially on a macro scale. Eorzeans seem to treasure their religious rights to worship the Tweleve, and that would be the first thing to go namely because the Empire sees them as false gods. This would just lead to internal rebellion if the Empire -did- win and more bloodshed on a pretense that they're "Just trying to help" when in reality they're looking to expand their lands and become more powerful. The only reason to give the other side a chance to surrender is so that YOU don't use up resources that could be used anything else.

He was using Ultima Weapon as a "balance" to soften the blow of being taken over. "Sure I'll come to your lands, tell you how to live, what to believe in, and pretty much wreck your entire concept of life but... I'll get rid of these monsters for you." Which if you look at it, Ultima Weapon was a pretty poor bargain. A group that was given a blessing of some sort trashed that machine and look at what happened--the primals got out of it. Gaius didn't eliminate the primal threat---he contained it. Very poorly and with technology he didn't even fully understand and was tricked into using it. Why in the heck would you follow someone who just finds something, doesn't fully research it extensively enough and just uses it right out the flood gate without any second thought?

[Borfin]

The only real complaint I've had about the storyline is the stupid GET X FACTION TO TRUST YOU fetch quests around every corner.

Frankly, I'd rather have the story quests just level-gated and have FATE spammed, to be honest. The fetch-story quests were pathetic.

[Astarica]

The story pretty much combines the worst of single player stuff (linear path with no possibility of variation) and MMORPG stuff (how you're always doing totally irrelevent things because there isn't enough relevent things to do in a story). At least when you talk about WoW, most people I know just hit 'Accept' and were never aware that they just sold out their integrity for another 50K XP. In this game, the deliberate pacing of the dialogue almost forces you to actually pay attention to the story, compared to the average MMORPG where people aren't even aware of what the main story is. Now that could be fine if the main story was good, except it's not. The amount of stupid things your character has to do pretty much ranks him as the biggest loser for a main character in MMORPG history. I'm sure there are MMORPG that are just as bad, but in those games at least they don't waste your time to present a bad story. You just hit 'accept' and will be done with it. Most people can't tell you what is supposed to be the main storyline of a given WoW arc, and this at least ensure they didn't suffered.

I mean, so far as bad single player story goes, FF14 is definitely not the worst of the bunch. But it makes sure you have to suffer unless you've enough conviction to just hit escape on something you never seen before. It's kind of like the games with 30 minute cutscenes where you know it's probably junk but you just can't skip it just in case it's somehow good, or that there's something important that happens. After you sat thorugh the entire cutscene you realize it's junk but you already suffered. That's what FF14's story does.

[Jinrya-Geki]

He had you Dead-to-rights several times in 1.0 and let you live.

He took several cities by force and forced peace as said by his right-hand mad.

Instead of just wiping everyone out with Ultima effortlessly, he gives everyone to chance to surrender.

he seems to be a better anti-hero than a true villain. He seemed to be doing wrongs to make the right.

[Aenarion]

He had you Dead-to-rights several times in 1.0 and let you live.

He took several cities by force and forced peace as said by his right-hand mad.

Instead of just wiping everyone out with Ultima effortlessly, he gives everyone to chance to surrender.

he seems to be a better anti-hero than a true villain. He seemed to be doing wrongs to make the right.

If you consider enslavement/pillage/rape of entire nations as "the right" then, I suppose.

[Jinrya-Geki]

If you consider enslavement/pillage/rape of entire nations as "the right" then, I suppose.

Who did Gauis rape? He enslaved and pillaged Ala Mihgo, but you know what? With how every single Ala' Mighan npc acts, I could honestly say I hope they never get it back. He brought stability and prosperity to another city as told by his 2nd-in-command.

[Aenarion]

Who did Gauis rape? He enslaved and pillaged Ala Mihgo, but you know what? With how every single Ala' Mighan npc acts, I could honestly say I hope they never get it back. He brought stability and prosperity to another city as told by his 2nd-in-command.

I had to lol at that one, using one bad guy's word to justify said bad guy's faction's actions. Maybe someone need to pay more attention to in-game texts, here's one straight from a main story NPC:

Glaumunt: An' then the imperials came an' took it all away. When Ala Mhigo fell, they put my family in a camp. Bein' a lad, I was made to do hard labor, while my mother an' sister were forced to do far worse... They hid their sufferin' from me as best they could, but I knew, an' the thought of it drove me mad. We had to escape. An' so I hatched a plan to get us out o' the city.

but hey, it was all really for the best, just like how Imperial Japan brought "stability and prosperity" to the rest of Asia, and comfort women were really volunteers right?

[Jinrya-Geki]

I had to lol at that one, using one bad guy's word to justify said bad guy's faction's actions. Maybe someone need to pay more attention to in-game texts, here's one straight from a main story NPC:



but hey, it was all really for the best, just like how Imperial Japan brought "stability and prosperity" to the rest of Asia, and comfort women were really volunteers right?

The same can be said for a good man with a few bad eggs in his military. One man can not control every action his troops take when they are around.

One soldier was viciously cutting down an already dead man in the Waking Sands when they took Minfilia. The White armored commander shot that imperial for disobeying her and she's obviously fiercely loyal to Gauis. She could be copying what Gauis would have done.

Unless I see a cutscene specifically showing showing something truly immoral I can't believe he was a truly bad guy.

There is far more evidence to show he was a man trying to do his way for the greater good. Like Durian from the Wtachmen, killing millions to save billions.

[Linadae]

Btw the initial rebellion in Ala Mhigo while brewing on its own was instigated and encouraged by Garlean infiltrators. Then during the chaos they marched in to bring 'order' to the city. It was initially bloodless but once the citizens realized the had made a deal with the devil did violence break out.

The Admiral isn't exactly changing limsa life. There's still plenty of pirates. She's just insisting (and enforcing) that they harass the Garlean's ships instead of each other or/and the other city states.

There's no excuse for Ul'dah. Though the Sultana is against the treatment she is little more than a figurehead due to the Syndicate.

I can excuse Gridania because they are only in the Shroud by the grace of the Elementals. They can be easily kicked out if they anger the forest. So it comes down to the symbiosis. The forest will protect them as long as Gridania protects it.