What's your opinion about the game's story?

[dinnertime]

Something that annoys me with the story is how they're always using Allagan technology as some plot device for really bad things happening.
We had Dalamud for 1.0, Ultima Weapon for 2.0, Azys Lla for 3.0 and then soon enough we'd see Omega Weapon.

[Alleo]

They could easily tell the story of the Ishgard-dragon war without turning Ishgard into an obnoxious and stereotypical caricature of Catholicism.

I agree with you 100%. I always heard that FF loves to use religion/church = evil kind of thing in their story and I saw it already at XIII. So I was more than disappointed that it was exactly the same in this game too. The pope is evil, the church bad too and many more things. Isnt it getting enough if your fanbase already says that this guy must be evil because he is the pope? How about taking a new route..

Oh and I also dislike that behind everything bad thing in history are the Ascians..Come on the races should have enough bad guys in their groups to do some bad things all on their own..no need to connect it to the Ascians the whole time..

[Shurrikhan]

And, uhm... I feel like my post has gone on long enough so I'll stop there. To be honest, there are a lot of other plot points I could bring up, but I think I've hit the main points. xD

I really can't help but wonder what the minor points were, too. In complete agreement with everything you've listed here.

[Zojha]

Oh and I also dislike that behind everything bad thing in history are the Ascians..Come on the races should have enough bad guys in their groups to do some bad things all on their own..no need to connect it to the Ascians the whole time..

To be fair: Whenever there is a bad guy, the ascians are more than eager to support them, because it helps their goal of spreading chaos. So even if there are independent bad guys around, chances are the ascians would get involved sooner or later, unless it's a minor evil with no potential to be used for their own plot.

[Naunet]

I really can't help but wonder what the minor points were, too. In complete agreement with everything you've listed here.

Haha okay. I'll elaborate on the Garleans first, and that will probably lead into my "inconsistency" point with regards to how characters state a problem is vs how it ends up being presented in the action.

The Garlean Empire is, on paper, terrifying. Their military technology and clout, from the way everyone talks about it, would have the capability of wiping Eorzea clean. The foot soldiers alone are supposedly possessing of extremely deadly weapons. Basically, the outline of the story (and all of the character dialogue) sets the Garleans up as this nigh-unstoppable force that we really only have a chance of defeating if we can trick them into making mistakes. Which we do. Over and over and over again. SE wrote themselves into a corner. While attempting to make an intimidating Big Bad, they created an empire fool of bumbling buffoons. There was only a single time they "won" to a degree where they felt like a threat - after the Waking Sands were invaded and the majority of the Scions were killed. That was a powerful moment, but although characters continue to bring up the spectre of that day, it's not a threat that's ever really followed up on. Thus the Garleans end up looking like incompetent would-be-conquerors who got lucky a time or two but are otherwise easily outsmarted and outfought by the Good Guys.

Basically to fix this, they needed to win more.

The beast tribes and their primals also never feel like a credible threat, because as soon as they are summoned (and our "efforts" to prevent them from being summoned invariably fail) we deal with them handily. Ifrit, Garuda, Titan - they all just feel like minor distractions that have no real impact on the story and no opportunity to demonstrate the supposed existential danger they present to Eorzea. I'll admit I haven't done any of the HW primals yet, but I somehow doubt they're any different. Ramuh has been the sole exception thus far, and I actually really enjoyed the story introducing him. Getting to interact directly with Ramuh and hear his perspective on the world - as well as present our own treaty - was really interesting. It suggests that the primals are a lot more complicated than they're usually made out to be, and this is actually a side point in the Ascian plot (Y'shtola makes some throw-away comments every so often about how we don't yet understand how primals work). The unfortunate part is that I have not yet seen that fully explored. But anyway, the main point is that the primals are in practice push-overs and this is emphasized by the repeated quests of, "Oh look, they've been summoned again. I guess we better go kill them."

That's all for now! It's dinner time. I could go on forever on this. My husband is an author and we often have lengthy conversations about what was or wasn't well-written in the MMOs we play, so this is a topic I've put a lot of thought into!

[Talraen]

I'm not sure if it's because I value different aspects of story than most of the people here or what, but I loved the 2.0 story, and think it's better than the Heavensward story. 2.0 set up an entire world and a conflict with many sides that all stand up on their own. Obviously we understand the motivation of the three central nations, but you also had the Empire who are trying to destroy false gods that they feel (rightly!) are tearing apart Eorzea; five different beast tribes with motivations varying from outright aggression (Amalj'aa) to a totally defensive posture (Sylphs) to trying to defend themselves (Kobolds); and you have the Ascians, who are trying to manipulate everyone and everything into summoning primals. (Well, I'll grant I don't really buy in to the Ascians' motivations, but this is a Final Fantasy game, you need some good vs. evil, right?) For that matter, I've questioned Hydaelyn's motivations many times. It feels like a real world with real conflicts.

The story is also very well told, and touches on a lot of subjects most JRPGs shy away from. Defending that peasant girl from Ungust after the Copperbell Mines was a scene that stands out for me (not least because it's the first time they use the FF2 battle music, lol). This is not a game that is afraid of going dark, and that is great. (Of course, my favorite FF ending is FFXIII-2, so there may be something wrong with me!)

Yes, the story structure is an obvious construct designed to get you to visit every area of every map, and sometimes they take that a bit too far (that friggin' feast!), but it plays out like the Scions are trying to do what they can when they can to keep the world in order. I prefer that to a linear plot where they introduce a bad guy and you just go after him.

That said, although Heavensward's story is much narrower in scope, it's even better told due to the journey with friends aspect of it. It's just not as much the kind of thing I'm interested in. (Similarly, I loved the story, or I should say stories, of FFXIII right up until Barthandelus shows up and things got silly quickly.)

The whole game has plenty of amazing moments, which to me are what make a story a Final Fantasy story. I'll never forget the introduction of the Ultima Weapon, the cutscenes after T11, the scene before the final fight with Nidhogg, or many others. I get chills just thinking about them. That's what I play for.

I also want to say that the silent/useless protagonist thing doesn't really bother me. It's not great, but it's a necessary evil. No, my character probably shouldn't have fallen for the trap at the end of 2.55, but what do you want them to do? Your character eats primals for breakfast, nothing should really threaten them. I'd rather play a story where I experience some fear from time to time than hold on to some kind of sanctity of character. But I understand why people would feel differently.

And being silent is probably better than the alternatives. Having a voice-acted main character would be the worst, because there's no way it would feel like your character at that point. I wouldn't mind more dialogue options, but since they cannot, practically speaking, ever impact the story in any way, I don't really miss them. And Final Fantasy has never been about giving you any control of the story anyway. Also, remember that while some of your NPC buddies get to shine in cutscenes while you grimace awkwardly from the back line, you're the one actually fighting primals and doomsday weapons. Don't hog all the glory, sheesh!

[Talraen]

I agree with you 100%. I always heard that FF loves to use religion/church = evil kind of thing in their story and I saw it already at XIII. So I was more than disappointed that it was exactly the same in this game too. The pope is evil, the church bad too and many more things. Isnt it getting enough if your fanbase already says that this guy must be evil because he is the pope? How about taking a new route..

I get annoyed with how many times the church is the secret bad guy in Final Fantasy, but I actually think Heavensward is an exception. Yes, the pope and his closest advisors, and some of the high priests, were pretty much evil. Their motivations do make sense, especially since ending the Dragonsong War was effectively impossible. (Incidentally, I think we had way too easy a time with that. :P )

But they make it clear that the actual faith is still legitimate. The Dragonsong War was based on a lie, but that was one aspect of the religion. I appreciated that they didn't just make the whole organization corrupt top-to-bottom. (Though the cynic in me assumes they didn't do this because it would be too hard to reflect that much change in game based on where you are in the plot.)

[Duelle]

To be fair: Whenever there is a bad guy, the ascians are more than eager to support them, because it helps their goal of spreading chaos. So even if there are independent bad guys around, chances are the ascians would get involved sooner or later, unless it's a minor evil with no potential to be used for their own plot.

Of course, a villain with the balls to tell the ascians to sod off because they're badass enough to get the job done without help would give that villain a lot of weight. Specially if they do get incredibly close to winning on their own.

Suikoden II's Luca Blight (AKA the posterboy of villains without superpowers) is testament to this being a valid approach.

[JMadFour]

I think overall the story is interesting, with cool characters that I have come to care about.

the one thing I dislike about the story, is that it almost literally ignores everyone else playing the game. this is my major beef with the game's writing.

I really dislike "You are the single, only, sole Chosen One champion of all that is good" stories in MMOs. Those should be saved for single-player games, tbh.

I prefer MMO stories where my character is portrayed as one of many heroes, part of an organization, etc. Because in reality, my character IS one of many. We are all Warriors of Light, and I dislike that the story makes it seem like you soloed everything because you are a super special snowflake, even though you actually did a lot of it with between 3, 7 or 23 other people. but the FFXIV story pretty much disregards the other players, and treats them as basically non-existent.

[Lufir]

I generally like the story. One thing that bugs me though is the good characters are a bit too "good". No one any has flaws or negative traits. Everyone is valiant beyond belief. This makes me become more interested in the "bad guys" like Gaius, Nero, and Nidhogg.