What happened to SB (story)?

[HyoMinPark]

I enjoyed SB's story. There were a few things I would have preferred to be different:


--The Liberation of both Ala Mhigo and Doma in the base expansion. Heavensward drew out the Dragonsong War and Nidhogg's storyline for the base game and two subsequent patches, yet in Stormblood, we managed to liberate two countries from 25 years of tyranny at the hands of the Empire. Granted, the Dragonsong War was well over 2 1/2 decades, but still...felt a bit rushed to me, and I wish they had made the base game liberating one, and then 2-3 patches afterwards focusing on liberating the other. That would still give them a couple patches to build up to 5.0's story, wherever that may take us.
--Killing off Zenos. This seems extremely abrupt, and I still disagree with killing him off so soon. Especially since Nidhogg stuck around for quite a bit after Heavensward's base story. Perhaps now we'll finally see what the Ascians have been up to, but I still don't like that a major antagonist was killed off so suddenly, even if the final battle was epic.

We'll just have to see what 4.1 and beyond brings. But I still enjoyed the base story.

[Naunet]

--Killing off Zenos. This seems extremely abrupt, and I still disagree with killing him off so soon.

But if we hadn't killed him off so soon, we would have to suffer through SE's self-insert OC for more patches!

I definitely agree with your first point, though. Liberating Ala Mhigo and Doma felt way too easy, though the characters in the quests were generally well-written (with the exception of Zenos). So we knocked out a castle and that's that? At least post-Ala Mhigo, they acknowledge the continued presence of Garlean military I suppose.

That said, I think SB is infinitely better than HW in terms of writing-quality. HW relied way too much on the tired cliche of "zomg evil catholics!!!" which is so uninspiring. It also had some of the most pointless character deaths I've ever witnessed, and the one actually meaningful character death we could've had from the end of ARR was essentially retconned in a ridiculously cheap way come HW.

[Daralii]

But if we hadn't killed him off so soon, we would have to suffer through SE's self-insert OC for more patches!

I definitely agree with your first point, though. Liberating Ala Mhigo and Doma felt way too easy, though the characters in the quests were generally well-written (with the exception of Zenos). So we knocked out a castle and that's that? At least post-Ala Mhigo, they acknowledge the continued presence of Garlean military I suppose.

That said, I think SB is infinitely better than HW in terms of writing-quality. HW relied way too much on the tired cliche of "zomg evil catholics!!!" which is so uninspiring. It also had some of the most pointless character deaths I've ever witnessed, and the one actually meaningful character death we could've had from the end of ARR was essentially retconned in a ridiculously cheap way come HW.

But every character is Square's OC. They make the game.

[Naunet]

But every character is Square's OC. They make the game.

Obviously I meant that to imply negative connotations and evoke images of a shallow character with ridiculous powers and lacking any meaningful motivation. My husband put it best once:

"His name is Zenos he is very POWERFUL and very COOL and VERY SEXY and everyone is afraid of him. He’s so strong he can beat up the Warrior of Light and he beat all of Doma on his own. He likes SWORDS and he collects swords and his sheath has THREE SWORDS in it and when he draws his swords you know he is about to win the fight immediately. He loves to FIGHT and all he wants to do is fight the STRONGEST people but he’s too strong and always wins too easy. HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT FIGHTING. NOTHING. He never shows ANY emotions and is always bored because he can’t find anyone strong enough to fight. He’s so mean he kills his lieutenants and they’re all afraid of him. He also had experiments done on him to give him dragon powers and he can possess dragons. He is the emperor’s son but he doesn’t care about the emperor all he wants to do is fight strong opponents. HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT FIGHTING."

Wouldn't it have been cooler to see scars where mountains were and giant, industrial pits? Shouldn't there be scars on the land, not just outposts for occupation but a reminder of the industrial consumption of the empire? There's all these fortifications to protect the soldiers, but what are the soldiers protecting? What do the Garleans get out of Doma and Ala Mhigo?

I like this thought. Yes. I want it!