If the FFXIV MSQ destroyed your city...

[Omedon]

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m a WoW refugee who can’t even look my longtime game in the eye any more without getting upset. I’ve really enjoyed the distance, the escape and the perspective of my return to Eorzea, (which looks like it might last longer than originally intended) and I’ve had a question bubbling in my mind for a while that I’m curious as to how it will go over here.

If your city state of origin, or your favorite, was “plot killed” by the flow of the MSQ, how would you feel? Would it change your relationship with the game?

To be clear, in this imaginary situation, you could logistically and mechanically return to all of the gameplay functions and amenities of the city with an OOC “go back in time” mechanic, but “in canon,” your city is gone. It’s also implied that most of the NPCs that lived there are dead-dead.

I’m not going to flavor this OP with my opinion more than I already have, I’m interested in the Eorzean take on this MMORPG storytelling option/device.

Take perhaps the most heart-wrenching character loss you’ve experienced in the MSQ, and imagine u that emotional impact was applied to your favorite city, the implication being it was gone forever with no path to recovery in the game’s future: they want it to be impactful, they want it to stick.

How would you feel as a character? As a player?

Discuss!

(Oh and please no spoilers for shadowbringers! I haven’t played it yet!)

[Omymy]

I hope they destroy Limsa.

[Enkidoh]

Keep playing, as ShB's story... kind of goes into that. If you can't resist peeking, SHB spoilers beyond (spoiler tagged to hide it):

The two cities that were Enki's birthplace and adopted home in Eorzea technically were destroyed completely, in the original timeline anyway - SHB's main scenario specifically showed Rhalgr's Reach - as in, Ala Mhigo, and Gridania being the two places Black Rose was unleashed by the Garlean Empire with destructive consequences during the future 8th Calamity virtually wiping their populations out wholesale in days (and from there, the rest of Eorzea soon followed, with the entire world collapsing into complete barbarism, even the Empire that caused it). My character head-canon story wise was born in Ala Mhigo and started her adventurer journey both before and after the 7th Calamity in Gridania, so it was particularly gut-wrenching and horrifying to see on screen.

And of course the real kick in the gut with studded sabatons was that the player's character was also a victim too and was killed during it. SHB's whole plot is a result of the survivors of the disaster trying to change history by saving the player's character from this fate. It's the reason for my Heroes-inspired statement in my sig.

Either way, keep playing and you'll soon see just how prescient that is.

[Musashidon]

you could kill every character and throw another meteor at the game as long as it plays the same i am fine with it.

honestly i have no attachment to story at all, i like the story its really good but in the end its just a game and anything that happens wont make me stop playing.

[Rymm]

Former WoW player as well. I quit before BfA was even announced, but the destruction of Teldrassil killed any temptation to go back. Ever.

I don't have as much serious sentimental attachment to any of the cities in FFXIV as I did to Darnassus, it was where I started as my first character in any MMO, but I think I'd still be upset if I had to deal with that sort of thing.

[purgatori]

I'd be pretty devoted if Gridania went bye-bye.

[Theodric]

It wouldn't bother me, since I'm not particularly invested in Eorzea to begin with. It's just not as interesting to me as the factions and nations that exist outside of it that don't have the tiresome plot device that is the Warrior of Light to lean on to solve all their problems for them.

Eorzea's cities are simply melting pots, anyway - so it'd be hard for me to feel the same investment towards them as I did towards the likes of Silvermoon and Darnassus back when I played WoW. They have interesting elements to them, though the game doesn't really explore those elements to any significant degree nor does it hold Eorzeans to the same standards as it holds outsiders to.

I liked Ishgard a lot more before Aymeric took to the leadership role, so I guess that counts as destruction? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The writers are incredibly reluctant to kill off any characters of note, anyway. It's always antagonists and secondary protagonists temporarily elevated in importance. So I doubt anybody has to worry about an entire city being destroyed.

I'll say one thing about Blizzard, much as I dislike a lot of their writing I did like how they were willing to shake up leadership roles from time to time.

[Omedon]

@Enkidoh I appreciate the spoiler tag, as I’m in the “post game” of Stormblood now, and I have had a suspicion for a while that Shadowbringers might have a bit of a “crisis on infinite earths” feel to it and therefore would touch on similar feels. I’ll be sure to report back here or in another review thread to see if FFXIV handles these themes with the same superiority that they’ve outshone WoW in exploring other ideas in ways better than WoW once I’ve seen it in FFXIV.

For example, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Stormblood was a better “gritty, earthy war story” than WoW’s battle for Azeroth and didn’t leave the heart hanging as badly. Basically, I still trust FFXIV with my emotional investment after Stormblood, while I do not have the same trust in WoW’s writing after Battle for Azeroth.

[Lauront]

It wouldn't bother me, since I'm not particularly invested in Eorzea to begin with. It's just not as interesting to me as the factions and nations that exist outside of it that don't have the tiresome plot device that is the Warrior of Light to lean on to solve all their problems for them.

Eorzea's cities are simply melting pots, anyway - so it'd be hard for me to feel the same investment towards them as I did towards the likes of Silvermoon and Darnassus back when I played WoW. They have interesting elements to them, though the game doesn't really explore those elements to any significant degree nor does it hold Eorzeans to the same standards as it holds outsiders to.

I liked Ishgard a lot more before Aymeric took to the leadership role, so I guess that counts as destruction? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The writers are incredibly reluctant to kill off any characters of note, anyway. It's always antagonists and secondary protagonists temporarily elevated in importance. So I doubt anybody has to worry about an entire city being destroyed.

I'll say one thing about Blizzard, much as I dislike a lot of their writing I did like how they were willing to shake up leadership roles from time to time.

Yeah, can't say any of them really interest me. Ishgard was my favourite. I like Kugane as well, even though it's not Eorzean, but...

seeing as I am happy to see it all be sacrificed to revert the Source as to what it once was... can't say I'd be particularly bothered even then. Maybe they'd even come up with some city-states which gripped me better, instead of what are by and large rather uninteresting melting pots, as you put it. So, meteors away!

[Payadopa]

I hope they destroy Limsa.

People there are just... weird?

Last time I went there a creepy lala kept following me spamming me with party invites like 100 times per second. I could hardly open the menu to blacklist him.

I never have that problem back home in Gridania.