5.2 MSQ rant ***Spoilers***

[Renato]

As the title states, this conversation will include spoilers. Please don't read ahead if you haven't finished the MSQ. This will also be a bit lengthy so please bear with me.


I'd just like to start by saying that I've been playing FFXIV for 5 years now and what seems to keep me invested 80% of the time is the story. I often look forward to that over most of the content if I'm being completely honest. After playing through 5.0, I was blown away by the story-telling considering Shb to be not only one of the best RPGs I've played in a LONG time but one of the best FF stories as well. I was looking forward to what would come next.

After finishing 5.2, I was extremely disappointed though. It was a complete slow burn that I struggled to get through:

• SE desperately needs to get rid of making the PC run these annoying errands. There is no need for us to come along with Ystola to clean her home. Why couldn't she have returned on her own shown through a cutscene? Go gather people in the Crystarium so we can tell them the truth about the Warriors of Light. Go talk to the soldiers to boost morale. At what point do we actually become the Warrior of Darkness and not the Scion's errand boy/girl?

• Not much happened and most of this felt like filler. With what I mentioned above, we sat around only to be interrupted by a group of thieves that were taken down by NPCs, ventured back to Qitana to solve riddles, briefly went back to the Source to check in with Raubhan only to return back to the First. The story on the First is much more interesting to me but it seems like it's becoming side content with the main focus getting the Scions back home. Some of the story involving the Acians and the people of Amaurot is kind of hard to follow. We already knew Elidibus was in Ardbert's body and is the vessel for Zodiark. And the cloaked Ascian in white STILL hasn't been revealed yet...and nothing interesting involving him has happened. These anticlimactic cliff-hanger endings are getting really old.

And I get that this is only 5.2 but man after such a strong start at 5.0, this just feels like a letdown. I really hope the future MSQ stuff lives up to what 5.0 started.

[Harmonea]

The point of all the events you describe was to get us in the right place at the right time to see things happening.

We cleaned Y'shtola's room to watch her say goodbye to it and to see how sad Runar is about her leaving.

We went to stop the thieves to see our budding warriors of light beginning to feel the fire of adventure burning in them.

We cleaned barnacles off Bismarck so he could tell the story of how the Isle of Ken was named, reinforcing Elidibus' point about how men are incapable of keeping the history Emet-Selch was willing to entrust to us.

Yeah, it feels bad being given stupid chores, but they truly did all have a narrative goal for something they wanted us to see. It's fine if you don't think we need to watch Y'shtola say goodbye to Rak'tika and its people, but I disagree; it was a soft and humanizing moment for her, and I'm glad we got to see it even if my immediate reaction to being asked to go find a broom was "and we're putting off dealing with Ruby Weapon for this?"

Edit: if you are going to respond with sass about how I could've done Ruby Weapon first, as two others already have, you have completely missed the point of my post.

[Alleo]

The only big thing that disappointed me with the story was the last part in the dungeon. I really thought we would see more of that building but one part was on Bismarks back, then another big part was outside and we barely even explored inside. And the information we got here also felt like it was not enough.

Honestly how much Yoshida teased us about it and how great the trailer was I kinda felt like: Thats all? Even the parts we found out about Elidibus were barely that much.

[Renato]

I'm glad we got to see it even if my immediate reaction to being asked to go find a broom was "and we're putting off dealing with Ruby Weapon for this?"

This is literally how I felt. And I get it...it's for the sake of "world building" and story progression. All I'm saying is that with the PC doesn't really need to be there for events like that. That could have just been a cutscene without us seemingly being dragged along. There are even options that you can choose where your character voices these annoyances. Eliminating those errand quests and just having them being played out in cutscenes wouldn't hurt.

Honestly how much Yoshida teased us about it and how great the trailer was I kinda felt like: Thats all? Even the parts we found out about Elidibus were barely that much.

Totally agree with this. Some were even hyping it to be the "climax of the Zodiark storyline."

[sarehptar]

The point of all the events you describe was to get us in the right place at the right time to see things happening.

We cleaned Y'shtola's room to watch her say goodbye to it and to see how sad Runar is about her leaving.

We went to stop the thieves to see our budding warriors of light beginning to feel the fire of adventure burning in them.

We cleaned barnacles off Bismarck so he could tell the story of how the Isle of Ken was named, reinforcing Elidibus' point about how men are incapable of keeping the history Emet-Selch was willing to entrust to us.

Yeah, it feels bad being given stupid chores, but they truly did all have a narrative goal for something they wanted us to see. It's fine if you don't think we need to watch Y'shtola say goodbye to Rak'tika and its people, but I disagree; it was a soft and humanizing moment for her, and I'm glad we got to see it even if my immediate reaction to being asked to go find a broom was "and we're putting off dealing with Ruby Weapon for this?"

I'm normally the first person to defend the choice to include humanizing moments in the story like this and I think that "does chores for people" is one of the core definitions of WoL/WoD, but in this case, it was so painfully shoehorned in to lengthen the patch content that it crossed over from "nice slower-paced moment to reveal more characterization" into "Pacing? Never heard of her."

There was no need for the aside with cleaning the room and the broom--Y'shtola could have had her moment of saying goodbye (and Runar his eavesdropping moment) just as easily in the same conversation in which she instructed us to go get the broom in the first place. If "genuine moment of rest" wasn't the goal of the table scene, it should just have been skipped in favor of a brief cutscene of the soldiers doing their thing elsewhere--we have plenty of cutscenes which occur without our characters seeing them, could have just done a quick cut to show these guys getting gung-ho about Warrior of Lighting, without the forced "Sit at this table for five lines of dialogue. Fly to this location for five more. Come back. Get back on the whale." The barnacles thing was... what? Just give us that Isle of Ken dialogue WHILE we were riding Bismarck through the first part of the new dungeon--they clearly demonstrated with Amaurot that dungeons are perfectly fine tools for storytelling. What was the point of the entire segue into La-Hee Land? Just for Y'shtola's ONE line of dialogue about the Final Days leaving an imprint on people's souls?

There's "whining because you got asked to do a few fetch quests" and then there's "I hope you like two-three hours of delay at a crucial crisis moment in the story before receiving 30 minutes of actual plot relevant material, most of it merely lead up for later."

I absolutely love this game's story, and even for me, the MSQ fell flat this time. I'm sure there will actually BE payoff later and I'll appreciate it then, but for now, this patch was basically carried entirely by the character interactions. :/

[SigSauer]

The only thing I'm upset about is that I was left craving for more because the story line is amazing.

[Maero]

To each their own but i thought the story was great.
There was a moment like of course just send the warrior of darkness because we are too lazy to go moment but eh still loved the story.

[Elladie]

Very much disagree, OP. I didn't find this dragged at all, especially in comparison to 5.1, where I definitely felt like I ran around after Mr. Chai too much. But I understood then that we were setting up Eulmore's future prosperity etc. This time I didn't feel like any of the MSQ was at all long winded. In fact I was reeling from the various revelations and shocks that came think and fast.

Seeing you say 'not much happened' has me feeling like we are playing different games. So much happened, and so much of it was unexpected. Did you skip a lot?

[Kikoten]

I wanted more story about the ancients. As soon as Venat was introduced, I leaned forward in my seat, almost drooling for more. And then it's--"Y'shtola will stay here and discern what remains."

GREAT! WHAT THE F*** AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!

Seriously, I'm waiting to find out who our character, the WoL/D, REALLY is. Is it possible that ShB 5.0 end-story may have shown too much, too soon? As in the ancient standing in place of our character for that brief moment? Was Emet-Selch seeing things, or did that really happen?

[ADarklore]

Well, this is what happens towards the end of a storyline... they give players 'things to do' to keep them occupied in the game. Remember what ARR was like?!? All the fetch quests, especially towards the end, this is what most MMOs do when they are reaching the end of content. Let's add mindless/pointless content to keep the players occupied instead of having them rush to completion and then complain about no new content for the next few months.