Dear SE

[TarynH]

I don't mind crossovers. This crossover just didn't connect. It wasn't integrated well. They didn't take time to explain why Nier was in FFXIV. A crashed space station simply wasn't enough to do that. It did nothing to draw me in as someone who didn't play Nier. Which, if you're going to make a three part raid out of something, the story should at least draw you in.

The story, however, never went anywhere. Much like my character, I found myself doing a lot of "well that was weird" looks throughout the story. Most of what was happening had to be explained by a friend that played Nier, because they did nothing to explain things in-game. (I'd be shocked if they even could.) Sadly, I still found myself not caring at all about Nier. (Why should I buy the book, when the back cover can't spark interest?)

The story was also uninspired and lazy. Felt like everything was stuck in that "no time to explain" moment, and the payoff was coming in the end. Instead, it just ended with a thank you note. I could have skipped the story and gotten the same amount of knowledge about the subject matter. And don't get me started on the Skyrim-esc books we got to read by going back through the areas. (They even gave up on that in the end.)

I thought the areas were ugly and boring. They didn't fit with the aesthetics of FFXIV. The Tower alone was lazy even in its simplicity. It felt like we were in another program like Omega. But unlike Omega, the complete detachment from the FFXIV aesthetics made it jarring. Even in the "unfinished" areas of Omega, they still looked finished on an aesthetic level. (Like they meant to look unfinished by design, not like someone's first run with Blender.)

Most of the fights felt forced to fit the raid standard, and became bland because of it. It went from pink balls, to even more pink balls. Most likely due to the lack of enough substance to draw upon from the source material. The second raid was a one-and-done for me. I don't even remember the bosses. This coming from someone that used to enjoy the middle raids in a series. ST was probably my favorite. I cringe thinking about the most boring one being the one I'll end up grinding for gear before 6.0. I'm sure I'll get tired of it and settle for going into 6.0 with 510 gear on most of my jobs.

Overall, this raid series felt like someone slapped an abstract painting in the middle of a solid narrative masterpiece. It simply didn't fit.