MSQ

[wereotter]

Does it now? I know there's a crystal tower on the first, and that catboy jesus is associated with it in some way, but I glossed over that entire part of the story, just wasn't at all compelling.

It's not just "a" Crystal Tower, it's literally the same Crystal Tower as we're seeing in Mor Dhona, transported across worlds and time. You see some of this on the screens and in the data logs in The Twinning. So the story about who is Graha Tia and what is the Crystal Tower is set up to a large part of the story for the expansion.

[Arkevorkhat]

It's not just "a" Crystal Tower, it's literally the same Crystal Tower as we're seeing in Mor Dhona, transported across worlds and time. You see some of this on the screens and in the data logs in The Twinning. So the story about who is Graha Tia and what is the Crystal Tower is set up to a large part of the story for the expansion.

The story of G'raha Tia was related to the main story, but the MSQ of shadowbringers can almost entirely stand on its own feet without any real understanding of the relation of the Exarch to the crystal tower on the source. The post-Shadowbringers MSQ is a slightly different matter, but even that could be explained away with a few lines of expositional dialogue, instead of wasting hours of each player's time going through the crystal tower raids.

The tower basically serves as a mcguffin that links the source to the first, but it's not integral to the actual storyline, except as far as it was shoehorned in.

[wereotter]

The story of G'raha Tia was related to the main story, but the MSQ of shadowbringers can almost entirely stand on its own feet without any real understanding of the relation of the Exarch to the crystal tower on the source. The post-Shadowbringers MSQ is a slightly different matter, but even that could be explained away with a few lines of expositional dialogue, instead of wasting hours of each player's time going through the crystal tower raids.

The tower basically serves as a mcguffin that links the source to the first, but it's not integral to the actual storyline, except as far as it was shoehorned in.

To be fair, they do that a lot... I hadn't thought about what happened with the story of the tower until this expansion and had forgotten who Graha even was.... but since this is story that leads directly into other main scenario quests, they decided it was mandatory

[TheMightyMollusk]

Doesn't really qualify as "shoehorned" when the plot was written around it to begin with.

[Jojoya]

Tower relates directly to later content, so thats not "filler". When that became mandatory, I understood the reasoning.

When Crystal Tower was originally added to the game, it was very much just optional filler content. I ignored it as it didn't impact the rest of the game for me.

It was only when SE later decided to make it part of the main story that it became mandatory and I was finally forced to do it. If it had been intended to be part of the main story all along (which it wasn't, YoshiP has said as much), it would have been mandatory from its introduction.

[Iscah]

The story of G'raha Tia was related to the main story, but the MSQ of shadowbringers can almost entirely stand on its own feet without any real understanding of the relation of the Exarch to the crystal tower on the source. The post-Shadowbringers MSQ is a slightly different matter, but even that could be explained away with a few lines of expositional dialogue, instead of wasting hours of each player's time going through the crystal tower raids.

We are sailing deep into spoiler territory here, but...

The thing is, Shadowbringers 5.0 was written to make sense whether you had done the Crystal Tower raids or not, because the time travel element means that the Exarch has been through those events with you even if you haven't yet done it yourself. (The non-CT version of the story doesn't quite line up, but it worked enough to make sense.)

5.3 doesn't work like that. You, here and now, are getting G'raha out of the tower, so he needs to be in there first. And for him to be in there, you need to do CT.

As I said earlier – the writers seem happy for things to be a little bit off if you haven't done certain side stories, but they won't pretend you've done something that you didn't. You need to have personally been there with G'raha, or the story doesn't make sense.

[linayar]

The story of G'raha Tia was related to the main story, but the MSQ of shadowbringers can almost entirely stand on its own feet without any real understanding of the relation of the Exarch to the crystal tower on the source. The post-Shadowbringers MSQ is a slightly different matter, but even that could be explained away with a few lines of expositional dialogue, instead of wasting hours of each player's time going through the crystal tower raids.

The tower basically serves as a mcguffin that links the source to the first, but it's not integral to the actual storyline, except as far as it was shoehorned in.

The tower is integral to the continuity of the story in 5.3, so that's a direct relation. There is a limit to how much expositional dialogs can help explain when it involves the fate of a character.

[Arkevorkhat]

We are sailing deep into spoiler territory here, but...

The thing is, Shadowbringers 5.0 was written to make sense whether you had done the Crystal Tower raids or not, because the time travel element means that the Exarch has been through those events with you even if you haven't yet done it yourself. (The non-CT version of the story doesn't quite line up, but it worked enough to make sense.)

5.3 doesn't work like that. You, here and now, are getting G'raha out of the tower, so he needs to be in there first. And for him to be in there, you need to do CT.

As I said earlier – the writers seem happy for things to be a little bit off if you haven't done certain side stories, but they won't pretend you've done something that you didn't. You need to have personally been there with G'raha, or the story doesn't make sense.

I mean, this only makes sense as long as nothing of consequence ever happens without the WoL's intervention.

Was the WoL was even needed in the CT storyline to begin with? There weren't any primals locked up in there, so the only difference between the PC and any random person is that we've got the Echo, which is functionally unneeded for the 3 raids in CT, since again, nothing there will temper you, and I'd expect that Cid Garland of all people could figure out how to get through a tower full of Allagan tech.

The story would have been internally consistent regardless of the WoL's intervention, with the basic requirement that Cid and the literal heir to Allag be minimally self-sufficient, which is a requirement that they've proven time and again is one that they meet.

[Arkevorkhat]

The tower is integral to the continuity of the story in 5.3, so that's a direct relation. There is a limit to how much expositional dialogs can help explain when it involves the fate of a character.

The tower is only as integral as the devs decided to make it.
Prior to 5.3, it was basically optional, but conveniently, when they added level 50 content to the free trial, they also made it mandatory to do crystal tower for the story.

Absent the financial pressure from Square-Enix Corporate, I can all but guarantee you that the story of 5.3's post-MSQ would have been very different.

I don't know if you remember, but prior to 5.3, the whole "send this guy back to the source" (Speaking vaguely because spoilers) idea was shot down multiple times, and then suddenly with 5.3 they decided "No actually, we ARE sending him back."
If anything, adding the Crystal Tower to the story requirements introduced plotholes, instead of patching them.

[MistakeNot]

When Crystal Tower was originally added to the game, it was very much just optional filler content.

Just like all other endgame dungeons, trials, and raids, you mean? The so-called endgame is the true filler content.