Disappointed with SHB story.

[Fauth]

I know no one particularly cares but I just want to vent about my experience with the Shadowbringer's story, especially after everyone hyping it up to be the best one out of the base game an expansions. I picked up FF14 because I heard it had a good story and I've been playing all this time but it just never clicked with me.

I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers. I felt like the story was really rushed. The antagonist wasn't given enough time to develop. He just made a few appearances and before I know it were fighting to the death. Honestly, thats how I feel about most of the new characters introduced. Ontop of that I think it really sucks to spend all this time on characters well most likely never even see again.

Its just super frustrating because with the class changes, I was really starting to enjoy the game. I know its a controversial opinion but the homogenization of classes made it really easy to try alts on.

Rant over. What are your guys thoughts on this?

[MoofiaBossVal]

I think Emet-Selch had something like 20-30 minutes of voiced cutscene time, plus there were a few times you could talk to him outside of cutscenes. Plus, the sidequests and NPC dialogue in the final zone sorta solidify his background and motivations. I think he was built up enough as a character.

If you think he didn't have enough screentime, then really the only antagonist who has more screentime would be Zenos, who has been pretty much been built up as the most important villain in the game. But I know for a lot of people they're not satisfied with Zenos have the simplistic motivation of becoming the greatest warrior ever. Works for me though.

If you want a long running villain in a JRPG story... then I suppose your only other choice to check out are the Trails of Cold Steel games, as Chancellor Osborne is the big bad across the whole saga and the villains have a LOT of screentime total.

[Garnix]

Because a lot of people like it doesn't mean everybody will.

The villain making just a few appearances is not really a big problem for me, considering we have been fighting his allies as the major antagonists since 1.X. So I felt like there was enough build up for him. + there are other villains who did not get much screen time in this franchise and it did not stop them from being greatly appreciated by the players. Like Sephiroth for example. So yeah I really don't think that's an issue for me personally.

Most of the other characters who were introduced were really there to help the main characters develop. For example, Thancred got some character development with Ryne. Alisaie from her time helping Tesleen. etc. And some other minor characters will probably be seen again in the future based on the conclusion of the role quests.
I think SE knows that some of these characters are loved, and they will probably find ways to reuse them.

EDIT: Oh and I agree with your take on homogenization. There are clearly major downsides to it, but being able to "pick-up and play" any of the job is kinda cool.

[IckeDerTyp]

I enjoyed the parts of the story I didn't skip a lot but to me this is foremost an mmorpg!

Very casual and very fun to just idly spend some time away from it all!.

Speaking of homogenization... Why didn't you just go ahead and try 'alts'? Most things have been very easy to get into since like... Well ARR

Don't be afraid, just play but that's pretty much off-topic.

I just wonder where the story goes come Endwalker!

I really hope 'that guy' will become a Scion

[Iscah]

I don't suppose this is another new player with one battle class and all crafter/gatherers at level 80? We seem to have a lot of them popping up lately and all of them have some kind of controversial opinion.

[MilkieTea]

I don't suppose this is another new player with one battle class and all crafter/gatherers at level 80? We seem to have a lot of them popping up lately and all of them have some kind of controversial opinion.

I checked! They're not, but this being their first post is a bit suspect.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt tho, lol, considering they posted it to Lore and not to General Discussion!

[Yuella]

For me the best part about the story is Ardbert, Minfilia and G'raha Tia. 3 characters who were not received well in the past but they managed to write good story for them. How do you feel about them?

I also dont care much about the villains

[Erendis]

Perhaps they mean Elidibus? In that case I agree. The most info about him came from the short stories and it should not be that way.

[Tensaihime]

I played FFXIV a tiny bit a while ago, but didn’t make any real progress (as in, hadn’t even been outside my starting city-state) until most of ShB had already been out, so I don’t feel as if I can say anything about the homogenization of classes because this is pretty much all I’ve ever known.

As for the bad guys... I tend to like bad guys and am desperate/grateful for any bits about them I can get, so even with [redacted] I was happy to get some cutscenes showing what he was about, a fight that I really enjoyed (plus the previous dungeon had him yelling at me the whole time, which I thought was funny), and then a final scene that did double duty emphasizing the sort of person he was, and explaining exactly why he was like that.

But I know that’s not the bad guy you’re referring to. Like MoofiaBossVal said, a good way to get extra info (and this goes for a lot of characters, not just our new old enemy here) would be to do the side quests and talk to all the other NPCs before you talk to the one with the quest icon above their head. And like Garnix said, his organization has been stirring mess up for a while, so there are bits and pieces we get from his buddies. I’m thinking of the evil teams in Pokémon, where you hear one thing from this Executive/Sage/whoever and their group of grunts, then later you fight a different one and they and their grunts have things to say, and maybe this townsperson here has something pertinent to say, plus the man in charge will talk to you before your big fight, so by the time it gets real, you have had the chance to learn about him.

(As for the last guy, I’ve been told I need to read the stories to learn about him. I’ve heard the same thing happened with multiple characters in FFXV, but I haven’t got that one so I can’t tell you for sure.)

I liked Feo Ul and Runar instantly, and many others grew on me with time, so I share your hope that we can somehow see these guys again. Who knows what EW will bring?

ShB is my favorite because I was amazed by the truth bombs it dropped; it took the least amount of time for me to be interested/invested in what was going on; instead of me being a good little robot again, the Scions treated me like family and I got to have some sassy dialogue; and it didn’t have an ending that made me feel like a total loser. (Here’s my ShB hot take: I did NOT like Ardbert. I was still mad over HW, and I didn’t appreciate how they forced my WoL to be close to him and care about the bits of life story he kept dumping on me. Only when he finally made himself useful did I stop groaning when he came on screen.)

[Belhi]

They have left plot threads behind on the first so I think it is perfectly possible we might revisit.

As for hating Ardbert, why are you made at him over HW? Hell, considering the stakes his view was pretty understandable. You blame him for trying to do what was necessary to save the souls of his world from eternal damnation after, doing the exact same thing the WoL was doing leading to it's fate? No wonder he saw the WoL as a fool and not without some rather solid justification. Seriously, what would you have had him do? He had no reason to trust Hydaelyn after her apparent abandonment of the First. In fact his life story pretty much showed us that in many ways Ardbert and the player character were practically carbon copies, literally as it turned out. The only difference is the WoL hadn't had their efforts completely blow up in their faces and doom everything they were trying to protect.