What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Xirean]

FFXIV simply doesn't have a structure like GW2, ESO, FFXI, LotR:Online, SWTOR, Secret World Legends.

FFXIV has a story driven narrative but the narrative isn't about you 90% of the time. It's more about these NPCs and the player is a just a supporting character or plot.

It's like a DnD campaign and your characters only purpose is to participate in combat and deal damage. No real story involvement.

You've never played good DnD then.

[Heroman3003]

FFXIV simply doesn't have a structure like GW2, ESO, FFXI, LotR:Online, SWTOR, Secret World Legends.

FFXIV has a story driven narrative but the narrative isn't about you 90% of the time. It's more about these NPCs and the player is a just a supporting character or plot.

It's like a DnD campaign and your characters only purpose is to participate in combat and deal damage. No real story involvement.

The DnD campaign is a terrible comparison, but otherwise it is on point, yes. You do not have any agency, you are a hero on your hero amusement park ride. I don't think its neccessarily bad in and of itself though. That story structure can work and has worked in the past, and not just for FF14. But it comes with caveats - such as absolute reliance on companions and surrounding characters that actually will push your cart forward down the story lane. And if thats not for some people, well, I'm surprised they made it as far as Endwalker.

[MagiusNecros]

You've never played good DnD then.

FFXIV just has a terrible Dungeon Master and a shit party.

[Graeham]

It was certainly a genius move to chase out Matsuno while allowing several individuals who aren’t worth naming to fail upwards into positions of power - only for the writing in all aspects of the game to suffer as a result. If I had to choose between the current state of affairs and the way things used to be, my choice is obvious.

We agree with the post. The Realm Rebirth and the Heavenswart it is good because the Matsuno is main fanfic writer. Future of FF it needing guild to lead fanfic writing and show good way.

There is no need to introduce a cast of characters to replace the Scions. One of the staples of being the/a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy as a whole has been wandering, and this has typically been done with no or very few allies until such time as they were needed. It's also rather common for Final Fantasy protagonists to group with different people at different times, oft times finding new companions (and parting ways with old ones) as they reach new areas. Those companions needn't be fleshed out beyond merely being given interesting personalities and perhaps a bit of backstory to discover along the way. They are, after all, temporary.

Is not true. Must kill off all the Scallion chara to be making the new one. Is need for the dark chocolate fantasy traditional masculine setting like the game of the thrones. It making the dramatic surprise and show fanfic writer not afraid to throw away the develop chara. But is bad to get rid of No Shadow God. Is why guild must be writing story for patch 70.

FFXIV simply doesn't have a structure like GW2, ESO, FFXI, LotR:Online, SWTOR, Secret World Legends.

Is true. Other MUD it is writing like the choose the own adventure book. Chara it can correct course of story and is have full control on ending like the Mass Effect 3 advertise. Is like be the ghost writing of story. BBB was high impress Mass Effect 3 advertiser for live up to claim.

[Vyrerus]

I'd love an expansion similar to Treasures of Aht Urhgan to come out for XIV. WoL sails away to the new world continent. Gets entangled with some grizzled mercenaries who don't know jack shit about WoL.

Perhaps fighting against some force backed by a deity that arose out of being some random unsundered creature that perhaps escaped Hydaelyn's attack through sheer folly. Or hell, back by aliens that are composed of Dynamis that are older than we know the cosmos to be or some shit.

Or hell, have the current arc somehow smash Etheirys back together so there's no more of this 9/14ths vs. 1/14ths vs. power levels are bullshit going on with the plot anymore. Make the place with the mercs be some uprooted nation that now has to fight/contend with the other uprooted nations on the recombined Etheirys. Make'em not only know jack shit about the WoL, but not know jack shit about their enemies or the new world around them.

Idk. Reintroduce stakes somehow. Man. I'm outta care to think up good ideas.

[Rosenstrauch]

Or hell, have the current arc somehow smash Etheirys back together so there's no more of this 9/14ths vs. 1/14ths vs. power levels are bullshit going on with the plot anymore. Make the place with the mercs be some uprooted nation that now has to fight/contend with the other uprooted nations on the recombined Etheirys. Make'em not only know jack shit about the WoL, but not know jack shit about their enemies or the new world around them.

Seven of the reflections have already been rejoined. Aside from the First and the Thirteenth, there are four reflections we've never seen. So if they recombined the various reflections into a single world, FFV-style, the plot could have us going through six new zones that are significant lands from their respective reflections. For the First this would probably mean letting us see some location that wasn't shown in Shadowbringers, like the coastal region between Lakeland/Amh Araeng and Kholusia. Everything else would be pretty brand new.

I'd like it, if only because it'd mean the developers have no excuse not to bring Ryne back.

[Vyrerus]

Seven of the reflections have already been rejoined. Aside from the First and the Thirteenth, there are four reflections we've never seen. So if they recombined the various reflections into a single world, FFV-style, the plot could have us going through six new zones that are significant lands from their respective reflections. For the First this would probably mean letting us see some location that wasn't shown in Shadowbringers, like the coastal region between Lakeland/Amh Araeng and Kholusia. Everything else would be pretty brand new.

I'd like it, if only because it'd mean the developers have no excuse not to bring Ryne back.

Maybe make those Role Quest NPCs come back too! I wanna get drunk with Giott again.

[Rosenstrauch]

Maybe make those Role Quest NPCs come back too! I wanna get drunk with Giott again.

Oh, definitely.

I think folks get a little too hung up on the idea that past content must be rendered mandatory for characters from that content to show up elsewhere. I've been playing a ton of Genshin Impact in the past half-year or so. It ain't perfect, and it's a gacha game on top of a competent action/adventure RPG so that's a major turn-off for a lot of folks. But whenever an event comes up and there's a character who the player would only have met if they did some questline they never touched, they give you a brief paragraph summarizing who the characters is and then carry on.

I literally had no clue who Fischl was when I started, on account of her only ever showing up in seasonal events that passed long before I started playing. But the character writing was strong enough, or at least catchy enough, that this didn't matter when she showed up as a main character in a lengthy questline for a summer event.

Shit, the game already has something like that as it is—the Unending Codex. Just put entries in for Gaia, Taynor, Granson, Lue-Reeq, Cerigg, Giott, and Cyella/Cylva the "first" time we meet them. If anyone's confused, they can just reference the codex.

EDIT: Since I'm sure my sub time has expired now, I've likely only got 1-2 weeks left before my forum access is voided again. So I'm gonna take this opportunity to stealth edit.

Chapter 22 of Amidst the Ashes of Paradise has received significant editing from me, raising the wordcount from around 9,000 to 14,000. One particular scene—Ryne refusing to take on the mantle of Azem, Venat saying her goodbyes, and the trio departing for the First—has been expanded into four scenes, better pacing the event and giving everyone room to breathe. Hermes, Pleione, and Maia are also included in the new version of this chapter, with Lily making amends with Hermes and Venat rather than somewhat awkwardly delivering exposition to the latter (the exposition is still there, but I think I handled it better this time around).

Total wordcount for Ashes is now 155,000 or so. More will be on the way later—I need to pick through 23 and 24 to make sure I didn't create any continuity errors, and I want to get onto writing a proper finale for the Ancients themselves, showcasing their arrival in Ultima Thule.

[Thenightvortex]

https://youtu.be/LYoYxZ4lWpg

Finally, a critical take on Hermes.

[KageTokage]

I was always bothered by how we're suddenly all empathic towards Amon/Fandaniel after all the terrible things he had done just because we got to "understand" him during his original lifetime as Hermes.

The closest thing to a negative response you're able to give him is "...", which he does at least interpret as being disapproving, but it's a rather...marked contrast from Zenos who is framed strictly in a negative light for basically all of his post-Stormblood appearances, particularly in the 6.x post-MSQ where Zero spares no breath in expressing her hatred of him and you're only allowed to agree with that view.