Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

[kpxmanifesto]

Tataru needs to die somehow.

Your Miqo'te/Au ra/Viera in skimpy clothes is not original, stop asking people what they think, you look like everyone else that does it.

Lmao, Tataru absolutely needs to die somehow. Also there's nothing original about the Miqote/Au'ra/Viera period. They're humans wearing props after all.

[Conundrum]

Then, let's see an example of that which would benefit raiders by, as per what you quoted, removing guarantees as to raid content -- i.e., where "let's mix thing up by moving beyond the current content formulas (the backbone of which is raids and all else is merely a tack-on)" is double-speak for "give us more raids (and screw anyone who likes content that is not called a "raid" because we only care about raids, despite that term somehow including both 24-mans and ultimates, which could scarcely be more different from one another."

First off, your demand isn't even coherent, but I'm reasonably sure you were trying to create an unanswerable "gotcha" question. Like I said, seen the tricks for 20+ years.

You and I both no, the second the current content formula is broken it would be open season from raiders demanding more "hard" content and endless whining when "casual" is added. Hell, they do it now when they know it won't work...do you think it they would do it less if there were a chance it might?

Anyway, I'm done with this subject, I have no interest in arguing in circles indefinately.

[KariTheFox]

What's with the antagonism towards raiders? We're all just trying to have fun playing the same game here.

[Minato777]

Cid is one of the most annoying characters in the game and sucks the life out of the story when ever he shows up unannounced. and the game would be better if he just died....or got anal fissures or something.

[Shurrikhan]

First off, your demand isn't even coherent, but I'm reasonably sure you were trying to create an unanswerable "gotcha" question.

You made a claim that moving away from a set content formula as per...

We don't need a content formula any more. It's boring.

...would only lead to raiders directing "content... to them at everyone else's expense."

Despite that person you quoted pointing out that their issue had nothing to do with raiding and was instead because...

the content is so formulaic you can predict what content is dropping in what patch. I can tell you how many bosses will be in each dungeon, how many pulls you will have in each dungeon. That's a problem.

...you insisted that a request --to no longer adhere perfectly to the typical content formula-- made also by casual players who want less fixation on raiding... would most likely be double-speak by those who actually just want a greater portion of developer resources to be spent on raid content.

I therefore asked you to give me an example of past language that has, despite seeming more likely to move attention away from raids, would be double-speak by those who wanted greater developer attention to be spent on raids.

:: In other words, I asked that you give at least a shred of evidence to support, or at least exemplify, your claim.



My own position, btw, can be summed up here:

A central side-content form the ties the rest together would actually be good for a given expansion; it just has to be done well.

For instance, imagine if instead of just another Diadem-rehash, an utterly disjointed alliance raid, and another 2 years of just the same old Expert Roulette spam and isolated tiers, we had actually gone off to revitalize the Light Waste, using the connections between Stasis (Light) magic and Echo/timespace travel to join those elements together. For instance, rather than the Light Waste being a small vista from which to access Eden cutscenes, we could actually go out to explore, using the evolving Eden to echo the pre-apocalyptic world as to rediscover and (through defeating monsters and absorbing their aether), resituate, and repopulate it. NieR, in that context, could actually make sense, and open-world and instanced content could actually share an interesting, synergetic connection.

It, too, would require we move away from just the current content formulas. That does not, however, make it double-speak for "give us more raid content." Quite the opposite.


tl;dr: I get it. Raiders bad. But maybe don't read agenda into suggestions that have nothing to do with that agenda?

[Jybril]

Another one is I feel like the games getting more boring/stale the more expansions we go through.
Probably because the formula is unchanging for 10 years. This was fine at the beginning
but the SAME things and removing things with nothing in return quite frankly, sucks.

[LisSquid]

....or got anal fissures or something.

Can we talk about this and why this would improve the MSQ? I do not doubt you, but I need to see how this workshops.

[Shurrikhan]

Can we talk about this and why this would improve the MSQ? I do not doubt you, but I need to see how this workshops.

Cid has just been our hackneyed MacGuffin / Deus Ex Machina provider for the last few expansions. Need something to fight? Cid does a dumb and thereby gives you something to fight. Wouldn't be able to progress through X? Cid makes something to get you through X, removing that would-be complexity.

Now, that's hardly unique to him, but variety of sources (more not-Cid, in its varying forms) at least provides some reprieve, so I can see why some would want him pushed out the door.

[SeverianLyonesse]

My hot take:

SMN doesn't need Shiva, Ramuh, or Leviathan summons. But it could stand to have Alexander and Eden summons.

I've never liked the missing trio in other games, and XIV has developed them in a way where I think they have transcended those roles:

* Leviathan has never had much personality in any game, always felt like filler. Now he fills the role of mysterious, eldritch deep-sea dragon. We don't really have the personal rapport and investment in him like we do the main three tribal primals. He's just kind of better representing the unknown.
* Ramuh always bothered me as just this old man we were summoning. Nothing bestial about him. Not to mention he's part of the kind of underconsidered appropriation of Hindu gods in FF. In XIV he serves more as a spokesperson, source of wisdom, and really a secondary character than a true threat like the other primals. I think it would dilute his character and role in the story to just make him a summon at this point.
* Shiva is by far the worst summon in all of FF history. Misgendering AND misappropriation of blue skin. I am not religious or South Asian but the sheer "blueface" of it all just offends me scholastically. In XIV she is pretty much a main character, on a completely different level than Ifrit/Titan/Garuda, and it absolutely would undermine Ysayle's character arc if Shiva were made a trite summon in SMN's rotation. I think a "Diamond Dust" spell might be an appropriate homage to Heavensward, but nothing more.

As it stands, Summoner's summon kit hits a really nifty "Persian" aesthetic niche. You've got very balanced representation of Greek (Titan), Arabic (Ifrit), and Hindu (Garuda) cultural influence on that region, with each summon riding a comfortable line between "mythological creature" and "definable character" from mythology (as opposed to being quite clearly a singular god-like entity like Shiva/Ramuh/Leviathan). And then those are couched by a more generalized creature that spans from Egypt to Russia to China (Phoenix). And a more generalized Semitic figure from that general region that has been redefined as FF's Ur-Dragon (Bahamut). It doesn't lean too heavily on either the Judaic or Hindu religions like prior iterations of summoner do, instead of opting for a very egalitarian cultural mixing pot ala Macedonian, Bactrian, or Mughal culture. To add *more* of any particular mythological leaning with Leviathan, Shiva, or Ramuh, would kind of ruin this cool new identity SMN has forged for itself.

In a similar vein, SMN has a very primal aesthetic that I think would be somewhat diluted if we got Alexander. BUT I could maybe give it a pass since Alexander also kind of emphasizes an interesting intersection between Greek, Egyptian, and Persian cultures AND is a reference to a library which would gel with SMN's book aesthetic. It just barely works. And if we got an Eden to pair with it as kind of Temple of Artemis/Mausoleum of Halicarnassus moment, I think that would be just an epic af pairing.

Devs please: No Shiva/Ramuh/Leviathan Summons. Yes Alexander and Eden. Both or nothing. I know it is very tempting to make a Shiva diamond. Don't do it.

Also, adding some kind of reference to Zanarkand (based on real-world Samarkand and all that of the summoning connotations it has from X) would also be rad af under this "Iranosphere" interpretation of Summoner.

[LisSquid]

Cid has just been our hackneyed MacGuffin / Deus Ex Machina provider for the last few expansions. Need something to fight? Cid does a dumb and thereby gives you something to fight. Wouldn't be able to progress through X? Cid makes something to get you through X, removing that would-be complexity.

Now, that's hardly unique to him, but variety of sources (more not-Cid, in its varying forms) at least provides some reprieve, so I can see why some would want him pushed out the door.

That's all well and good, but what does that have to do with

anal fissures