Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

[Mimilu]

As for my favorite expansions:

Story-wise
ShB > HW > EW > SB > ARR

Content-and-Gameplay-wise
HW > SB > ShB > ARR > EW

(*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

[TheMightyMollusk]

I think another problem with EW is that what they were selling us about it before it was released isn't what we actually got.
With how they were talking during fanfests and live letters, it sounded like we were finally going to Garlemald to bring the fight to Zenos and the Empire but I think they were trying too hard to one-up ShB with things like a bigger, metaphysical threat and Ancients fanservice. (*´﹃｀*)

I feel like that was the original plan, before they decided that a purely Garlemald-themed expansion wouldn't be popular enough and just mashed it together with what was planned for later. If you really look at EW, it has the plot structure of one expansion (everything up to Zodiark), a patch cycle (the beginning of the Final Days, up to the 85 dungeon), and then another expansion (dealing with the Final Days, up to the Endsinger). I'd even argue that making peace with the beast tribes was setting up for role quests, where we could've helped the different tribes deal with the Towers and Lunar Primals in their territories, but that got lost in the condensing, so the Towers just go away when Anima dies.

[Kazhar]

I feel like that was the original plan, before they decided that a purely Garlemald-themed expansion wouldn't be popular enough and just mashed it together with what was planned for later. If you really look at EW, it has the plot structure of one expansion (everything up to Zodiark), a patch cycle (the beginning of the Final Days, up to the 85 dungeon), and then another expansion (dealing with the Final Days, up to the Endsinger). I'd even argue that making peace with the beast tribes was setting up for role quests, where we could've helped the different tribes deal with the Towers and Lunar Primals in their territories, but that got lost in the condensing, so the Towers just go away when Anima dies.

They all but confirmed it was the original plan. Anima was originally meant to be the Final Boss of the 6.0 Garlemald expac. The main outline was pretty much always how it happened (even though the details on who would be the Final Boss of 7.0 wasn't clear until they started writing Endwalker. All they knew is that they didn't want it to be Hydaelyn or Zodiark.), but they compressed a lot of their ideas and made many shortcuts to fit it in a single expansion patch.
According to Ishikawa, she had enough story material to last until 8.0.

We don't really know why they chose to conclude the story in 6.0. Perhaps they didn't think people would be interested in a Garlemald expac, or they thought that the story would lose momentum. But I personally think that late decision to remove one expac is the reason EW had so many pacing issues and weird shifts in the narrative.

[ronibosch]

Okay, new hot take based on the previous posts: Endwalker should've been Garlemald-centric.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Endwalker should've been two expansions as originally planned. Then the stories for both halves might've had a chance to breath and develop.

[ronibosch]

Endwalker should've been two expansions as originally planned. Then the stories for both halves might've had a chance to breath and develop.

Definitely would've helped with it feeling rushed. The pacing was strange.

[Shurrikhan]

Endwalker should've been two expansions as originally planned. Then the stories for both halves might've had a chance to breath and develop.

But an expansion isn't just it's x.0 questlines over the leveling experience, and while that may have benefited from some 30-60% more time, once accounting for 6.1 to 6.55, you wouldn't have "both halves"; that pacing would force something entirely new. You could go deep into Garlemalde and themes like (un)deserved loyalty/respect (for leadership, for one's nation) and tenuous alliances, deeper into Thavnair to actually give it emotional substance of its own beyond just the few key NPCs there (smol->young adult dragonboy; elephalchemist) and what happened there (the Blasphemies), but at that point the pacing would place too much weight on those zones to support anything like that overarching post-nihilistic theme that anchored Endwalker. That overarching story needed multiple vantage points and, perhaps even more importantly, needed not to be composed primarily of geopolitics whose moral/emotional themes couldn't/wouldn't extend beyond their own areas.

I'd have loved to see the Blasphemies not be just one-and-done, for Garlemalde not to have been so wrecked from the start, Thavnair to have been more complete and compelling, but if you split them apart they'd necessarily tell a wholly different story, and not likely one that'd hit any of EW's emotional beats, nor likely produce something better than it was. Keeping them together but simply de-limiting the MSQ time to increase the breadth and depth of storytelling available to Garlemalde and Thavnair, on the other hand (at least insofar as could make Thavnair feel less arbitrary and set up later further movement into Garlemalde proper across the 6.1, .2, and .3 patches, etc.) could have added on without taking anything away.

[Rhaalmog]

But an expansion isn't just it's x.0 questlines over the leveling experience, and while that may have benefited from some 30-60% more time, once accounting for 6.1 to 6.55, you wouldn't have "both halves"; that pacing would force something entirely new. You could go deep into Garlemalde and themes like (un)deserved loyalty/respect (for leadership, for one's nation) and tenuous alliances, deeper into Thavnair to actually give it emotional substance of its own beyond just the few key NPCs there (smol->young adult dragonboy; elephalchemist) and what happened there (the Blasphemies), but at that point the pacing would place too much weight on those zones to support anything like that overarching post-nihilistic theme that anchored Endwalker. That overarching story needed multiple vantage points and, perhaps even more importantly, needed not to be composed primarily of geopolitics whose moral/emotional themes couldn't/wouldn't extend beyond their own areas.

I'd have loved to see the Blasphemies not be just one-and-done, for Garlemalde not to have been so wrecked from the start, Thavnair to have been more complete and compelling, but if you split them apart they'd necessarily tell a wholly different story, and not likely one that'd hit any of EW's emotional beats, nor likely produce something better than it was. Keeping them together but simply de-limiting the MSQ time to increase the breadth and depth of storytelling available to Garlemalde and Thavnair, on the other hand (at least insofar as could make Thavnair feel less arbitrary and set up later further movement into Garlemalde proper across the 6.1, .2, and .3 patches, etc.) could have added on without taking anything away.

Yeah, was hype to finally bring the fight to Garlemalde and severely disappointed to see it in ruins already.

[Shurrikhan]

Yeah, was hype to finally bring the fight to Garlemalde and severely disappointed to see it in ruins already.

Same. I understood our rushing through Garlemalde on the basis that Garlemalde was never really the big bad, but rather a veneer over an agenda unknown to them (we had hints at things similar since ARR, even if they hadn't been leveraged until late Stormblood) and that Endwalker needed to focus on its particular story (as opposed to "mere plot"), but... I really wanted at least to leave room enough to pick up related beats there later. Allowing at least for remnants of the blasphemies effects and creating a true hellscape of the interior, for instance, could easily have turned into a new take on an Exploratory Mission area that could have easily beat Bozja out of the water atop housing some very interesting sub-plots among the remaining Garlean legions.

It was kind of like our introduction to Doma where we easily could have said "Hey, this is all we can access because the rest is behind that wall, but the OTHER side actually has a decent sized nation behind it!" instead that other side housing only... (ruined) village #2... out of 2... for the whole damn nation that somehow nonetheless built all of Doma Castle and that massive, highly advanced wall. It wouldn't have taken much extra allowance in the original plot/story design to allow for that highly-requested area to be tapped (into) later.

My point, though, was that such still wouldn't be a reason to try to split Thavnair, Garlemald, Space, and the Past into two separate expansions (with who knows which of the four being split into which).

It's more a matter of willingness to cap off the Hydaelyn arc with an above-average MSQ length and, yes, likely spending more resources than would typically be expected. But... on what extra staff could it be spent? They're not shy about trying to get more workers, even if they may still be applying some too-tight of constraints. And lacking an increase therein, with what time? I'd expect that the opportunities thus made available would outweigh the lost hype over delay, but anyone above them looking at that player spike over mid-late Shadowbringers and not wanting to lose it wouldn't be unreasonable to prioritize haste insofar as would be reasonable.

[BRVV]

Whenever people talk about the MSQ, leveling a job through it, the length of it etc. they seem to completely forget the patches. Idk why & at this time i'm too afraid to ask