I did not enjoy Shadowbringer (SPOILERS)

[HyoMinPark]

Let me get this straight, Square-Enix. To comprehend one of, if not the most important aspects to FFXIV's narrative, (The Ascians) the player is expected to have the foresight and clairvoyance to speak to a villain optionally at his or her leisure at key moments of respite throughout the expansion of Shadowbringers to grasp most of the critical nuggets of information surrounding this mysterious and fascinating race of enigmatic body snatchers?

This is video-game writing of the worst ilk. This is not weaving the lore and backstory in a seamless way throughout the protagonist's natural progression in the MSQ. Like forcing the player to constantly pick up notes/journals/audio logs in a shooter or some other genre of game to get any sort of story or context. In short, my criticisms of Shadowbringers are now only piling up, not dwindling. Only silver lining I seem to have gleaned from making this thread is that undertaking new game+ for Shadowbringers is going to be extremely useful. Just a shame that it wouldn't be necessary if Square-Enix remotely understood how narrative coherence works.

I stand by what I said before: if you are this nitpicky about ShB, you won’t enjoy EW’s story.

[ProstheticSoul]

I stand by what I said before: if you are this nitpicky about ShB, you won’t enjoy EW’s story.

I would heavily beg to differ on any of my criticisms being nitpicks.

And lo and behold, yet another cut scene featuring Urangier spouting exposition with Elidibus that completely flew over my head because he is the only character in the Scion gang who insists on using Shakespearean syntax in its entirety in his manner of speech. This is growing wearisome. Each cut scene is becoming more and more tedious than the one preceding it. While I'm still trying to decipher one that occurred 10 minutes ago, another one comes along that throws me into even more of a tizzy.

I do believe I have had an epiphany. My enjoyment of an expansion is in an inverse relationship with how many instances Urianger appears in--and speaks--in any given cut scene within said expansion. The more he is involved, the less I enjoy it. Imagine Kingdom Hearts if you will. Imagine all of the terminology, the meandering stories, subplots, the characters, their subsequent interactions, the sequels upon sequels upon sequels...got all that? Good. Now replace all of the dialogue with pure, unadulterated Shakespearean vernacular.

Can someone please explain to me what just happened when the "Not Warrior of Light" created an illusion of a star shower, thereby granting the gift of the echo to all of those WoL wannabes? I mean, Urianger technically "explained" it, but I didn't get any of it.

[MistakeNot]

I would heavily beg to differ on any of my criticisms being nitpicks.

And lo and behold, yet another cut scene featuring Urangier spouting exposition with Elidibus that completely flew over my head because he is the only character in the Scion gang who insists on using Middle English in its entirety in his manner of speech. This is growing wearisome. Each cut scene is becoming more and more tedious than the one preceding it. While I'm still trying to decipher one that occurred 10 minutes ago, another one comes along that throws me into even more of a tizzy.

Urianger isn't using Middle English. The English he is using is Modern English. (Somewhat archaic English in some cases, but still Modern English). Middle English is much different.
It isn't all that difficult to understand Urianger, even if his language use tends to be a bit more convoluted than that of most other characters. You just need a decent knowledge of English.