What is with the constant mistreatment of the Garlean story?(6.1 Patch spoilers)

[Atelier-Bagur]

Most people didn't care for the Ascians up until Shadowbringers, either, though there's no real reason why the writers couldn't dial back the dull one note approach to the Garleans in the MSQ's and tap into the more nuanced portrayal we saw in various side quests.

Either way, personal tastes differ and the game seems to be moving in a direction where anyone who isn't gushing over the Scions at every turn is now made to feel unwelcome. To say nothing of the very childish humour that the game has embraced as of late, to the point of removing some of the dirty jokes that were present in the ARR era!

Oh yeah, like clearly we needed that tasteless creeper Urianger over his dead girlfriend with that original Moenbryda minion description. Mhmm they totally didnt need the remove that. Even though it was very out of place and contradicts his character all for the sake of haha dirty joke.

[aveyond-dreams]

I think I'll take an expansion fighting in Garlemald or the Void over FFXIV: Baldesion University or whatever it is you'd call an expansion that continues this trend of writing. Bring back the original jokes and the style of the Heavensward team.

They cannot possibly still be preoccupied writing for FFXVI at this stage, not unless they've spontaneously been instructed to take over a potential FFXVII as well.

[GrizzlyTank]

Would have preferred to have a fully fledged Garlean expansion, rather than the obsession that went nowhere with zenos.

And while a lot of people don't exactly like lofty politics, its still one of the strongest aspects of the storytelling that generally gives us the peak story moments such as the ending of ARR, which is why it's sad to not see the inner workings of a splintering empire.

Though, there is still 5,8,9,11,13 and 15? legions that hasn't been mentioned.

[Liam_Harper]

FFXIV never had a good story. Its just people overhyping it just because stories in other MMOs are either poorly told or just never really focused on them.

In comparison to a lot of other MMO's it's a good story. Personally I found it good entertainment value for money and it had a lot of strong points.

But that certainly doesn't mean it's perfect. While I'm satisfied with what I got for the price, I can fully understand criticisms from players who weren't happy with it. Endwalker in particular felt like the devs simply got tired of this story and had a new story arc in mind that they wanted to fill multiple expansions with, so they wrapped everything up in one go and rushed it. There was a lot in Endwalker that left you thinking "wait, that's it?".

[Theodric]

Oh yeah, like clearly we needed that tasteless creeper Urianger over his dead girlfriend with that original Moenbryda minion description. Mhmm they totally didnt need the remove that. Even though it was very out of place and contradicts his character all for the sake of haha dirty joke.

It's not really out of place. He was always socially awkward and the ARR/HW era had a grittier and more mature atmosphere in general.

It seems to be players who came to the game later on in the game's lifespan who are most eager to change it to their liking at the expense of those of us who were perfectly fine with the way in which ARR was written.

[tokinokanatae]

It's not really out of place. He was always socially awkward and the ARR/HW era had a grittier and more mature atmosphere in general.

"Socially awkward" isn't the same as giving his used fleshlight of his dead girlfriend to the WoL, which is what the "joke" originally implied. That joke also isn't mature or gritty.

I barely knew who Urianger was in ARR and that joke was still a turn off.

[KizuyaKatogami]

While this is a pretty big tangent to the overall topic of the thread, i’ll just say whether or not the joke is funny, it is funny to see people constantly bashing wow for censoring random things etc etc but now 14 does it and it’s deemed as fine lol. Either way it’s pretty irrelevant to the thread though.

I just think this expansion had it out for the garleans and ancients. There’s a lot that just doesn’t make sense, contradicts its own lore to try to prove the ancients as wrong. Destroys built up garlemald plot points etc. Yet somehow people call this one of the best patches of all time? I understand some things are subjective but i don’t see how constantly butchering plot threads is “good writing.”

[Slatersev]

Oh yeah, like clearly we needed that tasteless creeper Urianger over his dead girlfriend with that original Moenbryda minion description. Mhmm they totally didnt need the remove that. Even though it was very out of place and contradicts his character all for the sake of haha dirty joke.

That joke wasnt even in the original Japanese, it was pure english with no basis anywhere else, not a deviation like what naturally happens with Loc, but straight up its own bubble that didnt have any basis. Shit I remember at the time on these very forums people were complaining, not because it was a dirty joke, but because it was wildly out of character for Urianger. Which has only gotten more true with time.

In a post EW world especially it just didn't fit and wasn't supported anywhere else.

But on that note, they haven't shied away from "mature jokes anyway. We literally just had Y'shtola threaten to spank us last year lmao.

Besides, the entire point of the Foam joke is that Y'shtola was embarrassed at being reminded of a think she made when she was a young cringe nerd kid. Which is better then her being the same uber serious scholar literally every second of her life. Or do we want the Scions to be hard locked in with no room for change whether in there past or future?

[Theodric]

"Socially awkward" isn't the same as giving his used fleshlight of his dead girlfriend to the WoL, which is what the "joke" originally implied. That joke also isn't mature or gritty.

I barely knew who Urianger was in ARR and that joke was still a turn off.

The joke didn't explicitly imply anything - it was suggestive, though entirely left to the player's imagination. As such, it could be as innocent or as dirty as one willed for it to be.

I disagree that it wasn't mature or gritty, on the basis that the English version of the game's localisation is meant to serve a broad range of players from many different countries, cultures and backgrounds. A broad variety of jokes would be ideal, instead of the stale and very prudish approach taken as of late.

I'm pretty sure the age rating at the time of purchase also included a disclaimer accounting for such humour. Though as Kizuya kindly pointed out, this seems to be little more than a repeat of what befell Blizzard in its quest to try and partake of excessive censorship and virtue signalling.

I have a feeling that Garlemald was quickly written out of the story for similar reasons. It's not like this game's community is lacking for a sizeable portion of nutters who actively harassed anyone who liked the 'wrong' characters, after all.

[tokinokanatae]

I don't play WoW and I don't really care about changes to their game. I do care about characterization and when they decided to increase Urianger's prominence in the game, it was probably best to remove a joke about him giving the WoL a used sex toy in an item you get automatically for completing the MSQ. (And a joke that doesn't exist in any other language version of the game, might I add.)

As for being on topic, I think Garlemald is pretty wrapped up at this point in time, so I don't think there's much to be done in the way of things for people that want to see more Garleans. (Personally, I preferred the way they handled the fall of the Empire mostly offscreen and through Zenos than I would have playing through it. Playing against an unsympathetic military for 40 hours or more just reminds me of the weakest parts of Stormblood, as the most interesting "Garlean" parts of that expansion were the people that had suffered under their occupation and chose to join the oppressive regime, not the Garleans themselves.)