What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[BaconBits]

Given the utter state of the rest of SE it's no wonder why they decided to attach him to the FFXVI project. The mainline series cannot afford another stain on its reputation after messes like FFXV and the complete implosion of its "FFXV universe" that they tried to make work, only to abandon. FFXVI, at least as a general impression, looks like it will be a dark fantasy RPG that takes after the likes of Dragon Age and is helmed by the Heavensward writing team. This is a game that if executed well, has a high chance of success. The problem is that there is barely anything to show for it at this point.

Honestly speaking, the only thing I'm looking forward to in FFXVI is the gameplay surprisingly enough. If I'm remembering correctly, the battle director they hired for the game was a combat designer for both Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry V, so at the very least it should have some pretty good action. Hopefully it'll come packaged with a cohesive story as well.

[Kyrj]

I enjoyed the overall story for Endwalker, but this was definitely one of my main gripes. They kept rushing us around and we never got the time to properly enjoy and take in every zone.

Every single zone felt disconnected. In SB we had different zones but they were all under either Gyr Abania or Yanxia. ShB started to feel a little more disconnected but all the zones still fell under what remained of the shard. Then EW comes around and we get one zone for Thavnair, one for Sharlaya, a moon, one for Garlemald, and a wasted area for Elpis, and then we star wars it to what I'm guessing is Omega's home world or w/e idk I lost interest.

The rushing in the story was like SB on steroids...

[aveyond-dreams]

Honestly speaking, the only thing I'm looking forward to in FFXVI is the gameplay surprisingly enough. If I'm remembering correctly, the battle director they hired for the game was a combat designer for both Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry V, so at the very least it should have some pretty good action. Hopefully it'll come packaged with a cohesive story as well.

Good. Because the FFXIV team at present needs to re-examine how they go about all things combat.

[TaleraRistain]

There was supposed to be a Garlemald expansion that was cut in order to get Endwalker out. Now we live with the results.

The only thing that was said about a Garlemald expansion is that they considered it and decided against it after the response to Shadowbringers. It wasn't like they had storyboards ready or voice actors hired or even a script. Oda also said in the Famitsu interview that it hadn't changed the story that much.

[thereal_aliceanders]

I don't have the time to read through all the post (so excuse me if it's already been said) but what is up with all the recycled events and gear? There was a time when seasonal events actually had stories and you wanted to go do them, now I see that Maidens Rhapsody is back and it's the same event that I did in 2017, and 2020. What happened to the Song Birds, that was left on a cliff hanger and never wrapped up. I mean they cut Shadowbringers short so they could work on Endwalker, and well Endwalker has been one let down after another. The story was meh, the job changes are meh, and don't even get me started on housing.

[BrokentoothMarch]

The only thing that was said about a Garlemald expansion is that they considered it and decided against it after the response to Shadowbringers. It wasn't like they had storyboards ready or voice actors hired or even a script. Oda also said in the Famitsu interview that it hadn't changed the story that much.

I have to doubt that last statement if a scrapped Garlemald still made it into the game. It makes no sense for it to be there if it didn't change much and was dumped pre-production.

[TaleraRistain]

I have to doubt that last statement if a scrapped Garlemald still made it into the game. It makes no sense for it to be there if it didn't change much and was dumped pre-production.

From what they said in the Famitsu interview, they considered if they could make the events after ShB into 2 expansions. If they did a Garlemald one, it would stop at Anima. So it sounded like we would have gotten exposition on points relating to Garlemald that were brought up in Endwalker. Then the second expansion would be the things after Anima.

I'm sure they could have done interesting things with Garlemald, though I can see where they may have seen that it would probably feel a bit too 2-parter. Because there's not a lot resolved up to Anima, so I could see where they might have to end on some sort of To Be Continued note or throw in some more superficial arc completing there to justify having that point be the end of an expansion.

Also consider if they did a Garlemald expansion after the questions raised with ShB. They would have to be careful to sprinkle in things leading up to the resolution of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc and keep that going or I could see people complaining it was a filler expansion focusing on something unrelated to ShB.

[Recon1o6]

I'm wondering as my sub draws to a close whether as time goes on, 5.0-6.0 will be known as this game's Dork Age.

That period in a long running medium where either one big change or several smaller changes coalesce together, usually in attempts to get new players, and turn off old ones. At first the new customers grow and fill in the old ones, but gradually the new ones leave as well because they run into the same frustrations as the old

Here's a good link if anyone doesnt know
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...eAlienatingEra

[Theodric]

I'm wondering as my sub draws to a close whether as time goes on, 5.0-6.0 will be known as this game's Dork Age.

That period in a long running medium where either one big change or several smaller changes coalesce together, usually in attempts to get new players, and turn off old ones. At first the new customers grow and fill in the old ones, but gradually the new ones leave as well because they run into the same frustrations as the old

Here's a good link if anyone doesnt know
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...eAlienatingEra

I appreciate the link! I always wondered if there was a term for such a thing and now I've learned that there is!

To me, Endwalker felt as jarring and poorly thought out as World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion. Mostly because both expansions took aspects of their respective setting that many were excited about seeing and just...didn't make use of them to their full potential.

Building up particular aspects of the story, fleshing them out with nuance and then getting rid of them as quickly as possible is just bizarre to me. Especially with the gaslighting about a 'new start' and a 'second season for the story' that ended up being more of the same on many fronts...

Of course, that's just me just talking about the story elements and not everything else that's arguably wrong with the game at the moment.

[Rufalus]

I would have preferred them to tell backstory using power of the echo more. Numerous times they actually made the past playable through time travel or incredibly rich simulation or entering a person's dreams or other magic. It erodes immersion if they add so many different kinds of miracle lore events whenever convenient to tell a story. I strongly prefer the story having to fit inside existing lore rules instead of making up new ones at every turn. Way too late now.