FFXIV x NieR Reincarnation Crossover

[whitemoonflower]

As long as it's something like the Garo crossover. The Nier raids are fun and all, but we kind of missed out on some lore of the First because of the crossover taking up ShB's alliance raid questline.

I believe it's more a matter of how:

An opportunity was missed with YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse.

They could've revealed that the Automata crew was returning to one of the remaining shards, that shard being a vague reference to the future of our world. This would've added a profound implication to the potential fate of the reflections in EW, enhancing XIV's lore meaningfully instead of them just being "here and gone in a haze of obscurity".

Wanting to play alongside my partner and experience YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse together is why I joined FFXIV in the first place. In our case, it enhanced the experience. But whether it's lore of the First, the Source, or other shards, I definitely agree that all of it should've been tied together better.

[Alleo]

I can understand the need for more glam but honestly I hope that if it comes it would just be a simple NPC that sells it for a bit. I had enough of Nier with the 24 man raid...this was much more than other crossovers ever got and it took away a possible lore rich first shard story...all for a story that imo was just purely fanservice and made not much sense to me. I honestly started to wonder where that genius went that the creator of Nier seemingly had...

At the end no other crossover had that much work put behind it and now including even more from that would just feel bad to me. There are many more crossovers that I would have liked instead (including Kingdom Hearts) of just another Nier. Especially after that utterly disappointing raid story.

[Shurrikhan]

There are many more crossovers that I would have liked instead (including Kingdom Hearts) of just another Nier.

Wait, the council of ~13 black-robed ancients weren't a KH reference?

[MicahZerrshia]

I honestly started to wonder where that genius went that the creator of Nier seemingly had....

My theory on why the 24 man raid was so bad is that he didn't want to do it at all, but had to due to his contract with SE, so he just threw something together and called it a day. Because not only was it downright horrible when it came to it fitting into xiv, but it was just a bad story overall, which is something he is not really known for.

[GrizzlyTank]

My theory on why the 24 man raid was so bad is that he didn't want to do it at all, but had to due to his contract with SE, so he just threw something together and called it a day. Because not only was it downright horrible when it came to it fitting into xiv, but it was just a bad story overall, which is something he is not really known for.

The raids were great though.

[Flaws]

The raids were great though.

I am absolutely and utterly puzzled at what people dislike about the Nier raids. It makes zero sense to me.

[Shurrikhan]

I am absolutely and utterly puzzled at what people dislike about the Nier raids. It makes zero sense to me.

The lack of any sensible context and painful waste of opportunities?

[Alleo]

I am absolutely and utterly puzzled at what people dislike about the Nier raids. It makes zero sense to me.

Strange story that never made much sense even after the last raid and did not further the lore of FF14. Boring characters including the Nier casts which basically just dropped in at the end, just to disappear again. For me the glamour was also not that great and I found the places we visited dull. The only thing I liked was the music.

On top of all of the above they also went way beyond any scope other crossovers or even 24 man raids had and included more story inbetween patches. So much manpower put behind something which bascially can be described as pure fanservice for Nier fans.

[Lord_Umbra]

I am absolutely and utterly puzzled at what people dislike about the Nier raids. It makes zero sense to me.

Pathetically easy compared to previous expansion Ivalice Raids, instead of actual Nier gear we got bunch of OC do not steal gear & poor Maiming/Tanking got OC gear for all three raids unlike the other jobs which did get some actual character gear from Nier, nonsensical story with only good part being Dwarves & even then they just lol every things fine in end with the weird side story of Dwarves maybe being machines & weird things going on with dude lost his wife & that start choice didn't matter at all other than showing everyone preferred the go getter dwarf over afraid/cautious dwarf.

Music was good few of Bosses were good but for most part the Raids were very boring & extra quest were fairly pointless, all this raid gave was Seeds/Red Girl lore & that the WoL is strongest in Nier/Draken lore since we're able to do what no Drak/Nier character could destroy a Seed.

[Minali]

I am absolutely and utterly puzzled at what people dislike about the Nier raids.

Can't say what other people dislike about it, they have to answer that themselves. For me the most disappointing thing was the story, the second disappointing one the white mechanic markers on an almost white background. They're very hard to spot in time with bad eyesight.

I haven't played any NieR game, just heard of it, but I was intrigued about Automata, because that postapocalyptic stuff is something I usually enjoy. That's why I was looking forward to that raid, hoping it would give me an idea of how the actual games are. And then the raid made me feel like a bystander who's only good for fighting. Whenever a question arised, none or only a very brief answer was given. All the NPCs from NieR were doing a "just trust me", "can't explain now, the bad ones attack" or "I'll explain once we're done". But nothing ever came apart from vague hints. The dialogues with the dwarves were funny where they pointed out that your replies didn't matter until that's what was actually how the raid in total treated me. We were supposed to follow blindly, only getting just as much information for a general overview why this raid exists, and when everything was over, everyone who could have added more depth to the story disappeared for the greater good. I suppose a lot of that made more sense or be like "but that is so obvious that x happened because of y and a is connected to b" for people who played NieR, but.. I haven't, and a collaboration should make the game enjoyable for fans of both franchises.

Then the post-raid story started and again it had interesting points that looked like they would add more substance to the plot, with Konogg's messages and the suspiciously acting dwarf. But the strange things in the village were dropped and the end was an open end where most "what could've happened" scenarios painted an extremely grim future for Konogg, or no future at all. And endings like those feel unrewarding for me in general, but especially here considering that the game didn't even let us help at all and more or less killed Kanogg off, metaphorically or literally, who knows.
Of course there are some open threads in FFXIV, too, but this is more about a storytelling where you like to have a few options for elaborating further or connecting some dots at a later point, like in a tabletop rpg. The most important things are addressed and explained eventually. This raid was a big puzzle with 10000 pieces of which you get 100 unconnected ones as an excuse for fighting.

I guess there is one positive thing about it though: Afterwards I looked for the internet for answers to see if I might have missed anything due to my lack of knowledge and all I found were posts saying "That's just how NieR storytelling is". So the raid helped me indeed with my decision about playing NieR. Now I know I'll keep my distance.

Hope that helped.