Let's Talk About the Low Quality of Side Stories in this Game

[YukikoKurosawa]

So the Endwalker role quests were bad. Really, REALLY bad. Absolutely atrocious, in terms of pacing, presentation. Compared to ShB, they fall severely flat. While the ShB role quests utilized characters previously established in the MSQ and further fleshed them out and gave them proper conclusion, the EW ones revolved around literal whos who became blapshemies, who I could not possibly have cared about. The stories ranged from bland, to outright absurd. When I did the Ishgard quests and got to reveal about an elezen clone being made into a primal of a Heavensward member then a blasphemy, I actually had to stop for about 3 weeks because of how utterly fucking ridiculous the entire premise of this was.

They barely, or not at all in some cases, justifed the entire reason for needing your specific role, which is the entire bloody point. Instead of being given a narrative reason for the reward at the end of each like in ShB, you just......can dye your job gear at the end. Why not before? Literally no reason.

While the ShB quests make sense to be done post-MSQ (though not really during MSQ) as it make sense for and is established that Sin Eaters still roam around Norvrandt, it makes zero sense for you to do the EW quests during MSQ, and I do not believe for a second that there are still blasphemies roaming about post EW. I don't care what the game says, it flat out doesn't make sense, it's stupid on so many levels. The fact that even with the Blasphemy roaming about you barely see anyone else in the respective questlines turn as well makes the entire thing lack tension and feel low energy especially post-MSQ.


However, low quality writing in non-MSQ story content is a recurring problem with storytelling outside of the MSQ, except rare cases like Hildibrand funnily enough. They are usually, at best, okay. Decent. Alright. At best. At worst, they're horrendous, in some cases barely respecting or outright disrespecting the MSQ, or inserting a Mary Sue OC donut steal character like the RDM quests who you are forced to be BFF's with in the span of 5 minutes because the stories do not often respect the severe brevity of their length and treat it like it's a feature-length story when it's a 5 quest plot. Almost like they let the writers just do whatever the feel like in certain cases. This is also seen in the Eden quests, where Ryne and Gaia just become BFF's in the span of a few quests despite Gaia being annoyed with and wanting nothing to do with Ryne and then all of sudden they're friends.

This relationship would have been potentially believable had the writer been allowed to make the story longer, given that friendship actual time to develop organically. But rather than respect the short length of the story, he forced a relationship to happen far too fast. I like short stories, but you need to understand you don't have the same length to do what you can do in a much longer story and should write around this fact. Trying to shove in an entire novel's worth of character development into a very short storyline does not usually work.

(Continued)

[YukikoKurosawa]

One of the problems I think is the way they're told. Unlike the MSQ, which is a nonstop string of quests with no break inbetween, side stories are generally broken up by several levels in between, or in the case of daily questlines entire WEEKS, which completely destroys the pacing. Each quest ends with you and the designated 2 characters you hang out with going seperate ways for a very long time, then the next quest starts with a recap of whatever the hell they were doing since then, which becomes swiftly formulaic. Hildibrand has this problem of pacing as well, but it doesn't force you to go through a recap each time after a break happens and you can just chain the quests that are already complete like a non-stop story. For a class or role quest you can just wait till you're high enough to do them all together, but for Tribe quests, or in the case of the end of Yorha story, this isn't possible.

It seems the writing team behind the MSQ is not the same as whoever is behind side stories. There is a very, VERY noticeable drop off in quality here. To the point of being jarring. It's as if they just bring in an intern to write them. Had I known how bad the PLD quests would be I would've skipped them and I never skip anything. It leads me to question if YoshiP is even aware of the writing quality outside of MSQ, or even cares. But my opinion is that if they are genuinely just not giving a shit and have nobody to oversee quality of these stories, then they should just stop writing them altogether.

Now I will add that there are notable exceptions, like Alexander, Omega, Werlyt (which I think had horrible pacing despite being a good story). There are actual side stories that work with the short length and do it very well, and are actually just outright good stories. But they are shining gems in a sea of trash.

There is a quality standard set by the MSQ, hell even Hildibrand, even if you don't find it funny they're very well told stories at the very least. I'm not asking for side stories to be just as good, but if they're just gonna be okay at best, then why are they bothering to make them? I don't want okay writing, I want GOOD writing. They seriously need to start putting some sort of quality control over the side story content, they need to consider that having the quests be broken up by levels or entire weeks completely kills pacing and they should stop telling stories this way.

But if we're going to get more of EW role quest quality stories then please just stop and stick to MSQ, raid stories (which are hit or miss), or Hildy.

(El Finito)

[Jin-]

Hmmm, not bad... not bad at all. I am content with this thread

[Lustre]

It irks me that the hildibrand quests have a much higher quality in animation and flair than any of the msq cutscenes do. I've said previously, but when people are doing crazy combo flips into the air, and then in msq my character might as well be a cardboard cutout who nods every 15 minutes, it's a real shame and ultimately feels unnecessary. I understand they limit personality in WoL for RP/headcanon reasons, but everyone I know was so excited to see their WoL do a slightly different unsheath amimation, it's actually sad. Like, if that's the thing to get excited about then idk what to say... it's like a man who's been living on rotten food his whole life. Well, when someone gives him a fresh pizza crust, he'll be over the moon and probably won't be able to stop thanking you. I'm not the best at analogies, but that's kinda the vibe it gives me.

I do think that the EW role quests felt disappointing this time around. It felt like they were created because they had to be created, and no other reason. Every single mob was a reused asset, even the capstone quest boss is just Amaurot final boss. Like seriously? Then to add insult to injury, they used this capstone quest to essentially write any future garlean plotlines out of the game. You already wiped them out off-screen, did you need to wipe the remaining legions too? Lmao

[Jeeqbit]

As someone who has done every side quest except some of the post moogle and crafter/gatherer quests, the side stories in this game are definitely not low-quality. Even the ones that appear in little settlements you pass through in the MSQ will tell you all about the life story of this one person who needs a fish or some meat, as if SE actually care about story-telling compared to other games.

So the Endwalker role quests were bad. Really, REALLY bad. Absolutely atrocious, in terms of pacing, presentation.

The one thing I will agree with is that I knew I had to kill something, but they acted like I, the Warrior of Light, couldn't kill it and needed to do some sort of preparation first. It felt absurd and like the quests were filler until max level. Some of the role quests were less filler and more engaging than others. Getting to know the characters in each was interesting but when you know it's filler it's harder to appreciate it.

While the ShB role quests utilized characters previously established in the MSQ and further fleshed them out and gave them proper conclusion, the EW ones revolved around literal whos who became blapshemies, who I could not possibly have cared about.

This is not correct. The EW role quests utilized characters previously established in the MSQ including the city state politicians and other established characters like Fordola and Arenvald, and gave them a proper conclusion.

They barely, or not at all in some cases, justifed the entire reason for needing your specific role, which is the entire bloody point.

They took advantage of the expertise of the city state politician, such as how Kan-E-Senna is a healer and have you fill in the gap. I found that the role quests tested some things about the roles, knowledge of tank interrupts or making you actually have to heal.

it makes zero sense for you to do the EW quests during MSQ, and I do not believe for a second that there are still blasphemies roaming about post EW.

I felt the same way, but one of the quests clarified that it would take time for the final days effect to wear off even though we stopped it.

[Raoabolic]

I do think that the EW role quests felt disappointing this time around. It felt like they were created because they had to be created, and no other reason. Every single mob was a reused asset, even the capstone quest boss is just Amaurot final boss. Like seriously? Then to add insult to injury, they used this capstone quest to essentially write any future garlean plotlines out of the game. You already wiped them out off-screen, did you need to wipe the remaining legions too? Lmao

The real sad part is that the writers/devs tied up a huge Garlean plotline with the role quests and i'll say that the finale of that particular story felt like I was watching the ending of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A bunch of random people shuffling off into the snow as the Indiana jones theme plays, lol.

[TaleraRistain]

While the ShB quests make sense to be done post-MSQ (though not really during MSQ) as it make sense for and is established that Sin Eaters still roam around Norvrandt, it makes zero sense for you to do the EW quests during MSQ, and I do not believe for a second that there are still blasphemies roaming about post EW. I don't care what the game says, it flat out doesn't make sense, it's stupid on so many levels. The fact that even with the Blasphemy roaming about you barely see anyone else in the respective questlines turn as well makes the entire thing lack tension and feel low energy especially post-MSQ.

It makes perfect sense. It's not the Song of Oblivion only that causes the Final Days. It's the stagnation of aether that the influx of dynamic causes. The aether in those areas is not just going to pop back right away. It needs time to recover. The Studium quests also reinforce that there are lingering problems with aether on Etheirys.

[Kolsykol]

and I do not believe for a second that there are still blasphemies roaming about post EW. I don't care what the game says, it flat out doesn't make sense, it's stupid on so many levels.

Why?...
People who had already turned didn't revert back.

You not caring or something not suiting your tastes also doesn't make something low quality.

I actually had to stop for about 3 weeks because of how utterly fucking ridiculous the entire premise of this was.

Did you actually do this or is it just more pointless hyperbole?
Because that's not a normal reaction.

can dye your job gear at the end. Why not before? Literally no reason.

Because that's how it has always worked, you unlock the ability to dye Job gear it's a reward just like how other glam rewards are.
Altho in EW it's way more straight forward which could be a good or a bad thing depending on ones pov.
But in other expansions you had to do stuff to dye it too and it's a sort of status thing ( even if it's easy to unlock, but it shows someone put time into it ).
Personally at least I prefer the way it was done in EW just as a reward for beating the role storyline rather than having to turn to stuff like Eureka, crafting or EX trials.

I don't think that the whole Gaia and Ryne thing just suddenly happened either it was a gradual thing of Gaia opening up.
One can think what they want about that storyline, I would've prefered something different for the Trials.
But I don't think that was rushed at all, if anything I'd say it was bordering on feeling too dragged out with her being emo and giving Ryne shit.
But she did gradually drop the attitude and then it culminated into her dropping it after a life or death scenario which I don't think is that strange.

Omega and Werlyt in particular were very different too imo because they had so much build-up before that and were more directly tied to the Source.
In SHB they needed a story that would be relevant to the First and they didn't have that history to build on.
Imo again I probably would've prefered something different, but I at least liked that it made me feel like Ryne had someone her own age she could connect to when we left.

Snip

The Hildibrand story was created as a test for the character animations originally and people enjoyed it so they continued it.
That's why the animations are so exaggerated and crazy because they were pushing things to the limit.

The MSQ is also SIGNIFICANTLY longer they can't do that, they have to prioritize the animations for specific scenes and it mainly becomes focused on other characters.

[Bunnycake]

As someone who has done every side quest except some of the post moogle and crafter/gatherer quests

You even did The Greatest Story Never Told quest...?

[Raven2014]

So the Endwalker role quests were bad.

I wouldn't say bad as in the questline themselves are bad, but just badly misplaced and designed.

It's totally obvious the quests were NOT written as role quests, but just got the role assigned to them after the fact.

If these quests were not presented as role quest, they would be seen with a much better light.