Review of 6.3 Story Content

[Atelier-Bagur]

Yeah like they were literal throwaways in IV. They had a purpose in XIV, yeah we're already through all 4 of them, but again that was their purpose. Their purpose is to hold back the "good guys" as long as possible so Golbez has more time to get whatever his plan is turning. Not only that, but there are also sidequests in Radz that go further into detail about them as a whole. Not sure what people are expecting tbh. Everything and anything has to be ShB standard of quality, or its just dog shit now apparently.

I mean, considering the general attitude the community has to ARR and SB, nobody likes to acknowledge the good parts, just like nobody likes to acknowledge the terrible parts in HW and Shb. No in-betweens, everything has to be universally good or universally bad. Its tiring with this community sometimes.

[Atelier-Bagur]

You do realize 98% of this game is fan service right? Thats why the Four Fiends were here in the first place. Eden. Omega. Chaos. Halicarnassus. Diabolos. The list literally keeps going. They take existing stories and characters from other main line titles and put them into XIV and create an "original" story around them to make it fit XIVs narrative. Yeah you're right you didnt mention IV, other than the fact you're ripping characters in XIV that literally came from IV, where bosses had less depth than a digital ant. Not sure what you wanted from them, they're pawns. They did what pawns do, only this time they had reasons and purpose behind it. This literal expansion is an entire love letter and fan service to IV lol.

Main character changing from Dark Knight to Paladin: FFIV. Going to the moon: FFIV. Lunar Whale: FFIV. Magus Sisters: FFIV. Four Fiends: FFIV. Golbez: FFIV. Loporitts: FFIV. The entirety of the moonward tomestone gear is all themed after the main cast of FFIV.

also ShB was just FFIII and FFX had a baby. Just wanted to say that out loud here.

[Payotz]

You do realize 98% of this game is fan service right? Thats why the Four Fiends were here in the first place.

Ok sure. Let's see your examples.

Eden.

Was literally not even a character sure. It's literally a giant sineater we fight the raids in, and is actually not MSQ would you look at that.
The way they set Eden up is that it's this computer system you do that's not sentient (enough) to use their own actions. That's it.

I honestly have a lot more problems with the Eden story, but this is not the scope of the topic.

Omega. Chaos. Halicarnassus.

Only one character on this list is in the MSQ, and that's Omega. He was literally a part of the Shinryu story and was his foil.
And even in the raid series, he was trying to test us out by having us fight all these simulations. These simulations being literally just basic one-note parallel universe beings in design that is never meant to be talked to, and we never talk to unless we're fighting. Halicarnassus and Chaos is literally just stuck on their own respective floors and was never introduced in the MSQ, so yeah there's nothing to explore here.

They're throwaways, but they make sense to be throwaways considering Omega literally uses them to "test" our abilities. In fact, I'd go so far to say that these characters are a part of Omega's character exploration as well. It's an extension of him, puppets or familiars if you will.

Diabolos.

Not in the MSQ, but has an amazing build up in ARR. You see him in a bunch of Hard dungeons, trying to do something, and always just barely escaping after we beat him.
It all culminates into the Heavensward 24 man story which is one of the best payoffs I've seen and also intersects a lot with the PoTD story too.
He's very well explored for a "throwaway" character. If FFXIV treated the Fiends like Diabolos, I'd be plenty happy.

The list literally keeps going.

Oh yes it does. Let's keep going with one more.

Remember Eda? The healer who was blamed for letting their tank die, and was getting shit on by her party in the entrance to Satasha?

You literally see her as you go through ARR, and then it finally culminates into one of the hard dungeons where it's revealed that she's actually performed necromancy so she can get her abusive tank bf back to life, and then she falls off and then returns AGAIN to POTD, and then the story is actually finished.

... Actually maybe not, cause you can still see her around the citystates sometimes. Just watching you, like the creep she is.

For a throwaway character that's not in the MSQ, she's pretty damn well explored.

They take existing stories and characters from other main line titles and put them into XIV and create an "original" story around them to make it fit XIVs narrative. Yeah you're right you didnt mention IV, other than the fact you're ripping characters in XIV that literally came from IV, where bosses had less depth than a digital ant. Not sure what you wanted from them, they're pawns. They did what pawns do, only this time they had reasons and purpose behind it.

Yes. We are experiencing FFXIV's story and writing and literally anything else other than that is irrelevant.
It doesn't matter if I pick fucking idk, Kefka from FFVI, and put it in the story. I'll still apply the same standards that they have established from ALL THE WAY back to ARR to these characters.

I do not care where these people came from. I care if they're well written, and right now they absolutely aren't.

And don't tell me that the Fiends are literally the same as Chaos or Halicarnassus or Kefka in O8S. They're not.

We literally TALK to them. They're literally in the MSQ. They're the big baddies.
They should not be one note throwaway characters whose job is to be "HURR DURR I WILL EAT YOUR WOLRD WAAAAAAAA" like some basic highwayman in an RPG.

[Plasma711]

also ShB was just FFIII and FFX had a baby. Just wanted to say that out loud here.

Glad you said this. Because it just reminded me. Not Shb, but Anima. Anima was from X, what was Anima in X? Seymour's mom. What is Anima in XIV? Zenos' dad. Wow imagine that more fan service. Crystal Tower raids? Wait for it... Fan service to FFIII. Thordan and the Knights of the Round, fan service to FF7. Hell Hydaelyn and Zodiark have a lot of similarities to Cosmos/Materia and Chaos/Spiritus from Dissidia. Shinryu that we have is akin to Shinryu from FFV same with Omega. Kefka is from VI. Again the list goes round and round.

[Plasma711]

So your literal argument is some random healer from back in ARR had a purpose in a hard mode dungeon a couple patches later has more of an impact then what? Lmfao. So basically if characters in the game dont live for more then a patch and show up 5 years later for some random reason, then they are throw away characters? Yeah not quite sure I'm the one coping here. Also last I checked we had literal conversations with all four Fiends. Like wut? Just say you hate the story without all the weird random mumbo jumbo that means literally nothing.

You let me know how many people give a flying shit about Edda for one. For two even did that hard mode dungeon. Three even remember who she is now. Pretty damn sure I'm gonna remember a whole lot more about literally any character in these post patches, than I remember about Edda.

Also they treated the fiends 10x better than Diabolos, lmfao. Diabolos got a dungeon and then he was in an alliance raid. And what conversations did we have with him btw? Oh wait we didn't. Got it.

[Payotz]

So your literal argument is some random healer from back in ARR had a purpose in a hard mode dungeon a couple patches later has more of an impact then what?.

My literal argument is that some random healer back in ARR is actually better written than the BIG BAD MSQ VILLAINS in this arc.

Moenbryda was better written.
That Talos short story from back in Shadowbringers was better written (albeit deus ex machina ish)
Hell even god forsakened ASAHI was better handled, along with Yotsuyu's mother and father.

My literal argument is that the way they handled the Fiends was horrible, especially since they've literally hinted at some depth with Rubicon.
They could've handled it way way better consider they're in the MSQ.

If your MSQ character is written worse than a literal rando healer back in ARR, then yeah I will absolutely call them out on their BS.

Jesus it's like pulling teeth with you people.

[Plasma711]

My literal argument is that some random healer back in ARR is actually better written than the BIG BAD MSQ VILLAINS in this arc.

Moenbryda was better written.
That Talos short story from back in Shadowbringers was better written.
Hell even god forsakened ASAHI was better handled, along with Yotsuyu's mother and father.

My literal argument is that the way they handled the Fiends was horrible, especially since they've literally hinted at some depth with Rubicon.
They could've handled it way way better consider they're in the MSQ.

If your MSQ character is written worse than a literal rando healer back in ARR, then yeah I will absolutely call them out on their BS.

Jesus it's like pulling teeth with you people.

Yeah you're absolutely coping holy moly. I bet you're fun at parties, jesus christ.

[Atelier-Bagur]

We literally TALK to them. They're literally in the MSQ. They're the big baddies.
They should not be one note throwaway characters whose job is to be "HURR DURR I WILL EAT YOUR WOLRD WAAAAAAAA" like some basic highwayman in an RPG.

If thats what you took from the Four Fiends in FFXIV with them just "hurr durr I will eat your world" then wow you must've just intentionally tuned them out. Not gonna gonna say that they're deep and meaningful but you seriously dont need an emotional and complex backstory to every single thing, just need to have enough motivation and understanding to know why they do the things they do in a jrpg for villians. Its clear that the writers didnt want to drag out the four fiends into this current arc and wanted to give them enough screentime and weight to achieve whatever the plot needs them to do and honestly thats enough.

[Payotz]

Yeah you're absolutely coping holy moly. I bet you're fun at parties, jesus christ.

Buddy if your sense of self-worth depends on a lot of people liking the same video game you're playing, then that's really on you and not on me.

This is a discussion for a 6.3 story. Hell the first post is literally critcizing and reviewing the story.

If you really don't like people critcizing your favourite video game, then I suggest going to this thread:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...d-it-be/page10

It's infinitely a lot more soothing for your soul.

[CStrife912]

While I understand the premise behind this persons issue with the fiends, the point is they were never more than canon fodder to a wider goal. Not the first or last time, even if they spent more time with them their goals would still be the same. I come to the source to finally die because I can't back in the void...no amount of writing is going to make that any different the premise is still the same or how I see it. I am holding out for what 6.4 does before I lean into any criticism of their handling because at the moment nothing has stood out as terrible...I have experienced terrible in many games and this ain't it.