Review of 6.3 Story Content

[aveyond-dreams]

I have no real thoughts other than this being a massive missed opportunity to give Cyella and Unukalhai a moment to shine.

Sucks that their only real involvement in the story is locked behind optional content :/.

Perhaps a bit too connected to the now slain Ascians for the junior writers' tastes. I suppose we are instead supposed to content ourselves with Zero and the Myths femroe. It just feels like everything compelling was thrown away and we got so little in return. What was it all for? I struggle to believe that they were that bored of the main plots and factions of this game but if they were - perhaps they should not have been writing in the first place if they had such contempt for the world and characters of FFXIV.

[Saraide]

Perhaps a bit too connected to the now slain Ascians for the junior writers' tastes.

Or because they are locked behind the role master quest from shb and they didnt want to rework that quest structure to allow for easy inclusion into the MSQ. Nah, that would be far easier of an explanation and wouldnt fit the narrative at all.

What was it all for? I struggle to believe that they were that bored of the main plots and factions of this game but if they were - perhaps they should not have been writing in the first place if they had such contempt for the world and characters of FFXIV.

This is so rich coming from you lmao

[VelKallor]

A lot has happened in this thread but this in particular did stand out to me. At this point 7.0 is not a definite purchase for me anymore given all we've seen in terms of writing this expansion and there's no excuse for the complete and total destruction of my goodwill over the past year due to the constant mismanagement of the world and its lore, not to mention the backstabbing and backwards development of the characters I enjoyed.

The game doesnt meet your high expectations..whatever the hell they even are..but the 99.999% of us that do enjoy it wont have an issue. I can plainly see that FF 14 isnt the game for you..I can also see that, as yet, you are still to tell us how or by what metric what you envision will be good for ther game, enjoyed by the players, and be what THEY want.

See, this game isnt made exclusively for you, what you want may very well be NOT what others want..but nowhere in your diatribes do I see you ever making any kind of justification or proof that ANY of what you want will be in any way welcomed or popular.

Still waiting.

which all evidence points to being still in the hands of "junior writers"

..and this evidence is....?

How he will go about fixing the wreck his predecessor made of FFXIV universe lore will be something to see. Hopefully he shoves the catboy back in a locker where he belongs and completely sidesteps any of the sort of grandiose philosophical babbling that EW has suffered from persistently. Who knows, maybe we'll be surprised by a party of charismatic sky pirates having a go at each other in 7.0, some of that and some decent antagonists/zones with the scions dead and buried and I think I'll have very little to find fault with.

...and you are sure that the rest of the playerbase that isnt you will like this idea?

Perhaps a bit too connected to the now slain Ascians for the junior writers' tastes. I suppose we are instead supposed to content ourselves with Zero and the Myths femroe. It just feels like everything compelling was thrown away and we got so little in return. What was it all for? I struggle to believe that they were that bored of the main plots and factions of this game but if they were - perhaps they should not have been writing in the first place if they had such contempt for the world and characters of FFXIV.

How do you know WHO is doing the writing? The only contempt I see here..is yours.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The game doesnt meet your high expectations..whatever the hell they even are..but the 99.999% of us that do enjoy it wont have an issue. I can plainly see that FF 14 isnt he game for you..I can also see that, as yet, you are still to tell us how or by what metric what you envision will be good for ther game, enjoyed by the players, and be what THEY want.

See, this game isnt made exclusively for you, what you want may very well be NOT what others want..but nowhere in your diatribes do I see you ever making any kind of justification or proof that ANY of what you want will be in any way welcomed or popular.

Still waiting.



..and this evidence is....?



...and you are sure that the rest of the playerbase that isnt you will like this idea?



How do you know WHO is doing the writing? The only contempt I see here..is yours.

Its not even expectations, he just wants the story to be completely different in terms of direction and tone for the sake of "edge".

[Eisi]

I think in terms of missed opportunities there are some things the patch might have done better in my opinion, namely three that I thought of.


Number 1: It's fine to make a bit of fun of G'raha and he can take it. But it would still have been nice if at the end of the scene where he's introduced carrying the aether-thingy, you know when the camera pans out? If our character had made an animation offering G'raha to help carry it but G'raha then made a hand wave gesture, effectively telling us no he wants no help.


Number 2: The little notes in the Reaper village were awesome and I was a bit disappointed that after the dungeon we didn't find out a bit more lore about the place while scouring it for oil (which in and of itself was cool btw).


Number 3: I think it would have been nice if Zero being a voidsent herself would have shown a bit of empathy for Rubicante at his end. The moment was used for her to define herself in opposition to him and reject his position, but I think it would have worked better if she showed a bit of pity for him. Might be too much tho.

Overall the patch was pretty good in terms of story imo. The Jullus/Zero scene was amazing, the duty you are supposed to fail is done in an interesting way and what they did with the eye movements of the characters throughout was great, it sells their emotions much better. Alisaie once again shows that simple advice that comes from the heart can really make someone think who just has lost sight of the little truths of life. I really wanna help Azdaja now too, what little we have seen about her is awful and I feel for Vrtra as well, the moment in the cave where we give him a bit of space was executed quite well!



Edit: Oh btw! The eye jelly voidsent quests in Radz were amazing and actually better written than the MSQ.

All four of the stories were just a joy to experience, the juxtaposition of the fisher with Cagnazzo, who was just sold as a solid and fun character in this one little quest, the three treasure map Au Ra girls and especially the backstory of Rubicante and how it ties to the motif of what actions can be justified - it was an absolute blast. I actually teared up a little when I remembered that the little girl is now part of the eye voidsent in the present who still remembers her mom's death.

Bonus points for making the voidsent stay in Radz to help out the city guard in the end. It's great having voidsent be integrated here and there, like Typhon and Ultros.

[Midareyukki]

What I still don't understand is how a weaker patch than the rest proves the game is going downhill. Especially given the context around it. Nothing happened because there isn't much to happen, and they're laying down the foundation for said stuff to happen in the future.

...if that last sentence made no sense to you halfway through, dw, I'm sleepy. It stopped making sense to me too but... hey, at least I tried.

Point is.

Giving Avy-D the benefit of the doubt and just summing this up as "someone clearly dissatisfied with the game's direction feeling upset at how the game is currently going and irritated that a major expansion isn't establishing anything major past a side character and her opposite"... yeah, I guess you can understand why people feel frustated. And knowing how these threads go when it comes to Endwalker... yeah, opinions range from "really good" to "what the hell did you do to the plot". That latter camp where people are somehow dissatisfied with the plot and the way it got "resolved" goes on to criticise everything the devs do thereon. Because "all the bad stuff will therefore be a byproduct of their initial failure". As in "they're digging themselves deeper", as it were.

And I guess that's fine? I can't change your opinion, no one certainly will, so if you dislike the plot or elements of it, you're entitled to disliking them just as much as the next guy.

But at that point, isn't your opinion bias? If everything "bad" that happens since is building on to a bad pile to the point where you can't enjoy the game anymore, you sure you're not seeing it from a place where you're just going to already view something weak as extremely negative? If you have an expectation that things will be bad, your mind will see any small detail you don't like as a "gotcha!" moment to add to the trash pile. And that isn't really fair. Not on the game, but also not on yourself. Because then, your experience of the game is tainted by what you alone feel is right without taking into account whether or not the game is doing well despite it. And there are plenty of factors as to why the game is doing well despite it outside of a narrative you no longer enjoy.

The game isn't going downhill just because you say so. You need to present proof. Otherwise yeah; the game feels like crap because you're allowing yourself to feel like crap all the time. Rather than taking a step back, look objectively at what sort of game you're playing and the sort of dev team you're dealing with, and accept that that's just how things are. Because the stuff Avy-D clamours over are major things that come from the structure of the game and the overall design it has. It's stuff that, for there to be changes, you need substantial proof that it's not working rather than loose threads. And so far, he hasn't presented proof, only hearsay and his own opinion of what's fact or not.

Because the game IS NOT averse to change. At all. Stuff has changed and things were experimented with for years simply because the fans asked for it. And, sure, it took a long while, all that jazz... but unfortunately, for better AND for worse, that's the sort of team we got. Sometimes they drag things out, and it's a flaw. Sometimes they give us something interesting and it's not a flaw. So if there WERE evidence that the game was going downhill, surely the game would have changed by now. And Square would be among the first to notice and quantify it.

So really. Where's the proof?

Because we know why the patch is weak. We know what to expect, we know things are coming. And for that, yeah, establishing moments usually are the weakest parts of any story. Since you're really just expositing and laying the groundwork.
If the situation is that dire, then where's the proof that this isn't working?

[Kes13a]

*snip*
If the situation is that dire, then where's the proof that this isn't working?

but but but... they supplied a reddit link!!!

and they said EVERYONE thinks its trash!!!!

isnt that enough? the sky is falling! we all need umbrellas.. which we can now dance with!

[hagare]

but but but... they supplied a reddit link!!!

and they said EVERYONE thinks its trash!!!!

isnt that enough? the sky is falling! we all need umbrellas.. which we can now dance with!

I'm sure the auto umbrella got it all in hand

[Talonk]

I think it boils down to simply knowing that this expansion is over technically as far as the arc goes and this new one already looks like its going to just tie up the 13th shard in that respect too. I'm hoping im very wrong because I love this game but I too did not like how a majority of the arc closed mostly due to venats character in the end and pacing issues. Tho I have discontent for that I am still 10000000% still pushing forward and hoping the next expansion is great. Like it or not its going to be a fact that people won't be in love with every expansion too like me with stormblood I absolutely loved that one but its another with mixed reviews. But like I said it feels like its just adding more to filler than a main story at this point and I hope that turns around soon for the people who aren't enjoying it as much. You can have the best product in the world and there will be some who just don't like it. Cheers my friend.

[VelKallor]

I am going to ask the crucial question here: one that goes to the crux of this entire matter.

Who are you to say what is good for the game and what is not? Who are YOU to tell the rest of us that we should like what you do and see the way you do? What makes you the arbiter of what is a good story and what is not..and more to the point, who are YOU to tell us what we should want?

If you dont like it thats fine, we all have our own beliefs and opinions, thats as it should be. But it does come down to this:

What is it that makes you right and the rest of us wrong? Seriously, how can you POSSIBLY know HALF of what you claim is the truth? Based on what?

The game doesnt revolve around you, Aveyond.