Why are some people "disappointed" by the 6.X patch story?

[Somnolence]

After going from Dynamis primal of existential despair of the universe to this it feels very underwhelming.

I can't believe I am saying this but this filler storyline could have been improved by whedonesque/Marvel humor of WoL and scions trolling the villains. But the writers decided to make it serious, yet failed to to make us care about the void world, Zero etc. enough. And Zero still feels as forced companion.

[Allegor]

I have never played FF4 so I have no nostalgia towards any of the characters or plotlines. That being said it has just been boring for me. 6.1 took a long time to say we have a portal to the third. 6.2 was fine as it introduced characters and the general plotline and I thought it was good. 6.3 was boring to me pretty quickly and I ended up skipping most of the CS. Probably not gonna bother with the rest MSQ till it's all done and I come back in 7.0. I think overall my issue is that I don't care about any of the characters and the ideas are just bland to me. Maybe 6.4 is better than 6.3 but 6.3 really cemented my lack of care for the game in general.

I kinda share the sentiment, honestly. I mean, I want to give it a chance, since it is a fresh start afterall, but so far it just...hasn't engaged me, I daresay it even bored me. I haven't even finished the 6.4 MSQ because I just feel "meh" about it, even though I already know we're fighting Golbez. We're facing off the final boss and my reaction is "meh"... I feel bad about feeling "meh"

[NRieh]

One of the problems is, that it does not really know what it wants to be.

6.1 did a great set-up for a light-hearted "20 minutes adventure"...but last I checked we're saving the world(s) from global invasion of the desperate voidsends, while also trying to bring back the lost greatwyrm and discover the inter-shard travel (while we're at it).

6.2 was about the exploration + world\character-building, it was a new story "out of nowhere", but it felt good. Something new to see, something interesting to learn.

6.3 was about....finding some ceruleum for poor garleans (because the entire lake of ceruleum was not enough? Apparently?)And about teaching Zero some cuisine. The tags of our "adventure" change to more epic, as Rubicante hints at Golbez' Big Bad plans. Also, everything that Y'shtola was doing between the patches blows up.

6.4 was about teasing 6.5. And it's the only thing which it was good and effective at. They had even recruited Thancred for that job. He's literally a walking teaser (yes, wolcred fans, the pun intended). He shows up, comments on his trust in WoL (and Ryne, apparently), foreshadows .5, and vanishes away. It did not help that they had spoiled EVERYTHING in their trailer this time...probably has somehting to do with quality\quantity of story, it was just enough to fill the trailer, and there wasn't much to hide for the surprize....if you exclude the fact, that our Trial Vilian somehow not only survives the beating, but also goes full ARR after we "win". Also, Y'shtola goes for another mid-patch researching CD, because that's what she does (at least this time her previous efforts did not blow up....just yet) The world is in danger and desperately needs saving, and WoL's their only hope.

So, we get a set-up for something like "Skalla, but bigger and better", but we end up with (mediocre) "epic" world-saving plot. It's neither here nor there. Not too epic, because of how thin it is (and because funny bunny scenes don't highlight epic achievements in general). Not very "adventure"-ish, because the objectives. People who never played FFIV don't have any attachments to all those names and locations, but I also see some disappointment from those who did play it.

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

[Somnolence]

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

My bet we somehow will use excess light of the First to restore balance to the 13. Gobez et co give big "suicide by cop" vibe, like we are being baited in restoring Aetherial sea in 13 and bringing all voidsent to rest by killing them permanently somehow.

[Seraphor]

I wasn't disappointed by the MSQ, but I was a little disappointed by Pandaemonium, particularly:

How little attention Athena got. P12 was also a disappointing fight because of it. Compared to previous raid series, Eden's Promise, M&F Omega, Alexander Prime. She didn't even get a phase transition let alone a second form. We just got budget Fox News Hydaelyn instead.

[Ultran]

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

I am still so annoyed that this whole story arc has so far been ignoring what Unukalhai and Cylva been doing on the First. We literally have two characters from the 13th that are trying to get the Light from the 1st to the 13th and the WoL is just pretending that he does not know that. I get it, that is "optional side quests" but so is the raid that features Ultima the High Seraph, who whe just learned was most likely the source of the Heart of Sabik and Athena going fully crazy with her desire.

[NRieh]

I am still so annoyed that this whole story arc has so far been ignoring what Unukalhai and Cylva been doing on the First.

That's what happens when you gate important lore and characters behind the grind-wall. And it's not just some minor weekend grind, it's 4 roles at 80 + complete HW trial series. The story arc should have been "Crystal-Towered" long time ago, with adjusted requirements.

[Carin-Eri]

I usually have nothing but praise for the MSQ since, until now, I don't recall being particularly disappointed by it. Underwhelmed at times perhaps, but not disappointed.

However, 6.4 did disappoint me, mostly because the left us with a trope that they've used a few too many times already throughout the MSQ. Namely the "All According to Plan" trope - which is described as follows:

That one little phrase in its various forms - "All According to Plan", "Exactly As Planned", "Just As Planned", and others - is all it takes to cause even the most monumental apparent loss to be completely turned on its head. Was the villain Crazy Prepared enough to insure that even his failure somehow turns into a victory? Did he prepare a plan only just incompetent enough that the heroes could predictably defeat him? Or was The Plan something else entirely?

Well, we're not going to find out anytime soon. In all likelihood he's relying on the Unspoken Plan Guarantee to catch everyone off guard so that we can proceed to the real plot. Stay tuned next week for the exciting new development!

Pretty accurate for how things played out, isn't it? And again - far from the first time we've experienced this, although I feel Ilberd and Fandaniel did it better.

And to top it all off, the classic 'Evil Gloating' trope also came into play. I mean, Trollbez was on his knees, Azdaja (whilst still corrupted) was free and his weapon had dissolved. Great! So what do we do? We just stand there whilst Trollbez monologues at us. Which, predictably, leads to the situation taking a turn for the worst to the point of "oh no - we're powerless against this threat that we totally could've prevented! Run away, back to the Source so we can form another convoluted contingency plan!".

For the first time, I can't really say I particularly care about what comes next.

[drtasteyummy]

6.4 story was:

bla bla bla, feelings, bla bla, laser, bla bla, repair, interesting scene that gets omitted 5 seconds later by the generic you beat me but you didn't beat me, bla bla, we must flee, bla bla we can still free her.

Aspho was:

bla bla, my mom is back, bla bla, it's elidibus again, bla, why mom, bla bla, mom still likes sciene, son genetic twist that had no impact on her bad persona, bla bla, ok let's kill her again, bla, we were the Ascian oof ok, bla bla my time has come.

[Amenara]

Eh, I will say the pandemonium raids at least gave us a villain that was unrepentant and evil till the end, which is a rare thing in FF14.