6.4: Dark throne review

[Thenightvortex]

Are FFXIV writers on drugs?

[ZephyrMenodora]

Thank you for your wise and compelling insights.

[TheMightyMollusk]

All that cash shop money has to go somewhere.

[Tulvi]

Are FFXIV writers on drugs?

Could you elaborate on that? I loved the story. Amazing patch as always.

[FatalFatalis]

The Dark Throne? More like the Dark Padding, am I right fellas?
Jesus christ.

[CNitsah]

I think the structure of the patch (1 dungeon, 1 trial) is really hurting the storytelling.

6.1 was ok, it's job was to relaunch a new story after the epic conclusion of EW vanilla. I was really hyped when I realised they were gonna explain where was the last of the first brood. It's not remarkable, but it did the job : create expectation for what was coming.

6.2 was good. It introduced Zero, The Golbez team, and the two Golbez generals were well buildt, and both the dungeon and the trial had stakes.

6.3 was a deception. It's the anti thesis of 6.2. The whole first part didn't make the story progress at all. It felt like the Twins were shoehorned in the story. The two generals were not build, which made their fight forgetable. It's shame because Rubicante had a nice design. At the end of the patch, you sure have defeated 2 more generals, but for the rest... the story of saving Azdaja didn't progress at all. We're at the same point than at the end of 6.2. That's were you begin to feel the structure hurt the story.

6.4 made me angry. You have a first part that is useless to the story told. I feel "getting fuel and autorisations" is not a good enough justification to spend 2h30 going here and there and not progressing in the main story of the patch. Instead we have several side stories that are not developped enough to be satisfying. Wrost things is : none of those elements are bad per se, but the time they take compared to Azdaja/Golbez plotline is too long. To me it felt like stalling before getting to the part we all knew was coming. And when we got there,it abruptly cut because "there cannot be 2 trials in a patch". It's fair in term of structure, but in term of climax, it's awful. You just cut it in two, which feels very disatisfying. Especially since we know we will have to get another dungeon that will probably have no real importance before we can get the the real thing, because it's the structure.

I also feel the whole "ho no, our talisman don't work anymore, let's retreat" is too convenient. It screams "patch is done, come back in four month". Something I never felt during ShB patches, or even early EW ones. First of all, the WoL doesn't need it, and it feels so out of character to leave without even trying anything. There was other ways to deal with that. Being pushed back or something.

That story was just not written to last this long. We just got two patch that delayed the story with different subterfuges, and when we finally get to it, it abruptly ends because it's next patch trial. I would have liked the story to be written another way. I don't know what happened between 6.2 and 6.3, but something seems to have happened. I have difficulties to believe the guys that wrote this are the same that wrote EW.

[CKNovel]

3/4 of this patch MSQ felt like filler.

6.1 and 6.2 went full gear into the new story but it feels like they ran out of steam and things to write and just tried to stall as much as possible...
Not happy with the direction the MSQ took for 6.4 either, it's a massive let down to have the MSQ filled with a lot of "joke filler" after we got Shadowbringer which only had a weaker 5.1.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I'm sorry, but a glistening and sweaty Estinian will never be filler. Women all over reddit are beside themselves as I type this lol.

[Deo14]

3/4 of this patch MSQ felt like filler.

That's because whole 6.X story is just a filler with yet another 20+ years old FF cameo. This is a problem since EW doesn't even have dedicated trial storyline this time, no storyline for relics and/or explorable zone either. Pandaemonium is only decent story left. I'm curious about opinions of hyper casuals who only play for a story.

[GaiusDrakon]

I'm sorry, but a glistening and sweaty Estinian will never be filler. Women all over reddit are beside themselves as I type this lol.

Let's just turn this game into softcore p*** because that's what it is anyways

The entire story revolves around fanservice of like 2385902835 different NPCs that degens fire their meaty cannons or valleys on before spending 1 second on the actual story