Players are already lowering their bar for Downtrail

[kyyninen_kirahvi]

What are you talking about? What I mean is I don't expect Dawntrail to be as intensive as Endwalker, because it's a new beginning. I expect the quality of the story to be better and I want the content to be at least as good. The quality of the story can be great despite it being more grounded and smaller scale. Why is this an issue?

I don't want to skyrocket the stakes right at the gate like the patch storyline 'just beacuse'.

[AetherHale]

I think what people are saying by "I'm lowering my bar" is more so for the stories stakes. Endwalker had very very high stakes and emotional moments. Dawntrail is the expansion after that, the trailer already shows that the stakes aren't even close. From saving the world to going on a treasure hunt. Its a totally different vibe and tempo. If the gameplay is worse than I will be mad, if they don't fix problems (my lack of hats) then I will be mad. But I'm not going to rage if I'm not crying at the end of Dawntrail's story because I wasn't setup for multiple expansions on the story of this place.

[Xlantaa]

It is not good idea generalize never. I didn't lower any bar, for example. Even when I over-hype something I not feel disappointed if not meet my expectations, because that's on me.

On the other hand. The climax of the story has been already done, so it is natural to understand that the next stories will be just adventuring. That is not lowing the bar. The game can have the same quality despite if the story is not as epic as the previous one. The story will escalate again, probably, as it was escalating from ARR to EW.

I expect Dawntrail to be something ARR like, anew setup for a new arc. That is not lowering the bar, that is understand that the previous arc ended (in a Epic way like a good Final Fantasy) and now it is necessary to build up anew one.

This is like any show, or anime. Did One Piece ended after the climax in Marineford? Or Dragon Ball after Freezer saga? Of course not. They built up other plots.

[Carin-Eri]

It is not good idea generalize never. I didn't lower any bar, for example. Even when I over-hype something I not feel disappointed if not meet my expectations, because that's on me.

On the other hand. The climax of the story has been already done, so it is natural to understand that the next stories will be just adventuring. That is not lowing the bar. The game can have the same quality despite if the story is not as epic as the previous one. The story will escalate again, probably, as it was escalating from ARR to EW.

I expect Dawntrail to be something ARR like, anew setup for a new arc. That is not lowering the bar, that is understand that the previous arc ended (in a Epic way like a good Final Fantasy) and now it is necessary to build up anew one.

This is like any show, or anime. Did One Piece ended after the climax in Marineford? Or Dragon Ball after Freezer saga? Of course not. They built up other plots.

Good example. Not overly familiar with Onepiece, but I know Dragonball Z had 'slice of life' stories that led into the larger sagas. The one following the Cell saga, focused on Gohan's high school years, being the most obvious example.

[Larirawiel]

We are already lowering our standards and expectations.

The main advantage from beeing a pessimist is: you can only be positively surprised.

But i am not a doomer and maybe FF14 follows the good -> not so good -> good -> not so good-pattern. If EW is considered as "not so good" so DT should be good again.








Cheers

[UkcsAlias]

On the other hand. The climax of the story has been already done, so it is natural to understand that the next stories will be just adventuring. That is not lowing the bar. The game can have the same quality despite if the story is not as epic as the previous one. The story will escalate again, probably, as it was escalating from ARR to EW.

While shadowbringers did have some references, storywise its almost completely seperated in the events. And this created 1 thing that i considered one of the better features a game often fails to do: A fresh situation. The start of shadowbringers felt fresh, no known characters, no idea who to trust and not, the enemy isnt known yet. You are exploring the story fresh, and thats what to me makes it feel good from the start.

Constantly building on an earlier story will limit things a lot. Not being bound to those anymore can often make the decision making fresh. Sure, reference points can be used, but when an issue is completely new, in a unfamiliar location, there is still a lot you can discover.

I suspect the story will be similar to stormblood on that. More about diplomatics and a build up for a longer story that can expand acros multiple expansions. And while it isnt as interesting, it doesnt always have to. But this has to go along with good dungeons, scripted fights, trials, raids, and potentialy other world events or side activities. But in this case i do hope they arent constantly going back to the old scions and now focus more on the locals. That was something that they did well in Shb, even though the scions were still there. They just couldnt be there all the time as they each had their own task keeping them busy, so locals were used to cover things instead.

A lot of new characters then can also mean that a few of the settled ones could die, or just locked up in a side activity causing them to rarely be seen again. Lyse was properly purged from the scions that way. And while its not as dramatic as a death, it at least kept room open for someone else (whether that was an improvement is an other discussion though).

[AnotherPerson]

I think what people are saying by "I'm lowering my bar" is more so for the stories stakes. Endwalker had very very high stakes and emotional moments. Dawntrail is the expansion after that, the trailer already shows that the stakes aren't even close. From saving the world to going on a treasure hunt. Its a totally different vibe and tempo. If the gameplay is worse than I will be mad, if they don't fix problems (my lack of hats) then I will be mad. But I'm not going to rage if I'm not crying at the end of Dawntrail's story because I wasn't setup for multiple expansions on the story of this place.

You can get an equally good story as long as it is written well. Endwalker had more buildup because of many expansions for the conclusion of a 10 year story arc, but it's not like all the previous characters stop existing in a bubble either. All events can may have concluded a story arc, but the experiences will carry on. The scions will still be present and will still affect the MSQ just as much as before. The circumstances of the adventure could change, but we will still have our adventure and for a game so heavily driven by story-telling, the story shouldn't be held to any lower standard. It is fine to say Dawntrail is setting up a new arc and lots of things will end up unanswered, but setting up a new arc does not mean the new arc have to be boring either. You can have just as much dynamic and emotionally-driven moments in the MSQ.

In a way, ShB does do a soft-reset by sending you to another place for an adventure. You forget about primals for a bit and focus on the new threat. This can work just as well if we're going off to the New World.

[Atelier-Bagur]

While shadowbringers did have some references, storywise its almost completely seperated in the events. And this created 1 thing that i considered one of the better features a game often fails to do: A fresh situation. The start of shadowbringers felt fresh, no known characters, no idea who to trust and not, the enemy isnt known yet. You are exploring the story fresh, and thats what to me makes it feel good from the start.

Constantly building on an earlier story will limit things a lot. Not being bound to those anymore can often make the decision making fresh. Sure, reference points can be used, but when an issue is completely new, in a unfamiliar location, there is still a lot you can discover.

I suspect the story will be similar to stormblood on that. More about diplomatics and a build up for a longer story that can expand acros multiple expansions. And while it isnt as interesting, it doesnt always have to. But this has to go along with good dungeons, scripted fights, trials, raids, and potentialy other world events or side activities. But in this case i do hope they arent constantly going back to the old scions and now focus more on the locals. That was something that they did well in Shb, even though the scions were still there. They just couldnt be there all the time as they each had their own task keeping them busy, so locals were used to cover things instead.

A lot of new characters then can also mean that a few of the settled ones could die, or just locked up in a side activity causing them to rarely be seen again. Lyse was properly purged from the scions that way. And while its not as dramatic as a death, it at least kept room open for someone else (whether that was an improvement is an other discussion though).

I disagree to a certain extent with Shadowbringers. While the core story was made to be sorta of a fresh one off story, the reason most people cared for it was BECAUSE of what came before.

All the familiar yet unfamiliar locales, the struggles the WoL faced, the Warrior of Darkness's plight finally hitting home after their one off intro back in post HW, the fact that Minfillias and Thancred's character was given more depth, and of course understanding why the Ascians gave a shit about what they were trying to fight for with Emet Selch.

Remove all that context and build up and Shadowbringers would be just a typical story akin to the primal threats from early ARR l, just with a cooler theme and setting, which...I suppose is enough but not really.

[BRVV]

"I think the most important thing to remember is that we are starting over from square one..."

Oh boy. What a fanboy. As others already said: expecting DT to be good doesn't mean it can't be a new start. Make it an intresting introduction. Or that's what i would say but we keep the bunny boy and the scions and maybe Emmet shows up again or Zenos because for some reason we can't get rid of them.

[Alleluia]

DT will be the new groundwork for the next arc. I liked ARR for all the worldbuilding it did. I hope DT will do the same in the Etheryn Americas, as well as probably Corvos (since we keep getting offhand dialogue about that). I don't feel like expecting another ARR is really lowering expectations. Its not gonna be EW or ShB(my personal favorite story) b/c they both used previous stories' groundwork. But it can, and I'm sure will, be an interesting enough story on its own. Personally, I like the idea of searching for El Dorado. And the ruler candidates of Tural will likely be interesting figures.