Shifting and Concerning Moods Regarding the Writing

[Atelier-Bagur]

Hey remember how we managed to convince Emet Selch through the power of friendship? Also Id say more that the whole 6.X theme was more on learning to trust people again more than friendship although thats also still a prominent factor.

Its funny how people have been ignoring most of our resolutions in the msq revolve around these feel good positive ideas. Endwalker didnt start doing it. The game was rigged from the start

[Ranaku]

Hey remember how we managed to convince Emet Selch through the power of friendship? Also Id say more that the whole 6.X theme was more on learning to trust people again more than friendship although thats also still a prominent factor.

Its funny how people have been ignoring most of our resolutions in the msq revolve around these feel good positive ideas. Endwalker didnt start doing it. The game was rigged from the start

Tho we had different plot resolutions or resolutions to character arks in the past. Haurchefant dying, Alphinaud messing up in ARR, poisoned Sultana, Raubahns Arm or Iceheart sacrificing herself.

It started only with Stormblood that new characters became literally only blank faces we won't even remember. Like the resistance leader Lyse replaced. Or the guy that Fordola killed in the raid on the reach which we met in ARR actually but no player really cared.

They did it actually better in ShB where they gave us a whole expansion to learn to know Emet and thus we cared about him suffering and then us beating him. But who can say really that they care about Meteion or that depressed ancient emo guy cause we had literally just one zone and a tiny quest chain at that to actually get to know them. Same with the squished kid my monsters in Thavnair, just cheap shock moments all over the expansion. And no time given to actually explore different characters.

[Hallarem]

I honestly think the patch story was fine. I think it sets groundwork for further voidcontent in the future where we actually deep dive in there and help Zero, Unukalhai, Golbez and Cylva solving the 13th's problem akin to how the 1st is, once they have established a base of operations and gained more allies. Was it rushed writing-wise? Probably. Did it crawl at times? Probably due to the time we had to wait. Honestly if we had gotten another cliffhanger I would've died. It was very inoffensive as a patch story, was it boring for me? Nah. But I do have concerns for the future:

- Hildibrandish humor making it to the main storyline, sparkly googly eyes, PUDDINGWAY spitting on peoples deaths by doing his zombie routine, and other zany wacky effects which some of were seen in the patch story. Now this is fine, but in the middle of serious moments? No thanks.

- While the friendship talk was handled a bit more hammily this time, I didn't find it too bad nor a "power of friendship" thing. Best iteration of that was Nanamo speaking down Varis and preaching that the bonds with others is what makes nations and people strong, lifting up the weak so society may become strong as a whole. But I do worry that due to it being a japanese writing team some anime tropes will leak in there, minor ones are alright, but if it ever becomes a full Nakama / every shallow 1000 time repeated moral lesson every talk-no-jutsu shonen protagonist ever says. I will probably drop the game right there and then. But honestly I think they won't, the past expansions and politics were handled in a very adult manner.

- I worry they won't know how to dial down. Not every threat needs to be a world ender, and even then can we observe how the nations are doing amidst this? Can we get some advancement in terms of how Duskwights and Keepers are treated in Gridania, can we get some politics as a main story / patch story? Not just as a sidenote. (As much as Garlemald was shafted to make room for Zenos' useless rampage, I do like that we saw them establish a trade with Thavnair to stand on their own in lieu of their pride, maybe Garlemalds rebuilding will finally let us get deeper into their society to see what we were fighting against. Funny how Bozja & weapon storylines gave us a much more nuanced look at Garlemalds society and legions than any of the MSQ ever did.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Tho we had different plot resolutions or resolutions to character arks in the past. Haurchefant dying, Alphinaud messing up in ARR, poisoned Sultana, Raubahns Arm or Iceheart sacrificing herself.

It started only with Stormblood that new characters became literally only blank faces we won't even remember. Like the resistance leader Lyse replaced. Or the guy that Fordola killed in the raid on the reach which we met in ARR actually but no player really cared.

They did it actually better in ShB where they gave us a whole expansion to learn to know Emet and thus we cared about him suffering and then us beating him. But who can say really that they care about Meteion or that depressed ancient emo guy cause we had literally just one zone and a tiny quest chain at that to actually get to know them. Same with the squished kid my monsters in Thavnair, just cheap shock moments all over the expansion. And no time given to actually explore different characters.

I think the only real compelling trait about Emet Selch, even before the Amaurot reveal was his decision to willingilly listen and travel with us briefly (kinda like Mithos Yggdrassil who did the same thing in Tales of Symphonia) Which was stuff that happener early in the msq. Other than that, he was the usual standard fare with other villians in other rpgs who had sympathetic flights.

If they gave more development to Hermes and Meteion a little more then yeah.

[Bonoki]

I actually thought 6.5's story was fine. I think it ended much stronger than it began. I love how all these "It was predictable" arguments come up AFTER the patch story, not before it while we're theory crafting. So I doubt it was that predictable. I have played FF4 to the ends of the earth and I wasn't expecting Zero to go full PLD Cecil in the heat of the moment. Nor was I expecting Goblez to join our side despite that also happening in FF4, albeit for other reasons. These things were not all that predictable. And you can say you don't like the story without labelling it as predictable. Like, I'm going to miss Reaper Zero because I don't really see us getting another Reaper party member after this. I think it's okay to say you don't like the story and the direction, I just disagree about things being as predictable as people want to lead them to be. I was actually kind of hyped up during the story and on the edge of my seat. That's my opinion.

[Post]

Coincidentally, the new custom deliveries have the most entertaining writing and story this patch.

Not that I hated the MSQ, the custom delivery is just quite entertaining writing.

[aveyond-dreams]

Coincidentally, the new custom deliveries have the most entertaining writing and story this patch.

Not that I hated the MSQ, it just wasn't as interesting.

No surprise there. Anything is better than Zero's writing at this point. Hopefully that custom delivery client was sufficiently fleshed out and does more than just tip her hat and eat dumplings.

[Raim]

Yshtola and even more so the Crystal Tower are becoming too convenient. The CT is constantly being used a problem solving plot device for problems that existed for thousands of years but then we discover a solution off screen in 5 days. Nothing in the patch content has to do with leading into the next expansion until the last minute. It felt like filler that instead should have been its own expansion fleshed out in the future.

[aveyond-dreams]

Ysthola and even more so the Crystal Tower are becoming too convenient. The CT is constantly being used a problem solving plot device for problems that existed for thousands of years but then we discover a solution off screen in 5 days. Nothing in the patch content has to do with leading into the next expansion until the last minute. It felt like filler that instead should have been its own expansion fleshed out in the future.

Meanwhile they probably thought they were writing something akin to the Warriors of Darkness arc from Heavensward from their perspective. Which at least had characters more interesting than these.

[Bonoki]

Ysthola and even more so the Crystal Tower are becoming too convenient. The CT is constantly being used a problem solving plot device for problems that existed for thousands of years but then we discover a solution off screen in 5 days. Nothing in the patch content has to do with leading into the next expansion until the last minute. It felt like filler that instead should have been its own expansion fleshed out in the future.

I agree with the Ysthola and Crystal Tower concerns. I think for the filler, it started out as filler but ended up not being filler. I put it in the same place that the Warriors of Darkness were back in Heavensward. It'll probably get a more dedicated expansion like they did in the future since it's clear we aren't done there.