Shifting and Concerning Moods Regarding the Writing

[Cilia]

Man are we already to the point of writing off Dawntrail as filler? How the mighty have fallen.

Theoretically.

I remember an interview somewhere saying the expansion after 6.0 (Dawntrail) might not be the start of the next epic arc, and knowing it looks like the "vacation episode," and taking all the rift travel advancements in 6.x... I can't help but wonder.

[Ephremjlm]

I mean how do they do it. They butcher the Voidsent AND Twelve story arcs with lackluster content and storytelling in one expansion...............post patches..............and not even all of em.

Part of me feels like Yoshi P. just wanted to watch the remnants of what was established going back to 1.0 burn with the rest of this expansion.

[WeebPolice]

Post

You are right, citizen. The Endwalker story has been quite the disappointment with no signs of getting any better. Things are not looking too bright for Dawntrail if this keeps up.




Goddess watch over you.

[Theodric]

I think a lot of people critical of the story's current trajectory would be more in favour of a filler expansion if not for Endwalker artificially taking many of the more intriguing elements of the setting and rushing to end their storylines prematurely. At the very least, perhaps Endwalker's patches could have been devoted less to filler and more to properly wrapping things up.

Dawntrail is still quite a way off and if the expansion itself is filler then that means...another three years until the expansion after that. I don't think it's unreasonable, then, to raise an eyebrow in concern. I know that various posters - myself included - have politely requested more variety in terms of themes and characters to better cater to a broader variety of personal tastes. For as much as some really like the Scions, they're wearing rather thin for many others - incidentally even amongst some of those who like them. I know quite a few fans of G'raha, for instance, who would prefer that he acts less like a clingy fanboy of the player character and instead a bit more like the Crystal Exarch.

I'm fairly easy to please, though it's hard not to notice that in terms of both PvE/PvP and the story itself a lot of things are being streamlined. Dragonflight in World of Warcraft is a filler expansion but that doesn't bother me because there's a great deal of exploration and interaction within the overworld. The same cannot be said of FFXIV, which sadly doesn't offer very much in terms of exploration. The closest we've gotten to that is a throwaway hidden quest where you can hand over a potion to a specific NPC to unlock two secret minions. There's also Eureka and Bozja, of course, which I enjoyed - but we didn't get an equivalent this time around and though it's stated that we might get one in Dawntrail it probably won't be until deeper into the patch cycle.

[Turtledeluxe]

I think a lot of people critical of the story's current trajectory would be more in favour of a filler expansion if not for Endwalker artificially taking many of the more intriguing elements of the setting and rushing to end their storylines prematurely. At the very least, perhaps Endwalker's patches could have been devoted less to filler and more to properly wrapping things up.

Dawntrail is still quite a way off and if the expansion itself is filler then that means...another three years until the expansion after that. I don't think it's unreasonable, then, to raise an eyebrow in concern. I know that various posters - myself included - have politely requested more variety in terms of themes and characters to better cater to a broader variety of personal tastes. For as much as some really like the Scions, they're wearing rather thin for many others - incidentally even amongst some of those who like them. I know quite a few fans of G'raha, for instance, who would prefer that he acts less like a clingy fanboy of the player character and instead a bit more like the Crystal Exarch.

I'm fairly easy to please, though it's hard not to notice that in terms of both PvE/PvP and the story itself a lot of things are being streamlined. Dragonflight in World of Warcraft is a filler expansion but that doesn't bother me because there's a great deal of exploration and interaction within the overworld. The same cannot be said of FFXIV, which sadly doesn't offer very much in terms of exploration. The closest we've gotten to that is a throwaway hidden quest where you can hand over a potion to a specific NPC to unlock two secret minions. There's also Eureka and Bozja, of course, which I enjoyed - but we didn't get an equivalent this time around and though it's stated that we might get one in Dawntrail it probably won't be until deeper into the patch cycle.

Imo G'raha is a symptom of the larger issue which is that many people are complaining about plot or characters when what they're actually tired of is XIV. What we really need is a level of new setting and new cast that we can't feasibly get by pushing on with the Scions in the Source.

Just imagine the next time someone praises the warrior of light or a Scion talks about how you never back down..

[Swordsman]

At the very least, perhaps Endwalker's patches could have been devoted less to filler and more to properly wrapping things up.

Yeah, but if they spent additional patches wrapping things up then they would be indirectly acknowledging that their story writing didn't provide proper closure the first time around. Knowing SE, these are issues that they are willfully going to ignore to avoid admitting fault.

[Lyth]

The main issue that they've written themselves into from a lore standpoint is in tying all the pre-existing worldbuilding elements back to Amaurot, in a reflexive response to the accidental popularity of a few overvalued characters. Garlemald and Allag are just puppet states created under Emet-Selch's influence. The Void was the byproduct of the usual Ascian ignorance and malice. The Twelve are the remnants of Amaurotine souls.

There's a particularly obsessive and vocal section of this community that is fixated on Amaurot and its pretty characters, but there's no way to satisfy them anyways. The best solution is to write Amaurot out of the story and start fresh worldbuilding that isn't connected at all to it. Thankfully the coming expansion seems to be the start of this.

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

I liked 6.x, especially the general direction of 6.5 so far. My assumption was that the Void was really unsalvageable, and I was really happy to see that they may still be saved.
I also liked how they didn't forget about Unukalhai -- I was almost sure they forgot about him but at the very end it was good to see his name mentioned.

[Theodric]

Yeah, but if they spent additional patches wrapping things up then they would be indirectly acknowledging that their story writing didn't provide proper closure the first time around. Knowing SE, these are issues that they are willfully going to ignore to avoid admitting fault.

Oh, I don't doubt it. They'll probably address stuff in passing in the future in a similar manner to how Nidhogg was touched upon again briefly in the MSQ's and the Dragoon quests. To their credit, the development team do have a habit of bringing up events that have transpired in past expansions. This is particularly true of characters that prove to be popular. I believe a number of the developers themselves are on record citing some of the 'Amaurotine' characters as being amongst their favourites and the Ancients as a whole being something they'd like to see more of in the future.

[kidknee]

[Spoiler warning]
I feel like between 6.0 and 6.X the quality of dialogues has also gone down.
When you see scions interacting with one another. For example
Compare
scenario 1: estinien mistaking alisae for alphinaud. That was quite hilarious
scenario 2: estinien being topless and zero saying "shall we disrobe".
the second scene it feels almost as if the comedy is forced upon for no reason. Somehow graha eating a burger was adorable and they wanted to have more of it.
Too much of that feels out of place. Placing one maybe such incident in the midst of a world ending crisis feels okay.

Also familiarity breeds content. We have already seen the scions and their arcs finish. No more character development. Meaning they become just ordinary. Now if some new villian were to come and assassinate each scion 1 by 1 that would be really interesting.
Or maybe we see less of them, or maybe have some growth for the scions so they dont stagnate. Also the 13th could have been an adventure, exploration zone. Just like exploring novrandt and ahm areng with its spooky music was soo good.
but we just came in and out, nothing more.
Dawntrail doesnt have the spookyness about it .... hoping it used to build on something greater and not just a filler plot arc.