This story is really underwhelming - it's opened to mixed reviews.

[Flay_wind]

The JP offical forums pretty neutral, there's like 2 post saying they don't think the story is good that's it. It's the unofficial forums where the JP community are flaming the shit out the game. I think it's cause the JP official forum community really hold someone to stuff they say on the forum, like they get mass reported and harassed etc for stating an unpopular opinion. I'm taking that from reading some post where they say things along the lines, of I'm not trying to be rude so do not report etc, the wording is constantly on the fence as if to avoid trouble, where as here we're mouthy AF. People be throwing hands on the EU forums :'D

Reading this thread, even through google translate is pretty interesting.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...81%84%E3%81%A6
Quite a few people mention, that the pacing is bad, with too much filler and unnecessary cutscenes and not enough actual adventuring. Some people also mention that characters introduced in the expansion are bland and uniteresting. Some say that plot is predictable and boring. Some people also dislike Wuk Lamat. Some say she's childish, some say it feels like she belong in the shonen manga instead of ffxiv, one poster was saying that they dislike that Wuk's the main character and not you the WoL, who is relegated to the support character role who only follows her around and nods.

[Isala]

Reading this thread, even through google translate is pretty interesting.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...81%84%E3%81%A6
Quite a few people mention, that the pacing is bad, with too much filler and unnecessary cutscenes and not enough actual adventuring. Some people also mention that characters introduced in the expansion are bland and uniteresting. Some say that plot is predictable and boring. Some people also dislike Wuk Lamat. Some say she's childish, some say it feels like she belong in the shonen manga instead of ffxiv, one poster was saying that they dislike that Wuk's the main character and not you the WoL, who is relegated to the support character role who only follows her around and nods.

Man. They must be close to the end of the story then, because where I'm at, we don't even get nods. Or even camera time.

[Gortys]

Why would a new story arc need to be bad to exist? I don't understand where this talking point comes from.

I never wrote that I expected it to be bad, did I? See, this is you putting your opinion into what I wrote. You could ask for clarification, but it's easier to make assumptions. Let me translate - I reduced my "hype" regarding this expansion. I decided to try it as if it were a new game I never played before. Good stories do not have to be "deep" like some previous expansions were. A good story is a very broad description as well so I can lower my expectations of the type of story and still expect it to be good - see how that works?

HW was a new arc, but there was an overall arc above this regarding the Ascians. The previous expansions were is a serialized story arc together. YoshiP was quoted as saying something along the lines of "if people like this story, then it may lead to a new arc". I personally don't see it happening.

[Gortys]

If that's the case, how would Yoshi-P know that people dislike DT if they are not very vocal about it?

You know what's funny? I literally wrote that my post wasn't a defense, but you all still couldn't help yourselves. I never wrote that people shouldn't be vocal about it at all. Can you see my post history? I just stated that the people expecting any elements that we loved in the old stories (Ancients, allagans, etc) should not have done that.

[Valcarde]

I normally don't skip cutscenes I haven't seen before.
By god, I watched most of them.
But by the time I got to the ather current quests in the final zone, I was literally saying 'I don't care, go away' and skipping those.
The little cutscene in the final trial ***irritated me*** even though I knew it was coming just from general vibe.

And this comes from someone who actually -likes- Wuk Lamat.

I was fully convinced by the halfway mark the final battle would an RP fight between two characters with me controlling one of them instead of myself.

[SirShady]

I never wrote that I expected it to be bad, did I? See, this is you putting your opinion into what I wrote. You could ask for clarification, but it's easier to make assumptions. Let me translate - I reduced my "hype" regarding this expansion.

No, you just blamed people's lack of enjoyment with the expansion because they didn't "lower their expectations". Why would you lower your expectations if you didn't expect it to be worse than the previous expansions? You wouldn't lower your expectations if you thought it would match the quality of what came before. Nobody is putting words in your mouth. You're spelling it out right in front of us. If you didn't expect it to be worse, you wouldn't throw out your expectations for it to be good, or at least decent. That's just logic. You're basically telling people "Just consume product".

I haven't seen a single person asking for the ancients or allagans back. What I have seen is people comparing the current story arc and going "I miss the ascians and the allagans arcs because they had far better setup and were much more interesting than anything introduced in this expansion." which is a completely fair point to make. That doesn't mean they want to repeat those plot beats, just that they miss the better writing that came with them. If there were some new ascian or allagan equivalent in this story, some kind of well-written new plot point to explore later, people wouldn't be upset, but there isn't.

Good stories do not have to be "deep" like some previous expansions were. A good story is a very broad description as well so I can lower my expectations of the type of story and still expect it to be good - see how that works?

Good stories don't have to be "deep", but the quality of the writing should still be good regardless. I came into this expansion knowing it was going to be a slow-moving low-stakes romp around a new continent with some new characters. I was excited for that. I was hoping that the good character writing would carry us through the slow parts of the expansion until stuff heated up later. It did not. The characters were boring and hollow side pieces to Wuk Lamat, who is a tolerable side character at best and a terribly uninteresting and childish main character. The writing, for the most part, was awful.

So yes, I personally came in knowing I might not be invested right away because I knew it probably would be a bit slower and more lighthearted than what I normally enjoy. Some people actually prefer the slower slice-of-life stuff. Those people expected quality writing with lighter subject matter that more appealed to their tastes. I expected an all new arc, but that doesn't mean I'll eat up this infantilized slop. When the writing has consistently proven that it can handle mature themes and interesting characters, even if not always executed perfectly or with a few plotholes here and there, it makes absolutely no sense for us to throw out all standards just because "it's something new". It's something new, from the same team, from the same quality product, and it reads like teenage fan fiction. People have every reason to be unhappy.

[xbahax92]

Reading this thread, even through google translate is pretty interesting.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...81%84%E3%81%A6
Quite a few people mention, that the pacing is bad, with too much filler and unnecessary cutscenes and not enough actual adventuring. Some people also mention that characters introduced in the expansion are bland and uniteresting. Some say that plot is predictable and boring. Some people also dislike Wuk Lamat. Some say she's childish, some say it feels like she belong in the shonen manga instead of ffxiv, one poster was saying that they dislike that Wuk's the main character and not you the WoL, who is relegated to the support character role who only follows her around and nods.

Went through the whole thread. It was an interesting read on their side. They seem to agree on the pacing and actually Wuk Lamat having to much screen time. Also stealing the show with Sphene, truly disappointed them. I really hope YohiP will conduct some changes within the writer department. They really overdid the amount of voiced and non-voiced cutscenes this time around.

[antiabz]

I've just logged into this forum for the first time since I started playing, purely because I wanted to see if anyone was as disappointed as I was.

I have always enjoyed FFXIV story, including ARR and STB. Apart from the post Endwalker MSQ I have never skipped a cutscene. It is really hard to believe that the development team that gave us those expansions are the the same team who delivered us... this.

The first half: I enjoyed some of the quests but there was a worry in the back of my mind that too many cutscenes felt like pointless filler. I didn't mind Wuk Lamat, though it started to grate a little that she was ALWAYS there and the focus of attention. I figured after a certain point in the story that I'd get a break from her, so didn't mind that much.

It got so, so much worse. To the point that my husband and I have logged off half way through the final zone (which had no stakes or even mild peril involved) because it was becoming too much to slog through it. I knew it was over when I started skipping cutscenes and rolling my eyes whenever a certain character spoke.

Probably going to unsub until we get some idea of whether this is the quality of story telling we can expect from now on.

[Isala]

I've just logged into this forum for the first time since I started playing, purely because I wanted to see if anyone was as disappointed as I was.

I have always enjoyed FFXIV story, including ARR and STB. Apart from the post Endwalker MSQ I have never skipped a cutscene. It is really hard to believe that the development team that gave us those expansions are the the same team who delivered us... this.

The first half: I enjoyed some of the quests but there was a worry in the back of my mind that too many cutscenes felt like pointless filler. I didn't mind Wuk Lamat, though it started to grate a little that she was ALWAYS there and the focus of attention. I figured after a certain point in the story that I'd get a break from her, so didn't mind that much.

It got so, so much worse. To the point that my husband and I have logged off half way through the final zone (which had no stakes or even mild peril involved) because it was becoming too much to slog through it. I knew it was over when I started skipping cutscenes and rolling my eyes whenever a certain character spoke.

Probably going to unsub until we get some idea of whether this is the quality of story telling we can expect from now on.

I'd been grinding my face off trying to level and story for my Savage group, and I hit a point with the story where I was like "I think I need to go to bed now. I need to step away from this." I just could not continue that night. I was getting so very angry at how absolutely miserable this story is to slog through. Even Stormblood didn't destroy the game for me like this F-Tier fanfiction has.

[Xendros]

This is the first time in the game's history that I can't bring myself to finish the MSQ. I was so beat down by the MSQ and Wuk Lamat being up my ass the entire time that I just stopped at the end of Act 1.


My headcanon at this point is that after the end of Act 1, my WoL strolled out to the jungle and vanished forever. The only sign of my passing was the faint sound of teleportation magick.