Are we destroying "our own" game?

[Bitmoar]

A lot of lessons they should've learned in past expansions were completely thrown away, replaced by trying to mimic big moments in past expansions while not understanding why those big moments actually worked. It's very amauterish, especially for a 10-year-old game where they should've known better by now.

The train prep scene was trying so hard to be Mt Gulg. It was honestly embarrassingly bad.

[Xellith]

The train prep scene was trying so hard to be Mt Gulg. It was honestly embarrassingly bad.

The only part I actually enjoyed about that train scene was the bit where Erenville is told to take control of one of the guns and his face is all "DUDE IM A LEVEL 1 FISHER!?" or something. He honestly reminds me of the old FF11 days where people would make the Jueno run and basically everything around you would one shot you unless you did your best Solid Snake impression for around 3 zones.

[caffe_macchiato]

See this is why people on the other thread were telling you to just cancel your sub and go away. You clearly hate the game and are only here because of sunk cost fallacy. If you think the game is so terrible then why are you here? Go do something you find fun instead.

I like good writing and acting, therefore I like ARR through Endwalker and not Dawntrail. If you like anything and everything to do with this game despite some things being mutually exclusive, then you are only attracted to the brand and not the substance.

Final Fantasy XIV is a video game.

[SongOfTheWind]

Are we destroying "our own" game?

Devs seem to be destroying their own game, yes.

[AgathaAllalong]

Think this expansion's story was terrible, but the normal difficulty content is much better and actually fun for the first time in years.

[Merrigan]

Ratings on a small scale are indeed meaningless. As the number grows however, it does become a decent gauge on how well the item is being received. Further many of these sites that have user reviews actively remove obvious troll reviews. Metacritic has removed something like 1000 negative reviews for DT and it is still only around a 6.3. Further reviews often also contain (yes even the negative reviews) actual feedback. Plus if ratings actually meant nothing, then the game industry would not be putting such emphasis on them and even pay for higher ratings from professionals.

The gauge is actually more decent on a large sample. It doesn't take away the context (since everyone involved is affected by it). As for the boxes, they rely on them when it suits them (inevitably); it's an instrument, not a proof of legitimacy.

Oh, and you'd also need a system where the other scores are hidden to be able to give an objective rating.

[TaleraRistain]

Story is a bit of a difficult one, as sometimes here it just feels like they are trying to make stories memorable through 'cheap' feels, and aren't necessarily giving an authentic reason for the player to actually carem but rather something that comes across as unauthentic.

They tread a lot of the same paths as ShB. It really felt like ShB 2.0 sometimes. But that gives us a good comparison to support your point.

In both expansions, the game wants us to feel a certain way at certain places. And so we're emotionally manipulated by the story.

In ShB, they establish connections with us to the characters or story so that when the big moment comes, the events invoke the feelings in us so it feels more natural.

With Dawntrail, it's like showing you a sad picture and saying "You're sad, right?". They don't establish those connections with character or story so the emotions don't feel like they come from us naturally and instead are much more forced. I think a big part of that was that we weren't interacting with people directly, which is how the WoL and the player build those connections. We were constantly in a position just watching things through the lens of someone else.

[Carin-Eri]

EX should have Queen Eternal slapping Wuk Lamat off arena while she screams "Spheeeeeene"

"Shut up, I've barely knew ya"

Do it, you cowards!

It could be that the Ex version omits Wuk Lamat anyway and the Wandering Minstrel approaches it from a "how would the battle have played out without Wuk Lamat's intervention" angle?

[SekiaTa1ga]

I'm not going to go into what I think of SE's writing in general, but it's to the point where the story is pretty much a null reason of why I play FFXIV. Content wise though, DT is great so far and to me, that's the only metric that matters. But does the story suck? Yeah pretty much. People seem to care way too much though and while I acknowledge that what I value isn't what everyone else values, it's hard for me to get into the headspace of someone who plays FFXIV for the story.

Honestly I think the only FF game I played that had a great story was FF Tactics WOTL save for maybe 6? I can't get over anime tropes. Anyways, DT, 9/10.

[Garnix]

I've heard player counts are looking good, and I tbh can imagine why.

This is basically the explanation to what is happening here.
Player count is probably at a peak and the vocal minority is getting bigger and bigger. Still a minority though.