Standing There Syndrome

[MsQi]

We've never truly had much choice though when it comes to our characters. In any Final Fantasy game. FFXIV gives you an illusion of choice of dialogue sometimes. You can choose which alliance to side with during a competition at the end of Heavensward iirc, but that's about it. Our character is still a sundered reincarnation of Azem, and Azem is a certain way, just as we, and Ardbert were. It's just built into our character whether you or others like it or not.

Exactly what is wrong with this game. We don't know anything about Azem. They intentionally avoid telling us specifics. An intelligent design would allow us to decide some key things about them.

[Gwenkatsu]

The most offensive scene for me in this regard was the end of the Tsukuyomi trial in Stormblood where the WoL just stand there and watch Ashasi abused a dying Yotsuyu on the ground. And I was like ... wtf you're doing?

Honestly, I forgot that scene. Asahi was such a terrible character plot device, I was so glad seeing him finally taken off screen... only for him to make his comeback in the SB patches, and halfway through EW. Man did I not want to see that stupid face ever again

We've also let people talk, in the hopes that there might be some diplomacy had.

Remember the meeting with Emperor Zolus, the Eorzean leaders, and the scions? This was diplomacy, both sides talking, discussing the other side's arguments, talking more. In the end it was for naught, which I'm perfectly fine with. But listening to a mad man going on and on and on about what he's planning to do after he killed you and achieved world domination is not diplomacy - it's just a waste of time.

[Carin-Eri]

Exactly what is wrong with this game. We don't know anything about Azem. They intentionally avoid telling us specifics. An intelligent design would allow us to decide some key things about them.

I disagree and prefer some elements of Azem to be left to our own imagination.

Personally, I don't want to learn too much about Azem. This is, to me, a little like the Borg of Star Trek - their origin/early history has not, to date, been revealed. Various episodes dropped hints and referenced elements of their history to some degree but they never dived into it too deeply. And that's a good thing - the mystery around them kept them interesting and lets viewers create their own ideas around how they came to be what they became.

[Alice_Rivers]

Personally, I don't want to learn too much about Azem. This is, to me, a little like the Borg of Star Trek - their origin/early history has not, to date, been revealed. Various episodes dropped hints and referenced elements of their history to some degree but they never dived into it too deeply. And that's a good thing - the mystery around them kept them interesting and lets viewers create their own ideas around how they came to be what they became.

I doubt much more than we've seen is actually written about either. For me the best part of any mystery is the exploration of it and ultimate demystifying, that doesn't have to be fast but I find a mystery unexplored to be disappointing. The question is where do we go from there? It could be space, it could be any amount of land in the former Garlean empire, we've seen the remnants of the capital but so much of the former imperial holdings is unknown to us. Or more of Tural, I can't imagine what we've seen of it is even the majority of the continent(s), most likely though I expect they'll hit the biggest mystery we have left: The Reflections.

[sindriiisgaming]

We've all seen it. We all hate it. When characters, often our own, simply stand there during cutscenes where something bad is happening, when there is absolutely nothing stopping them from intervening.

Now, we also know that the reason we don't get to see our WoL kick people's behinds cinematically is due to budget - there are way too many different jobs, and there'd have to be either one variation for each, or to have us engage in a completely different way (the punch).

However, everyone also knows that you can (often quite easily) simply write around it. Have the characters who aren't going to do anything in a scene either not be there, or be otherwise busy with other threats. It's a key, and very simple skill to have as a writer, especially when dealing with walking nukes.

Stormblood was very guilty of it. Endwalker had few, but egregious moments. And then there is Dawntrail.

I'm not going to mention the MSQ, we've all suffered through it, we all saw how 80% of things only happen because characters are either holding the dumb ball or the inaction ball. I thought I was done giving feedback about 7.0. And then I started doing the Role Quests.

Good gods, it's never been this bad. Putting aside the even lower quality writing than the MSQ (pranks, really? Lighthearted doesn't have to mean juvenile. Please make the writer responsible play through the Hildibrand questline over and over again until they understand that.), almost every single thing that happens in these godforsaken cutscenes is due to no one involved having any initiative whatsoever. There are so many ways to write around this, to keep someone busy or unavailable, and they use not a single one of them.

The Warrior of Light has the Echo. Surely the writers know this? That it's the perfect plot device for us to learn about things that happened when we weren't somewhere? That it is how ARR handles the attack on the Waking Sands, and they didn't even need to because we weren't even walking nukes yet.

Sub-ARR. This is where we've gotten to.

wol is half sedated in most cutscenes now. its crazy. i think canonically hes just had a complete mental breakdown after endwalker. hopefully this ends soon... my wol acts like he has chronic dissociation. at least the raids might get a side glance or alert reaction from him