The Rising made me realize something.

[Carin-Eri]

Standing in Limsa, in the rain, listening to the echo of Hydaelyn as if calling from this distance stirred something in me and made me a bit sad.

When I first heard that echoing melody it was during 1.0, when Dalamud was about to fall and there was a certain energy in the air. If you played during that time you would remember that the feeling was almost electric. We had no idea what was going on, the game was about to be rebooted, there were mysteries in front of us, urgently waiting to be discovered and on the final day of that version, Bahamut broke free and ravaged the lands we called home for over a year at that point. It created emotion and bonded us together, it made us care.

Now, after the endwalker campaign I feel they stripped so much of that wonder away. There is no sense of urgency, there is no sense of mystery. That slight unease that made you read every word with bated breath is just...gone.

Hydaelyn, Zodiarc, the Ascians, even the Twelve are just...gone. They even neutured the threat of the savage beast tribes. The world just doesn't feel mysterious. It doesn't feel dangerous. It doesn't feel like anything. A world that was once looming, with strange creatures, hidden dieties, undecifered riddles, beastman threats, ....now feels empty.

The future is a blank slate, but all DT taught us is that, there is nothing out there to really make us wonder. I am not theorizing and trying to put the pieces together about what may be coming next. I am just hoping they don't muck it up and make Mercidia into a slapstick episode of captain kangaroo, a mockery of the world that once was, like they did the new world.

I don't think we need another world ending threat, but we need mystery, we need intrigue, we need something other than this sad sanitized world.

I envy you. Whilst I've seen several legacy players say that players who didn't experience 1.0 shouldn't lament that fact, it does feel as if those events, particularly the 'ending', have become the stuff of legend (so-to-speak). I've seen the videos on YouTube - it must really have really been something to have actually been there as it occurred.
But I do question whether that atmosphere could ever be recaptured in quite the same way as it was a pretty unique set of circumstances.

[AnimaAnimus]

I envy you. Whilst I've seen several legacy players say that players who didn't experience 1.0 shouldn't lament that fact, it does feel as if those events, particularly the 'ending', have become the stuff of legend (so-to-speak). I've seen the videos on YouTube - it must really have really been something to have actually been there as it occurred.
But I do question whether that atmosphere could ever be recaptured in quite the same way as it was a pretty unique set of circumstances.

While the game was truly busted and in a horrible state, Yoshida and team did a great job of actuallty making us care about the world. We knew the reboot was coming and those of us who stuck with it were the ones who were already invested and the story they crafted for us up to the end was fantastic. That whole final day was something that can never be recaptured and that final night, the moment Dalamud fell and we saw that cinematic of Bahamut breaking free for the first time was the most incredible moment of any game I have ever experienced. It solidified my love for the world, the game, the lore, everything. I made me more invested than I have been in any other game. Which is why i think I am taking DT a little more personally than I should. The way they are showing just pure indifference for the world they created, the way they poo'd on the lore, not only in DT but also in EW when they had us not only meet but kill the Twelve and rushed the end of the Hyd/Zod story, the way they just completely sanitized the entirety of the game makes me feel, in a way, personally insulted.