I'm Frustrated with FFXIV's New Direction

[Alice_Rivers]

You wanna talk SB? Lets talk SB. SB was drawn out and badly paced, Zenos was unduly annoying with his forced victories even when you are objectively winning the fight, "Oh we've finally got all set for this event we've been building toward for the entire arc, go do some menial thing that any other person should have already done at this point in our schedule", Was Lyse the most compelling or interesting character? No. Did she completely steal the show and make the WoL irrelevant? No. I do remember however her admitting that she was not fit to be a leader and had that responsibility thrust upon her against her will and spending much of the expansion learning how to do it.

Wuk Lamat does not have Lyse's redeeming features. She does render the main character completely irrelevant and spends no time realising or fixing her unfitness to rule, instead she doubles down on the very qualities that make her unfit to rule, Lyse is disappointing, Wuk Lamat is insufferable. These are two very different things. DT doesn't make SB good, but it very much makes SB look good.

I don't mind being Alphinaud to Lyse, I do mind being random sidequest NPC to Wuk Lamat.

[Alchemii]

You wanna talk SB? Lets talk SB. SB was drawn out and badly paced, Zenos was unduly annoying with his forced victories even when you are objectively winning the fight, "Oh we've finally got all set for this event we've been building toward for the entire arc, go do some menial thing that any other person should have already done at this point in our schedule", Was Lyse the most compelling or interesting character? No. Did she completely steal the show and make the WoL irrelevant? No. I do remember however her admitting that she was not fit to be a leader and had that responsibility thrust upon her against her will and spending much of the expansion learning how to do it.

Wuk Lamat does not have Lyse's redeeming features. She does render the main character completely irrelevant and spends no time realising or fixing her unfitness to rule, instead she doubles down on the very qualities that make her unfit to rule, Lyse is disappointing, Wuk Lamat is insufferable. These are two very different things. DT doesn't make SB good, but it very much makes SB look good.

I don't mind being Alphinaud to Lyse, I do mind being random sidequest NPC to Wuk Lamat.

I said this as well. After finished DT I made an alt and was running through the MSQ, just finished SB. It was better than DT, like I can't think of a single thing DT did better than SB. I guess maybe the visuals of Solution 9? But then we go to the Living Memory, and it's just an Amusement Park that gives off Kingdom Hearts vibes. Like you can put an amusement park style zone in the game, but it needs to give off FF vibes not Kingdom Hearts.

[CuteBucket]

I said this as well. After finished DT I made an alt and was running through the MSQ, just finished SB. It was better than DT, like I can't think of a single thing DT did better than SB. I guess maybe the visuals of Solution 9? But then we go to the Living Memory, and it's just an Amusement Park that gives off Kingdom Hearts vibes. Like you can put an amusement park style zone in the game, but it needs to give off FF vibes not Kingdom Hearts.

I just had finished bringing my alt through Stormblood before Dawntrail dropped. Overall I was actually surprised at how good of time I had going through it again. The beginning is a bit of a slog before you get to Kugane, and going through the second have of The Lochs map was really irritating with all the constant backtracking and annoying terrain before unlocking flight. Lyse was never my favorite but she never really pissed me off either, she's just kind of...eh. So I though to myself, "you know, if all we get is 'just another Stormblood,' I'll be content with that."

Dawntrail is worse. It is so much worse. It is unfathomably worse. I found nothing to enjoy here. Even the two zones I was most looking forward to, Shaaloani and Solution 9, managed to bore me because they set up an interesting conflict and then ignored it. At least Shaaloani got us some much needed time with Erenville? There we go, one single compliment.