FFXIV has lost it's heart

[Connor]

I’d say it’s less ‘heart’ they lost and more ‘brain’ lol…

[AnimaAnimus]

Dei...really? Were you hoping for cheap robes and pointed hats? Lol, thugs robbing a CVS in NYC. I just can't right now.

You know someone doesn't really have a good arguement or are just looking for reasons to be annoyed in situations like this, when they pull out the ol' diversity boogieman that the internet told them was the reason for all their (mostly fictitious) woes lol

[Hyperia]

ARR quest design had more gameplay actually.
This is post-arr quest design if anything, where they stripped all gameplay to make it just visual novel quests

I fully agree with this, the MSQ is almost all CS and some moving around. Back in previous expansions, they gave you warning to set aside time to watch the CS but there so often and long that the warnings would loose all meaning.

[Reimmi]

Such as? I can't recall anything in ARR that had more depth than "Interact with this" and "Kill 3-4 things".

Beats "speak to wuk lamat" x500 /shrug
I leveled a alt recently and was surprised how often they actually make you kill a couple enemies for a quest to break up the reading. It's refreshing

[Reimmi]

One person once incorrectly called Wuk Lamat a shonen protagonist and a lot of people with poor media literacy latched onto it as if it was the best thing ever. It's very funny.

I dunno, her going from being kidnapped to then defeating her kidnapper solo alongside his entire squad in a matter of a few hours is pretty shonen protagonist.
How did she get kidnapped in the first place lol

[Reimmi]

You know someone doesn't really have a good arguement or are just looking for reasons to be annoyed in situations like this, when they pull out the ol' diversity boogieman that the internet told them was the reason for all their (mostly fictitious) woes lol

The buzzwords of chud, gooner, dei, woke, etc make me immediately lose all interest with talking to that person
if you use any of these, you're not worth talking to

[hydralus]

Beats "speak to wuk lamat" x500 /shrug
I leveled a alt recently and was surprised how often they actually make you kill a couple enemies for a quest to break up the reading. It's refreshing

Nah that ain't it. Nothing's stopping you from just doing a FATE or killing some random creatures to break up the reading on your own. Aside from the fact that it's not actually refreshing and it's boring. The only issue was that Dawntrail's story sucked and adding in 3 things to kill every 10 quests wasn't going to save it.

[Reimmi]

Nah that ain't it. Nothing's stopping you from just doing a FATE or killing some random creatures to break up the reading on your own. Aside from the fact that it's not actually refreshing and it's boring. The only issue was that Dawntrail's story sucked and adding in 3 things to kill every 10 quests wasn't going to save it.

Dawntrail just showed how awful the msq gameplay is. We had great stories to distract us, but the fact is it's not fun to read for 3 hours to get to do a dungeon or a trial once in a blue moon.
More solo trials and some downtime to kill mobs while the npcs talk would be nice

[Exmo]

I dunno, her going from being kidnapped to then defeating her kidnapper solo alongside his entire squad in a matter of a few hours is pretty shonen protagonist.
How did she get kidnapped in the first place lol

Someone getting stronger and more determined over time and then winning a fight under different circumstances does not make them a shonen protagonist.

[Basteala]

Honestly, that makes sense. The heart of FF14 has always been its characters, the dynamic between those characters, and even the quiet but telling reactions of the WoL as they drive the narrative and in turn are driven by it. There's a lot of little moments missing between the characters that--without them--turn them into caricatures. People acting out a part. Mostly there to move the plot along and nothing else. It's like the writers knew what archetype each Scion was, for instance, but none of the nitty gritty that made them special.

It's very hard to get emotionally invested in a story when the people in it have no charisma left to them. There's a reason why Erenville's so popular in DT--he's one of the only characters to retain a sense of soul this expansion.

Someone getting stronger and more determined over time and then winning a fight under different circumstances does not make them a shonen protagonist.

That's kind of exactly shonen protagonist.

And that's *fine*. I rather liked the idea of mentoring up someone from a cowardly lion to a hero type. The problem isn't even Wuk Lamat, but but everyone else not named 'Erenville' around her.