Synodic Scribe's "The Steady Change in Writing..." Video

[Jeeqbit]

Loose plot threads have always been a thing in XIV, with ARR setting so many up as future proofing for different kinds of stories (MSQ or side). Some of XIV's more well liked story beats use these plot threads to their advantage (the Ascian side of ShB's plot being an example, Ul'dah and Limsa's growth being another).

They said at some point, possibly Stormblood or earlier, that they did not like loose ends. From there, they evidently went on a mission to solve them all. The random plot thread of the Isle of Val was solved for example. And that led us to where we are now, where even the Twelve have been explained, leaving very little left, so they solve them almost as soon as they create them.

HW (and later ShB) was so well received because of it's focus on one area and/or event

I do think that Dawntrail returned to this since it's almost all in the New World.

SB's MSQ ping-ponging between Ala Mhigo and Doma weakened the story, making the story awkwardly paced and not allowing players to grow attached to them, their attention split between two areas.

Their explanation was that there was not enough story for just Ala Mhigo. That was all the story they had to tell for it and they needed more. It was kinda smart in the story though because they created a distraction elsewhere to create a war on two fronts that would split their forces aka divide-and-conquer.

It made sense why Zenos was in charge of both, because Gaius had just recently be overthrown and someone with experience ruling another territory needed to step in quick.

ShB was the first expansion where the trailer didn't reflect anything of the actual plot.

On the contrary, ShB's trailer was the first one to reflect the plot properly and have a story. HW recapped ARR's story and had loads of Hraesvelgrs attack Ishgard which doesn't really happen. At best we can say entering Ishgard cutscene happens and we visit the areas shown.

SB's it's fair to say we spar with Lyse, but then it just showcases a sidequest dungeon in Othard, a Samurai scene that does not happen in the story because we are not necessarily a Samurai, and a pan around Gosetsu and Yugiri that we can't know for sure even happens because we are not there yet (seems illogical to be way up there though).

ShB's tells a vague story of our fight against the sin eaters. We do actually fight that creature in Holminster Switch (which is in Lakeland) and fighting it does in fact reveal a night sky as depicted in the trailer, and we do cross gremlins in Lakeland. Thancred confirms the events of the trailer take place where he frees Minfilia. Y'shtola confirms the events in Rak'tika take place where she puts the fire out and saves them. And of course, Minfilia turns out to be Minfilia. Even our battle with Zenos at the start happens in the prior patch.

EW's trailer also happens. The start where we fight off a beast in Outer La Noscea actually takes place in Garlemald, but they didn't want to spoil Garlemald I guess, but the same sort of interactions happen there. Estinien does fight with Vtra. Y'shtola's encounter with the Sharlayans happens. The scene with Zenos watching over Garlemald on fire also happens. Emet-Selch's narration is explained. I think the most fake part is us fighting a final days beast on the moon.

DT's didn't really cover the plot, so as to keep us guessing, and instead just showed us the events after the story. But I suppose they needed to have a curiosity draw after finishing the previous arc.

ShB's trailer emphasizes using the power of darkness to combat the light of the first, only for said power of darkness to never be an actual thing in the story.

It kinda did make it seem like we would become a villain to save the world. I think it was partially because Yoshi-P changed his mind (according to a dev panel). He said "what if instead of a fight between light and dark, it's a fight to literally restore the night sky". I think he wanted this because players respond better to visual progression that they can see with their eyes, and the night sky is a visible progress. As a result of that change, Eden ceased to be one of the last bosses and was used as the raid boss instead.

You can see how the night sky thing doesn't make much sense and was a sudden change. A single person holding some light altering the entirety of the sky is a bit odd. Especially when the raid lore shows that Eden was used to create the flood of light anyway. I think the trailer just reflected this very confusion that was probably going on at the time of the teaser trailer production.

This can be polarizing for those who want newer content to be more original rather then referential.

In Endwalker they actually used "FFXIV Original" a lot to describe what they were doing, saying that the jobs were an "FFXIV Original" and that Myths of the Realm was an "FFXIV Original", so they are interested in doing original stuff some of the time.

Important and world molding concepts and events are forgotten by the wayside by the next expansion. Examples include SB's artificial Echo and the implication that the Echo could allow one to control Primals

It's not that we forgot, but rather we stopped fighting Primals by the time of Shadowbringers, leaving that job to Arenvald and others, who were not exactly smart enough to control a primal like Zenos did.

Dynamis. It makes the audience wonder why the writers bothered introduced said important things if they weren't going to expand upon them. Electrope is heading in this direction.

They kinda have continued to use Dynamis for things including Myths of the Realm and I recall it being brought up in Dawntrail too. Electrope is being used in the raids right now since it has many uses.

Hermes, for example, has little to no fleshing out as a character, with us never really learning what inspired his actions or feelings.

Uh? We do see exactly what inspired his feelings. He is a very caring person that cares for all life, even minions. An experiment is deemed "not good enough" and cast off to the aetherial sea by his fellow Ascians. Like many people do in real life, it made him question the meaning of life if they would just end life due to it not being good enough. He questioned... are we good enough ourselves? Why should we not be cast off to the aetherial sea as well? Despair and depression gripped him, so he sought an answer to his depression. The answer he found was every species in the universe concluded there was no point in their continuation and wiped themselves out. Which led to the "test". If we are meant to survive, we will surely find a way to avert the Final Days.

It's fully explained and it's crazy if they think otherwise.

World ending events not reflected outside of the expansions new zones.

I kinda agree with this because they can use phasing and they did it with the Towers that appeared in many old areas actually. But they can't do anything that would affect new players earlier in the story, obviously.

It copied ShB's end area and dungeon being a fabricated area full of simulated life forms from past societies.

If we wanted to go further we could say HW's final dungeon has synthesized creatures from past societies (Allagan experiments).

Synodic concludes that he feels the story should focus on the story of a set location (like HW and ShB), using past plot threads and side stories to its advantage and focus less on a specific character plots.

Hmm true it could do that. But the character plots that do exist should be good. As it stands, we have a bunch of scions that all nod their heads at eachother and agree on everything, and they need to put us with a bunch of bullies that don't get along in Meracydia and develop those characters.