More Story like 7.2 Please!

[TaraShiro6]

To the devs, please make more story like the MSQ in 7.2!

I loved this patch story, getting lots of interesting character development for Sphene was awesome, I want to see more characters get the spotlight please!

And I loved the Arcadion story too, lots of intriguing mysteries and characters to get invested in, whoever has been writing these stories please have them keep working on the game!

[Zakuyia]

Going to be honest idk whats going on and i probably won't i checked out a long time ago so now i skip cutscenes thankyou SE

[TaraShiro6]

You're welcome to skip the story if you like, but you won't have much to provide in these discussions if you don't even know the story. This patch has been a HUGE step up from 7.0 in overall quality both in writing and the quality of cutscenes.

[Cleretic]

Dawntrail's really good! We don't need to slag it off to congratulate 7.2, 7.2 can just be a good patch with a solidly delivered story. That's its own challenge, and it's a challenge it handled really well in a way that a lot of patches fumble!

We can happily recognize that 7.2 also happens to be perhaps the best single patch we've ever had in terms of story quality across both the MSQ and raid stories. In a little under two months it can make a solid case for being the best patch in all respects, because I think we can make a solid estimate that the Occult Crescent is gonna do a good job stacking up to Eureka and Bozja.

Like... what's the competition going to be for 'best patch'? 5.3? All 7.2 needs to do to beat 5.3 is for the first Occult Crescent zone to beat the Southern Front, and I think it's got a solid case for it; it's sure as hell more colorful. Hell, I'd say it's already beating 5.3 just by virtue of 'doesn't have the absolute worst trial phase transition ever designed'.

[Vallavia]

I think it's worth remembering in conversations like these that this game is still a live service RPG, and the story will always reflect the fact that it's perpetually a work-in-progress; this seems to have been kind of broadly forgotten since Endwalker, which was an exceptional circumstance. 7.0's story was only 2/3 finished by design, because they need to keep us on the hook for another two years until 8.0; this has been true of every expansion except A Realm Reborn (because they weren't necessarily betting on the game staying online) and Endwalker (because they felt it better served the story to put a bow on that arc right away). Similarly, 7.2 (and all the .2 patches since Heavensward) functions as a springboard of momentum for the conclusion of 7.0's story, so naturally it feels a lot more exciting than the set-ups and clean-ups going on in 7.1. It's a balancing act endemic to any kind of serial media: each installment must have its own distinct narrative arc while also fitting in to the arc of the broader story, which of course leaves a certain margin of error (see the 6.x patches simultaneously being world-ending levels of terror while also feeling like there are no stakes whatsoever).

That said, I will concede that 7.2 felt noticeably more cinematic than FFXIV has felt in a long time, from the scene direction to the dialogue to the actual plot itself. I imagine this is a symptom of a broader pivot that they're trying to pull off with 8.0 on both a narrative and systemic level.

[Cilia]

I agree 7.2 was a big improvement over the 7.0 (and maybe 7.1) story. That said...

I think it's worth remembering in conversations like these that this game is still a live service RPG, and the story will always reflect the fact that it's perpetually a work-in-progress; this seems to have been kind of broadly forgotten since Endwalker, which was an exceptional circumstance. 7.0's story was only 2/3 finished by design, because they need to keep us on the hook for another two years until 8.0...

The third act being good doesn't excuse the first two being mediocre at best. It's fine if you like it (I'm fond of more than a few works that are mediocre or even genuinely bad) but the 7.0 story was... just not cutting it for me.

[Vallavia]

The third act being good doesn't excuse the first two being mediocre at best. It's fine if you like it (I'm fond of more than a few works that are mediocre or even genuinely bad) but the 7.0 story was... just not cutting it for me.

And it's fine if you don't, but I wasn't really commenting on 7.0's quality in this instance anyhow, nor was I attempting to 'excuse' anything; my contention is that taking 3 hour story segments out of their broader context as an example of what the whole thing should resemble is fallacious. It's no different than the omnipresent mythologizing of Shadowbringers as the pinnacle of XIV's writing quality when it in particular relies so heavily on timing to sell its story.

If I were to comment on the quality however, the latter portion of my post certainly applies to the main Dawntrail story, too: the disparate pieces don't have a unified rising/falling action at all and only tend to connect to each other abstractly and thematically. I didn't find it as calamitously egregious as many, but it's still noticeable. The patches, at least, follow a logical narrative progression from the end of 7.0, but unfortunately I am not at all enchanted with Alexandria and really dislike Sphene (both then and now) so I haven't really invested either way.

[Cassar]

This discussion is making me reflect over something... I started playing this game in 5.4, so I really only started this habit of "logging in every patch day to play through the MSQ, then having to wait around 3-4 months for the next patch", in Endwalker patches.

For the people that have been doing this for longer than me, how was the sentiment for other expansions? Like for Heavensward and Stormblood and Shadowbringers, how were the patches' MSQ received? I'm saying this because I only have the perspective of playing through it all sequentially, and I'm not sure if that's affecting my opinions over the story. Like, if I stopped playing 14 for like 2 years and then went back to play all the patch MSQ at once, would I feel differently?

[SannaR]

This discussion is making me reflect over something... I started playing this game in 5.4, so I really only started this habit of "logging in every patch day to play through the MSQ, then having to wait around 3-4 months for the next patch", in Endwalker patches.

For the people that have been doing this for longer than me, how was the sentiment for other expansions? Like for Heavensward and Stormblood and Shadowbringers, how were the patches' MSQ received? I'm saying this because I only have the perspective of playing through it all sequentially, and I'm not sure if that's affecting my opinions over the story. Like, if I stopped playing 14 for like 2 years and then went back to play all the patch MSQ at once, would I feel differently?

2.55 was well received just due to the cliffhanger that is the end of ARR. Um, Msq wise 3.1 was ok at the time no one really got excited when seeing Ardbert and friends? As we were just glad it came since until it came out and Yoshida hadn't told us yet that the reason for the noticeable longer down time was for the vacation the team people were wondering if 3.0 has bombed so hard due to how rough Gordias savage had been. I don't quite remember exactly how 3.2 was taken but Thancred punching Emmanellain was probably the hight. It was the start of some people's theory that Hydelean had to be bad cause of the artwork for the patch. 3.3 was great cause Final Steps of Faith. I want to say all of 4.0's .1-3 patches for the msq were well received as they brought us one of the most punchable faces in the game in the form of Asahi. Sure, it felt strange to find out that both Gosetsu and Yotsuyu somehow survived the collapse of Doma castle but the build up to Tsukiyomi? And then to get that fight? So good. Now none were a 5.3 and I was amongst the few who thought ShB was going to be another split story expansion of us taking the fight to Garlemald while also dealing with whatever was happening to the A-Team er I mean the main Scions. There was so much hype and excitement until the 1st Fan Fest and teaser trailer for ShB killed imo what should have been a what the hell moment in 4.55 when we get called by the Exarch while fighting Elidibus in Zenos's body. As 4.55 dropped after that 1st fan fest.

[Cilia]

For the people that have been doing this for longer than me, how was the sentiment for other expansions? Like for Heavensward and Stormblood and Shadowbringers, how were the patches' MSQ received?

That's a difficult question to answer, because those patch storylines were 3/5 completing the X.0 storyline and 2/5 setting up the forthcoming expansion.

3.1 - 3.3 was... fairly well received. 3.1 - 3.2 was kind of slow, but 3.3 provided catharsis and wrapped up the Heavensward story with emotional highs. 3.4 just kind of was, while 3.5(.5) was kind of mixed since the Ala Mhigans did not come across as particularly sympathetic at the time.

4.1 was the "just kind of was" patch that hurriedly wrapped the Ala Mhigan storyline. 4.2 - 4.3 were very well received for portraying Yotsuyu (who in 4.0 was quite unsympathetic) with a significant degree of pathos. 4.4 - 4.5 were... kind of out of left field, and while they weren't poorly received there was a lot of uncertainty as to how Shadowbringers would play out.

5.1 - 5.3 were very well received, both for portraying Elidibus with pathos and wrapping up the well-received Shadowbringers plot. 5.4 - 5.5 were somewhat mixed, because they started to wrap up the offscreen war with Garlemald and Fandaniel was initially seen as a step back from the pathos provided by Emet-Selch and Elidibus.