I can't connect with the Memories of Vanadiel

[Valence]

I have been an avid Final Fantasy fan since basically forever. I have played all of the mainline titles, but there is still a handful of games of the franchise I haven't touched, notably FF Tactics or FF XI. I do understand that the intent with those Alliance Raids is to generate an interest from players to go check out the actual game that they do refer, like it was the case with Nier for example.

Well, the problem is that I can't connect to those raids at all. I haven't played their material of reference. I just got through San d'Oria and like for Jeuno, we're going through places I have zero care about, because I have zero emotional attachment to those. I don't know what they're supposed to represent, and even having the narrator drop me a quick line "this is a calm place for new adventurers" isn't really helping either. So far those raids have only felt like going to Disneyland and jumping into the first ride for a movie I haven't seen. All it feels like is going through a trailer with fancy pictures and scenes trying to show you as much as possible from the reference material.

I don't know how people that have played through XI feel about going through this, or even how players that went through FFT/XII for Ivalice felt, or how players that went through the Nier series felt about the Nier AR either. To me, this just feels like fan service that leaves me completely cold, and the little story we're getting trying to connect this to XIV feels more forced and shoehorned than anything, as usual. I think there is also a big difference between inspiration and actual copy pasta, and the game recently even outside of the Alliance Raids has started to really feel like copy pasta (FF9 in the post Dawntrail segment, the Underkeep, the Beatrix doppleganger, etc).

Why can't we get original content and creativity? Or are we doomed to live in that perpetual loop of nostalgia down memory lane thinking that it will suddenly make everybody else hooked?

Or am I the only one feeling like this by now?

[Valence]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

[Daralii]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

No, XI actually tried to be original. XIV has firmly decided to just be a nostalgia theme park.

[Kranel_San]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

XI is the opposite of FFXIV, since it barely has any nostalgia and fan service to it.

Everything there, from the beginning to the end is pretty original to XI, and the game feels like a classic FF game (Like FF1 to FF6) but in a 3D online world

I really just wish FFXIV would drop the Nostalgia bait and start focusing more on an original, exciting content and lore. (The exciting because myths raids were an original but not exciting)

[Veritas-Ancora]

I really just wish FFXIV would drop the Nostalgia bait and start focusing more on an original, exciting content and lore. (The exciting because myths raids were an original but not exciting)

I'm the polar opposite. I LOVE the nostalgia.

The nostalgia is what keeps me subbed to this game.

Void Ark was proof that independent storytelling is not particularly grand.

MSQ does a really good job keeping the theme park at bay, but the alliances and raids are all about that nostalgia.

[Absurdity]

I really just wish FFXIV would drop the Nostalgia bait and start focusing more on an original, exciting content and lore. (The exciting because myths raids were an original but not exciting)

I was one of the people actually excited for Myths of the Realm when it was announced.
I thought we would get more information on the twelve, maybe some new revelations and lore implications, because they were still quite the mystery at the time.

Imagine my disappointment when it just turned into a boss gauntlet with us fighting the actual supposed gods, they turned out to just be ancients again because everything is just ancients in the post-Endwalker era, and at the end they just peaced out of existence.
It managed to kill the "myth", the established lore of the deities and any mystery that was left, actually left me baffled with how bad that storyline was.

Same goes for this XI nostalgia trip.
Not necessarily because it draws from XI, the Ivalice raids also drew inspiration from older titles, but because there is 0 effort to integrate it into the wider world of XIV.

It's just electrope-ex-machina to deliver maximum "Hey, remember this older FF game you played?"

What's it gonna be in 8.0, use the power of Dynamis for a weekend trip to Midgar or Zanarkand?

[Ephremjlm]

I was one of the people actually excited for Myths of the Realm when it was announced.
I thought we would get more information on the twelve, maybe some new revelations and lore implications, because they were still quite the mystery at the time.

Imagine my disappointment when it just turned into a boss gauntlet with us fighting the actual supposed gods, they turned out to just be ancients again because everything is just ancients in the post-Endwalker era, and at the end they just peaced out of existence.
It managed to kill the "myth", the established lore of the deities and any mystery that was left, actually left me baffled with how bad that storyline was.

THIS THIS THIS

We literally blitzed through two of the biggest plot points since 1.0 which were technically established before the Ascians. Their reasoning was that they just wanted to conclude everything and start fresh. Fine, I suppose. But now after patch 7.3 and knowing that it's Ascians AGAIN, what was the damn point? Are they really that incapable of writing an original story? Like good lord what is actually going on at SE? They could have made an entire expansion out of the Void AND The Twelve by themselves.

[Shinku_Tachi]

THIS THIS THIS

We literally blitzed through two of the biggest plot points since 1.0 which were technically established before the Ascians. Their reasoning was that they just wanted to conclude everything and start fresh. Fine, I suppose. But now after patch 7.3 and knowing that it's Ascians AGAIN, what was the damn point? Are they really that incapable of writing an original story? Like good lord what is actually going on at SE? They could have made an entire expansion out of the Void AND The Twelve by themselves.

Hide your spoilers, homie.

[Shinku_Tachi]

Like for real, did XI have all this copy pasta and fan service as well?

Honestly, if you get tired of playing 14, I highly recommend picking up and trying out 11.

Sure, it's kinda archaic, basically an EQ era MMO, but it's a great game. Some of the best gaming years of my life were spent in that game.

[Valence]

I'm both and I think both raid series are fantastic, but the FFXI raid series is definitely much more of a nostalgia love letter to people who played the original, so you're naturally not going to get as much out of the experience as veterans recognizing every location and reference. If you want to learn about the context for all that stuff I recommend playing retail FFXI which has an extremely fast leveling experience these days. That or watch some youtube videos. Even if you don't play the game the story and lore are pretty interesting.

I'm sorry but asking me to play a whole other game, and a MMO to boot, just to experience what the story should provide me with in the first place, feels a little like it's pushing it too far.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that some XI veterans enjoy this piece of content, but I'm not sure making nostalgia content only for a specific subset of its playerbase is sound.

Honestly, if you get tired of playing 14, I highly recommend picking up and trying out 11.

Sure, it's kinda archaic, basically an EQ era MMO, but it's a great game. Some of the best gaming years of my life were spent in that game.

See, that's the problem I have. After Yoshida constantly telling us to stop playing XIV and take breaks to play other games, now we have them telling us to do the same with XI. I don't want to. It sounds interesting as a game for sure, but I play XIV. I'd like XIV to stop actually leaning on other games to provide enjoyment.

It's not about being tired of playing XIV.