I can't connect with the Memories of Vanadiel

[Haru304]

FFXIV is chock full of references to prior games in the series and this isn't anything new. If not direct references, then influenced by - in nearly every single aspect. I've had friends who've previously been disinterested in all of the referenced titles like FFXI and NieR but have gone and tried them out afterwards. Heck - FFXIV has been a form of gate-way into getting a lot of my friends into trying Japanese RPGs in general when in the past, they've turned their noses up.

As per the 'nostalgia loop', that's just the time we're living in. For the most part. You have to be more selective. We're all playing the fourteenth mainline title in a series that's been around since before a lot of us were even born. The loop doesn't begin with references, or these raids. That's for sure.

[Avoidy]

I feel the same way, but I wouldn't have cared if the raids were at least interesting. So far though, neither one has been really fun to me. I did the newest one last night, the hour it released, and idk, I feel 0 desire to go back anytime soon. Any "wow" moments we had were because the content was still new, but the actual mechanics were the kind where one guy with a dorito can guide the whole team to safety. You're never split up into your alliance teams like in puppets bunker. There's no dps checks like in ivalice. No tank moments outside of being away during a tankbuster. No pvp like in nier. Nothing stood out to me at all except the music on the final boss, which was very nice, and the actual scenery being pretty looking.

[Moonlite]

I feel the same way, but I wouldn't have cared if the raids were at least interesting.

I think they missed a big chance to try something different. So instead of having the 24 man format. They could of went with something closer to the Dynamis format. Have an instanced zone with mobs and bosses. But allow up to three alliances in. Trash could drop a token and bosses could have chests. As long as an alliance does 10% to the boss three chests will spawn. And the game already has a scaling system. So if only one alliance is available they scale accordingly. And no locked rooms either, if people want to kite bosses back to the start where houses give a second level for range let them. To keep people on sort of the rails the dev team likes, they could have mobs that drop extra tokens. Which would increase chances going to certain points. It could have fun achievements because the bosses aren't locked to rooms, like kill 2 bosses at once.

[Valence]

Let me apologize for not wording things better.

My intention wasn't a "pffff, if you're tired of 14, play other games" blow you off post. If that's the message my post sent, I'm sorry.

It was meant as general recommendation (because of how much joy 11 brought me in the past), in the event that you put 14 down in the future.

I appreciate the sentiment

The only one that felt "cheap" to me were the Omega raids. Very fun fights that were just a rotation of old bosses with zero context until it actually had us fighting Omega itself, which was connected to original FFXIV lore.

It's probably better than how I and several others felt during the Nier raids: disconnected, confused, annoyed, and with eyestrain.

When I replayed ShB, I just never unlocked them.

Yes, I do also remember feeling cheated of an actual story from A to Z with Omega in Stormblood until the very last fights with Midgardsormr and Omega which were actually integrated into the XIV Plotline (and in a significant way at that). All of the fights, which is 90% of the raids, was pure fan service from other games. I think Stormblood is where the trend actually started appearing in optional content. Post Endwalker and Dawntrail feels like this has now somewhat extended to the MSQ as well.

[Mawlzy]

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?

FFXIV was my first exposure to the Final Fantasy series. The current call-back has one major consequence IMO: it further undermines and dilutes an already weak story.

Concerning Nier, I spent the entire process going through that side-plot oscillating between confusion and boredom. The "plot" if one can call it that was tedious and had absolutely nothing to do with the MSQ. It felt like people I had no interest in crashed a party, broke all the furniture, and left.

I guess this appeals to those who played other FF titles, but to me the approach combines feeling like I'm missing out on an inside joke I don't care about. The Ivalice story was at least somewhat interesting, but this latest nonsense is just appalling.

[Catwho]

I don't know how people that have played through XI feel about going through this

I can't speak for other XI fans, but to me it feels like visiting old friends that I hadn't seen in a decade.

I'm sorry that it's not doing anything for those who didn't play XI, but it's a giant nostalgia bomb for me in a good way.

[Vanfrano]

I have been playing FFXI since 2003, I played the raids on my main and I feel insulted by what they did with Echoes of Vana'diel but I'm not surprised, they are quite good at creating soulless content.
I want this team and especially Yoshida as far away as possible from FFXI.

[RedLolly]

One of the most bizarre details of the Nier raids is that the man in charge of that series, Yoko Taro, made that all canon to the Nier series. It was never designed for us.

[CidHeiral]

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.

IMO there's enough context in the crossover content to enjoy the story if you pay attention to everything that is presented to you, but ultimately they're trying to encapsulate the history of a long running MMO in a crossover raid series so it's not really possible to explain the history behind everything. There are plenty of avenues to investigate the setting further if you feel so inclined, including asking other players. In a way that's in the spirit of the original FFXI.

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.

It seems to have been pretty popular with the community so far whether they've played FFXI or not. If your unfamiliarity with the original game has ruined your experience then that is unfortunate, but I don't think they're a bad addition just because they don't land with everyone. I'm not huge into Nier and didn't enjoy the Nier raids that much but a friend of mine LOVES them for much the same reason I love these FFXI raids and that's great!

[SeriousPan]

Personally the questlines failures are mostly not utilising Prishe properly and making the absolute weakest Mamool Ja character possible the main antagonist. For some reason we don't just gut this level 50 dude like a fish and be done with it and it's a bit too much. I know that doesn't make for great story telling but letting us get bossed around by a comparatively weak and all around pathetic character isn't much better.

That stuff aside I really enjoyed Jeuno and Sandy's raids and I think I connected with it as a "greatest hits" experience. The ore excuse for why this stuff exists was kind of lame, I think, and more of a crutch for the writers. I would have liked a better effort on that part.