I can't connect with the Memories of Vanadiel

[Valence]

I wonder if anybody who didn't play FFXI is even interacting with the lore NPC in Lower Jeuno. Not that it's a great way to tell you about the bosses, but that's what they went with.

I did actually. I'm a rabid loremonger and that's what kept me in the game originally. I click and explore every questline, I talk to NPCs even when they don't have a quest icon above the head.

It was a good idea to have but ultimately it gave me nothing more. Some vague explanations of the basics of the lore, which like for Ivalice, was welcome, but it didn't make me CARE about the world or the story. How could I? There may be a story for XIV with Sareel Ja going on (which has been pretty poor so far), but I haven't been through the XI actual story to care about the world, nor that this makes me want to do it either. Most were also written clearly from a nostalgic perspective that felt an obvious attempt at "selling me on XI" more than anything. "Look how cool it was to be adventuring there, or how funny it was when a summoner was born and a rainbow appeared". It's exactly like when your best friend can't stop gushing about a book/movie/game they hold very dear but you never went through it and have no idea what they're talking about.

People from another MMO would feel the exact same if they suddenly had a XIV crossover in one of their raids, and they were suddenly got told to care about Ishgard, Haurchefant or Emet Selch. And when going through the hallway modeled after Amaurot with Close in the Distance blasting in the background they'd be told in a few lines how this was a turning point of the story.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

As a former FF XI sub I think they did a good job - the modernized characters for stuff like the Zilart was well done; but given FF XI characters are nowhere near as iconic in the FFverse. Most FF players know characters like Cloud and Sephiroth - few if any have any clue who Pische is and thats understandable - the fact that the alliance raid referenced FF XI rather then another more noteworthy FF like maybe 8 or 1 is likely an issue - though most probably got little clue who Seifer or Laguna are just the same.

[PaleYonder]

I didn't play FFXI and didn't really connect with this raid quest line. I quite like Prishe and Alxaal as quest characters, and can empathise with the more personal issues they have about what they are, and what feels to them like their home not actually being that, that sort of thing. Topics that get introduced specifically for this quest line within XIV and rely on human problems (in a fantasy way). But those are a few minutes out of everything. The overarching plot with the enemies I neither follow nor particularly care about. It amounts to "Here is the next bad guy. Fight!"
Jeuno is awfully pretty though; that's some nice design work they did. Now if it was a real hub town set down into the normal game world, that'd be nice.

But to compare with the Nier raids... I've played both Nier games and the first Drakengard and am a huge fan, but I didn't think the raid quest line's plot had much to do with it, nor did it manage to dip into what makes Automata great as a story or as a game or its sometimes unique story-gameplay integration. It was a cool-looking raid line with familiar aesthetics and did its job for that. But I enjoyed the dwarves. Those actually got closest to the kind of mundane somewhat satirical humanity Yoko Taro's games often show.

[FuturePastNow]

Prishe and Alxaal coming to terms with being artificial people and possibly facing "mortality" as their electrope batteries run out could be an interesting story that continues the themes of the expansion.

Sareel Ja throwing random bosses he found in a database at us isn't interesting at all. I mean the fights are interesting. But there's no story there yet and no moral to be told.

[GrizzlyTank]

Yeah, the ivalice raids were woven into ffxiv. With both the presence of Garlemald's 4th legion creeping around in the areas, to Ultima the high seraph who we now know is connected to something even bigger embedded somewhere on the planet.
While also populating south western Othard on the map.

These Alliance raids, that may or may not be the re-imagining of another shard?

And while the music isn't bad, it's tone doesn't match the pacing of FFXIV unfortunately.

[Chasingstars]

These Alliance raids, that may or may not be the re-imagining of another shard?

Its impressions of a different shard with Sareel Ja's fanciful exaggerations as the electrope amplifies his magic. Like the Gulool Ja Ja they have is exaggerated to look like the source version, but its not the Gulool Ja Ja we know. As the beastmen of Vana'diel are warlike and only really seek one thing, to crush the civilizations of the five races. The five races are basically the same as what we had in ARR with some minor differences, that of their own equivalents to Lalafell, Elezen, Roegydan, Miqote, and Hyurs.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Yeah, the ivalice raids were woven into ffxiv. With both the presence of Garlemald's 4th legion creeping around in the areas, to Ultima the high seraph who we now know is connected to something even bigger embedded somewhere on the planet.
While also populating south western Othard on the map.

These Alliance raids, that may or may not be the re-imagining of another shard?

And while the music isn't bad, it's tone doesn't match the pacing of FFXIV unfortunately.

It's somewhat linked in with the story as I remember Sareel saying that after he got backstabbed by Zoraal and thrown off the bridge near the gate to Living Memory he ended up in the actual Vana'Diel. And after he somehow got out of there and he's been recreating it with a combination of his magic and electrope for reasons not fully yet explained... But that Gulool Ja Ja he has with him is part of it.

[Villa101]

Yeah, the ivalice raids were woven into ffxiv. With both the presence of Garlemald's 4th legion creeping around in the areas, to Ultima the high seraph who we now know is connected to something even bigger embedded somewhere on the planet.
While also populating south western Othard on the map.

These Alliance raids, that may or may not be the re-imagining of another shard?

And while the music isn't bad, it's tone doesn't match the pacing of FFXIV unfortunately.

That's not unfair, i actually really like how the fft and ffxii stuff was woven in. Kinda wish we could get back to that but a lot of people didn't like bozja so i dunno if that's happpening

[FuturePastNow]

So my theory about the overall raid story is that I think Sareel Ja is actually dead, and his soul got isekai'd through the portal into a MMORPG for the Endless in Living Memory. That's why the raids are full of notes written from the perspective of players, as are the shades in Jueno... they're echoes of Endless who were in the game when it was shut down by us turning off LM. Perhaps Alxaal is one of them, but somehow a bit more complete than the others, the last person in a dead MMO.

[Aneshda]

If only it were just the memories of Vanadiel that I can't relate to. But there's also the Arcadion.
There isn't a single place in DawnTrail that triggers something in me. There isn't a single NPC that stands out in my memory.
Not a single emotion that I could say was funny, sad, or whatever. And there isn't a single song or specific piece of music that I remember that was particularly good.
BUT there was one monster that stuck in my mind: Drowsie, because it was so cute. I have never felt so alienated from my character and the world as I have in this expansion.