Moar lore... The Last Word – Rising Panic (10/18/2012)

[Mihana]

There's going to be riots EVERYWHERE!, Breaking windows, Stealing stuff, setting things on FIRE!! Protect ZEE CHILDREN!!

You know I was just thinking about that earlier. For what's supposed to be categorized as the "end of the world" it almost lacks that feel. Sure you see a great deal of different things going on but okay, do this... Head to any city in Eorzea and take a stroll through it. Notice anything? Most NPCs seem like they can't give two turds (Sorry I don't feel like swearing.) about the fact that Dalamud is getting closer and the end of life as they know it may be coming to pass before their very eyes.

Look at the gate guards at varying camps. Atomos spawns and there's a huge onslaught of hellish creatures spawning around them. Meanwhile you can walk right up to the crafting utilities NPC and they'll go:

"Hey, sure, go ahead and use our utilities! Oh, oh them? Yeah, don't worry about it. We aren't!"

Same can be said about imperial invasions. Head out to Camp Broken Water and you'll see Garlean forces all over. Meanwhile this Battlewarden just tells you that vicious creatures are spawning around the area and wants you to go deal with it. Pay no heed to the Garleans standing outside the fences there. Okay, maybe I'm nitpicking too much but for the sense of dread there's supposed to be leading up to what may very well be the end of life for the realm the game seems fairly lacking.

Truthfully I was a little disappointed with the current bit of lore. "The cactuar all about are only here because the light of Dalamud irritates them." Uh, yeah. I'm sorry, it just seems a little half-hearted. What was supposed to feel like a highly memorable moment sort of just feels like a waiting game until they take down the servers so much that I haven't bothered logging in as much lately and I know I'm not alone there. The population in Ul'dah alone in my server it noticeably smaller than any given typical day. And all these extra tiny things feel more like stuff that's supposed to satisfy us until the final day. Is there a final patch coming? I think they released it all didn't they?

Will there be a huge climatic ending? I'd hope so but at this point I'm almost believing there won't be. Maybe a few days before the end of the world hits we'll see a small CS, Garleans might even spread out across all of Mor Dhona, and the meteor showers will return in the sky to represent the final scene. After that gameplay ends until 2.0. No big battle where you're fighting for your lives in Mor Dhona, no large-scale event, just a CS, enemies standing around, and a little graphical magic. I'm hyped for 2.0 but not for what should be a hugely memorable event.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm not really expecting something like NPCs fighting NPCs. Given the current game engine I wager it's likely impossible and more difficult than they can do. But it would be decent to at least see more NPCs around, maybe an event even where the Garleans spawn and NPCs start asking adventurers to join arms in pushing them back. It's already possible, they were doing that during the initial invasions. There wouldn't have to be anything spectacular, just add in an EXP reward, some seals, gil, whatever.