#ffxiv thoughts

[sssinopia]

yeah ffxiv canon says azem, hytholodaeus, and emet-selch were 4ever besties but im going to pretend the latter 2 are unreliable narrators and thought they were azem's besties when in reality azem was drifting away from them and saw them as friendly coworkers at best by elpis.

[thevikingwoman]

FFXIV and in defense of a soft reboot

some random thoughts on Square Enix's approach to story telling, or maybe more like story progression? in FFXIV. Especially as it pertains to new players, and the business and attracting new players. I saw a post about a poor new player, who had brought a skip to SHB (because that was 'the good part') and disappointed because they did not understand what was going on. And as most people point out - yes this is how ffxiv works. You need the whole story to get the impact, and yes we can have a discussion of why the fandom dumps on ARR or HW or STB and yes it sucks, and these parts are in fact overall - good!

However, as someone who picked up the game a few years ago (late 2022) and it took me until this April to finish Endwalker (almost 3 years!) there are some interesting design choice in this sort of story telling.

yes, I am a slow gamer, but I'm not the only one out there with a life and family and demanding job - or other hobbies and other games. FFXIV can become an allconsuming endeavor, and especially there is an immense pressure to finish the MSQ - intentional or not, it's hard to "participate" in fandom when you're behind.

In addition, most traditional mmo gameplay revolves around the endgame. Not just raiding, but also taking part in various content such as the sanctuary island, relics, bonus areas, and also crafting the latest gear everyone wants. But really - the thing a MMO does that is not typically in other games is the raiding.

Now, SE has made the point to NOT race new people to the endgame - even if in the community you feel that pressure. Level and story skips can be brought, but they're extras and not something pushed on new players. Compare to WoW - which I haven't played in years and years to be fair - often included free level boosts when you return or join the game. Even if I'm not sure what goes on in the story today, it makes sense. The world changes, gets broken and unbroken, and the character changes and moves forward - even when I played. And they make it so a new player jumps into the world 'now' not 'then' - the quests I did in 2005 may not exist anymore.

Square Enix has taken a very different approach. The story they want to tell, depends on the story that came before. The Warrior of Light is not the Warrior of Light, unless they go through what they do. There is no point - at least until Endwalker - where you can "jump in" and join the story in the way it's written. I think this is a interesting choice, because it does mean that story can feel grander and more personal at the same time (the scions are important since they've been around so long), but I think from a business perspective it truly has come to point where I'm wondering if this no longer makes sense, and hampers the game.

When a new player joins, they are asked to go through 10 years of content - otherwise the story is just not impactful. The truth is for me, if the crafting system had not been so unique and fun to me, I'd have quit. Or perhaps if I wasn't trying to make and keep a fun friend group who all played (though that fell apart anyways - another story) I'd have quit. If I was only there for the story, there are many other games with better stories, that doesn't require me to use 2+ years to get to the conclusion. But, there are many of the mmo parts of ffxiv that are pretty well done, even for someone who is not a raider.

I think however, it's too much to ask new players to do. And as the expansions keep coming, it will get harder and harder for ffxiv and SE to attract new players. There will always be a dropoff in old players, retaining current players will not be enough.

I think ffxiv is too afraid to change the world (and the characters - but character development or lack thereof is a different topic). Why can we still go to Elpis? To Ultima Thule (which only exist because Thancred's will, but he came back). One of the reasons SHB is so good is that it actually dares to change the environment! But again, it's on a per-player basis. There's not a change that applies to all players. The world is not moving forward. The twins are perpetually stuck on a chocobo wagon.

with that all said, I think Dawntrail was missed opportunity for a soft reset. Endwalker was the end of the story. Even the patch storyline was it's own little arch, and frankly more related to shadowbringers imho.

I am currently at the end of Dawntrail, and I admit I love it. It's really fun, it's back half is paced well, and the story keeps moving to new places.

I LIKE that the wol is more of a bystander, this is not the wol's story. This is Wuk Lamat's story. And I thin it works really really well - but I almost wish they'd gone harder. It could have made a great entry into the game for new players, if they'd dared. Just offer a story and level skip to 90 with the expansion.

and maybe, maybe we could have a changed world - other than an instance in HW and Doman - why is there still garlean military machines in Ala Mhigo? why is the Dravinians attacking in Coerthas?

It's time for the world to change; to bring in new players. To jostle up the old ones (do you really want to be a game where all people do is log in to go to parties and play dress up?)

where someone buys a story skip to a more or less arbitrary point in the game and is utterly confused? and all people do is to say. Sorry bud. That's not how it works. Go back and spend 2 years then you can play with us.

[azol-otl]

God I hope they bring back trial series instead of the bullshit they've been adding to the story.

Like I had a blast with the Doom Train but it shouldn't have been at the cost of a Trial series. the Warring Triad, the Four Lords, and the Weapons series were all really good stuff stories that brought in a lot of world building for the game that wasn't connected to the main story.

Like they had the perfect setup with where Wuk Lamat and Sphene were dealing with the msq in Alexandria (which, I have a lot of issues with how Alexandria basically took over everything so we had yet another European based region while the Americas got the Epcot treatment).

The Alliance Raid with Bakool Jaja, as well as all the Society Quests taking place in Yok Tural, which gave us reason to keep going there.

And they SHOULD have given Koana a trial series. Instead of the singular really weird moment he did in 7.1 because we do NOTHING with Xak Tural (no I don't count Heritage Found as Xak Tural because we didn't get to SEE IT UNTIL IT WAS COLONIZED) or Koana! He was a big player in the msq for the first five levels, he had a whole ass arc, he had mentors in Urianger and Thancred (who I think should have been the for real second boss in the level 91 dungeon alongside Koana), and we had the seeds for future growth due to his trauma and grudge against traditions and lifestyles of those in Xak Tural. Like the trains themselves already give a good reason on why he's involved, because that shit is new and terrifying but also fixing what was probably Tural's biggest weakness of being too big to manage when transportation and communication wasn't developed (something touched upon by the dirgibles, but not about Xak Tural despite all the Role Quest NPCs being from remote villages in Xal Tural all awed by Tulliyolal and the idea of helping each other out. Like they were t really part of the nation.(Which is a good thing! It's something that happened in real life, hell it happened to Mexico involving California and Texas, especially when there was sudden shifts in power and the Capital decided to focus on the central part of the nation, the developed parts, instead of the fringes or the parts far away).

It even makes sense to give it to him as the Xak Turali Vow of Reason while Wuk Lamat is the Yok Turali Vow of Resolve. Symbolism and all that.

AND IT WOULD HAVE GIVEN THEM A CHANCE TO MAKE MORE FFXIV ORIGINAL TRIAL BOSSES INSTEAD OF ONLY REFERENCES.

Like I love me ffix references but why didn't they put that in the raid series instead of jamming it into the trials. (Yes I understand the trial series are where they put references but they could have changed it here).

Like instead of making Zelenia should have just made Vamp Fatale a Beatrix reference. Hell fuse her and Freya to give us a Rat Lady Knight with a bunch of women fans who want her carnally. Hell you can even have replaced the Tyrant with her to call back to Beatrix being basically unbeatable and subordinate to a villain.(Where is my Freya reference! You mean to tell me we had canon fursonas and we didn't have a Rat Woman????!!!!)

But yeah we should have had a Trial Series with Koana all about Xak Tural who got shafted HARD in basically every way. Instead of having Alexandria just take over everything

[house-fortemptations]

Got all four of my wisdom teeth extracted today via surgery, so they had to knock me out cause fuuuuuuck no am I getting that done while conscious.

Anyway, all I can think of as the nurse woke me up all woozy and disorented was Emet-Selch’s line after Ktisis Hyperboreia: “Unharmed??? There’s a gaping hole in my gums! I can scarcely remember arriving here in the clinic!”

[lilas]

One thing I want to do before graphics update is get a shot of Avi’li in Voidcast Dais before and after Golbez gives him an intimate haircut

Mostly cause the light is gorgeous in there

[weirdshapeddog]

FFXIV posting

I love the idea of the animal-like races behaving animal-like.

Specifically, the thought came about of miqo’te acting more catlike. Sure, there’s some good catlike emotes, but I mean like a miqo WoL attempting to hold one of the Scions still so they can “groom” their colleague’s hair.

Can you imagine, in the middle of a big ol’ political meeting with each of the nations, and miqo WoL just randomly gets up to go to where Ser Aymeric is sitting… only to clamber up onto the back or arm of his chair and begin grooming him because “he had some hairs out of place!”

Idk about anyone else’s miqo, but I love giving mine more animal behaviors

[fyx-ation]

FFXIV hot-takes:

The voice actors for ARR were not bad. Every one of them were very talented people. The voice direction, however, was utter shite. I mean, I wasn't in the booth or anything, but you can just tell. And some of the takes they had... woof. I doubt the actors were even given thorough notes on what was going on in what scene or how their character should be feeling.

Once they switched to European (mostly British) voice actors from HW onward, the voice direction feels so much better. And the script feels more natural, too.

And yettttttt... some really crappy takes still get through. I feel like even terrible takes from a British VA get a pass because there's a weird bias toward their accents sounding more sophisticated. So, even if the delivery is awkward as hell, the director's just like "Cut, print! Wonderful!"

The greatest example I can think of (because I just got it for my trial roulette and it made my brain zip off to write this thought down) is the Sphene fight.

This is a bit funny to me since they only had the VA for Wuk Lamat re-record her lines. The original version was pretty stinky. I mean, it was so bad that it sucked the wind right out of my sails, which is a very bad thing to happen during the final boss fight of an expansion that starts with you on a boat. If you were there for it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Spheeeeene. It was like we were back in ARR and no one was on the other side of the glass saying, "Now you're being crushed by a gigantic robotic hand! Your words have to be grunted out because you're fighting the weight of it!"

So, they had her re-record her lines and they are 5,000,000,000% better.

And yet.

Sphene's lines were not re-recorded. They still sound dull. And awkward. As did much of her delivery through Dawntrail. But I guess no one was complaining about it? Maybe SE just saw people shitting all over Wuk Lamat and thought changing her script/recording was all that was necessary.

"How can you say that to me now?" sounds particularly blasé to my ears.

I would have asked her to emphasize part of it.

disbelief, anguish:

"How can you say that to me now?" (after everything I've put you through, put your people through...?)

or

rage, determination:

"How can you say that to me NOW?" (after you know what my people have been through and how badly I want to save them!)

or maybe even a mix between the two

anguish and rage:

"How can YOU say that to ME now?!" (you, who know what we've been through. After the lengths I have gone to! There is no turning back!)

IDK. The next time you do the fight, pay attention to her line delivery and tell me what you think. Just a few tweaks here and there could have greatly changed how I feel about Sphene as a whole. I know people compare her to Emet Selch a lot, but I think the gulf between them is immeasurable. Goals are similar, but passion is null and void.

And I think it's because she got a big, fat pass because British.

While I'm in the mood of being nitpicky, there was a whole ass patch back in EW where Y'shtola's VA had a cold. I'm assuming they could only get her for that one day and were on a deadline. It is very noticeable. lol

And Honey B. Lovely's "southern"/"midwestern/"i have no idea" accent is absolutely grating to my ears. Every time I get that fight in roulettes, I'm just like, "Yeehaw and shucks howdy, y'all. Let's tussle with this big ol' bee. Bless her heart!"

There're a few accents in Shaaloani that are very obviously trying for "cowboy" but come off as "I'm British, but I saw a western once."

End rant. :D

[yshtolasleftthighboot]

ARR isn’t that bad when you don’t have a bitch in ur ear telling you it’s unbearable