Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

sakkath said:

Ran'jit was a terrible Kai Leng storywise

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... said:

Sir kai leng was thr pinnacle of good writing and he was a story element similar to mass effect 1.

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Sylas said:

Initial take? I liked him better when he was called Vitiate/Valkorian/Tenebrae. Hell I liked him better when he was called the black spirit. I don't dislike him as an antagonist, nor does he earn any overwhelming praise. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking? Like how am I liking him as a character or something? The old tried and true perspective swap/lore dump exposition? or do you mean his motivations? Everyone is the hero in their own story? it's right next to "live laugh love" for motivational slogans posted on basic white girl's facebook.

Taken from the most basic bitch I knows facebook wall.


I've finished shadowbringer's and started the post ShB content. it's taking a while because i'm losing motivation to play. The MSQ is just too. Fucking. long. And its still 80% filler. I'm almost 12 days played after 2 months and that was with having 3 weeks off work for surgery/recovery. I've read like 10 books worth of dialogue so far. Also whoever claimed (think it was chy) that they would add more voice over's as the expansions went on, up to like 80% voice overs by ShB, that was a lie. It's still maybe 20% voice over for the MSQ, 80% read.

Without the time off work it would be closer to 5-6 months to get to this point and i'm still not caught up to the latest expansion. Also the trust system, having actually used it now, really takes some of the charm away from the game's design for new players, and seeing how they are going to add trust to all ARR+ content i'm hesitant. I get it for current content if you are a dps who has a long queue and just want to advance the story, but man. One of the best designs of this game is the way duty roulette works so that no content is ever obsoleted (except non MSQ stuff), but adding it to trust's destroys that, it will all be obsolete now and you'll only be able to run trusts for every dungeon. Can you imagine soloing ARR-Endwalker with trust NPCs? The MSQ is only bearable because they punctuate it with a bunch of fun/interesting group content sprinkled in to break up the monotony.

Anyway here's my review:

Shadowbringers
How to turn Jumping the Shark into an Olympic Event

Start: 1/10. ARR and all expansions always start weak til they get to the story. this one is no different. the dialogue is improved, the plot is the main detractor here, the writing is contradictory and not internally consistent. I've explained why in great detail already, see both Alison and alpino's questlines.

middle: 4/10. Again dialogue much improved. Also as I stated earlier better writing and establishment of stakes. I would of scored this higher, maybe a 5/10 even with that completely unearned "bigger bad" hobohomo general storyline, except they reused the golem building montage motiff 3 times. The final one with the giant golem was nice, bringing all the various people you have helped together to accomplish your task (the lol of a giant golem reaching up to heavens being the first and only solution to your conundrum not withstanding), except we've done this already. Twice. it really detracted from the story here. would of been fine if this was the only montage scene.

Spoiler: Golem Montage 1

"Oh no, this gate is too heavy. Is it magically sealed or something? Nah, it just weighs a lot and we haven't been to the gym. We need to build a golem. dude It's made of fucking wood bro we have fire and, whats that thing called again, oh yeah magic, you can't lift or destroy this gate? shit man I can see the top of it bro why can't we just climb over it, it's not even that tall? ok ok fine only a golem will do. Montage Scene."

Spoiler: Golem Montage 2

"we need to fix this ladder. you mean elevator? it's not a ladder. Actually we have all these flying mounts who could easily take us up there, not to mention and entire army of pixies who can fly and teleport us so, uh, why do we need the elevator? If we really need it we can fly to the top. take some rope, disconnect the gears and utilize a pulley system? No, because we need this game of thrones inspired elevator to work so we have that scene when we reach the top, like when we copied the red wedding poorly with our 'bloody banquet,' member, member when GoT was good? need that action beat guys its why we do this. Ok fine, Only a golem will work. Make that 2 golems. Montage scene"

Speaking of GoT, the moment I heard Gaius I was like "oh shit its roose bolton". Also noticed later in the credits that Gendry (Joe Dempsey) is albert too, didn't pick up on that during gameplay.

End: 3/10. Shark jumping time. So what happened is the developers overheard players complaining about the story being too simple, generic good guy hero and all, and were asking for complexity. But due to a translation error instead of complex they made the story convoluted instead. I've really been struggling trying to put together the timeline with all these empire/ascian retcons trying to make that make sense with all its inconsistencies, and then they doubled down, twice. Don't like it but I'll accept an alternate/parallel universe, mirror world storyline in my fantasy mmo if I have to, if it's well written. I'll even accept an inception style time dilation plot if it makes sense. But fucking time travel too? a bridge too far sir. The exarch's grand plan relying entirely on Back to the future rules for time travel to apply but instead we get Terminator/MCU time travel rules instead so now all your friends soul's are still stuck here even after you save the world (and ffs its a planet, if I hear another motherfucker refer to your planet as a star again I swear to god...look up motherfucker, see that bright ass thing that makes it daylight? See all those dots in the night sky? Those are stars, you live on a planet you dumb fucks).

Overall dungeons/boss fights were fun, Emett's background/storyline was interesting/well written, which is why I gave it a 3/10. But all the hoops they jumped through setting up hydaelan/Zodiark was just meh. I was really hoping they would do something with the corrupted light once the last lightwarden died, had you actually turn, don't be a pussy pull the the trigger man and introduce some fucking consequences. I'm already controlling other NPCs during multiple MSQs I can play as another character until "plot happens' and you figure out a solution. But no, the power of friendship will always save you in the end. pathetic.

After the last lightwarden died, every time they cut back to Gaius/Estinien/Zenos storyline I found myself thinking that was the storyline I wish I was playing right now.

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Sylas said:

Initial take? I liked him better when he was called Vitiate/Valkorian/Tenebrae. Hell I liked him better when he was called the black spirit. I don't dislike him as an antagonist, nor does he earn any overwhelming praise. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking? Like how am I liking him as a character or something? The old tried and true perspective swap/lore dump exposition? or do you mean his motivations? Everyone is the hero in their own story? it's right next to "live laugh love" for motivational slogans posted on basic white girl's facebook.

Taken from the most basic bitch I knows facebook wall.


I've finished shadowbringer's and started the post ShB content. it's taking a while because i'm losing motivation to play. The MSQ is just too. Fucking. long. And its still 80% filler. I'm almost 12 days played after 2 months and that was with having 3 weeks off work for surgery/recovery. I've read like 10 books worth of dialogue so far. Also whoever claimed (think it was chy) that they would add more voice over's as the expansions went on, up to like 80% voice overs by ShB, that was a lie. It's still maybe 20% voice over for the MSQ, 80% read.

Without the time off work it would be closer to 5-6 months to get to this point and i'm still not caught up to the latest expansion. Also the trust system, having actually used it now, really takes some of the charm away from the game's design for new players, and seeing how they are going to add trust to all ARR+ content i'm hesitant. I get it for current content if you are a dps who has a long queue and just want to advance the story, but man. One of the best designs of this game is the way duty roulette works so that no content is ever obsoleted (except non MSQ stuff), but adding it to trust's destroys that, it will all be obsolete now and you'll only be able to run trusts for every dungeon. Can you imagine soloing ARR-Endwalker with trust NPCs? The MSQ is only bearable because they punctuate it with a bunch of fun/interesting group content sprinkled in to break up the monotony.

Anyway here's my review:

Shadowbringers
How to turn Jumping the Shark into an Olympic Event

Start: 1/10. ARR and all expansions always start weak til they get to the story. this one is no different. the dialogue is improved, the plot is the main detractor here, the writing is contradictory and not internally consistent. I've explained why in great detail already, see both Alison and alpino's questlines.

middle: 4/10. Again dialogue much improved. Also as I stated earlier better writing and establishment of stakes. I would of scored this higher, maybe a 5/10 even with that completely unearned "bigger bad" hobohomo general storyline, except they reused the golem building montage motiff 3 times. The final one with the giant golem was nice, bringing all the various people you have helped together to accomplish your task (the lol of a giant golem reaching up to heavens being the first and only solution to your conundrum not withstanding), except we've done this already. Twice. it really detracted from the story here. would of been fine if this was the only montage scene.

Spoiler: Golem Montage 1

"Oh no, this gate is too heavy. Is it magically sealed or something? Nah, it just weighs a lot and we haven't been to the gym. We need to build a golem. dude It's made of fucking wood bro we have fire and, whats that thing called again, oh yeah magic, you can't lift or destroy this gate? shit man I can see the top of it bro why can't we just climb over it, it's not even that tall? ok ok fine only a golem will do. Montage Scene."

Spoiler: Golem Montage 2

"we need to fix this ladder. you mean elevator? it's not a ladder. Actually we have all these flying mounts who could easily take us up there, not to mention and entire army of pixies who can fly and teleport us so, uh, why do we need the elevator? If we really need it we can fly to the top. take some rope, disconnect the gears and utilize a pulley system? No, because we need this game of thrones inspired elevator to work so we have that scene when we reach the top, like when we copied the red wedding poorly with our 'bloody banquet,' member, member when GoT was good? need that action beat guys its why we do this. Ok fine, Only a golem will work. Make that 2 golems. Montage scene"

Speaking of GoT, the moment I heard Gaius I was like "oh shit its roose bolton". Also noticed later in the credits that Gendry (Joe Dempsey) is albert too, didn't pick up on that during gameplay.

End: 3/10. Shark jumping time. So what happened is the developers overheard players complaining about the story being too simple, generic good guy hero and all, and were asking for complexity. But due to a translation error instead of complex they made the story convoluted instead. I've really been struggling trying to put together the timeline with all these empire/ascian retcons trying to make that make sense with all its inconsistencies, and then they doubled down, twice. Don't like it but I'll accept an alternate/parallel universe, mirror world storyline in my fantasy mmo if I have to, if it's well written. I'll even accept an inception style time dilation plot if it makes sense. But fucking time travel too? a bridge too far sir. The exarch's grand plan relying entirely on Back to the future rules for time travel to apply but instead we get Terminator/MCU time travel rules instead so now all your friends soul's are still stuck here even after you save the world (and ffs its a planet, if I hear another motherfucker refer to your planet as a star again I swear to god...look up motherfucker, see that bright ass thing that makes it daylight? See all those dots in the night sky? Those are stars, you live on a planet you dumb fucks).

Overall dungeons/boss fights were fun, Emett's background/storyline was interesting/well written, which is why I gave it a 3/10. But all the hoops they jumped through setting up hydaelan/Zodiark was just meh. I was really hoping they would do something with the corrupted light once the last lightwarden died, had you actually turn, don't be a pussy pull the the trigger man and introduce some fucking consequences. I'm already controlling other NPCs during multiple MSQs I can play as another character until "plot happens' and you figure out a solution. But no, the power of friendship will always save you in the end. pathetic.

After the last lightwarden died, every time they cut back to Gaius/Estinien/Zenos storyline I found myself thinking that was the storyline I wish I was playing right now.

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Sylas said:

I do have one question about the exarch scene

Spoiler

after lauthry dies, what was the point of him "turning evil" for half a second? Can anyone explain that.

His whole plan was to absorb all the corrupted light aether from you and then either fade away from existence back to the future style since he would no longer exist since we changed the past or barring that (since MCU time travel rules apply), teleport in to space or something and then die, and of course the hero's wouldn't let him sacrifice himself to save You, the source, and the first's very existence because hero's are fucking dumb.

So instead he pretends he was evil the whole time and his plan was to steal all this ultimate power and go super saiyan....because the hero's would never try and stop him? Like wtf was that. of course Oranger had to stop the hero's from stopping him, then Yshtonya immediately realizes he's not evil and he is sacrificing himself instead....So what the fuck was the point of that? "i'm actually evil muwhahaha. No, he's not, don't interfere guys. Ok yeah I'm actually good." Luckily he gets shot in the back immediately and we don't have to waste any thought on how retarded that plan was but it's bothering me. That was just intentionally stupid dialogue. The entire scene should be replaced with
"Exarch, what are you doing?"
"Trust me, I have a plan. insert any plausible excuse here: ie "now that all the light aether is gathered in one spot, I can use the tower to diffuse all this light power and save our hero"
"oh ok, continue sir, do you need help?"
"nah i'm good"

The truth would cause the hero's to immediately intervene and prevent him from saving the world, so he has to lie. So he then chooses the one and only possible lie (i'm actually evil, muwahahaha) that would cause the hero's to.....immediately intervene and prevent him from saving the world.

Also Yshtonya being matt murdock who can see perfectly fine 90% of the time and is blind whenever its convenient for the story is getting old.

edit: Spoiler tag for....me? sure. I'm the only one who hasn't played this game. Nobody else starting this game now cares about the story, it's the worst part of FF14. Every other sprout i''ve seen just hits escape on cut scenes and clicks through dialogue.

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Sylas said:

edit:

Spoiler

Also was cat boy supposed to be some kind of big reveal? I get it that the main character is written as a buffoon surrounded by idiots (the scions), but you, the player, spend 10 hours of storyline/quests/raids determining that he was the only person in existence that could enter/utilize/interact with the crystal tower so when he shows up you always knew it was catboy all along.

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