FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood

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Reiterpallasch: Nov 3, 2010; Fun Shoe

Red mage would be fine in a fiesta context if shell was a level 3 !White spell and !X-cast didn't cost 999 loving AP. Rod snapping is powerful.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 09:43

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# ? May 26, 2024 09:19

DizzyBum: Apr 16, 2007

Gearhead posted:

Blue Mage is always one of those classes that makes people wonder how it would get set up in XIV, with its fairly tightly curated ability system. Best guess would be you'd wind up with a magic class that used monster abilities, but you'd have to teach them with quests or somesuch.

Considering Thavnaria is now uncovered on the world map, I wouldn't be overly shocked to see it appear in the future... but don't get your hopes up for it being like previous FF games, consider the overhauls RDM got to become appropriate for an MMO.

They'd either have to make all the enemy abilities quest rewards, or add in a "get hit to learn the ability" mechanic like they did with FFXI but make it not suck, or combine the two somehow. Sitting there farming the same mobs and trying to get them to do their learnable ability was the worst, especially since you had a low chance of actually learning the move.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 16:48

apostateCourier: Oct 9, 2012

DizzyBum posted:

They'd either have to make all the enemy abilities quest rewards, or add in a "get hit to learn the ability" mechanic like they did with FFXI but make it not suck, or combine the two somehow. Sitting there farming the same mobs and trying to get them to do their learnable ability was the worst, especially since you had a low chance of actually learning the move.

It would absolutely be job quests to go get hit by an enemy's special attack, then kill said enemy with that attack. For defensive abilities they could even pay homage to the old days where you had to do weird things to get enemies to hit you with Mighty Guard or w/e.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 16:51

Verranicus: Aug 18, 2009; by VideoGames

::Spoiler Warning - Spoilers Everywhere::

I'm really not sure if there's another thread like this, but I kind of want to rant/leave a statement; here's the context:

Today my attention was brought to an article where someone who owned stock in Square Enix left a message on twitter saying:

"First thing in the morning tomorrow, I intend to instruct those who manage my precious Square Enix stock (however little it may be) to arrange to sell all of it. To Square, thank you for the enjoyment of your products up until now, with the exception of this last one. Goodbye."

Apparently he was referring to 1.0, and that stock turned out to be worth 26 million (or so the article says). This got me thinking: Why would anyone's faith in a functioning company shatter so completely that they would sell it all? And then I remember how much I complained about the Stormblood (SB) story, the NA server move, and the DDOS attacks, and... well... I think I understand why someone might be that upset, though probably in a different way.

I have over 2000 hours into this game and hundreds of dollars invested into my subscription... and I stretched my finances to do it (all worth it). I loved both A Realm Reborn (ARR) and Heavensward (HW): it was all so grand and fun, and the end game was challenging too. But then SB comes out and I was pumped that this was going to be the next epic chapter... except it wasn't. In fact, I often ranted in the FC chat about it (sorry everyone, you all deserved better than that).

So what happened? Why do I feel so melancholy about it? And why do I feel so disconnected from my favorite game of all time? I barely want to play it anymore, I mostly log on just to keep my grind going in case I find that spark again. My FC is on discord so if I want to communicate with them I don't even need to log into the game.

Well, I think it ultimately boils down to this: The story just sucked this time. I'm not saying there weren't good or great moments, but for the most part I've read fan fiction far above the SB story in terms of quality and content. In fact, the fact that I regularly read fan fiction is probably the reason I'm still playing this game. I've built a thick skin for poor quality content. But that's free, I pay money for FFXIV, so I just don't understand.

My annoyances can best be summed up like this: ARR was an amazing hero origin story with plenty of that "I came here to adventure" feel. The writing was stellar and you genuinely felt like you were this regular person who got caught up in things and discovered you were more than that. Working hard to do the right thing and exploring the continent as you went from place to place. The feeling was that and more, and it felt genuine. HW had you interact with a nation engaged in a massive war going on for over a thousand years and that war felt just as massive as it was told in the story. Everything felt huge and you felt like an experienced adventurer who just started to get a hang of the weight behind their fame and capabilities. You worked hard and made a big difference; and it felt like you made the difference as only a hero could. The epic war felt epic.

Then comes SB... and a large-scale war spanning the world being fought on two fronts somehow feels tiny. By the end of it I felt like I helped two small tribes and interacted with a third small tribe that was divided. What happened?

The first thing to rage about was being asked by Alphinaud what you thought on the Ala Mhigan rebellion. I was given three VAGUE options. I picked the one I thought was most in character with how I had answered questions in HW and ARR. And guess what? I get a 'sorry you feel that way' response. Not only did the response not fit any of the answers, I had now chosen a response that felt like I was playing Fallout 4. I didn't mean to say anything that implied what that response implied I said. The other times you choose words to say would mostly follow in that Fallout 4 'But I didn't want to say that!' feeling.

Then facing Xenos for the first time. He takes you down without effort and one of the characters states how useless everything you went through before is. Your esteemed allies and practiced soldiers just lose to everyone, even the foot soldiers of Garlemald. Seriously, what's the deal? You're trying to reset the novice feel? Why? Why on earth would ANYONE do that in that way, after building us up that much, now we're nothing but helpless to ONE PERSON who is HUMAN and equipped in armor that isn't that different form people we've already defeated? That was the moment where I felt further from this game than I ever have. And quite frankly, it broke my suspension of disbelief. Everything that happened afterward failed to connect with me because I was constantly thinking, "The devs want it this way, it's gonna happen this way."

Rhalgar's Reach, after 20 years of not being spotted, magically gets attacked. There is no reason for this. None. There was specific interest in quelling these rebels yet none of Xenos' men had located it despite trying. So tell me, how did they know? And don't give me that 'Fordola knew where it was' excuse. If she was blind enough to support the empire then she would have outed them years ago with the zeal she has. This is a plot hole, and it's the ONLY REASON we decide to head for Doma.

The next disappointment is the Ruby Sea. Look, the underwater parts were amazing, but it felt smaller in scope than Sastasha. To be specific, the location of the entrance to the Ruby Toll was so close to Doma that an entire sea was shrunk down to the size of a river. It felt like a river. Not a sea, a river. I just don't understand. Why did the map have to include the shore to the mainland? It would have felt so much bigger if the Ruby Sea was treated like the various maps in the Sea of Clouds: One section of many others. A new second map wasn't needed, just the illusion that the part where map was was only a small section of a larger archipelago in the middle of the sea. Have an ocean view instead of the Doma shore.

Now, until this point, a lot of my complaints could be a result of the development process not being completely in sync. However, Yotsuyu is completely on the writers. She had a legitimate reason to betray Doma, it's how she - an abused and tossed away girl - could make money and scrape out a living that was more dignified than that of a whore. She also developed a sadistic side. But no, the entire focus of her story was how all Domans deserved death and she spoke to her subordinates like she knew we were listening. That's meta (acting upon knowledge the character shouldn't have) and a poor excuse for giving her an air of mystery. I actually thought that she was born in Garlemald for how distant she seemed from "her people".

And what about Yugiri tossing all her patience to move the plot forward? She has never been that excited about anything, not even finding her master. But suddenly throws all caution to the wind for the sake of plot when it comes to attacking Xenos. I can't help but feel that 'standing up to Xenos' scene could have been accomplished more effectively (and believably) by chasing that young kid in the orange attire after hearing that he is attempting an assassination of his own.

Then we free the nation of Doma... but it really doesn't feel like it. The map is still just as quiet as when we got there. Anyway, back to Eorzea.

Where I genuinely don't care for the story anymore and just want to get it over with. My suspension of disbelief is gone, I'm expecting a disappointing conclusion, and just want to get to the EX trials.

The conclusion was actually fantastic, except everything that led up to it was less than the outcome. I wasn't fighting Xenos in the end, I was fighting a primal. So all that build up and hype, and now the final villain needs a boost to keep up with us? When did we get so strong? I can't tell because we didn't actually fight a ton of big monsters beforehand. We fought enemies that everyone knew we were better than and only pushed our capabilities twice before that. 2+2 suddenly equaled 103 and I missed how we got there. When did we add 99 to that?

And now it goes back to my initial issue. Remember that dialogue choice I talked about? I gave the vague answer that most sounded like: "What about the ascians? I'll fight in this war while nothing else comes up but we really should be putting effort into finding them. This may be a good cause, but we ultimately have bigger issues." This game lost sight of the original plot and tacked on a conversation with one ascian at the end. What happened to all the primals they were summoning to make things hard for us all throughout ARR and HW? Why is the entire base story of an official expansion I paid extra for nothing more than a sub-plot? The ascians literally did NOTHING but wait for the Emperor's scheme to take place in a success via failure conclusion.

The DDOS attacks can't be helped, there are jerks out there who do that stuff. But the server move has screwed up my ability to raid. I've given up many nights of raiding because lag (that was never an issue before the move) was getting me killed over and over. When there's that much space between you and the AOE circle on the ground (3 character steps away), and you still get killed, that's lag.

Anyway, between lag and a story that felt so poorly executed and written, I just don't really care that much anymore. Once my 6 months runs out I won't stretch my income to make the next payment, so this is my "x weeks notice" in a sense. [Congratulations!] I no longer feel any connection to what was my favorite game of all time.

There, rant over. I can finally let this go.

The time I spent before 4.0 was wonderful and I stand behind every dollar I paid, however it's just not worth it for the next round. Goodbye FFXIV, it was amazing while it lasted. Who knows, maybe 5.0 will be better?

# ? Jul 29, 2017 16:57

Cirina: Feb 15, 2013; Operation complete.

DizzyBum posted:

They'd either have to make all the enemy abilities quest rewards, or add in a "get hit to learn the ability" mechanic like they did with FFXI but make it not suck, or combine the two somehow. Sitting there farming the same mobs and trying to get them to do their learnable ability was the worst, especially since you had a low chance of actually learning the move.

Considering they completely detached job abilities from quests for the new jobs except for their 60 and 70 quests, and did the same for every other job post 60, I find learning them in quests to be doubtful and in the field even more so. You'll just learn them as you level with no rhyme or reason and maybe get some throw away line at the very end of the 70/80 quests.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 17:09

Augus: Mar 9, 2015

goddamn that is one monster of an OF quote

# ? Jul 29, 2017 17:25

strong bird: May 12, 2009

Verranicus posted:

::Spoiler Warning - Spoilers Everywhere::

I'm really not sure if there's another thread like this, but I kind of want to rant/leave a statement; here's the context:

Today my attention was brought to an article where someone who owned stock in Square Enix left a message on twitter saying:

"First thing in the morning tomorrow, I intend to instruct those who manage my precious Square Enix stock (however little it may be) to arrange to sell all of it. To Square, thank you for the enjoyment of your products up until now, with the exception of this last one. Goodbye."

Apparently he was referring to 1.0, and that stock turned out to be worth 26 million (or so the article says). This got me thinking: Why would anyone's faith in a functioning company shatter so completely that they would sell it all? And then I remember how much I complained about the Stormblood (SB) story, the NA server move, and the DDOS attacks, and... well... I think I understand why someone might be that upset, though probably in a different way.

I have over 2000 hours into this game and hundreds of dollars invested into my subscription... and I stretched my finances to do it (all worth it). I loved both A Realm Reborn (ARR) and Heavensward (HW): it was all so grand and fun, and the end game was challenging too. But then SB comes out and I was pumped that this was going to be the next epic chapter... except it wasn't. In fact, I often ranted in the FC chat about it (sorry everyone, you all deserved better than that).

So what happened? Why do I feel so melancholy about it? And why do I feel so disconnected from my favorite game of all time? I barely want to play it anymore, I mostly log on just to keep my grind going in case I find that spark again. My FC is on discord so if I want to communicate with them I don't even need to log into the game.

Well, I think it ultimately boils down to this: The story just sucked this time. I'm not saying there weren't good or great moments, but for the most part I've read fan fiction far above the SB story in terms of quality and content. In fact, the fact that I regularly read fan fiction is probably the reason I'm still playing this game. I've built a thick skin for poor quality content. But that's free, I pay money for FFXIV, so I just don't understand.

My annoyances can best be summed up like this: ARR was an amazing hero origin story with plenty of that "I came here to adventure" feel. The writing was stellar and you genuinely felt like you were this regular person who got caught up in things and discovered you were more than that. Working hard to do the right thing and exploring the continent as you went from place to place. The feeling was that and more, and it felt genuine. HW had you interact with a nation engaged in a massive war going on for over a thousand years and that war felt just as massive as it was told in the story. Everything felt huge and you felt like an experienced adventurer who just started to get a hang of the weight behind their fame and capabilities. You worked hard and made a big difference; and it felt like you made the difference as only a hero could. The epic war felt epic.

Then comes SB... and a large-scale war spanning the world being fought on two fronts somehow feels tiny. By the end of it I felt like I helped two small tribes and interacted with a third small tribe that was divided. What happened?

The first thing to rage about was being asked by Alphinaud what you thought on the Ala Mhigan rebellion. I was given three VAGUE options. I picked the one I thought was most in character with how I had answered questions in HW and ARR. And guess what? I get a 'sorry you feel that way' response. Not only did the response not fit any of the answers, I had now chosen a response that felt like I was playing Fallout 4. I didn't mean to say anything that implied what that response implied I said. The other times you choose words to say would mostly follow in that Fallout 4 'But I didn't want to say that!' feeling.

Then facing Xenos for the first time. He takes you down without effort and one of the characters states how useless everything you went through before is. Your esteemed allies and practiced soldiers just lose to everyone, even the foot soldiers of Garlemald. Seriously, what's the deal? You're trying to reset the novice feel? Why? Why on earth would ANYONE do that in that way, after building us up that much, now we're nothing but helpless to ONE PERSON who is HUMAN and equipped in armor that isn't that different form people we've already defeated? That was the moment where I felt further from this game than I ever have. And quite frankly, it broke my suspension of disbelief. Everything that happened afterward failed to connect with me because I was constantly thinking, "The devs want it this way, it's gonna happen this way."

Rhalgar's Reach, after 20 years of not being spotted, magically gets attacked. There is no reason for this. None. There was specific interest in quelling these rebels yet none of Xenos' men had located it despite trying. So tell me, how did they know? And don't give me that 'Fordola knew where it was' excuse. If she was blind enough to support the empire then she would have outed them years ago with the zeal she has. This is a plot hole, and it's the ONLY REASON we decide to head for Doma.

The next disappointment is the Ruby Sea. Look, the underwater parts were amazing, but it felt smaller in scope than Sastasha. To be specific, the location of the entrance to the Ruby Toll was so close to Doma that an entire sea was shrunk down to the size of a river. It felt like a river. Not a sea, a river. I just don't understand. Why did the map have to include the shore to the mainland? It would have felt so much bigger if the Ruby Sea was treated like the various maps in the Sea of Clouds: One section of many others. A new second map wasn't needed, just the illusion that the part where map was was only a small section of a larger archipelago in the middle of the sea. Have an ocean view instead of the Doma shore.

Now, until this point, a lot of my complaints could be a result of the development process not being completely in sync. However, Yotsuyu is completely on the writers. She had a legitimate reason to betray Doma, it's how she - an abused and tossed away girl - could make money and scrape out a living that was more dignified than that of a whore. She also developed a sadistic side. But no, the entire focus of her story was how all Domans deserved death and she spoke to her subordinates like she knew we were listening. That's meta (acting upon knowledge the character shouldn't have) and a poor excuse for giving her an air of mystery. I actually thought that she was born in Garlemald for how distant she seemed from "her people".

And what about Yugiri tossing all her patience to move the plot forward? She has never been that excited about anything, not even finding her master. But suddenly throws all caution to the wind for the sake of plot when it comes to attacking Xenos. I can't help but feel that 'standing up to Xenos' scene could have been accomplished more effectively (and believably) by chasing that young kid in the orange attire after hearing that he is attempting an assassination of his own.

Then we free the nation of Doma... but it really doesn't feel like it. The map is still just as quiet as when we got there. Anyway, back to Eorzea.

Where I genuinely don't care for the story anymore and just want to get it over with. My suspension of disbelief is gone, I'm expecting a disappointing conclusion, and just want to get to the EX trials.

The conclusion was actually fantastic, except everything that led up to it was less than the outcome. I wasn't fighting Xenos in the end, I was fighting a primal. So all that build up and hype, and now the final villain needs a boost to keep up with us? When did we get so strong? I can't tell because we didn't actually fight a ton of big monsters beforehand. We fought enemies that everyone knew we were better than and only pushed our capabilities twice before that. 2+2 suddenly equaled 103 and I missed how we got there. When did we add 99 to that?

And now it goes back to my initial issue. Remember that dialogue choice I talked about? I gave the vague answer that most sounded like: "What about the ascians? I'll fight in this war while nothing else comes up but we really should be putting effort into finding them. This may be a good cause, but we ultimately have bigger issues." This game lost sight of the original plot and tacked on a conversation with one ascian at the end. What happened to all the primals they were summoning to make things hard for us all throughout ARR and HW? Why is the entire base story of an official expansion I paid extra for nothing more than a sub-plot? The ascians literally did NOTHING but wait for the Emperor's scheme to take place in a success via failure conclusion.

The DDOS attacks can't be helped, there are jerks out there who do that stuff. But the server move has screwed up my ability to raid. I've given up many nights of raiding because lag (that was never an issue before the move) was getting me killed over and over. When there's that much space between you and the AOE circle on the ground (3 character steps away), and you still get killed, that's lag.

Anyway, between lag and a story that felt so poorly executed and written, I just don't really care that much anymore. Once my 6 months runs out I won't stretch my income to make the next payment, so this is my "x weeks notice" in a sense. [Congratulations!] I no longer feel any connection to what was my favorite game of all time.

There, rant over. I can finally let this go.

The time I spent before 4.0 was wonderful and I stand behind every dollar I paid, however it's just not worth it for the next round. Goodbye FFXIV, it was amazing while it lasted. Who knows, maybe 5.0 will be better?

odds of anyone reading this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uc3V8NxKWw

# ? Jul 29, 2017 17:26

Rand Brittain: Mar 25, 2013; "Go on until you're stopped."

I don't exactly disagree that Stormblood made carrying out two small wars feel small and easy.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 17:47

Krabboss: Nov 11, 2016; MY HUSBAND'S PARSE IS BETTER THAN YOURS

skip all cutscenes and click through all dialogue as fast as possible, tbh. something has gone terribly wrong if you can recall the names of >5 NPCs

# ? Jul 29, 2017 17:56

SettingSun: Aug 10, 2013

Geez some people care way too much about this game.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:12

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

None of that is especially wrong but it's hard to give a gently caress about something as long winded as that.

Fighting Garlemald is a lot more interesting than fighting Ascians specifically though. It's better to take down Ascians in the course of defeating Garlemald than vice versa.

Josuke Higashikata fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Jul 29, 2017

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:15

Rand Brittain: Mar 25, 2013; "Go on until you're stopped."

I have to admit I want to punch Fordola significantly more than I care about literally any of the Ascians, or all of them combined.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:17

Oscar Wilde Bunch: Jun 12, 2012; Grimey Drawer

I think the only proper response to that rant is "can I have ur stuff?"

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:32

Cirina: Feb 15, 2013; Operation complete.

Rand Brittain posted:

I have to admit I want to punch Fordola significantly more than I care about literally any of the Ascians, or all of them combined.

At this point the only Ascian we had a personal grudge against (possibly, if you cared) is very dead, and it's not like we have any way to be proactive against them anyway.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:39

Saint Freak: Apr 16, 2007; Regretting is an insult to oneself; Buglord

I spent more time clicking Raubahn than I did watching any of the Stormblood story.

You can take that whichever way you like.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 18:42

Fister Roboto: Feb 21, 2008

If you click Raubahn 100 times you can buy an automatic Raubahn clicker.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:19

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

if you date post "tl;dr" or any variation there of when someone makes a genuine effort post in this most blessed of threads then you're scum

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:19

Jay Rust: Sep 27, 2011

I just assume posts with more than two paragraphs come from another site

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:22

apostateCourier: Oct 9, 2012

Jay Rust posted:

I just assume posts with more than two paragraphs come from another site

Verranicus is well known for posting dumb posts from other sites without sources.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:25

Nancy: Nov 23, 2005; Young Orc

I read that entire wiener-y post and it's kind of funny how this guy whose personal investment in the game got destroyed by SB still has a 6 month subscription & is probably going to resub later.

Good find Verrancius.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:29

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

apostateCourier posted:

Verranicus is well known for posting dumb posts from other sites without sources.

Also from his own mind.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:42

Control Volume: Dec 31, 2008

[a several page long about the unattractiveness of roegadyn women] An official forums post? or verranicus posting on drugs?

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:44

Kalenn Istarion: Nov 2, 2012; Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

Verranicus posted:

::Spoiler Warning - Spoilers Everywhere::

I'm really not sure if there's another thread like this, but I kind of want to rant/leave a statement; here's the context:

Today my attention was brought to an article where someone who owned stock in Square Enix left a message on twitter saying:

"First thing in the morning tomorrow, I intend to instruct those who manage my precious Square Enix stock (however little it may be) to arrange to sell all of it. To Square, thank you for the enjoyment of your products up until now, with the exception of this last one. Goodbye."

Apparently he was referring to 1.0, and that stock turned out to be worth 26 million (or so the article says). This got me thinking: Why would anyone's faith in a functioning company shatter so completely that they would sell it all? And then I remember how much I complained about the Stormblood (SB) story, the NA server move, and the DDOS attacks, and... well... I think I understand why someone might be that upset, though probably in a different way.

I have over 2000 hours into this game and hundreds of dollars invested into my subscription... and I stretched my finances to do it (all worth it). I loved both A Realm Reborn (ARR) and Heavensward (HW): it was all so grand and fun, and the end game was challenging too. But then SB comes out and I was pumped that this was going to be the next epic chapter... except it wasn't. In fact, I often ranted in the FC chat about it (sorry everyone, you all deserved better than that).

So what happened? Why do I feel so melancholy about it? And why do I feel so disconnected from my favorite game of all time? I barely want to play it anymore, I mostly log on just to keep my grind going in case I find that spark again. My FC is on discord so if I want to communicate with them I don't even need to log into the game.

Well, I think it ultimately boils down to this: The story just sucked this time. I'm not saying there weren't good or great moments, but for the most part I've read fan fiction far above the SB story in terms of quality and content. In fact, the fact that I regularly read fan fiction is probably the reason I'm still playing this game. I've built a thick skin for poor quality content. But that's free, I pay money for FFXIV, so I just don't understand.

My annoyances can best be summed up like this: ARR was an amazing hero origin story with plenty of that "I came here to adventure" feel. The writing was stellar and you genuinely felt like you were this regular person who got caught up in things and discovered you were more than that. Working hard to do the right thing and exploring the continent as you went from place to place. The feeling was that and more, and it felt genuine. HW had you interact with a nation engaged in a massive war going on for over a thousand years and that war felt just as massive as it was told in the story. Everything felt huge and you felt like an experienced adventurer who just started to get a hang of the weight behind their fame and capabilities. You worked hard and made a big difference; and it felt like you made the difference as only a hero could. The epic war felt epic.

Then comes SB... and a large-scale war spanning the world being fought on two fronts somehow feels tiny. By the end of it I felt like I helped two small tribes and interacted with a third small tribe that was divided. What happened?

The first thing to rage about was being asked by Alphinaud what you thought on the Ala Mhigan rebellion. I was given three VAGUE options. I picked the one I thought was most in character with how I had answered questions in HW and ARR. And guess what? I get a 'sorry you feel that way' response. Not only did the response not fit any of the answers, I had now chosen a response that felt like I was playing Fallout 4. I didn't mean to say anything that implied what that response implied I said. The other times you choose words to say would mostly follow in that Fallout 4 'But I didn't want to say that!' feeling.

Then facing Xenos for the first time. He takes you down without effort and one of the characters states how useless everything you went through before is. Your esteemed allies and practiced soldiers just lose to everyone, even the foot soldiers of Garlemald. Seriously, what's the deal? You're trying to reset the novice feel? Why? Why on earth would ANYONE do that in that way, after building us up that much, now we're nothing but helpless to ONE PERSON who is HUMAN and equipped in armor that isn't that different form people we've already defeated? That was the moment where I felt further from this game than I ever have. And quite frankly, it broke my suspension of disbelief. Everything that happened afterward failed to connect with me because I was constantly thinking, "The devs want it this way, it's gonna happen this way."

Rhalgar's Reach, after 20 years of not being spotted, magically gets attacked. There is no reason for this. None. There was specific interest in quelling these rebels yet none of Xenos' men had located it despite trying. So tell me, how did they know? And don't give me that 'Fordola knew where it was' excuse. If she was blind enough to support the empire then she would have outed them years ago with the zeal she has. This is a plot hole, and it's the ONLY REASON we decide to head for Doma.

The next disappointment is the Ruby Sea. Look, the underwater parts were amazing, but it felt smaller in scope than Sastasha. To be specific, the location of the entrance to the Ruby Toll was so close to Doma that an entire sea was shrunk down to the size of a river. It felt like a river. Not a sea, a river. I just don't understand. Why did the map have to include the shore to the mainland? It would have felt so much bigger if the Ruby Sea was treated like the various maps in the Sea of Clouds: One section of many others. A new second map wasn't needed, just the illusion that the part where map was was only a small section of a larger archipelago in the middle of the sea. Have an ocean view instead of the Doma shore.

Now, until this point, a lot of my complaints could be a result of the development process not being completely in sync. However, Yotsuyu is completely on the writers. She had a legitimate reason to betray Doma, it's how she - an abused and tossed away girl - could make money and scrape out a living that was more dignified than that of a whore. She also developed a sadistic side. But no, the entire focus of her story was how all Domans deserved death and she spoke to her subordinates like she knew we were listening. That's meta (acting upon knowledge the character shouldn't have) and a poor excuse for giving her an air of mystery. I actually thought that she was born in Garlemald for how distant she seemed from "her people".

And what about Yugiri tossing all her patience to move the plot forward? She has never been that excited about anything, not even finding her master. But suddenly throws all caution to the wind for the sake of plot when it comes to attacking Xenos. I can't help but feel that 'standing up to Xenos' scene could have been accomplished more effectively (and believably) by chasing that young kid in the orange attire after hearing that he is attempting an assassination of his own.

Then we free the nation of Doma... but it really doesn't feel like it. The map is still just as quiet as when we got there. Anyway, back to Eorzea.

Where I genuinely don't care for the story anymore and just want to get it over with. My suspension of disbelief is gone, I'm expecting a disappointing conclusion, and just want to get to the EX trials.

The conclusion was actually fantastic, except everything that led up to it was less than the outcome. I wasn't fighting Xenos in the end, I was fighting a primal. So all that build up and hype, and now the final villain needs a boost to keep up with us? When did we get so strong? I can't tell because we didn't actually fight a ton of big monsters beforehand. We fought enemies that everyone knew we were better than and only pushed our capabilities twice before that. 2+2 suddenly equaled 103 and I missed how we got there. When did we add 99 to that?

And now it goes back to my initial issue. Remember that dialogue choice I talked about? I gave the vague answer that most sounded like: "What about the ascians? I'll fight in this war while nothing else comes up but we really should be putting effort into finding them. This may be a good cause, but we ultimately have bigger issues." This game lost sight of the original plot and tacked on a conversation with one ascian at the end. What happened to all the primals they were summoning to make things hard for us all throughout ARR and HW? Why is the entire base story of an official expansion I paid extra for nothing more than a sub-plot? The ascians literally did NOTHING but wait for the Emperor's scheme to take place in a success via failure conclusion.

The DDOS attacks can't be helped, there are jerks out there who do that stuff. But the server move has screwed up my ability to raid. I've given up many nights of raiding because lag (that was never an issue before the move) was getting me killed over and over. When there's that much space between you and the AOE circle on the ground (3 character steps away), and you still get killed, that's lag.

Anyway, between lag and a story that felt so poorly executed and written, I just don't really care that much anymore. Once my 6 months runs out I won't stretch my income to make the next payment, so this is my "x weeks notice" in a sense. [Congratulations!] I no longer feel any connection to what was my favorite game of all time.

There, rant over. I can finally let this go.

The time I spent before 4.0 was wonderful and I stand behind every dollar I paid, however it's just not worth it for the next round. Goodbye FFXIV, it was amazing while it lasted. Who knows, maybe 5.0 will be better?

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:50

Attorney at Funk: Jun 3, 2008; ...the person who says honestly that he despairs is closer to being cured than all those who are not regarded as despairing by themselves or others.

Countblanc posted:

if you date post "tl;dr" or any variation there of when someone makes a genuine effort post in this most blessed of threads then you're scum

tl;dr

# ? Jul 29, 2017 19:55

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/339634-What-happened-to-SB-%28story%29

Check out the graveyard though

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:01

SonicRulez: Aug 6, 2013; GOTTA GO FIST

The way people determine quality is always fascinating to me. The story had good and even great moments, but it also sucked? I mean it's better than number ratings, but that still doesn't make any sense to me.

Watch cutscenes, they are fun.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:05

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

Especially/Only if you like the emote where you punch your hand

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:11

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

SonicRulez posted:

The way people determine quality is always fascinating to me. The story had good and even great moments, but it also sucked? I mean it's better than number ratings, but that still doesn't make any sense to me.

Watch cutscenes, they are fun.

the Stormblood story had a lot of good moments but felt hollow and the zones being extremely sparsely populated don't help with this feeling. Heavensward had less of this since you were constantly hanging out in dense Foundation and dealing with their politics there, then occasionally going out to hack your way through the wilderness

Othard is supposedly bustling but the only zone with any real activity going on is Azim Steppe (and not coincidentally that's the region that's the most popular with players). Gyr Abania is desolate until you get to Ala Mhigo and even then the Lochs are mostly empty

It's rough trying to square the plot "You are liberating two huge civilizations!" with the actual experience of going throughout these zones and helping people with sidequests

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:14

EponymousMrYar: Jan 4, 2015; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

There are things I don't like about the SB story.
They do not outweigh the things I like about the SB story.

I've read a lot of stories and the only thing that SB gets wrong is that there's a bit of confusion about us fighting two liberations when in terms of story structure we really only fight one (and help with the other.) That's still a great two for one deal on liberations though :v:

EponymousMrYar fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jul 29, 2017

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:20

Dwesa: Jul 19, 2016; Maybe I'll go where I can see stars

SKULL.GIF posted:

Othard is supposedly bustling but the only zone with any real activity going on is Azim Steppe (and not coincidentally that's the region that's the most popular with players). Gyr Abania is desolate until you get to Ala Mhigo and even then the Lochs are mostly empty

I was under impression that both those zones were supposed to be basically gulags with Doma being recently razed to the ground.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:22

SonicRulez: Aug 6, 2013; GOTTA GO FIST

What about the incredibly empty HW zones like Azys Lla, Churning Mists, and the Hinterlands? Part of the MSQ takes place in Ishgard like part of the MSQ takes place in Kugane.

Josuke Higashikata posted:

Especially/Only if you like the emote where you punch your hand

I cannot imagine skipping over this or seeing it and not getting at least a chuckle.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:40

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

Can't skip scenes with choices. I think you might be able to after the choice but can't remember.

That last choice should be restricted to Dark Knights though.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:41

UHD: Nov 11, 2006

Dwesa posted:

I was under impression that both those zones were supposed to be basically gulags with Doma being recently razed to the ground.

This.

Yanxia was the center of the last Doman rebellion and it got put down hard. It's so empty because most of its inhabitants were murdered or shipped to other provinces.

Gyr Abania is empty because it's a giant-rear end desert. Most desert nations have low population density over their entire territory.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:42

Fortuitous Bumble: Jan 5, 2007

My biggest complain is that Rhalgar's Reach is very brown. And the surrounding villages all have people standing around outside their front doors with random crates and things like they just got evicted. It's especially weird with the ones who live in yurts. Like, how do you lock yourself out of a yurt?

I didn't mind the empty areas in HW as much because they looked really cool and they were supposed to just have dragons and moogles as far as I know

Kugane also feels sort of desolate to me outside of the areas directly adjacent to the bridge. Maybe they'll add stuff there later when they continue the MSQ

e: The steppes were really good though, other than everyone locking themselves out of their yurts

Fortuitous Bumble fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 29, 2017

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:42

nuru: Oct 10, 2012

UHD posted:

This.

Yanxia was the center of the last Doman rebellion and it got put down hard. It's so empty because most of its inhabitants were murdered or shipped to other provinces.

Gyr Abania is empty because it's a giant-rear end desert. Most desert nations have low population density over their entire territory.

Story narratives for why the zones have nothing going on doesn't really help solve the problem of feeling like zones in FF are dead.

Azys Lla is probably my biggest disappointment in the game. There was a lot of potential that went nowhere with that zone.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:44

EponymousMrYar: Jan 4, 2015; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

nuru posted:

Story narratives for why the zones have nothing going on doesn't really help solve the problem of feeling like zones in FF are dead.

Azys Lla is probably my biggest disappointment in the game. There was a lot of potential that went nowhere with that zone.

Azys Lla is also where it's really a problem. Every other zone in the game has a decent enough reason for why it's sparsely populated and some of them are improved as time goes on (Moogle Beast Tribes help flesh out Churning Mists for example.)

# ? Jul 29, 2017 20:52

Rascyc: Jan 23, 2008; Dissatisfied Puppy

They really just need to get rid of experience from the frontlines I think.

Rascyc fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jul 29, 2017

# ? Jul 29, 2017 21:44

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

Rascyc posted:

They really just need to get rid of experience from the frontlines I think.

Enjoy your five hour queue

# ? Jul 29, 2017 21:48

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

SonicRulez posted:

What about the incredibly empty HW zones like Azys Lla, Churning Mists, and the Hinterlands? Part of the MSQ takes place in Ishgard like part of the MSQ takes place in Kugane.

They're light on NPCs, yeah, but they're meant to be wilderness. Foundation is much more core to the Heavensward plot (and especially to the three new jobs in Heavensward) than Kugane is to Stormblood. Kugane is neat but you barely spend any MSQ time there, I pretty much only go there because of the market board nowadays.

I think/hope Kugane (and the Ala Mhigan Quarter/Lochs) is going to be a much bigger part of the post-release patches but we'll see I guess.

# ? Jul 29, 2017 21:51

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# ? May 26, 2024 09:19

Rascyc: Jan 23, 2008; Dissatisfied Puppy

cheetah7071 posted:

Enjoy your five hour queue

Hm I don't know cause the 24 mans should kick in and those are pretty fun too.

You can't seem to even directly queue the 24 mans at the moment though sadly, I sat in one for one and a half hours and no go...

# ? Jul 29, 2017 21:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood

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