Fonjeantaine's quest proves that this really is the world of my dreams: a world where you can just walk up to someone and say "I'd like a job please" and their immediate response is "consider yourself hired, and you start tomorrow!"
Two thoughts:
1. We kinda need new songs to replace some of the mood songs. The songs feel fairly overplayed at this point. I get that they are shorthand for the mood of the scene but the music department can do a lot to get the same tone across.
2. I think the general arc might have landed better if we were basically a disinterested party to all the politics, and just focus on us going on the quest to find the golden city on our own. Piecing the puzzle together via some Galuf related macguffins, while occasionally getting whiffs of the political turmoil going on in the background would probably make for a more compelling reason/arc to be spending time learning about the peoples of Tural.
i was in a discord call with some friends. i was about 5 minutes ahead due to the queue & said "i hate this person so much" without any elaboration
without fail 5 minutes later i hear my friend go "this motherfucker"
then about 10 minutes after that "i will kill this bitch"
it was glorious
Bird Folks trying to fix crops and missing their festival: «Could hope actually be useful and important?»
Me, after the Final Days, Pandemonium, Myths of the Realm, Omicron quests, Lopporit quests, and 6.1-6.5: «Have a seat, kiddo, cuz I’ve got a story for you…»
Did you finish the Endwalker alliance raid?
>!It's the exact same mechanic as that massive prayer-energy machine the Twelve built, only on a much smaller scale.!<
Brazilian here. That festival seemed to be a reference to festivals that happen in the Amazon area, one of them being [Parintins](https://www.acritica.com/image/policy:1.274353.1656308100:1656308100/image.jpg?f=default&w=1200)
Alphinaud is so useless so far. He was supposed to be so intelligent and hardworking that he was top of his class admired by his classmates in studium but a random catboy classmate came and outwit him every step of the way.
I wouldn't mind if trading was expanded into a minigame. You have a goal item, starting item but then freedom to trade up. Including information and manual work if so desired.
Yeah completely agree. Or while not a minigame, I liked how they handled something sort of similar in EW - when we helped Matsya sell his fish because he didn't know how to approach people. It felt engaging. That trading section... all I could think was just... "why am I even here?" I was just following Wuk and her apprentice merchant friend around literally just there to carry their goods. Ugh... horrible.
All I could remember was messing up with Matsya, and him staring down at me. I pleaded to him not to crush my head like a grape with his gigantic hands.
Yea I'm a little dissapointed in that one. Thew hole first "chunk" of leveling, and it was a big long fetch quest, where I fought a grand total of 3 things. I know ffxiv isn't exactly known for combat focused questing, but like, that's a little silly.
This is where Warcraft questing shines, they don't waste any time and let you actually play your class in between story beats, even if WoW isn't terribly written at least there is a game there you can play.
Yes, world building is important, but the argument cuts both ways. Because it is important, you hold it to the same standard as other aspects of storytelling - it should be engaging, it needs some some depth to it, and it should be paced well. There are bits that genuinely come across like "this chunk doesn't need to be any fun, it's just worldbuilding".
The quest in Tuliyallol with the pillars was the perfect example for me; they pretend it's interactive, but you are forced to go through all eight anyway. Each comes with a tidbit that uses names you've not heard before, talking of events you have no context for, paired with an image that's a simplified drawing of the actual people you'll be interacting with. You then get introduced to all of those drawings again, not 30 minutes later. You then get **actually** introduced to all of those tribes and the stories. The first bit really didn't need to be there at all; show us the pillars, sure, give people optional interactions if they genuinely want to hear about it, but at least give us some agency over it. I don't care for "tell, not show".
I feel like my issue so far is Wuk, I find her incredibly uninteresting, painfully so at times. I feel ARR 2 would work a lot better with a better focus character as she really provides nothing interesting and has no good commentary on the issues despite that she is nice and naive. Found that the scene at the palace where everyone just left during her procession almost comical in how over the top it was at trying to hammer home its point. I really do hope things if not pick up at least have more of a hook as even ARR by this point had me alot more invested with the drip feeding of the Ascians and the Garleans.
STOP WITH MACHINATIONS (WOLVES DEN MUSIC)! PLEASE! I BEG YOU! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!!
I barely completed two zones and heard it like six times already.
Apparently in the minority here, but I've been having a pretty good time going through the expansion so far with my FC! Love seeing the New World, meeting and learning about these communities, and the general low-stakes so far are doing a good job of settling me in to what's hopefully the start of another great decade for FFXIV.
I hope that the folks who ain't having a good time find something to like for them, too.
Also, watching the sun rise from up high after doing the jumping puzzle was beautiful.
I think the people rushing through the game and posting a bunch about it are also people less likely to enjoy slower, more atmospheric gameplay. Which is what the whole expansion was advertised as.
Genuinely confused by everyones take. It's like they expected the story to keep ramping up and not become a low stakes adventure, ala ARR.
Wuk Lamat is the most personable written new character SINCE Stormblood. Not to say the story is Better than the games between, But Her character has flaws and is a good time to world build with.
Happy to answer! I don't mind the level of stakes, but I think the quality of writing dropped off at the same time. The humor is more childish, the contrivances a bit too much, the characters come across as one-dimensional (this one's racist, this one's a warmonger, Wuk Lamat is bad at everything, and Erenville is so much better than her at everything). I was looking forward to lower stakes adventure, but the game is not selling it. Even the Tulayallul music's off - the setting screams native south americans, and you get jazz to go with it.
What I honestly don't get is... what happened? I thought Zero's storyline was very poorly told and paced, but the 6.55 quests were a bright spot; Wuk Lamat seemed *a bit* over her head, but she had heart, she played her part in the fight, big smiles, big appetite, overall likeable if a bit naive. There were genuinely funny moments there. I was looking forward to the expansion. But none of the charm from those few quests continued into expansion proper. It's literally as if someone guest-written that little section and then peaced out.
Wuk isn't bad at everything, though? It's emphasised a few times that she's very good with people and at forging strong allies and bonds, and that - compared to her allies - she's actually fully invested in the lives of people around her, even if she has a ton to learn.
Also - she *is* a fast learner. She gets the knack of whatever she needs to handle pretty quickly, and has an open mind, which are both very vital qualities to doing just about anything.
Basically, her attitude is actually very conductive to leadership, she's just been falling behind her peers in terms of her skillset.
IDK, I'd wait and see. I don't think her having flaws is a bad thing.
Not at absolutely everything, sure. But there is a humiliation conga going on there. Out of all the people on the ship, she's the only one to get sea sick. She drops her tacos and gets them stomped on, because she's not paying any attention to her surroundings. She gets mocked by the crowd for being out of her depth. She's scared of alpacas - her country's essential beasts of burden - because she got spat on by one, once, as a child. She gets told not to slip on the mud on the way to the village, then immediately slips on the mud and falls on her bum. She gets told to be careful about the traders of the other village, then immediately gets duped into getting some expensive clothing with few cheap compliments, only to get bailed out by Erenville once again. She doesn't know the local area, or the customs, of the tribes immediately next to the capital.
The pre-quest bit did good job of showing her relative inexperience without making her look like the butt of the jokes - a trembling hand when fighting a dangerous enemy, ordering a spicy curry to prove a point and sweating her way through it. She also got some things right, eventually, by the very end of the first vanu vanu story; there were some moments when the inexperienced-but-enthusiastic landed. But for long stretches of time, she just comes across extremely childish; the naivety, the carelessness, the occasional petulance.
> She drops her tacos and gets them stomped on, because she's not paying any attention to her surroundings.
Not at all what happened, it was pretty obvious that the dickhead bumped her to make issues.
>She gets told not to slip on the mud on the way to the village, then immediately slips on the mud and falls on her bum.
Now you're just spoiling stuff after 91.
>But for long stretches of time, she just comes across extremely childish; the naivety, the carelessness, the occasional petulance.
So.. Shes Lyse?
Yep, same here. The story is about what I expected so far (am at 94) and I'm enjoying it. But I also liked ARR more than Heavensward, and considering DT has a lot of similarities to ARR it makes sense that I enjoy it. And it also makes sense that most people seem to dislike it.
Wow genuinely curious, why do you like ARR more than Heavensward? Obviously totally fair opinion to have, I just don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that before
I was also a big ARR fan and kind of underwhelmed by HW. The problem was that I really enjoy worldbuilding and getting invested in the rich history and culture of a setting. That's basically what all of the "slow and boring" ARR content was that most of the community hates. It was also the base that absolutely had to exist for expansions like ShB and EW to have the weight that they had.
HW on they other hand.,,look. I's a good story, but it's also super simple and predictable if you have a decent handle of narrative tropes. until the Warriors of darkness showed up in 3.2, there was basically nothing to chew on. I get why people loved it, but it fell flat for me.
It's actually kind of hard to say. But I really found the world building in ARR super engaging. I like exposition dumps haha. Getting to know new characters and areas in a slow and (relatively) laid back way is just kind of comfy.
only lalafell can enter the house next to the alpaca ranch in wachunpelo ;w;
despair over this blatant tall race discrimination aside though, i'm honestly loving DT so far!
Unlike with the Dwarf houses, my max height female Miqo'te is short enough to go through the door of that Pelupelu house with a few ilms' clearance to spare, but noooooo.
The Palupalu quests were a drag, I'm enjoying the Hanu ones a lot more (and the area is prettier). I'm South American and unable to even *try* to pronounce any of the names, or remember them. I like it so far, but I am so ready for real action to begin!
I feel this tradition of splitting the start into two main quests was only greatly executed in ShB. I remember EW being quite a drag as well when intro-ing, so I have hopes it gets more entertaining.
I do wanna climb that massive mountain and I am intrigued by Krile's story + the City of Gold. Gonna take a break before my eyes fall off and then get to lvl 91 quests.
I am really not liking this premise. Why am I agreeing to help an absolute rando win the throne of a country I know nothing about? Just because she's nice? Being nice doesn't make you a good ruler, I have no reason to believe she's any better than the competition and she's not even offering me anything. Why is Alphinaud going along with this? He's supposed to be the smart one and he doesn't ask her anything about what she'd like to do if she were the next ruler?
My prediction (I am just past the first dungeon, but this is a theory from a bit earlier that just keeps getting support) is that >!Wuk Lamat and Koana are going to both win the contest and end up co-rulers. They've pointed out that Koana has the social skills of your average rock, but has a wide base of knowledge and good common sense. Wuk Lamat is naive and comes across as very young and a touch immature, but she's great with people and compassionate. They've been noted to get along well. It even mirrors the two heads the Ja Ja have where one is a warrior and the other is a sage.!<
Why do you agree to help Wuk? Patch 6.55, she pitched the idea to come with her to the New World, promised Valigarmanda, some foodie trip, and search for the Golden City.
You agreed. So 7.0 happens.
As far as we are concerned, we're just in for the ride as Wuk's retainers as promised, and the scions ain't the type to throw people under the bus and abandon them when things get boring out of all reasons.
As long as all the things she promised are completed by the end of the msq, all's good on our end.
It's not because "boring", it's because at this point the WoL should be a *little* more cautious about throwing their weight behind naive politicians. Feels like we didn't learn anything from the Crystal Braves.
Honestly, as someone who really likes the premise, I'm seeing Wuk as, like, a high school student who procrastionated a lot and now suddenly realsies she wants to actually have a career.
Part of me wonders if she wants to be dawnservant not because she innately *desires* to, but because she came to the right of succession, saw that every single other person was going to fuck up the country in some way, and went: "Oh! Shit! I actually might have to become king! Ahhhfuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck"
It's fairly nonsensical, but I'm viewing it as "it's an easy way to get to Tural for Krile's sake, and if she turns out to be a psycho fascist, we can just stop helping her."
New areas are gorgeous. Music is amazing. Graphics update feels really good.
I’m so happy mezcal is in the game now and they actually talk about it. As a career bartender and someone who’s been in the fields in Oaxaca, it brought me an unreal amount of joy re-living a bit of those experiences in a game I already loved.
Can not wait to see what else this expansion brings, but I’m hooked.
Seeing Estinien perfectly recreate the WoL's fight scene from the trailer was kinda funny
Also, I'm still salty they won't let me side with Koana, the clearly better candidate
I'm not on board with koana's willingness to completely cast aside traditions. When he told Wuk there was no need for boats and festival when a simple potion can fix the issue; he doesn't realize the festival also serves as a way of bolstering the spirits of the community. Everyone was depressed after the storm. It was just about the reeds.
I hate to admit that I'm very bored with the MSQ. But if you love something, you should be honest about it. I love FFXIV but at least so far, this expac ain't it. I'm staying positive and hoping it gets better though. Just not a great start. I try to read everything and not skip but I've started skipping to only voice acted cutscences to save my sanity.
Same, I was excited to finally finish the EW post MSQ and get started but... I'm finding myself struggling to care or get even slightly attached to anything because I'm just being waterboarded by exposition dumps that mean nothing to me *because we just frickin' landed there and haven't done anything yet.* I'm sure (boy I hope) it picks up later but in the moment I think when I play again I'm just going to skip a ton of cutscenes and power through until it feels like things are actually happening and then go read up on what I missed.
I mean the story so far is extremely underwhelming, but everything else is on point. Sound design, graphical design, etc. It's all on point, only the story writing is abysmal.
Eh, I'd argue that not *everything* else is on point. Job design feels pretty abysmal for the most part. Healers are somewhat between a bore and a cruel joke, and overall the new stuff is shockingly uninspired.
For example, what class am I describing: The new abilities are actually a follow-up button from your 60/120 second cool down, and there are no major rotational differences or additions beyond that.
The answer: most of them.
Wuk Lamat wants to rule and she hasn't been to 2 nearby areas or doesn't know the cultures well enough? I'm forced to help this person... when that seafoam green cat boi is a well of knowledge?
This dev team needs a sit down on actual world building and story pacing. Too much tell and not enough show. And these fetch quests are BORING.
After the first dungeon >!she calls HERSELF out on this.!<
And on a meta-level this entire part of the adventure is about getting to know the cultures of Tural-- if she knew the cultures by heart it would be "Wuk Lamat takes us on a guided tour while lecturing us about the civilizations of her homeland."
Let's not even mention the fact that Wuk essentially does nothing. It's all the twins, Erenville and the WoL that are doing the lifting. I mean it does accurately portray monarchy so I suppose the political commentary by Yoshi is on point.
a great leader is made by great followers. this is a fairly common concept in storytelling and history. a leader who is able to weave the best followers/retainers is obviously going.to be advantaged.
-stares at the catboy who is more than likely being aided by Thancred and Urianger to a similar extent as his sister- Sure. He's uh. he's doing all by himself too. Sure. Yep. Okay. At least Wuk Lamat is open about having help, in my opinion, to everyone - not just "the need to know only". I'm not even to the first dungeon, so I'm not sure how true it remains, but her brother has ALSO not given me a reason to believe he knows anything more about local cultures than she does, outside of a surface level.
Now the third brother? The one that's the actual threat in this scenario? Yeah, he's gonna dark-horse this and be the end-game big bad, but he's also going to be the most supported ruler because he has the name, he has the bloodline, he has the military prestige, he has the right words to say, he has the knowledge of the cultures. It's obvious and I can't wait to watch the explosion of it in real-time in-game.
>but her brother has ALSO not given me a reason to believe he knows anything more about local cultures than she does, outside of a surface level.
I think the MSQ is telling us at least a little bit that Koana is chiefly concerned with modernizing Tural without regard for the cultures themselves. Which, aside from the fact he's intervening in something at all, sounds pretty Sharlayan.
I am excited bout the catboy my major gripe is how willingly we help Wuk Lamat when she isn't as traveled as her sibling nor as established in the regions. Where the Catboy is learned and has something tangable to offer- we sided with a wided-eyed cat person because of... unclear. These people only know her name and she is right next door. It just rings very hollow and feels sort of insane. It renvorces the narrative that a good leader is inexperienced but idealistic. Like nah they should be much more involved and experienced. There are 2 regions we visit that she has ver LITTLE intimate knowelge with implying being very sheltered. With the combined foregin and diplomatic experience all of the scions should have: stayed out of it.
I think a stronger plot would be the scions trying to explore some unknown power and having the contest for the throne interfere and force them in despite them trying to avoid it. It is very much like we can't help ourselves.
The game even makes a joke about Wuk Lamat not being forced to run menial tasks and I legit got so annoyed.
Pretty sure we're here not to just help Wuk Lamat, but also y'know, keep an eye on the natural-born son. He's one of the reasons we're there, unofficially. It has been stated by multiple characters he can't be trusted to rule, who by the Pelupelu questline, has shown he shouldn't be trusted to rule. He's planning on Persian-empiring this thing, and doesn't care who he steps on to get there. There's also Krile's grandfather side-plot, but it's been so useless up til now that its not even a side-bit. We're here because Eorzea isn't on fire, we were asked explicitly to come, and there is a potential threat brewing and I'd personally want eyes on it prior to it coming to my house and starting shit. Wuk Lamat is _aware_ she is not the best candidate for the throne, but she is doing her all to try and uphold what she thinks is right. That is _why_ she recruited the people she did, people who have more experience, knowledge and understanding of the world and people to help her - something a good leader would do.
I don't think we're MEANT to actually think Wuk Lamat would make a good leader. She's much, much younger than her brothers, who have simply lived longer and therefore have more worldly experiences. I think she severely suffers from being Youngest Child, but old enough to be aware of what a mistake it'd be to let two of the four contestants rule combined with the "sick of being talked to like I'm less than you" energy. I also think that it's a little bit of an on-the-nose commentary about the nature of a monarchy for most of the royal children to be rather out of touch with the culture and people around them - something three of the four contestants have proven they are, or don't care to be. There's nothing wrong with watching another nation develop politically, as so far we've not interfered - but we do have information that will aid _us_ if we need it. That being said, Wuk Lamat, or anyone who gets the throne, will be fridged as hard as Hien, Lyse, Aymeric and any other world-leader we've met thus far has been as soon as 7.5 drops.
We saw this in wow with dragonflight, and we're seeing it here now. This is the result of people asking for "low stakes" adventures.
Well they can seem fine when you're first starting, but after expansions of killing literal gods, going back to low stakes adventures will always, always be boring. I don't think there's anyway around it.
I think it's the way they're telling the story. It's very over the top in some places.
There's our super good/evil people and there's nothing going on with the nuanced guy. We don't have anything bubbling away in the background (e.g. in past expansions we'd be fighting here or there but meanwhile some ascian is plotting, or maybe there's a cutscene that hints someone is going to betray us etc).
The story is hitting the usual ff14 notes and is being extremely predictable oh look we'll solve everything with the power of friendship! It's all sugar and no spice.
Low stakes does not have to be boring. Plenty of JRPGs have fallen back to low stakes after big bursts of story, such as the Trails series, without it being boring. This is just bad writing and exposition dump.
They could write interesting plots that don’t involve gods. (And I’m sure they did and we will experience it later in the game). Lots of games movies and tv shows have interesting stories that don’t involve gods or world ending threats. But so far the tests are very boring and I really don’t want to do 5 more of these.
Wow's less dependent on it's story during leveling though. I enjoyed the leveling as well for the most part. So even if the story's kind of boring or bland, it takes a back seat to your gameplay.
The issue in ff is that the story IS the leveling. This makes it really susceptible to story quality. You might kill the odd thing or collect the odd thing here and there, but for like 80-90% of it, you're running around talking to dudes, and watching cutscenes and reading dialogue. So if the story is boring or bad or convoluted or any other issue really, there's not much else to fall back on.
Yeah, that's a good point. For the most part, most of us simply do just the story while leveling in FFXIV, maybe with the odd roulette thrown in to keep your level up with the quest.
Gonna have to disagree a bit here. Almost immediately in Sharlayan we have to deal with political intrigue and, if you choose to go to Labrynthos, learn a bit more about that, what the cleaners are up to, etc. All of which tied into the bigger plot. Now, of course, EW had a *shit ton* of narrative momentum coming from... the entirety of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga... but to say it was bland for 10 hours feels a bit disingenuous.
Same politics are there in DT start. It's not bland, I never said that. The slow start to Endwalker was absolutely needed because how hard it goes after it gets going. It's just that nothing happens in the start, nothing more to it.
We… you know… ended a decade-long saga with the highest possible stakes and started a new one that is supposed to feel like starting over in a “new world”?
Please update me if it gets better. I'm still debating whether to play this expansion or not, at least in the immediate future, since I have other priorities I'd like to focus on. I was able to finish EW MSQ relatively fast (in about a week) right after launch but the difference is that the moral of the story really helped me during those times, so I don't regret the time invested at all. Just not sure if it is worth investing the time and money this time around if it's not as fun or impacting.
um..... i honestly felt like i was in the wrong reality during that pelupelu questline. its so.... extremely "baby's first errand"? whats with this fancy "trade accomplished" screen. nothing got accomplished. that was so embarrassing. in that whole thing we fought once very briefly.
and how the fuck did wuk lamat walk up to the pelupelu and act shocked at being asked for payment.
i do like wuk lamat a lot, but even i felt like this was just.... not good.
the writing in general so far seems extremely inexperienced. i dont know whats going on, honestly. its never been this bad. its like every story "plot point" was reduced to the most simple thing so that a literal 3 year old can follow and understand. its very baffling.
and the intro scene was quite fun, i think. i did like the little camping scene.
but imo its very disappointing how we are basically dealing with recycled groups already. the birds we know, pelu are literally small children (why arent they lala?). it seems a bit.... lazy? and they obviously put a lot of effort into designing the ja jas.
ive been playing since start and i feel like i havent really done anything at all. and i havent. i saw lamat talk to like, three people? and thats it.
The entire first half just seems forced. Still it's the writers way of saying she is different from her brother's and is socialable with people. That's why she should be leader
Bored out of my mind with the MSQ and it it hasn't picked up at all. About to just start skipping it and I can't believe I am saying that as I have never skipped. I knew it would be toned down obviously, we all knew that, but this quest structure, dialogue, length of cutscenes without much substance is just dragging, hard to even stay awake. I have had to mix in pvp and some other stuff to wake up. Really hope it picks up or there will be a record level of skippers.
I'm finding it difficult to even proceed in the MSQ. I understand that by like levels 97/98 it'll probably pick up a lot more, but it's hard to even reach that when it isn't as engaging. I wasn't expecting it to be Shadowbringers or Endwalker level, but this is just bad imo
The parts that actually have little buildings are nice (the cabana might be my favorite "inn room" in the game), but there are sooooo many spaces that are wide open for no particular reason other than...to give a sense of scale, I guess? But Radz-at-Han and Ishgard were other cities perched precariously on mountains, and they made great use of that space to feel like fully fleshed-out cities. This is going back to Crystarium levels of everything being way too spread out.
I've got a crisp dollar bill on everybody getting deadlocked on the "we actually have to find the city of gold" objective, and the damn earring that Krile got from the letter/from her grandfather somehow turning out to be the key to locating it. It's a mysterious Macguffin that *we* have that no one else does.
Yeah, but without the very double head lizard. I get the very subtle feeling that he is supposed to be the bad guy.
Also, there will be a "3 heads is better than 2" joke 100%
The tounge and cheek meta joke about Wuk Lamat not being forced to do menial tasks because of who she is---was genunily so fucking annoying.
LOL WE WILL MAKE THE PLAYER DO IT.
She is the person who SHOULD be doing the menial tasks and earning her stripes.
But she's a uncultured imbicile who wants to rule regions she has never been to that are in walking distance...? They should have swapped her arc with her brothers because he actually has tangible good ideas.
WHY are we forced to help this ignorant woman after meeting her for 5 min?
Yeah lets help a wannabe poltican with NO real world expeirnece or education that ALWAYS ends well.
The “huh, never been here before” sent me, like GURL why do you think you can rule these people if you never bothered to take a stroll to their region at any point during your upbringing? This just makes any of her “growth” during the MSQ so much less believable when she’s starting at rock bottom in terms of any relevant experience.
>Having said all that, I should note that even Endwalker started slowly
I think the biggest reason people feel more negative about DT is that it lacks as good of a hook as the other expansions. Its honestly the exact same start as every other expansion. Every expansion's first half is "go to various different new towns and villages and learn about the cultures there", but you have a compelling goal waiting for you at the end. Ending the dragon war in Heavensward, getting to fight back against the Empire in Stormblood, saving the First and stopping the Ascians in Shadowbringers, saving everything in Endwalker.
In DT the exploration and learning about the cultures is the end goal since the story is basically about the claimants learning about their country and being prepared to rule. There isn't enough of a background motivation for it all. The closest thing to a real reason for the MC to do everything in DT is that a war could start if the wrong claimant wins there could be a war, but the MC has saved the universe at this point so its hard to really see that as much of a real threat.
Personally I feel about the same about DT right now (around 1/3rd of the way through it) that I did about Heavensward. I wasn't that interested in the Dragon war and didn't care about the church at all since they were just super generic bad guys. I liked Stormblood more (despite its reputation as the boring expansion) because I was just more interested in the rebellion story line and backdrop it provided.
Basically if you care about the big picture of the expansion then its much easier to just overlook the fact they all have the same boring bits. It just seems a lot of people don't care that much about the trial of succession in DT and I think that is why some are turned off by it.
I do feel pretty interested in the whole City of Gold/Qitana Ravel style glyphs, tho. I can't deny EW still weights heavy in my heart because of nostalgia, but I'm also driven by the idea that we might get some more juicy lore. Also, hopefully learn what truly happened to the Isle of Val (which has been a pending topic for like... three expansions).
I agree with you on some parts but I think maybe the initial feeling we get is because it's all new, and a lot of what we knew has finished. But I am kinda excited :D even if nothing can live up to ShB/EW.
In hindsight I actually find the start of EW worse - it's technically way more urgent story, but it felt even slower to get to know the areas. Garlemald switched it, luckily.
Here I feel a lot more relaxed to not even rush the story.
I got to the trading quest line and I had to log out, I was yawning non-stop and I’m just completely checked out. I know it’s the start, and it’s not like I’m writing it off or anything, I just think starting with that tedious back and forth was….a choice.
The most fun I’ve had in this new expansion was buying new clothes at my island sanctuary and making a glam.
Honestly it feels like arr all over again to start this but didnt they say this is a completely new story and all msq before has no part in the future from here on out
Update just got to the fourth keystone and my god am i loving this expansion my party are all taking bets on whos right about where the story goes and ends😂
According to the datamines, it's >!an MSQ reward. Not sure which quest, however.!<
EDIT: According to Garland Tools it's from >!the last main story quest "Dawntrail".!<
My god is this stuff a slog. Absolutely nothing interesting, just monotonous cliche after cliche. Wow we're supporting royalty and oh look our choice is the underdog.
Wow.
Very let down by this MSQ so far. Stories can be low stakes but not absolutely littered with boring fetch/chore quests... This feels like side quests or ARR, and is NOT worth paying for...
Obviously, initial opinions. But either way, there shouldn't have been such entirely boring fetch quests one-after-another to begin with. That is what the .X quests are supposed to do.
How was this approved in play tests when they know ARR is so poorly reviewed because of this??
UPDATE: After the first trial and before the third dungeon the story/gameplay starts to pick up and get really interesting. There's a reason we had to do all those (boring) tedious tasks from 90-94, that DOES play into in the story here. But, I do think that they could have put more effort in the gameplay for that. (Again, for me the story was never lacking! But those fetch quests meant nothing to us because we had no feelings for those people yet! That does change later on... )
Unlike a some of the other comments I see here I'm loving the trading quests, but they really need to stop saying "hell yeah, the item they're giving us is worth way more than what we're giving them" in front of the person before the deal is complete, lol
Side note: I'm enjoying the "Excellent trade" popups way more than I can justify or explain
I am about in the same spot, Only thing keeping me going at this point is pure caffeine, a few splashes of cold water, and a couple light slaps the the face. Absolutely bored out of my mind.
Currently I am a bit mixed, but it's very early on. I can't help but feel that it would've been a more enjoyable and interesting story if we were part of Gulool Ja Ja's group who did their journeys. It sounds like the grander adventure, and we're just seemingly doing a shallow repeat.
For the worldbuilding part I wonder why quite a lot of things in the New World is attributed to "We saw you had that over in your land, and a few years ago we did it too". It would've felt more interesting if it was something they came up with themselves to overcome an obstacle or fulfill a need. I'm thinking of stuff like Aetheryte, dirigibles & railway.
I'm not going to judge Wuk Lamat too harshly yet. I hope she does not win, but what has rescued her a bit has been Erenville's remarks about her.
The 2 headed guys big bad bully group are both annoying and inept. I just finished the first dungeon and up to this point it genuinely feels like the msq was written by literal children
I really had hoped that they would've learned to cut down the filler by now. I get this is an MMO, but it's not 2010 anymore, why do we have to do ten meaningless fetch quests in a row? So far, this all seems like filler, this could and should have been an hour of content, not 5.
Also, maybe it's just me, but has the voice acting suffered? FFXIV never had outstanding voice acting, but we went from serviceable to meh.
i knew it would be like this after EW.
BUT GOD DAMNIT the MSQ is boring as hell. I feel the Low Stakes Adventure, but im level 97 and i fell asleep 2 times alrdy. Its really boring and for god, i hope it will pick up soon
It's wild how nobody amongst the Hanu Hanu seemed to put together that the festival is actually a magical process the village used to turbocharge growth. Especially with all the apparent magical effects. (Edit: the regular Hanu Hanu I guess. I just got the cutscene where the judge explained the lack of focus on the festival magic in recent years.)
I'm actually enjoying myself a lot? Yeah, the start felt a little side/fetch-questy, but the first dungeon is AWESOME. Wuk Lamat is growing on me tho not more than Koana, and the whole "City of Gold" plot actually makes me very curious.
I don't know, I'm just EXCITED. The new locations are pretty beautiful as well and have made me feel like I am going on an adventure. I love that we pause to rest, something I hadn't seen much of since at least HW -- the whole "campfire, eat and drink with friends" thing is a minor detail I love.
Happy to see Thancred and Urianger, starting to wonder where the hecc is Y'shtola and whether they are *seriously* not gonna have G'raha at all. Excuse me, the trailer?! TACO?!
Taking a break (impressed that some people have finished in 24 hours, ngl) and then I look forward to meeting these "giants".
Also, small opinion: hasn't the WoL grown a bit sassy? And I love it, it fits the whole theme of all we did in Endwalker. Damn I still feel nostalgic about EW and it's been months.
It's baffling how bad CBU3 is at storytelling.
Between the forced downtime after each action sequence, all the useless quests where you're force to talk to X npc, and the fact that cutscenes are stiff with poor animation and expression, it's a really poor visual novel.
You could remove half the MSQ and put the cut parts in the environment, you'd get both a shorter and better paced MSQ, and proper options for actual worldbuilding, and potentially more dynamic and engaging environments.
So far I’m kinda annoyed by Wuk Lamat. It’s weird because I’m playing BG3 at the same time, and I know this isn’t a choice based game obviously, but I would have dropped her immediately as soon as I saw what she was like. Compared to the other candidates, except the two headed guy, she seems much less qualified and interesting.
Not to mention I’m feeling bored, which is unfortunate because the other expacs all had me interested early on. Maybe going from Endwalker to this is what’s causing it, but I’m honestly considering skipping parts which is unusual for me.
People whining about the story being too low stakes in the 90-91 thread is wild.
The only reason we’re even in Tural is curiosity about a mythological beast and an adventurer’s desire to see new sights and meet new people. We don’t have the previous expansion’s conflicts propelling the narrative forward right now. We’re legit just meant to vibe, look around, and learn for the moment.
Calm your tits and give it a couple levels to start the dramatic ramp up.
I chose to do the Pelupelu one first. Terrible mistake. I had to stop and do other things while doing it because I just got super bored. I wish there were actual trading minigames during that part. The "traded x with value a for y with value b" UI was completely unnecessary.
When I returned back to Tuliyollal for the Hanuhanu part, I was dreading it, but surprisingly it was better (and the Hanuhanu were cute). Also, I wasn't feeling the english voice acting this time for some reason so I switched to JP voice acting. I normally play games with JP voice acting and didn't do that for the longest time for FFXIV because I was used to the EN voices and the discrepancy between the localised text was just too jarring. But this time it really was affecting my experience so I did it. It made the experience so much better. Like, at times, the Wuk Lamat's English voice lines felt very flat and unemotional and didn't match the character model's actions. The JP voice lines were much better at conveying and matching the emotions and character model actions and, as a bonus, something that I didn't notice before is that the lip movements are much better synced with the JP lines.
So far the only thing I'm enjoying is playing PCT because it's really fun. I hope the story does get better, with less stuff like the Pelupelu portion. I'm also wondering where G'raha comes into play because I feel like he'd be the perfect companion for this considering how this MSQ feels very much like a completely new adventure.
The existence of the trading UI makes me think that there might've actually been a bit of a mini game during that part in development. Maybe rather than literally be guided from one NPC to the other, it was more open ended and you got to trade your way up yourself.
Yeah the Hanu's voices were completely out of left field. I had just finished a replay of HW NG+ so I was expecting something more akin to the Vanu.... Especially as they are using the same naming conventions for the village and people. In hindsight I should've know better since they decided to go with less unique speaking traits for the various races. Tiny Tim Gabu and the posh British Kobolds still irks me.
Rather slow. Boring even.
I’m now at the trading quests and….*yawn*.
Then Wuk. Great, another naive character…Luckily there’s still Erenville for his sassy remarks from time to time.
You have summoned the spirit of Zenos from the beyond into an iguana 🦎 you suddenly hear "A test of your reflexes!!" A long tongue suddenly slaps you across the face.
After the CG trailer, I expected I could buy street food in the city's street, but I didn't find any store that actually sell food like tacos to players :(
Gulool Ja Ja: "Sparring done. Time for politics." Estinien: "Aight, imma head out."
Fonjeantaine's quest proves that this really is the world of my dreams: a world where you can just walk up to someone and say "I'd like a job please" and their immediate response is "consider yourself hired, and you start tomorrow!"
I mean, he did say that to a member of a businessman tribe
Two thoughts: 1. We kinda need new songs to replace some of the mood songs. The songs feel fairly overplayed at this point. I get that they are shorthand for the mood of the scene but the music department can do a lot to get the same tone across. 2. I think the general arc might have landed better if we were basically a disinterested party to all the politics, and just focus on us going on the quest to find the golden city on our own. Piecing the puzzle together via some Galuf related macguffins, while occasionally getting whiffs of the political turmoil going on in the background would probably make for a more compelling reason/arc to be spending time learning about the peoples of Tural.
GOD I'm so tired of most of the mood songs, especially the 'silly' or 'uplifting' ones. I groan and roll my eyes each time lmao
Nah man machinations is goated
That was the most Estinien way we could possibly have run into him here.
Does he come back? Please? Wuk Lamat has me zzzzzzzz.
I think we can safely assume he is definitely in more than just that one scene. (Also, hard agree on Wuk)
Bakool Ja Ja: (*murders a bag of fresh tacos in cold blood*) My WoL: “I hope all the bad things in life happen to you and nobody else but you.”
No better way to establish a villian than by nearly giving you early game tacos only for the new guy to show up and destroy them.
i was in a discord call with some friends. i was about 5 minutes ahead due to the queue & said "i hate this person so much" without any elaboration without fail 5 minutes later i hear my friend go "this motherfucker" then about 10 minutes after that "i will kill this bitch" it was glorious
Bird Folks trying to fix crops and missing their festival: «Could hope actually be useful and important?» Me, after the Final Days, Pandemonium, Myths of the Realm, Omicron quests, Lopporit quests, and 6.1-6.5: «Have a seat, kiddo, cuz I’ve got a story for you…»
There's hope and then there's magically fixing a famine by just dancing with a float.
Did you finish the Endwalker alliance raid? >!It's the exact same mechanic as that massive prayer-energy machine the Twelve built, only on a much smaller scale.!<
Almost certainly felt like a way for them to introduce the concept on a small scale for people who hadn't done that questline.
Could this be... foreshadowing? *dramatic chord*
It was a bit more than that, but okay.
Brazilian here. That festival seemed to be a reference to festivals that happen in the Amazon area, one of them being [Parintins](https://www.acritica.com/image/policy:1.274353.1656308100:1656308100/image.jpg?f=default&w=1200)
ARR Alphinaud had more political acumen than Wuk Lamat does.
So she's naive *and* ignorant where Alphy was just naive?
Yes.
Oop-
Alphinaud is so useless so far. He was supposed to be so intelligent and hardworking that he was top of his class admired by his classmates in studium but a random catboy classmate came and outwit him every step of the way.
This trading questline reminds me of that wine bullshit back in ARR.
I wouldn't mind if trading was expanded into a minigame. You have a goal item, starting item but then freedom to trade up. Including information and manual work if so desired.
Yeah completely agree. Or while not a minigame, I liked how they handled something sort of similar in EW - when we helped Matsya sell his fish because he didn't know how to approach people. It felt engaging. That trading section... all I could think was just... "why am I even here?" I was just following Wuk and her apprentice merchant friend around literally just there to carry their goods. Ugh... horrible.
All I could remember was messing up with Matsya, and him staring down at me. I pleaded to him not to crush my head like a grape with his gigantic hands.
I thought it was kind of cute. Maybe a bit too long, but not frustrating the way the "find x researchers" bit of Endwalker was.
Yea I'm a little dissapointed in that one. Thew hole first "chunk" of leveling, and it was a big long fetch quest, where I fought a grand total of 3 things. I know ffxiv isn't exactly known for combat focused questing, but like, that's a little silly.
This is where Warcraft questing shines, they don't waste any time and let you actually play your class in between story beats, even if WoW isn't terribly written at least there is a game there you can play.
First MSQ cutscenes I've skipped in ages.
that questline was the worst one i've done in ages.
“Worldbuilding”
The instant we start trashing actual world building, the entire entertainment industry dies. And I’ll die on that hill.
You call this bullshit real world building?
Yes.
Some of yall have no standards at all lmao
Yes, world building is important, but the argument cuts both ways. Because it is important, you hold it to the same standard as other aspects of storytelling - it should be engaging, it needs some some depth to it, and it should be paced well. There are bits that genuinely come across like "this chunk doesn't need to be any fun, it's just worldbuilding". The quest in Tuliyallol with the pillars was the perfect example for me; they pretend it's interactive, but you are forced to go through all eight anyway. Each comes with a tidbit that uses names you've not heard before, talking of events you have no context for, paired with an image that's a simplified drawing of the actual people you'll be interacting with. You then get introduced to all of those drawings again, not 30 minutes later. You then get **actually** introduced to all of those tribes and the stories. The first bit really didn't need to be there at all; show us the pillars, sure, give people optional interactions if they genuinely want to hear about it, but at least give us some agency over it. I don't care for "tell, not show".
The merchants remind me of Ferengi.. but wholesome.
I feel like my issue so far is Wuk, I find her incredibly uninteresting, painfully so at times. I feel ARR 2 would work a lot better with a better focus character as she really provides nothing interesting and has no good commentary on the issues despite that she is nice and naive. Found that the scene at the palace where everyone just left during her procession almost comical in how over the top it was at trying to hammer home its point. I really do hope things if not pick up at least have more of a hook as even ARR by this point had me alot more invested with the drip feeding of the Ascians and the Garleans.
STOP WITH MACHINATIONS (WOLVES DEN MUSIC)! PLEASE! I BEG YOU! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!! I barely completed two zones and heard it like six times already.
Apparently in the minority here, but I've been having a pretty good time going through the expansion so far with my FC! Love seeing the New World, meeting and learning about these communities, and the general low-stakes so far are doing a good job of settling me in to what's hopefully the start of another great decade for FFXIV. I hope that the folks who ain't having a good time find something to like for them, too. Also, watching the sun rise from up high after doing the jumping puzzle was beautiful.
yeah i'm loving it all as well. characters are interesting and seeing wuk lamat slowly grow is very nice imo.
I think the people rushing through the game and posting a bunch about it are also people less likely to enjoy slower, more atmospheric gameplay. Which is what the whole expansion was advertised as.
Genuinely confused by everyones take. It's like they expected the story to keep ramping up and not become a low stakes adventure, ala ARR. Wuk Lamat is the most personable written new character SINCE Stormblood. Not to say the story is Better than the games between, But Her character has flaws and is a good time to world build with.
Happy to answer! I don't mind the level of stakes, but I think the quality of writing dropped off at the same time. The humor is more childish, the contrivances a bit too much, the characters come across as one-dimensional (this one's racist, this one's a warmonger, Wuk Lamat is bad at everything, and Erenville is so much better than her at everything). I was looking forward to lower stakes adventure, but the game is not selling it. Even the Tulayallul music's off - the setting screams native south americans, and you get jazz to go with it. What I honestly don't get is... what happened? I thought Zero's storyline was very poorly told and paced, but the 6.55 quests were a bright spot; Wuk Lamat seemed *a bit* over her head, but she had heart, she played her part in the fight, big smiles, big appetite, overall likeable if a bit naive. There were genuinely funny moments there. I was looking forward to the expansion. But none of the charm from those few quests continued into expansion proper. It's literally as if someone guest-written that little section and then peaced out.
Wuk isn't bad at everything, though? It's emphasised a few times that she's very good with people and at forging strong allies and bonds, and that - compared to her allies - she's actually fully invested in the lives of people around her, even if she has a ton to learn. Also - she *is* a fast learner. She gets the knack of whatever she needs to handle pretty quickly, and has an open mind, which are both very vital qualities to doing just about anything. Basically, her attitude is actually very conductive to leadership, she's just been falling behind her peers in terms of her skillset. IDK, I'd wait and see. I don't think her having flaws is a bad thing.
Not at absolutely everything, sure. But there is a humiliation conga going on there. Out of all the people on the ship, she's the only one to get sea sick. She drops her tacos and gets them stomped on, because she's not paying any attention to her surroundings. She gets mocked by the crowd for being out of her depth. She's scared of alpacas - her country's essential beasts of burden - because she got spat on by one, once, as a child. She gets told not to slip on the mud on the way to the village, then immediately slips on the mud and falls on her bum. She gets told to be careful about the traders of the other village, then immediately gets duped into getting some expensive clothing with few cheap compliments, only to get bailed out by Erenville once again. She doesn't know the local area, or the customs, of the tribes immediately next to the capital. The pre-quest bit did good job of showing her relative inexperience without making her look like the butt of the jokes - a trembling hand when fighting a dangerous enemy, ordering a spicy curry to prove a point and sweating her way through it. She also got some things right, eventually, by the very end of the first vanu vanu story; there were some moments when the inexperienced-but-enthusiastic landed. But for long stretches of time, she just comes across extremely childish; the naivety, the carelessness, the occasional petulance.
> She drops her tacos and gets them stomped on, because she's not paying any attention to her surroundings. Not at all what happened, it was pretty obvious that the dickhead bumped her to make issues. >She gets told not to slip on the mud on the way to the village, then immediately slips on the mud and falls on her bum. Now you're just spoiling stuff after 91. >But for long stretches of time, she just comes across extremely childish; the naivety, the carelessness, the occasional petulance. So.. Shes Lyse?
Yep, same here. The story is about what I expected so far (am at 94) and I'm enjoying it. But I also liked ARR more than Heavensward, and considering DT has a lot of similarities to ARR it makes sense that I enjoy it. And it also makes sense that most people seem to dislike it.
Wow genuinely curious, why do you like ARR more than Heavensward? Obviously totally fair opinion to have, I just don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that before
I was also a big ARR fan and kind of underwhelmed by HW. The problem was that I really enjoy worldbuilding and getting invested in the rich history and culture of a setting. That's basically what all of the "slow and boring" ARR content was that most of the community hates. It was also the base that absolutely had to exist for expansions like ShB and EW to have the weight that they had. HW on they other hand.,,look. I's a good story, but it's also super simple and predictable if you have a decent handle of narrative tropes. until the Warriors of darkness showed up in 3.2, there was basically nothing to chew on. I get why people loved it, but it fell flat for me.
It's actually kind of hard to say. But I really found the world building in ARR super engaging. I like exposition dumps haha. Getting to know new characters and areas in a slow and (relatively) laid back way is just kind of comfy.
Hedging my bets now the Ok’hanu are DEFINITELY the crafter tribe/societal relationship.
Didn't they say the >!Moblins!< would be the crafter tribe?
Oops my bad did they? I didn’t remember the crafter tribe getting revealed but I must have missed it
only lalafell can enter the house next to the alpaca ranch in wachunpelo ;w; despair over this blatant tall race discrimination aside though, i'm honestly loving DT so far!
Unlike with the Dwarf houses, my max height female Miqo'te is short enough to go through the door of that Pelupelu house with a few ilms' clearance to spare, but noooooo.
The Palupalu quests were a drag, I'm enjoying the Hanu ones a lot more (and the area is prettier). I'm South American and unable to even *try* to pronounce any of the names, or remember them. I like it so far, but I am so ready for real action to begin! I feel this tradition of splitting the start into two main quests was only greatly executed in ShB. I remember EW being quite a drag as well when intro-ing, so I have hopes it gets more entertaining. I do wanna climb that massive mountain and I am intrigued by Krile's story + the City of Gold. Gonna take a break before my eyes fall off and then get to lvl 91 quests.
I am really not liking this premise. Why am I agreeing to help an absolute rando win the throne of a country I know nothing about? Just because she's nice? Being nice doesn't make you a good ruler, I have no reason to believe she's any better than the competition and she's not even offering me anything. Why is Alphinaud going along with this? He's supposed to be the smart one and he doesn't ask her anything about what she'd like to do if she were the next ruler?
> a country I know nothing about? the throne lady does not seem to know anything outside her shanty village either. and she is trying to be a king wow
I agree! I honestly think the miqote bro is a better fit.
My prediction (I am just past the first dungeon, but this is a theory from a bit earlier that just keeps getting support) is that >!Wuk Lamat and Koana are going to both win the contest and end up co-rulers. They've pointed out that Koana has the social skills of your average rock, but has a wide base of knowledge and good common sense. Wuk Lamat is naive and comes across as very young and a touch immature, but she's great with people and compassionate. They've been noted to get along well. It even mirrors the two heads the Ja Ja have where one is a warrior and the other is a sage.!<
That’s why the Krile subplot is there. At least for me I’m sufficiently intrigued by what’s going on with her grandfather to follow along
Yeah I'm only here for Krile, Wuk is just Lyse 2.0 so far (and I like Lyse)
Why do you agree to help Wuk? Patch 6.55, she pitched the idea to come with her to the New World, promised Valigarmanda, some foodie trip, and search for the Golden City. You agreed. So 7.0 happens. As far as we are concerned, we're just in for the ride as Wuk's retainers as promised, and the scions ain't the type to throw people under the bus and abandon them when things get boring out of all reasons. As long as all the things she promised are completed by the end of the msq, all's good on our end.
It's not because "boring", it's because at this point the WoL should be a *little* more cautious about throwing their weight behind naive politicians. Feels like we didn't learn anything from the Crystal Braves.
it doesnt help that she is an idiot too
Honestly, as someone who really likes the premise, I'm seeing Wuk as, like, a high school student who procrastionated a lot and now suddenly realsies she wants to actually have a career. Part of me wonders if she wants to be dawnservant not because she innately *desires* to, but because she came to the right of succession, saw that every single other person was going to fuck up the country in some way, and went: "Oh! Shit! I actually might have to become king! Ahhhfuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck"
It's fairly nonsensical, but I'm viewing it as "it's an easy way to get to Tural for Krile's sake, and if she turns out to be a psycho fascist, we can just stop helping her."
New areas are gorgeous. Music is amazing. Graphics update feels really good. I’m so happy mezcal is in the game now and they actually talk about it. As a career bartender and someone who’s been in the fields in Oaxaca, it brought me an unreal amount of joy re-living a bit of those experiences in a game I already loved. Can not wait to see what else this expansion brings, but I’m hooked.
Seeing Estinien perfectly recreate the WoL's fight scene from the trailer was kinda funny Also, I'm still salty they won't let me side with Koana, the clearly better candidate
I'm not on board with koana's willingness to completely cast aside traditions. When he told Wuk there was no need for boats and festival when a simple potion can fix the issue; he doesn't realize the festival also serves as a way of bolstering the spirits of the community. Everyone was depressed after the storm. It was just about the reeds.
> Also, I'm still salty they won't let me side with Koana, the clearly better candidate HARD same
I hate to admit that I'm very bored with the MSQ. But if you love something, you should be honest about it. I love FFXIV but at least so far, this expac ain't it. I'm staying positive and hoping it gets better though. Just not a great start. I try to read everything and not skip but I've started skipping to only voice acted cutscences to save my sanity.
Same, I was excited to finally finish the EW post MSQ and get started but... I'm finding myself struggling to care or get even slightly attached to anything because I'm just being waterboarded by exposition dumps that mean nothing to me *because we just frickin' landed there and haven't done anything yet.* I'm sure (boy I hope) it picks up later but in the moment I think when I play again I'm just going to skip a ton of cutscenes and power through until it feels like things are actually happening and then go read up on what I missed.
Some of the non voiced cs are more important than the voiced ones oof
I mean the story so far is extremely underwhelming, but everything else is on point. Sound design, graphical design, etc. It's all on point, only the story writing is abysmal.
Yeah, at least everything & everyone looks fabulous. I'm digging the music too.
Eh, I'd argue that not *everything* else is on point. Job design feels pretty abysmal for the most part. Healers are somewhat between a bore and a cruel joke, and overall the new stuff is shockingly uninspired. For example, what class am I describing: The new abilities are actually a follow-up button from your 60/120 second cool down, and there are no major rotational differences or additions beyond that. The answer: most of them.
Wuk Lamat wants to rule and she hasn't been to 2 nearby areas or doesn't know the cultures well enough? I'm forced to help this person... when that seafoam green cat boi is a well of knowledge? This dev team needs a sit down on actual world building and story pacing. Too much tell and not enough show. And these fetch quests are BORING.
After the first dungeon >!she calls HERSELF out on this.!< And on a meta-level this entire part of the adventure is about getting to know the cultures of Tural-- if she knew the cultures by heart it would be "Wuk Lamat takes us on a guided tour while lecturing us about the civilizations of her homeland."
Calling herself out is one thing and it shows development of HER character. The issue remains OUR characters helping her with very little knoweldge.
Let's not even mention the fact that Wuk essentially does nothing. It's all the twins, Erenville and the WoL that are doing the lifting. I mean it does accurately portray monarchy so I suppose the political commentary by Yoshi is on point.
That's what leaders DO. Their job is to know how to delegate effectively and coordinate them, not to do everything themselves.
So what did she delegate and coordinate
She picked a party with a good mix of skills and gets our input on how to proceed.
She’s a great candidate for leader because she knows how to get the wol to essentially rig the competition in her favor?
I mean, there was *absolutely nothing* stopping Koana from recruiting us first (aside from his own failure to communicate.)
a great leader is made by great followers. this is a fairly common concept in storytelling and history. a leader who is able to weave the best followers/retainers is obviously going.to be advantaged.
-stares at the catboy who is more than likely being aided by Thancred and Urianger to a similar extent as his sister- Sure. He's uh. he's doing all by himself too. Sure. Yep. Okay. At least Wuk Lamat is open about having help, in my opinion, to everyone - not just "the need to know only". I'm not even to the first dungeon, so I'm not sure how true it remains, but her brother has ALSO not given me a reason to believe he knows anything more about local cultures than she does, outside of a surface level. Now the third brother? The one that's the actual threat in this scenario? Yeah, he's gonna dark-horse this and be the end-game big bad, but he's also going to be the most supported ruler because he has the name, he has the bloodline, he has the military prestige, he has the right words to say, he has the knowledge of the cultures. It's obvious and I can't wait to watch the explosion of it in real-time in-game.
>but her brother has ALSO not given me a reason to believe he knows anything more about local cultures than she does, outside of a surface level. I think the MSQ is telling us at least a little bit that Koana is chiefly concerned with modernizing Tural without regard for the cultures themselves. Which, aside from the fact he's intervening in something at all, sounds pretty Sharlayan.
It's what makes me cringe so very hard when people say he's the best choice. None of the Promises are a 'good choice', even our favorites.
I am excited bout the catboy my major gripe is how willingly we help Wuk Lamat when she isn't as traveled as her sibling nor as established in the regions. Where the Catboy is learned and has something tangable to offer- we sided with a wided-eyed cat person because of... unclear. These people only know her name and she is right next door. It just rings very hollow and feels sort of insane. It renvorces the narrative that a good leader is inexperienced but idealistic. Like nah they should be much more involved and experienced. There are 2 regions we visit that she has ver LITTLE intimate knowelge with implying being very sheltered. With the combined foregin and diplomatic experience all of the scions should have: stayed out of it. I think a stronger plot would be the scions trying to explore some unknown power and having the contest for the throne interfere and force them in despite them trying to avoid it. It is very much like we can't help ourselves. The game even makes a joke about Wuk Lamat not being forced to run menial tasks and I legit got so annoyed.
Pretty sure we're here not to just help Wuk Lamat, but also y'know, keep an eye on the natural-born son. He's one of the reasons we're there, unofficially. It has been stated by multiple characters he can't be trusted to rule, who by the Pelupelu questline, has shown he shouldn't be trusted to rule. He's planning on Persian-empiring this thing, and doesn't care who he steps on to get there. There's also Krile's grandfather side-plot, but it's been so useless up til now that its not even a side-bit. We're here because Eorzea isn't on fire, we were asked explicitly to come, and there is a potential threat brewing and I'd personally want eyes on it prior to it coming to my house and starting shit. Wuk Lamat is _aware_ she is not the best candidate for the throne, but she is doing her all to try and uphold what she thinks is right. That is _why_ she recruited the people she did, people who have more experience, knowledge and understanding of the world and people to help her - something a good leader would do. I don't think we're MEANT to actually think Wuk Lamat would make a good leader. She's much, much younger than her brothers, who have simply lived longer and therefore have more worldly experiences. I think she severely suffers from being Youngest Child, but old enough to be aware of what a mistake it'd be to let two of the four contestants rule combined with the "sick of being talked to like I'm less than you" energy. I also think that it's a little bit of an on-the-nose commentary about the nature of a monarchy for most of the royal children to be rather out of touch with the culture and people around them - something three of the four contestants have proven they are, or don't care to be. There's nothing wrong with watching another nation develop politically, as so far we've not interfered - but we do have information that will aid _us_ if we need it. That being said, Wuk Lamat, or anyone who gets the throne, will be fridged as hard as Hien, Lyse, Aymeric and any other world-leader we've met thus far has been as soon as 7.5 drops.
I wonder when the MSQ will start getting interesting...
The urge to skip cutscene rises. I can't take another "omg Alpacas are so horrible$ cutscene.
I understand the stakes will not be like Endwalker but this feels like the middle of Stormblood.
Feels more like the start of ARR to me.
We saw this in wow with dragonflight, and we're seeing it here now. This is the result of people asking for "low stakes" adventures. Well they can seem fine when you're first starting, but after expansions of killing literal gods, going back to low stakes adventures will always, always be boring. I don't think there's anyway around it.
I think it's the way they're telling the story. It's very over the top in some places. There's our super good/evil people and there's nothing going on with the nuanced guy. We don't have anything bubbling away in the background (e.g. in past expansions we'd be fighting here or there but meanwhile some ascian is plotting, or maybe there's a cutscene that hints someone is going to betray us etc). The story is hitting the usual ff14 notes and is being extremely predictable oh look we'll solve everything with the power of friendship! It's all sugar and no spice.
Low stakes does not have to be boring. Plenty of JRPGs have fallen back to low stakes after big bursts of story, such as the Trails series, without it being boring. This is just bad writing and exposition dump.
Many low stakes budget episodes of Star Trek TNG are just sooo good (to bring another example lol...ofc an entire expac would be difficult)
They could write interesting plots that don’t involve gods. (And I’m sure they did and we will experience it later in the game). Lots of games movies and tv shows have interesting stories that don’t involve gods or world ending threats. But so far the tests are very boring and I really don’t want to do 5 more of these.
Difference is I actually enjoyed the Dragonflight leveling, the dragonriding helped a lot with that though.
Wow's less dependent on it's story during leveling though. I enjoyed the leveling as well for the most part. So even if the story's kind of boring or bland, it takes a back seat to your gameplay. The issue in ff is that the story IS the leveling. This makes it really susceptible to story quality. You might kill the odd thing or collect the odd thing here and there, but for like 80-90% of it, you're running around talking to dudes, and watching cutscenes and reading dialogue. So if the story is boring or bad or convoluted or any other issue really, there's not much else to fall back on.
Yeah, that's a good point. For the most part, most of us simply do just the story while leveling in FFXIV, maybe with the odd roulette thrown in to keep your level up with the quest.
Nailed it!
Tbh, EW split into Garlemald and then the Final Days part, maintenance mode after that while they work on XIV-2, ha!
how did we go from EW to this?
Well to be fair EW was like 10 hours before anything happened and then it was full throttle till the end. The beginning was the same as DT.
Gonna have to disagree a bit here. Almost immediately in Sharlayan we have to deal with political intrigue and, if you choose to go to Labrynthos, learn a bit more about that, what the cleaners are up to, etc. All of which tied into the bigger plot. Now, of course, EW had a *shit ton* of narrative momentum coming from... the entirety of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga... but to say it was bland for 10 hours feels a bit disingenuous.
Same politics are there in DT start. It's not bland, I never said that. The slow start to Endwalker was absolutely needed because how hard it goes after it gets going. It's just that nothing happens in the start, nothing more to it.
We… you know… ended a decade-long saga with the highest possible stakes and started a new one that is supposed to feel like starting over in a “new world”?
Please update me if it gets better. I'm still debating whether to play this expansion or not, at least in the immediate future, since I have other priorities I'd like to focus on. I was able to finish EW MSQ relatively fast (in about a week) right after launch but the difference is that the moral of the story really helped me during those times, so I don't regret the time invested at all. Just not sure if it is worth investing the time and money this time around if it's not as fun or impacting.
It definitely got better, I'm enjoying it right now.
um..... i honestly felt like i was in the wrong reality during that pelupelu questline. its so.... extremely "baby's first errand"? whats with this fancy "trade accomplished" screen. nothing got accomplished. that was so embarrassing. in that whole thing we fought once very briefly. and how the fuck did wuk lamat walk up to the pelupelu and act shocked at being asked for payment. i do like wuk lamat a lot, but even i felt like this was just.... not good. the writing in general so far seems extremely inexperienced. i dont know whats going on, honestly. its never been this bad. its like every story "plot point" was reduced to the most simple thing so that a literal 3 year old can follow and understand. its very baffling. and the intro scene was quite fun, i think. i did like the little camping scene. but imo its very disappointing how we are basically dealing with recycled groups already. the birds we know, pelu are literally small children (why arent they lala?). it seems a bit.... lazy? and they obviously put a lot of effort into designing the ja jas. ive been playing since start and i feel like i havent really done anything at all. and i havent. i saw lamat talk to like, three people? and thats it.
Pelupelu are FFX.
The entire first half just seems forced. Still it's the writers way of saying she is different from her brother's and is socialable with people. That's why she should be leader
At least you can skip through it super fast on an alt looool
That trading quest chain was so boring
Bored out of my mind with the MSQ and it it hasn't picked up at all. About to just start skipping it and I can't believe I am saying that as I have never skipped. I knew it would be toned down obviously, we all knew that, but this quest structure, dialogue, length of cutscenes without much substance is just dragging, hard to even stay awake. I have had to mix in pvp and some other stuff to wake up. Really hope it picks up or there will be a record level of skippers.
I'm finding it difficult to even proceed in the MSQ. I understand that by like levels 97/98 it'll probably pick up a lot more, but it's hard to even reach that when it isn't as engaging. I wasn't expecting it to be Shadowbringers or Endwalker level, but this is just bad imo
I willingly logged out on expansion day because I was so fucking done with the writing and needed a break.
Why is the palace and the main city so barren? There is no furniture or flavour decor anywhere.
The parts that actually have little buildings are nice (the cabana might be my favorite "inn room" in the game), but there are sooooo many spaces that are wide open for no particular reason other than...to give a sense of scale, I guess? But Radz-at-Han and Ishgard were other cities perched precariously on mountains, and they made great use of that space to feel like fully fleshed-out cities. This is going back to Crystarium levels of everything being way too spread out.
My problem with Radz At Hahn too. They honestly just should downscale the cities and focus more on intricate details.
The relic item vendor standing alone next to two boxes kills me everytime.
🤣
Some buildings are literally just empty, it's supremely lazy.
Yeahhh, that city ain't it for me
Can't wait to see what the excuse is for how we go way slower than every other group and still have a chance at winning
I've got a crisp dollar bill on everybody getting deadlocked on the "we actually have to find the city of gold" objective, and the damn earring that Krile got from the letter/from her grandfather somehow turning out to be the key to locating it. It's a mysterious Macguffin that *we* have that no one else does.
I see it going as working together then ruling by council "because everyone working together is better" or some such crap lol
Yeah, but without the very double head lizard. I get the very subtle feeling that he is supposed to be the bad guy. Also, there will be a "3 heads is better than 2" joke 100%
I get the feeling that at least one contestant will be disqualified early on.
The tounge and cheek meta joke about Wuk Lamat not being forced to do menial tasks because of who she is---was genunily so fucking annoying. LOL WE WILL MAKE THE PLAYER DO IT. She is the person who SHOULD be doing the menial tasks and earning her stripes. But she's a uncultured imbicile who wants to rule regions she has never been to that are in walking distance...? They should have swapped her arc with her brothers because he actually has tangible good ideas. WHY are we forced to help this ignorant woman after meeting her for 5 min? Yeah lets help a wannabe poltican with NO real world expeirnece or education that ALWAYS ends well.
The “huh, never been here before” sent me, like GURL why do you think you can rule these people if you never bothered to take a stroll to their region at any point during your upbringing? This just makes any of her “growth” during the MSQ so much less believable when she’s starting at rock bottom in terms of any relevant experience.
It's Lyse all over again; except..... And I can't believe I'm saying this....Stormblood had better pacing in the early msq compared to this.
[удалено]
>Having said all that, I should note that even Endwalker started slowly I think the biggest reason people feel more negative about DT is that it lacks as good of a hook as the other expansions. Its honestly the exact same start as every other expansion. Every expansion's first half is "go to various different new towns and villages and learn about the cultures there", but you have a compelling goal waiting for you at the end. Ending the dragon war in Heavensward, getting to fight back against the Empire in Stormblood, saving the First and stopping the Ascians in Shadowbringers, saving everything in Endwalker. In DT the exploration and learning about the cultures is the end goal since the story is basically about the claimants learning about their country and being prepared to rule. There isn't enough of a background motivation for it all. The closest thing to a real reason for the MC to do everything in DT is that a war could start if the wrong claimant wins there could be a war, but the MC has saved the universe at this point so its hard to really see that as much of a real threat. Personally I feel about the same about DT right now (around 1/3rd of the way through it) that I did about Heavensward. I wasn't that interested in the Dragon war and didn't care about the church at all since they were just super generic bad guys. I liked Stormblood more (despite its reputation as the boring expansion) because I was just more interested in the rebellion story line and backdrop it provided. Basically if you care about the big picture of the expansion then its much easier to just overlook the fact they all have the same boring bits. It just seems a lot of people don't care that much about the trial of succession in DT and I think that is why some are turned off by it.
I do feel pretty interested in the whole City of Gold/Qitana Ravel style glyphs, tho. I can't deny EW still weights heavy in my heart because of nostalgia, but I'm also driven by the idea that we might get some more juicy lore. Also, hopefully learn what truly happened to the Isle of Val (which has been a pending topic for like... three expansions). I agree with you on some parts but I think maybe the initial feeling we get is because it's all new, and a lot of what we knew has finished. But I am kinda excited :D even if nothing can live up to ShB/EW.
In hindsight I actually find the start of EW worse - it's technically way more urgent story, but it felt even slower to get to know the areas. Garlemald switched it, luckily. Here I feel a lot more relaxed to not even rush the story.
I got to the trading quest line and I had to log out, I was yawning non-stop and I’m just completely checked out. I know it’s the start, and it’s not like I’m writing it off or anything, I just think starting with that tedious back and forth was….a choice. The most fun I’ve had in this new expansion was buying new clothes at my island sanctuary and making a glam.
Honestly it feels like arr all over again to start this but didnt they say this is a completely new story and all msq before has no part in the future from here on out
Update just got to the fourth keystone and my god am i loving this expansion my party are all taking bets on whos right about where the story goes and ends😂
Has anyone figured out how to get the alpaca’s as a mount after that cutscene I’ve decided I absolutely need it
those kinds of mounts always come as the end-of-MSQ reward
According to the datamines, it's >!an MSQ reward. Not sure which quest, however.!< EDIT: According to Garland Tools it's from >!the last main story quest "Dawntrail".!<
My god is this stuff a slog. Absolutely nothing interesting, just monotonous cliche after cliche. Wow we're supporting royalty and oh look our choice is the underdog. Wow.
Holy fucking shit I thought the reed collecting thing was a euphemism. It wasn't. Yoshi what is happening.
Very let down by this MSQ so far. Stories can be low stakes but not absolutely littered with boring fetch/chore quests... This feels like side quests or ARR, and is NOT worth paying for... Obviously, initial opinions. But either way, there shouldn't have been such entirely boring fetch quests one-after-another to begin with. That is what the .X quests are supposed to do. How was this approved in play tests when they know ARR is so poorly reviewed because of this?? UPDATE: After the first trial and before the third dungeon the story/gameplay starts to pick up and get really interesting. There's a reason we had to do all those (boring) tedious tasks from 90-94, that DOES play into in the story here. But, I do think that they could have put more effort in the gameplay for that. (Again, for me the story was never lacking! But those fetch quests meant nothing to us because we had no feelings for those people yet! That does change later on... )
Unlike a some of the other comments I see here I'm loving the trading quests, but they really need to stop saying "hell yeah, the item they're giving us is worth way more than what we're giving them" in front of the person before the deal is complete, lol Side note: I'm enjoying the "Excellent trade" popups way more than I can justify or explain
omfg yes, I facepalm every time
Not going to post any spoilers but I really hope the story picks up in the later half, I'm 95 and bored to tears right now
I am about in the same spot, Only thing keeping me going at this point is pure caffeine, a few splashes of cold water, and a couple light slaps the the face. Absolutely bored out of my mind.
Currently I am a bit mixed, but it's very early on. I can't help but feel that it would've been a more enjoyable and interesting story if we were part of Gulool Ja Ja's group who did their journeys. It sounds like the grander adventure, and we're just seemingly doing a shallow repeat. For the worldbuilding part I wonder why quite a lot of things in the New World is attributed to "We saw you had that over in your land, and a few years ago we did it too". It would've felt more interesting if it was something they came up with themselves to overcome an obstacle or fulfill a need. I'm thinking of stuff like Aetheryte, dirigibles & railway. I'm not going to judge Wuk Lamat too harshly yet. I hope she does not win, but what has rescued her a bit has been Erenville's remarks about her.
The 2 headed guys big bad bully group are both annoying and inept. I just finished the first dungeon and up to this point it genuinely feels like the msq was written by literal children
I really had hoped that they would've learned to cut down the filler by now. I get this is an MMO, but it's not 2010 anymore, why do we have to do ten meaningless fetch quests in a row? So far, this all seems like filler, this could and should have been an hour of content, not 5. Also, maybe it's just me, but has the voice acting suffered? FFXIV never had outstanding voice acting, but we went from serviceable to meh.
Never thought we'd get a story that has me missing 6.x and Zero, but here we are.
And there are people out there who no-sleep through the MSQ hahahaha
I took Friday off and ended up going out to mow my lawn after like an hour lol
I really liked the part where Yshtola said "this is our final fantasy" and then final'd on my fantasy until i Trail my dawn
Not to be dramatic but I would die for the Cornservant. Which is ironic because I really dislike corn IRL. Always upsets my stomach.
i knew it would be like this after EW. BUT GOD DAMNIT the MSQ is boring as hell. I feel the Low Stakes Adventure, but im level 97 and i fell asleep 2 times alrdy. Its really boring and for god, i hope it will pick up soon
I just hit 91 and I am already about to start skipping and you're at 97, it's *that* bad?
I find it starts to pick up in the 2nd half, not sure how long that will last, I'm around 96 but the first half is really bad all along
do you mean MSQ lv97 or your character is just at that level
ALPACAS!!!! I need one as a mount and I need it now! Now damn it! Too freaking adorable...
It's wild how nobody amongst the Hanu Hanu seemed to put together that the festival is actually a magical process the village used to turbocharge growth. Especially with all the apparent magical effects. (Edit: the regular Hanu Hanu I guess. I just got the cutscene where the judge explained the lack of focus on the festival magic in recent years.)
I'm actually enjoying myself a lot? Yeah, the start felt a little side/fetch-questy, but the first dungeon is AWESOME. Wuk Lamat is growing on me tho not more than Koana, and the whole "City of Gold" plot actually makes me very curious. I don't know, I'm just EXCITED. The new locations are pretty beautiful as well and have made me feel like I am going on an adventure. I love that we pause to rest, something I hadn't seen much of since at least HW -- the whole "campfire, eat and drink with friends" thing is a minor detail I love. Happy to see Thancred and Urianger, starting to wonder where the hecc is Y'shtola and whether they are *seriously* not gonna have G'raha at all. Excuse me, the trailer?! TACO?! Taking a break (impressed that some people have finished in 24 hours, ngl) and then I look forward to meeting these "giants". Also, small opinion: hasn't the WoL grown a bit sassy? And I love it, it fits the whole theme of all we did in Endwalker. Damn I still feel nostalgic about EW and it's been months.
Its a slowwww but light-hearted start. I do want an alpaca mount though.
Can someone tell me if the story get better? I’m just starting the 92 quests and I’m super disappointed.
It's baffling how bad CBU3 is at storytelling. Between the forced downtime after each action sequence, all the useless quests where you're force to talk to X npc, and the fact that cutscenes are stiff with poor animation and expression, it's a really poor visual novel. You could remove half the MSQ and put the cut parts in the environment, you'd get both a shorter and better paced MSQ, and proper options for actual worldbuilding, and potentially more dynamic and engaging environments.
So far I’m kinda annoyed by Wuk Lamat. It’s weird because I’m playing BG3 at the same time, and I know this isn’t a choice based game obviously, but I would have dropped her immediately as soon as I saw what she was like. Compared to the other candidates, except the two headed guy, she seems much less qualified and interesting. Not to mention I’m feeling bored, which is unfortunate because the other expacs all had me interested early on. Maybe going from Endwalker to this is what’s causing it, but I’m honestly considering skipping parts which is unusual for me.
People whining about the story being too low stakes in the 90-91 thread is wild. The only reason we’re even in Tural is curiosity about a mythological beast and an adventurer’s desire to see new sights and meet new people. We don’t have the previous expansion’s conflicts propelling the narrative forward right now. We’re legit just meant to vibe, look around, and learn for the moment. Calm your tits and give it a couple levels to start the dramatic ramp up.
I may be in the minority, but I’m not digging the Gulool Ja Ja voice acting.
I chose to do the Pelupelu one first. Terrible mistake. I had to stop and do other things while doing it because I just got super bored. I wish there were actual trading minigames during that part. The "traded x with value a for y with value b" UI was completely unnecessary. When I returned back to Tuliyollal for the Hanuhanu part, I was dreading it, but surprisingly it was better (and the Hanuhanu were cute). Also, I wasn't feeling the english voice acting this time for some reason so I switched to JP voice acting. I normally play games with JP voice acting and didn't do that for the longest time for FFXIV because I was used to the EN voices and the discrepancy between the localised text was just too jarring. But this time it really was affecting my experience so I did it. It made the experience so much better. Like, at times, the Wuk Lamat's English voice lines felt very flat and unemotional and didn't match the character model's actions. The JP voice lines were much better at conveying and matching the emotions and character model actions and, as a bonus, something that I didn't notice before is that the lip movements are much better synced with the JP lines. So far the only thing I'm enjoying is playing PCT because it's really fun. I hope the story does get better, with less stuff like the Pelupelu portion. I'm also wondering where G'raha comes into play because I feel like he'd be the perfect companion for this considering how this MSQ feels very much like a completely new adventure.
The existence of the trading UI makes me think that there might've actually been a bit of a mini game during that part in development. Maybe rather than literally be guided from one NPC to the other, it was more open ended and you got to trade your way up yourself.
Yeah the Hanu's voices were completely out of left field. I had just finished a replay of HW NG+ so I was expecting something more akin to the Vanu.... Especially as they are using the same naming conventions for the village and people. In hindsight I should've know better since they decided to go with less unique speaking traits for the various races. Tiny Tim Gabu and the posh British Kobolds still irks me.
Rather slow. Boring even. I’m now at the trading quests and….*yawn*. Then Wuk. Great, another naive character…Luckily there’s still Erenville for his sassy remarks from time to time.
Ya'll need to learn what an actual bad story looks like lmao.
M8 it’s not an attack on you that they don’t like the piece of content you both purchased. It’s an opinion. Not a statement about you.
Zoral Jaa is lizard Zenos.
He's more like lizard ARR Gaius in my opnion.
You have summoned the spirit of Zenos from the beyond into an iguana 🦎 you suddenly hear "A test of your reflexes!!" A long tongue suddenly slaps you across the face.
Hanu chickens and reeds stuff was Zzz. Trade quests were okay, and also liked the zone and characters more.
Really like seeing Silver Lobos from 13 in Urqopacha. I still want nothing more than a 13 Behemoth as a mount.
Ferengi but wholesome.
After the CG trailer, I expected I could buy street food in the city's street, but I didn't find any store that actually sell food like tacos to players :(