Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

On level 94 questing now. Something stood out to me that made my brain feel like it'd cracked.
So if a centuries-long conflict ended because the Mamool Ja and the Hrothgar, who'd been killing each other for centuries, ate each others' food... Why didn't early Garleans just feed stew to the factions that made anti-miscegenation laws against them and wanted them all dead for being weak non-magic users? Why didn't Domans, Ala Mhigans or Dalmascans just toss the Garlean Empire some local cuisine? Would that have ended their oppression, enslavement and second-class citizenry? I'm sorry, this is retarded.
What a hilariously simplistic depiction of reconciling, considering Heavensward dedicated time to showing the people that didn't instantly fall in love with or even tolerate things like a less omnipresent church and no more Dragonsong War. There better be some sort of twist relating to Gulool not actually being a form of Lizard Jesus and there was more at play in how Tural ended up in such a peaceful state, otherwise this is laughable. Lower stakes and drama shouldn't mean no stakes and drama whatsoever.
 
Sealed off the weekend with finishing dungeon 5 and trial 2. I'll try knocking off the story tomorrow after work.

Zone 5+ is a fucking whiplash, and honestly I enjoy the family feud tale way more than the nu-Allagan FFIX garbage. DT was being hailed as the "vacation" expansion and half of the story is interesting and easy to follow, and yet the stakes just go through the roof again with the entirety of the reflections being under threat. Sphene is the worst character they've ever conceived and asspulled. Fuck the whole Alexandria story. If they'd more seamlessly weaved the succession with the city, or made Alexandria post-game, it would've worked better in my eyes.

Back in Endwalker I didn't like the Meteion digression, but she was still Ascian-related. Zodiark being a finisher would've been great, but whatever. Now? I see through it. I see they did it again, the thing where they're randomly like, oh by the way I know the story is about to neatly tie itself, so let me throw a senseless wrench in. They opt to turn Zarool Ja into a psychopath, ruin his entire characterization, just for this tone shift. Blah.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ho67 and Mr. Idiot
After finishing the first dungeon the expansion is pretty shit so far. Everything before that is absolute filler. I get heavensward had the same problem with the introductory quests, but Jesus. The branching questlines in heavensward were at least mildly interesting. I don’t give a shit about the weird little midgets or the big hippie birds. As a positive though, the first dungeon was fairly decent. I enjoyed the final boss of it mostly and that song goes really hard, but final fantasy always delivers with music. But yeah anyway, I don’t think a single expansion so far has hooked me in the beginning like shadowbringers does. I get not every expansion can be another shadowbringers or even another heavensward, but stormblood is better than this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr. Idiot
So now that we have facewear as a cosmetic gear slot, do we think we will get a back cosmetic gear slot? I want to wear wings all the time.
 
Yeah, I just got dropped in the middle of tanking a boss fate as DPS, and the queue to get back in was 500. Looking forward to popping back in by the Aethercrystal.
 
Could be a DDoS but not sure. I was about to finish the 93 dungeon, I was looking forward to it.
 
I am back, and there are other people still doing fates. Going to Tuli, I see 3 instances each with over 100 people, so I think it was just the server crapping itself, not DDoS.
 
In the 5th zone now, and the cutscene bloat is starting to get to me. There doesn't need to be a 5 minute long cutscene of the group talking every 50 feet. It's exhausting and annoying and actively makes me enjoy other parts of the game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr. Idiot
So, stupid fix, had to roll back GPU drivers to a 2020/2021 release. Found it on a random reddit post, and now I'm in...

Edit: Seems to be an NVIDIA issue, not sure if it's hitting AMDs.
 
Can someone please tell me this story gets better? I'm at level 95 and I'm ready to resurrect Garlemald just so they can crush this whole island.

I'm enjoying the new fights and dungeons but hells bells this story is just painful to get through.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: ChromaQuack
Wyzzerd said:
Can someone please tell me this story gets better? I'm at level 95 and I'm ready to resurrect Garlemald just so they can crush this whole island.

I'm enjoying the new fights and dungeons but hells bells this story is just painful to get through.
Click to expand...
It does get more interesting outside of the banana leaf. its not completely over.
 
This really was naruto shippiuden the expansion. But fuck all the trials and dungeons were good. Especially trial 2
 
The environments in this expansion are good, the new monster designs are neat, the dungeons and trials and solo duties have been fine. The gameplay overall is the same gameplay from Endwalker with a few new buttons, people saying the gameplay is so much more amazing are huffing petrol from the can (Don't be rama rama).

The plot is definitely the weakest link of this expansion so far. Part of that is Endwalker resolved plotlines introduced in 2.0 (maybe even 1.0, I dunno about that mess) and then introduced an even bigger cosmic threat. Going from beating the big bad evil guy who had been around in the background through the base game and four expansions to "Hey this dopey chick needs help with becoming ruler of Brazil or something lol" is an enormous letdown for players. While one may feel the need to excuse this with "Well, they painted themselves into a corner" or some other platitude, shit is still shit, and this de-escalation of stakes is shit.

Wuk Lamat is emblematic of this in many ways, and I think her introduction to the MSQ was botched. Her arrival was made worse due to heralding this de-escalation. She just pops up with little warning and an attitude from the writers that we should adore her unquestioningly. Her introduction presents her as a very stereotypical character common in Japanese media, and were this a manga and I was the editor, I would send her back to be redesigned for lack of depth. She lacks any real nuance to make her worthy of interest. She is overshadowed by her own backstory. While I could recommend other ways they could have framed her introduction to ameliorate both her lack of depth and the de-escalation of the plot, who fucking cares because what is done is done. This is the turd sandwich we have been served, and it is up to us to either eat it or walk away.

Just unlocked the level 95 dungeon so maybe I will completely reverse my position later, but I am not holding my breath for that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back