Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Well Intentioned]

Also it's funny to watch Stormblood being given the Star Wars prequel treatment in real time. Not that I disagree, mind. I never actally minded Stormblood for most part because it's being carried by the gargantuan shoulders of Gosetsu and Hien, and Lyse wasn't explicitly shoved into your face every minute.

I never played Stormblood on release so maybe it was a different experience, but going through it I felt that it was pretty comparable to Heavensward and was much better than ARR (which I still don't particularly like, but tolerate because I get it is trying to set things up.)

It's not perfect (again, pacing is the biggest issue. It feels like 2 expansions worth of narrative crammed into 1) and I think the reason it largely gets a bad rap from the 'community' is because it doesn't take a simplistic, retarded view of war and conflict and that triggers the troon Redditors who want to 'bash the fash' (ie, the totally Nazi Garleans) by raising questions about why do people fight, the toll war takes on people, and what folks might do to try and survive.

Making Fordola, Ilberd, Yotsuyu, etc. sympathetic, nation states coolly neutral (Kugane), and having oppressed people be not just afraid but fucking terrified of rebellion screws with these retard's heads and is something we saw crop up again in Endwalker with the Garlemald arc and all the wonderful discourse that spawned.

Its nothing groundbreaking, but it is a pretty nuanced approach you don't really see in XIV (see also: 'lol these guys are all tempered and have to be put death, but they were all bad people anyway so no big deal. what do you mean you can cure tempering?')

 

[00R-Gundam]

Okay gents after months of taking a break from FF14 i decided to hop back into the game and start dawntrail since i saw that my nigga dark knight got slightly better. Any recommendations aside from skipping anything Wuk Lamat related?

 

[SnowBall]

I never played Stormblood on release so maybe it was a different experience, but going through it I felt that it was pretty comparable to Heavensward and was much better than ARR (which I still don't particularly like, but tolerate because I get it is trying to set things up.)

It's not perfect (again, pacing is the biggest issue. It feels like 2 expansions worth of narrative crammed into 1) and I think the reason it largely gets a bad rap from the 'community' is because it doesn't take a simplistic, retarded view of war and conflict and that triggers the troon Redditors who want to 'bash the fash' (ie, the totally Nazi Garleans) by raising questions about why do people fight, the toll war takes on people, and what folks might do to try and survive.

Making Fordola, Ilberd, Yotsuyu, etc. sympathetic, nation states coolly neutral (Kugane), and having oppressed people be not just afraid but fucking terrified of rebellion screws with these retard's heads and is something we saw crop up again in Endwalker with the Garlemald arc and all the wonderful discourse that spawned.

Its nothing groundbreaking, but it is a pretty nuanced approach you don't really see in XIV (see also: 'lol these guys are all tempered and have to be put death, but they were all bad people anyway so no big deal. what do you mean you can cure tempering?')

Stormblood is actually very, very beloved by the left wing Tumblr sjw crowd, probably the most out of all the expansion packs outside of Dawntrail. They love that it lets them, in their eyes, get to help poc destroy the Garleans and bash the fash. They actually love all those characters being sympathetic because to them they’re poor innocent women and/or brown people. You’d be surprised at the amount of people who justify their crimes because of that and believe anyone who dislikes them are racist and sexist. I remember seeing a disturbing amount of SB fans back in the day who girlbossified Yotsuyu and Fordola and probably still do it. Its fans also very explosive over any criticism of the expansion’s plot and for the longest time they were the worst about defending their favorite story until Dawntrail came out and got a far worse defense force. At least Stormblood had qualities worth defending while Dawntrail has nothing redeemable.

I personally don’t hate Stormblood but the amount of obnoxious defenders that fit the above description it attracts make me feel more apathetic towards it.

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

Very much looking forward to the new Ultimate, it'll be baby's first Ultimate clear attempt, so that should be fun.

Fuck me, you're brave.

Taking on FRU as your first ultimate with early strats when we'll likely not have good solid PF strats for a half year or so is gonna be a hell of a challenge. I cleared DSR when everything was figured out and PF had found the easiest strats for things like DOTH, and even that felt exhausting by the end (worth it tho, DSR is the best fight in the game).

Good luck though. I'm planning to be doing FRU myself on-release. I've got my BiS gear ready to go.

 

[Baguette Child]

I cleared DSR when everything was figured out and PF had found the easiest strats for things like DOTH, and even that felt exhausting by the end (worth it tho, DSR is the best fight in the game).

No lie, now that I've finally done DSR with my FC it may be my favorite piece of content in any MMO I've ever played. Shit must have been wild before the strats were figured out.

Shame husband wasn't along for it though. He's tapped out of the game hard after our drunken push to finish DT's MSQ, not even the promise of raidy goodness could bring him back.

 

[King Of Braves]

Okay gents after months of taking a break from FF14 i decided to hop back into the game and start dawntrail since i saw that my nigga dark knight got slightly better. Any recommendations aside from skipping anything Wuk Lamat related?

Nah you pretty much got it. Everything else has been fine to great imo.

 

[Sheep King]

Lastly, if they were going to cocktease us with the scions being pit against each other, they should have made Estinien join Bakool Jaja, being able to relate over being retards who happen to be great at fighting.

I wanted to argue with that characterisation of Estinien but I can't even do it at this point.

When exactly was it decided among the writers that Estinien loved to travel and fight? The character I remember from Heavensward was a gruff soldier with a heart of gold who learnt the meaning of friendship from Ysayle and Alphinaud and decided to lay down his weapons. I never got the sense he actually liked fighting, he was driven by vengeance for his murdered family. And I assumed he only started travelling around post-Stormblood to keep an eye on Garlemald because he had given up being a regular soldier in the Ishgardian forces, and his skills as a dragon-hunter were probably better suited to solo scouting missions anyway.

Teaming up with the Scions to save the world from certain annihilation, sure. But why did they have to my favourite character into a generic meathead who's conveniently there whenever we need to fill another DPS slot?

 

[Gravemind]

but it doesn't really feel like an alliance raid, more like a 24 man trial with some trash mobs.

Honestly, that's been just about every single Alliance Raid at this point. They didn't used to be, no, but they have since retroactively become 24 man Trials due to everybody just being able to disregard old mechanics.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I personally don’t hate Stormblood but the amount of obnoxious defenders that fit the above description it attracts make me feel more apathetic towards it.

That's fucking weird because the sentiment I've seen re: discussion of Stormblood is that people fucking hated Yotsuyu's storyline because she wasn't an irredeemable piece of shit with complaints being 'why are we wasting time on this?' Or complaints about how all the Ala Mhiggers aren't dark skinned enough. I just assumed that was the general sentiment from the retards who dislike Stormblood.

 

[Gravemind]

That's fucking weird because the sentiment I've seen re: discussion of Stormblood is that people fucking hated Yotsuyu's storyline because she wasn't an irredeemable piece of shit with complaints being 'why are we wasting time on this?' Or complaints about how all the Ala Mhiggers aren't dark skinned enough. I just assumed that was the general sentiment from the retards who dislike Stormblood.

You forgot about all the discourse about how Hien is a colonizer who totally manipulated the Steppe Xaela and a misogynist because he didn't execute Yotsuyu's pimp on the spot.

I thought Stormblood was bad because Gyr Abania didn't end up being nearly as compelling of a location as it needed to be for a conflict about freeing "MUH ALA MHIGO", they made Yugiri's characterization weirdly retarded for a brief stint in Yanxia, and we unironically ended the MSQ with everyone gathering together, saluting, and singing the Ala Mhigan national anthem together once the big bad evil Zenos necked himself with his own sword right there on the spot.

And also the fact that Lyse ended up unironically being a "white savior" trope even though literally everyone else around her was doing more than she was doing and she experienced virtually zero character growth as a result.

 

[Kane Lives]

You forgot about all the discourse about how Hien is a colonizer who totally manipulated the Steppe Xaela and a misogynist because he didn't execute Yotsuyu's pimp on the spot.

I thought Stormblood was bad because Gyr Abania didn't end up being nearly as compelling of a location as it needed to be for a conflict about freeing "MUH ALA MHIGO", they made Yugiri's characterization weirdly retarded for a brief stint in Yanxia, and we unironically ended the MSQ with everyone gathering together, saluting, and singing the Ala Mhigan national anthem together once the big bad evil Zenos necked himself with his own sword right there on the spot.

And also the fact that Lyse ended up unironically being a "white savior" trope even though literally everyone else around her was doing more than she was doing and she experienced virtually zero character growth as a result.

It's quaint that people used to think Ala Mhiggers were the low point of the MSQ. Not anymore, now latinx are the new whipping boy.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

now latinx are the new whipping boy.

As a latina, every time I see the word latinx, it actually makes me angry. DT is supposed to be the hispanic culture expansion. What we got is alcoholic manlet spics (lol a lot of our men are shorties), tacos tacos tacos and peru. Almost like a bunch of white people got together in a room and thought to themselves, "let's just throw every hispanic stereotype we can think of against the wall and see what we come up with."

 

[lolcowtipper]

I wanted to argue with that characterisation of Estinien but I can't even do it at this point.

When exactly was it decided among the writers that Estinien loved to travel and fight? The character I remember from Heavensward was a gruff soldier with a heart of gold who learnt the meaning of friendship from Ysayle and Alphinaud and decided to lay down his weapons. I never got the sense he actually liked fighting, he was driven by vengeance for his murdered family. And I assumed he only started travelling around post-Stormblood to keep an eye on Garlemald because he had given up being a regular soldier in the Ishgardian forces, and his skills as a dragon-hunter were probably better suited to solo scouting missions anyway.

Teaming up with the Scions to save the world from certain annihilation, sure. But why did they have to my favourite character into a generic meathead who's conveniently there whenever we need to fill another DPS slot?

I agree, and think it comes down to just classic flanderization that I've just come to accept at this point. They should have just let him properly retire at the end of EW. Unfortunately though, they couldn't just let him exit stage left. So imo if they're going to puppet him around they might as well do something interesting with it.

 

[Soycast Guy]

When exactly was it decided among the writers that Estinien loved to travel and fight?

Endwalker, which is the next point after heavensward that he returned as a major character.

I’ve made this criticism before, but Estinien was ruined in Endwalker. Same with Gra’ha Tia. They completely forgot who his character was. He might as well be a different person.

 

[SnowBall]

That's fucking weird because the sentiment I've seen re: discussion of Stormblood is that people fucking hated Yotsuyu's storyline because she wasn't an irredeemable piece of shit with complaints being 'why are we wasting time on this?' Or complaints about how all the Ala Mhiggers aren't dark skinned enough. I just assumed that was the general sentiment from the retards who dislike Stormblood.

That’s the crazy thing- the same people who hardcore stan Stormblood will alternate between screeching about it being horribly problematic to going on about how it’s so progressive and amazing with handling social justice themes. They can’t decide if Lyse is an evil white savior girl or a paragon of a well written female character where hating her is sexist. The thing you have to take into account with the Tumblr crowd that SB (and XIV in general) attracts is that they are obsessed with the “you must be critical of the media you consume“ mentality where they’ll obsess over something while flogging themselves for enjoying it and its “problematic” aspects. These types will have ”I AM CRITICAL OF MY INTERESTS!” written somewhere in their twitter/tumblr bio or their carrd page. They say they criticize their interests “out of love” and “for the writers to do better” (despite the writers not giving a fuck what a bunch of manchildren say online.)

As for Yotsuyu the fans genuinely believe she did nothing wrong, that she was a poor little victim and the writers are horribly sexist for killing her off and not giving her a redemption arc. They’ll also overlook Ilberd’s actions because he‘s an oppressed brown man. The fandom loves to do this with every female and/or dark skinned character. Ffs I’ve seen people excuse Hermes for his awful crimes because he is brown and depressed and to them a poor uwu baby being oppressed by his society. Also his shard Amon dying and being dragged into oblivion in EW has had fans accusing the writers of hating brown and mentally ill people.

So far I haven’t seen the Tumblr crowd who stans Dawntrail try to find ways to be offended by its portrayal of the real world cultures it is based on. Instead they just do the usual “you hate women and brown people if you hate Dawntrail” spiel they did with SB.

 

[Gravemind]

I’ve seen people excuse Hermes for his awful crimes because he is brown and depressed and to them a poor uwu baby being oppressed by his society.

Yes. God. Fuck. I recall seeing an absolutely unhinged rant a year or two ago about how Hermes was discriminated against and gaslighted by his lily white fellow Ancients purely because of the color of his skin.

 

[SnowBall]

I remember seeing Hermes apologists saying Hythlodaeus is cruel and lacks empathy because of that one quest where he unmakes a butterfly for its aether to make clothes for you (apparently to fans this means he doesn’t care about the creations in Elpis and this is the equivalent to drowning puppies in a lake to some people.) meanwhile jumping through hoops to downplay Hermes being shitty towards Meteion because he is a sad brown man. I’m pretty sure creating clothing material from an animal is not on the level of continuously sending creatures into space and letting them suffer and die. Meanwhile Hythlodaeus and Emet are nothing but nice to Hermes yet his fans love to portray them as awful bullies to the guy. Also I doubt the Ancients even have a concept of race and ethnicity. Their society requires people to wear the same concealing robes and masks and it’s rare people see each other with their masks off. They probably don’t give a shit what your skin color is.

This community loves to shove its western centric view on social justice on a non western game. This is why Western fans should never be taken seriously and the only fans I find tolerable are Japanese artists who draw pretty art and keep stupid takes on the game to themselves.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I ain't gonna touch that shit with Hermes beyond saying that Hythlo and Emet were doing an incredible kindness by letting a complete retard conduct reality-threatening experiments with no peer review or consultation. That, or they were suicidal.

The thing you have to take into account with the Tumblr crowd that SB (and XIV in general) attracts is that they are obsessed with the “you must be critical of the media you consume“ mentality where they’ll obsess over something while flogging themselves for enjoying it and its “problematic” aspects.

Ah, see, I'm talking about the general XIV fan whne/if it comes up in discussion, not the fucking weirdos who obsess over lore minutiae. Those people are the absolute worst, no matter the property. I could absolutely see some of those insane takes occurring.

As for Yotsuyu the fans genuinely believe she did nothing wrong, that she was a poor little victim and the writers are horribly sexist for killing her off and not giving her a redemption arc.

That honestly hasn't been my experience when general discussion of Stormblood has come up. She's a very divisive character from what I've seen and there are plenty of times I've seen people bemoan the fact that she wasn't promptly executed on the spot, same as Fordola (although that is kind of handwaved away because she literally has to come in and rescue the WoL.)

 

[Dopey Cunt]

I thought Yotsuyu was a good character and that her arc resolved itself smoothly.
She was a tragic person who suffered horrendously in her youth and made it everyone else's problem. It was not possible to redeem her. She's committed some heinous crimes that even if she spent the rest of her life trying to make amends, it would not be enough for the people she spent years subjugating in the worst ways she could think of purely out of spite and hate. While I can understand the justification for why she did what she did, that doesn't excuse what she did nor is she entitled to forgiveness. She knew this, which is why she didn't bother to try to turn over a new leaf and doubled down. Asahi's manipulations did some work, but all he did was compound what was already there. Even without his meddling, she would've reached the same eventual conclusion either by taking her own life like she originally planned, or allowing herself to drown in her bitterness and misery towards the nation that failed her, which ultimately ended up happening.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

I did hold some minor hope that the story would improve in the post-launch patch series as Yoshida clearly recognized the backlash. minor enough that I am not terribly disappointed that 7.1 did not do anything more than kick the boring ass story and its terrible characters forward another four months. the adventures of the legendary culture respecter continue as Wuk Lamat makes a five minute appearance in Solution Nine, thus giving them the gift of being Seen and Heard and having their Pain Understood. they should be thankful, really. I have unironically changed my cutscene audio to Japanese like a god damn weeb just so I don't have to hear everyone's retarded fake accents and the troon's fake female voice. I keep seeing people jump to defend him now that they finally did enough retakes of the now-infamous SPEEEEEEN cutscene to get a passable performance. "the new version is AMAZING!" "obviously it was the voice director's fault!" "anybody could tell Sena is good just from watching her demo reel!" sure man, it's not like there's a dozen other voiced cutscenes where Wuk Lamat is screechy and cringy even compared to the rest of the Turalian voice cast. the way he massively overenunciates TOOLI-HYOLLAL like a faggy lib pretending to be wise in the ways of the Latinxes is a running gag in my static. at least the content is on point; the first Arcadion tier has been a blast, and the new dungeon is lit too.

the 24-man, however - as a former FFXI player - really made me sad. I suppose it was fun enough as alliance raids go, but it had this feeling that was like being a boomer who saw the original Star Wars trilogy in the theater, and then 50 years later, going on the fuckin Star Wars ride at Disneyworld with a bunch of 20 year olds. everyone was really excited but all I could see was the cardboard and plastic, the way everything was constructed to be a cheap thrill ride, how fucking long it's been since anybody cared about FFXI and how alien everything has become since then. all the little references and callbacks are so transparently superficial, very much driven home by the way the ride drifts between expansions almost arbitrarily, with locales like Ru'Aun Gardens and The Boyahda Tree being given no context or presentation whatsoever, in addition to being completely unexplorable because the whole thing is on fuckin rails. even Jeuno is just another transient story zone, only a small chunk of it faithfully rendered with a handful of token NPCs who exist solely as nostalgia checks, the rest of it blocked off to ensure that it forever stays a story zone you'll visit once every eight months and then immediately forget about. it's not interested in conveying anything about the actual experience of FFXI despite it being the very foundation of FFXIV itself. something about it makes me feel so bad in a way that's difficult to describe. like I can see the distance between the memories I made back then and the context I live in now, and just how dead the past is, how thoroughly the passage of time has obliterated every trace of it outside of my own mind. 20 years slipped by and now I'm standing in a crowd of people to whom the reality that formed me literally does not exist. an alien that comes from nowhere, incomprehensible. I'm being shown a rendition of my own past that is totally unrecognizable next to the one in my memories aside from its surface-level appearance, while the crowd cheers and claps. am I supposed to be happy they made this? I kind of just want to forget it exists.