Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[FoolhardStar]

I say this because one of the NNs I was lurking on over the weekend had a full hour long debate raging about whether or not trigger warnings should exist for the Hildibrand quests for genderspecial shit.

I think this is the major reason I've never seen advanced sperging or slapfighting in this game. I never got invited to a novice network until I replayed the MSQ on another data center, and when I asked a friend that'd started before me what they were like, he immediately told me "don't bother" and that most NNs were testaments to mentors being the biggest cunts in the game.
NN being used as a diary and hot take containment instead of a place to help out brand new players was the main complaint I heard and read about, so never coming across it made my experience far more enjoyable. I have had shit encounters with mentors dropping out on sprouts and being mad that they're asked for help when they choose to add that crown next to their character's name, so I think encountering a shitty Burger King is just a rite of passage.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

According to the lodestone post, linkshells on your home DC won't work but you'll be able to create and join linkshells on the destination DC as if your character were on that DC.

Sounds pretty straightforward from the read-over. It almost seems as if they're making your home base somewhat irrelevant, since you can (once congestion clears) just hop to wherever - as if everyone's on the same megaserver and just willingly partitioning themselves as they see fit. It's interesting that they mention towards the bottom that you can use the companion ap to talk with people in your LS / FC whenever you want, yet a similar implementation isn't quite on the books for this - but I guess that comes with the territory and the spaghetti.

mentors being the biggest cunts in the game.

The main use of a burger crown is to whip out when another burger crown is attempting to pass off stupid shit as correct, if only because it makes them howl with anger that anyone would ever gainsay a member of the burger king tribe.

 

[Fcret]

Sounds pretty straightforward from the read-over. It almost seems as if they're making your home base somewhat irrelevant, since you can (once congestion clears) just hop to wherever - as if everyone's on the same megaserver and just willingly partitioning themselves as they see fit

I fully expect logical data centers to be increasingly merged together since the reason they're separate (to provide different physical locations depending on geographical location) never really panned out. I would not be surprised if they manage to unfuck the login servers (since the EW launch and soaring player count lit a fire under their asses) and announce logical DC mergers as a big feature for 8.0 or 9.0.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

I would not be surprised if they manage to unfuck the login servers (since the EW launch and soaring player count lit a fire under their asses) and announce logical DC mergers as a big feature for 8.0 or 9.0.

So long as they manage to preserve player names, I can't imagine they'd run into much opposition to the idea. That was anyways the excuse that the WoW devs always gave, which may have made sense at one point - before the game was 80% utterly dead servers with no real point, anyways.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

So long as they manage to preserve player names, I can't imagine they'd run into much opposition to the idea. That was anyways the excuse that the WoW devs always gave, which may have made sense at one point - before the game was 80% utterly dead servers with no real point, anyways.

They also have a lot more wiggle room with player names than WoW since player names consist of FirstName+LastName with apostrophes allowed and also alts not being *incredibly* common.

I am surprised that most Materia servers are still experiencing log in queues of 10-20 through out the day, even as early as 8am.

I wish the MB activity reflected this.

 

[Kane Lives]

So long as they manage to preserve player names, I can't imagine they'd run into much opposition to the idea. That was anyways the excuse that the WoW devs always gave, which may have made sense at one point - before the game was 80% utterly dead servers with no real point, anyways.

I assume they'll just keep <name>@<server> convention just so that they don't need to deal with naming headaches with server merges.

 

[Zilortha]

I assume they'll just keep <name>@<server> convention just so that they don't need to deal with naming headaches with server merges.

That makes sense. Even if they merge the data centers, the servers would be split still right? So it would probably be a non-issue.

 

[Vapewizard]

The main use of a burger crown is to whip out when another burger crown is attempting to pass off stupid shit as correct, if only because it makes them howl with anger that anyone would ever gainsay a member of the burger king tribe.

so I think encountering a shitty Burger King is just a rite of passage.

Aside from the crown getting to people's heads I have a hunch this is also the result of a bunch of people only wanting mentor status to get the Astrope mount eventually, which in all fairness would also be my only reason to get mentor status.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

The elephant beast tribe mount is just a hippo and cart.

My disappointment is immeasurable that it is not a humanoid elephant giving my character a shoulder ride.

 

[Local Degenerate]

I'll never understand why people see HW as anything special, when it is, in fact, the worst thing this side of 1.0, story-wise. I dunno about balance wise, as I wasn't a raider then, but my god, the writing in HW is so far below even ARR.

The only thing I can figure is that people mix in the DRK questline, which was phenomenal.

Mind, HW isn't *bad*. Bronze at the Olympics is still 3rd best in the world, ya know? But being forced into helping child murdering rapists, then having the game proudly announce: 'What a twist! The child murdering rapists were the bad guys all along!' is pretty damn shitty writing.

Especially when sandwiched between Castrum (memes aside, it was pretty fucking sick your first time through, and gets a bonus for being part of your introduction to Eorzea), and the entire Yotsuyu/Gosetsu saga, not to mention Zenos at his (second) most badass, and I really can't figure out why people treat it as some amazing epitome of the game.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

I'll never understand why people see HW as anything special, when it is, in fact, the worst thing this side of 1.0, story-wise. I dunno about balance wise, as I wasn't a raider then, but my god, the writing in HW is so far below even ARR.

The only thing I can figure is that people mix in the DRK questline, which was phenomenal.

Mind, HW isn't *bad*. Bronze at the Olympics is still 3rd best in the world, ya know? But being forced into helping child murdering rapists, then having the game proudly announce: 'What a twist! The child murdering rapists were the bad guys all along!' is pretty damn shitty writing.

Especially when sandwiched between Castrum (memes aside, it was pretty fucking sick your first time through, and gets a bonus for being part of your introduction to Eorzea), and the entire Yotsuyu/Gosetsu saga, not to mention Zenos at his (second) most badass, and I really can't figure out why people treat it as some amazing epitome of the game.

It's pretty bog-standard JRPG church bad.

BUT, I like dragons.

I main Dragoon.

I played as an Elezen until EW.

I like medieval/catholic architecture and aesthetic.

So it hit a lot of notes for me personally, also the story was pretty contained from what I remember (it's been a while, forgive me if I am forgetting). I tend to lose interest/focus when we are jet setting across the entire world between 5 different plot points. From what I recall it was mainly focused on the Dragonsong War and tying up the Nanamo/Crystal Braves shit. I did like ShB a lot but there were times where I was just so exhausted from the plot line changing to something else just when things were getting interesting (EW does this a lot worse, but still...)

I wouldn't call it amazing by any means but I really enjoyed it's overall atmosphere and design. I certainly rate it over SB and EW. Though I am not "literally shaking and crying" over any plot points in this story ever so, maybe I just generally don't care too much. The people that say that shit need to get a life or read other media (books) because there is way better shit out there.

 

[Local Degenerate]

It's pretty bog-standard JRPG church bad.

BUT, I like dragons.

I main Dragoon.

I played as an Elezen until EW.

I like medieval/catholic architecture and aesthetic.

So it hit a lot of notes for me personally, also the story was pretty contained from what I remember (it's been a while, forgive me if I am forgetting). I tend to lose interest/focus when we are jet setting across the entire world between 5 different plot points. From what I recall it was mainly focused on the Dragonsong War and tying up the Nanamo/Crystal Braves shit. I did like ShB a lot but there were times where I was just so exhausted from the plot line changing to something else just when things were getting interesting (EW does this a lot worse, but still...)

I wouldn't call it amazing by any means but I really enjoyed it's overall atmosphere and design. I certainly rate it over SB and EW. Though I am not "literally shaking and crying" over any plot points in this story ever so, maybe I just generally don't care too much. The people that say that shit need to get a life or read other media (books) because there is way better shit out there.

I like dragons too. Note the degeneracy. And, to be honest, that's kind of what killed my interest right off the bat.

When the first dungeon is 'Go murder these baby dragons and their mother to piss off this one dragon.', I kind of start tuning out right away.
I will admit, I am more partial to jumping around, so, maybe that's part of it. I'm a huge fan of world building, and seeing new places and peoples, so, while I enjoyed the segments of hanging out with the Gnath and especially Anyx Trine, having to always come back to the shitty bare bones 'aristocracy are assholes' infesting that gorgeous, snowcapped city kind of made me a bit sore.

Like I said, I don't mean to say it's bad. I don't think any of the ARR-EW are actually bad, just it feels kind of basic. Maybe I'll go full autist someday and replay through all of the expansions, to see if they hold up.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

'Go murder these baby dragons and their mother to piss off this one dragon.'

Honestly, fair.

I think everyone is a piece of shit in Eorzea, including the WoL (which is why one of the best moments in EW to me was you admitting to Zenos that you just wanna kill the crazy bastard for funsies) so I don't usually mind who I'm killing or why.

 

[CptnSnshn]

I think everyone is a piece of shit in Eorzea,

How dare you, Hildibrand is a saint.

 

[Fcret]

Why do spergs always beg for changes under news posts? And why do they always ask for the most boring shit to be brought back?

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Honestly, fair.

I think everyone is a piece of shit in Eorzea, including the WoL (which is why one of the best moments in EW to me was you admitting to Zenos that you just wanna kill the crazy bastard for funsies) so I don't usually mind who I'm killing or why.

I'm curious why you think the way the WoL portrays themselves in the game makes you think they're a piece of shit. To me WoL is effectively a mute Superman who isn't quite as stupid overpowered, which with DRK's context is in a constant struggle with themselves to cope and accept all the burdens it takes to be a hero given WoL isn't stupidly overpowered enough to simply send people to jail in order to survive.

WoL is a pretty classical hero who embodies stuff like Plato's Cardinal virtues (especially Fortitude, given the WoL has legitimate guilt for all the death they cause). The main thing is WoL is also basically a mute and a self insert which hinders a lot of conveying this, but their general personality leads them to be a altruistic hero who fights and stands for everyone they meet, including the antagonists most the time.

While I know that scene you're talking about is fun and funny, I believe in-universe it is purely a fourth wall break meta commentary moment for the player as opposed the WoL character. The WoL as a character (if you want to call them that) doesn't embody anything Zenos was talking about which is why I hate the whole "Zenos is WoL's mirror" angle they tried to peddle for 4 years.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

The reason Heavensward gets so much praise is that it's a story.

Even if it's a fairly basic and straightforward one, it's still a story. This comes off of the heels of ARR and just before Stormblood, which are both just plots. Things happen in the both of them, but there's no real pacing and the characters are weak and we don't really follow much in the way of structure and the theming doesn't quite land; Heavensward follows the rule of "keep it simple, stupid" and tells a fairly generic story in a far more engaging way.

 

[Übertroon]

I'm curious why you think the way the WoL portrays themselves in the game makes you think they're a piece of shit. To me WoL is effectively a mute Superman who isn't quite as stupid overpowered, which with DRK's context is in a constant struggle with themselves to cope and accept all the burdens it takes to be a hero given WoL isn't stupidly overpowered enough to simply send people to jail in order to survive.

WoL is a pretty classical hero who embodies stuff like Plato's Cardinal virtues (especially Fortitude, given the WoL has legitimate guilt for all the death they cause). The main thing is WoL is also basically a mute and a self insert which hinders a lot of conveying this, but their general personality leads them to be a altruistic hero who fights and stands for everyone they meet, including the antagonists most the time.

While I know that scene you're talking about is fun and funny, I believe in-universe it is purely a fourth wall break meta commentary moment for the player as opposed the WoL character. The WoL as a character (if you want to call them that) doesn't embody anything Zenos was talking about which is why I hate the whole "Zenos is WoL's mirror" angle they tried to peddle for 4 years.

I don't think it's entirely a meta commentary. The WoL isn't an asshole, because unlike Zenos they don't put others in danger just to get tougher battles, but it takes a certain type of person to become an adventurer and to devote your life to battle the way WoL does. There are plenty of heroes in FF14 who don't spend their life in battle. Sure you're doing it out of duty to your friends and allies, but reasonably one would have to enjoy it to some degree to keep at it for as long as the WoL does.

The reason Heavensward gets so much praise is that it's a story.

Even if it's a fairly basic and straightforward one, it's still a story. This comes off of the heels of ARR and just before Stormblood, which are both just plots. Things happen in the both of them, but there's no real pacing and the characters are weak and we don't really follow much in the way of structure and the theming doesn't quite land; Heavensward follows the rule of "keep it simple, stupid" and tells a fairly generic story in a far more engaging way.

Heavensward is also where the game gets a solid atmosphere and theme and doesn't seem like a bunch of locations and final fantasy tropes mashed into a single game.
Most people probably remember the first moment they stepped into Ishgard after finishing A Realm Reborn

And then it just ramps up continuously until the end.

It can not be underestimated how much it elevates Heavensward above A Realm Reborn by just having a solid identity

 

[Sunflower Samurai]

but reasonably one would have to enjoy it to some degree to keep at it for as long as the WoL does.

I forgot what was the cutoff point but wasnt there a point to where the WoL stops smiling after doing the dungeon clear cheer but then after some point (i think it was actually post EW) they start doing it again?, if that was true then it was a neat way to illustrate that maybe the WoL just really loves going splunking and murdering random shit when they feel like it (nah more like just adventuring but you get the idea)

i could be very wrong and fell into the fanfiction of a retarded RP-er though, i havent played recently enough (and i auto-advance all cutscenes lmao)

 

[Übertroon]

I forgot what was the cutoff point but wasnt there a point to where the WoL stops smiling after doing the dungeon clear cheer but then after some point (i think it was actually post EW) they start doing it again?, if that was true then it was a neat way to illustrate that maybe the WoL just really loves going splunking and murdering random shit when they feel like it (nah more like just adventuring but you get the idea)

i could be very wrong and fell into the fanfiction of a retarded RP-er though, i havent played recently enough (and i auto-advance all cutscenes lmao)

It's left up to interpretation I think. That's why it's a choice to accept Zenos' claim that you love the thrill of a good fight just as he does. But I find it reasonable to think that Zenos isn't too far off the mark.

Also just to sperg on about heavensward again. I think one of the reasons why it's often held up above Stormblood is because of how good the pacing is. You're definitely feeling the slog of the grind whenever you reach a new trial in FF14, I remember questing in Dravania and the Ruby Sea and having to take a break because there was a lot being introduced at the same time, a lack of a clear direction, and lots and lots of quests, but the Ravana and Susano fights definitely gives you a boost on your way.
But I think where Heavensward then shines is as you're nearing the last stage, this was definitely another slog in both expansions, but unlike Stormblood they give you one of the greatest moments in the game in Heavensward.