Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

Got to play for a couple of hours, my takeaway so far:

Graphical update: honestly, I don't really see a difference, not big enough to hype it up the way they did.

New jobs: gonna take some time to get comfortable with them, Beastmaster was the one I was most interrested in, so the waiting game it is.

I have not gotten far, but man it is boring. I don't know if it is me or what, but I just can't get into it. Sure, the first few hours in each expansion has been slow, lots of go here, click on npc, read text, but it was on some level engaging. Here it is just dull. Wuk Lamat makes me want to eat lead paint. Her catboy brother seem so much more interesting, why cant we help him. Erenville's backstory might go somewhere good, too early to tell. Every other new character seems one note. Hopefully it will pick up and draw me in and Wuk Lamat will get better and grow on me, but now I just wanna turn her into a rug for my house.
 
I want to back the two-headed dude, he tells it like it is. They frame him like he's such a big villain, and then he... TELLS THE TRUTH

What a bombshell :story:
 
I was wondering if it was even going to touch zones older than Endwalker. I imagine it’s going to be a continuous work in progress.
I don't know if maybe it was explained differently to Japanese players or what but they're all really worked up about it.

I assumed it was just going to be more grass on the ground and higher-res textures in older areas.
 
Welp, it's the Mook Lame@ expansion. Feels like 2/3 of the quests is "talk to Wookie Lame-ass", which is always fun. Graphics "overhaul" (higher res textures, more foliage, and different lighting, none of which is particularly obvious, unless you're looking for it) aside, visually everything just looks bland, there's really nothing interesting about the new areas. The sci-fi city looks kinda neat, but it's completely empty, and it feels like it's scaled 2-4 times of what it should actually be. Maybe it'll get populated by NPCs later in the story, but I doubt it.
BLM feels like trash in dungeons, with no Ice Paradox and janky double Transpose AOE. Flare Star looks and sounds like ass (fucking Fire 3 has a better sound effect), and it's a separate button for no discernable reason.
Autismancer seems like a RDM+SMN with trash spell effects (visually it just doesn't fit, although that's probably intended, but the sounds are horrible).
So far, Top Hats/10.
 
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I don't know if maybe it was explained differently to Japanese players or what but they're all really worked up about it.

I assumed it was just going to be more grass on the ground and higher-res textures in older areas.
idk but the update to the lighting engine is a big enough upgrade to bring out the beauty of locations that have been sorely needing it. Especially Ul'dah, as I've seen while doing crafter/gatherer stuff.
 
A bit farther ahead in MSQ. Two things:
1.) Wuk Lamat could be worse, but she's still not great. I played with JP voices even before the whole tranny debacle. I even find some of the idiot tendencies charming. The thing with her is that the devs are trying way, way too hard to make us like and be fast friends with her and it became apparent to me almost immediately, like at hour 2. They're speedrunning her being likable, which you can't do organically, so it's irritating and I don't like it. Maybe I'll change my mind with more MSQ, but it's dreadful right now. She's like a speedran Lyse, and that says something with how out of nowhere the "I'm not Yda" twist was.

2.) Erenville and Koana are my favorite parts of the expansion so far, didn't expect to like them like I do. I also find it interesting that the expansionist candidate is actually the popular option for Turali and not profusely shat on (relative to what I was expecting with how the dreaded translators talked about "sensitivity" at the NA liveletter, at least). His end goal stands out to me as strangely world-encompassing for how sheltered Tural itself is. Maybe it'll get elaborated on later, or maybe it won't and he's just sheltered in a different way than Wok Lamitt is, which I'd also be fine with since that's a running theme with all of Gamool's kids.
 
From what I've heard you need to tinker around with your settings to really get the graphic update going.

And as for WL,

I think what does it for me is the fact that we're basically tard-wrangling a special needs adult with retard strength. The way she talks sounds like she's on a children's show like Blues Clues where everyone sounds like they had a lobotomy, and it's made worse with the cartoony sound effects that keep creeping in. It's really off-putting. and only happens with her.

Plus a good chunk of it makes no sense -- WL is a sheltered bozo who is incredibly ignorant of the world around her....but also managed to sail halfway across the world.

I agree with Bankingway that they're REALLY trying to make WL endearing/likeable/sympathetic and it's never a good idea to try and force your audience to think a certain way. And that's without really getting into performance of the VA.
 
Level 88 picto now, going to Eureka Orthros for xp is much faster than Roulette queue + Fates. Getting around 3.6 million xp every 15-ish minutes.
 
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