Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Twin Addler]

I don't even hate Wuk"s character as vehemently as everyone else. I just really really cannot stand hearing the voice of a man pretending to be a woman. Just needed to say it. This and /xivg/ are like the only places I know I can say this

 

[Kane Lives]

I think it's a mix of that awfulness looming and everything just feeling really, really fucking phoned in. While the EW crafting quests weren't anything amazing and didn't pull double-duty like in ShB to flesh out the world, they were at least pleasant little stories. I cannot get through the DT crafting lines - they're abysmally bad.

The DT role quests are also so one-dimensional and flat that I see myself eventually mashing the skip button. They're all one big joke, and the joke isn't funny.

They really are dropping the ball if even the crafting quests are affected.

As you said, EW quests weren't anything special but they were quite inoffensive and often manages to be amusing in their own right. That's a low bar to get past.

 

[Soycast Guy]

So yesterday I was doing my daily roulettes leveling my dark knight and I got the Golbez trial. Did the trial, and at the end one of the people said “tyfp and god bless you”. Honestly, I was taken aback. I genuinely did not expect to hear that from a FFXIV player. Does this seem small? Maybe it is, but in a game infested by faggots it’s crazy to see someone say something… normal?

 

[RIPRhongoBongo]

So yesterday I was doing my daily roulettes leveling my dark knight and I got the Golbez trial. Did the trial, and at the end one of the people said “tyfp and god bless you”. Honestly, I was taken aback. I genuinely did not expect to hear that from a FFXIV player. Does this seem small? Maybe it is, but in a game infested by faggots it’s crazy to see someone say something… normal?

I see it literally all the time. Actually kinda nice in a way

 

[Soycast Guy]

I see it literally all the time. Actually kinda nice in a way

I see people saying “tyfp” or “gg” all the time, but that bit at the end I didn’t expect. Most FFXIV players would probably go “OH MY GOD STOP PUSHING YOUR RELIGION ON ME!”

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

As you said, EW quests weren't anything special but they were quite inoffensive and often manages to be amusing in their own right. That's a low bar to get past.

I haven't done all of them yet, but it's a case of "I see what they're trying to do," just told in the worst way possible. They're trying to use them to flesh out Tural, but they're just not good.

For example, the Weaver/LW/Carpenter one is about the Turali language. There's an interesting hook here - the alphabet and the language itself is based on the Eorzean one, and so it's a borrowed language. You get a bit of backstory into how this was chosen specifically because it would not privilege any one of Tural's tribes over the others (once more hinting at a far-more-interesting world of culture than we actually got). The course of the vignette is that there's a... server? at the local restaurant taco dispensery, who is told a lot of stories and as such is effectively an oratory storyteller. You work with the crafting vendor to transcribe these stories, which are mostly the mythos of the various tribes.

Sounds good, right? Nothing stellar, but an interesting little tidbit. In abstract, it really should be. And yet it's so plodding and slow and stupid, everything is explained to you as if you are literally an adolescent, and stupid contrivances continue to get introduced in the course of the vignette that make no sense and seem to contradict other aspects of the story. Every single step, the character stares at the camera and slowly explains what the moral of the story they just told was, and everyone goes "yes, this will make Tural so cool."

Another one is clearly supposed to provide more detail into Vieran culture, and specifically how the Turali tribes differ from the ones in... Dalmasca or whatever. Another seeks to explain the divide between what is effectively an artisan caste and everyday merchants, but they're all told in the most awful and offputting ways. Bad humor, annoying tropes, constant reiteration of extremely-obvious themes - the DT special.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

I agree that the DT role questlines weren't great. While the idea of helping tribal people get their village handy doodads back was neat concept, it was all handled rather poorly. I've done all of them and they all blow cock.

First of all, there's a lot of them. Can people just seal these powerful creatures into a wooden carvings just like that? How'd they do it? They offer no explanation for how they even trapped the things or why. Only that they have them and what they abuse them for. If it's so easy, shit, they could've just sealed Valigarmanda into one. Skyruin problem solved. I didn't care for the people we helped. They yammered on about themselves but not a single one of them know how or why their villages have these relics. You ask them and you get a confused shrug. On top of that they're so reliant on the bloody things that when some idiot steals it from them, their entire society falls apart.

I get that they were trying to have a comical theme for these questlines, but it's a case of "the joke has ran on too long" kind of thing.. For the physical dps line, the whole thing is a running gag. You're basically chasing around an incompetent baffoon and each quest before 100 ends the exact same. He tries to swindle people, runs away when he's instantly caught and then watch the dumb broad hunting him miss every arrow. Rinse repeat until the last one where she suddenly is an expert all because we introduced the macguffin of glasses. The point is that if the quest ends the same every single time, I become less interested in seeing it to the end because I already know how it'll play out.

There's also contrivances that happen so that the plot can miraculously solve itself. For instance, the ranged dps questline puts you up against what's supposed to be an impenetrable shield that blasts you away if you get too close. The solution? Have someone run up and wail on the shield while you wail on it from a distance until it breaks. That's it. No clever workaround. No careful planning. Just smash your face against it until it smash open.

Honestly I'm getting tired of these role quests. I miss the characters I met when jobs had their own questlines. Those had actual stories and characters I actually gave a shit about.

 

[SuffahWhorse]

Just needed to say it. This and /xivg/ are like the only places I know I can say this

You can say this on the Official FFXIV forums too actually (since they have basically zero moderation). People openly shit on Wuk and her VA Sean Brian and misgender him and don't get banned. Some of the leftists over there have been mashing the report button and a few people have gotten taken out by the jannies, but several tranny defenders have also been banned (for calling people transphobes). For the most part the jannies haven't done anything, and the trannies and their defenders have been seething about it (seen people on twitter cry about the forums not banning these" transphobic chuds") .

So I'd say go give the forums a shot too, we could use more critical voices over there. Makes it more likely SE will actually listen to us.

 

[Kane Lives]

People openly shit on Wuk and her VA Sean Brian and misgender him and don't get banned.

I wonder how much of it is because the JP forums are allegedly seething about Troon Tiger as well. And they don't even have the excuse to hide behind the tranny hate since Wuk is voiced by a relatively well known female seiyuu there.

 

[Well Intentioned]

Ironworks literally already has one. In ARR coils raid you literaly go through an Allagan spaceship hanger, and docked is the spaceship ragnarok from FF8.

My understanding is that the Ragnarok (the EW one, not the Allagan one) is equipped to travel to the ends of creation (and has always been such a weird plot detail --- Hydaelyn loves her children so much, but tough shit to those people on those other planets. You get wiped out, but this one planet is fine.) Simply being spacefaring wasn't enough which, okay, fine.

I haven't done all of them yet, but it's a case of "I see what they're trying to do," just told in the worst way possible. They're trying to use them to flesh out Tural, but they're just not good.

It gets even funnier when you consider what they were trying NOT to do.

The role quests are very clearly portraying the whole treasure hunter/explorer motif as 'white colonialism' or whatever and how you're not heckin' respectin' cultures enough. I'm stunned that they didn't have Sara Groft, Indianapolis Jacobs, etc. as the Evil Club of Evil (who do EVIL things) to really drive the point home. They've been treating the players like retards at every other point, why not here?

The stupid thing is, there's definitely a way that this sort of shit could've been done that would've been interesting had these lazy shitheads not thought that art direction and omg tacos and alpacas (how wacky/zany!) would do the heavy lifting.

It's like the Latino/Latinx soyjack meme and I feel that there could've been a lot of really interesting stuff going on. Compare how the Au Ra were introduced on the Azem Steppe to how all of Tural is introduced to us. We learn about their customs, the tribes, etc, lore, language, etc. There's even a term for the actual 'succession rite' that we participate in as part of the MSQ.

It's so frustrating because it's such lazy writing and the worldbuilding, small details stuff is always something I've enjoyed about Square.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

At the risk of beating a dead horse; it's bizzare how badly they've been dropping the ball lately on the story. I mean, Endwalker as a whole was already pretty divisive - especially the post-MSQ story about the Void - so you think the writers would try to at least win the community back with Dawntrail. I mean, we all kinda knew that it was going to be a bit rough, going from "universe-destroying eldritch horror" to "summer vacation", but frankly, if we even got partially what we were advertised, then I think it would've been at least decent.

And yet, we didn't get that; we got an expansion that was basically rehashed plot points from Endwalker without the proper buildup, one of the most hated characters in FFXIV, tone-deaf lore that basically spits in the face of logic and history, and a story that borderline lied to us about what we were getting to see. Put simply, I... really don't think that the devs are going to be able to fix this, and Dawntrail is very likely going to be the start of FFXIV's downfall.

As @SuffahWhorse mentioned, the fact that the writers hired a woke company (quite possibly Sweet Baby) to do a "sensitivity sweep" of the story is telling; Endwalker still had its fans for all its flaws, but the only people that like Woketrail are DIEversitiy shills like on TV Tropes. All I know of at this point is; unless the patch story ends up pulling everything back from the brink - which is pretty unlikely - then I don't think I'll be coming back to FFXIV.

Seriously, how did they fuck this up?

 

[Lou's Sentient Backfat]

Another one is clearly supposed to provide more detail into Vieran culture, and specifically how the Turali tribes differ from the ones in... Dalmasca or whatever.

Just think, they could have done that in the MSQ if they hadn't decided to nuke that part of the map for the second half of the MSQ.

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

And yet, we didn't get that; we got an expansion that was basically rehashed plot points from Endwalker without the proper buildup, one of the most hated characters in FFXIV, tone-deaf lore that basically spits in the face of logic and history, and a story that borderline lied to us about what we were getting to see. Put simply, I... really don't think that the devs are going to be able to fix this, and Dawntrail is very likely going to be the start of FFXIV's downfall.

Best case scenario DT will be memory holed as we jump between the other shards and Wuk and Co. will only show up in whatever final confrontation we'll have at the end of this overarching story and not a second before. I hated EW and hoped this would be the fresh start and course correction, which it clearly wasn't, so I have minimal hopes about it though.

 

[ZMOT]

I see people saying “tyfp” or “gg” all the time, but that bit at the end I didn’t expect. Most FFXIV players would probably go “OH MY GOD STOP PUSHING YOUR RELIGION ON ME!”

I can pretty much guarantee you most (xiv) players don't care or outright swing in the opposite direction. just because a vocal minority is loud and obnoxious doesn't mean it's the majority - anyone looking at twitter numbers should know that by now.
the vast majority of people simply doesn't care or isn't driven enough push their own stuff or even go against the troon brigade. they have other things to worry about and play the game for fun and escapism.
or it was outright bait to have one of those these retards fly off the handle to report them.

 

[std::string]

I wonder how much of it is because the JP forums are allegedly seething about Troon Tiger as well. And they don't even have the excuse to hide behind the tranny hate since Wuk is voiced by a relatively well known female seiyuu there.

They don't like the fact that Wuk's character is obnoxious AND shoved in your face all the time. They also make fun of the repetitive motion sickness gag.

If Wuk's characterization was more like Ashe from FF12 or something she would have been better received.

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

Finished the savage tier.

Honestly it's a pretty easy tier this time round. Honey B is probably going to be the big menace in PF until gear makes her less of an issue. It's really just cause of her heart mechanic mechanic meaning she'll heal and get a damage buff if people fuck up. I easily had the most enrages on that fight.

Wicked Thunder is easy. Refreshing to have a fight that isn't a door boss, but that damage check is pitiful. 3 deaths and 5 damage downs. We still cleared way ahead of enrage. You can already skip the final mechanic with good damage, so I think that in a couple months it'll be absolutely annihilated with IL730 gear.

No loot this week unfortunately.

 

[Soycast Guy]

I can pretty much guarantee you most (xiv) players don't care or outright swing in the opposite direction. just because a vocal minority is loud and obnoxious doesn't mean it's the majority - anyone looking at twitter numbers should know that by now.
the vast majority of people simply doesn't care or isn't driven enough push their own stuff or even go against the troon brigade. they have other things to worry about and play the game for fun and escapism.
or it was outright bait to have one of those these retards fly off the handle to report them.

You’re probably right. I’m just tired of faggots shitting up every community at this point.

 

[EmpGulcasa]

I'm looking forward to the whining when the Live Letter rolls around and the devs either outright apologize for the state of the MSQ or even just say they're pivoting away from Wuk Lamat.

 

[ChromaQuack]

I'm looking forward to the whining when the Live Letter rolls around and the devs either outright apologize for the state of the MSQ or even just say they're pivoting away from Wuk Lamat.

Fingers crossed for the jumping dogezas yoshi P owes all of us.

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

I'm looking forward to the whining when the Live Letter rolls around and the devs either outright apologize for the state of the MSQ or even just say they're pivoting away from Wuk Lamat.

The fact that the Japanese really didn't like her makes me think they're definitely gonna pivot away. 7.1 will probably still have too much of her, but after that, she's going to probably be preoccupied with Dawnservant duties or some shit.

At a stretch, maybe they realize that she's so unpopular that using her as a disposable character to be killed in patch quests may actually be a way to heighten stakes a bit, but I doubt that. They're more likely to pack her up as quick as possible and act like she never existed.

7.3 will almost definitely be the last we see of her tho, since that'll be wrapping up Dawntrail's post-story. At which point, she'll become a background character like Lyse and Aymeric. A leader of a country that maybe appears once later on to go "my country lends you our support!".