Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[SnowBall]

Finished 7.3 msq
It was fine. Didn’t really feel much either way. At least it wasn’t bad.
It was really cool that we get to actually use our current job’s weapon in the cutscene where we destroy Calyx’s memory thing.
Shale ended up not being evil or dead after all. Same with Sphene.
RIP Geode
Seems like Wuk is staying behind
Seems we have Ascians again but to be fair you have to be really dense if you thought they weren’t coming back. It was also fun watching Calyx lose his shit as the story went on.
Also glad Calyx didn’t have a tragic villain back story, he was just always a massive cunt.

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

I just finished the msq too.
Basically all of the above.

If this was their course correction due to the backlash they tied things up pretty well all things considering. I appreciated the small mini games just to break up the VN monotony, they had to know spending 90% of patch story running around in the city would get boring quick. The trial was okay, but I really liked the dungeon. That 2nd boss was a nice change of pace. Also: That fucking director's locker.

 

[RIPRhongoBongo]

Seems like Wuk is staying behind

This line alone makes 7.3 the best patch already

 

[Well Intentioned]

Finished 7.3 msq
It was fine. Didn’t really feel much either way. At least it wasn’t bad.
It was really cool that we get to actually use our current job’s weapon in the cutscene where we destroy Calyx’s memory thing.
Shale ended up not being evil or dead after all. Same with Sphene.
RIP Geode
Seems like Wuk is staying behind
Seems we have Ascians again but to be fair you have to be really dense if you thought they weren’t coming back. It was also fun watching Calyx lose his shit as the story went on.
Also glad Calyx didn’t have a tragic villain back story, he was just always a massive cunt.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Yeah, dead wrong about Shale.

This could just be cope talking here but from what I've dipped my toes into thus far with the MSQ, they seem to actually be doing a decent job at building up and providing depth, trying to give visual variety (ie, it could've been very easy to just have Shale give one big long monologue in the Backroom rather than going for a bit of a jaunt like they did. (Although it is contrasted with why the fuck should we care about Geode and why the fuck would Calyx set up an elaborate trap to kill a low level nobody. Maybe this gets answered later on, but it feels really forced.)

Alexandrians are still some of the stupidest fucking people in this game. Ala Mhiggers better watch out, as they're coming for their crown. The infantile way the writers are handling a concept like death is pretty wild. The Blue's Clues way they approached the 'mystery' at the start was silly.

I am saddened that Wuk did not get the Geode treatment. The opportunity was right there. I do appreciate that pretty much the only time Wuk is saying shit in the MSQ (so far) is to basically say she's fucking off.

E: Of course as soon as I say that...

 

[Goycast Guy]

I have a new favorite VA to dump on. Whoever voices this char:

I got to this part and I knew who you were talking about immediately. Did they instruct her to moan into the mic?

(Still better than Wuk lmao)

 

[Well Intentioned]

I got to this part and I knew who you were talking about immediately. Did they instruct her to moan into the mic?

(Still better than Wuk lmao)

The VA is another annoying gender special, although they have a lot more chops and experience than Sena.

Although the VA (for me) is grating as hell having them voice Wuk probably would've worked a lot better for the vibe of the character.

Speaking of Wuk, it is amusing to me that the voiced lines we're getting so far don't have the put on """"Hispanic"""" accent or the weird singsong crap that plagued the character's performance.

It's all just flat monotone with no real attempt to provide an over-the-top accent. If they had to drag Sena back into the studio for a retake on 'Speen lissin to mi', I'm curious if they had her redo more lines while a chain smoking Terence Fletcher type is berating them to do better.

I'm curious if there's as much in the way of production fuckery with 7.3 content, too. Any thoughts on first listen @Rich Evans Ayypologist ?

 

[Pigeon Enthusiast]

I'm not one of the autists that maths out all the nonsense involved in determining the optimum rotation, but I have parsed orange a few times. Isn't this change just allowing a little more freedom in the 2m burst? Their burst window was already timed to double Enshroud with no downtime in-between.

It's basically just acknowledging double Enshroud as intended tech, and making it easier to set up.

 

[Goycast Guy]

The VA is another annoying gender special,

Straight to the chamber.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

what would be the worst idea for a new expansion?
Maybe they're desperate enough to go back to first to try and "capture the magic" of shadowbringer again and just have a bunch of REMEMBER THIS!!! moments

The guy who became Shinryu comes back and fights Not Actually Golbez over who gets to marry Tranny Voiced Cat girl who used that shitty time travel tower to go back to the FFT Raid and steal Ultimas power...and becomes Tranny Furry Ultima.

And yes i have more respect for Brave Exivus plot than I do for 14

 

[Agarathium1066]

And yes i have more respect for Brave Exivus plot than I do for 14

Still more respect than the actual devs have for it.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Still more respect than the actual devs have for it.

Ive only done ARR personally, i just know some cliff notes on the rest, i can lose more respect

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

I'm curious if there's as much in the way of production fuckery with 7.3 content, too. Any thoughts on first listen @Rich Evans Ayypologist ?

I'm still unsubbed, and even if I returned I'd have to annoy CS to un-delete the character. Though my grounds for return is "make the game actually fun," at which point replaying through the story wouldn't bug me.

I just have no faith they'll ever do it. I hold onto some sliver of curiosity - as this is the team that did 1.0->2.0, can they pull that magic off again? (I mean, probably not.)

The trouble with just pulling it up on youtube is that youtube compression would already be fucking with everything. That said, Sena was already a lot flatter and lethargic in the .2 questline, so that trend continuing wouldn't surprise me. I have to imagine it's some realization that there's no gravy train to be had here, and this character - and performance - are black marks.

But I wouldn't be surprised if having to re-record several lines got him a chewing-out, because a lot of work was clearly put not even into an audio preset... but just in cleaning up the shitty performances. Like, a preset would be an easy fix: need a few lines for Wuk? Have Sena record, run them through the preset. But then I'd expect to see the same range for every one of Wuk's lines, and that wasn't the case in the base-game. It was all over the place, meaning they probably had to clean up the final takes all individually (which might also explain why such awful bits like speen! murderer! and peephole! slipped through).

Not wanting to do that again, they may have identified the root of the issue: a fake accent that comes and goes and has Sena trying to hit registers that he clearly, clearly cannot which also makes the bassy undertones of his voice stick out like a sore thumb. Severely restricting the range of the "accent" would mean a lot less headaches (and probably a lot fewer takes, too, which would also mean less headaches).

 

[Agarathium1066]

I'm still unsubbed, and even if I returned I'd have to annoy CS to un-delete the character. Though my grounds for return is "make the game actually fun," at which point replaying through the story wouldn't bug me.

Game has not changed enough to hit this. There's a few small positive changes in this patch but its not to the core gameplay which I do agree has been going downhill. This will probably require a fresh expansion to really make huge changes.

Not wanting to do that again, they may have identified the root of the issue: a fake accent that comes and goes and has Sena trying to hit registers that he clearly, clearly cannot which also makes the bassy undertones of his voice stick out like a sore thumb. Severely restricting the range of the "accent" would mean a lot less headaches (and probably a lot fewer takes, too, which would also mean less headaches).

This is a serious issue that that retard will not listen to. When trying to apply their scuffed "Latinx" voice he sounds even more awkward. SE has found an alternative fix: Finishing Wuk's story and being in a good position to leave Wuk to non-voiced scenes. Very economical.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Game has not changed enough to hit this.

I schadenfreude-watch the game, so I know there's almost nothing in this patch but yeah I don't think it's ever getting fixed. I kept an eye on OC because that may have tempted me, but to see it shit out and collapse so spectacularly even I didn't expect. And no leveling jobs in it? ...what? It's like they wanted it to be abandoned in a month.

I really don't think 8.0 has anything planned for jobs, because - seriously, look at the MCH changes. It barely fixes anything, the job still has never-press buttons, and complaints that have been on board since SB are seemingly unresolved. Healers got even simpler with their AoE range buffed, so you can concentrate even harder on 11111 and not worry about positioning. Oh, yeah, what am I saying, they fucking skewered BLM and high blizzard is still an always-loss never-press button. This is not a jobs team that can pull it around, so rather than a new expansion they just plainly need a new staff.

When trying to apply their scuffed "Latinx" voice he sounds even more awkward

Particularly around the trills. He's the only one to say "Tuliyollal" with the chhh on the y, and there's just so much emphasis on it. LOOK AT ME, I AM DOING A TRILL, I AM AUTHENTIC. Trouble is, it's going to be loud and deep because it's a gutteral thing, so you're going to just get this harsh sound if you don't squish it. I don't remember if he said it in .2, I know I recorded those cutscenes but I'd have to look back through to find and compare if he had dropped the trills by then.

 

[Fcret]

Koji was busy with localization for FFXVI after Shadowbringers, right? Because I remember the jarring shift from shadowbringers to Endwalker when it comes to the characters and how cardboard-like they started feeling. It only got worse when Ishikawa took a backseat after Endwalker.

Koji was also doing direct input with the writing. A lot of the edgier aspects of earlier FFXIV are partly due to him telling the writers to crank up the edge in order to appeal to the westoids.

Kate is doing a similar role now but she's a dangerhair white woman millennial from an coastie school who's basically spent her entire career working in libraries or the publishing industry. You can definitely feel the change not just in the localization but even the tone of the story.

 

[Goycast Guy]

Koji was also doing direct input with the writing. A lot of the edgier aspects of earlier FFXIV are partly due to him telling the writers to crank up the edge in order to appeal to the westoids.

Kate is doing a similar role now but she's a dangerhair white woman millennial from an coastie school who's basically spent her entire career working in libraries or the publishing industry. You can definitely feel the change not just in the localization but even the tone of the story.

Ah that makes sense. The tonal shift between Endwalker and yawntrail is jarring.

 

[Spilled Spaghett]

I mean, the Scions are kind of missing the happy-go-lucky frontliner character in their roster

If only there was some cute white blonde girl who could fill this role. Maybe even someone with experience in learning how to become the leader of an entire nation who could've taught Wuk how to temper that energy into something more productive.

Checking back in to see that my beloved XIV continues to be colonized by degenerates and retards. When we reconquer Hydaelyn they will pay reparations. Please inform me if this Kate person gets canned so I may .

 

[Baron Reginald]

I just have no faith they'll ever do it. I hold onto some sliver of curiosity - as this is the team that did 1.0->2.0, can they pull that magic off again? (I mean, probably not.)

No, it is the same studio, but the team itself is long gone and spread out across various Square projects.
Expecting them to pull that magic again is hopeless, since they are not being ridden hard enough. If it was going to happen you'd see "Star" dev talent being migrated over it to stop the sinking, but they are probably still making enough revenue from the mogstation cows that it isn't a problem to worry about and they can keep milking 14 to fund their other projects.

 

[Agarathium1066]

Expecting them to pull that magic again is hopeless, since they are not being ridden hard enough. If it was going to happen you'd see "Star" dev talent being migrated over it to stop the sinking, but they are probably still making enough revenue from the mogstation cows that it isn't a problem to worry about and they can keep milking 14 to fund their other projects.

Short of the game pulling into a terminal nosedive the devs will not be whipped like rented mules like they were during ARR's creation. Yoshi P seems to still feel guilty about his treatment of the team to this day and the game at the time was a money pit that shamed the company. Yoshi P is comfortable on his laurels and the game is still profitable enough to be leeched off of.

 

[healing rain]

The new trial’s bgm is a huge miss for me. I’m not asking for a 1:1 rendition but it completely lacks the energy and spirit of the song it’s based on. Looks like Soken phoned it in just as much as the rest of the dev team.

Spoiler: BGM

Add this to the list of ways this expac completely shat all over FFIX’s legacy, not to mention the inclusion of this boss in itself.