[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Faroth]

Did the Nier raid.

Spoiler: 

Well, it had a lot of spectacle, that's for sure. Not really invested in the story. You just kinda just go into the raid and kill stuff without much context.

Every raid questline prior went into detail, setting up characters, their backstories, their motivations, the stakes of the conflict, a feeling of history, etc. Every raid questline before this managed to tell a story in its first act.

Here, I don't know what the story even was. I felt like we followed some android who we literally just met into a valley that inexplicably, no one knows about (you'd think Eulmoran airships and Amaro riders would've noticed the place). We do our usual genociding, and then 2P casually tells us "oh yeah, these things are machine lifeforms", which makes me go "what, we're not just eliminating pre-programmed automated defenses, but we're straight up slaughtering sentient life?". Maybe their cute, round character designs should've given it away. Then 2P says "the factory has to be shut down" and doesn't give any explanation as to why. Then we fight the guy at the end (who I presume is another android - he's called 9S), who appears to fighting alongside with these machine lifeforms. Is he defending them? Is he the good guy here? And then that's that. "Cya in 6 months!"

The music was 50/50. Some of the time, it's grandiose and really great, but most of the time it's grating to listen to. I guess it will be more tolerable later on in the expansion when we are walking around in ilevel 500+ gear and can turn those 10+ minute long boss fights into < 5 minute long boss fights.

That's pretty standard to expect from Yoko Taro, though. Things are going to be vague at the start. With Nier Automata fans, the intro leaves a lot of speculation to leave them guessing on what's really going on here. For non-Automata fans, you've more got a mystery at the moment and a lot of questions in general.

Besmirching the Nier music, though. Shot me right in the heart. T-T

Song of the Ancients was in there in one form, not sure specifically which since there's a ton of Song of the Ancients renditions across NieR and Automata. Weight of the World remix with the Crystal theme mixed in was my favorite.

I'm wondering if Become As Gods will get used later.

[Graeham]

I'm hoping that they use a new set of Nier themes for each raid section to allow as many tracks as possible to end up as orchestrion rolls.

[Ragnarocket]

Loved the main story quest line, just finished that last night.

Straight up loved the entire scene of the creation of Angelo, anytime I get to see Alisaie and Alphy act like siblings I just enjoy the heck out of it. Alphy mocking her artistry was one of the most "sibling" like moments I can remember.

[Kaelwryn]

Loved the main story quest line, just finished that last night.

Straight up loved the entire scene of the creation of Angelo, anytime I get to see Alisaie and Alphy act like siblings I just enjoy the heck out of it. Alphy mocking her artistry was one of the most "sibling" like moments I can remember.

Same. Those moments are really enjoyable for me, cos it reminds me a lot of me and my siblings.

[Tenjen]

well i just did the "skeletons in her closet" quest and that was absolutely horrifying story wise.

[Rogalicus]

Well, it had a lot of spectacle, that's for sure. Not really invested in the story. You just kinda just go into the raid and kill stuff without much context.

Every raid questline prior went into detail, setting up characters, their backstories, their motivations, the stakes of the conflict, a feeling of history, etc. Every raid questline before this managed to tell a story in its first act.

Here, I don't know what the story even was.

So it's the same shit as Ivalice raids? Bunch of random fanservice without even pretense of writing cohesive story for those who are out of context?

[Katchii]

So it's the same shit as Ivalice raids? Bunch of random fanservice without even pretense of writing cohesive story for those who are out of context?

The Ivalice raids had enough context if you paid attention to the story as it was introduced. Ivalice exists wihtin the world of FFXIV, it's not some completely separate thing and they provide the history of it as you go through the raid quests. It was a little bare, agreed, but there was enough for you to understand why you were there and what was going on in the raid.

The Nier raid story is seemingly written very similarly to how the Nier game is done, where they throw stuff at you with little to no context to bring up questions and as the story unfolds you get more and more information that provides context and answers those questions. It's meant to be a mystery, it's meant to be a little confusing right now. That's by design.

[Faroth]

well i just did the "skeletons in her closet" quest and that was absolutely horrifying story wise.

There's another quest you've already completed that will come back up later. It gets worse. So much worse. o.o

- - - Updated - - -

The Ivalice raids had enough context if you paid attention to the story as it was introduced. Ivalice exists wihtin the world of FFXIV, it's not some completely separate thing and they provide the history of it as you go through the raid quests. It was a little bare, agreed, but there was enough for you to understand why you were there and what was going on in the raid.

The Nier raid story is seemingly written very similarly to how the Nier game is done, where they throw stuff at you with little to no context to bring up questions and as the story unfolds you get more and more information that provides context and answers those questions. It's meant to be a mystery, it's meant to be a little confusing right now. That's by design.

Yep. After all, you're dealing with a director whose collaboration here had you play through two playthroughs of the game only to find out you basically played a prologue of the REAL story. The big revelations came in the third "playthrough."

[Dugna]

Ivalice was referenced during the MSQ and side stories and such before you entered in the raid, so there was context for its existance in FF14 from the get go.

[Rogalicus]

The Ivalice raids had enough context if you paid attention to the story as it was introduced. Ivalice exists wihtin the world of FFXIV, it's not some completely separate thing and they provide the history of it as you go through the raid quests. It was a little bare, agreed, but there was enough for you to understand why you were there and what was going on in the raid.

The Nier raid story is seemingly written very similarly to how the Nier game is done, where they throw stuff at you with little to no context to bring up questions and as the story unfolds you get more and more information that provides context and answers those questions. It's meant to be a mystery, it's meant to be a little confusing right now. That's by design.

This wasn't my experience at all. Between random references to why new characters are named after FFT protagonist and his sister, references to Ashe faking her death and some villain from FFXII turning into bonus hunt boss from FFXII for whatever reason, there was barely anything else. Empire ruined Ivalice, so let's go to former capital of Dalmasca. Lizard ran to final dungeon of FFXII, so off we go. I don't even know what the fuck happened in Orbonne, my patience is too limited for that.

[Granyala]

Straight up loved the entire scene of the creation of Angelo, anytime I get to see Alisaie and Alphy act like siblings I just enjoy the heck out of it. Alphy mocking her artistry was one of the most "sibling" like moments I can remember.

"Grotesque parody of reality" made me laugh so hard, esp Alphy's facial expression.

[Katchii]

This wasn't my experience at all. Between random references to why new characters are named after FFT protagonist and his sister, references to Ashe faking her death and some villain from FFXII turning into bonus hunt boss from FFXII for whatever reason, there was barely anything else. Empire ruined Ivalice, so let's go to former capital of Dalmasca. Lizard ran to final dungeon of FFXII, so off we go. I don't even know what the fuck happened in Orbonne, my patience is too limited for that.

Not trying to be a dick here, but that seems more like you ignored or didn't even try to understand what was going on. They provide enough context for you to understand why you're doing what you're doing in the raids. I admitted that it's pretty shallow, but there's ENOUGH there that provide context. The connection to FFT and FFXII isn't even required for that. Knowing the lore of those games does provide some cool easter egg type things and some additional context to who the characters are and why the bosses are significant, but it's by no means required to understand why you're doing the raids in the first place.

[RohanV]

I never played FFT or FFXII, and I thought the Ivalice raids had a complete story. It was obviously a reference to another game, so I may not have gotten the subtler details, but the basic story came across fine.

[Merie]

Hope you guys all enjoyed the Halloween event!

[Swnem]

I enjoyed the mount. That's all i bothered to do. xD

[Yoshingo]

Really liked the FF8 callback with Angelo, I didn't see that coming at all.

Also interesting how even the first patch, which normally isn't very important, seems to be pushing the story along at quite a brisk pace.

Also a thought I had:

The Empire is now in disarray. Zenos wants nothing to do with it. The lower level leaders are all fighting among themselves. You know who happens to be in the Capital right now, who stayed behind, to seemingly 'take care of another threat?' Gaius. I'd really love it if he became the leader and basically we joined up with the Empire in the final stretch against Zodiark and the Ascians.

[Granyala]

Really liked the FF8 callback with Angelo, I didn't see that coming at all.

Despite playing the game 2x I didn't remember the name. Had to look it up.

[Yoshingo]

Despite playing the game 2x I didn't remember the name. Had to look it up.

Yup, the Porxie that Alisaie summons is named that, which is the default name of Rinoa's Dog in FF8. I guess I should have seen it coming since Shadowbringers is basically the FF8 expansion, but I was genuinely surprised to hear her say that.

[threads]

any news on when a new eureka or relic is coming? got extremely bored after doing savage for a few weeks and not sure i want to resub just to sit around and cap tomes.

[leviathonlx]

any news on when a new eureka or relic is coming? got extremely bored after doing savage for a few weeks and not sure i want to resub just to sit around and cap tomes.

Well the next patch will be January but even if Eureka is in that patch it'd likely be the 5.25 patch which would be a month or two after that though maybe it'll be quicker this time as Anemos was hit with quite a few delays.