[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[KrayZ33]

The real stinker are the Nier raids. If this is what the stories of Yoko Taro's games are like then I'm going to stay way because so far it just seems like a bunch of edgy, artsy shock value nonsense. The only thing I liked about it was the Dwarf comedy and the bullet hell corridor in the second raid, and that was it.

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[Val the Moofia Boss]

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Before Shb came out, the Nier alliance raid was hyped up as "Yoko Taro bringing his unique stuff to FFXIV". Well, we're two raids in with one to go, and so far it's just been:

Spoiler: 

Raid 1
Dwarf comedy (which was fun)
Dwarves suddenly discover an ancient city (that makes no sense why it was undiscovered when there are Amaro and airships flying over mountains) and you go in
You fight a bunch of robots (again makes no sense why they weren't taking over the world) who are barely characterized
White android fights black android boy and it's not clear what's happening

Raid 2
More dwarf comedy (that's fun)
White androids blow up Dwarf village for no apparent reason
Black android shows up and tells you to follow her, doesn't explain what's going on
You go to raid 2 (again makes no sense why this place hasn't been discovered) to fight white androids (not sure why they are hostile or why they pretended being nice to you at first when they could've just shanked you)
At the end the white androids form into a giant blob monster for... reasons

I have absolutely no idea what's going on, why it's happening, and more importantly, why I should care.

Contrast that with the Ivalice story. The lore of the world was fleshed out. We were introduced to new nations, and get to see more of the Garlean occupation in Dalmasca. We found out about a secret Viera kingdom. We got to visit one of the ancestral homelands of the Garleans in Goug. The physics of the setting was fleshed out with Auracite and the Crystal Resonance waves. We got to see an interesting story, with how Dalmasca was conquered and the prince and princess died and how her guards feel guilty and became pirates but now they want to set things right and liberate Dalmasca, and how the Princess might actually be alive and there might be a happy reunion. We saw an interesting story in how Emperor Solus was a patron of the theater, and how the theater troupe's lives were at risk for their controversial opinions and for their messaging in their plays, they are trying to find new ways to entertain and want to find out more about their heritage. The characters were fun. I really liked Ramza. The Moogle duo was cute comedy. I really want to see how the Dalmascan resistance reclaims their homeland. I wanted to see what Gabranth was going to do.

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Crystal Tower also had the characters of Cid and Nero and G'raha Tia and Rammbroes going for it, which made it interesting. And learning more about Allag, as well as the 13th shard.

The sky pirate raids didn't have that much going for them, but it developed the world as we found out more about the Fifth Astral Era and the three predominant cities of the time, and learned more about the Voidsent. The rivalry between the sky pirates crews was also fun.

But Nier? The only thing I liked about it was the 5 minutes of Dwarf comedy. Otherwise, it has no endearing characters. It does not flesh out the world. It's just... a whole lot of flash over substance, and then you forget about it.

[Granyala]

And there is the narrative continuing to bend over backwards trying to whitewash Gaius' actions in ARR.

Hmm I don't perceive it that way. They clearly state that his actions were wrong and he even states himself that his approach of "by any means necessary" was the incorrect one.

He might have had noble intentions (if you listen to him in the Praetorium, you could already confirm that in ARR). I never really perceived him as a "bad guy" just a "misguided guy". How much he knew and didn'T know... He knew the whole Ascian shabang but he did not know the actual plans of the Ascians and how much of a pawn Garlemald really was.

As for the questline: I find the bad guy here Austin Powers levels of cliché. Zenos 2.0, just a moron with a lot of power and a clearly damaged brain.

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I have absolutely no idea what's going on, why it's happening, and more importantly, why I should care.

Uuh welcome to Nier.
In the first 2 playthroughs of Nier Automata, that's precisely how the game feels.
It gets a little clearer in the 3rd run (the game changes perspective after each run) but there is still a lot of room for interpretation and the story stays fairly vague.

Apparently people like that, personally I was underwhelmed, given all the hype.

[Graeham]

Sadly it really does seem like it was less about making Nier fit the game world and more about giving people 2B focused fanservice. I thought Nier Automata was a decent game but a lot of the stuff I personally liked about it just isn't present in the crossover.

[Hyral]

The Valens scenes are great and the grotesque weapon designs are cool, as well as the fights. Also glad to see Terncliff, though I wish it was more fleshed out. I hope Werlyt isn't just a single empty street with 5 NPCs in it like Terncliff.

The kids are okay. I hope Alfonse makes it.

My biggest problem is with Gaius. How old is he? How many years was he a part of the Garlean empire? By the time he made Legatus, there was absolutely no way he could not have known that the empire he was working for was 90% evil. Also doesn't make sense how he could make Legatus just based off of merit, as in this evil empire you either need to be... well, evil to get promoted, or you need to have some sort of backing from a higher up. Who is likely evil. And there is the narrative continuing to bend over backwards trying to whitewash Gaius' actions in ARR.

The Valens stuff is pretty well done. I haven't finished the quest line yet, it was hitting too close to home and had to take a break. Which honestly is the biggest praise I could give it.

Gaius had Varis and I don't think the Empire is "90% evil". Valens actions should be more reflective of himself and his Legion than the Empire as a whole considering the Empire seems to currently exist more as a concept rather than any real centralized government. There's no Emperor and we have Legati left and right siezing power in whatever way they can to stablish themselves in what new Empire might come out of this chaos.

The real stinker are the Nier raids. If this is what the stories of Yoko Taro's games are like then I'm going to stay way because so far it just seems like a bunch of edgy, artsy shock value nonsense. The only thing I liked about it was the Dwarf comedy and the bullet hell corridor in the second raid, and that was it.

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Nier might have been nice as a collaboration like the GARO collab, where you can get glamours and minions and mounts and maybe some housing stuff, but I would have rather that the Alliance Raid series be something substantial like the Ivalice story, fleshing out the world with lore and new locations to visit and progressing the story of the game and such.

I've only played Automata and wasn't impressed. You had to finish the game a couple of times before it revealed more of the plot but it was mostly just Existensialism 101.

A GARO collab would have worked so much better. Most new Nier fans seem to come from Automata and all they seem to care about is 2B's ass. A collab that just focused on art and gear would have fit much better and leave the Alliance Raid spot for something that would flesh out the story and world better. I'd kill for another Ivalice, as it is right now I've only run Muppet's Bunker once, no real interest in doing it again at all.

Edit: I read some plot summaries of older Nier games because older fans swear there's a good story buried in there and I felt they were just edgy, artsy shock value nonsense... but then again I think most anime is exactly that so it could have just not been for me. You seem to like that stuff so maybe the older games might interest you. They have more substance than Automata that just felt really superficial, specially compared to all the hype people gave it.

[Rogalicus]

I have absolutely no idea what's going on, why it's happening, and more importantly, why I should care. Contrast that with the Ivalice story.

There is no contrast, it's the same shit if one haven't played Tactics and XII before (like me). Long slog through nonsensical dialogues that are referencing stuff I have no idea about. If Orbonne story can just dump Tactics' ending on player with no context, why can't Nier raids reference Automata plot constantly?

[Xilurm]

My biggest problem is with Gaius. How old is he? How many years was he a part of the Garlean empire? By the time he made Legatus, there was absolutely no way he could not have known that the empire he was working for was 90% evil. Also doesn't make sense how he could make Legatus just based off of merit, as in this evil empire you either need to be... well, evil to get promoted, or you need to have some sort of backing from a higher up. Who is likely evil. And there is the narrative continuing to bend over backwards trying to whitewash Gaius' actions in ARR.

Evil? In what way? You're always going to find corrupt people in power wherever you go. What Gaius didn't know was that the Empire was founded by an Ascian. And Ascians aren't evil, well with the exception of Fandaniel maybe, who knows, we haven't seen his entire story yet.

The real stinker are the Nier raids. If this is what the stories of Yoko Taro's games are like then I'm going to stay way because so far it just seems like a bunch of edgy, artsy shock value nonsense. The only thing I liked about it was the Dwarf comedy and the bullet hell corridor in the second raid, and that was it.

Come now, I haven't played the Nier games and even I know you can't base that on a few quests that barely tell us anything.

[Graeham]

I switched back to a Midlander from Raen. I really liked how the latter looked - especially towering over everybody else - but that new fending set with the dark souls aesthetic just doesn't work with horns.

So, back to this guy:

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Evil? In what way? You're always going to find corrupt people in power wherever you go. What Gaius didn't know was that the Empire was founded by an Ascian.

... How does "the Empire is evil because it was constructed by evil people" justify working for an evil empire to commit acts of evil?

He massacred my old Scion friends in 2.0. He sent Livia into the Waking Sands and she executed almost everyone there. And then Gaius kept sending soldiers after us all throughout 2.0, even trying to kill Biggs and Wedge. Then he was going to use the Ultima Weapon to start blowing up cities until Eorzea surrendered (READ: commit mass murder). Oh, and conquered Ala Mhigo and was apparently such a brutal ruler that people died trying to escape.

Starting with Stormblood, the game tries to retcon him as "misguided but not evil", with him shutting down Black Rose and being presented as "the good governor" of Ala Mhigo before "the evil Zenos took over". "Actually, Livia massacred the Scions on her own accord out of jealously!". The game is presenting him as a cool character and a "tragic hero", but there is just no getting around the "he murdered hundreds of people and was planning on murdering hundreds more" part and is working apart of a heinously evil regime.

Believe me, I'd love for Garlemald to not be a stereotypical evil JRPG empire. I'd like for it to be like Erebonia, just another country you visit and adventure in with it's own problem, a place not inherently more evil than any other. But that's not what is portrayed ingame. Ingame, literally every Garlean is either 1. apart of the empire and complicit in committing evil (the least evil was Regula and even he killed tons of people trying to obtain what were effectively weapons of mass destruction, good chance he was going to do the same thing Gaius was going to do...), or 2. a defector (Cid/Nero/Lucia/Maxima, and now Gaius). We have not met one single good Garlean who was working within the system to try to make things better and who didn't cross any lines. Because that's impossible. You can't be apart of the Garlean empire and be in a position of power without being evil or complicit in evil, because it's not morally grey empire. It's a straight up JRPG evil empire.

Ascians aren't evil, well with the exception of Fandaniel maybe, who knows, we haven't seen his entire story yet.

The one and only justification for Fandaniel not being evil would be that the Sound has somehow corrupted/twisted his soul so that he has no choice to be evil. Really, that's it.

I think Fandaniel was either wronged in the past and is now incredibly spiteful, or he was twisted by the Sound. I'm not expecting him to become a tragic anti-villain like Emet-Selch and Elidibus. He works as a clown.

I switched back to a Midlander from Raen. I really liked how the latter looked - especially towering over everybody else - but that new fending set with the dark souls aesthetic just doesn't work with horns.

It seems that no matter what we fantasia to, we always come back to our first pick.

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At this point, I'm not hoping for anything substantial with Garlemald really. It sounds like it's being blown up offscreen, and at this point Garlemald isn't really relevant in the grand scheme of things. The plot focus is on fixing the Source of the Sound/preventing the Final Days and dueling Zenos. When they wrote Stormblood, they had pretty much locked themselves out of visiting Garlemald as a place to adventure in like Ishgard or Doma, and the creators clearly don't care about exploring that idea. After 4.0 it was only ever going to be the big bad evil empire to serve as villains to fight and a place to conquer. The only hope I have at this point is that we at least get a reconstruction storyline like Doma's and get to see a new government built, like with Eulmore (more indepth, please). I also hope that the fundamental problem of Garleans not being able to wield magic is addressed. I wouldn't want this to be a WW1 situation where the Allies walk in, conquer, and then walk out leaving a devastated country behind and pat themselves on the back without having actually addressed the problem.

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I wonder if we will even get to see those three towers in Garlemald's capital (didn't see any such structures during the Estinien and Gaius segment in capital in 5.0), as seen on the map of Aldenard. Would've been cool if the capital had a magnificent skyline of towers, like that one city from FF8 whose name escapes me at the moment. But it'll probably be a dungeon like Ala Mhigo, or a ruined zone.

[Graeham]

As I see it, I'm not a huge fan of the desire for characters to be punished for past actions, even if misguided or shady. I wouldn't have enjoyed FF7 if Rude, Reno, Elena, Tseng, Rufus and Reeve were executed or imprisoned at the end of the game. I wouldn't have enjoyed FF8 if Seifer was executed or imprisoned at the end of the game. I wouldn't have enjoyed FF9 if Beatrix was executed or imprisoned at the end of the game.

...and so on and so forth.

The game bends over backwards to come up with reasons as to why most of the protagonists get away from danger and consequences largely unscathed. I think it's only fair that at least some of the antagonists get the same benefit.

Granted, I would prefer Garlemald to be handled as being more similarly to Archades in FFXIV but at the end of the day Final Fantasy games have been popular in no small part due to memorable antagonists.

I'm hoping the writers are able and willing to let both the Ascians and the Garleans have a happy ending of some sort.

[Dudenoso]

And Ascians aren't evil, well with the exception of Fandaniel maybe, who knows, we haven't seen his entire story yet.

That's a retcon. Laha "Mwahaha!" brea begs to differ

[Granyala]

I'm hoping the writers are able and willing to let both the Ascians and the Garleans have a happy ending of some sort.

Ascians: I doubt it. We nuked the last 3 unsundered, what remains now are only low level critters by comparison.

Lets face it: the true Ascians are now extinct. So: not much of a happy ending there.

Garlemald: It's possible but it would be done in a boring way. It would basically amount to us conquering them and then copying our values onto their society.
I'd like for them to recover from the Ascian influence, get proper leaders but still remain different. Let the relations be on the cool "we tolerate each other" side of things instead of being BFFs.

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That's a retcon. Laha "Mwahaha!" brea begs to differ

Not really. They ARE evil from our perspective.
They do not care about/acknowledge lower lifeforms at all in the relentless pursuit of their goal of restoration.

[Hyral]

That's a lot of yikes...

... How does "the Empire is evil because it was constructed by evil people" justify working for an evil empire to commit acts of evil?

He massacred my old Scion friends in 2.0. He sent Livia into the Waking Sands and she executed almost everyone there. And then Gaius kept sending soldiers after us all throughout 2.0, even trying to kill Biggs and Wedge. Then he was going to use the Ultima Weapon to start blowing up cities until Eorzea surrendered (READ: commit mass murder). Oh, and conquered Ala Mhigo and was apparently such a brutal ruler that people died trying to escape.

Attacking the Scions isn't evil just because they are your friends. Attacking the Ironworks isn't evil just because they are your friends. That's as dumb as calling yourself evil for attacking a Castrum or some other Garlean base, all those conscripts were friends and family of someone and you slaughter them. Attacking the Scions was a reasonable action for him to take, they were an obstacle in the way for his conquest. The morality of said conquest can be discussed but to act as if it's just evil is an oversimplification.

Starting with Stormblood, the game tries to retcon him as "misguided but not evil", with him shutting down Black Rose and being presented as "the good governor" of Ala Mhigo before "the evil Zenos took over". "Actually, Livia massacred the Scions on her own accord out of jealously!". The game is presenting him as a cool character and a "tragic hero", but there is just no getting around the "he murdered hundreds of people and was planning on murdering hundreds more" part and is working apart of a heinously evil regime.

The only thing Stormblood seems to have retconned was making Gaius survive, and given we don't actually see him die maybe that was really the intention all along. When was the last time you played through the game? I have a feeling you might be misremembering some things, specially from meeting him in ARR. He's been pretty consistent ever since, from the Praetorium to now.

Eorzea’s unity is forged of falsehoods. Its city-states are built on deceit. And its faith is an instrument of deception. It is naught but a cobweb of lies. To believe in Eorzea is to believe in nothing. In Eorzea, the beast tribes often summon gods to fight in their stead–though your comrades only rarely respond in kind. Which is strange, is it not? Are the "Twelve" otherwise engaged? I was given to understand they were your protectors. If you truly believe them your guardians, why do you not repeat the trick that served you so well at Carteneau, and call them down? They will answer–so long as you lavish them with crystals and gorge them on aether. Your gods are no different from those of the beasts–eikons every one. Accept but this, and you will see how Eorzea’s faith is bleeding the land dry. Nor is this unknown to your masters. Which prompts the question: why do they cling to these false deities? What drives even men of learning–even the great Louisoix–to grovel at their feet? The answer? Your masters lack the strength to do otherwise! For the world of man to mean anything, man must own the world. To this end, he hath fought ever to raise himself through conflict–to grow rich through conquest. And when the dust of battle settles, it is ever the strong who dictate the fate of the weak. Knowing this, but a single path is open to the impotent ruler–that of false worship. A path which leads to enervation and death. Only a man of power can rightly steer the course of civilization. And in this land of creeping mendacity, that one truth will prove its salvation. Come, champion of Eorzea, face me! Your defeat shall serve as proof of my readiness to rule! It is only right that I should take your realm. For none among you as the power to stop me!

Your strength is... most impressive. Such power befits a ruler! Yet you lack the resolve to put it to proper use. A waste.

Such devastation... This was not my intention...

Heed me... The subjects of a weak ruler must needs look to a higher power for providence... and their dependence comes at a cost to the realm. The misguided elevate the frail... And the frail lead the people astray. Unless a man of power wrests control... the cycle will never be broken. You... You of all people must see the truth in this. You who have the strength to rule...

Those aren't the words of someone who is just plain evil and wants to commit mass murder and destroy everything. He's a conqueror thinking the land he's conquering is in chaos because their leadership is weak and he imagines himself to be the one man who can fix it due to his Garlean upbringing/propaganda. You know, a misguided character.

He has been consistent to that idea since then. His words on Black Rose are in line with the previous quotes.

Fools... What do they hope to gain with this butchery? Can they not see that a rule won through terror will not endure? How many more provinces must they lose!?

They had been slain by Black Rose–an alchemical invention of the imperial army. When I yet served as legatus, I ordered its production halted and all stockpiles destroyed. Toxic gas is not a tool of conquest, but of extermination.

There will be no one left in the lands they conquer. No citizens to conscript, no skills to exploit, nothing the Empire needs. And they will call it victory.

He's still the same man at his core. His concern is not with the morality of the actions taken but the outcome of them to benefit the Empire and the goal of conquest. A goal he still believes to be righteous. His methods may be changing (it would be unreasonable not to expect change after two failed invasion attempts) but the core of his character hasn't.

Ingame, literally every Garlean is either 1. apart of the empire and complicit in committing evil (the least evil was Regula and even he killed tons of people trying to obtain what were effectively weapons of mass destruction, good chance he was going to do the same thing Gaius was going to do...), or 2. a defector (Cid/Nero/Lucia/Maxima, and now Gaius). We have not met one single good Garlean who was working within the system to try to make things better and who didn't cross any lines. Because that's impossible. You can't be apart of the Garlean empire and be in a position of power without being evil or complicit in evil, because it's not morally grey empire. It's a straight up JRPG evil empire.

I'm starting to think your only metric for evil is killing? Does intent, purpose, circumstance, goal not matter at all when examining someone's actions? Either way if those things matter then yes Regula was until he's killed, Gaius was until you nearly kill him. He defects for other reasons than turning his back on the Empire. The Populares were but I don't think bringing up their defection is fair given they had been working within the Empire until Elidibus decided to meddle himself and brings things to a turning point. And now, well the Empire isn't really even an Empire anymore until their civil war is complete and some sort of centralized government is put in place again.

I really don't understand why you keep saying they are just an JRPG evil empire when we've seen so many interesting characters come out of there with more motivations than the generic JRPG "muahaha I'm evil" and the reason so many are upset now is because now we are getting generic JRPG evil empire with Zenos and Fannydanny. If the Empire had always been this generic evil entity you think it is no one would be disappointed at this new approach, it would just be expected.

I think Fandaniel was either wronged in the past and is now incredibly spiteful, or he was twisted by the Sound. I'm not expecting him to become a tragic anti-villain like Emet-Selch and Elidibus. He works as a clown.

I really, really hope it's not something as stupid as being corrupted by the Sound or any other magical nonsense. Just typing it reminds me of the many times something interesting could have happened in WoW and no, it was just corruption. Hate the idea of it being lashing out due to some trauma, it would be so dull to make yet another Ascian a "tragic villain" again. I rather him have arrived to his nihilistic conclusion through some warped reasoning. Maybe he knows a truth we don't know that changed his world view and would challenge the main cast to do so like when they learned about the Ancients. Something that would led him to believe life has no value and actually have some real reasoning behind it. But to make it just magic, now that would be generic JRPG evil.

[Xilurm]

... How does "the Empire is evil because it was constructed by evil people" justify working for an evil empire to commit acts of evil?

He massacred my old Scion friends in 2.0. He sent Livia into the Waking Sands and she executed almost everyone there. And then Gaius kept sending soldiers after us all throughout 2.0, even trying to kill Biggs and Wedge. Then he was going to use the Ultima Weapon to start blowing up cities until Eorzea surrendered (READ: commit mass murder). Oh, and conquered Ala Mhigo and was apparently such a brutal ruler that people died trying to escape.

Starting with Stormblood, the game tries to retcon him as "misguided but not evil", with him shutting down Black Rose and being presented as "the good governor" of Ala Mhigo before "the evil Zenos took over". "Actually, Livia massacred the Scions on her own accord out of jealously!". The game is presenting him as a cool character and a "tragic hero", but there is just no getting around the "he murdered hundreds of people and was planning on murdering hundreds more" part and is working apart of a heinously evil regime.

The one and only justification for Fandaniel not being evil would be that the Sound has somehow corrupted/twisted his soul so that he has no choice to be evil. Really, that's it.

I think Fandaniel was either wronged in the past and is now incredibly spiteful, or he was twisted by the Sound. I'm not expecting him to become a tragic anti-villain like Emet-Selch and Elidibus. He works as a clown.

The Garleans were literally bullied for ages by the other races because they didn't have the same capabilities as them. They were treated as a lower race. So when a guy comes around and boosts your technology a few hundred years you would wanna take revenge too. It's like if the Mongol Empire raped and pillaged your lands for centuries, then your country suddenly becomes Rome, except with advanced weapons and machinery. You'd want to put down these "savage barbarians" aswell. From their perspective what they're doing is ridding the world of evil.

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I wonder if we will even get to see those three towers in Garlemald's capital (didn't see any such structures during the Estinien and Gaius segment in capital in 5.0), as seen on the map of Aldenard. Would've been cool if the capital had a magnificent skyline of towers, like that one city from FF8 whose name escapes me at the moment. But it'll probably be a dungeon like Ala Mhigo, or a ruined zone.

Esthar?

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That's a retcon. Laha "Mwahaha!" brea begs to differ

No. You are the agent of the "goddess" who literally destroyed his world and killed everyone he ever loved and cared for, for thousands of years (remember that they were immortal). And not just that but for the past few thousand years it was always agents of Hydaelyn trying to piss on his plans and efforts to bring back his loved ones. I'd be pissed off too.

[Dudenoso]

No. You are the agent of the "goddess" who literally destroyed his world and killed everyone he ever loved and cared for, for thousands of years (remember that they were immortal). And not just that but for the past few thousand years it was always agents of Hydaelyn trying to piss on his plans and efforts to bring back his loved ones. I'd be pissed off too.

Not really. They ARE evil from our perspective.
They do not care about/acknowledge lower lifeforms at all in the relentless pursuit of their goal of restoration.

Something tells me the ARR dialogue would have been quite different if the Ascian backstory had been decided since the beginning. Ergo "that's a retcon".

Not one player thought they weren't EVULZ before 5.0 ( or maybe the last tail of SB? can't quite recall if Emet was foreshadowed to being more than a drama queen in the end of SB )

The only way they could have been more evil in ARR is if they were oozing black smoke out of their pores and going around asking "what is evil?", monologuing about how they are invincible and throwing us down cliffs.

Come to think of it, they did stink a bunch of black shit out of their bodies. Was that ARR or HW?

He sent Livia into the Waking Sands and she executed almost everyone there.

Can we appreciate for a moment how amazing it was that they entangled how heavy the corpse was with how long it took to pick it up?

[Granyala]

Something tells me the ARR dialogue would have been quite different if the Ascian backstory had been decided since the beginning. Ergo "that's a retcon".

Not at all, his lines in the praetorium make perfect sense, now that we know about it. I'm pretty sure that they had the outline of the story right from the start.

[Poppincaps]

How are you all enjoying the new patch? Without any spoilers is the new story interesting or does it feel like a stop gap to the next expansion? Been playing Shadowlands so I haven't gotten a chance to check it out.

[Granyala]

Dunno, haven't finished it. Would't expect much besides stop-gap / build up though.

[Graeham]

It's basically just tying up some loose plot threads that have been simmering in the background since the days of ARR. Then just when things start happening, it ends on a cliffhanger.

5.5 will very likely be split into two parts where the MSQ's are concerned so I doubt we'll get a lot of answers in the first half of the next patch.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

How are you all enjoying the new patch? Without any spoilers is the new story interesting or does it feel like a stop gap to the next expansion? Been playing Shadowlands so I haven't gotten a chance to check it out.

Has some fun comedy with the Scions. Nice relaxing chapter. Wraps up the Limsa storyline, your mileage may very on that. Begins teasing 6.0 at the end. Nothing really major happened, though.

Not an amazing MSQ but it was fun. It took me 8 and a half hours to do all of the new story content this patch (MSQ + Eden + Weapons).

If you're not actively playing FFXIV for other reasons, like doing the side content or leveling up jobs or raiding with friends, then you'll be fine waiting until the next update to resub.

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5.5 will very likely be split into two parts where the MSQ's are concerned so I doubt we'll get a lot of answers in the first half of the next patch.

Speaking of which, do we know why they keep splitting the last X.5 patch into two parts?