Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Id say it is better than pub side but less than or as good as imp side hutt cartel. Its difficult to compare the two directly, one is over the top anime the other is wizards in space. If you are a huge fan of one or the other it probably clouds your judgment, but im not particularly a fan of either really.

So you compare the background, characters, dialogue, voice overs, pacing, stakes, engagement, writing, character development, plot, etc

Both are somewhat self contained side stories which tangentially furthers the main plot and both kill off any new characters they spend any time developing so you are left to judge the other elements.

Swtor benefits from a vastly superior base game/background story having played one of 8 unique class stories building up to a unified faction story to reach that point with a wide assortment of fleshed out npcs, has a tighter story, established stakes, follows through on its own in-universe logic, etc. Its much better written.

Ff14 has over the top anime plot, you are always the hero. If that's your thing its got that. It has greatly improved dialogue and character development over ARR, but thst becomes meaningless when they kill off anyone they spend time developing.

Ff14s biggest failings as far as story goes is stakes, they've become meaningless. I've been saving the world since level 12, ive saved it 3 times since breakfast. Having just saved the world for the 50th time having slayed the knights of the round and their god I head off to my next quest, mind you im riding in on the back of a dragon god midgardsomr, father of tiamat, nidhogg, bahatmut, and all other great wyrms. This quest 3 fucking pirates are robbing a merchant, they have no idea who i am and they are threatening me, and they have the audacity to show me hesitating to roflstomp them in a cut scene? I have to get saved by some faggot sky pirate? It's not like this is a random world quest where they dont know when ill do it so they have to write it ignoring the story, the quest only becomes available after ive done all those things.

I'm famous until im not, im invincible until im not. Im the last hope for humanity until im not. There's zero consistency in this story, and its not like they have to account for branching narratives, contingencies, or any input or character varieties based on player choice. They are telling a completely linear story it shoul be much tighter than this and above all, consistent.

See the thing is i actually like the game now. The game part. Its low effort fun. Its got a ton of content. I wish it wasnt so rigid with the msq, but whatever that is what makes it unique i guess. But 20 pages of story apologists has me a little jaded.

sakkath said:

I told Sylas more than 20 pages and 3 weeks ago that he should buy a boost. Imagine how different this thread would have been......

Click to expand...

Yeah and everyone shit on you and told me not too. If everyone had been as honest as you then this thread would be on page 5.

Never said it would be better off, but if people didnt lie for 20 pages it wouldn't have had 20 pages worth of replies, thats correct

been recovering from surgery so playtime and ability to post from my phone has been somewhat limited, but ill save this thread from falling off the first page.

Just finished the final steps of faith. Someone claimed that was a good story? fun boss fight yes but story? lol.

Lets change gears here a second and talk about Guardians of the Galaxy, and the MCU in general. Not that these are pillars of story telling or anything, just popular references I believe everyone can understand.

Everyone who thinks this story is good/great or better than anything else seen in MMOs or hell any RPG (some have claimed this), tell me, how strong is Drax the Destroyer?

the movie version, played by Dave Bautista, not the comic book character. Is he human strength? superhuman? like Captain America? stronger? What does he do? other than fight with knives sometimes?

While you struggle to answer this question lets talk about tropes and character development, short cuts writers take, when they work and when they don't.

A common trope/shortcut that writers take when introducing new characters is pitting them up against a known value.

Take Thanos' introduction at the beginning of Infinity War. The audience has been shown how strong the Hulk is over several films, he's been pitted against the likes of Thor, loki & the chitauri, the hulkbuster armor, fenris, Sartur, etc. We've seen him in action. So the first time we see Thanos fight, when he single handedly defeats the Hulk without the use of the Power Stone, we get an idea of how strong Thanos is in relation to the Hulk, a known value, and thus we know how powerful Thanos is.

This is a common shortcut used in films, and is fine when you maintain consistency. Later on during the fight in End Game we again see Thanos holding his own and defeating the OG avengers, and while we may cheer when we see Cap America wielding his shield and Thor's hammer, we still know that he has little hope of besting Thanos. And he doesn't. If he did that would feel, cheap. It would be detrimental to the story and to the character if "max human strength" captain america just 1-2 punched Thano's head off.

Like when restingbitchface capt marvel shows up later on out of the blue and is able to hold her own against Thanos and he has to use the power stone to beat her. That shit was cringe girlpower and completely unearned, and it weakened the story. Yet when Wanda does the same thing, it isn't. because we've seen wanda in action. Show, don't tell.

So how strong is Drax the Destroyer? We are never shown. When the character is introduced we are told, well it's somewhat implied, he is named "The Destroyer" and he can intimidate some malnourished prisoners, but we are never really shown. The first time we get a look at his capabilities is when he is getting his shit pushed in by Ronin, which was an attempt to utilize the same trope, shortcut showing off how strong Ronin is by having him beat Drax. But we've never seen Drax in action, and thus his character is (literally, forever) ruined by the misuse of this trope.

A better question is, Is this character well written?

Think about this, you've got a "strong guy" played by a former wrestler, who shares the screen with a comedian, a wise cracking racoon, and a talking tree, yet drax ends up the comic relief? The character has been irrevocably ruined, comic relief for life.

As a medium video games (where the player takes on the part of the protagonist) are far different than films where you are just passively watching a story unfold. You must be extra careful when utilizing tropes and shortcuts like this when you are writing the story because the player is far more likely to notice and pick up on these short comings.

We've addressed this before but there is a reason why certain characters and cut scenes in video games feel "Cheap" and poorly written, like Kai Lang from ME3. Or like, the entirety of FF14 thus far.

I don't see how anyone can say this is a good story, even if you just love poorly written tropes used over and over and over again, can't get enough full on cringe?