Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Neranja said:

Bro, you already admitted to not paying attention to the story, at least the parts that aren't voice acted when you said that Alphinauds sister "popped out of nowhere in the story". Like what the fuck, she was there in the very first cutscene in the carriage, and in the level 15 MSQ celebrations. You watched some TV while playing, or skipped those scenes altogether, right? I had no intention of making a reply about this, I wanted to let it just be the story, or rather the show. I wanted to be able to tell it as something a bit different because, oh my god, when I saw it, the thing just turned out okay. To be honest, what kind of girl would have a crush on a guy with a ponytail who was wearing nothing but a high pair of leather shoes? And I was sure you both were quite proud of the fact that you didn't miss a single piece of it. Why, really? I wasn't exactly taking any pleasure in what you had written as of yet. Well… because, as you said, I didn't know any better. No, I just didn't care. Not that you're trying too hard to please me, as usual, but just like that… I didn't just want the story to become even more elaborate than it currently is.

Also, I asked about "any books that weren't assigned to you", not just some fantasy. Because if I remember correctly you went on about how Mass Effect had a great story. And I'm sitting here thinking ... what the fuck is he talking about, the ME games had decent world-building and presentation, but the actual story wasn't that great to write home about: We found an alien artifact that is going to kill us all. It comes from a race that goes around every 50k years to kill everyone, because ... it's easier to avoid conflict that way. Also, the ending to franchise in ME3 sucked donkey balls, was a major letdown, and people were really angry about it. You can tell from the comments that my mom and I were constantly worried about being too hard on ourselves because of this. Because she was constantly worried about what would happen for her, the game was so hard and hard to get right. And when it was finally over, I was like, "What did YOU just write home about? This is what you write home about." So I started putting that question to the people who wrote Mass Effect 3, the ones who actually knew how to write at all. I did not make games, I don't write games. That's why I'm so sad there isn't another Mass Effect game. Even the people I work with have an unoriginal, untranslated, unfinished, under-received sense of direction for the series.

A lot of the time it's hard to find out what you like or dislike from a text. After all, most people are too young to have all that information, right? But if you want to have a good reading experience, get to try and get to know the character, the concept, the world, etc. (or just have a solid understanding on everything…like with a good job or a great role-playing game)? And now I'm learning some things, you know. In my experience, I don't find all this too difficult. I'll let you know.

One of these days, I want you to be the one to get the message, that I get why you need to read. And your writing will have a great impact on each of us when we interact on this planet. I have to thank you for your support and understanding, and I hope it'll help you through this. That's where an old saying goes in: "the point where we know things are in the wrong hands is when we are on the wrong side of our view". In a lot of cases, that's simply because there are other things that are wrong. Rationalization of things or reasoning is usually a result of ignorance about your own knowledge. "What are you thinking? How can this have happened?" We should assume you are the sole cause. But even if you didn't, if you thought he was a better explanation or better explanation, you still do not understand what is happening. Let's say that we have a very complex explanation and then we think he's saying something very, very wrong. Your understanding and belief systems are pretty wrong, so you're probably a bit better off if you keep thinking about this explanation, instead of going through his explanation and the other things.

As I wrote that, it dawned on me that you probably can't separate story, world-building, and presentation in your head. It really annoys you that you have to read long texts, right? So I just spiced up my reply here a bit with a text generator, for your pleasure.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Pancreas said:

*camera opens on wasteland of broken posts*

*Grizzled narrator begins*

The walls of text are growing, showing signs of life stirring within. The future does not belong to the concise, succinct or to brevity. The future belongs to the prolonged, the excessive, to sagas of filth and drivel.

*show footage of a normal conversation getting crushed by walls of text*

The only ones that can survive in this new world are those who can communicate with walls, a new breed of poster. Some call them autistic, dense, fucked, but others call them... Wall Whisperers.

*cue anime style intro music and montage of characters that goes on for 10 minutes straight.*

Click to expand...

Neranja said:

Bro, you already admitted to not paying attention to the story, at least the parts that aren't voice acted when you said that Alphinauds sister "popped out of nowhere in the story". Like what the fuck, she was there in the very first cutscene in the carriage, and in the level 15 MSQ celebrations. You watched some TV while playing, or skipped those scenes altogether, right? I had no intention of making a reply about this, I wanted to let it just be the story, or rather the show. I wanted to be able to tell it as something a bit different because, oh my god, when I saw it, the thing just turned out okay. To be honest, what kind of girl would have a crush on a guy with a ponytail who was wearing nothing but a high pair of leather shoes? And I was sure you both were quite proud of the fact that you didn't miss a single piece of it. Why, really? I wasn't exactly taking any pleasure in what you had written as of yet. Well… because, as you said, I didn't know any better. No, I just didn't care. Not that you're trying too hard to please me, as usual, but just like that… I didn't just want the story to become even more elaborate than it currently is.

Also, I asked about "any books that weren't assigned to you", not just some fantasy. Because if I remember correctly you went on about how Mass Effect had a great story. And I'm sitting here thinking ... what the fuck is he talking about, the ME games had decent world-building and presentation, but the actual story wasn't that great to write home about: We found an alien artifact that is going to kill us all. It comes from a race that goes around every 50k years to kill everyone, because ... it's easier to avoid conflict that way. Also, the ending to franchise in ME3 sucked donkey balls, was a major letdown, and people were really angry about it. You can tell from the comments that my mom and I were constantly worried about being too hard on ourselves because of this. Because she was constantly worried about what would happen for her, the game was so hard and hard to get right. And when it was finally over, I was like, "What did YOU just write home about? This is what you write home about." So I started putting that question to the people who wrote Mass Effect 3, the ones who actually knew how to write at all. I did not make games, I don't write games. That's why I'm so sad there isn't another Mass Effect game. Even the people I work with have an unoriginal, untranslated, unfinished, under-received sense of direction for the series.

A lot of the time it's hard to find out what you like or dislike from a text. After all, most people are too young to have all that information, right? But if you want to have a good reading experience, get to try and get to know the character, the concept, the world, etc. (or just have a solid understanding on everything…like with a good job or a great role-playing game)? And now I'm learning some things, you know. In my experience, I don't find all this too difficult. I'll let you know.

One of these days, I want you to be the one to get the message, that I get why you need to read. And your writing will have a great impact on each of us when we interact on this planet. I have to thank you for your support and understanding, and I hope it'll help you through this. That's where an old saying goes in: "the point where we know things are in the wrong hands is when we are on the wrong side of our view". In a lot of cases, that's simply because there are other things that are wrong. Rationalization of things or reasoning is usually a result of ignorance about your own knowledge. "What are you thinking? How can this have happened?" We should assume you are the sole cause. But even if you didn't, if you thought he was a better explanation or better explanation, you still do not understand what is happening. Let's say that we have a very complex explanation and then we think he's saying something very, very wrong. Your understanding and belief systems are pretty wrong, so you're probably a bit better off if you keep thinking about this explanation, instead of going through his explanation and the other things.

As I wrote that, it dawned on me that you probably can't separate story, world-building, and presentation in your head. It really annoys you that you have to read long texts, right? So I just spiced up my reply here a bit with a text generator, for your pleasure.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Sylas said:

I won't score it yet but mid game of Shadowbringers is showing marked improvement of it's story telling compared to previous content. It's done a much better job of establishing stakes and overall atmosphere of the first. However the presentation of the general of degenerate homo town feels like a step backwards compared to sb. They tried to copy zenos from stormblood but used outdated mechanics from arr so it feels cheap in comparison.

As the expansion continues maybe he'll serve a purpose but for now he just feels superfluous. The expansion does a good enough job of conveying the threat of the light both destroying this world and its affects on yours (calamity/black rose) that it doesnt really need an additional big bad to sell it.

When you fight zenos at the start of sb he legitimately beats you, i mean its an instanced duty so they can overtune him as needed to win, but he uses strong attacks that actually hurt you and resists 90% of your damage, it actually feels like he can impose his will and it establishes him as a threat very well.

With this general its back to arr style where you fluctuate between 99 to 100% health while steadily whittling his health down. There's a few scripted attacks where he removes your companions and then another one that stuns you before the cut scene but he feels no different than any other boss fight, he's nothing special and you are beating him easily. You are full health just crushing him, he hits 40-50% health then it triggers a stun and then cut to a cutscene where he's laughing off your attacks and you are down for the count, you are winning easily then miraculously you are losing and he beats you in a cutscene. It feels cheap and forced and detracts from an otherwise decent mid expansion story quality.

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sakkath said:

Ran'jit was a terrible Kai Leng storywise but he did give Thancred some great moments. The fight where you play Thancred and pull out every trick in the book trying to win was pretty epic. I had a felt an ongoing issue with Thancred where he had minor resentment that you are the hero of the story and he's somewhat living in your shadow, then there's this epic fight for Thancred where he proves his worth and does a great job. Then shortly afterwards in the raid on Eulmore you kill Ran'jit, then there's a scene where Thancred is walking through, he passes Ran'jit dead on the floor, looks down and I could just feel his thoughts, he did everything he could to beat Ran'jit but it still ended up being the PC/warrior of light who finishes the job, as usual. Poor Thancred.

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