The following are my opinions. Agree with them? Great! drop a note. Disagree with them? Great! explain why. These are suggestions, and they’re not meant to represent everyone’s opinions.
The team behind Final Fantasy XIV no longer takes risks because they don’t want to kill their goose and golden eggs. Ironically, doing so has killed the franchise slowly.
It’s time for new leadership—e.g. Yoshi P, Natsuko Ishikawa—for the next 3 expansions, until the next Final Fantasy MORPG. (I know Natsuko wasn’t the Dawntrail head writer, but she was still involved as senior story designer.)
For at least a few expansions, the types of content has been extremely repetitive. The story, which to me and many others is the main draw, has been bad. I would argue that this has been the case at least since Meteion was introduced.
The next 3 expansions could be better than the first 4 expansions, and the first new expansion didn’t have to be bad. I would find the following arc more interesting than the first 4 expansions (Heavensward to Endwalker), and it would fix a number of narrative mistakes:
Expansion 1:
- New zone (1): Another part of Eorzea gets overwritten in the source by the Heritage Found reflection (12th?). e.g. a new zone next to Mor Dhona
- New zone (2): Part of the 1st's reflection is overwritten by the 13th’s reflection. e.g. a new zone south of Amh Araeng.
- In the World Unsunderred, the crew find that an aetherial imbalance between reflections is causing them to collapse into each other, killing the inhabitants of the overwritten world.
- The cause is the death of Primals. Primals consume aether and maintain a balance in aether. An aether overflow in a reflection causes the reflection to merge with another.
- The merging of reflections is the reason that monsters are above level 90 now. (i.e. why you were the most powerful after Endwalker, but not you’re facing stronger foes)
- Zero has assembled a crew of Warriors of Darkness with some monsters in Zone (2), and she is killing Primals on the 13th. The crew determines that Zero has to be stopped.
- You fight Zero and Golbez. They both have new forms (Paladin and new job, e.g. Viper)
- New zone (3): A new zone from the 13th is overwritten in the 1st
- You fight to protect 2 Primals in the zone (3) from the Warriors of Darkness
- The 13th collapses (disappears) and creates a new zone in the 1st reflection.
- You fight Zero and the Warriors of Darkness in a penultimate battle
- During the battle two main characters (e.g. Alphinaud and Krile) die.
- You expect these characters to come back because of the Echo. The Echo power is gone, and these characters are gone for good.
Continue reading...
The team behind Final Fantasy XIV no longer takes risks because they don’t want to kill their goose and golden eggs. Ironically, doing so has killed the franchise slowly.
It’s time for new leadership—e.g. Yoshi P, Natsuko Ishikawa—for the next 3 expansions, until the next Final Fantasy MORPG. (I know Natsuko wasn’t the Dawntrail head writer, but she was still involved as senior story designer.)
For at least a few expansions, the types of content has been extremely repetitive. The story, which to me and many others is the main draw, has been bad. I would argue that this has been the case at least since Meteion was introduced.
The next 3 expansions could be better than the first 4 expansions, and the first new expansion didn’t have to be bad. I would find the following arc more interesting than the first 4 expansions (Heavensward to Endwalker), and it would fix a number of narrative mistakes:
Expansion 1:
- New zone (1): Another part of Eorzea gets overwritten in the source by the Heritage Found reflection (12th?). e.g. a new zone next to Mor Dhona
- New zone (2): Part of the 1st's reflection is overwritten by the 13th’s reflection. e.g. a new zone south of Amh Araeng.
- In the World Unsunderred, the crew find that an aetherial imbalance between reflections is causing them to collapse into each other, killing the inhabitants of the overwritten world.
- The cause is the death of Primals. Primals consume aether and maintain a balance in aether. An aether overflow in a reflection causes the reflection to merge with another.
- The merging of reflections is the reason that monsters are above level 90 now. (i.e. why you were the most powerful after Endwalker, but not you’re facing stronger foes)
- Zero has assembled a crew of Warriors of Darkness with some monsters in Zone (2), and she is killing Primals on the 13th. The crew determines that Zero has to be stopped.
- You fight Zero and Golbez. They both have new forms (Paladin and new job, e.g. Viper)
- New zone (3): A new zone from the 13th is overwritten in the 1st
- You fight to protect 2 Primals in the zone (3) from the Warriors of Darkness
- The 13th collapses (disappears) and creates a new zone in the 1st reflection.
- You fight Zero and the Warriors of Darkness in a penultimate battle
- During the battle two main characters (e.g. Alphinaud and Krile) die.
- You expect these characters to come back because of the Echo. The Echo power is gone, and these characters are gone for good.
Continue reading...