Standing in Limsa, in the rain, listening to the echo of Hydaelyn as if calling from this distance stirred something in me and made me a bit sad.
When I first heard that echoing melody it was during 1.0, when Dalamud was about to fall and there was a certain energy in the air. If you played during that time you would remember that the feeling was almost electric. We had no idea what was going on, the game was about to be rebooted, there were mysteries in front of us, urgently waiting to be discovered and on the final day of that version, Bahamut broke free and ravaged the lands we called home for over a year at that point. It created emotion and bonded us together, it made us care.
Now, after the endwalker campaign I feel they stripped so much of that wonder away. There is no sense of urgency, there is no sense of mystery. That slight unease that made you read every word with bated breath is just...gone.
Hydaelyn, Zodiarc, the Ascians, even the Twelve are just...gone. They even neutured the threat of the savage beast tribes. The world just doesn't feel mysterious. It doesn't feel dangerous. It doesn't feel like anything. A world that was once looming, with strange creatures, hidden dieties, undecifered riddles, beastman threats, ....now feels empty.
The future is a blank slate, but all DT taught us is that, there is nothing out there to really make us wonder. I am not theorizing and trying to put the pieces together about what may be coming next. I am just hoping they don't muck it up and make Mercidia into a slapstick episode of captain kangaroo, a mockery of the world that once was, like they did the new world.
I don't think we need another world ending threat, but we need mystery, we need intrigue, we need something other than this sad sanitized world.
Continue reading...
When I first heard that echoing melody it was during 1.0, when Dalamud was about to fall and there was a certain energy in the air. If you played during that time you would remember that the feeling was almost electric. We had no idea what was going on, the game was about to be rebooted, there were mysteries in front of us, urgently waiting to be discovered and on the final day of that version, Bahamut broke free and ravaged the lands we called home for over a year at that point. It created emotion and bonded us together, it made us care.
Now, after the endwalker campaign I feel they stripped so much of that wonder away. There is no sense of urgency, there is no sense of mystery. That slight unease that made you read every word with bated breath is just...gone.
Hydaelyn, Zodiarc, the Ascians, even the Twelve are just...gone. They even neutured the threat of the savage beast tribes. The world just doesn't feel mysterious. It doesn't feel dangerous. It doesn't feel like anything. A world that was once looming, with strange creatures, hidden dieties, undecifered riddles, beastman threats, ....now feels empty.
The future is a blank slate, but all DT taught us is that, there is nothing out there to really make us wonder. I am not theorizing and trying to put the pieces together about what may be coming next. I am just hoping they don't muck it up and make Mercidia into a slapstick episode of captain kangaroo, a mockery of the world that once was, like they did the new world.
I don't think we need another world ending threat, but we need mystery, we need intrigue, we need something other than this sad sanitized world.
Continue reading...