aliasvelk, cyan
pronounsshe/her
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sometimes, things that are edgy are cool
The thing about Wuk Lamat for me is, they should've had her make her debut sooner in the post-Endwalker patches, it would've eased off so much of the exposition/character-building heavy-lifting that Dawntrail had to do which inevitably made the story pace a bit of a slog.
A random list of MSQ "issues" that bothered me, in no particular order:
- When leaving Earthenshire (the moblin village) and Wuk Lamat got kidnapped, our WoL as well as Alphinaud & co. just simply stood there for over an hour waiting for her without ever entertaining the idea of going back to check up on her. Also how did a lowly bandit manage to kidnap Wuk Lamat, who is clearly physically superior than most other beings? At that point in the story, you would think she'd become a bit smarter about the multiple foul plays that Bakool Ja Ja had employed previously.
- I didn't think we really needed the Scions in Tural, like, at all. It almost felt like their inclusion was out of obligation due to Trust/Duty Support.
- Even when we did needed a professional's opinion regarding all the reflection shenanigans and we employed the help of Y'shtola and G'raha who came to Tural at our behest, Y'shtola seemed so impassive and bored about the going-ons and simply parroted her lines as if reading from a template.
- The actual plot beats that I was invested in, such as Krile's origins and Erenville's mom, were thrown in so late into the story it almost felt like Zone 6 was made specifically to fill in the gaps left behind by how thin the plot was, and as an afterthought of, "Oh right, I guess we can talk about Krile and Erenville here".
- The redemption of Bakool Ja Ja should have never happened. I don't care, he threatened to kill so many people, released a world-ending entity, all because of dead babies lmao.
- The game's attempts to make me feel bad for Zoraal Ja is such a low blow to the integrity of the writing team. At the beginning, I felt that perhaps he had his own compelling reasons to such radical views, and I kept waiting for when those reasons would be explained, but it never did, or it did but it wasn't compelling. Also, that transition cutscene in his fight where he cuts down the mirage of his own son made me seethe so hard, it destroyed whatever remaining shred of "I guess we could forgive him". At that point I was 100% for destroying that blue lizard into oblivion.
- So that part where Gulool Ja Ja died... there were at least 7 other competent people standing right in that room who could've prevented it from happening. And then the script writers had the gall to write Wuk Lamat lamenting about interfering with her father's duel and "honour" when clearly, her father thought the duel had ended, Zoraal Ja just used cheat.exe to get in a sneaky low-blow. How is that interference when the enemy clearly cheated and caught your dad unaware??? Literal brainrot moment
- I'm gonna be That GuyTM and say outright that I hated Sphene. The expansion was already throwing Saturday morning cartoon villains at us left and right, I would've liked her so much better if she turned out to be unrepentantly evil the entire time. Instead, when we first meet her, everyone took her words at face value even though she was the queen of the army that literally had murdered innocent civilians. And we should... just do that because she's sorry?
- The residents of Solution Nine at the end of the story should have realised that their regulators feed on... well the unethical harvest of souls, and yet despite this horrifying discovery, continue to use them post-7.0 MSQ like it was never an issue in the first place. To be fair, I believe future patches would most likely broach this quandry, but it still feels stiff and... weird.
Story-aside, I agree that the combat, the dungeons, and the EX trials have all been amazing. EX1 has been so fun so far. Genuinely looking forward to the raid tier when it comes out. wholeheartedly agree that if wuk lamat was introduced earlier she would have probably had a better reception. it might have solved some issues with the VA having more time to grow into her role as wuk instead of having some very flat delivery when she's angry (yelling in lower case i've seen it called and i can't agree more!) i do like the worldbuilding that they did in the first half, but i feel like it did outstay it's welcome. there's been a marked decrease in solo duties - out of the cold comes to mind as the single most interesting thing that has ever happened aside from traditional content and there was nothing like in dawntrail which disappointed me . between this & the void that really disappointed me as someone who loves the void & has been interested in the 13th for a long time,,, i kinda have to say i just think that xiv's writing team r not hitting for me at the moment. im hoping that this is the soft reset and i think --- spoilers below solution 9 sets up an interesting framework going forward! i am interesting in visiting different worlds and seeing the things that destroyed them and how it affected the populace. i did enjoy the morality 101 of alexandria and solution 9 but i do think it's very strange that it's "going to go back to normal with no changes to life" as if they're not popping souls like tictacs and that isn't sustainable? what about the people with levinsickness as well, we have a way to cure sineater/tempering so surely we're going to help them to cure levinsickness? it seems strangely cruel to leave a child in charge (that the people dont want) and not change anything?
i still think that koana was the far better choice for dawnservant. his arc was far more compelling to me as it's someone who has an actual goal (using the technology of different lands to improve the life of people in his own) and i'm very disappointed he didn't come with us to shaaloni and solution nine because. i just like him better and i want to see him talk about the things that he's done to make people's lives better!!! plus there's the dangling thread of being abandoned by the htetsarro that is just left dangling whereas miss lamat gets to meet her father.
agreed that i think krile/erenville were left out in the cold for too long. erenville to me has been a breath of fresh air as someone completely uninvolved in combat and being a guide. i would have preferred him to take the front seat in pt2 and again, wuk lamat stay home. i get that she had to fight zorral ja but i will be honest with you, he was an awful villain. he felt an arbiter from halo to me and im just not interested in him at all. sphene was a great villain though, immediately knew she was bad news, it frustrated me that wuk lamat kept trying to reach a compromise with her when? obviously that won't happen with someone wfho needs to burn souls to keep her nation alive. this is all to say: when will we go to Meracydia. i want to see the first brood. i want to free tiamat. edit: ex2 is horrible. actually awful. i feel like im back in light rampant not knowing where i went wrong with certain mechanics. im not bad at the game (ultimate raider btw) but like. i just hate the design philosophy behind it. ex1 is a masterpiece tho love it.
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last edit on Jul 7, 2024 15:20:09 GMT by safi'jiiva |
