First, this idea that FFXIV story is good is the BIGGEST hoax/lie in the entire internet. The story is horrible, it does not get any better, and it does not even make any sense. ARR (spoilers next, don’t read if you care) ends with the WoL who did everything for their friends literally leaving EVERYONE behind while running from 10 little guards (after defeating the biggest threat to humanity with easy).
Second, FFXIV sub/player numbers are the SECOND biggest hoax/lie in the entire internet. That game peaks with 80k players on Steam but these people want you to believe there are 40 million subs…Yeah, I know many old players don’t use steam, but I’m SURE many new players would prefer steam, and 80k players (including free players) to 40 million subs is just ridiculously to believe… Lets face these are obvious lies probably promoted by Square itself.
IDK man, these people always talking about how big FFXIV and the only actual numbers we see shows this is pure BS… Look at FFXIV streams and videos, the numbers are ridiculously small everywhere… Youtube? Would believe it’s a dead game. Twitch? Ghost town streams everywhere…
I’m pretty sure there are much larger hoax/lies on the Internet. The fact you know nothing beyond ARR tells me you haven’t even played the game that long thus can’t form an opinion worth listening to.
FFXIV player numbers are larger because they have added 2 new datacenters with 10 servers each and their queues were over 8000+ at launch of EW, so right there you’re absolutely just spreading lies. Also their revenue was highest ever with EW. No game publishes true subscribers numbers, so you can’t say either way without lying, also no one said 40 million.
The WoL was at the height of their strength against the Ultima Weapon, and no longer had the boons Hydaelyn provided. Their Echo remained, but their strength waned, and as such were able to be challenged by more normal folk. Plus, the Ascians weren’t undone, so they can still influence and empower those opposed to the WoL. ‘10 little guards’ was actually an entire force, plus Ul’dah’s forces as well in hot pursuit.
A story can be objectively judge good or bad based on criterias that are not subjective opinions.
Tell me, since you seems to like FFXIV story, how can it be that the WoL left every single friend behind running from less than 10 little guards, since the story itself shows that he has the power to face the ULTIMA weapon even while not blessed by the crystal (and even defeating an Ascian in the very sequence)?
You may “like” it if your taste is literally “I love things that make no sense”, but your “tastes” would not make that story good at all.
The story does get good after Heavensward. A lot of people liked Heavensward, I didn’t, from Stormblood I thought it got really good. Better than WoW’s beat a villain and get “but I was only doing this to beat -insert next big villain here-!”
And steam isn’t a good measure of their numbers. FF14 runs independantly, on steam, and also on consoles. There are many avenues to buy and play FF14 from. Also, a lot of realm are high pop during peak times. Go to Limsa on any world and there are loads of players hanging and chillin.
Additionally when you’re looking to clear your name, murdering the guards of the city where you are wanting to clear said name, typically isn’t the best idea.
Nobody plays the game through steam, ask any one who is stuck there how they feel about steam. the vast majority of players have nothing to do with steam. 1/10
It literally doesn’t matter if you use steam or square because you’re still going to be prompted to use their poopy(couldn’t use the actual word here, this I hate that much) login system. Not to mention FFXIV’s story is just so long, I can’t keep reading a novel of text. I wouldn’t mind listening to it if there was an option but I just want to kill stuff.
Heavensward is actually worse than ARR, since the whole plot is (OBVIOUS spoiler ahead don’t read if you don’t want to) how Dragons are justified to kill children, actually decimate the entire humanity, just because ten thousands years ago one dragon died due to a treason and “for dragons it is like yesterday” (but everything in the story says it is not like yesterday at all).
And mind you there are HUMANS defending that Dragons are actually right…
You don’t need to tell me about objectivity in story criticism, chief. I probably know far more about the subject than you do.
But any scholar worth their salt will tell you that a story can still hit all of the mechanics of a good story and still fall short of being perceived as good, and vice versa, because ultimately stories are about what resonate with the individual person.
More than that, objectivity in story criticism should really only be reserved for actual critics and scholarly articles, not a demographic talking about how much they like a game’s story on the internet.
Example: I think The Last of Us TV show is kind of garbage but it certainly seems to vibe with everyone else, so who am I to tell them that they’re wrong for thinking it’s good?