Eorzean Evening Post: A Sudden Sense of Emptiness in FFXIV .

This post will include spoilers of the patch 2.55 storyline. If you, for some reason (like Steps of Faith, perhaps?), haven’t finished it yet and have managed to stay unspoiled, you’ve been warned!

 

Patch 2.56 is out! There’s a bunch of interesting, and expected, changes – like Echo coming to the Final Coil of Bahamut. Enjoy your 10% damage and healing, raiders! Also, the drop rates for the fancy ponies have been increased, so if you’ve been farming them without success you chances have improved. I’ve actually never even seen one of them drop, ever. There’s a first for everything, I guess.

One change that some people were expecting but didn’t get was Poetics finally getting uncapped. There’s still time until Heavensward, and chances are we’ll get at least one more patch before then which will set our Poetics free from their current 450/week-prison. While I hardly cap 450 as things stand now, and that damn weapon is far out of my reach, I’m still looking forward to the uncapping. I’m hoping that it will reinvigorate my interest in the game somehow, because right now… I feel empty.

End of an era

It’s a weird feeling, that emptiness. It comes down to the story, really. Patch 2.55 was huge, it was epic, it was dramatic. So much happened, so many characters might have been killed off, the Warrior of Light is in a terrible situation. She’s hunted. Powerful forces want her dead.

Yet… I’m walking around Ul’dah without any issues. Yes, there is an explanation – one, not everyone know what she looks like and two, there are still people on her side that won’t report her to the guards. That’s all nice and well and I’m glad that Square took the time to add some dialogue to various NPCs to that effect.

But I’m not buying it. Much of it because of the Hildibrand chain which I did after I was done with 2.55. I usually save his quests for last, because they are always a breath of fresh air from all the seriousness of the main storyline (even if they can be quite emotional and have serious undertones beneath all the craziness). But it felt so strange to head to Ul’dah and work together with the Sultansworn – the Sultana’s personal guard – and no one even mentioned the fact that the Sultana had just been killed and that the Warrior of Light was accused of the crime.

Sure, the Sultansworn might be on the good side of things, but it still felt completely out of place. Then there’s the Lala at the Thaumaturges’ guild talking about a plot to kill Nanamo. Yes, we know, watch the news for once!

 

Involuntary roleplay in FFXIV

I don’t actively roleplay in FFXIV – I haven’t done that in a MMO since the “good old days” on my RP server in World of Warcraft (Steamwheedle Cartel EU represent!). But I’m still actively engaged in the story, like many others. Walking around Ul’dah, hanging out with Sultansworn, like I don’t have a care in the world – hell, I’m wearing the exact same clothes as I did during 2.55! – creates a cognitive dissonance I have trouble getting over. I guess one solution would be to find some form of cloak that at least covers my head, roleplaying a fugitive. Because really, I should be hiding out in Camp Dragonhead, getting repeatedly beaten in Triple Triad by Tataru. Or put pressure on Ishgard to let us in straight away, because this is getting silly.

I know it’s just a game, but Square has pulled off one of the best and most engaging storylines I’ve ever seen in a MMO. It’s hard to not be totally immersed in the tale. It makes many of the day to day activities we usually get up to – especially various roulettes – pointless. Like we, the adventurers and heroes of Eorzea, are only killing time. Which many of us are, to be honest.

I guess it would be different if I was raiding, still working my way through the Turns. Then I would at least have another story to occupy that space that the main storyline did. But I don’t, I have only finished the first few turns (T1-T3, I think) through the Duty Finder. I don’t have time to raid. So I’m stuck.

 

Do the time warp

Of course, there’s one “easy” solution – the quests we do doesn’t necessarily happen in the order we did them. Perhaps the whole Hildebrand-line was a flashback, from the time when Nanamo was still alive and the Scions hadn’t been torn to pieces. I’ve been trying to think that way, but it’s not working so far.

I don’t know, but the story is both Final Fantasy XIV’s strength and weakness. There’s not a lot of sandboxy stuff to get up to in the game, it doesn’t really open up for us to create our own stories in the way other games do. We might have epic tales of surviving a certain boss against all odds, or other memories that stand out, but it’s all done inside the framework that Square have created for us.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s absolutely fine. I love Final Fantasy XIV and as much as I like a good sandbox MMO, FFXIV does what it does and it does it well. I don’t want to actively change it. But there’s no denying that this focus on one specific story can trip things up for me. Especially when I’ve finished most of the side stories – like Hildibrand, or the ones connected to the various hard modes, etcetera.

For some reason, the uncapping of Poetics have become some form of symbol. As it stands right now, I hardly have the time to ever cap 450. Since I just bought some new armor, I hardly have any left. The weapon I want to buy are several weeks off at this point. But if it’s uncapped, and I suddenly find the time, I could potentially farm the 1300 needed in two weeks or so. I’d have a more direct goal to aim for, phasing out the fact that I should be hiding in a whole in Coerthas.

Heavensward can’t come soon enough. Give me a proper reason to play.