#ffxiv has superior writing and you can quote me on that

[herssian]

the bioware games -> ffxiv pipeline is deeply real

#ffxiv has superior writing and you can quote me on that #but i don't mean it as a way to dunk on bioware #i mean i'm more than happy to dunk on bioware any day of the week but their stories and personal relationships found in their games #are the reason i became an artist and writer and that will always mean the world to me #and even with that being said ffxiv still has even more gripping and deeply personal writing which says something #all in an mmorpg. do you kn. do you know what that means #all of this in an O N L I N E G A M E #yoshi said 'you have to interact with others in this game BUT that just means you can cry with them please look forward to it' #i wish i had a way to show people how truly mindblowing the storyline is. how you feel right in the middle of it with stakes and choices #'your character can only nod though' that's more than the warden did in da:o wdym #anyway if you've ever thought giving ffxiv a try might be for you as an rpg lover #do give it a try. by the end of the first expansion (DID YOU KNOW THE FIRST 2 EXPANSIONS ARE FREE WITH THE TRIAL OF THE AWARD WINN--) #you will be mindblown EVEN if you feel the start was rough/grindy. and i can guarantee you from the bottom of my heart #that the story gets fourteen times better as you continue from that point #haha fourteen get it #anyway if you have the inclination and the time and you love good narratives give it a go #just ignore the neon frog heads in some of the dungeon cutscenes showing your party #one day that'll be you

[rainofaugustsith]

It's been a year

It has been about a year since I tucked Viri and my other characters into their favorite strongholds in SWTOR and turned off the lights.

I don't miss the lack of content. I don't miss the devs' obvious contempt for most of the playerbase. I don't miss the playerbase that was so toxic. I don't miss the bugs. I don't miss the "story" that was inconsistent, sad and to quote Eddie Izzard, "collapsing on itself like a flan in a cupboard." I don't miss the nasty little group of misogynistic, lesbophobic "fans" who tried so desperately to get the only wlw main character excised from the story and shrilly screamed like Veruca Salt when said wlw character had a line or dared to appear on screen. Definitely don't miss them.

But I put a lot of time and money and effort into SWTOR, and letting that all go - has been a lesson in letting things go for me. I worked on getting as many achievements and datacrons with Viri as I could, and getting the strongholds and such. I'm still very proud that I soloed several things that aren't easy to solo, such as the Fleet datacrons and the Seeker Droid finale. I'm proud that I made it through the Macrobinoculars speeder jumping puzzle, since those were the bane of my existence. I'm proud that the speeder I wanted came up in the Uprising I wanted.

I've always said that Viri in FFXIV - who goes by Rigel in my stories for sake of not confusing things- is who Viri is in that universe. And frankly if you've been through Shadowbringers, it's entirely plausible for me to even think Viri - STWOR and Viri - FFXIV coexist, given shards of souls and such.

I think FFXIV is a far superior game. In FFXIV you get the distinct feeling that the devs genuinely give a fuck about the playerbase, that they actually play the game (Yoshi apparently is a black mage…respect, man. Respect for getting that to 90), and that when problems arise, they try to solve them. Even though there is some unavoidable group content like the trials, they do seem to go out of their way to make it as painless as they can.

Story wise, in FFXIV Viri can be who she wants to be, without the backdrop of a story that doesn't know what the hell it's doing anymore and a very rigid, black and white THIS SIDE BAD!! THIS SIDE GOOD!! mentality coming in from every angle. She's in a far more nuanced, far larger, far more interesting place with a lot more to do. And while I originally was like "oh Lord, don't give me medieval dragons and elves, ugh," she's very ironically running around with a dragon familiar now and considers the medieval-styled city populated by elves to be home (also the Crystarium).

Romance wise, I also think that FFXIV does things better even though they have no official romances. They certainly leave a lot of open doors, but they also structure things in such a way that characters can plausibly never walk through those doors. Your character has dinner or a heartfelt talk with an NPC? Hey, that could be romance or could be two platonic friends, and both work. They set up things like All Hallows Eve where players can do photo shoots with NPCs they like. And it's more or less accepted that everyone in FFXIV's lands could have fluid orientations and fancy your female or male player character. They are incredibly LGBT+ inclusive and have non binary characters that use they/them pronouns too. It's better here, I think.

Having said that…I miss running around with Lana and Viri. Not doing anything in particular, just running around with them. I was able to finish The Eternal Wrath but it's been rough trying to write about them since then.

#ffxiv #rain talks ffxiv #rain talks swtor #swtor critical #shadowbringers spoilers