Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

Jessie was my third main character, and I've actually gone back and made progress on the first two for fun. And really, it is a fun grind. There are some gripes I have with the game at the beginner stages, like the intro cutscene for ACP, but it's overall such a satisfying experience.

FFXI isn't my favourite game, but it's unquestionably my favourite online game. Vana'diel is such an interesting world, and it so uniquely incorporates its theme into its gameplay. Its loose game mechanics still leading to new strategies all the time.

You dont like zoning into lower jeuno and getting stuck in a 10 minute cutscene??

A Crystalline Prophecy is sort of my go-to when I refer to FFXI's more obvious issues, especially for new players. It's a completely unavoidable, long, unskippable cutscene. And what's worse is that it relies heavily on the player having intricate knowledge of the game, including characters, zones, and other context.

When ACP first dropped and we, the long-standing players, saw the cutscene, it was neat: we knew who all the NPCs in the cutscenes were like Cid and the Star Sibyl. We were immediately hooked by the idea of Young Aldo, and the crystal reciting the intro cutscene's narration. But for someone new, who might have watched that cutscene once (at most), and who likely hadn't even gotten to their national mission 2-3 yet, it's completely meaningless.

I can't stand the way the game introduces storylines because it's always completely out of left field while you're in the middle of something else. It'll often be days, weeks, or even months before you dive into that storyline. And by that time, you'll have completely forgotten everything that transpired in that first cutscene. And you're often bombarded by several at once.

They could've made the Rhapsodies intro cutscene kick off when you entered Valkurm or Buburimu for the first time. They could've required rank 3 for the intro cutscene for ACP. And so on...

ACP is the worst offender, but ASA is terrible too! You can luckily skip that one if you zone into Walls appropriately.

Yeah... but at least A Shantotto Ascension focuses on one character, and it's a pretty widely-known one, even outside of the FFXI playerbase. The cutscene at least provides the viewer with some context instead of expecting you to already know most of the game.

Story being conveyed without context is a massive pet peeve of mine. I didn't like it when A Crystalline Prophecy did it and I didn't like it when Final Fantasy XIII did it. Being vague for suspense is one thing, but I shouldn't have to cross-reference an encyclopedia to understand the basic overlying plot.

That's wild. I hope you get it resolved in person.

Maybe bring a friend for safety?

Worst episode of Mandalorian ever.

All but one have been pretty meh. (still watching it though because of course we are)

Too much sidequesting/meandering.

Previous seasons "damn, if mando's ship stopped exploding... there'd be some story going on"

.....ok bring back the bad ship, at least that's interesting lol

Oh damn, MaXXXine (X and Pearl part 3) has a ridiculous cast.

Ti West has locked in an all-star cast for his Mia Goth-led A24 horror pic MaXXXine, with Elizabeth Debicki (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.), Moses Sumney (The Idol), Michelle Monaghan (Nanny), Bobby Cannavale (The Watcher), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), Halsey (Americana), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) and Kevin Bacon (City on a Hill) closing deals for roles.

Some days work just sucks.

And today is the day

Yeah. Best we can say about it for new people is that it's got a "mystery" appeal. Like you might want to find out more about what the heck you just saw.

But the storylines in XI are all self-contained, even if they do reference other storylines, so you have to go about doing the very specific progression requirements. And you then run into other quests and other missions, and then you get confused on which one is which.

Just something you have t be willing to accept about it, heh.

It's both a boon and a bane that FFXI's storylines are self-contained and can all be played alongside one another. Just one of those interesting design choices that separates it from its peers without making it inherently better or worse than them.

It's great because it means you aren't being shoved down a hallway, really serving FFXI's sandbox nature. And it makes sense from a story perspective because the game world doesn't really change depending on your story progress. It means you can get up to Sky for Sky content and then just move onto CoP if you want. It also gives the developers freedom to not feel the need to tie every story together.

But it sucks because storytelling isn't one of FFXI's strong points, and it's hard to keep things straight even if you're just following one storyline at a time. But for it to show you a cutscene that you thought was for the story you're on, only to then run halfway across the world and find out that it was for something completely different is frustrating.

Addendum; It is perfectly legal to defraud the poor. Don't *** with anyone that has money.

("the poor" being anyone that has less than 7 figures)

These morons throwing a hissy cause they put a rainbow on their pisswater is fantastic.

It could have been worse.

I didn't really enjoy it but didn't really hate it.

Not too psyched up about Bae Katan becoming the new Mandalore. But hey, Kathleen Kennedy still ain't gone... and it is Disney Wars anyway... so... ¯\(ツ)/¯

I'm actually less psyched about the focus of the show. I feel like it's no longer about The Mandalorian. Now that it's cemented in its popularity, it's time to start pushing crap no one asked for into it etc. Political messaging and the like.

A bit of the Boba Fett EU fan in me is a bit miffed that they ripped stuff off his EU characterization and handed it to Mando and Bae too, I guess. And Boba and Temuera Morrison get uhh... Tuskens and Mulan and to be a Daimyo on Tatooine with a punk cyborg gang? Uhm? What?

Curse KOTOR and Canderous Ordo for getting me so invested in all things Mandalorian as a teen.

Every popular series ever.

Made a 3 egg omelette this morning. I'm basically an oil prince