they are really going to have to work 4.x main scenario on me to convince me to even fucking bother with shadowbringers because i am so, fucking, tired of the amount of time-wasting nonsense this game pulls on me

the amount of "run for 5 minutes, read a few lines of dialogue that say nothing meaningful, run for another 5 minutes, watch a cutscene with some nice voices but still nothing of substance" in stormblood should have been figured out by the end of heavensward but they seem hellbent on boring me to fucking tears with this shit just to get to the "good parts"

i am sincerely questioning why i resubbed to a game i used to love

i think what's even making the voice acted scenes so frustrating is that most of the characters never change intonation at all. in moments where it feels like Hien should be shouting, he's exactly the same as ever.

bard is literally the best it's ever been in shb and yet this is just so fucking tiring to play man

stormblood's writing is a mess. honestly i am worried about going back and looked at the rest of this game's writing.

it really does feel like xiv fell into the same trap xi did where they just abjectly refuse to change anything about the basic foundations of the game for its entire lifespan. and that is so sad, because 2.0-3.0 was a fresh breath of air.