After spending the past couple weeks doing raids for gear like usual, i've realised that come next expansion we're not gonna have Metem commentating over our fights. And honestly? I'm gonna miss him, like a lot. He brought me much joy during this raid series.
Curious what other people think.
Good news, you can buy a voicepack for him for Mahjong now.
Not even Metem can make me play Mahjong. Once was too much.
Problem with playing Mahjong once is you just have no idea what's going on
Once you know the rules it's really fun. It's just gambling - essentially rummy but more complex
I 100% agree. And i'm sure if i put the time into it. it would be fun! But i already know that, no, i'm probably not gonna do that lol
I used to feel like this and then I just said fuck it and started learning, and to be honest, the base rules are made out to be so much more difficult than they actually are. Draw tiles, make 4 sets and a pair, sets can be a straight in a single suit or a triple of one tile.
The actually difficult part is learning all the different possible "yaku" (patterns your hand needs to follow to be allowed to win) and using those to inform your decisions on things like if you're grabbing tiles from other players or not, and learning all that is where I'm still stuck.
It feels like Calvinball. Like they make up the rules as they go. "Oh, you see, if you have two 'three' pins but the opponent to your right has both a south wind and a white dragon, then you can only discard a tile if the person across from you has the kanji for 'mountain' in their name. But the person to their left can opt to take your tile instead if Venus is in retrograde and they have both a single season tile and more than one bamboo..."
As someone who doesn't know the rules I don't know how much of this is just made the fuck up and it's sending me.
As someone who does know the rules it's about 80% right.
Especially having the mountain kanji in your name, it's like easymode. You get to steal so many tiles. They have them in the park, you can just take them, they're free.
As someone who doesn't know the rules either, I will choose to believe it is all legit and use that as an extra reason to not play mahjong.
As someone who doesn't understand the game, I feel like as old as the game is that it's unfortunately just a cultural barrier.
As a reversed hypothetical to hopefully get my point across, imagine going up to a Chinese peasant 1000 years ago and showing them a modern deck of Western style playing cards. They could probably figure out the numbers logically, but when it comes to explaining why the Jack is lower than the King or what the suits are supposed to represent would probably throw them waaaay off. It'd take a LOT of explaining how the King is like the equivalent of an Emperor and that puts him above the others or how the Diamond is meant to represent money/monetary strength while the Spade represents economic strength, but even then it's unlikely any of that will make things like "why does the Ace still beat the king, then?" or "what makes Clubs weaker than other suits?" make any actual amout of sense.
I feel like with Mahjong we in the west are in a similar situation. We just don't know the cultural norms the ended up being the basis for why the ancient Chinese put one symbol or one concept as better than another. We can have it explained to us to the point we can end up memorizing it, but we would likely never reach the point where we could just intuitively "know."
The big thing is playing to not lose. Discarding another player's winning tile (aka dealing into their hand) is the one thing you want to avoid. Pivoting from trying to make a winning hand to playing to not lose is what separates the good players from the great. Giving up a Tsumo is manageable. Another player calling Ron off your discard can be hard to come back from, or even immediately game-ending if the hand is big enough.
Which does make sense, but the hangup for me there is how the hell do I know what tiles I can't discard? Obviously the whole deal is I can't see their hand.
You make inferences based on what theyve discarded already to what kind of hand they're assembling... It's a ton of information to track for sure, but it's definitely possible
Mainly by paying attention to their discards and making as educated a guess as possible about what hand they're trying to build.
But honestly, I'm right there with you. It's the part of the game that give me the most trouble!
I'd totally play it if they made it like those "Mahjong tile" puzzles where you match 2 tiles and they vanish and the point is to clear all the tiles in the puzzle lol
Metem can’t make me play Mahjong. Erenville, on the other hand…
Metem voice pack in Frontlines (would be) so peak
I think Metem would be a better fit for an Arcadion inspired Crystal Conflict stage. Now that everyone fights unenhanced, they could add this as an actual arcadion fight mode - that way it fits right in with the lore.
You're an absolute genius. I need this now.
I wonder if they would actually do this, considering how it would basically spoil stuff for people who aren't through Dawntrail.
I mean, they already have Crystal Conflict arenas that are based on Dawntrail zones. I don't feel that it would really spoil anything other than "There is a place called Arcadion, and it looks something like this." They wouldn't have any further context, like where it is or what exactly it's all about.
just make it only unlock after you've finished the DT raids
That's not how frontlines works, there's no reason they'd do that with CC - it would destroy the queue.
does frontlines currently have any voiceover packs? how are they unlocked? and why would locking a voiceover pack behind relevant quests for the voice actor have anything to do with the queue?
A map, not voiceover pack.
Frontlines has multiple maps from future expansions after it is unlocked (there's a stormblood frontline)
I was talking about a voiceover pack though, not a map
SE doesmt give a hoot about spoilers beyond their internal spoiler windows. We werent even out of DT and Yoship was already calling Crystal Exarch Graha. S9 was part of their marketing tour so they really were never trying to hide it.
oh I'd love that so much.
That would be perfect! Get on the phone with Yoshi-P and make this happen, please!!
It may not be the type of bouts the Arcadion usually hosts, but it makes sense that after such a turning point in how they run things they might try some new formats for matches.
An Arcadion themed CTF map would be awesome too.
There's actually a "p word" that takes all his lines and places them into FL relating to whatever is happening. They are pretty funny.
He also is very concerned you’re gonna fall to your death anytime there’s a two inch difference between pieces of terrain
P word? not an M word?
Its the p word since it uses the "red moon" program, not really a mod.
It was recently updated with new lines too and has Metem commentating on specific skills you use. I was pleasantly surprised how fitting a lot of them are!
There actually IS a uh, unofficial way, to have him 'commentate' your PVP matches! I can confirm it's actually insanely fun to use lol
I mean...you CAN get that right now. Just not from Square.
thats exactly what im implying. Putting would be in parentheses was a hint
Well, definitely look into NUMEROUS, UNFORGIVEABLE WARCRIMES
There's a mod for that
Especially if he would announce stuff like when new nodes open up.
The dark side of the force has many....benefits.
I want Lumell from the trial as a Mahjong voice pack.
Bad news, fuck Mahjong
Met as the announcer has been great, but the fighters themselves have had some good voice during the fights too. This also extended to the trial this patch. I still laugh when he shouts “Hit it Harder!” And think “The hells do you think I’m doing back here? Having a tea party?”
All of it makes a big difference, the fights are so much better when they are voiced by the boss but having the commentary is really great on top of it.
I hope going forward they make the boss respond like they would have had the announcer react but in an appropriate way. Commenting like "how did you dodge that?" When you nail a mechanic or commenting when someone dies, etc. I love it.
Dancing Green having multiple replies for how well th group performs during the dancers part is a great example of it. Being mocked with “You trying to put the crowd to sleep?” Always hurt
We got a bit of this with Prische, so I think they're definitely thinking about it.
For all we know this was a test bed to do that more in the future.
Yea that's my hope.
Me too, made the fights feel more personal. Like imagine if Gaius was slingin insults at us during the battle against Ultima weapon.
Oh for sure!
My fav trial one was "Turrets?! erm.... good luck!" Thanks Lumull great advice! xD
A lot of Lumull's lines from Doomtrain are great.
"Aetherial... arms...?" is one of my favorites. Just the sheer confusion of a train growing fucking arms.
"Stop doing that!" is also great since it echoes what players would probably be thinking at that point.
"How many times is it going to do that?!" is asking the important question in that fight.
"WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TRAIN!"
Gonna have to get more on my next trip to the train store.
He’s been one of the highlights running the EX and kept me going. Some things can get tiring to hear after multiple wipes but not this guy!
“PRETTY SURE THIS IS BAD!!!”
I was already sold on Metem but Doomtrain conviced me that all fights should have a lalafel that comments on what we are doing.
That VO line reminded me of an exchange from the Babylon 5 episode "Messages from Earth:"
Unexpected B5 in my FFXIV subreddit, but I'm perfectly ok with this.
Now let's figure out where we can fit Delenn's "If you value your lives, be somewhere else!" speech into the MSQ....
Aetherial....Arms?!
Lumull definitely elevated an already-cool fight even more with his voice lines.
"Waauggh ! The flatcar !' lives in my head rent free
'HIT IT HARDER!' was fucking hilarious. Damn near lost my focus laughing at it XD
the fighters having commentary is part of why I hate 12 so much. It's just a pandemonium boss ripoff with no whit or anything, just a mindless thing attacking us with music ripped from a radio station. It just felt out of place in the arcadion
The english VA for Metem was amazing, My favorite voice after Shale's in this expansion.
“Oh, dear. The challenger’s fallen out of the ring!” 🤣 The tone of that line!
"...of their aether..." was amazing
The lovely ---- AND LETHAL
Can hear both and looked forward to both every run
You don’t play DRG or RDM by chance, do you?
"That's disgusting!!"
It's just so sarcastic
Sarcasm is using the opposite word to make a point.
My FC still quotes “THAT STRUCK SQUARE.”
I found it funny that that one line was never changed for any of the tiers. He's got new lines for just about any situation, except for Limit breaks, or falling out of the ring.
Even when we're the grand champion, he says the challenger fell out, lol
"The rooftop has caved in! Such devastation!"
"The destruction appears to have started... a fire!"
What I also love are his funny lines in M10.
"Deep Blue's lost his cool. (hehe)"
Those rolling R’s and drawn out letters sell so many fighter introductions.
“DANCIIING GRRRRREEN” “THE HOOOOOOWWLING BLADE” “SHUGAAAAH RRRRIOT”
"HIS ARMS ARE SNAKING ARRRRROUND THE RRRRRING" Had me going in M12 🤣
I usually play with Japanese VA, but I also agree the English VA is superior here.
Japanese Metem sounds kind of same-y in tone for just about every line: dramatic faux-shock, like the hype announcer he is. It's very clear every line is mugging for the audience, like a streamer who already knows what's going to happen but (badly) pretends to be Reacting For The First Time.
English Metem has a much wider range of tone, making many of his lines sound almost sincere. It gives him way more personality, since he doesn't always sound like he's playing to the mic.
As an example, the famous "MY RIIIIING" in Japanese is an obviously fake "Oh my! The ring has been broken!", and you know Metem knows Black Cat does this sort of thing all the time and he's hamming it up for the audience. In English, though, Metem actually sounds distressed about the destruction of the ring, including his forced-calm "Please bear with us while we repair the ring". It might still be an act, but it's a more believable act.
The English VA is very much channeling/referencing the late Gene Okerlund, one of the most famous announcers and interviewers for the WWF and WCW. His voice was as much a staple of American professional wrestling as any wrestler.
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I don't listen to Japanese VA in XIV and most players on this sub also play with English. That's why.
The Arcadion raid series has been an absolute gem, most fun iv'e had in the game
Yes! For sure! All the fights have just been amazing and so much cool music to go along with them as well! And the VA work of course! It's been stellar the whole time. I only wish it got some voiced cutscenes, buts that's not a new wish for raids.
"The power of the Announcer makes the Arcadion what it is!" -Tyrant, probably
You forgot the finger guns.
My hope is that once Blue Mage gets to DT content the story goes back to the Arcadion and we get some more from him for the fights. Would even make sense for the fighters to pick up Blue magic from the Mamool Ja to replace the beast souls.
That's actually a super cool idea! Would be fun to have rematched with the arcadion bosses all as blue mages!
I’m going to miss someone acknowledging us using our LB3s in such a grandiose fashion.
YES! or when you dash as a melee back and forth in howling blade and he says “A stylish evasion! Well done” (I know he says it for everyone)
So long as nobody gets hit with AoE he says that.
It reminds me of the pokemon stadium games in the best way!
I like being judged in Savage, finally doing a mechanic correctly and hearing "They managed to evade evverey single hit" or smth like that feels great.
That said it really only fits sports themed fights, and I hope our next raid is going into a serious direction again. I'd love somthing similar in like 3 expansions or so tho. Maybe a "Record of Ragnarok" type tournament.
Yeah i can agree with that, an announcer doesn't fit the serious tone of the Raid series. I have no doubt i'd get sick of him as well if he was there every expansion. But i like your idea for it happening a few expansions in the future!
What about the boss taunting or responding to raid actions? That might be fun.
YES! That would be a great alternative!
Yea that's definitely the way it needs to go, have the boss take the place but still keep responding like this just appropriately. It makes such a big difference. The boss being voiced is really nice and the commentary just puts it over the top. It's such a nice change.
The system will definitely persist into next raid series, I'm confident. The "announcer" may just be context appropriate like Ryne in some of the Eden fights or Cid/Nero in Omega.
If Doomtrain is any indication we might be getting a DBZ style peanut gallery in fights more often
I love Metem's commentary. I get so salty about the commentary in the Sandy Oreo alliance raid tho and I hope it doesn't come back lmao "Someone needs a heal!" "Rez that guy". Excuse me that guy died cuz they can't follow the arms mechanic don't act like I wasn't doing my job or need prompting about it!! Where's "The main tank died and the black mage is now tanking! Someone provoke!"
It's an issue of playful vs badgering. The lines in the San Diego raid come across as "Where were the heals!?" by proxy.
They call people out soooo hard early on. Thankfully it’s not the whole raid but that first fight just….bro pls stop we know someone got hit!!
In one of the interviews after 7.4 release there were comments about Metem, future normal raids and fights in general.
They know he is crazy popular for his commentary.
The next raid will be a regular one again, so don't expect anything remotely similar to Metem.
In general they plan to have more allied voicelines during trials/raids as Doomtrain received similar praise.
"STOP DOING THAT!!"
HIT IT HARDER
WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TRAIN
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There's a reason "Sloppy" has become so memetic when it's only part of a rather simple boss fight in Baelsar's Wall!
I imagined Metem commentating on my pokemon battles in ZA recently. Victory goes to the challenger!
best raids the game has ever had, and metem IS a part of that.
Honestly i just want more of the arcadion characters. I know this will never happen given the way they make things, but would be nice if we continue to get side quests involving the arcadion characters or see them around the world in future expansions
Indeed! I want to see more of Vamp Fatale and Tyrant also! We gotta at least learn all of the fighters true names also!
We do get occasional follow up quests after a while
Also not out of the question, if unlikely, that they end up coming back for something like a Variant Dungeon or an entirely new type of content (like how we got Pilgrim's Traverse and Quantum going back to the First so long after Shadowbringers)
I hope that for the next expansion that they keep the many voiced lines for the raid fights. Having just gone back and doing P4, the fight feels so very much silent.
The whole Arcadion, but yeah Metem's commentary including when somebody dies or falls off or so is amazing. Really set the bar ridiculously high for future expansion's raids. 😅
Im being a massive copium huffer and with all the people saying hey come back so we can fight unenhanced makes me hope there's like, a variant dungeon for the Arcadian!!! I really don't wanna leave these characters behind and I think they could manage to find a way to do it. From we can tell, each path for the new Variant has a unique 1st boss. So unless something changes, that does allow 7 fights, and besides the blowjob brothers they could easily pair some people up like Black Cat and Wicked Thunder, or Howling Blade and Brute Bomber. But it would be stretching some things
Metem is very much one of my favorite characters, and the idea is sadly SO specific to this raid series where someone is giving live commentary. I remember people freaking out and laughing with "Oh dear the challenger has fallen out of the ring!" and I just can't see what they could do in the future to not tread on such a similar idea for raids. Having a character commentate is fine, but its not gonna feel like Metem. The reactive lines to doing stuff just feels so perfect UGHH i dont want them to go,,, But I have some vague hope for a Variant Dungeon that will drop some cool lore on each character or even other champions. I don't think we won't see them again and I feel like they might do something with all those lines about going to defend out title
God, that would be great.
I love that idea! An Arcadion variant dungeons with all the characters would be awesome!
It could also be something new instead of a variant dungeon
They do seem to be experimenting with new types of duties, what with Chaotic and Quantum being released this expansion.
Im hoping with the callouts also happening during Doomtrain it is an element they keep doing during fights. I really like the external characters commenting during our fights. Makes them feel more meaningful.
Lalafell 👏🏻 Tony 👏🏻 Schiavone 👏🏻
I kept calling him Lil JR just because of the hat.
omg that works wonderfully
I was having a similar discussion with my FC the other day and pointed out that... Metem likes us. He'd totally be down to tag along and commentate our adventures, especially if the Arcadion crew also gets to film it.
Wouldn't fit the tone of most of the game, of course, but still a funny thought.
Until next time....
I wish there was a next time Metem, i really do ;-;
Most likely you will hear him again in Arcadion ult in a few years
We need to a voice pack for Frontlines and Crystaline Conflict commentary.
I'm guessing we're moving to the boss themselves commenting on the fight a lot more in the future, cause creating another scenario that has an announcer might be hard to pull off now
For just a little bit I did suspect him, but it was good to see he was truly on the side of the fighters.
I will pay money for him to narrate PvP. Come on SE, do the thing
Given the reaction, there’s no way Arcadion doesn’t end up with some follow-up questline sometime down the road. I hope they bite the bullet and work in some way to get his voiced commentary back
Give me a solo duty going one-on-one against a challenger to my crown, both unenhanced. I would love that.
Hell, have us fight someone who wasn't originally in the Arcadion. Imagine Estinien rolling up to the Arcadion just for fun and having a fight with us again.
I kind of want to see some kind of pvp dueling minigame there, where showmanship is just as important as combat skill.
I need blue mage to get the FUCK out of that dingy coliseum in uldah and get into business partnership with the arcadion.
I want him ro become the next Scion to follow us around and narrate everything we do in his announcer voice. Even mundane things like selling a firework to a NPC for 2 gil.
Metem and Shale are the best characters in Dawntrail.
YES! <3
I love Metem and I’m gonna miss him so bad
It’s all over. Until next time.
What I loved is the evolution of some of his lines. Starting out with 'MY RIIIINNNNG!' against Black Cat to him basically being like 'Oh, the ring is broken... Again...' against the Lindwurm was so damn funny to me XD
The WoL needs to hire him as their personal commentator for all their future adventures. We'll be facing off against the next world-ending demigod, and Metem will just be chilling at the edge of the room with a little megaphone.
All attacks being dodged is the best part because you get special lines for it. I didn’t know until halfway through the tier that during M7 with the big combo in phase 3 of both swings and lariat and adds and a tower, if nobody gets hit a single time he goes “the upstart dodged everything! Why am I not surprised!?” I felt so proud of myself, and ironically haven’t gotten to hear it since.
"for their aether" is will always get a chuckle out of me every time I do Vamp
Agreed. We comment about his narration all the time in my static. Just today there was a discussion about how we're going to miss him.
AAC has been the most fun raid series in a long time. The ham and Metem all come together to create a great experience.
I don’t know how they’ll make future raids this fun…
I am dreading when 8.0 goes back to a normal formula (which for the record is perfectly acceptable) of one main song per tier and a unique song for the 4th boss (with sometimes extra songs like Elidibus or Brute Justice) and nothing snazzy like Metem announcing stuff
Because you just know the most annoying people in the community are gonna act like its some massive "decline in quality" or "laziness" that the devs didn't try to pull off the Arcadion a second time.
Arcadion is a lightning in a bottle situation, 11 out of 12 of the bosses are people not mindless monsters, and its themed around wrestling. Everyone getting their own theme music and talking makes sense. You can't have the Hippokampos in Pandaemonium or Brute Justice in Alexander throwing quips and smack talking us.
So I hope with 8.0 people are sensible with their expectations
The thing is, Arcadion's AWESOME quantity of music came at a cost: the music for Trials was...well pretty lame this time around. No genre-bending vocal tracks, just pretty good instrumental tracks, nearly half of which were remixes from FF9.
I dunno, the three 7.0 trials had rockin' tracks, and there was never any other options to use for 7.2 or 7.3 but to use the FF9 boss tracks which don't have vocals to begin with, and the 7.4 Doomtrain song is a bop. The post-Endwalker trials had no vocals either. I guess it's the Alliance Raids where they're saving on music time, since it's all FF11 stuff.
Nah no need to that outlook, it's not that bleak the trials have had some pretty good tracks. Roses of May remix was amazing, Queen Eternal and Zoraal Ja's songs were absolute rippers.
The reason the music team had more time to make this is because the Alliance Raid for DT is a crossover. They just taking existing FF11 tracks and giving them a light touch up rather than composing entirely new songs
Yeah, feels like the FF11 songs are taken right from that game's ost.
Ummmm no?? Every single trial had a fuckin banger after banger song though!
Same, he really added that extra touch to fighting in general
Someone posted recently about a raid series where we fight the other scions and i think if they were to do that Metem should absolutely return to announce them
Me toooo
I uh.... haven't been doing the raids lmao. I did the first set and Jeuno 1 but that's about it, I always die like 5 times lol
Theres also PvP plug in for him to do commentary in Frontlines.
I am going to miss his commentary for sure. It’s gonna be hard to replace him if they try unless we drag him along to the 8.0 raids lmao.
Metem is great, he reminded me of the late great "Mean Gene" Okerlund, the former announcer and interviewer for WWF (now WWE) and WCW. His lines do a lot too make the experience feel very authentic to that wrestling vibe and really brings me back to my childhood watching wrestling with my father.
He was ok the first few times in savage but I had to switch the voices off eventually since it just gets annoying.
My friend and i just got used to him as part of the Savage fight and we repeat his lines when we're playing together in discord.
Yeah i can understand the voice lines becoming pretty annoying in savage.
Yeah, "She's draining the audience-- of their aether" lost its charm fairly quickly ngl
That one I got tired of because it's just nonsensical (and honestly I'm a stick-in-the-mud for that fight and m2 in general), but most of them I never get tired of, even after doing all 4 fights 4-6 times per week for a couple months.
It's meant to be a sex joke and some people in my fc really enjoy the intent of it, but I agree that it barely works in function.
Maybe it's a translation issue, maybe the XIV team is avoiding more ivert sexual terminology deliberately but the phrasing of "draining the audience" ruins the innuendo to me. Should've been something more akin to "she's sucking the audience dry....of their ether" or something
I think maybe they reserved that for her theme, what with the “bottom or top” and “I don’t hear a safe word, honey” barely audible lines lol
Same, I like the boss characters lines but Metem got in my nerves after liking him the first couple times. He’s also super repetitive in normal mode, I don’t want to hear “BEAUTIFULLY DODGED” 7 times in a fight when we avoid some basic aoe circles.
Who
No, I'm actually glad to be rid of him and I hope they never put commentators in again, because frankly while it's entertaining the first few times, wiping and hearing his voice lines over and over and over and over gets grating to me.
"She's draining the audience! ..Of their aether.." isn't the knee slapper they think it is the 100th time.
I do think he was a fun character and performed the role and lines well. I just don't need to hear them that much.
The draining the audience of their aether line is actually the only one that's ever gotten annoying for me. It just doesn't flow well as a sentence or a joke. I don't mind the intended double entendre of the line, I think it could be funny. It just like... doesn't work for me. Idk.
But all his other lines I will miss. Particularly the "mechanic was correctly executed" praise lines.