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For me the Endwalker zones are one of the best in the game. Shadowbringers was nice and all and I loved it. But I think Endwalker is on a completly new Level quality wise. The Only Area I dont really dig is Labyrinthos. That one is kinda dull.
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The zones we got in Shadowbringers are more thematically consistent and have more value as revisitable areas than the Endwalker zones. Now, Old Sharlayan, the Moon, and Garlemald are fantastic zones-but I have 0 desire to go back to Thavnair with its...unique...color scheme, Labyrinthos exhausted me, and Ultima Thule although it was a great final zone, I don't see the story ever bringing us back there.
For 7.0 I want to see more along the lines of Shadowbringers' high fantasy zones rather than the all over the place zones we got this expansion.
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As much as I liked ShB--and I have to emphasize that I really, really enjoyed the whole Eulmore/meol/Vauthry plot--it was just a massive detour that only barely progressed the plot of the story (and in ways that could have happened without traveling to a different shard). I feel like EW really wanted to be two expansions: 5.0 dealing with the Thavnair, the Garlean frontier, and the rest of Ilsabard; and then 6.0 dealing with the duality of Sharlayan/Garlemald, leading into the Moon and Ultima Thule. It not only would have made sense thematically, but also as a matter of geographic grouping; I really miss the cohesion of previous expansions that made areas feel interconnected to some degree.
ShB, outside of the Tempest, really just felt like it could have been visited after the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc. It sticks out like a sore thumb between HW/SB and EW. It creates a lot of canonic dissonance between the time dilation staying indefinitely still, as well as main cast/duty members being kind of permanently strewn across shards and divided. AND it teases the excitement of 5 other shards that we will likely never experience to the same extent for a lack of plot relevance and writer creativity. AND AND it detracted from the uniqueness and impact of blasphemies (intended to be the primary horror wrapping up a ten year legacy) by introducing effectively the same concept in forgiven sineaters. In fact, I would absolutely believe that ShB's riff on "alternate reality" was likely just a whimsical design concept that was overconflated and given more importance to the story than it probably should have.
My stance: In a game that was mostly about exploring and fleshing out the three great continents, the move to the First for an entire expansion mostly detracted from the main story and ended up with a rushed, crammed ending in EW. And this will only become more apparent when future expansions continue to explore other continents and islands and stars in the Source. UNTIL we see at least another expansion, preferably several, dedicated to fleshing out the *other* shards, I don't really consider ShB to be the strongest writing decision. It's a fun, self-contained concept that feels completely out of place and parasitic in the 10 year saga we were telling--and I say this as someone who still thinks that the Eden raids were the best writing in the game prior to the handling of Garlemald in EW--especially since it involves breaking otherwise consistent time travel rules established elsewhere in the game.
Tl;dr - ShB is practically an entirely separate, self-contained experience from the rest of FF XIV's story. It was a good experience, but it also came at the expense of the integrity and impact of the larger Hydaelyn arc.
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I'm highly critical of the area design in XIV since Heavensward, but credit where credit is due Endwalker stepped up their game a bit with the design of their cities and outdoor areas.
Thavnair being the only exception. That area is more barren, dull and ugly than Kholusia and that is a big accomplishment.
ARR maps are still better designed. They're still more "alive" and have a lot more detail and lore to be found in their wilderness. But Endwalker is the best post-ARR expansion in terms of map design. Even if they still look sterile.
Shadowbringer areas were terrible with way too much useless flat emptiness. Worst of the other 3 expansions. No amount of Amaurot changes that, specially when the same map where the ruins are is the most creatively bankrupt area in the game.
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I definitely prefer EW zones to ShB zones. My favorite zones being Elpis, The Moon & Ultima Thule. I love visiting those places. ShB zones are boring. The only one I liked visually was Lakeland, the 1st zone. After that, the quality and uniqueness dropped off dramatically. Kholusia was an alternate La Noscea, Amh Araeng was an alternate Thanalan & Rak’Tika was and alternate Black Shroud. All “been there, done that” type of zones. Rak’Tika especially is frustrating to travel, even after flying is unlocked due to the fact we have to maneuver around trees and rocks to get to the other side as opposed to going over the canopy of trees safely without anything intrusive in the way. I personally love otherworldly looking zones like those offered in HW and EW delivered. ShB was bland, but not as bland as SB as that is worse. That’s just my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
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Garlemaid is meh
Thavnair is meh (city is cool )
the Moon is cool
last zone is meh too ...some dragons , some robots , and some weirdos...
Labyrinth is interesting....
Elpis is my fav zone tho :D
WANT MOREEEEEEEE of that unsundered world
Shb zones are nice since u have a bit of everything :
desert ? check
forest? check
Fairy land ? check,
a whole underwater zone with cool city ? check
Kholusia with the big glamour city + the "wall"
lakeland is ok
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Agreed, all the EW maps felt really bland. Like I get it, you can't do much with Garlemald, but Elpis by all rights should have looked more fancy and magical. Instead it feels like another floating rock in the sea of clouds with some houses in it. Trailer Sharlayan looked amazing, but the ingame version looks like Limsa 2.0 but more washed down. Maybe this was done intentionally so as to not impact people with toaster PCs?
At any rate, Shadowbringers had the better map designs
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Personally EW zones are way better.
The zone 5 reveal of EW is absolutely breathtaking it's my favorite area of any video game to date (right next to the final area of the lvl 80 dungeon), and zone 6 is like no other over world area we've ever seen.
Shadowbringers zones were also very good, but only one of them really amazed me, and that was the Tempest. Kholusia was thematically appropriate as was Ahm but they weren't all that different from their counterparts and actually quite displeasing aesthetically.
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I liked both expacs zones a lot. But I did feel underwhelmed by Thauvnir, Garlemald, and the Moon especially since the expac marketing hyped them up so much. I wish we could explore more of Radz-at-Han, we only see like 5% of the city. Thauvnir was actually smaller than I was expecting. The moon also felt very small. I wish we got to explore more of Garlemald city, but 75% of it is inaccessible. Sharlayan is also not quite as majestic as I expected, it feels like someone mixed Darnassus with Limsa. It's music slaps though.
I did like all the zones a lot though. But I think a lot of the issues stem from the expac being developed during the covid lockdowns.