Endwalker? More like Escort Walker

I really enjoy it, it adds too the immersion a certain other game doesn't have, and i have no problem with the speedrunners who later complain they dont know whats going on and call the game boring or whatever else feeling upset.

That said, I wish it was a little more forgiving in certain aspects such as the stalking quests. Going back to the start of those can be a real pain.
But hey, Its new, they will likely, hopefully tweak it with time to feel better.

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Originally Posted by Jennah

The "Walk around with an NPC following you" is fine.
The "follow someone and don't fall behind" is okay, unless they decide to RP-walk everywhere.

The "follow someone and if they spot you, start all over" is getting OLD. Fast.

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This sums up my thoughts as well. I actually quite liked some of the walk-arounds with NPCs....but the stalking ones I am NOT a fan of.

It's Error Walker for me. I'd friggin love to be able to escort right about now.

And I actually love the new change of pace. Cry some more please

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Originally Posted by Havenchild

I understand people like different things... but this seems like such a small thing to complain about that just makes those people seem idk... ungrateful?

Mofos lucky yall even playing with those login queues

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I agree. At least you got in. If the quest supports the storyline I am all for it. If it is like making fried rice and adding lots of celery because you cant afford other vegetables then I am disappointed. That is one of the reasons I left WOW for FFXIV because it actually feels like SE cares about not wasting my time on pointless fillers.

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Originally Posted by Unaki

I don't have a problem with escort quests. I'd rather do twenty of those than one more forced NPC duty. No I don't want to play as Thancred. No I don't want to play as Scions. I want to play as MY character. I want to play my BLM, MCH or whatever I choose to level...That Ranjit fight in SHB really soured me big time on these things and no amount of forcing me into other character roles will ever fix it.

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I just canceled my sub over the one at the end of shadowbringers

Yeah, I love MOST of EW, but, man, there are too many escort quests. Likely something they'll fix in future patches with enough feedback (I'd suggest allowing escort to use local Aethernet with you for city stuff/Teleport within zone. It really would make things substantially less agitating). But yeah, pressed that button too many times

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Originally Posted by BigHoffie

What story am I missing by using the aetheryte to get around the city as opposed to walking?

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Immersion is why. Physically walking and searching for something with the characters has a completely different feel than just teleporting to it alone. It suddenly changed from "I", into "we". It heavily increased the immersion of the quests it was in. Especially the one in the Final area. I loved going around with them and seeing what they had to say. I absolutely loved the feature!

Oddly there is no good reason they created these companion objectives to cause them to fail when moving too far away from them seeing as the Chocobo companion will follow you anywhere at any walk/run/sprint speed , and re-appear by your side after you get off a mount , or come out of a duty.


SWTOR has had fully functioning and far superior companion "ai" since 2011 , how did SqE make their version so inferior?

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Originally Posted by vitamin_w

I really don't understand how anyone likes this mechanic. I mean I guess walking with people around town is okay but this red light/green light stay hidden BS is really getting old and is starting to adversely affect my enjoyment of this expansion despite how strong the story is. Surely I'm not the only one that feels this way.

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I LOVED those parts. It's a fun puzzle for me. Figuring out where to hide while staying nearby.

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Originally Posted by BigHoffie

What story am I missing by using the aetheryte to get around the city as opposed to walking?

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There are interaction circles along the pathways when going to your destination. While nothing fundamental to the story is usually given in these bubbles, they are however, a one-time-only opportunity to get that character's perspective on whatever is being emphasized at that moment. What they say is also not recorded in the journal.

Things like this, and also that ultra-tedious quest you have to do in Labyrinthos before unlocking Aeitiascope are deliberately put into the game to slow down players so the proper amount of anticipation can build up. In this case though, the players can still avoid those circles other than the one required to progress the current objective. Some of them even divert from the beeline path.

I loved them all, but they're commonly used in JRPGs and they show the commitment of the developers to making this more like an online single player Final Fantasy experience. They can make some improvements, like allowing them to teleport. I believe this was mentioned as something they would implement.

The trailing quests were a bit overused and could use some checkpoints, but I highly enjoyed those as well.

I enjoyed them. My husband and I did them together and it was mildly disconcerting to look from screen to screen, when suddenly "my" npc would appear to veer off away from me or just disappear, LOL

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Things like this, and also that ultra-tedious quest you have to do in Labyrinthos before unlocking Aeitiascope are deliberately put into the game to slow down players so the proper amount of anticipation can build up.

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The Labyrinthos quest was definitely not the right amount of pacing. I was going in circles for that one last person for half an hour at least, and lost any sense of story flow by the time I got there.

The only things I dislike about Escort quests is that you will have to run back to original locations if your queue window pops up.


I feel like SE should've added some sort of items to call your lost companion back to your side.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The Labyrinthos quest was definitely not the right amount of pacing. I was going in circles for that one last person for half an hour at least, and lost any sense of story flow by the time I got there.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Things like this, and also that ultra-tedious quest you have to do in Labyrinthos before unlocking Aeitiascope are deliberately put into the game to slow down players so the proper amount of anticipation can build up. kill the climax.

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Should be good now.

While it was an interesting experience they used the mechanic way too much and it got old pretty quick.

I loved all of them and hope we see more of them.
But then I was so entranced by watching the NPC come along I only had to start over once (it was Emet-Selch, I jumped on my Chocobo and was too fast for him) all other times I happily watched them following along and was hoping for more story irrelevant check marks to get comments from them.

Well.. if it was real escort missions with some danger (protect the NPC) that would be totally fine but I don't really get the point of dragging a NPC just to watch cut-scenes.

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Originally Posted by Hysterior

Well.. if it was real escort missions with some danger (protect the NPC) that would be totally fine but I don't really get the point of dragging a NPC just to watch cut-scenes.

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I felt like it added to the feeling of actually going places with the other characters instead of it always being "we'll go on ahead, come find us at the other end of the path".

Someone else pointed out in another thread that it probably cuts down on the amount of times you have to talk to the NPCs if you aren't interested in the side chatter, because there's a lot of optional talk that would otherwise have to be placed as a mandatory talking point before you (and more importantly they) move to the next destination.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I felt like it added to the feeling of actually going places with the other characters instead of it always being "we'll go on ahead, come find us at the other end of the path".

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Yes, that was the part I enjoyed about them. Taking a leisurely stroll with the NPCs, seeing scenery, not having to worry about a fiend suddenly attacking from behind, the few instances of fights were nice highlighted spots, so it was up to me whether I wanted to drag the NPCs around more or fight now. Having recently done parts of ARR again, it's something I was missing in comparison, that having the NPCs along, the connection to them instead of just meeting them at the next check point. I look forward to NG+, I want to make sure I didn't miss any optionals and take a few more screenshots.

The escort quests where a definite highlight for me.

I get the feeling that all of these escort quests were really beta tests for the new trust system for the old dungeons. Makes sense too as they found several issues and fixed them.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

I get the feeling that all of these escort quests were really beta tests for the new trust system for the old dungeons. Makes sense too as they found several issues and fixed them.

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That doesn't really make sense. The escort quests don't resemble trusts beyond having the character follow you, and wouldn't test the trust system in any way that isn't already achieved by the existing trust system.

I thought it was ok... but overused.

OMG you know Yoshi P was playing the older Assassins Creed games. I remember I was doing a thing for Ubisoft as we were advising them some years back about an AC game that has since been released to never ever put back in the follow and hide the mechanics. It got to the point in ACIV where you had to do the same thing with an entire ship it and sort of jumped the shark.

The escort missions I felt had some issues like how you could lose them which is a pain. They should of been designed to follow you anywhere in that area. I liked the idea because you have a literal party in which you could talk to them and get their perspective.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I thought it was ok... but overused.

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Sadly I think we can expect this mechanic to stay everyone though people don't like them like the whole sniper mechanic or the stand have people walk up to you and ask you questions or what I hate most taking over other NPCs during major battles.

The first one or two was okay... It got old really, really fast though. Not looking forward to repeating them on my alts.

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Originally Posted by HisShadowX

OMG you know Yoshi P was playing the older Assassins Creed games. I remember I was doing a thing for Ubisoft as we were advising them some years back about an AC game that has since been released to never ever put back in the follow and hide the mechanics. It got to the point in ACIV where you had to do the same thing with an entire ship it and sort of jumped the shark.

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Black Flag trailing missions were definitely death, especially when you had to sail your ship up those thin little tributaries.