endwalker seen as low point?

I am torn on this. Like I don't really see EW as a low point myself, but I do understand where people are coming from that do. I just think I have an underdog perspective mostly at the whole thing.

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Originally Posted by Saraide

Just to name a few: Some people heavily disliked the story, some people heavily dislike the job design, some people heavily dislike the encounter design (not exclusively to endwalker, more a continuation of shb), some people heavily dislike this expansion's relic.

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I'll take "All of the above" thank you.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

That's nice. You have fun with your own thoughts there, budro. /patpat

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You do realize editing a poster's post on a reply is an reportable offense on the forums right?

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Originally Posted by Denishia

The revisionist history turning positively on Stormblood has been amusing to watch from the sidelines as well.

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Very. I considered it okay when I went through it, but that's been a while. I look forward to seeing what it's like the second time through.

Consensus used to be "very ok story but the content was awesome."

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Originally Posted by vanaii

Very. I considered it okay when I went through it, but that's been a while. I look forward to seeing what it's like the second time through.

Consensus used to be "very ok story but the content was awesome."

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Time changes many things. I get a laugh watching the final fantasy subreddit discussing the games now. FFXIII fans now feel free to state it's their favorite game in the series and I'll actually see FFVI get 'eh, it's not as good as people say it is' now.

I wonder how long after XVI will people be able to say "Eh, it wasn't that good" without getting mobbed?

On topic: OP, assuming this is a serious post, you're asking a massive group of people to come to a consensus on how something is viewed, that's just not going to happen. People all have different opinions on how something was received. Strictly dollars-wise however, Endwalker was extremely successful.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

Time changes many things. I get a laugh watching the final fantasy subreddit discussing the games now. FFXIII fans now feel free to state it's their favorite game in the series and I'll actually see FFVI get 'eh, it's not as good as people say it is' now.

I wonder how long after XVI will people be able to say "Eh, it wasn't that good" without getting mobbed?

On topic: OP, assuming this is a serious post, you're asking a massive group of people to come to a consensus on how something is viewed, that's just not going to happen. People all have different opinions on how something was received. Strictly dollars-wise however, Endwalker was extremely successful.

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Its people finally taking the rose tinted goggles off, its quite common amongst the average opinioniated gamer such as ourselves.

Its honestly very annoying and disingenous when people talk about the past tense like "this used to be good" when really its just them trying to twist the narrative to justify their opinions without having a consistent perspective of the product.

They quickly forget the annoyances, the issues, the lack of content and in terms of shadowbringers's plot specifically, the egregious filler and predictability. Really imo I think the only reason people even like Shb is because of two things; Ardbert and Emet-Selch. Theyre arguably the most important characters that carry that narrative very well. But personally I need more than just that in order for the expansion to be a masterpiece.

Frankly as someone who has played numerous jrpgs new and old....I dont think we've had that yet with this game. The only praise I can give is that each expansion has been consistently well, but it doesnt hold a candle to stories like FFX or Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quest VIII or Tales of the Abyss.

My opinions of course but still

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Its people finally taking the rose tinted goggles off, its quite common amongst the average opinioniated gamer such as ourselves.

Its honestly very annoying and disingenous when people talk about the past tense like "this used to be good" when really its just them trying to twist the narrative to justify their opinions without having a consistent perspective of the product.

They quickly forget the annoyances, the issues, the lack of content and in terms of shadowbringers's plot specifically, the egregious filler and predictability. Really imo I think the only reason people even like Shb is because of two things; Ardbert and Emet-Selch. Theyre arguably the most important characters that carry that narrative very well. But personally I need more than just that in order for the expansion to be a masterpiece.

Frankly as someone who has played numerous jrpgs new and old....I dont think we've had that yet with this game. The only praise I can give is that each expansion has been consistently well, but it doesnt hold a candle to stories like FFX or Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quest VIII or Tales of the Abyss.

My opinions of course but still

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I can appreciate that for sure.

ShB for me WAS very good. The first moment I was just blown away was when we killed the first light warden and the sky went back to dark. There was just something about that that grabbed me, and I was hooked for most of the expansion. You're right though, we quickly forget the annoyances, me included. I remember getting really frustrated with Thancred and Ryne and actively started wanting to skip cutscenes with them because of how annoying they were. Ranjit? Hated him. And yet, I still say "ShB was INCREDIBLE" lol.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

It has to do with Endwalker coming after the peak that was Shadowbringers. Shadowbringers was lightning in a bottle, and whatever follow-up they chose to do was likely never going to rise to equal it. At least in terms of presentation and story.

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It's so damn interesting, too. Since Tears of the Kingdom, the game in particular Yoshi-P endorsed as the one for us all to take a break and play? Well, suffice to say its a definitive case of bottled lightning striking twice. If Ninty can do it, why can't Squeenix?

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

You do realize editing a poster's post on a reply is an reportable offense on the forums right?

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Considering how many people "edit" by relegating very long posts to just

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snip

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I'd say it's not a very commonly banned offense. One might claim its on a case-by-case basis, but from what I've seen (or rather, not seen) by the moderation I have doubts as to whether they actually pay attention to make such a stratagem work.

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Originally Posted by elzdon

i was just watching a youtuber and he mentioned endwalker is seen too some as a low point for ff14 but didnt expand on it...any ideas why people think that? im not an endwalker lover or anything but i started ff in shadowbringers so i dont have a history i can use to see why people would think that.

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Its mixed for me. In terms if MSQ its SHB>HW>EW. In terms of content SB beats all of them. That was the heigh of fight designs imo.

In terms of content it has about the same as Shadowbringers.

The real disappointment is the quality and replayability of content is much worse than it has been in the past.

6.4 so far has been a great patch, we got an extreme trial that wasn't completely face roll, a normal raid series that didn't babysit you and next week a savage that looks to be the peak raid content of the expansion.

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Originally Posted by elzdon

i was just watching a youtuber and he mentioned endwalker is seen too some as a low point for ff14 but didnt expand on it...any ideas why people think that? im not an endwalker lover or anything but i started ff in shadowbringers so i dont have a history i can use to see why people would think that.

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It's not. SE itself, various Reddit sites, and so on have done polls on the expansions, and EW typically ranks 2nd in terms of "favorite expansion" behind ShB as the typical 1st. Random Youtubers and the select few trolls that inhabit this forum are representative of...well...absolutely nothing.

For instance, for every poster here complaining that they didn't like the EW story, head over to just one YT video and you'll probably find hundreds of people posting about how they enjoyed it, how it struck a meaningful chord with them, and so on. It's basically a small group of people who equate "they didn't write the story I personally want, therefore the story is bad." *shrugs*

I think the mixed feeling come from several points. I don't agree with all I will be listing, but that's what I observed.

First of all, there is the msq. 6.3 and 6.4 have been seen as a disappointment by many. Several point seem to come back :
- the impression that the story is stalling, because of the 1 trial by patch format. The story can't really progress naturally, because we know which are the steps, and a lot feels like circling around before getting the point. Some people don't see pacing the story as a problem, but there it's a fact a good part of the players do. Reddit is a place known to be an echo chamber of the concensus. That line of thinking not being downvoted to oblivion make me think it's not just a few vocals people on the forum, but a vision shared by part of the community.
- Scions getting shoved again and again. Some people wanted to take the occasion of the Scions disbanding as a perfect occasion to leave the whole Sharlayan gang behind. But no, they keep coming back by small groups.
- The retelling of FFIV story is less imaginative than what they did with things like Eden (FFVIII), the weapons (FFVIII) or the whole Galuf/Krile (FFV). We're closer to FFIV with a few twist for the Golbez storyline than the re-imagination other were.


Second, there is the number of storylines that the patches gave us. I'm gonna quote myself in another thread :

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HW patches had 6 storylines : MSQ, Raids Alliance, Raids, Trial story, Relics and Hildibrand (I don't know how the Ydillshire reconstruction worked, so I didn't count it).
SB patches had 7 storylines : MSQ, Raids Alliance, Raids, Trial story, Relics, Hildibrand and Doman reconstruction.
ShB patches had 6 storylines : MSQ, Raids Alliance, Raids, Trial story, Relics and Ishgardian restoration/diadem.
EnWalker has 4 : MSQ, Raids Alliances, Raids and Hildibrand. You could add the Tataru quests (probably should add the shcolasticates quest in HW or post roles-quests in ShB then).

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While being just a few storylines, and the content is still mostly there, it feels that there is less going on.


Then there is the content that was basically dead on arrival : adding a new deep dungeon when the previous deep dungeons are already not popular is questionnable. Same goes for the variant dungeons. While nice, there very few reasons to run it after a few days/weeks for the slower people.


There is the whole relics polemic. Some find the use of allagan tombstone to get them not engaging. You just have to basically continue to do your roulettes, and you will get what you need. It feels more like a background task than something you actively engage in. The way it was artificially Frankenstein'ed to the Hildibrand storyline is also sometimes mentionned.


Then, there is the abscence of Eureka/Bozja-Zadnor-like content. Some link that to the way we get relics, but I would differentiate them. Because let's be clear, the out of Bozja options for relics were more profitable, and even with most steps being well done, a couple of them were still godawful. No I think what makes us feel something is missing is the lack of long running content that you can easily go in, easily leave without any consequences for other players. Something you can continue to do at your own pace, without weekly caps and things like that, with enough incentive to play it. Relics used to do that. Fine if you don't want to create another Eureka/bozja, but please put something else to fill that niche.


For the last one, my knowledge is pretty limited, since I don't run this content, so don't hesitate to correct me. It's about the ultimate. From what I heard "Dragonsong's Reprise" was a blast, everyone loved it, I've seen some people say it's the best ultimate they did. So everyone was hyped for "The Omega Protocol", and it didn't deliver. I've read people saying it's the worse Ultimate Raid.


From what I gathered, that's about it. Over all, the game is still good. None of those things alone would really be a problem, but the fact they happens all at the same time raise question about it being just a down moment after the EW vanilla conclusion, or if it is a new direction in term of design of the game.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I can appreciate that for sure.

ShB for me WAS very good. The first moment I was just blown away was when we killed the first light warden and the sky went back to dark. There was just something about that that grabbed me, and I was hooked for most of the expansion. You're right though, we quickly forget the annoyances, me included. I remember getting really frustrated with Thancred and Ryne and actively started wanting to skip cutscenes with them because of how annoying they were. Ranjit? Hated him. And yet, I still say "ShB was INCREDIBLE" lol.

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I was disappointed with the direction the story took with ShB, since it felt so much like they changed lanes at the last second. I get that it was setup for a visit to the First but knowing how the team originally planned for a Garlemald expansion, and the fact the narrative was eerily still pushing towards that direction with the post-SB patches was just so unsatisfying when I got to 6.0

It felt like I was just played with and suddenly all that important Garlemald stuff and with the Empire crumbling was literally playing in the bg, it made me personally hard to focus on our adventures in the First. It felt like the most filler or filler arcs, with the important bit being towards the end with Amarout.

Oh well, I still actually enjoyed Shb's story and what it did in terms of ideas but I dont necessarily call its narrative a "masterpiece". It certainly didnt live up to my own hype at least.

and before somebody calls me an EW fanboy, I'm not. Just like with ShB, there was a lot of missed potential for its story that I've come to be dissapointed but also like Shb, I dont easily label it as a masterpiece nor as the worst thing ever either. Just like with previous expansions its absolutely fine with its storytelling, personally just a taaaad bit better than Shb. But thats mostly because they keep making the story consistently better with each one expansion. Ive grown to see the FFXIV narrative in the sum of its parts rather than just slices of the pie and for what it is as an MMO story, I feel like its really good.

But does it live up to its single-player narrative stories? Oh my dear me no... The game itself suffers from a lot of issues that prevent it from reaching to that point. And its not completely it's fault. Its an MMO so ofcourse the structure is gonna be stupid, but I can appreciate that it strives to keep the storytelling interesting as it goes. I'm personally interested in the 6.x patch story so far and Im excited for what 7.0 may bring, but thats as far as I'm gonna praise FFXIV's narrative as. Its just interesting, but never brilliant.

I think it's interesting when Stormblood use to be considered a low point and now it's reflected back as a high point.

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Originally Posted by Remish

I think it's interesting when Stormblood use to be considered a low point and now it's reflected back as a high point.

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It had some poor decisions, slightly fewer positive changes than was expected, and was otherwise basically fine.

Tbf, one could say the same for Endwalker, if only it hadn't failed to reverse any of the poor decisions that had come before it. Alas, cumulative impact.

Honestly what I find the most enlightening is the insistence that it absolutely must be the highest point in the game thus far. People don't seem to realize that by discounting those who didn't like Endwalker or had not so minor grievances, they're not actually solving any problems. Those who feel as though their voices are not being heard are far more likely to grow jaded and resentful. The "few minor trolls" on this forum, are to what I've observed, a self-created issue.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

It's not. SE itself, various Reddit sites, and so on have done polls on the expansions, and EW typically ranks 2nd in terms of "favorite expansion" behind ShB as the typical 1st. Random Youtubers and the select few trolls that inhabit this forum are representative of...well...absolutely nothing.

For instance, for every poster here complaining that they didn't like the EW story, head over to just one YT video and you'll probably find hundreds of people posting about how they enjoyed it, how it struck a meaningful chord with them, and so on. It's basically a small group of people who equate "they didn't write the story I personally want, therefore the story is bad." *shrugs*

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Case, meet point. One could just as easily flip this around and say "they wrote a story I personally enjoyed, therefore the story is great and everyone who disagrees with me should go cry a big, fat river". I'm puzzled as to how certain posters consider such reductivity a good attitude to have. It certainly doesn't solve any real issues, not nearly as much as it stirs the simmering pot of resentment.

I don't find Endwalker to be a low point per se, but there are some around here whose attitude is hardly more admirable than the opponents they claim to fight. Suffice to say, while I may not necessarily agree with those who find themselves at odds I at least understand them. I've been in that position before, and I daresay many here have had things they enjoyed that are not Final Fantasy XIV "ruined" by what they saw as a bad decision so a lot of the more dismissive attitudes feel more like gloating than a proper defense.

and where is this video?
I wanna see it in its full context instead from a 3rd party.

I started playing a year ago, so I haven't experienced the endgame in the older expansions. Therefore, please take anything I say with a massive bag of salt.

The whole time in Endwalker's MSQ, I felt like it was really weak. The first half of it (especially Labyrinthos) was a massive slog and the payoff at the end wasn't worth it. I enjoyed Elpis and...no, that's about it. I enjoyed Elpis. The pacing of the expansion was all over the place to me. Maybe it just has the misfortune of being after Shadowbringers, which, at least to me, hit the ground running and kept rolling until the story's conclusion. There were one or two spots that felt a little like filler, but they were relatively short-lived. In Endwalker, it feels like half the expansion is filler instead.

I'm also not a fan of the additional content. The trials are fine, though their difficulty is wildly inconsistent. Some are laughably easy while others are enjoyably difficult. Savage also feels all over the place. P8S made me want to tear my hair out. Maybe that's just me being garbage at the game, though, who knows.

Variant dungeons are extremely meh because the rewards aren't worth the effort, plus they're boring. Criterion dungeons are difficult and the rewards suck. Eureka Orthos is *good* but the fact that you can't go past floor 30 without a fixed party is a huge detriment. It's really difficult to get a full party together now that 85% of my FC is off playing other games due to the massive drought of engaging content.

I can't manage to get into the patch MSQ, either. Zero is great waifu bait but that's about it. The Fiends are rehashed from older games, yet again. Not to mention the new story takes about two hours to complete each time and then there's nothing for another 4 months.

I think maybe I sound like I hate Endwalker now. I don't. I think it's OK. However, OK isn't good enough when I know this game has the potential to be excellent. I'm looking towards 7.0 with cautious optimism. I don't want to get too hyped because that would just end up in disappointment. Maybe it's just the even-numbered expansions that suck, so, hopefully we are in for a wild ride in the future again.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

It's not. SE itself, various Reddit sites, and so on have done polls on the expansions, and EW typically ranks 2nd in terms of "favorite expansion" behind ShB as the typical 1st. Random Youtubers and the select few trolls that inhabit this forum are representative of...well...absolutely nothing.

For instance, for every poster here complaining that they didn't like the EW story, head over to just one YT video and you'll probably find hundreds of people posting about how they enjoyed it, how it struck a meaningful chord with them, and so on. It's basically a small group of people who equate "they didn't write the story I personally want, therefore the story is bad." *shrugs*

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You keep telling yourself that, whatever helps you sleep at night ^-^ You can tell from this thread that a lot of people weren't happy with the story but you prefer to think you know every single person who plays the game and they all loved it, talk about delusional. I think I'd rather take the word of a random youtuber than you, the self appointed represantive of the people™

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Originally Posted by Striker44

It's not. SE itself, various Reddit sites, and so on have done polls on the expansions, and EW typically ranks 2nd in terms of "favorite expansion" behind ShB as the typical 1st. Random Youtubers and the select few trolls that inhabit this forum are representative of...well...absolutely nothing.

For instance, for every poster here complaining that they didn't like the EW story, head over to just one YT video and you'll probably find hundreds of people posting about how they enjoyed it, how it struck a meaningful chord with them, and so on. It's basically a small group of people who equate "they didn't write the story I personally want, therefore the story is bad." *shrugs*

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How it feels to live in your personal bubble?

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Originally Posted by Sheriyana

You keep telling yourself that, whatever helps you sleep at night ^-^ You can tell from this thread that a lot of people weren't happy with the story but you prefer to think you know every single person who plays the game and they all loved it, talk about delusional. I think I'd rather take the word of a random youtuber than you, the self appointed represantive of the people™

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who is this random youtuber though.
Do they even exist?
Why have the TC not mention even the name of said youtuber so people can see the content and judge for themselves?

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Originally Posted by hagare

who is this random youtuber though.
Do they even exist?
Why have the TC not mention even the name of said youtuber so people can see the content and judge for themselves?

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No idea. I personally haven't seen a XIV content creator who doesn't have issues with Endwalker but it's possible they're out there.

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Originally Posted by Sheriyana

No idea. I personally haven't seen a XIV content creator who doesn't have issues with Endwalker but it's possible they're out there.

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nothing is perfect. But the claim is low point.
Then again, the OF sure seems to love unsubstantiated claims and will fight tooth and nail to defend it

Normally I avoid such topics because opinions are just that. Opinions. And yet people treat and act like it is objective fact. Then arguments happen.

So gonna put this out there now. The following is an opinion. My opinion. Some will share it. Others will not. Both are OK.

Also spoilers if not there so perhaps bounce out now if spoilers bug ya.

I thought EW was OK. Not the best, not the worst. Actually I think all expansions have been good in one way or another. Personally I thing ShB did the most good. Stormblood is my favorite despite then falls.

I think Zodiark being the linchpin keeping the worlds falling apart and destroying him STARTS the end rather than ends the possibility of the end was a good twist.

I do however do not like Meteion/Hermes. Like...any of it. So many things built up to just that being the problems for all? Really? Not even introduced in the 11th hour...it was like...11:35. I was more interested in Garlean affairs but nah...empath bird girl and the boy that made her and being all "all life is equal and if not let's just erase it all". His whole thing about putting down the creation that got feral and the fact it was put down because "it was flawed...but we are flawed because so many civilizations failed...so let's put US down too!" Is just stupid. Emet called it. It's sophistry and it's dumb.

That's why EW is kinda...meh. Not great, not terrible.

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Originally Posted by hagare

nothing is perfect. But the claim is low point.
Then again, the OF sure seems to love unsubstantiated claims and will fight tooth and nail to defend it

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Would providing the youtube video and, therefore, the youtuber in question somehow substantiate and validate the claim or opinion? Because you can find multiple youtubers who have discussed FFXIV and have said that there are issues, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to find one who said that Endwalker was a low point for the game. Any one of them could or should suffice for whatever purpose you have in mind.

On a personal level, Endwalker is a low point, for me, due to how I feel about the turns they've taken regarding job design (I'm not a fan of the homogenization) and the lack of fun midcore battle content that has longevity. That doesn't mean people can't like it, but I just personally wouldn't agree with someone who'd say that this was the "best-ever expansion in FFXIV's history" or even "this was a great expansion."

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

I don't think anyone who's not trolling and actually knows the game's history actually sees Endwalker as low point. At worst, its coming off as one because it wasn't as good as Shadowbringers. ARR was by far worse, and don't even get me started on 1.0.

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I’m entirely comfortable calling endwalker the nadir in all aspects. At least 1.0 tried.

The extremes are not memorable, outside of maybe Barbariccia and... ... maybe for those who joined ffxiv this year they are, but shadowbringers and heavensward had the most iconic excellent extremes and savage raids. Stormblood was a low point, i see Endwalker on par on a low as Stormblood expac, maybe Stormblood had more to itself in some aspect tho. But for people coming this late in the game it's hard to judge why it is the case if their first experience with the end game content is Endwalker.

You know, i remember ALL extremes from shadowbringers and Stormblood (even if it wasn't my favorite expac, from far) still, i have a hard time having Endsinger and Zodiark really carved in my memory as something memorable or great, i will probably remember Hydaelyn more fondly because of the story around her, she had S tier treatment this expac, and is the only character that received such a very good development in endwalker, i will also remember barbariccia , not even golbez is interesting as an ex to me, P8S kind of is okay in that area... But extremes from Endwalker... I only see myself remembering Hydaelyn and Barbariccia , on the savage front, P8S... and maybe P3S but for another trauma reason of rmt gatekeeping in the pfinder... What was truely "iconic" in this expac ? You can't beat the extremes from Shadowbringers tho.

Ruby / emerald / all weapons as extremes, warrior of light, even the fat guy transforming as an angel was pretty schocking, and not to talk about Titania... See... Those are very memorable and iconic to me. They also had a very very nice environment / background as a fight in the surrounding area, whereas endwalker's extreme feel very minimalistic in the design of the arena, all of shadowbringer's savages were very interesting, as well as The shadow wolf was cool, titan as a stupid rolling tank, Eternity... Both in combat design and environment of the battle scene. I fail to find Endwalker's extremes and most savage raids that memorable for a very very few exceptions. Maybe that will change with this new end of expansion savage raid tier. Must say that Athena looks really good as a boss, can't wait to see phase 2 and if they can top E12S

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Originally Posted by Katt_Felista

The extremes are not memorable, outside of maybe Barbariccia and... ... maybe for those who joined ffxiv this year they are, but shadowbringers and heavensward had the most iconic excellent extremes and savage raids.

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I have started in Endwalker and I still think most of the Extremes aren't memorable. I think a large part of that is the fact that the bosses are rehashed older FF game content. It feels very much forcibly shoehorned into the story, meanwhile ShB bosses were all major players in the MSQ.

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Originally Posted by elzdon

i was just watching a youtuber and he mentioned endwalker is seen too some as a low point for ff14 but didnt expand on it...any ideas why people think that? im not an endwalker lover or anything but i started ff in shadowbringers so i dont have a history i can use to see why people would think that.

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Its not really a question that can be answered by anything other than personal taste.

I mean, "low point" in compairison to what? It really depends on how one feels about the expacs that came before.

HW > ARR > SHB > SB > EW

ARR and SB were the lowest points. HW was nice but it didn't have extra relic content or extra midcore content like criterion or bozja/eureka, or ultimate raids. Aside from relic or savage, what did people even do back then?

That leaves ShB and EW as the best expansions.

I only view it as a low point because... b-because... because!!









































https://i.ibb.co/HHMmJ70/kaiten.pnghttps://i.ibb.co/Q67vX04/X.gif https://i.ibb.co/HHMmJ70/kaiten.png

I lost my " Kaiten!! " ( excessively obviously, mhm )

Add me to those that feel like Endwalker was a low point. To sum it up as much as possible, the story felt like a frenzied mess. It was trying desperately to cram through too many plot points without giving them the needed time to explore them properly. They also shoved in far too heavy handed attempts to 'shock' players to try to make them care more about what was going on, without having anything of lasting impact actually occur.

Personally, I felt they went overboard with the constant bait and switch of threatening something very bad would happen only to immediately back off at the last moment and have absolutely nothing of consequence actually happen. So much so that it set the tone for me of what to expect for the rest of the expansion after I finished In From the Cold. After that quest I basically emotionally checked out from caring about what was happening. The whole second section of Thavnair being under attack felt boring to me for it, and the 'threat' of losing Scions in Ultima Thule felt hollow, because ultimately it did end up to play out exactly how I expected it to with nothing of actual consequence actually happening.

Endsinger was the absolute low point of the expansion though. Pulling out a twist big baddie at the last minute isn't the worst thing, but it has to be a compelling twist that isn't seen from a mile away. Had the big bad been some eldritch horror from beyond the void whose attention turned to the world because of Endsinger, okay yeah that could have been really interesting. But instead we got a sad bird girl with a severe case of nihilism somehow being powerful enough to destroy the world with the power of teenaged angst.

The only redeeming part of Endwalker has been the whole post Endwalker storyline with Zero and the Thirteenth. That has actually been interesting and compelling, making me engaged in caring about what was going on and what would happen next. IMO, it would have made for a much better expansion storyline. But otherwise, I haven't been so unengaged from the game's story since doing ARR content. I actually like Stormblood more than Endwalker from an MSQ story perspective. At least Stormblood felt coherent and had me engaged in what was going on.

Nope.
S - Endwalker and Shadowbringers
A - Heavensward and Stormblood
B - ARR

After the low point of 1.0, everything's a massive step up.

I played this game since launch and im just burned out overall they just keep reusing content pretty much or fail horrible with the new additions.

Endwalker was fine a launch but everything that came after was just boring removal of Feast actually interesting PVP.

Criterion dungeons was a super flopp, Unreal trials just arent fun ive done those fights in the past i dont need feel the need to do them again.

Endwalker relic step is super boring what happend to Bozjan southern front actually solid content that would keep you busy in the game, Island Sanctuary just blows compared.

And with Diablo 4 around the corner i dont feel any reason to play this one.

Endwalker was the first expansion i did not rush and did every content in, because i started playing late in shadowbringers

- All Raids up until now seem to be worse than last tier, at least for me the final floors were a let down, my favorite fight would be p2s actually, because it felt special - p3s would be next
- The Ultimates are not as cool as for example alexander, while i like the theme of dsr is cool i still prefer to do tea because of how epic it is, top just isnt a fun progg at all and i stopped when p5 was reached
- i miss doing Content that are not raids, theres literally ... nothing? I went back into old expensions, done full Eureka and BA, done full Bozja and DSR and Duels (...) why didnt they release SOMETHING? I am happy i still had to do those and atm can still work on bluemage content, but if i had played those things last expension, i would have been really upset about the content
- Things like Critireon dungeon were dead on release, because noone wanted to do them because of no rewards
-Island Sanctuary is the most boring grind ever and just another spreadsheet

If this continues into 7.0 i will stop my sub and just do the raids while playing another mmo, oh well

After last patch, I'm getting more and more convinced that 6.X MSQ was originally meant as trial story line. After all, before EW released, they said that new story arc starts in 6.1, but now they're saying that 6.1 - 6.5 is supposed to be separate story or whatnot. So what's going on?

Look at Four Lords story line. 2 dungeons, 3 trials. Cool story, new NPCs, no Scions in sight except Tataru. Gave us best dungeon in the game (Swallow's Compass), trials itself are great too. All while being original story.

6.X MSQ so far: 2 dungeons, 2 filler dungeons (Aetherfont is straight up just killing some penguins to get some aether), 3 trials, with most likely another dungeon and trial in 6.5. No clue where they plan to put build up for 7.0. Story is just another old FF reference, filled with filler and cheap fan service. It even retconned some of the void stuff, World of Darkness needed to have death animations replaced so it makes sense.

Seems like storywriting took some serious hit. Tataru's EW quest even continues the Four Lords storyline, but I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Why are Suzaku and Seiryu in chicken and rabbit costume? I skipped rest of the quest after I saw that. Can we keep this wannabe funny stuff in Hildibrand?

It might be simply because I'm a weeb, but I bet that if Four Lords had same resources as 6.X MSQ (especially voice acting), it would be so much better than the whole 6.X MSQ.

In terms of Story:
ShB > HW > SB > EW > ARR

In terms of Content:
SB > ShB >HW > ARR > EW


7.0 better not be more of the same.