That is because when Elidibus died zodiark lost his heart and mind. He was a blank slate that was severely weakened. Hence why fandanial assimilates him.
It was a nice story, not fully for me tho. Shadowbringers had beautiful sad moments however endwalker just had so many flat out depressing moments that were really dark and even more. I did not enjoy being emotionally drained after finishing the story tbh. Hopefully they don't go down that route again in the future.
SE had stated they wanted to conclude the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyarch this expansion and move towards a completely new story for the next chapter. In my opinion Endwalker gave us a worthy conclusion to the Hydaelyn and Zodiark story. They wrapped up open story strings both in the role quests and MSQ and opened up new possibilities for future content like Meracydia. I can not wait to see where the next chapter takes us!
I was also happy how they managed the Meteion story. They gave it enough air to be believeable, gave us time to connect to the old world and to the characters. Hermes/Fandaniel/Amon was a very tragic character. I loved his development and conclusion. Also I was glad that Zodiark was not the last boss of the expansion because this would have been to obvious. Meteion and the introduction of Dynamis felt far more engaging and opened up future story possibilities with those lost zivilisations on other planets. Maybe we will travel into space again at some point. Our space ship is still there after all.
Even though some story parts of Endwalker dragged on a bit in Labyrinthos and on the moon, the story felt very believeable. The look of my WoL when he heared Emet-Selchs voice in Elpis mirrored my own. I could not believe that we would be given the chance to meet him again and be actually part of his life in the past world. I was so happy SE let us go on a adventure with the old friends of Azem! This made Elpis my favourite story segment. Hopefully we will meet them again one day.
I also recommened to everyone to go talk to old MSQ NPCs or jobgivers. Most have new dialogue!
The only part of the story I didn't enjoy was the second part of the Labyrinthos and the last zone. For me the scions could have just remained dead. I do also agree that it felt rushed at certain areas. Shadowbringers still remain my favorite expansion so far.
I get quite a bit of grief because I'm not afraid to say the Endwalker story wasn't very good in my opinion. I'm still enjoying the expansion, the gameplay is top-notch as usual, the dungeons/trials/raids are a lot of fun. But I was worried they would try too hard to top Shadowbringers story and it appears my fears have come to pass. Here are the things I didn't like.
1. It just felt rushed. This is hard to demonstrate or even properly explain. But the overall story felt rushed to me.
2. Time travel. In my opinion time travel is a cheap cop-out for a story. It was the biggest reason I didn't like Avengers: Endgame. And it's no different here. It always feels like the writer ran out of ideas and had to resort to time travel to fill in the holes.
3. No meaningful deaths. Scions have died fighting Ascians, primals, and the Garlean army. Yet here we are fighting the two most powerful primals, and a creature able to basically destroy the entire universe, and everyone comes out fine. Plot armor is a real good way to make a story boring.
4. Making Emet Selch our ally kind of cheapens our experience with him in Shadowbringers. Yes, I'm aware that he ends up helping us in the fight against Elidibus, but that felt more like he did it out of respect for our ability to defeat him than anything else. Endwalker has us hanging out with him and even running a dungeon with him as a member of the trust system. For me, it kills the image I had of him as the very cunning and relentless villain we fought in Shadowbringers.
5. No Hien or Yugiri. Yugiri is my favorite NPC in the game. Hien is pretty close to the top. I found it very strange that they were not involved at all in this story. I guess they were mentioned when the representatives from the far east showed up. And we get a small shot of them looking up at the sky at the end of the story, but that's it.
6. Speaking of looking up at the sky. The spaceship. Really? Not only do we have a space ship, we have one that can travel to the edge of the universe. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand it's a fantasy game, but a spaceship? The moon has aetherites, so why wouldn't the people who are masters of teleportation use them as the means to get people on the moon? Hell, they go out of their way to introduce teleporting to an aetherite that you're not attuned to. Instead, they put all of their effort into building a spaceship with barely enough time to get it done. In my opinion it just doesn't fit.
This was my favorite Expansion to date. I loved every moment of it. It felt the most like a classic Final Fantasy than any other expansion so far. Never before have I felt compelled not only to talk to every single NPC during the story, but I also did all the side quests as they popped up. I have never been so immersed in an expansion, and I am looking forward to what this expansion has to offer in future patches.
That said, I can see why people might be disappointed. People build up expectations after such a lengthy investment, and if things don't happen as expected, it can be a let-down. It's natural. That's why so many popular TV shows struggle so much with their final seasons. However, I think that over time these people will come to accept Endwalker for the masterpiece that it is.
While I did end up enjoying the whole package when all is said and done, it felt like pretty much every major story arc was crammed into about half the time it needed almost as if we had two expansions worth of arcs in one with a major sacrifice in depth.
I'm happy for anyone who enjoyed the story. I really am. I will say the one thing you're wrong about is expectations. I expected a good game, which we got, but as far as the story goes I knew all of the trailers and such were meant to misdirect us so I set no expectations for it. In Shadowbringers they kept me totally surprised and I wanted the same from Endwalker. If someone had told me that they were going to make Endwalker as safe and predictable as possible, then this is exactly what I would have expected.
The bottom line, for me anyway, is that they don't always hit it out of the park. But I'll be the first to commend their effort and continue enjoying the game, even if the story didn't blow me away.
I'm disappointed none of the Scions died. Especially Tataru :/