What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

New World zones inspired by native territories in North America or the likes of Tenochtitlan or Cusco? A trip to Vietnagxia? Any of the countries annexed by Garlemald? Corvos which sounds like it may be similar to Morocco from what we've been given? Inner Hingashi to see wtf is wrong with their government? Valnain which featured heavily in STQ? Nope, none of that, instead we're getting dragged to the dusky crumbling remains of an entire world inhabited by ugly ass imps. Why? So they can shove even MORE FF4 down our throats! HOW POPULAR COULD FF4 POSSIBLY FOR THEM TO KEEP REFERENCING IT LIKE THIS? WHO GIVES ENOUGH OF A DAMN ABOUT THAT GAME TO BE IN FAVOR OF THIS?

After the events of Endwalker, the song "Answers" seem a lot more dark in nature. It might just be me though.

FFIV remains one of the most well-received and historically significant Final Fantasy games of all time, to the point where playing it is apparently part of the curriculum in video game design degrees in Japan. Crossovers with it are as expected as they are welcome.

That being said, I would have preferred for the tie ins to it to be more grounded in the Source though the Void does have the potential to be fleshed out and interesting later on. Add in ruins of whole cities, or last bastions where humanoid voidsent reside. Add deserts with ashen blue sand where void sand worms live. Add a haunted forest zone enshrouded in mists. Mix together Castlevania with Dark Souls and you have a world people will want to spend time in.

An expansion set in a dark fantasy world of purple skies and black gothic ruins isn’t a bad thing, though the start of season 2 would have been better served by taking place anywhere else on the Source. At least the Void may bring back the sense of danger and suspense that the light-tainted setting of the First had back in Shadowbringers, but even that as a setting may not save the plot from the hands of the current writing direction.

The Heavensward team managed to make an otherwise generic elf kingdom incredibly deep and rich with culture and storytelling - the current team would cheapen the Void and reduce it to a mere joke because they can’t go 2 hours without pausing for a slice of life scene to “lighten the mood” because their intended audience seemingly can’t go too long in a serious direction without getting overwhelmed.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

The Heavensward team managed to make an otherwise generic elf kingdom incredibly deep and rich with culture and storytelling - the current team would cheapen the Void and reduce it to a mere joke because they can’t go 2 hours without pausing for a slice of life scene to “lighten the mood” because their intended audience seemingly can’t go too long in a serious direction without getting overwhelmed.

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They will insert some new cute voidsent character and they will sell cute new merch based on it and twitter will be filled with fanart of it. It will turn out there's a whole colony of these cute little void critters and we will spend an entire zone hanging out with them and dealing with their whimsical problems before continuing the actual plot.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

After the events of Endwalker, the song "Answers" seem a lot more dark in nature. It might just be me though.

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I always thought the messages it put forward were pretty bleak and dark (and funnily enough, dissonant with Dragonsong), but finding out the truth of what happened puts an even more twisted spin on it, IMO.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

The Heavensward team managed to make an otherwise generic elf kingdom incredibly deep and rich with culture and storytelling - the current team would cheapen the Void and reduce it to a mere joke because they can’t go 2 hours without pausing for a slice of life scene to “lighten the mood” because their intended audience seemingly can’t go too long in a serious direction without getting overwhelmed.

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I do hope that now that XVI is approaching completion, we see a return of Maehiro. A dream MMO for me would be one with Matsuno's world-building prowess and Maehiro's writing style... and some of Yoko Taro's boldness when it comes to allowing for storylines/choices where the protagonists don't always get their way.

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Originally Posted by YukikoKurosawa

They will insert some new cute voidsent character and they will sell cute new merch based on it and twitter will be filled with fanart of it. It will turn out there's a whole colony of these cute little void critters and we will spend an entire zone hanging out with them and dealing with their whimsical problems before continuing the actual plot.

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That sounds like future Beast Tribe content.

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Originally Posted by FatalFatalis

That sounds like future Beast Tribe content.

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Mmm... I don't know. Tribe content sounds a bit too tribal. I'm not sure we can call them tribes.
*scratches chin curiously*

I'm not actually convinced that the Void will even get its own expansion. I expect everything surrounding it to be resolved during the MSQ's and side content.

Personally I would have liked the Thirteenth to be left broken if there's no opportunity for further Rejoinings to take place. The Voidsent have been a consistent threat looming in the background that the writers could draw upon as needed so if the Thirteenth ends up being 'saved' then that's one less potential threat and mystery to tap into.

The game has an unfortunate habit of going scorched earth with intriguing plot threads that could be left hanging to add a bit of depth to the overall story. Furthermore, unless a character is lucky enough to trend on Twitter than the writers don't seem to spend much time following up on them anyway.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

After the events of Endwalker, the song "Answers" seem a lot more dark in nature. It might just be me though.

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I would say "live, die, and know" was as morbid as it was nonsensical to me always. Even moreso when you picture this while she 'symbolically' walks past a man slowly being lifted up and devoured by a grotesque terminus beast.

Looks like he knew!

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Originally Posted by Skyborne

I would say "live, die, and know" was as morbid as it was nonsensical to me always. Even moreso when you picture this while she 'symbolically' walks past a man slowly being lifted up and devoured by a grotesque terminus beast.

Looks like he knew!

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I was listening to it in the car yesterday, which is why I posted it. The lyrics "Release your hands, for your will drags us under" hits in a very weird way now if you look at it from the Ancients point of view, lol.