Power Fantasy [[Spoilers]]

We've always been unrealistically powerful. Remember when we defeated Ifrit? Yeah he's like level 20 or whatever but in canon this is a divine being, a god that creatures put their faith into. Ifrit is nothing to sneeze at so I'm not sure why you think this was suddenly a thing in endwalker tbh :P

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Originally Posted by GrizzlyTank

Because something doesn't appear again, yet doesn't make it a retcon. What we can assume is that her Ascian powers were going out of hand until we knocked her out. One thing is certain though and that is that the thirteen is still a credible threat to the others shards.

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If it was her ascian powers going out of hand, then it shouldve been shown in e12 or e12s. We literally see 0 voidsent connection with her after that fight, even in her savage fight where she draws upon her true power. Tying that together with how both the things she summoned were supposed to be connected to the greek mythos gaia, its either a retcon, or its just there to be there for that fight. Thats like saying the yshtola life drain isnt a retcon when it very clearly is. It literally hasnt been mentioned after heavensward lol. With this logic retcons wouldnt exist because they could always eventually happen.

Endwalker is like disc 4 of a classic JRPG. The phase were we kill god or something like that.

I'm assuming next expansion will be a soft reset on power levels.

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Originally Posted by Havenchild

People really out here like they A) aren't following the story or B) not experienced with JRPGs.

It's hard to believe people come up with so uninformed opinions so...consistently.



Literally, you don't have the blessing of light anymore now that Hydaelyn is gone. Meaning while you may be at the very least be above average, you aren't necessarily a God.

If you ask me, the creation of those warding amulets is a narrating ploy to potentially cover the fact that the WoL is not auto protected from primal summonings anymore. You can put regular big bads again and narratively, it still makes sense. You can narratively power scale a character back which they have already done. They even reduced you contextually to the "traveler" or "adventurer". You aren't really considered the WoL either.

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Ignoring the part of you sounding like a condescending ****.

No one cares how JRPGs work. If you nerf everyone's character in an MMO, many will quit. No one cares what JRPG fanboys think.

I disagree pretty hard. Since Shadowbringers the game has been toning back the power fantasy, imo, because the NPCs have been getting more and more competent - and not just as random deus-ex-machina style plot devices. But no longer does the Warrior of Light have to do literally everything for literally everyone. You can go off and do what matters while other characters can actually do things. The Warrior of Light is still, clearly, heads and shoulders above anyone else; but even mere expansions ago it was pretty much unthinkable for anyone else to ever venture into places like Dalamud's ruins, but hey look: now squads of NPCs managed to clear some bits of coil like we did years ago to help us. The scions are able to go off and deal with diplomatic tasks while we punch the villains; we don't have to punch the villains and then go talk to every world leader because the scions somehow managed to deadlock the conversation.

Back in ARR and even through to Stormblood it felt like the WoL was straight up the only character in the universe who could do anything, and almost any time other characters set out to something they'd somehow tie their own shoes together and trip up until you, personally, went there to untie those laces and give their ass a gentle pat. I don't think there's any question that the Warrior of Light is basically a god at this point - but the game has taken some efforts to show that we aren't good at everything anymore, we aren't an omniscient god. Just a powerful one.

I kinda-sorta agree, but I also think they wrote in plenty of ways to "scale things back down" without any sort of whiplash. And I completely agree, they SHOULD scale things back down!

I honestly like the "Azem" thing, I thought it was a super interesting twist. Having said that, I remember a theory that the Reaper's "wraith" or whatever it's called, might ACTUALLY be your reflection from the 13th reflection, which was consumed by void. I still think that's a super interesting theory. However, not ALL of Azem's "reflections" necessarily need to be "heroic". We don't really know much about Zenos; what if it turned out, Emet-Selch snatched him from another reflection, that he wasn't REALLY the Emperor's son, and was actually another reflection of Azem? (I'm personally hoping that if Zenos ever returns, he might be able to shift into more of an anti-hero role)

But yeah, I hope moving forward, the story becomes more about the WORLD and NATIONS of FFXIV, exploration and learning about cultures, moreso than "character drama". It's one of the reasons I think Stormblood was actually successful, even if the STORY was less involved than Heavensward's was, because it did a great job of world-building. And that's what I really want now; more world-building. I'm enjoying Endwalker and all, but after going SO far into cosmic territory, I'd love to scale things back for a while.

After the Final Days thingie, I would love to visit new unexplored places like New World, to see if these regions were lucky enough to be spared from the horror before the cosmic threat was put down. Who knows, maybe the New World where comes the Blue Mage tribe is no longer a ceruleum-rich lush land with Native American cultural inspiration, but a hellhole where denizens are struggling with the scar left by the Final Days, and you're there, helping them to restore and rebuild.

I wouldn't say it has jumped the shark.. yet. I do, however, feel it's setting up the ramps and fueling up the boat with the shark on the horizon.

I actually really enjoyed the overall ending of EW and feel it's left us in a pretty much perfect place to take a step back and get back to smaller scale stories and adventures. The setup is actually even there to reduce our relative power level. Of course we'll always be stronger than the mushrooms in the Shroud but narrative wise they could certainly use the removal of Hydaelyn as a convenient narrative way to step us back a little. Will they? I hope so and that does seem to at least be temporarily taking us less large scale adventures, but there's really no guarantee.

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Originally Posted by StriderShinryu

I actually really enjoyed the overall ending of EW and feel it's left us in a pretty much perfect place to take a step back and get back to smaller scale stories and adventures.

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I actually didn't really like the ending considering the whole story felt like it tried to tell a story about letting go and enjoy the time you have only for the final act to go "lol, j/k. It's shonen time! Unpack that power of friendship, it's time to defy fate!... Again!" I have a fun game where I take a drink every time the game pulls an anime trope and I had to rewatch the ending since I was too smashed to remember it. :/

That said, I hope they take a page from FFXI and the next few expansions are just stories told in new areas and self contained. If they can pull a Treasures of Aht Urhgan then I will be be pleasantly suprised.

I like the power fantasy. Just wish they would let me off the leash and use it for my own goals.