Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

Reflections post-MSQ

Venat's character was the real hidden gem of this expansion.

Emet and Hyth were natural extensions of their Shadowbringers personas. Even a mere passing mention of Emet was always going to be well received. This expansion merely consolidated his S-tier status, especially now that he's been confirmed to be the long-suffering Y'shtola equivalent for your old team. Hyth was excellently fleshed out this expansion, but he was likewise a safe bet from the outset, given how positive of a response his bit part in Shadowbringers garnered. I really wish that there was a side-by-side picture of Yoshi-p/Foxclon with that in-game scene where Emet/Hyth read out the sales pitch on the next few expansions worth of ideas.

There are so many ways that they could have gone wrong with Venat, but they pulled her character off magnificently. While the few side-story snippets that we had of Azem from the time of Shadowbringers were really compelling, the difficulty with writing a character for the PC is that some players aren't going to buy into that persona because it's just not... them. Venat's writing circumvents this problem brilliantly by turning her into the resident trickster goddess and you her protégé. It's fairly easy to dismiss her character until you realize that she single-handedly made Hydaelyn interesting (in fairness, this is partially helped by the fact that Hydaelyn's beast tribe is an army of smol rabbits that are determined to help you whether you want them to or not). There's this brilliant moment where Emet notes in dismay that Azem 1 and Azem 2 are up to it again as you and Venat recklessly ride away on flying dogs, and it just feels... great.

I'm trying to think of a scene that matches up to Shadowbringers' showdown with Emet in terms of impact value. I think that it would have been easy to just try for a bigger and better final showdown, but they didn't need to in this case. For me, the real climax comes down to that showdown in Ktisis Hyperboreia, with Hyth's magnificent bastard gambit, and culminating with Emet's wry smile on the fade to white. Everything after is just denouement. So much rewatch value.

Honorable mentions go out to Hermes for being a compelling character.

It looks like pretty much any story that they write about your past life with the Convocation is pretty much going to be solid gold at this point. That ending screenshot of both your families converging and intersecting was icing on the cake.

I think this might be the first expansion with no lows for me. I finished it all and dont really have much to say other than just well done CBU3.

Okay so I still have one thing I didn't found answer for that I wanted to know..
Azem Spoilers

Why did our Azem defect & why did they refuse to join Venat's group I've been so curious why we did that & unless it's in a side quest I'm bit sad we didn't get an answer.

Zenos/End spoilers

I'm.. disappointed that he was brought back to do nothing & I'm fan of him unlike many haters I didn't mind him being brought back.
Outside of Deus ex saving us then almost killing us after I was let down that it ended no change no grand fight that instance was fun but not what I'd expect.
I was hoping either a Goldbez route of him becomign good or Kefka/Sep/Kuja & go God form for a final boss & at this point I feel like he may be better left dead, every scene was pointless & served little reason for story progression like body snatching he did naught with it at least maim one of our friends.

Zenos resolution was clever.

They salvaged his arc by essentially having him to 4th wall break by recognizing our desire as a player to fight strong foes and win.

And when we defeated him he essentially asked if "we had fun" up until now

Lv90 trial spoilers

So during the phase transition Meteoin confirms that limit breaking is Dynamis

I enjoyed it a lot overall. It's a satisfying conclusion. The pacing is kinda all over the place.

The pacing in the second part of Labyrinthos is awful. Especially since its pointless filler because you end up just using the ark to go fight Meteion instead of its use to escape to the moon.

The Scions sacrificing themselves in the final zone is stupid because at this point we all know they have plot armor and would be coming back.

I think Meteion is going to be divisive. If you've played other Final Fantasy games its a very Final Fantasy boss, its heroes vs. concept

Everything spoilers.

This expansion had a lot of highs and lows for me, it felt like it tried to redo a lot of the parts that made Shadowbringers good but instead of building upon things already established and teased throughout the previous parts of the game like in Shadowbringers, they for some reason felt the need to S U B V E R T E X P E C T A T I O N S and introduce entirely new rules of the universe and a new main villain in the homestretch.

I get that its almost a staple in FF to introduce random cosmic threat in the last 30 minutes, but Meteion felt so out of place in as the main antagonist in a story that was built up to be hydaelyn vs zodiark for the past 8 years. Then they felt the need to make the Power of Friendship a tangible force of nature and make it the driving force for everything in the plot which was just insanely cheesy and I couldn't help but cringe every time someone brought up despair/hope.

Somehow Hydaelyn really was just playing 4D chess along, even though they just spent an entire expansion before it making her out to just be another Primal and that maybe the Light wasn't all that good only to complete sideline and underutilize that plotline from ShB. The dungeon leading up to her was pretty underwhelming the bosses had ugly designs and their mechanics felt unfinished. The fight with Hydaleyn felt like half a fight as well, I kept waiting for phase two or a new mechanic to show up but that was really it (and good god did those waves of light look laughably bad).

The last dungeon felt like they tried to do Amaurot 2.0, only without any of the build up. Just slapping you over the head with T H E M E S and look how sad this world was before they wanted to all die :( . Like after 15 hours of hearing about how all these other worlds lost everything to despair, and spending a whole zone dedicated to more worlds that lost everything to despair, only to have a DUNGEON dedicated to more worlds that lost everything to despair I think It was clear.

I really don't like this trend of when writers don't know how to end a story so they just subvert everyones expectations and introduce so many new elements in the homestretch. The stuff with Dynamis and Meteion could have been good as its own expansion, but using it as the end of the story arc that was built up for 8 years just felt really hamfisted and forced.

The level 60 Bard quest. From Heavensward. Did they plan this out that far?

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Originally Posted by Lord_Umbra

Okay so I still have one thing I didn't found answer for that I wanted to know..
Azem Spoilers

Why did our Azem defect & why did they refuse to join Venat's group I've been so curious why we did that & unless it's in a side quest I'm bit sad we didn't get an answer.

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That was actually my same concern as well

I have a feeling they're going to possibly reveal this with the Twelve storyline for the 24 man raid

Zenos/End spoilers

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I'm.. disappointed that he was brought back to do nothing & I'm fan of him unlike many haters I didn't mind him being brought back.
Outside of Deus ex saving us then almost killing us after I was let down that it ended no change no grand fight that instance was fun but not what I'd expect.
I was hoping either a Goldbez route of him becomign good or Kefka/Sep/Kuja & go God form for a final boss & at this point I feel like he may be better left dead, every scene was pointless & served little reason for story progression like body snatching he did naught with it at least maim one of our friends.

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Regarding that

This is the end of the MSQ but I doubt sadly it's the end of Zenos actually. I think he's the cartoon villain shaking his fist "NEXT TIME, NEXT TIME"

But I think there's probably more in store for him.

There's still questions I have about him as well. Like since he was able to recall the Final Days....what is he since his recollection of those days was BEFORE he was experimented on.
I think that may be addressed in future patches and I'm actually expecting him to somehow return

Other thoughts on MSQ

Level 87 arc

I wanted to mention how utterly heartbreaking it was in the Thavnir storyline when all hell broke loose. The scene where the young child turns into one of the beasts, and it was so small - only to be stomped on by a larger beast was devastating. The mother trying to protect her child was also another gut wrenching scene, even when with our Fisherman trying to escape with the child

About Hydaelyn

As I stated in another post. I did like that she had reasons for sundering since it made us more capable of fighting Dynamis - but I do have some qualms again

I feel like Venat being a "loner" in the MSQ didn't really help the theme of how we work together. It pretty much came off as she thought of everything "Strong independent woman that don't need anyone in her life" but somehow cares about all? I felt that kind of writing was a bit off putting. The thing that made subsequent expansions better was the coming together of our teams or people around us. So while I love Venat something is left to be desired on some fronts of her Hydaelyn independent decision making. I'm hoping the 24 man addresses this with the Twelve.

It also leaves some questions about why some wore white robes and also why the process of returning to the star is basically voluntary retirement. I get a bit why Venat did not...but what are the consequences if the entire population felt that way?

Also, Hydaelyn sundered for a 2 front - to bind Zodiark but to make us capable of fighting Dynamis - an idea she garnered from seeing our past self interact. That said. I am a little confused as to why besides the cool aspect of fighting Hydaelyn was she the test to be able to know if we're capable of fighting Dynamis - when she herself stated she couldn't really control that aspect as an Aetherial being?

I also like that we have a proper name for our planet/star: Etheirys

I didn't think I'd ever feel bad for robot people being battle junkies but...thanks SE here we are

I want to read the notes on the Final MSQ dungeon... will have to go in with trusts.

Speaking of trusts - will also go into the Elpis dungeon with trusts because I hear that's a real treat as well.

I was a little sad that the Final Days weather condition didn't actually show through all the realms. Coming back to my home I just hear and see the same old - kinda making the Final Dreams feel like a bad beer party I left instead of world impending doom.



Dragons - we still have one last brood member to reveal: Azdaja I'm hoping the reason for lack of reveal also has to do with the kind of pact Hydaelyn made with Midgardsormor

sorry for typos and spelling - I don't have my glasses on and will fix it up later

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

I think the only issue I had, unless I missed it somewhere, is that

We never answered Venat's question after the Trial.

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About her question

I think we kind of answered it by defeating her. Showing her true actions that the journey made us strong in body but especially in mind. At least this is how I think it could be seen.

About the rest of the story: I am at the last map and will write more about that later when I have it all done. Sadly seeing the huge queue right now I fear that it might not be today.

Edit:

About Venat and Azem (lvl 57+ on spoilers!)

I do like that she was the Azem before "us" and seeing how that role was to travel and basically solve problems its understandable how she simply does not want to "die" when she gave up her position to "our" Azem.

Still seeing how sad she was about the stuff we had to go through I kinda wonder what they even had to deal at their time since they were so unused to despair that the group of Ancients did not listen to her at all. (Also did she turn Hydaeyln at that moment when she drew her sword? It does not make sense timeline wise since Hydealyn was only greated after Zodiark restored everything to how it was...)

And I wonder how much time had passed after our visit.

I really love what they did with the Acient trio in this game but I am also a bit disappointed that our Azem barely played a role. We heard some things from the other three but we still dont know why Venat seemingly never told them the truth...or did she say something and this is why they were never seen in both situations? To remain free to be reborn into us? First I thought that we were fighting the thing that caused the sound but since Endsinger was resting in space that theory goes out of the window.