I'm usually a pretty cynical person, but the Endwalker story was probably one of the best stories I've ever played in a video game. Particularly the last zone and dungeon. A good story makes you reflect on life after you've finished it and this was no different. I did not have the same experience with any of the story before Endwalker.
And that's partially because the themes of Endwalker are so relevant to us, in the real world. I've always believed that a video game should not be escapism. It should be something that helps you understand and introspect about real life.
https://i.ibb.co/7R96Q14/ffxiv-12072021-052233-213.png
War, disease, knowledge, loss. All of these are portrayed in a way that was never so relevant to us in previous expansions. Existential dread - with the heat death of the universe or the lack of purpose in life in a paradise - echo the philosophical and theological musings that millennia of thinkers have. In Ultima Thule and The Dead Ends, you're encouraged to engage with the story at a deeply intimate level and reflect on your real life, because the civilizations and concepts contained are so alien to the Etheirians yet so tangible and close to us. We've seen these tropes and alien civilizations play out many many times in other forms of media and in the real world - for example, the first zone of The Dead Ends brings to mind our own struggles with a current plague - the coronavirus, and the dystopian future we might have with rampant environmental pollution and climate change.
https://i.ibb.co/bP0qB4B/ffxiv-12072021-150707-105.png
But more than that, the zone and the dungeon are designed in a way that fills your heart with sorrow and anguish. You truly feel pain and suffering in all different forms through Ultima Thule and The Dead Ends. There is the pain and suffering from decay and defeat (with the dragons and the marine people). There is the emptiness from achieving perfection and paradise (with the Ea and the last zone in the dungeon). And of course, at some level you as a player should feel what Meteion has felt. Watching the global citizen eradicate countless lives and hail it as a bittersweet victory, you would feel as she felt - the despair and anguish.
https://i.ibb.co/khpSr85/ffxiv-12072021-145321-952.png
Yet, rising above the despair and anguish is the four-part act of music. As we enter the zone, the Ultima Thule theme is first distorted, and evokes a sense of loss, miasma, and emptiness. But as you slowly go through the zone, it ends in an uplifting song that is at once bittersweet and hopeful. When you gaze at the dark, empty abyss of dead civilizations and the sea of stars, visually you are made to feel alone in a vast expanse, but the music fills you with joy and hope.
https://i.ibb.co/g3wqKWk/ffxiv-12072021-152651-969.png
https://i.ibb.co/X4dqB7c/ffxiv-12072021-152655-299.png
The contrast reaches its peak in The Dead Ends dungeon, where the despair and anguish of the disparate peoples of the universe fills you with dread, and the music almost seems detached from the circumstances of the dungeon. Imagine how much different it would be if you were not playing the music during this dungeon, and only listening to the war and strife tearing these people apart. Yet, with the music, you feel keenly the resilience, determination, and really, hope of the Warrior of Light as they go through the weight of a thousand dead civilizations.
Because of this contrast, Endwalker captures a complex, multifaceted emotional landscape far surpassing that of Shadowbringers'. It is easy for a video game to evoke a joyous mood. It is easy for a video game to evoke a sense of grief. It is even easy for a video game to evoke nostalgia, as in Amaurot. And hence for those reasons while I enjoyed Shadowbringers when it came out, I did not retrospectively think of it highly. But it is not easy for a video game to portray hope amidst despair, purpose amidst emptiness, or determination when all comes crumbling down. I think for the first time in FF14 you are made to really feel like the Warrior of Light, and to intimately feel the resilience that has hitherto only been described in previous expansions. These emotions are paradoxical but just like real life, our emotions are complex and never one-dimensional. I think the final act in Endwalker landed these themes that are so often difficult to portray very well and I am very impressed by what they have pulled off.
Of course, there are issues with other parts of Endwalker's story but for this stretch of the story I felt that it was amazing.
The last zone and dungeon are amazing [Spoilers]
Printable View
-
12-08-2021, 05:39 PMSkirosThe last zone and dungeon are amazing [Spoilers]
-
12-08-2021, 06:35 PMSchwarzwind
I have to agree the last zone and the dungeon were amazing and really touched me! I never cried so much while playing a videogame... All those parallels to reallife hit really hard.
Very well done, SE! Keep walking forward! I hope the remaining patches for Endwalker will be just as great. -
12-09-2021, 12:03 AMSorimachi87
Very very well said. Hard agree to that. The emotions i experienced during this zone in particular.... no other game can do that for me.
When the last scions seemingly sacrificed themselves, we had multiple choice answers before that. I choose the translated "Please, not you two as well!" from german. Thats how much it touched me. And the end of the way where you are forced to walk with the voices drifting by. Goosebumps. My heart was racing. -
12-09-2021, 03:28 AMSkirosFor sure, that last zone hit deeply.Quote:
Originally Posted by Schwarzwind
-
12-09-2021, 03:29 AMSkirosYeah, that last zone with the music in the background is just sublime. Unforgettable moment there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sorimachi87
-
12-09-2021, 03:32 AMPuremallace
I personally have a theory it is not an accident a raven(guide) is taking you through the different layers of what is basically hell. Purgatory, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Bliss, Worshipping false gods. I am getting major Dantes Inferno vibes in that place.
-
12-09-2021, 03:50 AMNekaru_InfitimaInteresting. I didn't note that but I did note the 5 Stages of Grief (though not in order.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Puremallace
The Dragons: Depression. They sought reason to no longer go on, give up, and die as there was no star that would have them and they couldn't continue on in that place.
The Ea: Acceptance (Futility?) Full out wanted to die because they saw what the future would bring for the universe itself, accepted there was nothing that could be done and wanted you to accept it to.
Omicrons: I want to say Denial, as they were in denial that they could ever find purpose again, or a reason to live, and thus would stagnate until death.
The last two I'm unsure. I think with the gone civilization it was Bargaining, since you're meant to argue with Meteion.
For Anger though, I'm lost unless it was Emet and Hyth's anger in the last area. But that's a stretch. I may have them mixed, but there was definitely the 5 stages there in places.