Endwalker Feedback (definately Spoilers) I still want some real gameplay!
Title...
Story
The story is fine so far, but it seems completely rushed and Zenos is out of place. We keep running from one new place to another without much background or care about the whole apocalypse. Let´s take some examples:
- At the beginning we´re going to try to find some clues about the real intentions from the Sharlayan coucil. A bit later we jump on the Moon everything is getting explained, just to watch a cutszene with Forchenault who starts to explain everything we already know. No depth, no wtf-moments, nothing.
- Zodiark, Fandaniel and Zenos are "useless". Zodiark have been a part since the game released. The ultimate Primal (God) the Ascians wanted to bring back etc... In the end, it´s just a short fight against a half dead Zodiark Fandaniel safrificed himself for. Fandaniel, a guy who came out of nowhere, spawning 100 towers to collect some Aether, just gave a shit about everything even when he was able to kill us more than 1 time, he just goes ham. Ok, it´s all about the clue "Hermes, the old Fandaniel!", but common.
And Zenos... the badass guy which got pushed again and again... especially at the end of Shadowbringers in any Cutszene. "He is there to be there."
Even if the endfight was ok, he doesn´t deserve it. He has been THAT badass just to get thrown away like the whole "Nanamo got poisened" ark.
So far, yes we found an end, but we just jumped from one solved mystery to another without much input and we threw every badass enemy into the bin on the road. To get more background-knowledge about the past and ascians was really good, but even this was just "too fast" compared to a story-bomb like SHB brought us with Emet-Selch.
Role Quests
I really don´t know why they´re a thing anymore. I´m a real fan of classquests, but they don´t even go in this direction anymore.
We unlock them at level 85 after beating half of endwalkers expansion. And guess why? NOT to be a tank, DPS or healer. It´s nothing but an expended MSQ locked behind the different roles. It´s what the whole MSQ lacks about, the "what happens meanwhile in Gridania, Limsa and Co.".
So far it has nothing to do with role-selection or leveling or unlocking some skills. They could easily swap between tank / healer or DPS as needed role and noone would care about it.
SE should really get ride of them if they don´t want to put any efford into them anymore. Shb had atleast some taste of role-dependence, but it´s completely gone now. It´s just wasted time they could use for better content.
(As a side-note, i don´t even think the role-placement is fine. Melee DPS would be put better in Ala Mhigo, Tanks in Limsa, Healer in Gridania, Caster in Uldah and RDPS in Ishgard. Just a personal opinion, but it would fit the environment and lore better somehow.)
The World
It´s way better than it have been in SB or ShB.
Pro:
- The world is filled with more life again on nearly any map. Those without life have atleast some meaning story-wise.
- Quests show up at each aetheryt as before, but mostly only a handful until you continue the mainquest. 2 times like 10 quests show up, but it´s still better than the 20 quests ShB spam and empty maps.
- Overall it looks really beautiful.
Con:
- Thavnair and Labyrinthos shouldn´t have been splitted as Kholusia and Amh Araeng got before. I personally don´t like it. It´s fine to come back to a map story-wise but being "cutted" in the own exploration and streamlined by the MSQ is not a great move.
- Why do we still have to collect windaether? We get the last crystal with the last MSQ on each map anyway. There is no need for some random placed windaether we can easily find via compass anyway. Better give us some more jumppuzzles or something with a real reward in the end?! (Some Stat-increase like datacrons gave in SWTOR?!)
- Way to many reused assets everywhere. Even the adds everywhere or in dungeons are just reskinned.
FATES
Again some pointless Fategrind. I don´t know why it´s even a thing in that amount.
Ok, some DPS want to level up meanwhile sitting in the queue. I´m completely fine with it. But why isn´t it more "optional"?!
Of course it is, but not with all the vendors and their materials / rewards around. It´s not like we had already enough dumb grind before, no we continue with the same bs.
Get ride of it and give us real content with rewards please.
Gameplay
I´m really not a fan of some of the new changes and additions.
- The new "stack more times" marker is really unneccessary.
- Same with the permanent telegraphed tankbuster.
- Some of the bosscasts seem to be endless long too.
So... just why? What´s the point in adding "more rewarding defs" on tank, when you can easily use them into a fat red marker on you? Or why does ppl have to be taken on the hand like "Please stack and stay!".
On our way to 80, we learned all that, or better "We should´ve learned all that!". But with Endwalker a new milestone of dumbdowns is reached in this way.
STOP showing everything so easily. Let the players learn and adapt. Let them react a bit faster, let them check those castbars, let them remember stuff. Seriously what´s next?! That 3 defs are highlighted 10s before a Tankbuster shows up? Or other medigation tools or heals to use when a stackmarker appears? Maybe an automatically "mass-rescue" so everyone stacks with that healer in a star as big as the whole map?
I don´t know... why too much "input" and ppl still rely on Bots. Don´t know what it has to do with gaming or becoming better so far.
Another thing i´m curious about is "No positionals". MNK got busted ok... but why do we have so much bosses with a full-circle? What´s the point of positionals then? Noone knows... Please give us more bosses with the possibility to play positionals.
Dungeons
While they´re completely different in difficulty and thematic, just a list:
Tower of Zot
- Too less adds, which makes wall to wall pulls even more boring.
- The bosses are cool and have some depth. Especially the hard movement-depended mechanics bring a bit fresh air to all the static gameplay we had with ShB.
- The 3 endbosses are great so far but should be advanced. Imo you can focus the mainboss and kill the other too later thx to way less HP. It would be better if we have to focus all of them down at once. Maybe the last 2 should even change their mechanics based on "who died first".
Tower of Babil
- Easier than Zot which is definately bad since it comes later in the story.
- Even less or "you´ve to wait for adds" - pulls, which makes the dungeon the most boring one of all in Endwalker imo.
- Bosses have only 2 pretty simple mechanics and don´t need that many movement you needed in Zot before. Just why do you take a step back SE?!
Vanaspati
- Great in its visuals and again some more movement depended, but the first 2 bosses lack hard mechanicely wise. There should be a bit more to take care for.
- Bug even again some dumb waiting times and only 1 real big pull, which is just more wasted time with the so far boring wall to wall bangs.
Ktisis Hyperboreia
- Again great visuals, but again some lack of mechanics. The first dungeons started so well. Of course the bosses had only like 2 mechanics too, but more depth and more stuff to remember. Here again the first to bosses have nothing real to care about, even if the footstep mechanic is cool.
- Some bigpulls again and no time-waste, hurray!
The Aitiascope
- Probably the best dungeons since ARR when we talk about the stuff between the walls. The use of the souls to give us buffs or to damage the enemies is a great idea. Stuff like that should get expanded.
- Away from the standard dungeon issues, it´s one of my favorites so far.
The last Three
- All of them are visually great and they´ve more mechanics and big pulls than the most leveling dungeons. But they´re pretty standard too. Nothing where i can say "Woar cool!".
- The mechanic difficulty got slightly increased, but this is something i expect from endgame-dungeons. So far it´s still too easy for my own preference. "Once seen, always seen!".
So far all dungeons look great, but all the potential feels wasted again with nothing but big pulls and even no XP from adds. Some bosses go into the right direction, just to dumb this experience down in the following dungeon. The loot is pretty much irrelevant too thx to the broken level 80 raidgear you already have or buy with tombstomes.
I really don´t get in which direction SE wants to, but they should choose one. More challenging dungeons on level 90 with some real rewards and useful gear are highly needed.
Raids
Zodiark
A movement depended fight, but that´s it. And here lies a real issue... even in it´s EX version you can give a good player a mark and just follow him. There is nothing else to do or to take care for. Just don´t stay close to a tank with a tankbuster mark.
You do even have enough time to move from A to B, so "just following" is no issue and very common in EX. More than half of the playerbase probably just get carried there by following the group.
I really do love movement intensiv fights, but to have nothing else to do meanwhile is not a challenge, it´s boring to have such a static and scripted "A to B to C fight with an RNG factor which is nothing but "Left / Right, In / Out".
Hydaelyn
Ok, we can play positionals here again, but sadly the whole mechanics are the same as always which less movement.
"In, Out, Cross + Stack, Spread, Healerstack"... stuff we´ve seen dozens of times. In EX we get the same Tsukoyomi, WoL,... feature with the "Role-attack".
There is nothing special about the fight. While Zodiark is highly about movement from A to B, Hydaelyn has some more mechanicaly depth but way less movement you need from A to B. Why no combine both to something challenging?!
Endsinger
Mechanicely it´s definately the best fight. A bit more movement and less "waiting times" within the mechanics would be great. And why does the final phase mechanic just repeats dozens of times?
Atleast i´ve some high hopes for its savage version. Having a 2nd Hades with more movement and a huge DPS check would be great.
Classes
Not much to say about it. Something got adjusted for the needed movement, which seems fine. But that SMN got pretty boring, that MNK is in the worst state it has ever been without positionals and even more dumbdowns on tank is beyond me.
All the "healer changes" like having a star, which is as big as the whole map, is just dumb in my eyes too. What´s even the point of placing? Why isn´t it an instacast?
Checked out Reaper and Sage too and both of them seems fine, but way too easy to play. Imo i´ve even much fun with Sage, just because it´s a healer with high mobility. But you´ve nothing to care about and in the end it just lasts in the same with any other healer: 1 button spam, DoT refresh, some heal every 30s.
SE really picks out the last efford you´ve to put in any class which each patch and makes them no-brainers for everyone.
You know what SE?
a) Deep mechanics + deep and variable class-designs = Great gameplay
b) Poor mechanics + deep and variable class-designs = Ok gameplay, still some fun
c) Poor mechanics + poor homogenized classes = Brainless and boring button spam
Sadly you cater us with c). Stop the homogenization and all the dumbdowns to cater the last baby on earth or to be sure that the last idiot stands into star. It´s so unneccessary to dumbdown everything into nowhere instead of creating a decent learning curve and to trust into us players. We´re not all old 48y. old without any reactions.
Loot
Don´t know why dungeons actually drop loot anymore. It´s pointless.
The current level 80 tombstone gear overshines everything until late 80´s. You don´t want to use the dungeon or MSQ gear so far. That 1 point more strength or whatever is nothing. And in the end you´ll get jobgear for free to jump immediately into the trials.
The worst aspect so far is, that everything but the jobgear seem to be reskins from older gear. The 545 gear you get from the MSQ is the old Neo-Ishgardian gear from ShB. Just why?! Have you become really so lazy SE, that pretty much everything which is called enemies or gear are just reskins?!
NPC´s and Quests
- That NPC´s follow you in dungeons, when you go in with a full group, is just dumb. It was dumb in hero´s gauntlet and will be always dumb. Stop it pls. We don´t need help.
- All those "follow me", "stalk me" quests got used way too much. I can´t even port or use the daily-queue meanwhile, because i´m going to lose that NPC somehow. Every 2nd quest the same "move with Alisae to... hide behind a stone and stalk the guy until...."
Good we get something new, but you shouldn´t use it at any given time. This is no solo-RPG with nothing to do meanwhile.
- Playing as NPC is the hate of my life in this game. Why do i have a char called "Warrior of Light"? I don´t want to play a Alisae, Thancred, Alphinaud or whoever. It´s pointless and doesn´t bring anything to the story. Better let me watch a cutszene there. Some ppl might enjoy it, but i´ve my chars i want to play with all the buttons. Not some NPC´s with 3 skills in a fully scripted fight, no matter how easy it is.
Summary
So far, in kind of worldbuilding Endwalker is doing a way better job than ShB. But in kind of story it´s probably the worst expansion. It´s ok yes, but everything which got build up over the last years got thrown into the bin or just rushed.
With all the dumbdowns the road of FF14 continues strictly. It´s not a hard step like they´ve done with ShB, but it still goes the "easier" route. The 2 reworks and the 2 new classes shows that. All 4 got really easy to play.
I had hopes to see a bit more challenging content with all the movement we got, but in the end it lasts like Zodiark or the first dungeon Endboss. A lot of movement, but less mechanics OR deeper mechanics and like 0 movement. I don´t get it....
Some QoL changes haven´t been neccessary too and all the grapical reskins makes me feel sad since everything what has been top over the years have been "music and graphics".
EDIT: The new scalings seem to work wrong in older content. A lot of dungeons are done way faster than before and i highly doubt everyone has become a super pro player right now. Meanwhile the raids seem to take more time and input. Play unsynched gives a huge buff, but for what reason?!
Don´t know what´s going wrong there.
