What if they split the Endwalker story into two expansions

Lv80, Lv88-89 zone: Sharlayan, Upper Labyrinthos

Lv80-82 zone: Thavnair, Tower of Zot

Lv83-84 zone: The Eblan Rime (or sub for a zone like Corvos)

Lv85-86 zone: Outer Garlemald, Garlemald Subway

Lv87-88 zone: Inner Garlemald, Tower of Babil, Anima as trial

Lv89-90 Zone: Mare Lamentorum, Zodiark (or make the moon two zones)

Patch 6.1: Loporrits story

Patch 6.3: Vanaspati, a Blasphemy as a trial boss

Patch 6.5: start to see the final days spreading even more

Lv90-100 expansion should introduce a unique feature where overworld mobs start slowly getting replaced by Final Days variants imo. They have the tech.

Lv90, 98-99 zone: Lower Labyrinthos, The Aitiascope, Hydaelyn trial

Lv90-91 zone: some region of the world infested with the Final Days, new city there too. Maybe Corvos if it wasn't in lv80-90

Lv92-93 zone: Elpis, Hermes as trial

Lv94-95 zone: not sure. maybe another region of the world like Inner Hingashi now that even they are affected and can no longer be closed to outsiders, and new city there.

Lv96-97 zone: not sure. Maybe Inner Moon as people start evacuating.

Lv99-100 zone: Ultima Thule, Dead Ends, Final Days. Or split Ultima Thule into two zones.

Sharlayan may be weird being split into half like this, so maybe only open it at Lv90 and make something like Corvos the substitute at Lv80. 5.5 story also needs to be adjusted.

I think doing it like will make the story feel far less rushed.

It was originally planned to be 2 expansions, with the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story concluding in 7.0. That's the main reason why the 6.0 MSQ is so long compared to previous expansions. There was a lot that needed to be included to wrap up the story even with all the planned story that ended up cut.

The decision was made to merge it into a single expansion because they were having trouble attracting and retaining new players due to the length of the MSQ. They felt they couldn't wait until 8.0 to have a new starting point for new characters. I'm expecting more information about that new starting point and how it's going to work to be released at the NA or EU FanFest.

Did Endwalker suffer a loss of potential quality because of this? I think so.

Is Endwalker a bad expansion as a result? No. It's still a good expansion. It's just not as good as it might have been if the story had been spread over 2 expansions. I understand why many players have been disappointed but personally I'd still rather be playing this game over other MMORPGs.

Troll but i take the bait, EW should've been two maybe even three expansions instead of the rushed mess we got.

The 80-83 arc was perfectly paced, it would not be improved with extra filler.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

Troll but i take the bait, EW should've been two maybe even three expansions instead of the rushed mess we got.

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The troll has been posting good topics lately though. Can't be bait or at least I don't see what they're trying to bait.

It should have been 2 expansions, yes.

and IMO Elpis should not have been a zone, but rather Elidibus should not have had the treatment he did in ShB. I will say Elidibus being offed this early in combination with Fandaniel and the ShB > EW setup is largely what ruined some parts of EW, notably pacing. It's difficult to replicate the sense of urgency and danger that was found in ShB since it was present from the start... Not this quasi-nonsense with the towers, especially when it didn't really start to rear its head realistically until 87/88. Sure, we had Vanaspati at 85, but we were taken to Elpis shortly thereafter away from the danger.

I don't think EW was bad, or not as bad as people would like to suggest, but I don't think it had the right setup in ShB to be contained within a single expansion

Honestly I feel like all expansions stories needed to be split: Heavensward, definitely Stormblood, especially definitely Shadowbringers and absolutely with Endwalker

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Originally Posted by Ayche

The 80-83 arc was perfectly paced, it would not be improved with extra filler.

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I disagree with the idea that it's filler, but I also disagree with how the OP changed it. I feel like the Garlemald section of the story is fine for the most part, but some of the events leading up to Garlemald aren't. Or maybe I should say the lack of.

We only really dealt with two of the towers that were enthralling people. The first was on Thavnair, which was the tower of zot. That was one of the regular limb towers, and there should likely be more.

We could have easily dealt with 1-2 more towers. This wouldn't even have to be dungeons either, you could have one of them in a solo instance. It's just rather strange that we deal with one tower before finding an opening to move into Garlemald and take the main tower(tower of babil).

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

It should have been 2 expansions, yes.

and IMO Elpis should not have been a zone, but rather Elidibus should not have had the treatment he did in ShB. I will say Elidibus being offed this early in combination with Fandaniel and the ShB > EW setup is largely what ruined some parts of EW, notably pacing. It's difficult to replicate the sense of urgency and danger that was found in ShB, especially when it didn't really start to rear its head realistically until 87/88. Sure, we had Vanaspati at 85, but we were taken to Elpis shortly thereafter away from the danger.

I don't think EW was bad, or not as bad as people would like to suggest, but I don't think it had the right setup in ShB to be contained within a single expansion

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I think Elpis would have been great as patch content. The MSQ during patches is all about building up for the next expansion, providing us with whatever information is needed.

Losing Elidibus the way we did was wrong though. I really felt like the character could have done so much more for the story.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

The troll has been posting good topics lately though. Can't be bait or at least I don't see what they're trying to bait.

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The arguments that would come from it, probably. Either way, I agree with the original plan of splitting EW into two (or more) expansions.

EW's pacing felt awkward. I started noticing it between the Gateway of the Gods and The Martyr quests. But, now that you mentioned it happening sooner...I'll need to revisit the story when I get a chance.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

I disagree with the idea that it's filler, but I also disagree with how the OP changed it. I feel like the Garlemald section of the story is fine for the most part, but some of the events leading up to Garlemald aren't. Or maybe I should say the lack of.

We only really dealt with two of the towers that were enthralling people. The first was on Thavnair, which was the tower of zot. That was one of the regular limb towers, and there should likely be more.

We could have easily dealt with 1-2 more towers. This wouldn't even have to be dungeons either, you could have one of them in a solo instance. It's just rather strange that we deal with one tower before finding an opening to move into Garlemald and take the main tower(tower of babil).


I think Elpis would have been great as patch content. The MSQ during patches is all about building up for the next expansion, providing us with whatever information is needed.

Losing Elidibus the way we did was wrong though. I really felt like the character could have done so much more for the story.

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Elpis would be OK as a post-expansion (patch zone), if they could do that, or as a first zone of an expansion, or would have been better tied to side-story-esque stuff, e.g., exploratory.

The reason I don't like it and didn't like it in this instance is that when it is placed midpart story it disrupts the flow of it IMO. That is how I felt when returning from Elpis this expansion, as good as parts of the story may have been for Elpis. I just felt like nigh on every revelation in said zone could have been taught better through echo flashbacks, or through another character e.g., Elidibus, without necessarily coming at the expense of disrupting the flow of the story, or without pulling more space/time travel shenanigans.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

The troll has been posting good topics lately though. Can't be bait or at least I don't see what they're trying to bait.

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That's the problem when all you've done in the past is troll, every discussion you make becomes tainted with that same brush until you've proven that you're actually trying to have a discussion and not just cause drama.

On topic, trying to assume the OP is acting in good faith,

Splitting up one main story arc into two expansions would kill all momentum the story has. When you have years between expansions, expecting people to pay for TWO expansions for a single story arc would frustrate a lot of people. Sure, it might make sense narratively to some, but for most people (yes, MOST people), Endwalker was a success despite some issues.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

I disagree with the idea that it's filler, but I also disagree with how the OP changed it. I feel like the Garlemald section of the story is fine for the most part, but some of the events leading up to Garlemald aren't. Or maybe I should say the lack of.

We only really dealt with two of the towers that were enthralling people. The first was on Thavnair, which was the tower of zot. That was one of the regular limb towers, and there should likely be more.

We could have easily dealt with 1-2 more towers. This wouldn't even have to be dungeons either, you could have one of them in a solo instance. It's just rather strange that we deal with one tower before finding an opening to move into Garlemald and take the main tower(tower of babil).

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Nah, keeping the general script the same, going into more copypasted towers would had only made a lull into the story pacing at that juncture. Tower of Zot is a mystery, bam it is solved, it opens up a bigger picture of the threat, boom you follow up on it.
Like in an action movie, you want your protagonist to storm up a place and fight his way to the antagonist straight away instead of spending screentime watching him mop up all the mooks in the building.

I don't think it could have worked better split into two expansions. Honestly at this point I'm just glad we're done with that embarrassing joke of a story, now we at least have a theoretical chance of getting something good in the future, as long as the scions are kept as far away from the MSQ as possible, which isn't looking too great right now to be fair.