The ending to Stormblood...

[Ayer2015]

When 4.46 ended I was like meh... they're saving the stuff for 5.0.

Zeno's should of been a 8 man trial. Like the ARR one.

Pretty sure Zenos will end up being the long term 'big bad' in this game.

[Latarma]

I don't if people like this but me, i would kept the zenos fight as is save when we are about to "die" you switch control to a certen DRG, who then has to fight get us away from zenos. all in all the 4.56 MSQ was pretty underwhelming as many have said.i honestly don't know how to make it better.

[Melikka]

I don't if people like this but me, i would kept the zenos fight as is save when we are about to "die" you switch control to a certen DRG, who then has to fight get us away from zenos. all in all the 4.56 MSQ was pretty underwhelming as many have said.i honestly don't know how to make it better.

Indeed! I would have loved that.
I honestly had to giggle a lot, while you got mentions of "the WOL is nowhere near in sight" and you kept then spamming your 1 button with Hien. There was 0 immersion there for me.

I'd much rather had my WOL fight her/his way through to the others and Zenos, then having the fight against him and in the end switching to Grumpy Jumpy.
That would have been an awesome setup.
And explained a bit more, instead of giving this "deus ex machina" feeling.


All in all though.. i loved the ending. I loved how the NPCs came around and looked after you for once.
How they reminded you that you have a home and friends... just remember coming into Heavensward as a refugee with nothing left. Look where you are now.
Felt it was very emotional.

[Tanker4444]

Pretty sure Zenos will end up being the long term 'big bad' in this game.

I hope so. The Ascians as the primary enemy work well for a while until you start figuring how to kill them. Then they just become names on a list you check off as you get to them. Zenos on the other hand, is an equal.

[Reynhart]

Zenos on the other hand, is an equal.

...that we already killed, even when super-powered by Shinryu. He's alive only by body surfing, which makes him similar to Ascians in a way, and thus, he'll become another name on our list.

[RicaRuin]

No, we didn't kill him. The fight in the Throne room was simply exited by a bored Zenos, and Shinryu we could only beat because of the Echo as advantage against Primals. Zenos decided to take his own life, then. Basically, we never won against/defeated Zenos so far.

[Reynhart]

No, we didn't kill him. The fight in the Throne room was simply exited by a bored Zenos, and Shinryu we could only beat because of the Echo as advantage against Primals.

Lorewise, the only advantage we gain from the Echo is not being tempered when close to primals, it does nothing for the strength required to beat them.

Zenos decided to take his own life, then.

Yeah, because he finally find someone that's able to beat him.

Personally, I find him to be a pretty weak villain, doing what he does for the evil and for the game, and putting a last minute Foe Yay on us, like we've bonded a lot.

And the voice should frkn go away while im in a battle. Like wth. Idc if its for the story build up. He can frln call AFTER i killed fake zenos.

Well, that was the point of him stopping us. Killing Fake Zenos would apparently trigger something reeeaaaally bad.

[Gemina]

Personally, I find him to be a pretty weak villain, doing what he does for the evil and for the game, and putting a last minute Foe Yay on us, like we've bonded a lot.

In fiction, there are bonds that take place amongst adversaries. Sometimes it is even mentioned that enemies know each other more than their loved ones. They also become stronger the more times they face each other, eventually becoming a rivalry. This happens in real life as well in all forms of competition. I wouldn't call it a Foe Yay, but it is a relationship between the WoL and Zenos, and far from last minute. The relationship has taken place over the entirety of SB, and is competitive in nature. Zenos has not expressed any romantic feelings towards the WoL, but does consider him/her an enemy as well as a friend.

He's an antagonist, but is so far from being the main villain in this story which really falls on the Acians and the Empire. And now that the actual Zenos is basically a wanderer, he serves no one but himself, which seems to be the actual role he was meant for.

[Reynhart]

He's an antagonist, but is so far from being the main villain in this story which really falls on the Acians and the Empire.

For 4.0, Zenos was our grand imperial villain, like Gaius was in 2.0. But we had too little interactions with him to create a true relation. Most of 4.0 plot revoles around Yotsuyu, and I think it's saying something that she was our trial in 4.3, the point where the story generally "wraps up", and the next patches are used as a setup for ShB.

And now that the actual Zenos is basically a wanderer, he serves no one but himself, which seems to be the actual role he was meant for.

Now, you can build up Zenos to be a rival/friend, with a common enemy, I just feel they tried to put that relation too early. Basically, it's as if he's trying to be our Vegeta but skipped the whole Frieza arc
And Shadowhunters is our Piccolo...

[Gemina]

No, we didn't kill him. The fight in the Throne room was simply exited by a bored Zenos, and Shinryu we could only beat because of the Echo as advantage against Primals. Zenos decided to take his own life, then. Basically, we never won against/defeated Zenos so far.

Zenos was bored in the first encounter, easily humbling the WoL. The second fight he was stimulated (perhaps the first time ever) when the WoL damages his helmet during the fight, and commends himself for making the right decision for allowing him/her to live. It's at this point his boredom stops, and his obsession begins. The third confrontation in the throne room he doesn't exit out of boredom; he is thrilled that the WoL's strength now rivals his own, and he retreats. When you retreat during a fight, you lose.

The battle against Shinryu is a serious head scratcher. Zenos merging with the primal was one of my disappointments with him and with SB. When he humbled us in the first fight and said, "Pathetic"; I found myself saying the exact same thing back at him. Ultimately he did decide to take his own life, but iirc he was dying anyway from his injuries. He lost here as well. The way I see it, we're a dead even 2/2 from our confrontations against Zenos.