Anyone else feeling disappointed by Endwalker MSQ? MAJOR MSQ SPOILERS!

[Darkpaw]

Personally I loved Endwalker, and I feel its msq is done wonderfully (some pacing issues but thats my preference)

Zodiark was used as a very specific and very traditional Final Fantasy plot device, aka “Here pay all your attention here” only to have the rug pulled out at the last minute and reveal a bigger threat, and that the threat you thought you knew was an asset the entire time.

FFX did this with Sin and Yu Yevon, IX did it with Kuja and Garlond and then Kuja and Necron.

XV did it with the Empire and Ardyn, 8 did it with Edea and Ultimecia, Golbez and Exdeath, on and on and on.

So wasn’t too surprising as a long time FF fan.

Anima was never said to be a trial and truthfully some random primal is not a threat anymore and hasnt been for some time. So i was fine with Anima being a dungeon boss and there’s still some tragedy there in Varis becoming Anima and being used as the very thing he hated so much.

Zenos’ family life was never important. It wasn’t important to him and didn’t matter to us. He fulfilled his role in the story as a nuisance and to once again put him in classic ff scenario. He’s the Seifer to our Squall, the Kuja to our Zidane.

This expansion ended not as a fanfare to the franchise but a fanfare to itself and it’s long journey.

[Dewslam]

Yeah I'm shocked they didn't consult you to make the expansion exactly what you, personally, expected either.

[Theodric]

It all felt rather convoluted to me.

Personally I got into FFXIV back in ARR and HW because it avoided most of the typical JRPG tropes in favour of a more measured and realistic approach. Over time, it has grown more and more distant from that model.

Furthermore, an overreliance on time travel and alternate universes is exactly what turned me off of WoW's story elements.

You have my gratitude, though - it's genuinely good to see it isn't just a 'me' thing and that others feel similarly!

[Miracle_Diva]

17. Fordola didn't even appear at all

She did. In healers' job quests.

[MikkoAkure]

16. Venat as Hydaelyn: in Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch tells us that Hydaelyn was summoned specifically to keep Zodiark in check, out of fear, out of a desire to control Zodiark. He does not say that Hydaelyn was summoned out of pure love for the star. However, in Endwalker, Venat as Venat and Venat as Hydaelyn both go on and on about her love for the star, even the Loporitts go on and on about it. It feels...off. It feels like a last attempt at making Venat/Hydaelyn seem kinder than she really is.

Emet-Selch at that point was tempered by Zodiark so his thoughts are a little warped in regards to his god’s jailor. The writers did say ahead of Endwalker that Shadowbringers only gave us one point of view of the past and we only had his side of the story. Now we have both sides of the story and it isn’t anything different than what I thought it would be and I don’t understand why some others didn’t expect this outcome either.

[Elysidelphi]

Yeah I'm shocked they didn't consult you to make the expansion exactly what you, personally, expected either.

I don't need any expansion to be tailored to my exact expectations. But I don't like being left with so many questions either, especially in an expansion that's supposed to come full circle and close certain chapters. I genuinely didn't expect the story to leave me with so many questions, and with this lingering feeling of disappointment. I guess it's been made worse knowing that going forward the story will focus on new stories, so it's not like I can just wait a few months for a new patch to get more answers.

[untilitdies]

I don't need any expansion to be tailored to my exact expectations. But I don't like being left with so many questions either, especially in an expansion that's supposed to come full circle and close certain chapters. I genuinely didn't expect the story to leave me with so many questions, and with this lingering feeling of disappointment. I guess it's been made worse knowing that going forward the story will focus on new stories, so it's not like I can just wait a few months for a new patch to get more answers.

I feel that going into it with specific expectations will inevitably cause disappointment; I did this to myself as well. I was highly expecting more Cid/Nero banter and relevance to the plot, and I had been expecting a Zeromus appearance on the Moon ever since I started playing in ARR. I didn't get everything I wanted, but the story we received was more wonderful, more prescient, more beautiful than I could have imagined.

I agree that a lot remains unanswered, but I think that is where the beauty of Etheirys lies. It's like Emet-Selch said, we have so much more to explore, so much more that we don't even know we don't know. If we had all the answers, the mystery would be gone. Fan-theories on the lore of FFXIV have always been a great source of inspiration and entertainment, and while I'm very sorry to hear that you're disappointed, I hope that your excitement for the future may outweigh that eventually.

[Soraki-Muppe]

I was entertained and really loved the story.
But we all have different taste which is a good thing, else we would not get any variation.

[lisaa]

no, I felt it was really really good. far better than shb.

in a way, Zenos, Meteion, Fandaniel, Emet-Selch, Hydaelyn, the Scions, the WoL, none of them were really important. All will die, and their fights and struggles and victories, sorrows and joy, will be history, and history forgotten. In the end it wasn't about beating Fandaniel or Zenos or Meteion, but finding meaning in a world which is cruel and meaningless. And it gives perhaps the only response one can give to such existential dread, that though the world is meaningless and even any fleeting meaning we create will die with our fleeting lives, we can still find joy in the time that we are here, and isn't that enough? And it does so in a way more convincing than any philosophy text or self-help book can do, because in our journey we felt those joys and sorrows, the hopeless and despair, those we could save and those we could not, our victories crushed again and again, yet we walk on

[EverQuest]

What makes endwalker great is how well it makes the other expansions look better especially shadowbringer. I like the stage they set for where it's going. Liking a story 9s subjective I liked it I wouldn't rate it the best while some peole put it behind other expansions, but so far I haven't had anyone come up and say this was like game of thrones season 8 or something so it's not like it's a dumpster fire.