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

[Kalocin]

I really enjoyed it, the only few things I didn't like was the overabundance of stealth things in the first half and the hide and go seek sages. Otherwise it felt like an old school FF game. I mean we even unlocked the traditional airship at the end of the game lol. It had a lot of emotional beats in it that I thought were really well done too

[Tsumdere]

I just finished a few minutes ago.

I really liked it, although I do think ShB captured my heart more. I do prefer character driven stories, which is why Elpis was probably my favorite part of the scenario. I only had a few issues, but they did really stick out and make me mega irritated.

1. The second time in Labyrinthos was shameful filler. Far worse than Amh Araeng. I found myself legitimately angry that we were dallying around, even if we had to wait for the adamantite. We could have done The Aitiascope while waiting, and come out to the adamantite arriving and the Urianger scenes.

2. Y'shtola was such a terrible character lmao. I do not think there was a single thing she did to actually help the Scions or the plot along. There was no defining moment for her - more than likely because she is a superfluous character when you have better written characters who do what she does and more (G'raha for the power and Alisaie for the sass). She had no grand speech, she is barely connected to the WoL, and her motivations are weak and unmemorable. I remember being legitimately surprised when she showed up in the Hydaelyn cutscene because I forgot she was even with us.

Even Thancred whose story was all but finished in ShB had better one-liners and emotional beats than she did.

All in all though, it was great and I'm excited to see where the future takes us!

[SturmChurro]

I just finished a few minutes ago.

I really liked it, although I do think ShB captured my heart more. I do prefer character driven stories, which is why Elpis was probably my favorite part of the scenario. I only had a few issues, but they did really stick out and make me mega irritated.

1. The second time in Labyrinthos was shameful filler. Far worse than Amh Araeng. I found myself legitimately angry that we were dallying around, even if we had to wait for the adamantite. We could have done The Aitiascope while waiting, and come out to the adamantite arriving and the Urianger scenes.

2. Y'shtola was such a terrible character lmao. I do not think there was a single thing she did to actually help the Scions or the plot along. There was no defining moment for her - more than likely because she is a superfluous character when you have better written characters who do what she does and more (G'raha for the power and Alisaie for the sass). She had no grand speech, she is barely connected to the WoL, and her motivations are weak and unmemorable. I remember being legitimately surprised when she showed up in the Hydaelyn cutscene because I forgot she was even with us.

Even Thancred whose story was all but finished in ShB had better one-liners and emotional beats than she did.

All in all though, it was great and I'm excited to see where the future takes us!

Mirrors a lot of my thoughts. Having to run around running errands and searching for researchers, was definitely a low point for the second half. Also, I hadn't thought about it too much, but, yeah, Y'shtola didn't really do much did she?

[TheJamJam]

2. Y'shtola was such a terrible character lmao. I do not think there was a single thing she did to actually help the Scions or the plot along. There was no defining moment for her - more than likely because she is a superfluous character when you have better written characters who do what she does and more (G'raha for the power and Alisaie for the sass). She had no grand speech, she is barely connected to the WoL, and her motivations are weak and unmemorable. I remember being legitimately surprised when she showed up in the Hydaelyn cutscene because I forgot she was even with us.

Agreed. Y'shtola didn't exist at all in Endwalker. She didn't stand out in a single part of the story. Most of the wisdom, if any, she shared by getting it directly from Matoya. With the theme of Sharlyan surrounding knowledge, you'd expect her to have a major role in swaying the scholars to the Scions sides but nope. Nothing at all.

Even Krile had some heartfelt moments where she wished Wol happiness whereas Y'shtola, (unless you picked her for the room choice), felt like some distant colleague that only has finding a way to the First in her mind.

[IdowhatIwant]

I have not completed the story so far. I think it is about as good as Shadowbringers.
My biggest complaint would be I feel that every zone over stays it's visit. Even if I have been enjoying the zone I am ready to move on to something else and still have about 2 -3 hours of questing to go.
I also feel like they could have mixed the formula up. The plot is we be chilling with the Scions, then some dark story telling then back to chilling with the scions then more dark story telling.
There is a total of 5 quests you will do in Endwalker as well. Go talk to some one, go to the destination, walk with X to talk to some one, walk with x to the destination, and stealth with most of these being between two hour movies. I actually feel like for most of Endwalker I was leveling from watching a movie more than actually questing. Still enjoyed it.

[Drkdays]

The only thing that really bothers me is how often our character stands stock still, like a deer in the headlights, like a training dummy, like mold on a wall, while bad things happen.

"Oh no, something terrible is happening. The bad guy is doing something just awful! Better stand 10 feet away and watch passively until he's done."

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

I've had conflicting thoughts on the MSQ this time around.

For one, I felt so many characters went underutilized yet at the same time got token screen time. Was it amazing seeing practically *everyone* coming back for some moment or another? Sure. Heck, I squee'ed out loud seeing even little Alka Zolka pop up in the Ala Mhigo throne room before we all set off to Garlemald. Yet on the other hand, so many characters felt like they didn't get their... I don't know, due? As people mentioned, Y'shtola didn't really have any stand out moments. Thancred didn't either. Urianger at least had Bunny-bro moments. To be fair again, they all had tons in Shadowbringers, and it was the twins' turn this time around, but in the big story finale? At least a few minutes for something, other than that one dinner scene.

The pacing at the beginning to me felt very, very off. Very reminiscent of Stormblood with its bouncing back and forth, non-focused narrative. This thankfully picked up once we got to Garlemald and made the push to the Moon, and then post Zodiark with the Final Days triggering.

That though brings me to my biggest sort of... "meh"ness about this expansion. Zodiark was a total bait and switch. Sure, I'm used to this with Final Fantasy. A background evil being brought out in the final moments is par for the course, but it still felt so anti-climactic. This was what we were building up to since ARR? Even a sundered, incomplete Zodiark still should've had some kind of struggle but no, no outside help, we just curb stomp him.

Hydaelyn fight was good, I have no complaints there. The music was great, the theming was great, and generally the whole "vibe" of the fight was perfect.

Meteion was just odd to me as a final villain. I'm alright with the whole Dynamis concept, and as far as a last minute big bad addition they did the character fairly well, but I think part of me was still hoping for that Zodiark v Hydaelyn clash where Zenos and we mantle our respective primal and went at it in a slugfest.

I will say, the slow walk up to that final confrontation, the 'buff' being called Endwalker, the music playing, all the quotes from characters in our past... THAT was perfect. That brought on so many feels. I applaud that one.

I'd grade the story based on my enjoyment a 9/10. To me ShB still holds the 10/10, Heavensward was my 8/10, SB was a 6/10 and ARR the middle road 5/10. I would've preferred some things went different in this expansion but hey, you can't get everything tailored to what exactly you want.

Thought I *really* hope they drop the whole escort and stealth quests going forward. By the Twelve, no more please. No more.

[Gameovers]

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!

HW has one of the biggest JRPG tropes. The pope is evil. I can get what you're saying but this game since ARR is nothing but swiming in JRPG tropes..... I mean.. it is a JRPG so.... >.> It just was swimming in the tropes it made like in most Final Fantasy titles. To now we got more modern tropes like the moon being a spaceship to my personal fav of all time thanks to Chrono Cross.. FIGHTING FATE!!!! LITERALLY LOL.

[Miracle_Diva]

Endwalker was a great pleasure to go through for me. A little sad they didn't do much with Zenos. It felt like they increased the quality of character animations too.
There was only one thing that bothered me when I was doing quests in Garlemald:

Hint, look at my character's legs. It looked very weird in the cutscene so I went to recheck and realized I had "horse" legs D:

[Viirin]

You've got some good criticisms in here. I generally liked it - I think they have a tendency to undercut emotional moments because I know it's not going to stick. But it's good - certainly some of the best storytelling in any of the MMOs I've played.