Quote Originally Posted by Zeromon View Post
I felt like Endwalker took too long and also cut itself short, albeit at different times. The pacing is fine in theory but it was just a touch much going from, let's say Zodiark to the Lopporits. We needed that development with the bunnies somewhere but it being right after Zodiark felt so bad in the moment. Same with Elpis really. The zone and its story was absolutely necessary, but it was so concentrated that by the end I felt Meteion lacked development while also dragging on too much. I think the length of the story was fine, but a different approach where each zone didn't NEED to take the same amount of time (generally speaking) to conclude would have been so much better. By the end I was enthralled by everything EXCEPT for Meteion. She desperately needed a teaser during 5.5 or something, or even less development. Make her like Emet-Selch, being present from the start, or like Necron, completely out of nowhere. Cramming her in during the middle doesn't work as well.

As for the general cheesiness of story, I think it was fine. Endwalker was the conclusion to a decade of story, there was always going to be some sappy moments that, to those who don't care, feels cheap and pointless. I'm fine with it. I will say the final zone with the fake-out "deaths" was a bit much even for me, but as soon as you see Thancred go off-screen of all things, it was pretty obvious they would all come back.
She kinda was like Necron. She's almost completely out of nowhere and only shows up in Elpis, with a slight hint right after you kill Zodiark. It was a clever twist. I thought it was gonna be she made contact with an evil entity. But nope it was that she embraced nihilism and due to Hermes fucking up since he didn't understand how to properly control dynamis she became a god. There are slight hints of her via the vision of the Final Days in 1.0, but her being the cause isn't foreshadowed.