Spoiler, Sploilers, and more Spoilers

[Theodric]

I simply felt as though it was rushed. This was a storyline originally planned to end in 7.0 and not 6.0, though for whatever reason it was scaled back significantly. We're not even getting a full patch cycle to wrap it all up, since 6.1 has been confirmed to revolve around a completely new story arc.

In other words, Zodiark, Hydaelyn, The Sound and Zenos were all dealt with in the same content drop. We've been here before, back in WoW when The Burning Crusade launched and decided to throw a bunch of well liked characters into the game world as raid bosses 'just because'. Subsequent expansions were then spent backtracking because the writers realised that it isn't actually a good idea to just burn through entire potential story arcs in a short period of time in a game that is built to last for years.

Some people might like it, some people don't like it. At the end of the day, though, clearly there's a decent amount of players - myself included - who don't think this was a satisfying way to resolve many plot threads that were built up for almost a decade.

[Raven2014]

Great storytelling.

To me it is? Like, don't get me wrong, after we killed him I was certain a bit disappointed. Like ... that"s it? I doubt there are many out there that didn't feel that way "at that moment". The point is, after present with the whole picture and appreciate the story in its entirely, it makes sense. It would have been disappointed if his death doesn't mean anything, we kill him and everyone get to go home happy. But no, his death trigger the real calamity, so it's not at all pointless. I treat him as another wheel of the whole store, you seem to want him to be "the" story.

And no, they did the samething in Stormblood. If Metion/EndSinger is an asspull character for you, then Zenos should be one as well. The leading up at the end of Heavenward had not mention of him. Rather, it was Varis. We met him on Azylla, we attacked his province, we even meet and hand him the official declaration of war. When I first ran into Zenos I thought him as nothing more than a powerful general, certainly didn't aspect him to attend godhood while Varis (the emperor of the freaking Empire) was like ... completely sideline, not to mention also died unceremoniously. I don't know about you, but like I said if you think EndWalker is ass-pull, then FF14 has been ass-pulling all alone, so just maybe ... it isn't that?

Again, that's a style, the story has been supervising our expectation of what is a true threat. Think about it, in a way, Germlan is pretty much given the same treatment as Zodiak: what's supposed to be the ultimate obstacle turned out just a stepping stone in the larger story.

[Lauront]

And ... I don't see any of that, unless you gonna point them out? Are you referring to the fact she pushed some society that was on the brink to their death? I don't see that as taint result. She only did that after seeing it already happened to hundred of worlds (without her meddling) so now she just decide to hasten the process. Again, is this true in "real life", maybe yes maybe no, but it's clear from the story framework it's meant to be taken that way.

Yes, I am referring to that, and I believe it does in fact taint the evidence in those cases because she is turning a possibility, even if probable, into an inevitability.

I guess this is not something that can be reconcile. When I first finished the story I thought it's flaw too at first, but after a week and playing through some of the dungeon again, re-watching the cutsceens I start connecting the dots, and for me I believe I was able to see the intention of the writers, and I'm happy with it.

You are right, mere divination of their intentions in this respect is not going to suffice to reconcile it for me. The post I linked to earlier points out all the major issues with it, which I agree with; fair enough if you are satisfied with the story as is written. In the end I am not expecting others to have the same reaction as I do across the board, but it is nonetheless how I see it.

[van_arn]

I simply felt as though it was rushed. This was a storyline originally planned to end in 7.0 and not 6.0, though for whatever reason it was scaled back significantly. We're not even getting a full patch cycle to wrap it all up, since 6.1 has been confirmed to revolve around a completely new story arc.

In other words, Zodiark, Hydaelyn, The Sound and Zenos were all dealt with in the same content drop. We've been here before, back in WoW when The Burning Crusade launched and decided to throw a bunch of well liked characters into the game world as raid bosses 'just because'. Subsequent expansions were then spent backtracking because the writers realised that it isn't actually a good idea to just burn through entire potential story arcs in a short period of time in a game that is built to last for years.

Some people might like it, some people don't like it. At the end of the day, though, clearly there's a decent amount of players - myself included - who don't think this was a satisfying way to resolve many plot threads that were built up for almost a decade.

I’m loving the resolution, at the very least. While I’m sure some would’ve loved an entire expansion that essentially ended at the second dungeon boss, I really don’t like the thought that we would’ve liberated multiple zones of Garlemald as if this were just a retread of Stormblood.

I especially appreciate they started the trials with a bombshell, rather than the traditional “I’ve never heard of this until this zone” we typically get. There’s a bit of audacious spectacle starting the trial series where we did, and I find it worth the split focus of the expansion— something Stormblood did not have to hold it together.

All of that aside, I’m excited to see what comes next. The current arc went on as long as it needed to— and I certainly consider a decade too long — and we’re no longer constrained by some major threads from 1.0. The team has learned a lot about their world and their players since then, so this next arc is going to be hot.

As for Zenos, I don’t think many caught on he appears to be a being of Dynamis somehow. After your date, ‘Tola can’t see us when “we” return.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Snip.

Zenos was mentioned when you help Yugiri and the doman refugees all the way back. The thing is even the final days after his death were inconsistent. We’re told during amaurot the final days caused the land to become polluted, waters poisoned winds refusing to blow etc etc. We don’t see any of that in EW, we also don’t lose anyone important to us so his death really was pretty pointless. But my main argument ain’t so much his death as it is how quickly he was shelved out. We didn’t even get to talk to him but we’ve had hydaelyn in our ear the entire game. I do agree Varis got done dirty, in favor of a badly written character like zenos and they did the same with elidibus so it’s a common trend unfortunately but that doesn’t make it right. Again, why even advertised the expansion the way they did and just do very little with it. They had to resort to so many random things like dynamis and time travel to make their weird plot even work which tells me it was just immensely rushed. Everyone did get to go happy in the end so i’m not sure what you’re point is lol. There were little to no stakes or consequences. Everything is just solved with no repercussions especially since we know 6.1+ is an entirely new story. 6.0 was the end of everything tied to the hydaelyn and zodiark arc, we’re done. Most likely not going to get many answers on anything which is crazy considering how many things they didn’t even address.

[Floortank]

Elpis could've been cut from the game and it would've been a lot better. Really thought they were gonna go with Hydaelyn as the big bad but nope, sad bird girl is the big bad. Completely stupid.

Elpis was the entire setup for the final boss so they could not have cut it. They could have cut the entirety of Labyrinthos without hurting the story, but Elpis is the entire story.

[Raven2014]

We don’t see any of that in EW, we also don’t lose anyone important to us so his death really was pretty pointless.

I just gonna address this: I can not for the life of my figuring out why some people seemingly obsessed with seeing deaths. As if it's a pre-requisted for a good story? For me it's like the opposite, too many times I've seen death used as cheap device to illicit strong emotion without the proper amount of investment from the writer. So, rather I consider it's a mark of great writing that can provoke reaction without relying on cheap device.

If anything, FF14 killed WAY TOO MANY NPC in its ealier days, and tell you what often time I feel nothing about it. Even if you take fan's favorite like Haurchefant. Sure, I feel a tinsy bit of sad when he died but I also asked ... does he really have to die there, the scene is completely random and pointless. Like ... I survived much worse, I just carve my way through the temple knight ranks, why the heck I need someone to give up his life blocking a spear for me? Do you know how I define death as cheap device? It's when a character die for no reason beside (supposedly) making me sad.


I'm GLAD they finally tone down their death quota after 3.0, and the story is better for it. It means our companion has time to bond and strengthen, in 2.0 and 3.0 I feel like an errand boys while the NPC just there to offer lip service. These days it actually feels like a team. Another thing is it offers the opportunity to tell the impact through these NPC. Two examples

- I don't feel sad about Tesleen death, I'm not sure I will feel sad if Alise herself bite it ... this is because you can not dictate how a person should feel, that's why people have different reaction to the same thing. BUT, I can relate to how sad Alise feels about Tesleen death, and that means the scene itself is meaningful.

- Moenbryda, again I felt very little about her death. I wouldn't consider her to be "close" even if the narrative tried to force it. But it hit me much harder when I see now how it has been tormenting Urianger, in fact, probably more than if Urianger himself is to die.


tl;dr: instead of cheaply kill off characters to make the player feel, the writers have been investing make the NPC more interesting to make us feel far more than their death. And I applaud them for it.

[Raven2014]

Elpis was the entire setup for the final boss so they could not have cut it. They could have cut the entirety of Labyrinthos without hurting the story, but Elpis is the entire story.

Agree, like I said earlier the purpose of vising Elpis is not simply to indentify the direct threat. All of that "pointless" running around is for us to see the flaw of Ancient, and why even if they manage to avoid the Final Day, they will still eventually meet their ruin - most likely in the same manner as the Ra'ha.

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

Okay but you can literally say the same about death fakeouts. They do nothing for the story because you know everyone is going to be fine, it’s why i don’t understand that people that are saying “they’re crying and screaming” so much over the scions. It was obvious they were going to be fine. What was the point of their little goodbye speeches? My point is though, this literally would’ve been THE ONE expansion where death would make sense. We’re facing an apocalypse that originally destroyed the planet and slaughtered the ancients, beings far superior to the sundered. Yet somehow all the scions get out fine. A hindrance also to the story is when they need to drop plot threads or give plot armor to characters to keep them alive. What ever happened to Yshtola’s life slowly sapping away? Literally hasn’t been mentioned outside of HW. Somehow all the scions are immune to despair. It’s just funny when the main theme of the game has been sacrifice and literally the main song of this expansion is tales of loss….yet we haven’t lost anyone close to us. They also keep trying to show montages of who we’ve lost this expansion but it was just the same few faces we’ve always seen every expansion of milking which is haurchefant moenbryda and papalymo. As far as characters bonding and strengthening, what exactly did Yshtola do this expansion of substance? What important did she really have 90% of the expansion because afaik she didn’t really do much of anything. Graha is just a mary sue character now who can solve 99% of problems. It’s just a bit hypocritical to have the main theme of the game be about sacrifice and loss but have this only apply to antagonists or characters like the garleans but have the main cast be immune to all of it.

[CaptainLagbeard]

The whole time travel plotline with Elpis is kind of stupid.

We have a loop of events, that by all rights shouldn't occur... The main reason why we end up going there is because of things set in motion by our own interactions with Venat in the past.