Endwalker was "meh" (for reasons other than technical issues)

[Endver]

Heres some actual criticism they can improve upon:
-Why was the moon arc so rushed? No sooner do we get there and were defeating Zodiark as if it was nothing. I understand he was incomplete, but there was very little buildup this expansion to the encounter.
-Why did almost none of the Scions react with any more surprise when we defeated Zodiark? All we got was Y'shtola going "Then he is defeated? The ultimate evil? Good job." Thats it I guess.
-Why did the Scions and the people outside who got word of Hydaelyn's death not react more to it? Its like the Sharlayans and Loporrits present were just "Oh that sucks that our God just died. Anyway."
-Why did we just casually teleport to the moon? How did anyone know it was safe? Why did everyone suddenly act like it was a normal occurance?
-Why did the Scions not have a scene reacting to and discussing how you literally went into the past to the early days of Elpis to speak with the Ascians? Its like everyone brushed it off with "Okay cool good we got the info we needed."
-Zenos showing up over and over going "Ready to fight yet? No? Alright dang.." and just walking away.

This. This is my biggest problem with the story of EW. You can't add something to a narration without weighing it. If going to the moon is so easy, if defeating Zodiark, the main and real opponent since ARR is so unimpressive to the characters, if going to the past isn't so amazing, ... then you tell the player that all he did was no big deal. That his feelings about it are too. Maybe it's because I'm not English and can't find the words. But I mean why cultivate so much hype and attention for so many years if it's to minimize everything in the end? Why tell through a nice trailer and then LL from the producer that going to the moon, for example, is indeed something crazy if it's just to say right after that you go in and out just when you want ? At this point, the moon is like another random map. Cool, sure, but not as cool as it should have been.

In general, it felt just like if the hype doesn't have a place. You like Garlemald ? Nice, it's ruin. Be faster next time. You want to see the end of the story for Zodiark and Hydaelyn ? Right, here is two battles, nothing more exotic. You're asking how is it possible to touch the stars ? Well, nice, we worked on a Star Citizen spaceship since a while, go in there and have a nice cutscene that says that the end of the universe is only at one day of travel. I mean ... Here's my point.

To be fair I liked some moments, and every music of Endwalker. I guess Shadowbringers just was more my type of story, tragic, simple but so heavy.

[Klaleara]

People seem to forget all the things you've already gone through with the Scions. I'm not surprised that they aren't surprised. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that we were all swooped up and sent to an alternate dimension of the same planet, but different still. Traveling in space, and going back in time seems negligible compared to that, or about equal in outrageousness.

I did wish that there was a bit more time aboard the ship though.

[hynaku]

Garlemald was the most disappointing with the city in ruins. I was hoping to see a city like a modern day one instead see a city in ruins. I would say garlean story was worst in this expansion and one where skipped all the cutscenes to.

[RyuDragnier]

Garlemald was the most disappointing with the city in ruins. I was hoping to see a city like a modern day one instead see a city in ruins. I would say garlean story was worst in this expansion and one where skipped all the cutscenes to.

Then you missed all hints of a Garlean ruled area that is strongly hinted to be where we'll be doing the relics at.

[Fubous]

Garlemald was the most disappointing with the city in ruins.

that's kinda the whole point of the storyline lol

[anhaato]

A lot of these comments here touch upon my main criticisms for the story, so I'm glad I'm not alone in that regard. I personally still rank shb as my favorite expansion story, as far as x.0 stories go. 5.1, 5.2, and 5.4 were pretty trash let's be honest... but I can't make that sort of comparison yet because we're only at 6.0. So for now I say that 5.0 was better than 6.0. If we include patch quests in the discussion then I think hw might actually be the strongest, because of how consistently deep and emotional it was and how well it handled the stakes of the war. That's the greatest weakness of this expansion, the stakes. This was by far the highest stakes of any expansion, and I don't think they were equipped to handle it properly coming out of 5.0. Yoship said they were planning to end the story in 7.0 but the story turned in such a way that it ended way sooner than that... and you can really tell. Like someone in here said earlier, it had the same issue as sb where it was trying to wrap up too many plotlines in a single story. Of course they did handle it a lot better, but you could still feel that it was rushed, despite also somehow managing to have filler.

Ishikawa is a great writer, don't get me wrong, but she excels primarily in writing character interactions. We got a lot of good moments between the characters, and it was because of how she wrote them beginning in 5.0 that she made the scions worth caring for to begin with. But it's because she focuses on that first, and then next on juicing as much as she can out of one zone, that we manage to get a mixture of great and meh moments. Take Garlemald for example, Quintus' suicide was raw as hell and Jullus' catharsis made me really like him, but when I see the forest for the trees it felt really rushed and like our activities there, and on the moon, had very little bearing on the story. Hell, Anima was portrayed as some big threat before the expansion dropped, and I know they wanted to be like "gotcha, the actual trials are these EVEN BIGGER THREATS!" But then I wonder, why build up hype if that's all they'll turn out to be? Not to mention how, rather than making us feel strong, it made HydZod look like pushovers instead. Eldest and most powerful of primals... sure buddy.

[anhaato]

snip

What I'm trying to say is that, unlike with sb, the whole scramble to conclude (or introduce and quickly conclude) all these plot points in a single expansion begot greater issues with them trying to one-up themselves at all costs, and in aiming to make the threats seem greater, instead they made them seem smaller. If it had taken them just one more expansion to reach this point, if they had saved all of this for 7.0 instead of trying to wrap it up in 6.0, then it might've played out a lot better. Unfortunately, I think they were ruined on the potential of that happening because of sb. I 100% believe that if Ala Mhigo and Doma each had their own expansions, then they could've fully fleshed out both zones and made their stories compelling, while also leaving more room for 7.0 to focus on the greater plot points being concluded, instead of trying to wrap them all up in a full-to-bursting package with smaller, less impactful zone stories. For example, we could've been to Sharlayan or Thavnair much sooner, but instead they had to include those places' plots along with Garlemald, the Final Days, the unsundered world, and what happens in space. Just overall too much on their plate.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy it. The ending definitely did make me feel good, and I'm really eager to see what they'll do next with the stakes now being heavily de-escalated. Perhaps we'll learn more about Eorzea's past in the patch quests? No one knows. These patch quests have the potential to be great, and significantly improve my review of the expansion. But for the time being, all I can think about is how much better it could've been had they handled certain plots better, not just now but in the past as well.

[LalafellDown]

Yes perfectly written I had the same complaints. Also Endwalker was spoiled by real life. The world wasn’t going to end because real life and the MMO must go on. Our friends weren’t going to die because of trusts and again real life. Zenos taking over our body and fandango saying, “oops times up,” was infuriating.

Zenos coming to our aid was predictable and disappointing, just why?

The whole plot leading up to the destruction of the first tower was slow and boring. Should’ve started the expansion with a battle like in Garlemald.

The over use of following and leading quests were too much. Finding people or giving the bunnies a grand tour was boring. Beating the sadness out of a little emo girl is just ridiculous. Too much fan service with hades.

Space travel wasn’t show. A map of the galaxy would’ve been great to have to spike our travels. Setting up our next expansion to take place on the planet after we traveled to space is a downer. I would rather us continue to travel to other worlds Star Ocean style.

[Cojika]

Overall I liked it, but disliked certain aspects of it. The worst part for me was the the overly drawn out and mind numbingly boring bit with the loporrits in mare lamentorium. That zone is so nice and started off so good. But then they have you doing dumb shit for them for THAT LONG and Indoors? What a waste. I had to split their bs part into 2 sessions because I couldn’t stand it. I watch every main story cs and read all the dialogue but for the first time felt compelled, and did, skip through a lot of their bs.

Then these little bastards show up in labyrinthos and though it was shorter this time, it still sucked going around watching them eat oranges and look at water towers and other mundane stuff. I had to skip some of this dialogue as well. I had a few other problems but made my whole post about these little shits, haha.

[myahele]

I agree with a lot of the criticisms that people have posted here. While I liked Endwalker overall, I think some of the quest chains dragged on for longer than needed. Some parts felt rushed and I wished more time was spent on them rather than those minor ones.

I understand why they decided to end the Zodiark-Hydaelyn arc in 6.0 since Yoshida wanted to keep the momentum going with all the revelations that happened in Shadowbringer, but I feel like it needed 2 more expansion like they originally planned or sometime in the post 6.xx patches.

Assuming we get another multi-expansion story arc, I hope it won't last 10 years.