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

[BrokentoothMarch]

I found it very weak. The new quest mechanic was an immense annoyance, a lot of very important things were dismissed as mundane (I was especially taken aback from how it was just plain accepted we can go to the moon like that), Alphinaud returned to the annoying little gnat I hated in ARR, comic relief was unwelcome when tragedy struck just moments before, sacrifices felt cheapened and we literally beat Metei with the power of friendship.

All in all, just slightly above Stormblood in terms of quality in my opinion. Maybe equal. Which would peg both of them just above ARR. Doesn't even come close to ShB. I also take extreme umbrage with the many people here that think disliking the story means someone "missed the point" or "hasn't played the game." The former doesn't even matter because it's a writer's job to convey the point in a way that's clear, yet classy. The latter is an accusation born of a fanboy's tantrum. I'm very disappointed in how people are handling dissident opinions this expansion.

[TairaSayo]

So I'm not only one. I'm trying to pass Garlemald without skipping every over scene

Let me be clear, 1st legion is more or less what I was expecting from warmongers who lost, general population also on par save slaves (as expected). Alphinaud is crybaby as usual, but I wonder why Sharlayans pass lessons on rhetoric.
But WoL herself, oh my. Who wrote chooses for her? I don't even ask for a possibility to put a sword inside legate guts (we can afford only pretense of role-play after all). But why my options are:
- be nice to him
- be extra nice to him
Why I can't warn him? Or silently look at him? Like what the point of this interaction? Same was at tower, asking villain during abduction "what does you mean, ancient masters?". If context need to be given, Echo scene can can be triggered without any input, after he finished speech.

[hobostew]

The whole of Garlemald came off as this weird NAZI apologist garbage and ultimately didn't even matter to the story. I get what they were probably aiming for (assuming it wasn't weird NAZI apologist garbage) but without going into a full Garlemald expansion that properly explores the Garleans coming to terms with the falsehoods of their foundational myths/propaganda/etc it just doesn't land. They even had Lyse whose sister was killed by the Garleans go full "boths sides amirite" because I guess they expected it to have more impact given her loss but it was just really damn weird and really off-putting.

The rest of EW was pretty standard fare JPRG so I mean it was fine I guess. On the upside reaper is really fun so there is that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯