Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

[Theozilla]

That is one of many reason I have a small belief we may get some kind of second Scout Armor Job for 7.0 but my support has always been on a Sword/Gun Job either being Corsair, Assassin, Demon hunter, or etc name they give it. Of course there is always a chance they ignore a 2nd scouting armor job until maybe 8.0 and above since certain people really want another DoM DPS job and another Tank job.

Well I don’t think we’ll get another Tank or Healer job in 7.0 at least. I think 7.0 will be like Stormblood and will give two DPS jobs, one with the Scouting armor/gear type, and the other a new Magic caster job.
If pet jobs haven’t been forsaken yet, maybe Beastmaster or Puppetmaster could fulfill the Scouting Armor job type.

Chemist and Mime are other possibilities, though Mime might be a limited job like Blue Mage.

Time Mage and Geomancer seem like viable options for a magic job, be it DPS or Healer.

Hopefully 8.0 will provide a new Tank and Healer.

[EdwinLi]

Well I don’t think we’ll get another Tank or Healer job in 7.0 at least. I think 7.0 will be like Stormblood and will give two DPS jobs, one with the Scouting armor/gear type, and the other a new Magic caster job.
If pet jobs haven’t been forsaken yet, maybe Beastmaster or Puppetmaster could fulfill the Scouting Armor job type.

Chemist and Mime are other possibilities, though Mime might be a limited job like Blue Mage.

Time Mage and Geomancer seem like viable options for a magic job, be it DPS or Healer.

Hopefully 8.0 will provide a new Tank and Healer.

I honestly been waiting to see if they may introduce a Chemist Healer job ever since 3.0. It will be a bit funny if they went a extra mile and made chemist's weapon of choice a M32 Rotary Grenade Launcher just so they can have the lore that the grenade launcher allows them to launch their chemicals farthur compared to just throwing them with their arms.

As for Beast Master, I always got this feeling it maybe better suited to be a limited job just so SE has a reason to introduce a Pokemon battle mini-game using FF monsters.

[Radishlaw]

I have finished the MSQ but not the raid, feel like this is as good a time as any to get this off my chest.

Warning: Meta commentary

They have a clear aim in 6.0: closing out the story of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, and do it in one expansion without the .x patches.

The MSQ is filled with references from ARR to Shadowbringers, and lessons learned. The habour scene is the most obvious of them all, which changes depending on which raids you completed. Fan-service abound for both other FF entries and previous expansions.

And like every expansion, they have new mechanics. Some I welcomed, like that AVG-like scene where you choose a scion to talk with. Some are divisive even though I am okay with, like the stalking mechanic. I was surprised and happy about the solo duties, but apparently some people hate them?

As for the story, I am not sure why but my suspension of disbelief broke pretty early on. I think it's because of the pacing, as the writing is still on par with Shadowbringers. I understand they are trying to put two expansions into 1.3 of one, with the hours to match, but I still feels like many story beats rushed past quickly. Blam! The towers are gone. Blam! Zodiark is gone. Blam! We went to the past. Blam! We are Star Trek now.


It seems like some of the dissatisfication from others steam from the lack of agency. That's a sacrifice every RPG out there has to take. FFXIV has always been surprisingly good at guiding the player along a fixed path while allowing them to maintain their story (or headcanon), but an unavoidable consequence for that is whenever the plot contravenes those headcanons, cognitive dissonance occurs I still remember people being salty for months asking why can't they join Gaius. I foresee this expansion will never get the high praise of Shadowbringers, simply because it's closing up so many storylines, giving so many definitive answers that many will be disappointed.

Another sacrifice is clarity from all the fan services and references. I feel Heavensward and Shadowbringers have it easy, because they are new settings with new characters, it's much easier to hide any holes and maintain a consistent narrative. Endwalker has references to all expansions, but that also mean if the players don't like parts of it, it will break the player's suspension of disbelief (Zenos being the stand-out). I didn't read to much promotion material, so I am surprised 6.0 is just the end of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, but not the ancients. They also have no qualms with doing many Japanese media tropes (mind over matter in Dynamis), and while I enjoy it I feel it may alienate some players.One last point on fan-service, I feel like pointing out there is unsolistited chest shot on Y'Shtola right at the end of the MSQ. What are they thinking with that?

For all they have accomplished, there are more than a few places that shows the seams, and role quests are one of the poorer part of the expansion for me (but that's out of scope for main scenario). There are some minor problems (eg. getting fuel during the solo duty) which the team is addressing. Everyone hates that "finding people" quest in Labyrinthos. Some of the lore doesn't seem to match up (Echo and Blessings of Light, why Sharlynan has to be so secretive yet trusting of Hydaelyn, immortal races with seemingly infinite knowledge but doesn't know time travel, etc). I also think that, by bring the conflict to universal level, it's going to give severe headaches to writers down the line - the WoL is essentially Superman now, how are you going to give him/her a credible threat?

Overall, I think Creative Business Unit III, like Venat, acheived their goal despite everything. Like FFXIV itself, not to give up in despair when all hope seem lost, and to not dwell on the past and forge ahead; to not worry about the future and enjoy the now.

[Rosenstrauch]

I had a bizarre thought.

Meteion and her sisters remind me a bit of the Maenads from FFIV: The After Years. To elaborate:

- Single gender race of strangely powerful girls with blue hair
- Created by a person seeking to find meaning in life—and whose insanity led him to try and destroy the world the plot is centered on
- Every world they went to was ultimately destroyed
- They are part of a hive mind, sharing thoughts and feelings with each other
- They created the Final Days, an event not unlike the penultimate chapter of TAY, in which meteors ran down from the True Moon and the Eidolons shackled to the Maenads' will rampage across the surface of the Blue Planet.
- There is a single odd one out among them (Cuore is a child while her sisters are adults) (Meteion has lived among the Ancients, while her sisters traveled the stars alone)

[Tracewood]

Finished all role quests. So do they exist within the same timeframe as the MSQ or do blasphemies still exist despite us averting the "Final Days"? Because that's a bit of a serious issue if we went on a new adventure while blasphemies still exist, since people can still turn and create a despair outbreak. Though I thought they were going to make a certain fiery redhead turn but I forget she's a part of the SMN job quests. That's like if they killed off Estinien before you did the ARR DRG questline.

I'm interested on seeing how 6.1 will start in a few months. Feels like ages since my character got off a boat to Limsa after seeing a glimpse of the Final Days before getting thrusted into politics and religion warring on each other, and actual war. What got me interested aside from Final Fantasy lore was where it was leading to. We went from adventurer to local hero, to ending a dragon war, liberating several nations, averting a calamity and saving all of existence. Now we're back to adventuring all over again so my interest is piqued yet again on HOW we're going to go about it.

[kaynide]

I have not done the supplemental job quests, so if something I say conflicts with information you’ve gained there, obviously trust that.

As I understand it, the threat of people falling into despair and turning into Blashphemies as we saw in Radz-at-Han has passed, but those created during that window are still at large. It also remains to be seen if they can create others and by what mechanism if so.

It also remains to be seen what kind of intelligence a blasphemy might have given time. As we saw with Sin Eaters, most of them are largely mindless but some could speak or display varying degrees of intelligence (Innocence as a sort of half Sin Eater and Eden/Mitron being the most intelligent). Same deal with Voidsent like Diablolos.

Don’t want to assume wildly, but I don’t think it will be out of the realm of possibilities to see an intelligent group of Blasphemies.

[KageTokage]

I'm a touch curious how the post 6.0 MSQ trust dungeons are going to play out given how the Scions are all scattered on their own business now.

I'm hoping they won't just all get together on a moment's notice and that we work with some other characters instead, like having Jullus or Lucia sub in as a tank for whatever lingering Garlemald shenanigans we'll likely have to end up dealing with (The Tower of Babil still emitting that ominous red haze even after Anima's destruction gives me bad vibes).

I have not done the supplemental job quests, so if something I say conflicts with information you’ve gained there, obviously trust that.

As I understand it, the threat of people falling into despair and turning into Blashphemies as we saw in Radz-at-Han has passed, but those created during that window are still at large. It also remains to be seen if they can create others and by what mechanism if so.

It also remains to be seen what kind of intelligence a blasphemy might have given time. As we saw with Sin Eaters, most of them are largely mindless but some could speak or display varying degrees of intelligence (Innocence as a sort of half Sin Eater and Eden/Mitron being the most intelligent). Same deal with Voidsent like Diablolos.

Don’t want to assume wildly, but I don’t think it will be out of the realm of possibilities to see an intelligent group of Blasphemies.

I'd assume voidsent are generally a lot more cognizant then sin eaters and blasphemies for the most part because darkness agitates aether, whereas light stills it and dynamis can destroy it entirely; neither of which would be very conducive to coherent thought.

The latter two are only seen acting on memories like an instinct in their respective role quests, being drawn to people, places, and things they held as important before they transformed. Innocence was a strange case and it's hard to say how much of a role Emet-Selch's magicks had in enabling his existence.

[kaynide]

Innocence is indeed an anomaly, but the original sin eater, Eden/Mitron was able to eventually reassume his Ascian form and was clearly not mindless when we fight him. I forget the details now, but I want to say he was mindless for most of those 100ish years.

In the case of Meteaon, it’s unclear. All we really get is that she has some sliver of aether, but is mostly composed of dynamis. Moreover, her actions are almost like an AI, so it’s unclear if she has actual intelligent thought, and whether that is related to her nature as a created “concept” or her “aetheric makeup”

I wouldn’t bet on it either way, as your ideas are certainly plausible.


All a bit of mystery, and it may indeed be due to the reasons you said, but I would say it’s more a matter of time, and even then no guarantee all Blasphemies could attain any level of intelligent thought.

[Theozilla]

All the Role quests have to occur prior to Meteion’s defeat since her “song of oblivion” is what causes people who fall to despair to have their aether decay and transform them in Terminus Beasts, and every Role quests features individuals transforming into regular Terminus Beasts during the present narrative itself, not just past events like the Blasphemies.

[Cleretic]

All the Role quests have to occur prior to Meteion’s defeat since her “song of oblivion” is what causes people who fall to despair to have their aether decay and transform them in Terminus Beasts, and every Role quests features individuals transforming into regular Terminus Beasts during the present narrative itself, not just past events like the Blasphemies.

I kind of got the notion that a Blasphemy being around causes more Terminus beasts just by general proximity to them and their actions. Kinda like how if you put a rotten apple in with a bunch of fresh ones, they all rot faster.

So if you do the tank role quest after the MSQ, the active flow of corrupted dynamis from Meteion is still cut off, but the Blasphemy that caused in the Shorud is still around, and it's still... well, infectious. Rather tangibly so in that one's case, because it's literally propagating a disease, so you can actually perceive its spread.