What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[van_arn]

Dunno. A lot of these complaints I see about Zodiark getting offed in the first half seem a little misguided. He's just a loose thread after 5.3, and dropping him in as the first trial is a fantastic surprise. I can't imagine he'd be more interesting as a last boss, and having Fandaniel make good on his wish to kill himself and bring us all with him made their use of Zodiark apropos.

The naivety of Hermes, coupled with bird girl's findings made a fantastic surprise as well. Our ultimate enemy isn't something deep underground or an Other from the depths of space -- both of which were built up in the narrative -- it's "our" own creation (so is despair.) Hermes' half-flip of letting things play out and then wiping his own memory so he would be a defender against the apocalypse was pretty cool as well; they could've easily gone the boring route and just made him a cackling villain right then and there, but they let the passage of time drive him mad. He's actually a solid counterpoint to Emet, in that aspect.

Venat -- I am loathe to say time travel is something I would jump into without hesitation, but I'm willing to exchange that apprehension for what we get in Elpis. Some of my favorite interactions in the entire game are with her, and seeing the lyrics to Answers brought to life is worth the price of admission alone. For me, at least. Seeing the ancients going about their daily lives was also a blast, and the sidequests there are well worth playing through and paying attention.

Zenos? The mistake is they brought him back after Stormblood. I think him being a "bonus" fight at the end of the expansion is the best they could possibly do with him, and I don't think multiple 1v1s with him would've gone over well with a huge chunk of players. For those players, I think an option to abandon him at the end of the universe would've been a nice one to have-- but I also would've wanted an option to immediately accept him (in the vein of "oh heck yes, let's dunk on her and play together after") as soon as he appears in front of the Endsinger.

[Arillyn]

Snip

I agree with you on all of this. I personally enjoyed the story. It ended the whole arc I've been playing since 1.0 pretty well. I'm satisfied. I went into this expansion expecting it to not be as good as Shadowbringers because to me, that was near on perfection as you can get for an MMO story. I was actually surprised that he was the first trial though and I think it worked, for reasons you stated.

I also like that going forward, looks like I'm going back to my adventurer roots and I love that. I do feel my character is an adventurer first. That is what makes her tick (I'm sure that's what made Azem tick too based on everything we know about them).

As for Zenos, I was over him when he died at the end of Stormblood and one who wasn't happy they brought him back. I know some people love him. I do not, and I was really concerned with how he would be dealt with in EW. I actually was happy with what they did with him. I could live with all of it and I actually found myself enjoying the battle at the end. It made sense to me. This is all he wanted and my character... well happy to oblige at that point once the danger to the world was dealt with and finish him off once and for good.

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

I dont see how theyre really misguided. This entire 8-10 year arc has been dubbed the Hydaelyn AND ZODIARK arc. Yet, the heart of Zodiark is dealt with within 2 patches(one technically) and zodiark himself is dealt with early on in the expansion that is supposed to be tying up the arc. His heart is then also killed off within 5 minutes. Meanwhile weve had hydaelyn talking in our ear since the beginning of the game and venat had an entire arc in elpis. Not to mention Venat and Hydaelyn being painted as the savior and Zodiark/Elidibus getting basically 0 credit.I think it wouldve been far more interesting to see more of Elidibus along with Zodiark together much how we saw hydaelyn numerous times.Instead he was just used as a prop and killed off swiftly. I think its especially sad when you have a character like Zenos who outlived such important and prominent characters all for him to not even get any lore built on his past plot points(why hes so strong, his memories of the final days etc etc.)

[van_arn]

I dont see how theyre really misguided. This entire 8-10 year arc has been dubbed the Hydaelyn AND ZODIARK arc. Yet, the heart of Zodiark is dealt with within 2 patches(one technically) and zodiark himself is dealt with early on in the expansion that is supposed to be tying up the arc. His heart is then also killed off within 5 minutes. Meanwhile weve had hydaelyn talking in our ear since the beginning of the game and venat had an entire arc in elpis. Not to mention Venat and Hydaelyn being painted as the savior and Zodiark/Elidibus getting basically 0 credit.I think it wouldve been far more interesting to see more of Elidibus along with Zodiark together much how we saw hydaelyn numerous times.Instead he was just used as a prop and killed off swiftly. I think its especially sad when you have a character like Zenos who outlived such important and prominent characters all for him to not even get any lore built on his past plot points(why hes so strong, his memories of the final days etc etc.)

I'll hold off judgement for now. Pandaemonium has potential for undoing all of these complaints.

I, at least, was satisfied with the time given to Elidibus in 5.3. Hydaelyn has said plenty to us throughout the story, but not much meaningful until we speak to Venat in Elpis.