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

[Conundrum]

This thread makes me happy that at least some of us aren't gushing about how this is the bestest story ever because they cried during the cheap emotional manipulation scenes.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

I cried despite knowing they'd come back.

[KizuyaKatogami]

This thread makes me happy that at least some of us aren't gushing about how this is the bestest story ever because they cried during the cheap emotional manipulation scenes.

Yeah…everyone is entitled to their opinion of course and tastes are subjective. But i’m shocked after how this game has always been lore heavy, so many people now are basically saying stop looking too deep into it, because at that point they know the overall story just…doesn’t make sense. It very much feels like they wrote the story this expansion where they’d just shove in as much fanservice and emotional manipulation as possible in hopes people wouldn’t care or acknowledge the absolutely massive plot holes it has. But in terms of a 10 year arc it just fell absolutely flat for me for so many reasons.

[Ryaz]

This thread makes me happy that at least some of us aren't gushing about how this is the bestest story ever because they cried during the cheap emotional manipulation scenes.

Yet a huge portion of the playerbase loved the story. And please don't undermine peoples enjoyment of the story by calling them "cheap emotional manipulation" scenes. You can dislike it if you want, but don't rag on others for enjoying it.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Yet a huge portion of the playerbase loved the story. And please don't undermine peoples enjoyment of the story by calling them "cheap emotional manipulation" scenes. You can dislike it if you want, but don't rag on others for enjoying it.

To be fair that’s literally what they are because nothing comes from them outside of some scenes in Garlemald and Thavnair. For the final portion had someone actually died then it wouldn’t actually be cheap. It would be real. But the constant death flags and fakeout deaths do make it seem very cheap. Also, just because a portion of the community enjoyed the story doesn’t mean there aren’t problems with it. Considering a lot of those people are the same ones who are saying don’t look too into it.

[Ryaz]

To be fair that’s literally what they are because nothing comes from them outside of some scenes in Garlemald and Thavnair. For the final portion had someone actually died then it wouldn’t actually be cheap. It would be real. But the constant death flags and fakeout deaths do make it seem very cheap. Also, just because a portion of the community enjoyed the story doesn’t mean there aren’t problems with it. Considering a lot of those people are the same ones who are saying don’t look too into it.

Is the story completely perfect? Of course not. I really disliked everything about Zenos myself and rolled my eyes when he appeared at the end. Most stories rarely are, especially when they go on this long. But I've also learned to enjoy stories for the story telling itself. I try not to overanalzye things too far- don't get me wrong, analyzation of themes and plot is fine, but when people overdo it, they tend to stop enjoying things altogether. We had a friend who did that with every Marvel movie we went to. We knew there were issues with them at times, but we just went to enjoy the characters, the story and the action while he would constantly talk about the implausibility of certain things, or how it didn't make sense plotwise, or how it was too corny or how it wasn't like the comics. Eventually, we stopped inviting him to go with us because he sucked all the fun out of just enjoying a story for what it is.

And "A portion of the community" is a bit of an understatement. It's got a 94% use approval on metacritic and 91% critical approval. Most of the dislike actually seems to be concentrated on the forums here. I get that some people don't like it, but personally I'm glad all my Scion friends survived. I like happy endings. I like being drawn in by the characters and the emotions. Doesn't make my enjoyment of the game any less valid like some here seem to believe.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Is the story completely perfect? Of course not. I really disliked everything about Zenos myself and rolled my eyes when he appeared at the end. Most stories rarely are, especially when they go on this long. But I've also learned to enjoy stories for the story telling itself. I try not to overanalzye things too far- don't get me wrong, analyzation of themes and plot is fine, but when people overdo it, they tend to stop enjoying things altogether. We had a friend who did that with every Marvel movie we went to. We knew there were issues with them at times, but we just went to enjoy the characters, the story and the action while he would constantly talk about the implausibility of certain things, or how it didn't make sense plotwise, or how it was too corny or how it wasn't like the comics. Eventually, we stopped inviting him to go with us because he sucked all the fun out of just enjoying a story for what it is.

And "A portion of the community" is a bit of an understatement. It's got a 94% use approval on metacritic and 91% critical approval. Most of the dislike actually seems to be concentrated on the forums here. I get that some people don't like it, but personally I'm glad all my Scion friends survived. I like happy endings. I like being drawn in by the characters and the emotions. Doesn't make my enjoyment of the game any less valid like some here seem to believe.

I don’t know how much metacritic reviews matter in the grand scheme of things. I personally don’t really look at anything if that measure because a lot of that stuff has a history of being rigged. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a perfect story, however i expected at least the same tier of story as shadowbringers had. This expansion however, for being a conclusion missed numerous marks. Even without hyper analyzing, just the simple thing like the scion plot in Ultima Thule completely contradicting the expansions theme threw me for a loop, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The thing is as well, i’d like to just say eh, well sucks the story was bad at least i have other stuff but…i mean even content wise we kind of missed out on stuff between all the gear reusing and the missing dungeon set etc. It makes me wonder what all the delay and hype was for.

[Conundrum]

I don’t know how much metacritic reviews matter in the grand scheme of things.

Literally not a single entertainment scoring system on the internet has any credibility.

Bought reviews...

Fanboys/Haters skewing reviews..

Scores based on things other than the quality of the media...

"Agendas"

etc...

[Rulakir]

I like happy endings, but I'm an Ancient fan and they most certainly did not end happily. They could have, which is the frustrating part. Time travel that results in saving the WoL's life? Fine. Time travel that results in saving the unsundered world? Not possible.

The writing needed to be tighter given the controversial elements of it. You have the two individuals responsible for all the genocides (and not just on Etheirys) being treated as good people in bad situations, ironic given the villainous treatment of the Ascians who only existed as a result of both Hermes and Venat. I don't see how anyone can claim the story has been "grey" given the stark contrast in how characters and their motivations have been addressed. Did it result in the sundering? = Good. Did it try to prevent or reverse the sundering? = Bad. The amount of carnage involved in either doesn't matter as everything is reduced to that.

Maybe the problem is that none of the Scions were sacrificed for ridiculous reasons, otherwise we might have some debates on why X had to die when the situation had alternatives. It's not nitpicking to point out that all of Venat's reasons for remaining silent don't hold up to surface level scrutiny since everything she says is contrary to information from quests we did just 1-2 hours prior. It reminded me of someone who'd already decided what they were going to do and was making excuses for it.

[ErryK]

i'm truly op dropping a post and leaving the club.

This thread makes me happy that at least some of us aren't gushing about how this is the bestest story ever because they cried during the cheap emotional manipulation scenes.

getting a slight hint of condescension from this post. must be the emotional manipulation. *shrugs*

This is the part actually bugs me. Unless Azem shows up in the Pandemonium raid series what other reason should we meet him/her? With this arc ended, should we have any reason to deal with the unsundered?

i dont think the zodiark/hydaelyn arc is important in relation to the unsundered. seeing as we pretty much have a permanent portal to the past, we can freely explore the unsundered world. it's pretty much just another option to worldbuild.