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

[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.

[jwilliam87]

I don't think we've seen all of this story yet.

I feel Venat and Zodiark still have more story to tell.

[Aneshda]

Again, we don't have any connection to Zodiark at all. And what I said applied to Elidibus. He was going to kill us until we stopped him.

Our relationship with Azem might be explored further in the future, but for now, we are not Azem. We may never know whatever Azem might think about Venat and it does not matter.

I mean, sure, you can point out the difference in their appearances in that way, but I'd say that's irrelevant to the story. If you care about that subject, then I would agree those biases certainly exist, mostly for marketing purposes, but I also don't think it's a bad thing myself if it has no implication on the story.

Why would that be a factor in deciding whether to kill someone?

We are Azem, cause Azem is a Title, that Emet-Selch gave the WoL during the Fight with Elidibus.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I don't think we've seen all of this story yet.

I feel Venat and Zodiark still have more story to tell.

Considering this is the conclusion of the Zodiark and Hydaelyn saga, sadly this most likely is all we’re getting for the arc. Endless unanswered questions.

[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.

[DBriggs304]

Only issue was Zenos but he was always corny and boring. They could have left him out compleyely. Everything else was on point.

[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.