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

[Caurcas]

On the topic of why EW might be disappointing for some, I would also point a finger at ShB. While beloved by many, I feel its story kind of wrote the narrative into a corner it really couldn't get itself out of. It also kind of jumped the shark in alot of ways. SB and HW were way better structured overall.

[Rise-chu]

On the topic of why EW might be disappointing for some, I would also point a finger at ShB. While beloved by many, I feel its story kind of wrote the narrative into a corner it really couldn't get itself out of. It also kind of jumped the shark in alot of ways. SB and HW were way better structured overall.

Yes. The more I think about it the more I think Shadowbringers should have been the climax since the devs refused to give us an expansion where we get more involved with the Garlean Civil War. The thing is you don't even have to eject Emet Selch to give us a Garlemald: Civil War expansion, he could be folded into it very easily and still be his charming self. So we wouldn't have lost anything important from Shadowbringers!

Instead Shadowbringers gave us silly time travel, a very boring antagonist in the form of Vauthry, introduced a lot of lore that completely derailed the fascinating build up to Garlemald and now...we have this.

Tea parties and standing in fields of flowers to defeat the villain. Well, okay.