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

[Atelier-Bagur]

Heavensward smells for me. I had more interest in Stormblood's story than HW.

[gumas]

overall i enjoy it but yeah for mmorpg it does great job at it, but if you compare it to actual story medium like movie/book it definitely on the "average" for me.

i dont hate meteion being the "culprit" of it but yeah it just so weird to introduce her in current EW, if anything they should introduce or at least hint the big bad final final boss earlier like back in SB era or something, that way it give her more "so it was her all along?" impact. but because it was introduce to us in EW and the writer just blatantly give her "look at her, now be friend with her, she cute and something horrid happened to her, you should feel sad" writing, it just come out strange for me at least

iam actually more interested if it was hermes the one who caused this all and meteion being the catalyst/sacrifice to make it happen considering how insane he is as fandaniel, like after meteion die, hermes gradually goes insane and during that cause all of this and become fandaniel, i would definitely more interested with that setting

what i hate the most in EW is definitely the labyrinthos moon rabbit part, the part where we need to help scientist by doing menial task, 2-3 quest of it would be fine but it just keep dragging on and on like what are they thinking? its pre titan fight ARR all over again.

the endsinger also weird me out a bit, not us wol or the endsinger but the zenos part, like he transform into dragon (forgot its name) and we on his back fight endsinger? ok that part is fine, but maybe he should.... i dont know interact a bit more during the fight? like endsinger literally bombard us with a giant planet to us but hello? zenos? thats your BACK she is aiming at? shouldnt you try to... i dont know erect a barrier or try to avoid it, or at least say something?

[Ryaz]

Players here will maul you the moment you say anything bad about this game.
EW is way less enjoyable, story-wise than SHB to me, I actually put it below SB if you ignore the Ala Mhigo part, which was really badly handled.

EW suffers from terrible pacing issues that should have been told across the entire expansion. I found it hilarious when we had the Forum people in the game say the sky is about to fall, you had a NPC literally ask "How long do we have?" the response, "Soon tm" then that night you choose your lover to come to see you, the next day all hell broke loose but no one really seems like they're in a panic and the rest of Eorzea is chilling.

Pacing, pacing, pacing. I'm still sorely disappointed how Garelmeld was held and the Moon too. Hopefully the next patches redeem itself because EW is not that great to me by any means.
Not to mention Meteion who was shoehorned. Sorry, I did not care about Hermes' love doll going evil or how Zenos had fook all to do with anything. I hope he's gone for good.

I'd say from best to worst in story expansions:
SHB > HW > SB > EW > ARR.
SB was saved for me because Doma/Steppes were actually a really good arcs. To hell with Ala Mhigo lol.

Have you read most of the posts about the EW story here? It's more likely the opposite. Most of the vocal posters have been attacking the story, not praising it, and have been fairly condescending to those who do like it. Heck the one post that actual praised it barely made it two pages before it was lost to time, yet this one is 69 pages long.

I just chalk it up to the nature of the official forums. It's 85% criticism of the game, 10% actual discussion and 5% troll posts. If people only had access to the forums for info, they'd literally think it's in a worse state than WoW and they shouldn't be playing it.

[Garet]

Have you read most of the posts about the EW story here? It's more likely the opposite. Most of the vocal posters have been attacking the story, not praising it, and have been fairly condescending to those who do like it. Heck the one post that actual praised it barely made it two pages before it was lost to time, yet this one is 69 pages long.

I just chalk it up to the nature of the official forums. It's 85% criticism of the game, 10% actual discussion and 5% troll posts. If people only had access to the forums for info, they'd literally think it's in a worse state than WoW and they shouldn't be playing it.

Agree. It is indeed the nature of the forums in every game I think. People that enjoy the story and game usually just post from time to time and be content so it usually get buried fast by those that are not content who posts multitude of negative criticism to keep driving their point.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Have you read most of the posts about the EW story here? It's more likely the opposite. Most of the vocal posters have been attacking the story, not praising it, and have been fairly condescending to those who do like it. Heck the one post that actual praised it barely made it two pages before it was lost to time, yet this one is 69 pages long.

I just chalk it up to the nature of the official forums. It's 85% criticism of the game, 10% actual discussion and 5% troll posts. If people only had access to the forums for info, they'd literally think it's in a worse state than WoW and they shouldn't be playing it.

I haven’t seen too many people being condescending to people who like the story in my experience and i frequent posts like these fairly often. I think i’ve seen far more of a problem of people trying to write off others’ criticism purely because it’s a forum post or that their opinion is in the minority so it doesn’t matter. Tbf reddit and twitter are essentially the opposite of what you’re equating the forums to. It’s 85% pandering and game worshipping, 10% actual discussion, 5% troll posts. Criticism isn’t really common on those platforms as you’re basically immediately shit down, mass downvoted, or reported as a troll(which i’ve actually had happen and have had posts taken down because people couldn’t handle my criticism). The forums are a much more welcoming place in that regard and is a much more sage space to give opinions on the game than the other two.

[Rulakir]

I generally don't go into threads of people hating on something I love or ones loving something I hate. Both seem an unproductive and unenjoyable use of my time.

For story I actually put HW slightly over Shb so my story list would be HW > SHB > EW > SB > ARR

This is my ranking too. I think HW was the right balance, not too cheesy or gritty. The villain was understandable, but not so sympathetic and likeable you wanted to be BFFs. The protagonists suffered losses. We were spared most of the Saturday morning cartoon "power of friendship" nonsense, which unfortunately made a reappearance at the end of the two major boss fights in ShB despite it having an overall grimmer theme.

The Ala Mhigan half of SB sinks it and the Doma half alone isn't enough to put it above EW.

I still prefer the art and tone of the original Arslan but the remake did go a bit further than the original on the story

The art style of the Arslan remake is the main reason I haven't made more of an effort to watch it. Most of the character designs were a massive downgrade. I only watched some of Lodoss a long time ago and never finished it.

[Alestorm]

I personally thought the story was good, all be it rushed at times with pacing. My only complaint was after the Temple of Zot dungeon Y'shtola comments about it's power source having a man's arm in it.... and it's never addressed again. I get the feeling it was to be something bigger, but it just never got mentioned again.

[Garet]

The art style of the Arslan remake is the main reason I haven't made more of an effort to watch it. Most of the character designs were a massive downgrade. I only watched some of Lodoss a long time ago and never finished it.

Agree. The art style of the Arslan remake seems pointed towards a more younger audience I think. I also almost did not watch it because of that but I really wanted to know the story since the original was too short lived. The Original Arslan has a more mature art style and tone which is very nice and suited more the theme and setting of the story. Hence I hope if they do remake Record of Lodoss War that they maintain the tone of the original OVA even as they try to expand the story.

[Nanne]

I personally thought the story was good, all be it rushed at times with pacing. My only complaint was after the Temple of Zot dungeon Y'shtola comments about it's power source having a man's arm in it.... and it's never addressed again. I get the feeling it was to be something bigger, but it just never got mentioned again.

It was mentioned if you run one of the dungeon's with certain trusts

[OhNooo]

I think HW was the right balance, not too cheesy or gritty. The villain was understandable, but not so sympathetic and likeable you wanted to be BFFs. The protagonists suffered losses. We were spared most of the Saturday morning cartoon "power of friendship" nonsense, which unfortunately made a reappearance at the end of the two major boss fights in ShB despite it having an overall grimmer theme.

Exactly this. HW definitely felt like it had the right balance for me. Although, one thing I did appreciate about SB was the fact that we were beaten as badly as we were. It was kind of nice to see our character not being the strongest for once.