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

[Misutoraru]

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.

I found the forum or the entire sharlayan plot “problematic”.
The first part is very slow pace, we try to figure out what the forum is plotting, too slow pace and too political for me, but I am sure some player like it which is fair enough.
The second part is…we spend an entire patch building the plot that forum is obsessed with the exodus, so obsessed they think it was the best and rightmove.

They encounter an issue with their vessel not a design more like material supply issue. A issue so resourceful and sending workers around the world to take specimens back home could not resolved. We, the scion may be more well connected but small came and tell them “oh you could find it XXX, they literally lying on the ground”.

Once we fix their problem, they give us their vessel to deal with the issue that will end the world. The only vessel they have for the exodus they are so obsessed with and we would not be able to take it back if we fail.

I am sure the writer could come up with a proper reasoning for them to gamble on us, but the whole shift to tone happen like a blink of an eye, and the whole “solving their problem” plot feel the writer is rush to come up with something

[Stachiko]

I found the forum or the entire sharlayan plot “problematic”.

I'll be frank, the entire Sharlayan plot rubbed me wrong. The Scions (Acting ambassadors for their respective nations) and the entire Forum conversation felt like an anime adult committee talking to a group of anime kids. Every question they asked had an obvious answer that would lead to The Forum wanting nothing to do with them. It was the opposite of good politics. And sadly, the entire EW storyline was full of awful politics. Like sending the two youngest members to field a head military figure of the enemy territory.

Why do people keep telling me this story is amazing? Why am I supposed to blindly accept their viewpoint and keep my opinions to myself? That's what unsettles me the most. There's nothing wrong with critiquing something you love. If anything, you should.

[Ryaz]

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.

I've seen posts praising and not praising on Reddit as well., though you do see praising on those platforms for sure (and all the the streamers I've followed seem to like it so far, but I've only watched a couple or so). And this forum isn't much better about pushing posts away that like the game. As I said, there was one post thanking the devs for a great game, it barely made two pages and was pushed far down the list by a lack of replies. Just because there isn't a downvote button doesn't mean opposing viewpoints don't get silenced here. Saying this place is more welcoming that Twitter or reddit is simply untrue.

And as I've said, if people don't like the game, that's fine. But many people here like to present their opinions as objective facts instead of subjective opinions and write off people who like the story as "being easily emotionally manipulated", which is kinda condescending.

And I suppose I find it kinda odd that so many people claim to love the game, but then criticize every single aspect of it. Again, it reminds me of WoW and would make any potential player think FFXIV is just as bad if not worse than WoW right now.

[Conundrum]

Why do people keep telling me this story is amazing? Why am I supposed to blindly accept their viewpoint and keep my opinions to myself? That's what unsettles me the most. There's nothing wrong with critiquing something you love. If anything, you should.

Because FFXIV is the collision of 3 unholy fanboy groups...not the one or maybe two most games get.

1) The FFXIV fanboys

2) The Final Fantasy franchise fanboys

3) The actual weebs and otakus


I suspect some other reasons, but they would be...shall we say...more controversial. So we'll stick with those three.

[Stachiko]

And I suppose I find it kinda odd that so many people claim to love the game, but then criticize every single aspect of it. Again, it reminds me of WoW and would make any potential player think FFXIV is just as bad if not worse than WoW right now.

There's nothing wrong with criticizing something you enjoy.

A hard reality is that FFXIV's story isn't for everyone. (A poll could help prove that point). Telling every soul you meet that the story is amazing, while forgoing the fact that it's not suited for everyone, is a recipe for disaster.

WoW doesn't do this. No one will tell you to go read the lore. No one will tell you the story is amazing. Even in the Arthas days, the story was considered optional.

Shadowlands is different but I don't want to get into that. There are parts of SL I enjoy. There are parts I don't. I still love WoW and can accept parts of it are awful.

At the same time I'm learning to love FFXIV and having fun. My only wish is that others stop trying to push me into things I don't enjoy. Like crafting. I seriously cannot stand crafting in FF.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I've seen posts praising and not praising on Reddit as well., though you do see praising on those platforms for sure (and all the the streamers I've followed seem to like it so far, but I've only watched a couple or so). And this forum isn't much better about pushing posts away that like the game. As I said, there was one post thanking the devs for a great game, it barely made two pages and was pushed far down the list by a lack of replies. Just because there isn't a downvote button doesn't mean opposing viewpoints don't get silenced here. Saying this place is more welcoming that Twitter or reddit is simply untrue.

And as I've said, if people don't like the game, that's fine. But many people here like to present their opinions as objective facts instead of subjective opinions and write off people who like the story as "being easily emotionally manipulated", which is kinda condescending.

And I suppose I find it kinda odd that so many people claim to love the game, but then criticize every single aspect of it. Again, it reminds me of WoW and would make any potential player think FFXIV is just as bad if not worse than WoW right now.

I really don’t think it’s untrue. When i give an opinion on an aspect i liked on twitter or reddit and i’m bombarded by death threats, i definitely find the forums to be a much safer and welcoming place to share my opinion. Although, this isn’t very uncommon with this community. We have the whole scottzone situation to look at of someone giving criticism and the community not being able to handle it. While personal tastes are 100% subjective, there are a lot of issues with the story that are purely objective. It objectively had pacing issues, i don’t think i’ve really seen anyone argue against that. As for the emotional manipulation thing, to be fair imo they did a LOT of it this expansion. Between the anime styled quality time with the scions to them pretending to kill then off etc etc. It’s plain and simple emotional manipulation there lol.

[True-to-Caesar]

The story was good for me, the boring part was preparing to go to the last zone. Felt like a real chore and the BGM on repeat didn't helped.

I do feel however they really did Zodiark dirty both in how weak he was (it fits the story but still) and even the barding. Compare the Zodiark chocobo barding VS Hydaelin's. One clearly got the shortest stick.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The story was good for me, the boring part was preparing to go to the last zone. Felt like a real chore and the BGM on repeat didn't helped.

I do feel however they really did Zodiark dirty both in how weak he was (it fits the story but still) and even the barding. Compare the Zodiark chocobo barding VS Hydaelin's. One clearly got the shortest stick.

Oh i mean regarding Zodiark vs Hydaelyn there’s major heavy bias lol. I think Yoshi P even went on record saying they spent a month/couple months on Hydaelyn’s design and model alone. You can tell the dev team has major bias towards her and venat and it shows a lot this expansion. Just hope he gets an ultimate or something to really shine but i’ve kind of lost hope considering both him and elidibus just consistently keep getting shafted. I think they just don’t care anymore.

[Conundrum]

You can tell the dev team has major bias towards her and venat and it shows a lot this expansion.

Pretty obvious because of how squeaky clean she was in the end without even the slightest hint of moral ambiguity that she may not have been 1000% right.

[van_arn]

Oh i mean regarding Zodiark vs Hydaelyn there’s major heavy bias lol. I think Yoshi P even went on record saying they spent a month/couple months on Hydaelyn’s design and model alone. You can tell the dev team has major bias towards her and venat and it shows a lot this expansion. Just hope he gets an ultimate or something to really shine but i’ve kind of lost hope considering both him and elidibus just consistently keep getting shafted. I think they just don’t care anymore.

You played 5.3 right? How the heck did Elidibus get shafted?