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

[KageTokage]

On a side note, i dont know if this is just the biggest plot hole or oversight in the game, but does anyone know why the moon is visible in Elpis?

At this point I'm convinced it's very intentional given that oddity that you can only see it during umbral winds and its presence is extremely fleeting, with it suddenly appearing at around 8 PM ET and disappearing as quickly as it appears by the time 12 AM rolls around.

There's also umbral winds on the moon itself and in Ultima Thule, which I feel is suggesting some kind of connection.

If anything, this might be something that comes up in the 6.x MSQ bits as there's hints of at least some of that story being focused on the moon as per Thancred and Urianger. I personally think that its existence is not so simple as "Hydaelyn made it" and we'll learn the full truth via an expedition to parts that lie outside of Mare Lamentorum.

[Lauront]

Is there any reason why the unsundered world wouldn't have a moon? Was it even otherwise stated that the unsundered world doesn't have a moon?

It comes from the Word of the Mother scene implying she created it in the EN version and also is even more emphatic in the FR version:

Messagère d'Hydaelyn : Au fil du temps, les avides Ténèbres accrurent leur pouvoir et l'équilibre avec la Lumière fut rompu. Plongée dans le désespoir, Hydaelyn n'eut d'autre choix que de bannir Zordiarche dans un ciel lointain, hors de la mer des étoiles.
= “Over time, the greedy darkness increased its power and the balance with the light was broken. Plunged into despair, Hydaelyn had no choice but to banish Zordiark in a distant sky, out of the sea of stars (Lifestream).”

Messagère d'Hydaelyn : Leur éclatement en deux entités distinctes entraîna la naissance de la lune, mais il fissura également la lisière de notre dimension.
= “Their division into two separate entities led to the birth of the moon, but it also cracked the border of our dimension.”

With that being said, as almost the entirety of the tale she tells there is fictitious... I wouldn't be surprised if that too is untrue.

At this point I'm convinced it's very intentional given that oddity that you can only see it during umbral winds and its presence is extremely fleeting, with it suddenly appearing at around 8 PM ET and disappearing as quickly as it appears by the time 12 AM rolls around.

There's also umbral winds on the moon itself and in Ultima Thule, which I feel is suggesting some kind of connection.

If anything, this might be something that comes up in the 6.x MSQ bits as there's hints of at least some of that story being focused on the moon as per Thancred and Urianger. I personally think that its existence is not so simple as "Hydaelyn made it" and we'll learn the full truth via an expedition to parts that lie outside of Mare Lamentorum.

Could be.

[EmpyreanHelios]

There's always the next expansion. I have faith in SE to recover and start over. Maybe this time they can focus on Garlemald and the politics instead of primals dictating our future.
They could also ignore our complaints and move forward making the game more anime. In which case I would prefer a notice ahead so I can duly skip all cutscenes. The gameplay and community are still enough to keep me around.

yea, I'm greatly hoping the next expansion will be better. I can't believe i'm writing this when one just came out.
maybe covid just messed up endwalker entirely.
see you 2 years later, i suppose.

I think we all play FFXIV for a multitude of reasons, but we can probably assume the people in this thread care about the story and lore a great deal.

Personally, I’m a healer main that gave up on the possibility of SE ever really fixing our core issues (I won't bore you with the specifics). I came back mostly for the story and since they had a good track record with the previous expansions, I thought I was going to get at least a decent experience in Endwalker too. Well, that didn’t turn out as planned.

Saying that though, I truly do hope that they can clean it up in the patches? Maybe do a spectacular job in the next expansion? I will certainly be following the future story content of FFXIV. However, I’ll probably have to do it on someone's Youtube channel or Twitch stream first. It's unfortunate.

[Garet]

Is there any reason why the unsundered world wouldn't have a moon? Was it even otherwise stated that the unsundered world doesn't have a moon?

The original unsundered world also had their own moon. The fourteen reflection (13 + our source world) are basically reflections of the original world that were sundered into 14 copies. Hydaelyn decided to imprison Zodiark on the source's moon while scattering his other fragements to the other reflections

[KizuyaKatogami]

The original unsundered world also had their own moon. The fourteen reflection (13 + our source world) are basically reflections of the original world that were sundered into 14 copies. Hydaelyn decided to imprison Zodiark on the source's moon while scattering his other fragements to the other reflections

This isn’t explicitly stated, in fact someone above already linked hydaelyn’s telling of the events which is that she supposedly created the moon to house Zodiark. Considering Elpis takes place before all that the moon shouldn’t be visible unless she was flat out lying.

[Kozh]

Not to mention that there's no way she could know back when she started to make those plans that some fools would unshackle Zodiark early. The only way she could reasonably consider he would be free and the aether shield fell is if all the Rejoinings had happened, so the shards would no longer exist. I don't think she disregarded the shards as much as she didn't think they would be there anymore to worry about if her ultimate backup plan had to come into play.

But she knew what happened to Zodiark since the WoL told her in elpis. She clearly realized that in order for the WoL to reach her, 7 rejoining must happen. Same with the 8UC timeline. The WoL traveled back in time using modified crystal tower, which only exists in the current timeline. This means She "let" the calamity in another timeline to happen, and for the First to nearly be flooded with light in our timeline, as this would ensure us to reach her in Elpis. Basically she made 13 reflections with 7 of them to be sacrificed in mind.

[Kozh]

Indeed, but they were also already dying, and it seemed the end was near anyway. Regardless, just like I have no reason to be against the Ancients, I have no reason to be against them. My problem is with the Ascians, and regardless of what Venat did, she did not make them try to kill the WoL and the people we know.

Not everyone is dying. People outside of eorzea are still untouched by Black Rose. Even in Eorzea itself, there are still people living, only in bad conditions. People who doesn't know about the plan, doesn't know about the WoL, people who were just born into that world and tried their best just to survive, people who rightfully question the plan; all of them most likely doesn't want to be erased from existence.

Funny that even with midgarsomr waking up, with what EW revealed about meteion, that timeline is still doomed anyway.

[FoxyAreku]

Endwalker is the worst expansion so far in my opinion. Just had too little gameplay, I don't log into an MMO to watch cutscene after cutscene, especially when the plot wasn't even that good. Not to say I mind cutscenes, I loved shadowbringer's plot, but it also had actual gameplay happen. Endwalker is just too in love with its plot to let you play the game.

For the story itself, I enjoyed the parts with Meteion but everything else was pretty boring, hard to get into, or just didn't go anywhere.

[Stachiko]

Personally, I’m a healer main that gave up on the possibility of SE ever really fixing our core issues (I won't bore you with the specifics).

I wouldn't mind the specifics if you have them written down somewhere.

Endwalker is the worst expansion so far in my opinion. Just had too little gameplay

I felt this way about ShB as well. I let it go though. The MSQ certainly needs more gameplay (outside of dungeons/trials) across the board. They also need to condense the MSQ into less walking around and talking to xyz.

[myahele]

I wouldn't mind the specifics if you have them written down somewhere.



I felt this way about ShB as well. I let it go though. The MSQ certainly needs more gameplay (outside of dungeons/trials) across the board. They also need to condense the MSQ into less walking around and talking to xyz.

EW made it worse because you *have* to talk to xyz people while an npc was accompanying you in some quests. You can't teleport or use mounts because the npc will lose track of you and then you'll have to start from the begining with them.

While I don't think they need to get rid of the feature since it's nice to see what some of the npcs have to say, I don't think it should be mandatory to complete a quest.