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

[Kyohei]

A miraculously preserved present day Elpis that told its tales of the past via Echo visions and ancient records could've still fulfilled its needed purpose in the narrative of isolating the source of the Final Days with the only real loss being that we wouldn't have been able to spend any personal time with the Ancients.

Elpis msq part and the quests were very pleasant to me, but it is hard not to have a second look at them and think the whole time travel might have been a mistake altogether. Most of the inconsistencies stem from things happening in Elpis and the time travel concept itself. Closed loops especially, are seldom enjoyable in stories. When using time travel there are so many variables to control in order to make sure it won't leave a lacking impression that you have to know exactly and with extreme precision where you're coming from and where you're going. This bit of Endwalker, although appreciable, didn't seem mastered by the writers. So maybe they should've indeed went with echo visions and not touch time again.

[Skyborne]

Time travel stories tend to feel a little eh to me the more ripple effects there are, because I nitpick too much and frustrate myself. Things like "We have the Blessing of Light because Venat saw us with it, so we have it." feel like circular logic and that bothers me, even if I conceptually understand the idea behind a bootstrap paradox.

Personally, I wasn't bothered too much by Elpis, though I will admit that reading some other posts here did make me think over some missed opportunities. For example, Azem being split between working with their mentor on Team Hydaelyn or their two best friends on Team Zodiark. Maybe there will be a "Tale from the End" or something addressing that, since I think the question was raised to Yoshi-P.

Don't worry, Yoshi has heard you. We'll instead get a Tales of the End that is all about Lightni -- I mean Venat -- that will clean up your misperceptions of her. Please please please don't think of her as being bad or doing bad things!

Elpis msq part and the quests were very pleasant to me, but it is hard not to have a second look at them and think the whole time travel might have been a mistake altogether. Most of the inconsistencies stem from things happening in Elpis and the time travel concept itself. Closed loops especially, are seldom enjoyable in stories. When using time travel there are so many variables to control in order to make sure it won't leave a lacking impression that you have to know exactly and with extreme precision where you're coming from and where you're going. This bit of Endwalker, although appreciable, didn't seem mastered by the writers. So maybe they should've indeed went with echo visions and not touch time again.

I have seen people gush over the time loop because it's 'very Final Fantasy' and 'nostalgic'. As far as I know the only games featuring them are FF1 and FF8. Correct me if I'm wrong since I didn't play 1 (I know, I know, fake fan), but wasn't it about breaking the loop and freeing the people from Chaos?

[Rosenstrauch]

I have seen people gush over the time loop because it's 'very Final Fantasy' and 'nostalgic'. As far as I know the only games featuring them are FF1 and FF8. Correct me if I'm wrong since I didn't play 1 (I know, I know, fake fan), but wasn't it about breaking the loop and freeing the people from Chaos?

It was, yeah—the game ends with everything you've done to get to that point being negated. Garland never becomes evil, the Four Fiends never return to torment the world, and so on. Though the time loop in Final Fantasy I didn't come up until the very end of the game, and the rest of the game had no time travel whatsoever.

Final Fantasy 8 is a stranger situation. The story didn't need to establish where Cid and Edea got the idea to make the Gardens. Nor did it need to establish which Sorceress Edea got her powers from. But the writers decided "Squall told them" and "Ultimecia gave them to her" were perfect, even though they just bring more questions than answers, if you ask me. It should also be noted that, in sharp contrast to Meteion, Ultimecia legit could not be confronted without first allowing her to nearly succeed in her goal of consuming all of spacetime. Meteion could have been confronted at any point in the story, however, so long as the ones seeking to do so had access to a starship and knowledge of her whereabouts.