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

[PawPaw]

Also, this doesn't really have to hinge on anyone's word either. We were able to conveniently use our Echo on that floating island to watch Hermes talk to Meteion on the waifu space probe launch day. Is this just a Sundered Azem thing? I suppose so, otherwise an Ancient with this ability could just have watched the post-Ktisis cutscene, and oops.

I thought that that scene made it pretty clear that this was an "everyone here can do this" thing that we were just being taught how to use properly use for once. She did say that this was how they preserve history and I assume she wasn't just talking about herself. Just a part of the original powers that the Echo stems from.

In any case, it negates everything that comes after because if you lose a memory, seems like it'd be damn easy to get that back by walking a few feet and activating your brain but...I'm just looking at the story too closely like Yoshi-P said, I guess. My bad for expecting basic logic in said story.

[Theodric]

I don't have high hopes for Pandaemonium. The current trend has been to stack tragedy after tragedy on throwaway NPC's and sympathetic antagonists but have zero lasting consequences for any of the protagonists.

It's bland, stale and predictable but the game appeals to a social media following that screams about 'Game of Thrones' the moment anyone suggests that a decent story actually has genuine stakes and shocking moments from time to time.

It's particularly dull when the same characters who stand to lose nothing are constantly lecturing the characters who do lose things. It's easy for people to take the high ground when they have every benefit to call upon.

At this point, the game's little more than a 'make your himbo' simulator for me. Maybe that'll change. We'll have to see, I guess. Given the sheer number of people I see heavily modding their game to the point of it being utterly unrecognisable, I honestly question how many people even like the base game in the first place at this point. Even people who claim to be a fan of specific characters seem to read into and present them as entirely different to how they're actually established as well.

[KageTokage]

I thought that that scene made it pretty clear that this was an "everyone here can do this" thing that we were just being taught how to use properly use for once. She did say that this was how they preserve history and I assume she wasn't just talking about herself. Just a part of the original powers that the Echo stems from.

In any case, it negates everything that comes after because if you lose a memory, seems like it'd be damn easy to get that back by walking a few feet and activating your brain but...I'm just looking at the story too closely like Yoshi-P said, I guess.

This just reminds me that whoever wrote the Bozja storyline was missing critical information when they decided to make Mikoto able to glimpse the future with the excuse that she lacked the fundamental quality of being able to glimpse the past using the Echo.

Never mind the further illogicality that if there were actually seers like that back in the time of the Ancients the Final Days would not have caught them off-guard as badly as it did.

If/when she shows up again I hope they'll just pretend she never had that ability in the first place since it's not like it actually contributed to anything meaningful anyways...outside of being Resonant fodder, which was similarly unneeded when they could've just as easily had an innate Echo user be an antagonist instead.

That's just me expressing annoyance at one of the only other story aspects MSQ or otherwise that made me go "But why" in hindsight, though.

[Kyohei]

That's the risk when multiple people write for different contents within the same game. Not enough consultation with each other and a detail that will lead to inconsistency can pass through.
We can extend that to the msq story too actually.
However, future sighting being has recurrent thing. The Mol grandma seem to have prophetic visions and hehe...Azem himself/herself seem to somehow have glimpses of future too as he saw us come to Elpis and notified to Themis.

[KageTokage]

That's the risk when multiple people write for different contents within the same game. Not enough consultation with each other and a detail that will lead to inconsistency can pass through.
We can extend that to the msq story too actually.

Ishikawa mentioning she had intended to hand the story off to "junior writers" honestly has me feeling really concerned and I kind of hope they specifically mention who's doing 7.0 so we can have an idea of what to expect.

I think the absolute worst case scenario would be a Garlean-focused story penned by whoever did Bozja because they really don't know to do morally grey when they were trying to push team war crimes AKA the IVth legion as somehow being viewed as benign enough to have attracted a significant number of foreign conscripts and defectors.

[Kyohei]

I believe this concerns many people in this thread and probably more considering what a let down the current expansion story has been.
Also can see with Endwalker that they don't like staying in the grey already. I don't know if it's from the direction or from the writers own volition though.

It would be nice to see for example the Scions stumble and have errors of judgement. Best we had was Alphinaud and his Braves but even then I feel like they were quick to brush his part of blame off. Urianger too did have some history actually but overall it seems the Scions as an entity shall be written as perfect and untouchable models of virtue. That even when it seem self-served but it only looks that way if you look at the story too much.

[Claviusnex]

I think a lot of my disappointment was the result of the time travel in the MSQ. Any game I have played that decides to use time travel ends up going through contortions to resolve character interactions past, present and future. For me the end result is a bunch of loose ends that don't really seem to fit when tied together to close out the plot line. There are better ways for the protagonist and supporting characters to learn from the past without resorting to time travel and cheap plot devices.

[Kyohei]

Time travel requires extremely precise writing with detailed consideration of every events past, present and future (basically be in full control) of a story for it to be done well in a way it won't create plot holes/inconsistencies.
Such precise writing isn't easy to achieve when multiple people work on a story, it can quickly be messy with ideas of more than one person poured into it.

[Rulakir]

There's an interview with Yoshi-P, Ishikawa, and Oda in the next issue of Famitsu magazine. No translation that I know of yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...e_50page_ff14/

[Claviusnex]

Time travel requires extremely precise writing with detailed consideration of every events past, present and future (basically be in full control) of a story for it to be done well in a way it won't create plot holes/inconsistencies.
Such precise writing isn't easy to achieve when multiple people work on a story, it can quickly be messy with ideas of more than one person poured into it.

It is also something that works better when planned from the very beginning not years after much of the story has been told as is the usual case in games.