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

[Rulakir]

I think the speculation surrounding him was far more interesting than what they went with.

I expected a twist but, no, the Fandaniel we saw in ShB is what we got in EW. I dislike everything about the character, including his voice change (the raspiness of it grates on my nerves). Were it not for Venat overshadowing essentially every other aspect of the story for me he'd be my most hated character. I found his motivation not compelling and his development weak. I'm not into clownish/overly theatrical villains, I sighed and rolled my eyes every time he did his "Hahaha! You foiled my plans to predictable perfection! I win!" He's not even a villain I love to hate, he just sucked in every conceivable way and wasn't likeable as Hermes either. They didn't even bother giving him a unique model. He's Asahi, he's Amon, he's a generic Elezen until the dungeon.

I'm genuinely envious of people who managed to like both Hermes and Venat because if you hated them like I did EW was a frequently miserable experience.

Some comment I saw of the poll results on that.

Emet #1 as usual, but I'm surprised to see Haurchefant at #3. Course, us ENG players got a heavily revised version of him. Even still, I've always thought his character model was ugly.

My music tastes are apparently vastly different from other players. I dislike most of the top song choices, especially Answers.

[Skyborne]

The Famitsu Fan Survey is out. Looks like Emet-Selch is still reigning from on high as the king of popularity.

I was going to stop at the meme number but I had to catch up on the last 16ish pages with popcorn in hand. Also not surprised at Emet-Selch... funny that the game basically grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you going LOVE CRYSTAL MOM, BOW BEFORE YOUR SUPERIOR but the grump reigns supreme. Such is the power of fujoshi chadettes. That said, our two biggest fanboys who also appeal to the fujo crowd being that high up is not surprising too.

RE: criticism of the expac... godspeed, I don't touch reddit with a 10 yalm stick. You'd think anonymous imageboards with no rep at stake would be a bit different, but on /v/ the general attitude tends to be 'turn off your brain and don't think about it, if you don't love the story then you are arrogant'. There is some criticism of the game and gameplay itself. Something tells me most of these individuals only jumped in during the ShB streamer craze and they haven't invested years into the story/lore like some...

....

As has been pointed out a bunch of times in this thread, the time travelling could have been replaced with the Echo. Given how solidly constructed Amaurot's buildings were and its position high up in the air, I think it's viable that Elpis itself could've survived to the present day albeit overgrown and with some islands missing/in rough shape. Instead of having Elpis as a zone, perhaps they could've had a 'North Garlemald' on the other side of the city and fleshed out the Empire a bit more... just a thought.

[Theodric]

'North Garlemald'

Region locked content. UK only. Norf Garlemald, simple as.

[PawPaw]

Unsurprising in that regard, though I'm forever bewildered as to why people remain so attached to Haurchefant.

I agree this was quite surprising. Maybe it has something to do with shots/voice clips of him him being constantly shoved in our face accompanied by oh-so-sad music several times during EW? Otherwise, while I like Haurchefant for what he was back in HW I can't think of a reason to be that attached to him at this point. Much less for it to be so widespread that he'd reach Number 3 on a popularity poll in 2022.

My music tastes are apparently vastly different from other players. I dislike most of the top song choices, especially Answers.

Answers and Flow can both die in a fire but I'm OK with the rest. 'Neath Dark Waters is probably my favorite song in the game.

[Teraq]

He's Asahi, he's Amon, he's a generic Elezen until the dungeon.

Speaking of models, there's something about Amon that just sits uneasy with me honestly: he's just a FFIII monster touched up. I feel the same toward Xande; I just can't connect to them as actual people that lived in the world of FFXIV because they look so bizarre and improbable for the setting. Fandaniel's Echo flashbacks show him interacting both with Xande and with perfectly normal Midlander Hyurs. The thing is, to me he will just always be this FFIII fanservice cameo in Syrcus Tower with a ridiculous boss model rather than a true person that lived in the Allagan Empire.

If anything, he's shown to have what looks like dark grey/purple pointy ears. I would have really appreciated it if the game had shown us what he actually looked like under his tacky costume. I am picturing a Duskwight that looks exactly like Hermes, as poetic irony for him insisting he is nothing like the man Fandaniel used to be.

Answers and Flow can both die in a fire but I'm OK with the rest.

Fully onboard with Flow dying in a fire to be honest.

I wish I could have the other two phases of Close In The Distance still playing in Ultima Thule. I appreciated the full song as part of the MSQ and walking up there, but it just feels awkward playing all the time while I'm just mining chondrite. The first phase that just droned on and on was one real mood.

(Also, every time I hear the "promises made so long ago" line, I cringe.)

[Ixon]

As has been pointed out a bunch of times in this thread, the time travelling could have been replaced with the Echo. Given how solidly constructed Amaurot's buildings were and its position high up in the air, I think it's viable that Elpis itself could've survived to the present day albeit overgrown and with some islands missing/in rough shape. Instead of having Elpis as a zone, perhaps they could've had a 'North Garlemald' on the other side of the city and fleshed out the Empire a bit more... just a thought.

I don't know if I would personally have like that more, but it could have happened. Personally, I liked that we could walk and talk and interact with the Ancients pre-sundering. Echo flashbacks, or reading a dusty tome, or talking to specters doesn't make them feel as alive or real as they did when you could interact with them. I thoroughly enjoyed the side quests in Elpis more than a majority of zones in all of FFXIV. A lot of it for comedic sake, but side quests that that had you helping create and design monsters that you already knew about(mind you it's more time loop tom foolery) were very enjoyable. Plus the entire fan-service of doing quests with Emet and Hythlodaus. Not to mention that because of this echo time-loop thing we are able to learn more about Elidibus and Lahabrea( in the future hopefully) who in the past I could not have cared less about. Finicky and lacking solid plotline at times I still enjoyed a good chunk of what we were given.

[Skyborne]

I don't know if I would personally have like that more, but it could have happened. Personally, I liked that we could walk and talk and interact with the Ancients pre-sundering. Echo flashbacks, or reading a dusty tome, or talking to specters doesn't make them feel as alive or real as they did when you could interact with them. I thoroughly enjoyed the side quests in Elpis more than a majority of zones in all of FFXIV. A lot of it for comedic sake, but side quests that that had you helping create and design monsters that you already knew about(mind you it's more time loop tom foolery) were very enjoyable. Plus the entire fan-service of doing quests with Emet and Hythlodaus. Not to mention that because of this echo time-loop thing we are able to learn more about Elidibus and Lahabrea( in the future hopefully) who in the past I could not have cared less about. Finicky and lacking solid plotline at times I still enjoyed a good chunk of what we were given.

I liked it as well and it's probably the first time that I did every single sidequest in a zone (been working on the other zones as well, UT/Moon/Garlemald pretty much done). Still... the thought of 'man, all these people are gonna get screwed over hard' and the 'Thou Must Walk' scene just soured it a bit afterward. Shoutout to us being the cause of Behemoths and those Gigantoads sticky-tonguing us. Also, Charmion adoring us to an almost unhealthy extent and feeding us her flower juice... oh, and another shoutout to Meletos the Inscrutable, who cared nothing about ethics and just wanted to amuse himself with having us fight his very questionable creations... that survived to the present day in the Amnemesis.

[Theodric]

Admittedly I never cared much for Haurchefant. I dislike him for the same reason I don't like G'raha - the story insists that my character feels strongly about both characters even though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do so.

The writers would do well to remember that a lot of people don't care for the constant hero worship that is forced upon them at practically every turn to the point of it coming across as a parody and obsession.

I also didn't like the decision to suddenly tie the Crystal Tower storyline to pretty much every major aspect of the story and have G'raha of all characters responsible for the defeat of not one but two of the Unsundered.

It was particularly jarring when one considers that neither Emet or Elidibus were allowed a single on screen kill of note during their time in the spotlight. I think such a decision did them both a major disservice - and knowing that Ishikawa was against the idea of Moenbryda dying makes it even worse because I think Nabriales stood out as pretty cool as a consequence of...actually posing a meaningful threat.

[PawPaw]

and knowing that Ishikawa was against the idea of Moenbryda dying makes it even worse because I think Nabriales stood out as pretty cool as a consequence of...actually posing a meaningful threat.

Umm. Are you serious? Is she willing to see anyone "good" die in this game? As if the plot armor for the "heroes" wasn't already at laughable levels.

More reason for me to really hope that we get some writer changes going forward; I don't need to play in a cotton-candy land where the only bad things that happen are to those they dictate to be the "villains" or to throwaway NPCs.

I wish I could have the other two phases of Close In The Distance still playing in Ultima Thule. I appreciated the full song as part of the MSQ and walking up there, but it just feels awkward playing all the time while I'm just mining chondrite. The first phase that just droned on and on was one real mood.

(Also, every time I hear the "promises made so long ago" line, I cringe.)

I also really liked the two versions of Close in the Distance that were simply distorted instrumentals. It is pretty odd to always have lyrical music playing whenever you go to a zone, are there any other like this? Only thing I can think of that's similar is that 'La-hee" place.

[aveyond-dreams]

I too would like my video games to have stories with meaningful development and consequences. Otherwise, what separates Endwalker from just twitter fanfiction?