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

[Theodric]

Well, the next Live Letter is set for the 1st of April. So at least it isn't too long to wait for further news surrounding 6.1 and whatever it's due to bring with it.

[Ixon]

Well, the next Live Letter is set for the 1st of April.

This is where we will learn the sundering and all of the story from ARR to now was just an early April Fools prank.

[Rulakir]

Opinion poll time! :P Are you more confident, less confident, unchanged, or undecided about Ishikawa possibly (I'm not sure it's been confirmed) having done the outline for the next 10 years?

I'd have to say undecided. I wish they'd talked about Venat. Ishikawa admitting despite Hermes being her favorite character she thought 80% of players would hate him indicates she has her finger on the pulse more than Yoshi-P does, but without knowing the same about Venat it's hard to say.

I'm significantly less confident regarding Yoshi-P. I don't know how much influence he has in the story, but I'm as baffled by his responses to things as he is to ours.

[EaraGrace]

Opinion poll time! :P Are you more confident, less confident, unchanged, or undecided about Ishikawa possibly (I'm not sure it's been confirmed) having done the outline for the next 10 years?

I'd have to say undecided. I wish they'd talked about Venat. Ishikawa admitting despite Hermes being her favorite character she thought 80% of players would hate him indicates she has her finger on the pulse more than Yoshi-P does, but without knowing the same about Venat it's hard to say.

I'm significantly less confident regarding Yoshi-P. I don't know how much influence he has in the story, but I'm as baffled by his responses to things as he is to ours.

I really gotta side with Yoshi P on this one. Both were motivated by emotional needs and wants, both acted to bring about death on massive scale in service of those emotional needs, and both were wrong to do so. Hermes existential crisis and need for meaning is no less understandable to me than Emets loneliness as a motivator after all. There’s not much reason to be ok with one over the other morally speaking.

I’ve liked Ishikawas work since Ysayle and Moenbryda so she’s got my support. Endwalker has only made me more a fan.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Opinion poll time! :P Are you more confident, less confident, unchanged, or undecided about Ishikawa possibly (I'm not sure it's been confirmed) having done the outline for the next 10 years?

I'd have to say undecided. I wish they'd talked about Venat. Ishikawa admitting despite Hermes being her favorite character she thought 80% of players would hate him indicates she has her finger on the pulse more than Yoshi-P does, but without knowing the same about Venat it's hard to say.

I'm significantly less confident regarding Yoshi-P. I don't know how much influence he has in the story, but I'm as baffled by his responses to things as he is to ours.

I think she has poor taste if Hermes is her favorite character. Between Hermes' poorly developed metanoia at the end of Elpis, the utterly contrived "test of humanity" and time-reversal plot devices, the vague hand-waving of the continuity of his soul post-sundering, the overall lazy and unnecessary retconning of Amon into his backstory, and the general insufferability of Fandaniel--imo a poor example of how to write a flippant character, as far as mannerisms, dialogue, and plotting are concerned--I think he is possibly the worst character in the series. I understand what Hermes/Fandaniel was supposed to function as in the story--I think it was horribly handled.

I think she's overrated. As much as I enjoyed ShB as a self-contained side story, I think it stands out as the least necessary expansion to the Hydaelyn arc. And Endwalker felt too splayed and rushed conceptually, and in several ways just a retrod of ShB ideas. So I don't have much faith in her ability to plot a whole multi-expansion arc. I wish I could say otherwise because she seems like a very nice person and despite being largely superfluous ShB had some outstanding ideas. But if Hermes is her barometer of her writing style, I think it quite likely that I will not like the ideas she puts forth in the future.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I think people got too enamoured by the edgy, emotional stories such as DK questline and Shadowbringers that honestly dampens too much the mood with the story sometimes. Im happy we got our lighter moments in EW and in general still enjoyed the expansion experience but yeah I miss the tone style of ARR and I hope 7.0 leans into it with more emphasis on adventure and less melodrama

[kpxmanifesto]

I think people got too enamoured by the edgy, emotional stories such as DK questline and Shadowbringers that honestly dampens too much the mood with the story sometimes. Im happy we got our lighter moments in EW and in general still enjoyed the expansion experience but yeah I miss the tone style of ARR and I hope 7.0 leans into it with more emphasis on adventure and less melodrama

I honestly thought EW tried to be the most melodramatic of all the xpacs to the point that it became overdone and stale. Every time an "emotional" scene came around I was like: "Ok, here we go again." I'd also much prefer if it went back to a light-hearted setting in 7.0.

[Ixon]

I honestly thought EW tried to be the most melodramatic of all the xpacs to the point that it became overdone and stale. Every time an "emotional" scene came around I was like: "Ok, here we go again." I'd also much prefer if it went back to a light-hearted setting in 7.0.

I see no reason for this to happen(hopefully), due to the fact that we have zero pressing matters at hand other than trying to make Garlemald an ally of the world and doing a Fordola and Giaus style arc of "be nice to the previous enemy that killed your loved ones". I feel the patches leading up to next expansion are to cover that, with something happening near the end that will have us plan to go to either the New World or most likely Mericydia and deal with some sort of conlfict on a much smaller scale over there.

[Skyborne]

I think she has poor taste if Hermes is her favorite character. Between Hermes' poorly developed metanoia at the end of Elpis, the utterly contrived "test of humanity" and time-reversal plot devices, the vague hand-waving of the continuity of his soul post-sundering, the overall lazy and unnecessary retconning of Amon into his backstory, and the general insufferability of Fandaniel--imo a poor example of how to write a flippant character, as far as mannerisms, dialogue, and plotting are concerned--I think he is possibly the worst character in the series. I understand what Hermes/Fandaniel was supposed to function as in the story--I think it was horribly handled.

I think she's overrated. As much as I enjoyed ShB as a self-contained side story, I think it stands out as the least necessary expansion to the Hydaelyn arc. And Endwalker felt too splayed and rushed conceptually, and in several ways just a retrod of ShB ideas. So I don't have much faith in her ability to plot a whole multi-expansion arc. I wish I could say otherwise because she seems like a very nice person and despite being largely superfluous ShB had some outstanding ideas. But if Hermes is her barometer of her writing style, I think it quite likely that I will not like the ideas she puts forth in the future.

This.
Guys... dying is sad, and I think we could treat these animals summoned from our own aether better. You want to judge them? Well, what if... they judged US? Huh? Huh? This says a lot about society. Are we... the baddies? Really makes you think about the meaning of life... oh, and FF3 funny clown theatre man because it's Yoshida's fave.

I do think planning out everything from the start, at least in a basic skeletal form, would benefit the next story though. It seemed obvious they were improvising things as they went along to an extent, though I've seen many who think that the writing team all planned everything out meticulously for the entire 10 years as if a writer looking at old things and going "Hmm, this will be useful" is something new. And as much as I liked parts of Shadowbringers for actually showing the antagonist's pov in a slightly more fair way than what we got in EW, it was also ground zero for all the "forge ahead!" "stand tall!" "better brighter tomorrow!" "hope hope hope!" nauseating and cloying preaching.

On top of that, it doesn't make me look forward to FF16 or its story much...

I
I’ve liked Ishikawas work since Ysayle and Moenbryda so she’s got my support. Endwalker has only made me more a fan.

She wrote Ysayle? Never knew that. I liked her since she was flawed and more gritty and had an actual spine. Her "delusion" of being Shiva reborn was shattered, but her sincerity and conviction wound up winning over Hraesvelgr. The game also never gave me the impression of forcing me to love her. Horsefarts seemed to get most of the acclaim, though.

[SeverianLyonesse]

She wrote Ysayle? Never knew that. I liked her since she was flawed and more gritty and had an actual spine. Her "delusion" of being Shiva reborn was shattered, but her sincerity and conviction wound up winning over Hraesvelgr. The game also never gave me the impression of forcing me to love her. Horsefarts seemed to get most of the acclaim, though.

And she did also write Ardbert. So it's not like she hasn't written good characters in the past.

I just wonder what the hell went wrong with Hermes/Fandaniel. Hermes starts out okay and then takes several hard left turns into nonsense territory.