Endwalker vs shadowbringers story, which did you enjoy more and why? (spoilers)

[Brynne]

I really enjoyed both expansions' stories, but I liked Shadowbringers more. It had a more contained, tighter storyline, and Emet-Selch was a fabulous villain. I feel like Fandaniel, Zenos, and Meteion didn't quite live up to his standard. I also enjoyed how personally the story related to our WOL and their struggles. Endwalker was really good, but it didn't hit quite as high a note with me as Shadowbringers did.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Personally, i would have to go with Shadowbringers by a mile. Emet was a fantastic antagonist, intriguing, and contributed so much to the story, and that isnt even getting into Elidibus. While i did have gripes with the story, it isnt nearly as much as my gripes with EW.

Endwalker feels like there was far too much going on behind the scenes.We have the build up in shb patches of Zenos saying that we will come to him full of rage, and that just doesnt happen in EW. Something like him killing a friend would instigate that, but he does nothing of the sort, so all of that is just a dropped plot line. The Venat worship and inability to disagree with her, to tell her off, and to bring up other ways of moving forward will forever disgust me, and this expansion just showed me that im not on the same moral thinking as the devs. They preach about learning to deal with suffering and sacrifice in this expansion, yet the main cast doesnt have to deal with any of that in this expansion, and hasnt had to for a long time. They didnt have to deal with loss or any consequences whatsoever, so it feels extremely tone deaf for the devs to insinuate they know of suffering. The final antagonist as extremely underwhelming to say the least, and the fact we end this 10 year arc with giving a psycho bird girl a hug is....yeah. I forgot am i playing an mmorpg or reading some slice of life anime novel?Somehow the apocalypse that originally decimated the planet leaves 0 scratches on the main cast, and only thoroughly affected 2 regions. The two main deities this whole arc is supposed to be about, were put on the backburner and hardly got any spotlight whatsoever. Instead much of the spotlight was given to a character who should have died in Stormblood, but instead they just rehashed his story and made us fight him....solo.....again...what is this now the 7th or 8th time? No exaggeration.

Lets not forget too, the asspulled dynamis plot, that just comes out of nowhere and has never been heard of before is all of a sudden this huge driving force for the story,needed to ensure the protagonists can live another day and dont need to suffer any consequences for their actions.Oh but remember guys! Suffering is necessary! Sacrifices may need to be made! But as long as youre lucky enough to be a main character in the story, youre exempt from all of this.

[linayar]

The story of FFXIV is cumulative.

For that reason, and also the fact that I think Endwalker is a good addition/conclusion to the story, I like Endwalker's story more because it includes the story of Shadowbringers while Shadowbringers's story does not include Endwalker's.

[StriderShinryu]

As far as I am aware, Endwalker is complete. Unless you mean the raids that haven't been released yet? The patches beginning with 6.1 will be starting an entirely new story and won't be following the usual trend of continuing the MSQ of the prior expansion to around patch .3. It's wrapped up.

While the story arc of Hydelyn and Zodiark is supposedly done, the story of Endwalker won't be complete until we're heading into 7.0. The story of EndWalker will include whatever story content they create to lead us forward and into the next arcs.

[ThivraK]

shadowbringers by a mile. not a fan that my WoL was robbed of the little agency she had in the few choices she could make in regards her interactions with a certain, crazy character

[Brinne]

There are a lot of things I truly loved in Endwalker and could gush about at length. That being said: Shadowbringers, Shadowbringers, Shadowbringers. Shadowbringers is just in an entirely different class both in terms of craft - pacing, structure, focus, usage of the cast - and in the execution of themes, atmosphere, and challenging the players on that level, in a good and thoughtful way.

Shadowbringers also has the advantage of not actually making me deeply personally uncomfortable to the point I was really, really tempted to start skipping cutscenes (which, uh, I never do, ever) for a stretch of about 25% of the MSQ from levels 87-90!

[NanaWiloh]

Liked both Shb and EW all I have to say.

[Rulakir]

shadowbringers by a mile. not a fan that my WoL was robbed of the little agency she had in the few choices she could make in regards her interactions with a certain, crazy character

The sad thing is I'm not sure who you're talking about since there was more than one character I considered 'crazy' who I wanted to respond to differently and wasn't given the option. EW was particularly bad about forcing perspective with the WoL's dialog.

[IdowhatIwant]

While the story arc of Hydelyn and Zodiark is supposedly done, the story of Endwalker won't be complete until we're heading into 7.0. The story of EndWalker will include whatever story content they create to lead us forward and into the next arcs.

No the story of Endwalker is complete and has concluded. All the patches are leading into the next story arc. 6.1 is called Newfound Adventure...

[KageTokage]

It still sounds like we're having a smaller story to bridge the gap between 6.1 and 7.0 which in all likelyhood is going to be resolved with a MSQ trial in 6.3 as it was in every prior expansion; as opposed to them actually making the whole of the 6.x cycle pre-expansion build-up.