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

[FrightfulNight]

I still have some hope that they can salvage the Garlean expansion after getting expansion gutted though. I hope that maybe one of the reasons they did this was to make the situation more unique in Ilsabard so that the plot was not to similar to Stormblood. Now with us having helped the capitol and Ilsabard being devastated by both the Civil War and apparently suffering the most damage from the final days, the various still active legions and the power vacuum that they wanted to create a more unique Ilsabard experience. I also hope that the developers see people wanting the clouds removed on Ilsabard and more traditional European fantasy zones which Ilsbard will have. I can imagine there could be a zone in Ilsabard inspired by Germany and Switzerland, something hinted at with the Online Store outfit as well as a Norwegian like zone and a more Gothic Romania like zone. And of course they can do a better conclusion to the Garlean storyline and do further world building with the Three Continents.

My main fear is that they are just going to Lazily have Ilsbard be resolved offscreen just like the Empire fell anticlimatically offscreen and all these storyarchs just remain on the cutting room floor and we will instead just go to Meracydia, or the New World, or other Shards to "Move On", locations i have almost zero interest in going to until this story is resolved in Ilsabard. If it is one of those locations first for 7.0 however then I may consider "moving on" and unsubscribing until an Ilsabard (or another Orthard) expansion is confirmed and use that time to whittle away at my increasing game library or further raise a Viera alt.

[Skyborne]

My main fear is that they are just going to Lazily have Ilsbard be resolved offscreen just like the Empire fell anticlimatically offscreen and all these storyarchs just remain on the cutting room floor and we will instead just go to Meracydia, or the New World, or other Shards to "Move On", locations i have almost zero interest in going to until this story is resolved in Ilsabard. If it is one of those locations first for 7.0 however then I may consider "moving on" and unsubscribing until an Ilsabard (or another Orthard) expansion is confirmed and use that time to whittle away at my increasing game library or further raise a Viera alt.

Would be nice to actually explore Ilsabard and deal with Garlemald in a way that isn't "lmao not my problem just move on sweeties, now you are part of the glorious global citizen Alliance and everything is great". However, it's pretty early to tell until 6.1 actually releases in a couple weeks. And even then, we may have to wait another 4+ months to see how things are going. My hopes aren't too high, considering how hard they want to just bury anything old and just immediately beat this "new adventure! new adventure! avenchur!" horse. While having afterschool club meetings and pizza parties with the Scions, of course.

My personal feeling is that because I do believe/hope that it was basically unintentional, now that it's been pointed out and come to their attention, that I can get past it and basically forgive it if it is addressed in some way. Please, please do not double down on "Venat absolute good, those Ancients sadly just had to die," FFXIV team. I've loved your game for almost ten years, want to keep loving it, and I really wish I wasn't here, cringeposting all my dignity away. Woe.

Still 99% sure we will get some sort of Tales of the End where Venat is shown saving Amaurotine schoolchildren from a burning building or something. P-please like her... please...

[FrightfulNight]

Would be nice to actually explore Ilsabard and deal with Garlemald in a way that isn't "lmao not my problem just move on sweeties, now you are part of the glorious global citizen Alliance and everything is great". However, it's pretty early to tell until 6.1 actually releases in a couple weeks. And even then, we may have to wait another 4+ months to see how things are going. My hopes aren't too high, considering how hard they want to just bury anything old and just immediately beat this "new adventure! new adventure! avenchur!" horse. While having afterschool club meetings and pizza parties with the Scions, of course.


Still 99% sure we will get some sort of Tales of the End where Venat is shown saving Amaurotine schoolchildren from a burning building or something. P-please like her... please...

Like i said, i can only hope it was moved to make the situation more interesting in Ilsabard, which it certainly is right now, but they need to strike while the iron is hot. Hopefully they can see that there are a lot of players who want to go to Ilsbabard and have the clouds remove and that there are a lot of players who think that the storyline in EW rushed a lot of long running plotpoints and stumbled at the end so they take the time to take a step back and do a better job of wrapping up some of theses stories in Ilsabard. If it is Meracydia or anywhere else however and we ignore the situation in Ilsabard to just go off and AdVeNtUrE and leave them to pick up the scraps after the final days then I may just unsubscribe (at least until Ilsabard) because that gives me little hope for a future story arch that they will just end it when ever they get tired of it or think what players want.

[PawPaw]

Still 99% sure we will get some sort of Tales of the End where Venat is shown saving Amaurotine schoolchildren from a burning building or something. P-please like her... please...

I was joking about this same thing with a friend earlier but I feel as though it's guaranteed that we're going to get some sort of attempt at a retcon to convince the people who dislike her her to like her. I can smell it.

[Theodric]

I still have some hope that they can salvage the Garlean expansion after getting expansion gutted though. I hope that maybe one of the reasons they did this was to make the situation more unique in Ilsabard so that the plot was not to similar to Stormblood. Now with us having helped the capitol and Ilsabard being devastated by both the Civil War and apparently suffering the most damage from the final days, the various still active legions and the power vacuum that they wanted to create a more unique Ilsabard experience. I also hope that the developers see people wanting the clouds removed on Ilsabard and more traditional European fantasy zones which Ilsbard will have. I can imagine there could be a zone in Ilsabard inspired by Germany and Switzerland, something hinted at with the Online Store outfit as well as a Norwegian like zone and a more Gothic Romania like zone. And of course they can do a better conclusion to the Garlean storyline and do further world building with the Three Continents.

My main fear is that they are just going to Lazily have Ilsbard be resolved offscreen just like the Empire fell anticlimatically offscreen and all these storyarchs just remain on the cutting room floor and we will instead just go to Meracydia, or the New World, or other Shards to "Move On", locations i have almost zero interest in going to until this story is resolved in Ilsabard. If it is one of those locations first for 7.0 however then I may consider "moving on" and unsubscribing until an Ilsabard (or another Orthard) expansion is confirmed and use that time to whittle away at my increasing game library or further raise a Viera alt.

Yeah, I was bitterly disappointed by the lack of an authentic Garlean expansion. We've been following them in the story since the days of ARR and many people liked what they brought to the table so to have them thrown under the bus struck me as very questionable.

It also makes me second guess the feedback being gathered and sent to the development team. Where are they getting it from? What voices are they listening to and which are they ignoring?

Where are our community representatives and why aren't they engaging with the community here, on the game's official site? I guess they must be busy changing diapers or some such...

[FrightfulNight]

Yeah, I was bitterly disappointed by the lack of an authentic Garlean expansion. We've been following them in the story since the days of ARR and many people liked what they brought to the table so to have them thrown under the bus struck me as very questionable.

It also makes me second guess the feedback being gathered and sent to the development team. Where are they getting it from? What voices are they listening to and which are they ignoring?

Where are our community representatives and why aren't they engaging with the community here, on the game's official site? I guess they must be busy changing diapers or some such...

With how much it was being built up in both Stormblood and Shadowbringers, with all the cutscenes and even the solo duty there it felt like it was building for an expansion set there for 4 years and I was anticipating it the whole time getting more exited only for it to be one mostly ruined zone. It felt like Chekhov's Gun with multiple people calling attention to it on the wall and such a big deal being made out of it but when it comes time to set it off it is just one of those fake guns you see Joker use in the old Batman Cartoons with a flag that says bam coming out except here it would say Gotcha, now enjoy the stupid moon bunnies instead.

[Theodric]

With how much it was being built up in both Stormblood and Shadowbringers, with all the cutscenes and even the solo duty there it felt like it was building for an expansion set there for 4 years and I was anticipating it the whole time getting more exited only for it to be one mostly ruined zone. It felt like Chekhov's Gun with multiple people calling attention to it on the wall and such a big deal being made out of it but when it comes time to set it off it is just one of those fake guns you see Joker use in the old Batman Cartoons with a flag that says bam coming out except here it would say Gotcha, now enjoy the stupid moon bunnies instead.

Yeah. I'm still annoyed that nothing of note came of Regula's sacrifice in Azys Lla. Why did it take until Endwalker for the Scions to realise that the situation with Garlemald wasn't black and white and that there were plenty of good people set to be screwed over if it all fell apart when a high ranking soldier selflessly took an attack meant for a child right in front of the Scions? To my knowledge, they never mentioned it again and the story decided to present the likes of Valens and Zenos front and centre instead from that point onwards.

[FrightfulNight]

Yeah. I'm still annoyed that nothing of note came of Regula's sacrifice in Azys Lla. Why did it take until Endwalker for the Scions to realise that the situation with Garlemald wasn't black and white and that there were plenty of good people set to be screwed over if it all fell apart when a high ranking soldier selflessly took an attack meant for a child right in front of the Scions? To my knowledge, they never mentioned it again and the story decided to present the likes of Valens and Zenos front and centre instead from that point onwards.

It always did feel weird that they showed the more sympathetic honorable Garleans like Gaius and Regula first before showing the more unhinged ones like Valens and Zenos the closer we got to Garlemald proper before switching back to EW, especially since it seems the original intent was the opposite if i recall people talking about how the story would have gone. Just another way it felt rushed and could have used the original 6.0 plan to maybe show more of the other side before reaching the capitol, maybe even visit Rhitania's (i hope i am pronouncing that correctly) nation to see some where life either did not change much or benefitted. Maybe see some of the provinces where some of the citizens fled during the civil war like that one soldier who mentioned he was able to see his family safely to before the fighting got worse. maybe you also run into the wife of that one soldier you killed while acquiring the magiteck reaper in ARR who he said was with child at the time. Then after this buildup you go to the Capitol to help. As it stand right now going from Valens in ShB to going to the Capitol feels like such a tonal whiplash, it could have gradually built to that if they had a Garlean Focused expansion.

Then after this version of 6.0 when you have the actual world ending threat in 7.0 it can feel like the whole world is both in danger and coming together by seeing the entire three continents being effected by the final days but all the factions are working together to fight it back. Like I said I can only hope they salvage this storyline with an actual Ilsabard expansion.

[aveyond-dreams]

I still have some hope that they can salvage the Garlean expansion after getting expansion gutted though. I hope that maybe one of the reasons they did this was to make the situation more unique in Ilsabard so that the plot was not to similar to Stormblood. Now with us having helped the capitol and Ilsabard being devastated by both the Civil War and apparently suffering the most damage from the final days, the various still active legions and the power vacuum that they wanted to create a more unique Ilsabard experience. I also hope that the developers see people wanting the clouds removed on Ilsabard and more traditional European fantasy zones which Ilsbard will have. I can imagine there could be a zone in Ilsabard inspired by Germany and Switzerland, something hinted at with the Online Store outfit as well as a Norwegian like zone and a more Gothic Romania like zone. And of course they can do a better conclusion to the Garlean storyline and do further world building with the Three Continents.

My main fear is that they are just going to Lazily have Ilsbard be resolved offscreen just like the Empire fell anticlimatically offscreen and all these storyarchs just remain on the cutting room floor and we will instead just go to Meracydia, or the New World, or other Shards to "Move On", locations i have almost zero interest in going to until this story is resolved in Ilsabard. If it is one of those locations first for 7.0 however then I may consider "moving on" and unsubscribing until an Ilsabard (or another Orthard) expansion is confirmed and use that time to whittle away at my increasing game library or further raise a Viera alt.

My personal preference for the future at this point is to go explore the former imperial territories and perhaps going about restoring fallen monarchies/heirs to their respective thrones. I would love to see zones based off the countries you mention in your post, as opposed to the community-held perception that Meracydia and the New World have to take after lands that I'm just not interested in visiting.

The people who seem to be so vocal about having the representation of a country like Australia of all places do not seem to realize that people don't come to Final Fantasy for that, nor do they come for New-World like aesthetics after that game turned out to be what it was, and beyond 1-2 Egypt like zones I simply wouldn't be interested in a full-on African themed expansion.

You can sell Final Fantasy players the classic "castle in the sky" vs "magitek empire" but I do not see them being interested in some of the ideas that people go on and on about for the sake of "diversity." There is plenty of diversity within the countries of Europe/Asia, which I have no problem being straightforward in saying that is what I am first and foremost interested in seeing.

[Lauront]

My personal preference for the future at this point is to go explore the former imperial territories and perhaps going about restoring fallen monarchies/heirs to their respective thrones.

Agreed. I'd also like to see Garlemald transition to something like Archades.