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

[aveyond-dreams]

I've said this before but EW was the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, the fast pace and big explosions happening constantly to detract from the fact that the story is a complete mess.

Precisely this. The moment I started thinking critically about what I had just experienced, I found myself questioning so much. My belief is that a combination of factors from the rabidness of the twitter character fanclubs and the emotionally difficult situation brought on by COVID ultimately led for an internal push for a "safe" story that was carried by fast pasted, though illogical chains of events.

It's not so much the cute elements in themselves so much as the timing of their appearance. I doubt FF7 would be as well received if, after a certain character's murder, you randomly saw Cloud running around and giggling with a group of talking bunnies. Or if in FF9 when an entire city was destroyed, immediately afterwards the party just shrugged and never mentioned it again.

Up until Endwalker I quite liked that FFXIV hadn't gone down the same path of WoW where things just happened with minimal build up or explanation and I don't think it was a good way to have the finale of a decade long story just rapidly move from one event to the next with minimal time to breathe. Especially with the fanservice stacked towards characters that already get the lion's share of attention...and aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

What I would give to return to the days of Heavensward when we still had a team of writers who were unafraid of allowing characters to exit the story once their roles were over, and for people's sacrifices to carry meaning. A less bloated cast of more distinct characters with a narrative that didn't tread so much on abstract nothingness.

[RyuDragnier]

What I would give to return to the days of Heavensward when we still had a team of writers who were unafraid of allowing characters to exit the story once their roles were over, and for people's sacrifices to carry meaning. A less bloated cast of more distinct characters with a narrative that didn't tread so much on abstract nothingness.

Well you might get that back soon, considering that writer's work with FF16 is almost done, probably.