I have to say, I really enjoyed Endwalker. I assumed the worst at first, thinking that it was a very bad idea to wrap everything up in the base story and not flesh things out in the post quests. However, I was delightfully surprised by how well everything came together. Sure, it was not as good as Shadowbringers (My fav FF story I think) and I rolled my eyes at such things like “Oh look, one by one the Scions are sacrificing themselves for me in grand fashion. No way this is gonna be reset by a item I got earlier in the plot…” and it felt more… safe, in reflection of how Shadowbringers twisted a lot of the tropes we had come to know. But I really liked what twists we had regarding Amon, seeing Elpis and the Ancients in the flesh like that. I for one did a total 360 in regards to Hydaelyn/Venat. I was sure they would end up being the ultimate foe of the game, but she kinda turned into one of my favourite characters.

Anywho, I did think praise was mostly universal, so its been very interesting seeing peoples complaints and debate on the expansion and its themes. Opening my eyes to a few things I had not considered. I really wanna play the story again, perhaps from start to finish. It would be great to know more about the thought and writing proses that went into each expansion, what was layed out from the start and what was made up for each instalment (I kinda expect its the latter for most)

Quote Originally Posted by SieyaM View Post
Maybe it's just me but I also feel like the prove yourself by combat trope is way overused in FFXIV. It seems like they want to set up a scenario for these battles to take place but can't think of anything good or fitting for the narrative so it's just a standard "prove yourself worthy" line.
I do think you are right here. Many of the fights in the MSQ do feel like they are there just to inject some gameplay into the moment.