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

[CrownySuccubus]

Myths of the Realm isn't over-explaining. The problem is that it's just a hair away from outright contradicting and/or retconning a boatload of established lore and themes. Practically the whole point of Endwalker (YMMV as to execution) was to demonstrate that hope and purpose can be found even in a disillusioned, post-religious world.

The problem I almost have with these anime-esque stories about "hope" and "purpose" is that they almost always rely on platitudes like "bonds" and "friendship" and "light" (aka "positive thinking").

Don't get me wrong, all of those things can be wonderful things to fall back on in dark moments, but they are...just as often...causes of despair in their own right. "Believe in your friends" is not a helpful message for someone who, for example, feels suicidally alone. "Just think positive" is likewise empty for someone suffering from clinical depression. It effectively replaces "post-religion" with a different type of blind faith.

That's another thing that irks me about Endwalker's story. I don't want to take anything away from all the people on YouTube, Reddit and Twitter claiming that Endwalker was just what they needed to deal with terrible things in their lives. If it helped those people, then good for them. But being someone who actually works in a field that deals with victims of abuse and hate who are often a single step from taking their lives, Endwalker's form of copium is aggravatingly oversimplistic to me.

Is it post religious if the majority of a world's inhabitants are religious?

I think they mean the story themes as a whole. The world of FFXIV may be religious, but the story is not. No gods, thus far, are actually real.

FFXIV's take on religion seems to heavily comply to modern Japanese standards.