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

[Lauront]

Honestly I feel like ther is a ton of odd little issues in endwalker that i find a tad perturbed

Like for example how ultima thule's inhabitants are treated, at first the narrative makes them out to be nothing more than just like memories or puppet but as plainly seen in the sidequests or stigma dreamscape there not just that, there living beings and thats not really dwelt upon

The whole way they portray the ancients is hilarious as like... not knowing suffering, most players will probably do normal asphodelos at least so thats so blatantly and easily contradicted! and it seems to relying on mainly most people wont read the interviews....

Even those interviews get across some weird messages, e.g. as seen here, posted by the OP across the thread. At this point I'm left wondering if Yoshi even did the Elpis sidequests. All of it crumbles like sandcastles hit by a wave when faced with any critical appraisal/reflection on other plot points and, on the lore about the sundered world, to grapple with the fact that many of the things that are supposedly "scawy" in the unsundered world are still present in the sundered world, which is worse in many other ways besides. At this point it comes across as some poor attempt to insult the audience's intelligence.

The Q&A at least went some way towards addressing the problems in the story but I still can't say with any level of confidence that Yoshi "gets it" in terms of why many of us took issue with the way the story handled stuff.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

It definitely hit its stride there but I feel it also had its seeds in Alisae's constant worship of our character. That was the EP where she began to be annoying for me with the everlasting need to have contests that she can never win. And since 6.1 has set itself up with the same slice-of-life, UwU scenes that we got in EW, I do wonder if we'll be able to naturally return to the darker writing and storytelling of the past.

What they should have done was expand upon her attachment to Urianger that she had in ARR. Which was akin to Estienien and Alphinaud’s relationship. But instead they let it wither away. G’raha Tia is all that’s needed when it comes to a character that’s attached to you in that way. We don’t need two.

[RyuDragnier]

As i said a while back my headcanon is that he looks less monstrous when he was complete, and this is just mutations/exaggerations

I think it was always meant to look that way, but the question is who originally came up with the concept that would become Zodiark? Was it another concept that was changed in a way to become the being? Depending on who made the concept (my money is on Lahabrea), Pandaemonium may have the answer...especially since there's hints that Tempering was created there considering how Hesperos acted like somebody who had been heavily Tempered to worship somebody. And since Zodiark tempered the convocation and the Loporrits mentioned that creation magic doesn't do that normally, the tempering was likely a purposefully added feature by somebody.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

One day I may try to do a proper write-up of my feelings regarding Endwalker's story, one that is more expansive than just "I liked Endwalker by itself, but there are a multitude of problems with it and the way it was handled/directed by Yoshida was incredibly poor, and not something a 10-year story's capstone deserved". Having recently completed it once more on my WoL alt, my exact issues with it are clearer now than when I reexamined it from memory after the initial 'honeymoon phase' wore off from its release.

For now though, I'll just say I'm not really a fan of the story direction having shifted to being style over substance. I don't hate the Scions or dislike the moments of brevity we were given during the story, as some do, but I think overall the story suffered severely from trying to 'wow' the audience with visual spectacles rather than craft an emotional story with proper stakes one would expect from a literal end of the world scenario.

[kpxmanifesto]

For now though, I'll just say I'm not really a fan of the story direction having shifted to being style over substance. I don't hate the Scions or dislike the moments of brevity we were given during the story, as some do, but I think overall the story suffered severely from trying to 'wow' the audience with visual spectacles rather than craft an emotional story with proper stakes one would expect from a literal end of the world scenario.

Yeah, it's difficult to create the feeling of 'high stakes' when you know the Scions are going to be fine because there are so many fake death scenes throughout the game. Most players can see through the story writer's bluff of trying to pretend that an important character is going to die.

[Theodric]

If nothing else, I just prefer being left to come to my own conclusions and opinions instead of being expected to think and feel a certain way. Endwalker rids agency not only from most of the game's characters but the player sitting behind the keyboard. The latter to a highly obnoxious degree.

It bores me when a game becomes overly preachy, especially if the morality it is seeking to push is conveniently never applied to the protagonists and results in the tiresome 'rules for thee but not for me'.

The same goes for stakes. So many great characters have been cut down before their time just to keep the same stale comfort characters front and centre.

[AnaviAnael]

One day I may try to do a proper write-up of my feelings regarding Endwalker's story, one that is more expansive than just "I liked Endwalker by itself, but there are a multitude of problems with it and the way it was handled/directed by Yoshida was incredibly poor, and not something a 10-year story's capstone deserved". Having recently completed it once more on my WoL alt, my exact issues with it are clearer now than when I reexamined it from memory after the initial 'honeymoon phase' wore off from its release.

This. This so much. I love the overall theme of finding hope within the chaos of despair and having the strength to overcome, but the execution in a lot of places was straight up bad. Please do a writeup of how you feel, I'm sure most of us would like to read it. (I've contemplated doing the same myself after I replay the EW MSQ.)

[Lucida3b]

I think it was always meant to look that way, but the question is who originally came up with the concept that would become Zodiark? Was it another concept that was changed in a way to become the being? Depending on who made the concept (my money is on Lahabrea), Pandaemonium may have the answer...especially since there's hints that Tempering was created there considering how Hesperos acted like somebody who had been heavily Tempered to worship somebody. And since Zodiark tempered the convocation and the Loporrits mentioned that creation magic doesn't do that normally, the tempering was likely a purposefully added feature by somebody.

That just leads to the amusing mental image that lahabrea is a edgelord

[hydralus]

Speaking of a game getting preachy, boy did it feel like I was getting beaten over the head with the themes in the last zone. It felt like they watched Yugioh abridged and how they made fun of Tia's constant speeches about friendship but they did it unironically.

[Sevan]

My friends were so disappointed with Devs that they decided to use the "ESC" key for the rest of the story.
Because it's horrble.
The Madness of a powerful God has destroyed your world. There is no discussion, no voting, only power to sweep through everyone's lives.
All because she thought it was a good idea.
In fact, most people on Earth are suffering from this kind of thing.
The humans lost their paradise because of a word from someone in power.
They die, they suffer, they don't even know why.
And finally, they have to call it "God," father or mother.
The writers are lucky they don't have to go through this.
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English is my second language, I hope to express my thoughts well.
Because my English is not good, so I now just come to the forum, this will probably be my last post.