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

[KageTokage]

Honestly, you can't logically dismiss the complaints as baseless "bashing" when practically all of the post-EW interviews were having to explain things that should've been obvious within the story itself.

Yoshi P having to come out and say "No really, Venat/Hydaelyn is a good person" is particularly telling since that would suggest there was evidently enough people who thought otherwise to get his attention.

[Lauront]

A forum of negativity and complainers bashes a great story/expansion. Obviously nothing to see here. This consensus is in the minority. Enjoy your safe haven gentlemen.

Thank you for bumping the thread, even if it's just with vacuous prattle.

[jameseoakes]

Honestly, you can't logically dismiss the complaints as baseless "bashing" when practically all of the post-EW interviews were having to explain things that should've been obvious within the story itself.

Yoshi P having to come out and say "No really, Venat/Hydaelyn is a good person" is particularly telling since that would suggest there was evidently enough people who thought otherwise to get his attention.

This is what I find most odd in Endwalker they really didn't seem to actually be telling the story they intended to.

[Theodric]

It's also rather unprecedented. Stormblood received a mixed reaction though the development team didn't feel compelled to hastily put together an extra Live Letter to offer 'clarification' in relation to the narrative. It's particularly odd given that they spent all of Shadowbringers insisting throughout various interviews that everything was a 'matter of perspective' and whether a character was 'good' or 'evil' was entirely open to player interpretation.

It's strange to me that they feel compelled to try and influence the player's opinion of Venat. Nobody's obligated to like or agree with her even if our characters are hijacked and forced to do so.

Which, incidentally, extends to my criticism of other aspects of the story. There's an almost desperation to keep certain characters front and centre instead of clearing the board somewhat and allowing newer, fresher characters to breathe.

I do find it amusing, at least, to see people try and dismiss criticism on the basis of something being 'popular'. If only because to me it should be pretty obvious that popularity does not equal greatness outright. I take it about as seriously as I do whenever the marketing department advertises this game as having '25 millions players' and 'bestest community ever'.

[anhaato]

I think it's YoshiP scrambling in defense of it because he had his hand in it this time. He can see the positive opinions of it slipping rapidly and he doesn't want to let that happen, because how embarrassing would it be that the grand conclusion he had been marketing for 10 months that was also his most personally involved production ended up being more hated than Stormblood? They didn't feel any need to "clarify" Stormblood because they told the story they wanted to tell, everything was communicated as intended, people just didn't like it as much as Heavensward. They also knew they had some bomb battle content releasing so people would find enjoyment in the expansion somehow regardless. This time it's between a disappointing story and worsening battle content, as far as we're aware the player retention is the worst it's ever been; people aren't regularly logging in or keeping their subs as long as they would after patch drops. Sad state! I said this a while ago, I believe Hydaelyn was going to be gray at best until YoshiP got his little artistic vision, he wanted a traditional good vs evil. Unfortunately for him, this game does have quite a few players with taste and reading comprehension (I understand how he would assume that we're all easy to please, though). This is his story more than ever before, so it makes sense that he would be desperate to make sure everyone is buying what he's selling. Too bad so sad.

[KageTokage]

The facts that they stated that they had to go through several story drafts, delayed the expansion partly for the sake of narrative "polish" and apparently didn't finalize the story until the week before EW released does make me strongly question how much executive meddling was involved this go-around.

[Carin-Eri]

This is what I find most odd in Endwalker they really didn't seem to actually be telling the story they intended to.

Agreed.

To me at least, it feels like they had intended to do something more with regard to the moon. There was a lot of emphasis on it in the Endwalker trailer and cinematic:
- The implication that there were Blasphemy's on the moon.
- The 'flier' which shows what I assume became the Ragnarok
- The Watcher's Palace feels very underutilized - possibly because they'd intended for us to have more to do there?
- Personally, it feels as the Loporrit's delaying tactics had some basis in reality

And overall it feels as if there was supposed to be more for us to do there.

[redheadturk]

Agreed.

To me at least, it feels like they had intended to do something more with regard to the moon. There was a lot of emphasis on it in the Endwalker trailer and cinematic:
- The implication that there were Blasphemy's on the moon.
- The 'flier' which shows what I assume became the Ragnarok
- The Watcher's Palace feels very underutilized - possibly because they'd intended for us to have more to do there?
- Personally, it feels as the Loporrit's delaying tactics had some basis in reality

And overall it feels as if there was supposed to be more for us to do there.

This. I wanted us to be going to the moon to defend Zodiark from Fandaniel and Zenos. I personally would have preferred us beating Fandaniel to mantling Him.

[Theodric]

Some of the zones are so disconnected from one another that I do suspect that the rewrites were more than just at a surface level. It wouldn't surprise me if certain zones were originally meant to be played in a different order and potentially with a completely different context as well.

Knowing that Eden was originally meant to be the final boss of Shadowbringers only to become the focus of a 24-man raid instead, it's also entirely possible that models made for a different purpose were instead quietly reused elsewhere.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Some of the zones are so disconnected from one another that I do suspect that the rewrites were more than just at a surface level. It wouldn't surprise me if certain zones were originally meant to be played in a different order and potentially with a completely different context as well.

Knowing that Eden was originally meant to be the final boss of Shadowbringers only to become the focus of a 24-man raid instead, it's also entirely possible that models made for a different purpose were instead quietly reused elsewhere.

I want to see the script for that if one exists.