Endwalker is the most controversial expansion

[Maxilor]

When I got to that part in Endwalker and realized I was about to go back in time I audibly uttered 'Oh No' to myself in my empty house at the time.

Time Travel is and will always be a giant minefield to implement into a story and requires the utmost care and skill to successfully pull off without leaving giant plot holes.

In this instance, Endwalker tripped and landed face first into a shrapnel mine.

[ameliaw]

My main issue with Endwalker(a lot of other things annoy me too, such as hydaelyn's genocide, glorification of suffering, lack of consequences and bad time travel usage, but way less than this) is that they raised the stakes way too much , to the point it kind of ruins the future story for me. We defeated the civilization-ending blue chicken that managed to beat our godlike ancestor-selves with mostly our own capacities/power of friendship, so I don't see many ways how a future villain could come and cause us to struggle without feeling like Ran'jit for me, a random guy who could kick our asses pretty hard because reasons. We should have defeated Meteion with some kind of borrowed power(that couldn't be borrowed again, ever)or using some sort of device, spell, whatever, from some old civilization or even created by Hermes himself in case Meteion became dangerous.

[Kolsykol]

Snip.

What do you mean when you say '' backlash in response to Heavensward '' tho?
Are you talking about Heavensward as a whole or aspects of it?
Because what I see in regards to EW is really no different than with other expansions, the main difference is that we have memberberries and when we think of Heavensward we think of the completed expansion and not 3.0 etc.
I also think that perhaps because this was '' the end '' to '' the story '' ( I think you get what I mean ), that people will be significantly more touchy about issues they have.

We don't have the completed EW yet so I dunno how fair of a comparison it is really.
I don't really want to get too much into the story thing because I really just don't think that it's as '' controversial '' as people here say that it is, I see almost only praise towards it.
I do have some issues with it but not anything that enormous.
But there are certainly things I wish would've gone differently but I could say that about every other expansions MSQ too.
Or any other game for that matter too.

My issue when it comes to the story thing too and how people talk about it isn't that they didn't like it, it's the hyperbole and how personal it gets.
This isn't a FFXIV thing specifically tho I think it can be seen with other games too, people get very personal about it and almost act like the story broke into their house and beat up their dog and pooped on their carpet or something lol.

I don't think that you're wrong about the issues, but a lot of these issues particularly with Job design for example aren't as simple as right or wrong and I think it's an endless struggle trying to please everyone.
I really don't think that the Healer situation is easily solved, there are a lot of different players you need to juggle at the same time.
Which often means that you won't fully please anyone.

My hope and wish would be some added complexity and engagement, but that will also introduce problems for portions of the playerbase too and you'd see people take to the forums angry about that too.
We already have a fair amount of people who think that Jobs are too hard to play as it is even.
I don't exactly feel safe in the hands of every Healer I run with whether it's just dungeons or Savage as it is either.

I personally disliked the changes to MNK so much that I ended up switching altogether too.
It's not like I don't have a dog in the fight same with SAM, but these things happen every expansion.
And people also ignore the good changes and hyperfocus on what they dislike.

The devs are human beings and are dealing with millions of players at the same time, are they actually tone deaf or are we?
Or is it somewhere inbetween?
A vocal minority on the forums doesn't necessarily always represent the majority. It's a very difficult job to try and gauge this.

My main issue with Endwalker(a lot of other things annoy me too, such as hydaelyn's genocide, glorification of suffering, lack of consequences and bad time travel usage, but way less than this) is that they raised the stakes way too much , to the point it kind of ruins the future story for me. We defeated the civilization-ending blue chicken that managed to beat our godlike ancestor-selves with mostly our own capacities/power of friendship, so I don't see many ways how a future villain could come and cause us to struggle without feeling like Ran'jit for me, a random guy who could kick our asses pretty hard because reasons. We should have defeated Meteion with some kind of borrowed power(that couldn't be borrowed again, ever)or using some sort of device, spell, whatever, from some old civilization or even created by Hermes himself in case Meteion became dangerous.

I didn't like Ran'jit at all in SHB, he reminded me so much of Kai Leng in Mass Effect lol...
I do agree with you on the stakes I feel that way in WoW too I think it's a problem with MMO's when you want to have '' moar coolerer and biggerer '' enemies to fight to make things more exciting all the time and escalate thing in terms of gameplay.
At some point things reaches a point where it becomes a bit ridiculous.

Like my character in WoW has fought and killed Gods, but next expansion I am struggling with a Murloc?
Okay...

Edit: I actually remember talking about this pre-EW too, that I was a bit worried about our characters being too powerful for the future.
Like what's the next threat and how could it be dangerous enough?
But yeah I feel like this has been an escalating thing throughout.

[Rokke]

It also left a very ugly question hanging in the air of just how much Venat/Hydaelyn knew was going to happen and just let it happen because "the future said so", and makes some instances where she claims have been trying to prevent tragedy (Such as with the First and the flood of light) feel like she was going through the motions because it had to happen in order to maintain the loop.

The devs explaining that letting Emet escape the sundering was a conscious decision only makes this hangup funnier. Poor Arbert was damned to watch his world burn 12k years before he was born.

[Haruka_R]

As much as I enjoyed Emet & Hyth, being in another situation of 'you're Azem but not really' wasn't particularly satisfying.

What other situation was there?

I am a fucking white mage. Death star laser is not part of my fantasy.

Gimme that shit then. I'll use it.

[Rulakir]

The devs explaining that letting Emet escape the sundering was a conscious decision only makes this hangup funnier. Poor Arbert was damned to watch his world burn 12k years before he was born.

Ardbert's story is colossally dark now. Not only morbid context given to this already heartbreaking quote:

"We did everything right, everything that was asked of us, and still--still it came to this!"

But Hydaelyn was already shady about leaving his soul to wander the First for a century, now it was all just part of the plan. He was born to suffer but, then again, that seems to be Venat's jam. It's even more twisted when you realize she has a history of using and abusing the Azem soul, regardless of incarnation.

What other situation was there?

All of ShB.

[Haruka_R]

All of ShB.

You mean, towards the end?

[Rolder50]

No.

Is what I would say, but it won't let me cause I need more characters. So instead I will say that I liked the old PVP in Frontlines. I liked being my role in PVP. Everyone is going off about how the pvp changes are somehow better for class fantasy.

I am a fucking white mage. Death star laser is not part of my fantasy. Healing my party is.

Hah, frontline always was and always will be a joke. Three teams of 24 results in individual contributions meaning nothing, and the big teams means that RNG and the more coordinated death ball wins the game. Also the pvp healers are way more fun now then they ever have been thanks.

[anhaato]

Ardbert's story is colossally dark now. Not only morbid context given to this already heartbreaking quote:

"We did everything right, everything that was asked of us, and still--still it came to this!"

But Hydaelyn was already shady about leaving his soul to wander the First for a century, now it was all just part of the plan. He was born to suffer but, then again, that seems to be Venat's jam. It's even more twisted when you realize she has a history of using and abusing the Azem soul, regardless of incarnation.

This is when I think back to Elpis and when we were forced to reveal what happens in our future, and Venat says "but why would I ever do such a thing?" That's what led me to believe at first that her development into the ultra shady figure of Hydaelyn was probably born of desperation, and her methods continued to become more desperate and underhanded as she tried and failed in the next 12k years to find a way to actually put an end to the Final Days. Finding an iteration of Azem, grooming them into being one of her heroes, and seeing what they can do. It's why up until the end of that arc I was SO expecting her to say "I'll make sure I don't end up like that, ever" and either creating a new timeline or finding herself slipping into those ways no matter how hard she tried not to. But no, we told her all of the lives she would expend and she was like "ok cool I'll be sure to do that in the future thx." In the end she had a choice and ended up choosing the path of most cruelty because we told her to. I think the 2 week delay was purely about adding in her escaping the memory wipe and then the lines at the end of Elpis about "but they wont buhleeeeeev me if I tell them what happened" just to change the context of the cutscene that followed.

[DragonFlyy]

SOCIAL CONTENT-Once they add Island Sanctuaries that will be the equivalent to instanced housing, everything will be fine. Yoshi P came to me in a dream and said it would be so. I will not believe otherwise.

Except the part where Yoshi-P literally said it's not instanced housing.