Would Endwalker have been better if we never visited Elpis at all?

[DanielNegreanu_Adamantoise]

I loved elpis, it’s my favorite zen zone.
I want marketboards, and inn, and a summoning post added so I can hang out there

[Jeeqbit]

I've said this before, in another thread, but it does feel as if they intended for more to happen there. The pre-launch trailer and cinematic placed quite some emphasis on it and it feels as if more was supposed to happen there.

No, the moon was intentionally a red herring.

How do I know this? Look at the moon at the end of the trailer. It resembles one of the structures in Ultima Thule. The moon transitioning into this structure was a hint that we were going beyond the moon.

[KizuyaKatogami]

No, the moon was intentionally a red herring.

How do I know this? Look at the moon at the end of the trailer. It resembles one of the structures in Ultima Thule. The moon transitioning into this structure was a hint that we were going beyond the moon.

They still placed an immensely heavy emphasis on the moon, what with ShB ending with us staring at the moon and it turning red(which is never explained), the trailer depicting WoL on the moon with the source glowing an ominous color and blasphemies on the moon, to Fandaniel talking about how Zodiark was full of rage meanwhile we don’t see any of that at all….

[Novae]

I loved Elpis, it was for me the best part of EW. Pre Hydaelin Venat is also my favorite EW character.

[NekoMataMata]

They still placed an immensely heavy emphasis on the moon, what with ShB ending with us staring at the moon and it turning red(which is never explained), the trailer depicting WoL on the moon with the source glowing an ominous color and blasphemies on the moon, to Fandaniel talking about how Zodiark was full of rage meanwhile we don’t see any of that at all….

Agreed. Besides that, we all understand that Zodiark was not meant to be the final boss of the expansion's story, both in lore and pacing but it felt really, really weird with how early we dealt with it before moving on.

Zodiark was this enormous looming issue throughout the majority of the story. Even if Zodiark is technically a red herring and Meteion is some sort of twist villian(not sure if this is an okay way to describe it), it still felt it didn't get the attention it deserved.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Agreed. Besides that, we all understand that Zodiark was not meant to be the final boss of the expansion's story, both in lore and pacing but it felt really, really weird with how early we dealt with it before moving on.

Zodiark was this enormous looming issue throughout the majority of the story. Even if Zodiark is technically a red herring and Meteion is some sort of twist villian(not sure if this is an okay way to describe it), it still felt it didn't get the attention it deserved.

Agreed 1000%. It doesnt help that right after we defeat him we go to play dressup with loporrits. But yeah, both him and Elidibus were done incredibly dirty, neither given any recognition for saving the world and the bias towards hydaelyn is so immense its laughable.

[Colt47]

Elpis is mostly a time travel paradox problem and could have been handled better. The main problem Elpis was trying to solve was how to establish what the ancients were really like, as well cover events in the past that were so far back that no existing knowledge would have been left. The problems with the approach kind of came two fold: The player character became an actor in a world after establishing that someone could accidently erase an entire future except for themselves and would likely do so. Second, it required an act of God with some very shaky conditions to make sure the future remained unaltered.

A recreation of Elpis would have probably been a better option. Something like how the WoL is linked to a certain past character, and we play out the role of that character as we follow what they did back in ancient Elpis. You'd still see and experience all the things ancient Elpis had to offer without having the narrative nightmare of having to tackle being an actor in the past that can dictate the future thanks to time displacement.

[Adamantini]

Let me think here.

An entire map, where everything I do will not affect the present.

Yeah... I think if they focused on actually finishing the story of Hydaelin and Zoldiark, instead of this stupid map, or at least wasting this time building the boss we've never heard of before, it would be better than watching flowers and Emet selch making snakes fly.

[anhaato]

Yes.

If we weren't there physically and just stayed in our little invisible form while we followed around and watched everything else unfold without being responsible for any of it, the story would've been way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way better. Hope that gets the point across.

[DPZ2]

If we weren't there physically and just stayed in our little invisible form ....

Wouldn't that have made the scenes just before the last trial a little ackward? I can see it now, Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus show up and go "and who are you, exactly?" followed by Emet-Selch saying "oops. my bad"