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

[KageTokage]

At this point, the Omega quests have set a standard that's going to leave me feeling even more disappointed if they end up walking back on the nuance brought up there and trying to push the Sundering as the "right" outcome for humanity again.

That said, I'm kind of worried about how Myths of the Realm is going to end up resolving given the statement that it was like an epilogue to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict.

[MikkoAkure]

At this point, the Omega quests have set a standard that's going to leave me feeling even more disappointed if they end up walking back on the nuance brought up there and trying to push the Sundering as the "right" outcome for humanity again.

That said, I'm kind of worried about how Myths of the Realm is going to end up resolving given the statement that it was like an epilogue to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict.

The Omega quests give us, the player, an option to personally agree or disagree with any or all of them, but none of the options actually change any of the resulting dialogue. Ishikawa herself said that the final third of the Dead Ends is representative of where the Ancients would have gone if nothing changed and Omega in that cutscene you referenced compares Hermes' "change or die" test that he put onto humanity to that of the ancient, biological Omicrons. So ultimately I don't expect anything to change and I don't think there's any added nuance beyond asking the player a question that will never come up again and doesn't even change how the NPCs in the cutscene react.

[Brinne]

The Omega quests give us, the player, an option to personally agree or disagree with any or all of them, but none of the options actually change any of the resulting dialogue. Ishikawa herself said that the final third of the Dead Ends is representative of where the Ancients would have gone if nothing changed and Omega in that cutscene you referenced compares Hermes' "change or die" test that he put onto humanity to that of the ancient, biological Omicrons. So ultimately I don't expect anything to change and I don't think there's any added nuance beyond asking the player a question that will never come up again and doesn't even change how the NPCs in the cutscene react.

No, this is reductive. The Omega quests did a lot more than simply offer a dialogue choice - there was a great deal of context before and after asking us to make that choice for ourselves. The entire Thavnair section built up to a rejection of the idea that overcoming despair has anything to do with one's internal character or anything that can be calculated or engineered. Omega set out on this journey with you because - like Venat - it was searching for an "answer," a way to replicate, the formula regarding what gave one set of people "strength" of heart over another. Venat's conclusion in 6.0 was that it was "learning to embrace suffering." The Omega quest's conclusion, set after the fact and as a clarification, asserts: "it's arbitrary and random and the premise of one person having greater 'strength' against despair is wrong to begin with."

Omega openly criticizing Venat, pointing out the horror that she committed, and flat out saying if you approve of Venat's actions, it makes no sense you don't approve of Hermes's actions is a HUGE shift in framing from 6.0. That Omega compares Hermes (and thus Venat) to the Omicrons positively in itself has nuance, because consider how the Omicrons have been presented by the narrative. Ruthless, vicious warmongers with a mindset we're presumed to disagree with and oppose. Furthermore, asking the question the way it was in and of itself changes the way we're pushed to understand Venat's moral position - rather than the one who was "right," she's now associated with that group of Ancients as a whole, who all did horrible things based on their own beliefs. The narrative, rather than saying Venat Was Right, is now explicitly pushing "Venat and Emet-Selch are probably morally equivalent, actually."

And then even the Watcher himself (very gently) expresses that Venat was probably wrong to try to erase all knowledge of the past. I understand - and agree - with the idea that the Omega quests "aren't enough" and they need to continue with the new framework it established and push further. I also agree that the insistence that "Ancients probably would have wound up as a Dead End" continues to be a very irritating thorn in my side. But overall, it was a HUGE swerve into the right direction on several fronts.