They need to rethink how they do story in 7.0 +

[magitekLuna]

zenos? a good villain??? man is basically goku though if he was a bit less on the friendly side, he simply wants to fight you for the sake of fighting you. i don't think thats really a good villain.

You may not like him and it's totally ok. He is good in how he was introduced. They build him up. Show why he do it and all that. They did not ass pulled him in the lady part of the story.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

zenos? a good villain??? man is basically goku though if he was a bit less on the friendly side, he simply wants to fight you for the sake of fighting you. i don't think thats really a good villain.

Not every villain needs to have this big huge theatrical motivation to destroy the world or enslave it, or needs some sappy backstory to make us feel bad for them and understand their motivation...or even turn heel and agree with them/side with them.
Sometimes a Good Fun villain can be the most simple thing; Somebody who just wants a good fight, and will do everything in their power to get that good fight, even to the point of obsession and they may do truly bad things to get what they want.

Zenos was a Good Villain.
He was truly the one entity that could stand with us.
Plus what other Villain Denied us the killing blow by taking his own life with a smile? Thats a true Villain right there.

[Soge01]

Endwalker's story felt rushed. We spent too much time talking and hanging out with the Scions in Sharlyan and not enough time actually seeing them actively trying to stop the Final Days. If the pace of the story was slowed down while those more casual moments were clipped down some, I think the expansion would have been much better.

6.1's part of the story was way better paced. It felt like it went back to the old story telling pace FFXIV had done in its past expansions, which I greatly enjoyed. In 6.0, I kid you not, I was falling asleep having to trudge around Sharlyan with the Scions for the one millionth time.

Don't get me wrong, I still loved those moments with the Scions. But like I said before, those types of moments should have been cut down as they were far too long and it honestly cheapened the impending doom that was supposed to be the Final Days.

I understand what the devs were trying to do, but it was far too much hopium shoved in your face the whole time and not enough hopelessness that challenged that.

Radz-at-Han did a great job displaying the despair that was the Final Days, both the fake and real one, while the Scions tried to help stop the outbreak. If there was a more evened out contrast between that and those fleeting peaceful moments we spent with the Scions in Sharlyan, then i think the expansion would have turned out far better than it did.

Again, too much focus on the Scions walking about in Sharlyan and not enough focus on showcasing the Final Days and all the people's motives that either brought it about or tried to prevent it.

I hope to never see this type of rushed and flip flopped pacing in FFXIV ever again as it dam near killed all the hype for me and literally was almost putting me to sleep half the time.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

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I think the worse part for me was Elpis.
Like..I understand the storybuilding that they wanted & needed to accomplish, but it felt dragged out. I felt like we were there to long, and thats probly the Only time, Personally, that I got a little bored and almost fell asleep in EW.
When the Report came in, thats when I woke up and was interested again. Sure seeing our boy and his best friend and mom again was exciting...but Elpis just took to long.

[Soge01]

I think the worse part for me was Elpis.
Like..I understand the storybuilding that they wanted & needed to accomplish, but it felt dragged out. I felt like we were there to long, and thats probly the Only time, Personally, that I got a little bored and almost fell asleep in EW.
When the Report came in, thats when I woke up and was interested again. Sure seeing our boy and his best friend and mom again was exciting...but Elpis just took to long.

For myself, when it came to Elpis, I thought we weren't there long enough, lol! Though I do see your point and maybe a few quests could have been cut so there was more focus on Venat, Hermes and the rest so we'd get a clearer accurate read on their thoughts, feelings and motives, along with changes in their stance on certain things when it came to the Final Days.

Like, I really would have liked to see an example of Venat's change in her faith in her people beung able to survive the Final days while we were still in Elpis.

Showing a seen or two of Ancients just giving up on trying to defend themselves when their own magicks don't work on an out of control concept or something would have been a good way to show even a twinge of doubt in her own people's survivability. After all, she, her decipiles, Azem, Emet-Selch and Hytholodeous are anomalies among their people. They all have the will to survive and see things through to the end, no matter how painful and soul wrenching it can get. The rest of the Ancients are all just basically giant brains with no capability to survive without their magicks. Emet-Selch's recreation of the Final Days, plus Venat crytalized amalgamation of that time shows just how hopeless the Ancients were without their creation magicks.

Though again, it would have been nice to see that contrast between a worldy traveled and well versed fighter like Venat compared to your average Ancient, who, again is nothing but a giant brain with a ton of magical power but useless without the latter while we were there prrsent in Elpis instead of a flashback later on when we leave. Because her sudden change in stance, along with Hermes sudden distrust of the gang when Metion started her report through me for a loop, as it was so dam out of the blue and you could tell there was supoosed to be a least a few more cutscenes before those moments even happened so we'd understand exactly what was going on in both those moments. xD

[Amenara]

I would love them to add more solo duties to the story so we can directly experience it instead of spending the majority of the MSQ in cutscenes. I think the Garlean solo duty was one of the best things they did for the MSQ and want more of that in the game. I also want all the zones to feel like they have a purpose and feel important to the story's progression like I felt in ShB. I feel like they need to add more gameplay into the story quests instead of feeling like it is just a movie I am watching with a little gameplay in between going from point a to point b.

[Ilisidi]

Whereas I loved the Elpis section and loathe the Garlemald section and especially the solo duty which was even more tedious than the normal one button solo sections.

[hagare]

Not every villain needs to have this big huge theatrical motivation to destroy the world or enslave it, or needs some sappy backstory to make us feel bad for them and understand their motivation...or even turn heel and agree with them/side with them.
Sometimes a Good Fun villain can be the most simple thing; Somebody who just wants a good fight, and will do everything in their power to get that good fight, even to the point of obsession and they may do truly bad things to get what they want.

Zenos was a Good Villain.
He was truly the one entity that could stand with us.
Plus what other Villain Denied us the killing blow by taking his own life with a smile? Thats a true Villain right there.

he kill steal me. xD
Seriously though, one of my favorite moment in the new adventure saga was buying a man drinks to get information I needed xD

[Absurdity]

On the other hand, I suspect many of those who have done 'everything' would be happier with more meaningful engagement with side quest characters instead of cheap surface level acknowledgement and cameos. For example, given that the new story is based around going to the Void it would have made more sense to call upon characters relevant to just that - the Void. Instead not only are we stuck with the Scions yet again, nobody thinks to approach the characters who survived dealing with Voidsent in the Void Ark raids...or the Reaper job trainer and her companions. Or the Thaumatage/Black Mage job trainers.

'Look, it's X! Remember him?' Does little to excite me, personally.

It just feels completely out of place considering the whole ending scene to the 6.0 MSQ with everyone going their separate ways. I bet it would be even more jarring if I did the MSQ now and went from saying my goodbyes to all the Scions to meeting up with them again 10 minutes later.

[Bellsong]

Story is gonna be a lot better now that Zenos is dead though, what's to complain about? :v