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

[EgilTheStressedMage]

'Tis a hint for our next primal, surely.

I could go for a good steak burger right about now.

[Rosenstrauch]

I don't really get the obsession with the expensive mocapped slice of life hamburger scene. But then I don't really get the need for expensive mocapped slice of life scenes in the first place. Actually, was that scene mocapped? I know the Estinien one where he jumps out a window was (they bragged about how expensive it was), but I'm unsure about the hamburger scene.

I'm not one to complain about slice of life moments, either, though I definitely prefer when they have a purpose (ie: It's a vehicle for the characters to talk with each other).

'Tis a hint for our next primal, surely.

The Burger King as a primal would be terrifying and/or hilarious.

[Theodric]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

The Burger King as a primal would be terrifying and/or hilarious.

The Burger King won't temper anyone, oh nothing so simple. He'll make everyone look like Dulia-Chai instead. Terrifying indeed!

(Heh, a nice mechanic for the fight: Burger King uses "overdose of fat" and you need to sprint and jump around to get back into shape so you can jump high enough to get on a platform to avoid a one-shot)

[CrownySuccubus]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

I don't think it matters. Not like Square-Enix, of all companies, is shy about over-commercializing its most popular characters, whether they're dead or no longer relevant or not.

Aka, the Sephiroth effect.

[Vyrerus]

"Blobs of indistinguishable features" is certainly how you can describe pretty much every FF main character prior to PS1 hardware.

FFVI's cast was all clearly distinguishable from one another on the SNES. In fact, all of the characters in FFs on the SNES are clearly distinguishable from one another. Try again.

[Ayuhra]

As for adding a male highlander into the Scions, Arenvald was the perfect opportunity for this. And then they stuck him in a wheelchair. Note: he's supposed to be 19 and Thancred is supposed to be 32. It's infuriating because not only did Arenvald have some actual color in his design, he also had a better backstory than Thancred and an English voice actor who was more interesting to listen to. He fit the bill as this game's "Snow Villiers" character way better than Thancred or Estinien do.

Maybe Arenvald can still join the Scions as a noncombatant (until we heal him, eh?)

Since Minfilia exited the story we haven't had a highlander in the main group. We need a highlander.

(Lyse is a highlander in lore but she's not a Scion anymore either)

[Lucida3b]

I mean arenvald could learn a magic job? I wouldnt be surprised if he could be a arcanist or whatever. A lot of people who were apart of the resistence probably could as resistences require organization and certain skills which could be refluffed or useful for such a job.

Then again I dont know if we knew what he did before he joined the story do we?

[Jagick]

While I have yet to finish Endwalker, thus far the venture to Garlemald is the single biggest let down so far. I realize it goes against the power of friendship and goodie two-shoes to a fault narrative of the main cast but some kupoing catharsis would be nice every once in a while, especially after everything that's happened, everything we've gone through. After everything Garlemald has done, they are finally on the back foot and crumbling from within. Everything before the Telophoroi were introduced in late 5.x seemed like Eorzea was gearing up to counter invade Garlemald and FINALLY dish out some divine retribution, crush their forces, and bring their aggressive people to heel. Lol nope, we're gonna risk sending limited soldiers and supplies behind enemy lines for humanitarian aid to people that up until now have despised us and tormented most of the world for years. Yeah, I know they're almost all tempered, but... they're more or less doing exactly what they were doing before that happened, just for another reason and for another master and I don't have much sympathy for the people that happily cheered on what the Empire was doing while they were the victors. I just really wish Garlemald itself, as a creation of the Ascians, could have been the big bad in need of taking down rather than them resurrecting Zenos, again, and pulling a new villain out of thin air, thus forcing us to rush to the rescue of our second biggest enemy for the last decade.

It's just so disappointing and underwhelming. It makes me wonder what Ishikawa had in mind for the story before she had to rewrite and change so much of it.

[aveyond-dreams]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

Every time this man appears in the news it always seems to be associated with something detrimental to people's gameplay experience, from the gutting of a classic Final Fantasy job like Blue Mage and quite literally dressing up as the posterchild for "Limited jobs!" to the constant pushing of NFTs despite widespread opposition amongst the people he is actually trying to sell products to. Under his watch, SE has produced countless failed projects and if left unchecked would have destroyed all the major brands that the company owns by now. If there is any evidence to suggest that he is fit to continue serving in his position, then I cannot find it. Yoship has already said that if FFXVI does not meet certain sales targets that the mainline Final Fantasy brand is in danger, because the series is no longer a household staple for a generation whose patience was exhausted by the original lackluster release of FFXV and the catastrophic launch of FFXIV 1.0.

Dear God, burgers AGAIN?!

I will continue bringing this scene up because it is the perfect example of the cringeworthy writing style of Endwalker which feels more like a walking simulator on a college campus at times than an expansion at the end of the world. Shadowbringers was exciting to play for me because there was always some level of tension there, with very little filler on par with the trolley sequence. Endwalker however wastes the player's time with multiple long treks in Sharlayan made even slower with the NPC that has to tag along behind you, and 3/4ths of the moon. So many people defend these out of place scenes as "oh but we need to alleviate the tension!" as if there weren't more logical and thematically on point ways to go about doing this.

In Shadowbringers, we would go back to our apartment in the Crystarium and have chats with Ardbert, who provided insightful commentary instead of just vomiting lore in a nonstop stream like the Sharlayans do. In Heavensward and Stormblood, we had our campfire scenes with our party members where we could look up at the sky and reflect on the adventure so far. That is what I expect out of this game - not Uber Eats in a college dorm. I will forever oppose this nonsense because if someone wants those kinds of scenes then they can already go play Persona and have an entire game's worth of them. I feel betrayed after having fallen in love with this game in ARR/Heavensward under the premise that this would be a game with high fantasy and sci-fi elements with a story that takes itself seriously and Endwalker ruined that.

While I have yet to finish Endwalker, thus far the venture to Garlemald is the single biggest let down so far. I realize it goes against the power of friendship and goodie two-shoes to a fault narrative of the main cast but some kupoing catharsis would be nice every once in a while, especially after everything that's happened, everything we've gone through. After everything Garlemald has done, they are finally on the back foot and crumbling from within. Everything before the Telophoroi were introduced in late 5.x seemed like Eorzea was gearing up to counter invade Garlemald and FINALLY dish out some divine retribution, crush their forces, and bring their aggressive people to heel. Lol nope, we're gonna risk sending limited soldiers and supplies behind enemy lines for humanitarian aid to people that up until now have despised us and tormented most of the world for years. Yeah, I know they're almost all tempered, but... they're more or less doing exactly what they were doing before that happened, just for another reason and for another master and I don't have much sympathy for the people that happily cheered on what the Empire was doing while they were the victors. I just really wish Garlemald itself, as a creation of the Ascians, could have been the big bad in need of taking down rather than them resurrecting Zenos, again, and pulling a new villain out of thin air, thus forcing us to rush to the rescue of our second biggest enemy for the last decade.

It's just so disappointing and underwhelming. It makes me wonder what Ishikawa had in mind for the story before she had to rewrite and change so much of it.

A Garlemald expansion would have indeed provided the sort of continued conflicts you express interest in, especially from military leaders who are uncompromising in their ideals and beliefs. I imagine that they would still humanize the Garlean people in different ways but in the end I did enjoy how they went about handling that specific aspect of Garlemald in Endwalker – it was still flawed in my view however because of the ridiculous decision to write Gaius out of the plot instead of trying to tie it together to the Weapons storyline. I think they did a good job of showing how not everyone in the Empire subscribes to the same mindset and the characters we did see were worthy of the screentime they took up.

(Ideally, such content like the trial series etc. should be made mandatory for not only story continuity issues but to enforce a skill check that this playerbase needs in endgame content. Especially if it would act as a filter for players whose aversion to more challenging battle content and Heavensward and Ivalice-style storytelling seems to overlap.)