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

[aveyond-dreams]

Bringing this up because I was reminded of it recently, I am going to quote Hythlodaeus’s statement from Ultima Thule, which in retrospect seems like such an unbelievable thing to say now:

“Oh, come now. It’s been a gripping tale. Unbreakable bonds and noble sacrifice, sprinkled with moments of levity to counterbalance the pathos. It’s got it all.”

First of all, are you kidding me? Second of all, this statement only makes sense if we ignore the fact that this just didn’t happen in Endwalker. Oh there was “levity” all right, far too much of it for a story set against the backdrop of an apocalypse. Noble sacrifices? That were completely undone not 30 seconds after he says these lines? What in the world is he talking about here besides the sacrifices made by mostly the antagonist factions and Ahewann? The only thing “unbreakable” here is the plot armor surrounding the scions, doesn’t make for a very gripping tale when it’s clear the stakes for the main cast aren’t higher than those in an episode of Blue’s Clues.

His statement can only apply to the expansions previous to this one, back when I wasn't nearly as concerned for this game's direction as I am now.

[jameseoakes]

Bringing this up because I was reminded of it recently, I am going to quote Hythlodaeus’s statement from Ultima Thule, which in retrospect seems like such an unbelievable thing to say now:



First of all, are you kidding me? Second of all, this statement only makes sense if we ignore the fact that this just didn’t happen in Endwalker. Oh there was “levity” all right, far too much of it for a story set against the backdrop of an apocalypse. Noble sacrifices? That were completely undone not 30 seconds after he says these lines? What in the world is he talking about here besides the sacrifices made by mostly the antagonist factions and Ahewann? The only thing “unbreakable” here is the plot armor surrounding the scions, doesn’t make for a very gripping tale when it’s clear the stakes for the main cast aren’t higher than those in an episode of Blue’s Clues.

His statement can only apply to the expansions previous to this one, back when I wasn't nearly as concerned for this game's direction as I am now.

It was so clear early on in UT that the characters were not going to stay dead that it really killed those parts for me and made most of the setup for each 'death' just feel so overdone and empty

Edit: not helped by the fact the game as really fallen in to a habit of doing these fake outs a lot

[LordGiggles]

It was so clear early on in UT that the characters were not going to stay dead that it really killed those parts for me and made most of the setup for each 'death' just feel so overdone and empty

Edit: not helped by the fact the game as really fallen in to a habit of doing these fake outs a lot

Honestly I could be on board with it if the sacrifices weren't intended to have emotional impact on the player, with it being more focused on the actual arguments and reasons to press on the individual scions have, but I don't think it did that well. Urianger just hopping into the temporary suicide club with Yshtola because they couldn't figure out where else to put him is the best example of that I think, but there's a lot of pretty tropey nothing takes or just outright dumb stuff said by them in general.

Also yeah hard agree on the fake deaths, I was over that in heavensward. Yshtola getting one (or a "will she die????" moment) every expac since is just incredibly weak, uninspired writing.