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

[aveyond-dreams]

I think they would rather write a scenario that has us going to Wendy's on the 13th than have us return to Ilsabard. The Garlemald role quest and the underwhelming way in which the provinces were handled has done nothing to further my confidence in any future settings. This, paired with a community that is all too eager to repeat "not everything has to be so serious!" whenever challenged on the continuous encroach of slice of life and attempts at comedy, doesn't seem like it'll make for a worthwhile story. It certainly doesn't help when we have influencers like Meoni who went out of their way to double down on justifying Hildibrand being ok to tie into the relic while misrepresenting and belittling other people's complaints, no matter how nice he went about it.

Obviously I'd like to be proven wrong, but what evidence is there to suggest that things will be handled better moving forward? How do I know that the Void won't be made a mockery of? If we take Alphinaud et co over there, then if we follow on from previous trends they'll have a fully functioning republic by the end of 7.0, after a journey full of more fakeouts and "funny" moments. How do I know that the same won't happen to Meracydia and the New World as well? No matter where we go from here, if these same trends continue then we'll have anything but a story of Heavensward's caliber again - because at this point it's clear there will never be another Shadowbringers.

For an mmorpg whose story is supposed to be the main attractor, most of the writing that has come out since the launch of 6.0 has been nothing I could recommend to other people. A story whose take on suffering is disconnected at best combined with a total lack of respect for long-awaited reveals like Zodiark, a bloated cast incapable of retaining previous growth and character development, and a budget blown on pizza and burgers while leaving epic moments unshown. The fact that someone even tried to argue against the inclusion of scenes such as Hydaelyn’s or Zodiark’s transformation is ridiculous – they told me that they wouldn’t have remembered such a scene and that the comedy bits were more memorable.

I have to ask, why are such individuals playing a Final Fantasy game? Why are they playing a Final Fantasy game when they readily admit to preferring that instead of moments on par with the summoning of Alexander in FFIX, or the intense character arcs for characters like Vanille in FFXIII? Why must FFXIV cede territory to people who by their own admission are not here for what makes these RPGs different from a TV sitcom? Because comedy will only carry a game so far. Why are they not playing visual novels instead? Why was the story that I was invested in since 2013 ruined for the sake of their tastes?

I honestly have to wonder whether I should have become the type that watches shows like Big Brother and Love Island instead of purchasing FFXIV all those years ago.