Let's Talk About the Low Quality of Side Stories in this Game

[Bunnycake]

Yes, I did.

You madman!

[DPZ2]

You even did The Greatest Story Never Told quest...?

What a wonderful quest that was. A hint of scandal, a love story -- all set during a period in the past. Almost as good as a C-Drama.

[Kes13a]

sometimes I have to wonder why the OP even still plays. They seem to be happy about... nothing.

[DPZ2]

While the ShB quests make sense to be done post-MSQ (though not really during MSQ) as it make sense for and is established that Sin Eaters still roam around Norvrandt, it makes zero sense for you to do the EW quests during MSQ ...

It's a half-million XP while leveling alt jobs in Endwalker, pretty much like the 200K XP in Shadowbringers. It makes all the sense in the world to do those while leveling, since your 'job' is at-level with the MSQ at each point.

Then again, some people zip through the MSQ so fast that they don't even consider a leisurely stroll through the expansion on more than one job at the same time.

I've currently got an alt doing that with Ranged, Melee and Magical DPS in Shadowbringers. They've just gotten through Il Mheg. Looking forward to the EW Role quests once I reach level 85.

Your opinions about the quality of writing are just that ... opinions. I've always enjoyed running through the things that don't have the World in the Balance depending on their completion. Reminds me of why I'm around ... not the Warrior of Light, Saviour of Worlds ... simply an adventurer answering the calls of common folk (for the most part).

[Silver-Strider]

Actually, the overwhelming majority of the playerbase considers EW to be a great story. YMMV, but please stop trying to act as if you are somehow an arbiter on all things and hundreds of thousands of other people must be "wrong" because...well...you say so? EW's storytelling has been amazing, and the huge positive reception to it practically anywhere outside of the trollish echo chamber here is a testament to that.

It's not like there isn't a whole thread that is going back and forth on how awful EW was in terms of its narrative so it's not a universal feeling. Many claim that SB had a weak story and no one really disagrees with that notion but with EW, there's a pretty divided opinion on whether it was good or not.

[Striker44]

It's not like there isn't a whole thread that is going back and forth on how awful EW was in terms of its narrative so it's not a universal feeling. Many claim that SB had a weak story and no one really disagrees with that notion but with EW, there's a pretty divided opinion on whether it was good or not.

Yeah, but look at that whole thread and realize it's just the same small group creating an echo chamber amongst themselves, with a few other people disagreeing with them every now and again. Then, go to practically any other place like Youtube or even Reddit and you'll see overwhelmingly positive comments from a much larger variety of people.

[YukikoKurosawa]

Yeah, but look at that whole thread and realize it's just the same small group creating an echo chamber amongst themselves, with a few other people disagreeing with them every now and again. Then, go to practically any other place like Youtube or even Reddit and you'll see overwhelmingly positive comments from a much larger variety of people.

Argumentum ad populum

[Midareyukki]

Yeah, but look at that whole thread and realize it's just the same small group creating an echo chamber amongst themselves, with a few other people disagreeing with them every now and again. Then, go to practically any other place like Youtube or even Reddit and you'll see overwhelmingly positive comments from a much larger variety of people.

"A larger variety of people", honey, they're content creators, that's barely diverse. Zepla for sure has nothing to gain from praising the game to high heaven, same as Drak.

[Silver-Strider]

Yeah, but look at that whole thread and realize it's just the same small group creating an echo chamber amongst themselves, with a few other people disagreeing with them every now and again. Then, go to practically any other place like Youtube or even Reddit and you'll see overwhelmingly positive comments from a much larger variety of people.

Even the people that liked EW's story still agree that the story had many issues with it.

Some people didn't like how Venat was portrayed and made her seem more like a Villain that condemned her people.
Some people hated how Garlemald was handled.
Some people felt the pacing was bad in some areas, Loporritis being a chief complaint in that regard.
Some people hated the Time Traveling aspect of the story (my friend swears that any form of Time Travel in storytelling is just lazy writing and hated Elpis with a passion as a result).

The list goes on. Whether you believe those issues were enough to make the story good or bad is entirely up to each individual but only time will tell if EW will be heralded as a good story or bad.

[Zaniel]

I didn't mind the 5 individual role quests, they were fine. However the final complete-all-5 wrap-up quest was a pretty wet noodle of a quest. It really went nowhere and I was fairly disappointed and I pretty much fanboy enjoy EVERYTHING storywise in this game, even the smallest sidequest (and including the EW MSQ).