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

[Theodric]

You might have said this part in half-jest, but browsing twitter lately I've seen a shocking number of peope who quite literally mod their characters to look exactly like Second Life character models. Don't even want to imagine what these people actually do ingame.

But this is what the devs see when they look at FF twitter. Mayhap it explains the increased amount of modern-style clothing glams being put onto the mog station of late. They've realized the audience they've attracted and are banking off of it.

Sadly it wasn't a jest! It's definitely one of the things that made the game world feel less interesting and magical to me. I think there's plenty of ways for the development team to make money off of players without necessarily compromising the established tone and aesthetics of the setting itself.

It's reached the point where I wish there was a filter to just sort of block out other players in cutscenes and stuff.

[YukikoKurosawa]

It's reached the point where I wish there was a filter to just sort of block out other players in cutscenes and stuff.

Can't filter out other players in trial cutscenes where the player is summoning other players who show up wearing clownsuits and ERP outfits to aid them for a serious climactic battle, sadly.

[Theodric]

Can't filter out other players in trial cutscenes where the player is summoning other players who show up wearing clownsuits and ERP outfits to aid them for a serious climactic battle, sadly.

They could probably add a toggle that allows 'immersive' generic NPC's to appear instead but honestly that seems like a waste of time in the era of 'you guys really care about the story, huh' in a game actively advertised for...its story.

[Rulakir]

(This started off with a point and ended with an emotional ramble, sorry. :P)

I keep thinking about the Christian connotations in EW. They were obvious with Venat, but less so (for me) for Hermes. I didn't put it together until I started seeing fanart of him with a serpent and apple. So, he is supposed to somehow be Eve in this scenario who ate from the Tree of Knowledge? I honestly don't know what to think of that.

It was a lot more egregious with Venat, particularly the "Footsteps in the Sand" implication with her walking towards Emet which I found particularly appalling. Not to mention that Venat is more ruthless than the Old Testament God. She deemed no one righteous to save, in fact, her most devoted were destroyed soul and all. She only intends to spare one man who she expressly needs to safeguard her plan (that's if we ignore maintaining the time loop). This is less clear in the EN translation (as most context of EW is), but Emet says in other translations that she doesn't like to lose so he was basically her insurance policy.

Then there's the theme of being cast out of paradise, of course. The problem, as usual, is Venat was no god but a woman who quite possibly misled others into turning her into one so she could pass judgment on the world for not living up to her ideology. This ultimately fails as a message to many because we see the Ancients were regular, if not 'good' people. We're not shown Sodom & Gomorrah (which would be Limsa Lominsa and U'dah :P), we're shown Eden. Even after the Final Days we're not shown anything that warrants the annihilation of the Ancients, but instead an incredibly tone deaf cutscene of people trying to cope with having narrowly survived an apocalypse and not meeting Venat's lofty standards.

Also, I didn't realize how prevalent this "forge ahead" narrative is in modern media. Having seen it applied now in other recent sci-fi/fantasy franchises, it seems to essentially be code for "the past sucks, moving on". I read someone say that they fell in love with the world of Hydaelyn, not Etheirys and that's probably the simplest way to describe my disconnect because I felt the opposite. Outside of HW, I can't say I've particularly enjoyed my time on "Hydaelyn". ARR was a chore to get through because I found it so boring. SB wasn't much better. Then I was immediately hooked heart and soul by ShB. I love the Ancients, I love the old world (Etheirys), I love the characters more than the ones I've been forced to group with since being recruited into the Scions. Everything was just better. Now I feel like "Bitter" Ancient (incidentally "hopeful" or "inspiring" Ancient in other languages, but no bias on EN localization's part of course) being told to "forge ahead" to a "new" adventure and ... that's not what I want.

Kind of rambling to myself now, but I only know to describe it as a relationship you wish you could make work, but you know can't because you want different things. That's how I feel. I appreciate this thread and the many people I've met through it who've tried to help me work through this, well, grieving process. Not to sound overdramatic, but I always feel sad when I finish a game. This time just feels doubly worse because the ending was so, so bad. I'm trying to not let it retroactively ruin the positive memories I have of ShB. I'm apprehensive about what's coming in 6.2 and preparing myself for the worst. I'd still like to get my SO through 5.0-5.3 (currently in post SB patches), but it's just getting harder by the day to keep playing and I guess I needed to rant a bit about that.

[ReynTime]

I've been thinking lately about how I'd have liked Meteion more as the final boss if she actually acted more like a villain instead of the game hammering the idea she was a victim of Hermes' misguided experiment all over again in the last hours.

Anyone old enough to play this game got the message by the end of the Elpis nonsense. The endsinger we meet at the end has NOTHING to do with the threatening giggling voice we hear upon Zodiark's defeat and I wish they had went with that instead. She's boring and the game had enough scenes where we hug literally or figuratively an antagonist.

[Raoabolic]

They could probably add a toggle that allows 'immersive' generic NPC's to appear instead but honestly that seems like a waste of time in the era of 'you guys really care about the story, huh' in a game actively advertised for...its story.

To be fair, Twilight and Dragon Age 2 was advertised for it's story as well. Advertisers and businessmen really do run the show, don't they? lol

[BaconBits]

I've been thinking lately about how I'd have liked Meteion more as the final boss if she actually acted more like a villain instead of the game hammering the idea she was a victim of Hermes' misguided experiment all over again in the last hours.

Anyone old enough to play this game got the message by the end of the Elpis nonsense. The endsinger we meet at the end has NOTHING to do with the threatening giggling voice we hear upon Zodiark's defeat and I wish they had went with that instead. She's boring and the game had enough scenes where we hug literally or figuratively an antagonist.

Reject sympathetic villains, return to villains that actively make you want to wrap your hands around their throats.

[RyuDragnier]

Reject sympathetic villains, return to villains that actively make you want to wrap your hands around their throats.

But didn't we have that for the final battle?

[BaconBits]

But didn't we have that for the final battle?

In my opinion, not really.

Zenos really outstayed his welcome, what with most of his Shadowbringers appearances being dedicated to him sitting around in his throne looking bored out of his mind while Damn Daniel danced around like a madman. Then the few antics he manages to get up to before Fandango Moneybags stole the show in Endwalker amounted to nothing.

By the time he finally got to square up with us at the edge of the universe I didn't want him dead, I wanted him gone.

[CrownySuccubus]

Reject sympathetic villains, return to villains that actively make you want to wrap your hands around their throats.

That probably won't be a bad idea. 3.0 and 4.0 both had extremely unsympathetic main villains, with some secondary villains with deeper nuance. Naturally, for 5.0 they took a chance with Emet-Selch and it paid off, but then they tried the same thing in 6.0 to questionable results.

The only question is if SE accepts that and stops trying to recapture the Emet-Selch lightning.