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

[MagiusNecros]

I don't understand how DRK questline can be so good but the story be so bad. And I think Ishikawa wrote both?

I mean personally even ShB story I felt was good but the pacing overall in Endwalker is so rushed and all over the place that it comes off as cheap anime garbage.

And I'm seeing more of the same overall with Buried Memory.

The fights are amazing. The story not so much.

[Zebraoracle]

Meh. Personally I've enjoyed it. It's fan-service in a video game, not something to be taken ultra-seriously. Sit back, relax, enjoy the old-school references you understand...I feel like some people have just become so bitter they're simply incapable of just having fun anymore.

Come on, man, don't be one of those "you're not having fun right" posters.

[Adamantini]

I don't understand how DRK questline can be so good but the story be so bad. And I think Ishikawa wrote both?

I mean personally even ShB story I felt was good but the pacing overall in Endwalker is so rushed and all over the place that it comes off as cheap anime garbage.

And I'm seeing more of the same overall with Buried Memory.

The fights are amazing. The story not so much.

what I believe, is that the game becoming so popular made SE completely lose control of things. They have no idea what the players like, so whatever becomes popular, they amplify in the story, but they do it so intensely it gets sickening.

Why do I think so?

Graha'tia - character adored by everyone in SHB, and many talked about the scene in which he is embarrassed because they think it's cute. Now Graha doesn't stop following us, being cute. It's just an expendable character.

Characters not dying - they are simply afraid to kill any character and make the fanbase angry. No one relevant has died since post HW, if I'm not mistaken.

Attempts to make it very emotional - one of the most popular video themes on SHB was about players crying with 5.3. Now, even in praetorium our character does a scene worthy of a Mexican soap opera, because a robot stopped working.

[ReynTime]

I didn't think any story was going to be more uninteresting to me than SB, but EW did it. Whoever wrote it is to be congratulated.

If there are three things I can't stand this game anymore, it's:

fake deaths
flashback scenes to explain to me what was just said (I'm not stupid, I get it)
scenes clearly done in an attempt to make me cry (seriously, they ruined the Haurchefant scene with so much flashback. I roll my eyes every time it happens)

I liked Stormblood. The Ala Mhigan side was a bit dull, but they coupled a war-centric storyline with a more traditional long journey to a set destination like Heavensward's first half, which is something I have always enjoyed in the classic Final Fantaies as opposed to the "mission" based structure of ARR and Endwalker.

I don't understand how DRK questline can be so good but the story be so bad. And I think Ishikawa wrote both?

I mean personally even ShB story I felt was good but the pacing overall in Endwalker is so rushed and all over the place that it comes off as cheap anime garbage.

And I'm seeing more of the same overall with Buried Memory.

The fights are amazing. The story not so much.

Ishikawa's DRK questline is another example of her annoying tendency of taking the player avatar out of the WoL by forcing specific thought process or feelings towards another character. Can SE please just stop dancing around the issue and give the trailer midlander the name John Finalfantasy and admit he's a default main character with his own personality please.

[Ishe-P]

Can SE please just stop dancing around the issue and give the trailer midlander the name John Finalfantasy and admit he's a default main character with his own personality please.

Hard agree! I did some ARR questing on an alt and you are treated like some random guy, like a player avatar. More of that! (It's too late now, we can't go back, but could dampen the effects of being the Hero of the Galaxy/Universe). Can someone explain to me if it's a gamer thing that saving the world is the only thing worth while in modern role playing games? What about foiling Lex Luthor's plot to steal the diamond? (I've definitely expressed this opinion before, possibly even in this thread)

[RukoBoshi]

Hard agree! I did some ARR questing on an alt and you are treated like some random guy, like a player avatar. More of that! (It's too late now, we can't go back, but could dampen the effects of being the Hero of the Galaxy/Universe). Can someone explain to me if it's a gamer thing that saving the world is the only thing worth while in modern role playing games? What about foiling Lex Luthor's plot to steal the diamond? (I've definitely expressed this opinion before, possibly even in this thread)

It's a japanese RPG thing, and most especially a Final Fantasy thing.
We will always be saving the world at the end (or trying to).
In that regard, the devs are just following the usual Final Fantasy script.

What bothers me is that in a MMO, this create a power creep that makes us so strong that most enemies should be trivial to us.
We are probably the strongest human being alive right now, i can't see us having problems fighting anything right now.

I hope the WoL will get a huge nerf soon. I want to fight in smaller scale conflicted without either looking like i'm holding back, or wondering how our enemies could be so strong.

As for being treated like an avatar, i disagree, i hated that in ARR and other MMO in general. I'm fine with the WoL being a character that sometimes have his own reaction and personality, even if it goes against what i really think.
He would be more boring if he was a WoW kind of player character that are just a tag along. I like how expressive the character is compared to ARR.

[Adamantini]

I liked Stormblood. The Ala Mhigan side was a bit dull, but they coupled a war-centric storyline with a more traditional long journey to a set destination like Heavensward's first half, which is something I have always enjoyed in the classic Final Fantaies as opposed to the "mission" based structure of ARR and Endwalker.

my eternal tantrum with SB is the fact that you have the anime villain that never dies, or that everything you do is part of his plan.
Tsukuyomi, for example, we get into combat with her, then she is cut by the Hien, and a roof falls on her, and she doesn't die.
I don't like the way they told the story too. Several times I thought about giving up reading, it was so boring. But that's my opinion and personal taste.

Ishikawa's DRK questline is another example of her annoying tendency of taking the player avatar out of the WoL by forcing specific thought process or feelings towards another character. Can SE please just stop dancing around the issue and give the trailer midlander the name John Finalfantasy and admit he's a default main character with his own personality please.

Yes! I don't see myself as my character has been for a while anymore. In this expansion, I really wanted to delete him when we got to Elpis and he got the role of the stray dog, all the time making a sad face. When I think of my character, I think of a vindictive/mocking guy, not a sad guy who would put up with Emet-Selch talking shit all the time while making a pity face. My character just doesn't represent me anymore, I don't even know who he is.

[MagiusNecros]

They are trying to go in hard with Azem being the WoL as the player slowly but surely loses all free choice and becomes the next Elden Lord.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

Yeah, I honestly can't stand how annoying my own character has become in the main story and sometimes the side-stories. I shall forever be an eternal cutscene skipper.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

They have no idea what the players like

I dont think this is true. Sure, you will NEVER please everybody, but I think they do a pretty good job at making people happy and doing things people love.
Just at the same time, they also do things people dont like. Its the problem with having to much diversity and variety, that one side will start getting under developed, while the other gets over developed. Sometimes they hot the mark in some areas, other times they completly miss it and make people upset.