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

[Raoabolic]

Gotta milk those memberberries for all they're worth.

What can they say? Tear jerkers resonate with "content creators". Stop paying so much attention the story, your sanity will thank you, lol.

[KageTokage]

I kind of wish they'd break out of the formulaic structure they have for when dungeons and trials happen because it adds a certain level of predictability when you know you're going to be fighting a primal or some other big nasty at a specific time.

The 50/50 zone splits are another thing I wish they could do away with because likewise being able to see the levels of the FATEs in each zone telegraphs when you're going to be coming back.

It's very difficult for me to not be aware of those little quirks like interface spoilers and immediately start making predictions about how the story is going to flow as a consequence. Heck, I even predicted the final zone was going to be in deep space somewhere just from looking at the list of EW Rowena collectables without any further context.

[DiaDeem]

Q: What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?
A: Hope in the face of complete despair

[jameseoakes]

Q: What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?
A: Hope in the face of complete despair

I thought it was your only allowed hope if your the right kinds of people

[Atelier-Bagur]

Can't wait till somebody makes a:
What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Shadowbringers? Because come oooon I can't be the only one whom came with such high expectations about it due to people overhyping it only to make the entire setup for it built in post Stormblood meaningless (aka Black Rose etc)

[KageTokage]

People inherently have higher expectations from the finale of a story. I'm probably not as disappointed as some others because I had no faith they could tie up all of the loose ends remaining in the space of an expansion without leaving something feeling half-baked and/or unsatisfying.

In that sense Shadowbringers being fairly self-contained worked to its benefit, but I still ended up feeling much better about saving the First then the entire bloody Source somehow. Perhaps if the Final Days had escalated to a point where things felt genuinely dire it would've given me more of a sense of relief then purging the light from the skies for good...though there was that whole additional stress factor of "About to turn into a lightwarden and doom the shard if not the Source as well".

I felt really dug into the finale of 5.0 compared to 6.0 whereas I was just kind of...indifferent when I reached Ultima Thule.

[Atelier-Bagur]

People inherently have higher expectations from the finale of a story. I'm probably not as disappointed as some others because I had no faith they could tie up all of the loose ends remaining in the space of an expansion without leaving something feeling half-baked and/or unsatisfying.

In that sense Shadowbringers being fairly self-contained worked to its benefit, but I still ended up feeling much better about saving the First then the entire bloody Source somehow. Perhaps if the Final Days had escalated to a point where things felt genuinely dire it would've given me more of a sense of relief then purging the light from the skies for good.

Not really, while I enjoyed shb's compact story I'm telling you I still care more about Eorzea than the First and it being super formulaic made a lot of its story predictable to me (which isn't bad mind you but people like to say EW is predicatble when we literally just came off one of the games most predictable plots ever) I will never understand why people like to oversell ShB being so above everything that came before it when it's not even that great on its own. To me it rode a lot on the established lore, characters and parallels from the previous expansions. Sure Emet-Selch and Ardbert were great characters but not enough to warrant to say that the whole plot was great because of them. They're only part of that pie and when the majority of that pie is still lackluster then how can you still say that the whole thing was great?

[Raoabolic]

Q: What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?
A: Hope in the face of complete despair

Wrong, the answer is that ShB did despair better. EW's story rang hollow in that regard. Sorry nerds. :/

[Striker44]

Wrong, the answer is that ShB did despair better. EW's story rang hollow in that regard. Sorry nerds. :/

Again, to you, perhaps. I'd encourage you to check out YT videos on the EW story. You'll find hundreds of comments from unique accounts (as opposed to the couple dozen or so people here having ongoing discussions) talking about how meaningful they found EW (again, to them).

[Vahlnir]

People inherently have higher expectations from the finale of a story. I'm probably not as disappointed as some others because I had no faith they could tie up all of the loose ends remaining in the space of an expansion without leaving something feeling half-baked and/or unsatisfying.

In that sense Shadowbringers being fairly self-contained worked to its benefit, but I still ended up feeling much better about saving the First then the entire bloody Source somehow. Perhaps if the Final Days had escalated to a point where things felt genuinely dire it would've given me more of a sense of relief then purging the light from the skies for good...though there was that whole additional stress factor of "About to turn into a lightwarden and doom the shard if not the Source as well".

I felt really dug into the finale of 5.0 compared to 6.0 whereas I was just kind of...indifferent when I reached Ultima Thule.

That is my main gripe with Endwalker I think. The urgency just wasn't there, when by all accounts it should have been. Most of the world should have been engulfed by the time we were headed to Ultima Thule, especially after more than a couple of unnecessary "family" dinners. They made us rush around a lot, never really getting the chance to stop and smell the roses, only to be interrupted by various slice of life sequences in Sharlyan. The pacing was pretty off-balance. Things should have gotten worse than they did all around. Instead, it was "The Final Days...somewhere. Maybe."