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

[Kazhar]

Isnt that kind of telling that 90% of the majority of Shb was just pointless filler?

Welcome to Final Fantasy XIV.

[Teraq]

Its probably time for you people to wake up and smell the mun tuy beans because Shadowbringer's plot wasnt that great to begin with.

To be perfectly honest I enjoyed the setting being new and the "You have X beasts to slay, one per zone", it felt very video gamey, like Zelda.

But it's mostly Emet existing and traveling along with the cast that made 5.0 the greatest, by default. He isn't even my favorite character, but this is non-arguable.

Unfortunately for you, most (if not all?) polls on Best Expansion since 5.0 came out would disagree with you. And you know what we say 'round these parts: the MAJORITY agrees! You're just a TINY MINORITY! (Repeat ad nauseam)

But yes. When we talk about Shadowbringers, we mean the Ancients.

I mean……… When we talk at all, we mean the Ancients. Haven't you read the thread.

[Heroman3003]

Its probably time for you people to wake up and smell the mun tuy beans because Shadowbringer's plot wasnt that great to begin with.

Shadowbringers entire plot was literally "Okay we kinda want our villains to stop being saturday morning cartoon cackling maniacs, especially now that we have a character thats actually more fun in that role than they ever were". It wasn't anything emotionally groundbreaking or innovative. It was still, imo, best story of all expansions, including Endwalker, but people way overpraised it when it was just "decent general writing". Tumblr sexyman Emet Selch and a tease that "what if light evil" that simply was something to ponder rather than a real plot thread was more than enough for people to fall in love with expansion story and expect some deep dark grey morality all over the place going forward, when even that at admission of writers was 'darker than they normally want to go'.

Shadowbringers wasn't something 'special' or 'groundbreaking'. It was a big step up by ff14's storywriting standards and it was a pretty good story, and Endwalker was a good followup, but people expected everything to get WORSE and more dark and more serious and more deep when we all but knew that absolutely wouldn't happen because it was directly acknowledged even before Endwalker that Shadowbringers is probably farthest things will go in that direction. Also yes, 90% of expansion was filler, as really the only things that mattered in grander scheme of arc of The First is how we stop Emet/Elidibus, and everything else was just anticipation buildup to that.

[Kazhar]

Its probably time for you people to wake up and smell the mun tuy beans because Shadowbringer's plot wasnt that great to begin with.

Despite being generic, I thought the "Light zombies Isekai" part of Shadowbringers was still quite good. It's not like the premise of ANY FFXIV expansion really is unique to the JRPG genre. Like always, execution is everything.
But in any case, I have no idea where you're getting at since when most people talk about their attachement to Shadowbringers, it's mostly linked to the late game revelations, and everything leading up to 5.3. It's not a coincidence both climaxes (and even the Eden raids) are about the Ascians. They're the actual emotional core of that expansion.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Ok here's the thing that I think people just have some weird sense of nostalgia goggles? (dont know the proper term for somebody who's awed at a concept) with Shadowbringer's premise. They literally just switched the good and evil elements with Light being bad and Dark being good and somehow people ate that up as this was a brand new idea that's totally nuanced in its morality. Or heck at least the language people giving off praising ShB feels like they think its story is like that when its just more of the same of what we had before. Its an interesting premise nevertheless and I wont deny Shb of that but at the same time, am I the only one who truly see's Shadowbringers for being more of the same of what we had before and not being that special compared to the other expansions's themes and stories? Again I think people fell in love with the last bit with the Amaurot reveal and finally seeing a glimpse of what the Ascians desperately tried to fight us over and it was indeed very neat and empathic. But that still didnt excuse them for trying to genocide the current population, playing with everyone's lives and orchestrating calamities and destruction just to bring back what they had before. It doesnt justify it at all and at the end of the day I took their plight as just understanding more of why they do what they do, but you pretty much also get the same idea with other villains previously. Gauis wanted to save Eorzea from themselves, Nidhogg wanted revenge for what the Ishgardians did to him and his kin, Zenos wanted to have a fulfilling existence etc. These are all basic tropes in your average jrpg story, Emet-Selch is no different. Therefore Shadowbringers isnt this masterpiece people make it out to be. Its just a good expansion story, just like all the others have been imo.

[Teraq]

when even that at admission of writers was 'darker than they normally want to go'.

Shadowbringers was a fluke, and it's a shame it was.

This all reminds me of the post-ARR story. Coming from A Song Of Ice And Fire fandom, everything about the Ul'dah story was my jam, only for it to resolve into … kinda nothing in HW. Also appreciated post-Stormblood with the Garlean politics tease, only for, uh, Zenos to happen in 5.0. Though at least I enjoyed what remained of it in 6.0… still my favorite zone story of the expansion. Just as depressing as I like it!

Should have seen my disappointment in EW coming, really.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Here's what I initially expected when people told me I was gonna cry in ShB and the story was going to turn what you knew before over its head.

I thought the story was gonna be about us having to literally fight the balance of light overtaking the world...OUR WORLD not the First with us being villains despite us not wanting to do it. The whole deal with Black Rose and the Empire and the talk of calamities during the post Sb story made me believe that us saving the world multiple times was going to usher a calamity of light due to the abundance of good in the world. Basically what Ardbert and his group did when they defeated Mitron and Lohgrif but it was the Scions and in our world. I believed the theme was gonna be about having to literally becomes antagonists to the people we cared about, the nations we helped save just to bring the world back in balance. That honestly would've been very daring and gut wrenching if that was the case for the build up to what was to come.

Obviously that didnt happen as the whole build up with Garlemald and Black Rose was axed and concluded off screen (with Estenien and Gaius and eventually Zenos) but instead we got an abrupt stop with all that payoff with an isekai story in the First. You have no idea how much of a let-down that was to me when I finally realized thats what Shadowbringers was about. Oh well, I still liked the story we got regardless but man it couldve been so much better.

[Teraq]

Personally, I also expected, when its trailer was first revealed, that it would be about the light invading our world. I never cared about the whole "omg warrior of DARKNESS!!!!!" spiel because I fully expected the player character to remain the good guy anyway.

Then when I first learned the last zone was called "The Tempest" and one of the max level dungeons "The Twinning" my first thought was that 5.0 would conclude with an at least partial rejoining, and that the zone and dungeon names were referring to a massive interdimensional storm as one dimension started collapsing onto the other. (No, I am not well versed in crystallography.)

I suppose Shadowbringers is a good example of sUbVeRTiNg mY eXpEcTaTiOnS and me actually loving what I got. I honestly enjoyed most of 5.0 (pre-Mt Gulg and the trolley part stick out, but I appreciated the conclusion to Magnus's family story).

[Thenightvortex]

F for my boy Rubicante who got preached at about how the people of the source who are nowhere near as messed over by life as voidsent are just so much better than voidsent by a voidsent who lucked out and got healed by the Mary Sue crystal. I’m sure those deep and profound arguments would mean a lot for someone who is broken and doomed to live in a purgatory of constant rebirth in a twisted, monstrous state and not at all ring hollow.

Also, this thread deserves a name change. Using the word “quite” in regards to Endwalker’s lackluster story is being far too nice

[Simple_Barghest]

F for my boy Rubicante who got preached at about how the people of the source who are nowhere near as messed over by life as voidsent are just so much better than voidsent by a voidsent who lucked out and got healed by the Mary Sue crystal. I’m sure those deep and profound arguments would mean a lot for someone who is broken and doomed to live in a purgatory of constant rebirth in a twisted, monstrous state and not at all ring hollow.

Also, this thread deserves a name change. Using the word “quite” in regards to Endwalker’s lackluster story is being far too nice

Didn't want to post in this thread again but holy fucking CHRIST this post just unlocked something in my brain.
What are you fucken getting at, FF14 writers? That's twice now "modern humanity" has been used to preach and proselytize about how "modern humanity" is better than X group, when X group was shat on by circumstances outside of their control due to the machinations and manipulations of larger entities beyond their at-that-point-in-time comprehension. What are you getting at? What's the point of this posturing nonsense?