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

[Teraq]

I agree. I new game plus'd Shadowbringers 14 times (Not a coincidence) I dont think I could bare one new game plus on Endwalker.

I confess, coming from a decade of WoW, making several characters was my first instinct. Even though I knew you could play all classes on a single character, I just enjoy having separate characters, each with their own classes, aesthetics and personalities. From the moment I picked up the game in 2016 to the last patch of Shadowbringers, all of my alts were up to date or nearly so, each with at least two jobs at level 80, with only a single job being shared by two characters -- SMN/SCH, though one character was much more SMN and the other SCH.

Endwalker cured me of my altitis. Only three of my characters finished 6.0, and only my main unlocked 6.2 content at all. I just can't find the motivation in me anymore to go through MSQ again, while it never was a problem before. It even got me to do what I once swore I never would: level everything on my main instead of enjoying the various jobs on different characters. This Amaro is my greatest shame. (But it's really cute and should 100% have been a Shadowbringers MSQ reward.)

The power of friendship is literally the central theme of the entirety of FF14.

I wish it had been the power of Azem's canon friendship with Emet-Selch and Elidibus instead of the Scions of the Seventh Bore though, I'm just saying.

...okay yeah, you just proved everyone who calls you an echo-chamber.

…because he said "Likewise"? Is that it? Is this the standards for an echo chamber now?… He just agreed with the fairly popular take – outside of the cabal of Evil Zodiark Trancers, even – that Heavensward was a good story, and quite different from the ShB-EW writing, enough that some people who love how safe the story has become would think a return to the ARR-HW days of politics and significant-enough protagonists dying would be unwelcome and "dark". I can think of at least one forum poster who probably would, but then again they tend to be aggressively wrong about everything, or so I hear… but I digress. I guess that makes aveyond a participant in the echo chamber of the fanbase at large…?

I don't agree with some of aveyond's takes, but the reaction to him is pretty amusing honestly.

[Midareyukki]

…because he said "Likewise"? Is that it? Is this the standards for an echo chamber now?… He just agreed with the fairly popular take – outside of the cabal of Evil Zodiark Trancers, even – that Heavensward was a good story, and quite different from the ShB-EW writing, enough that some people who love how safe the story has become would think a return to the ARR-HW days of politics and significant-enough protagonists dying would be unwelcome and "dark". I can think of at least one forum poster who probably would, but then again they tend to be aggressively wrong about everything, or so I hear… but I digress. I guess that makes aveyond a participant in the echo chamber of the fanbase at large…?

I don't agree with some of aveyond's takes, but the reaction to him is pretty amusing honestly.

If it were amusing, you'd know what the heck you just replied to. So please read carefuly:

If it were just this one post, then yeah sure. But the problem comes from many, several other posts and threads. And there's only so much you can get to until you're fed up of the exact same stupid responses. It'd be one thing if this post was him agreeing with people, but another thing is him having dodged all posts pointing out issues with his reasoning.

And just like you, I agree that the game has taken a really weird turn since Stormblood. You know what me and my friends call it? Disneyfication. The game became a lot brighter, consequences and darkness were only played through anime tropes where true responsability is shirked away, and any responsability that isn't is just drama fodder for the next anime thing. You know what game does that? KINGDOM HEARTS.
I too see the differences in the writing. Before, the game was CLEARLY written with the idea of Game of Thrones as an inspiration, but that's since been done away just to portray a very bright and "power of friendship"-esque narrative. And here's the thing, Teraq. I could discuss the same thing about the plot just fine. Sure, I myself justify it as "Welp, it's a Final Fantasy game, so naturally it had to eventually degrade into this sort of writing, because that's what Square Enix is used to do". But just because I say that doesn't mean I agree that this is how it should be done. And the darker, grittier, grounded and more consequence-focused tone of the previous expansions was right up my alley. And I must have written in the forums half a dozen times how the reason ARR made me stay was specifically because it reminded me of FF12 on how much politically-heavy it was.

So you see? If I were replying to you, I'd say "yeah, you're absolutely right, the game has just become disneyfied and new additions to the game aren't taken seriously or are too bubbly".

I too agree with you. I too am in the eChO cHaMbEr as you crudely put in your edit justification, like you think you caught onto some gotcha gold... Because idk if you've known me Teraq. But I'm one of those Hrothgar that don't shut up about how the devs keep making stupid decisions about them. If there's anyone who's been voicing the fact that the devs are quite flawed and haven't been doing a good job for a while now, that'd be me. But I at least don't only take in information that matches what I think without a second thought.

Thing is... I'm sorry but... do you even know why I wrote what I wrote? Did you even read the rest? I think you didn't, and that's why you're writing that. If you had, you'd know that the reason isn't with the content itself, but what Aveyond does directly. With the fact that any time anyone even posts anything he disagrees with, he shoves his entire opinion of it like you didn't matter. A few months ago, it was funny and soft, he wasn't as crude as he is nowadays. But now, it seems that any idea of how the game should be that doesn't follow his one neat little category, he just reacts like the people who gave the idea are stupid. And any attempt to call him out on it or point out that all he does is be a negative nancy is met with "Echo Chamber". When in reality, he himself only prefers to interact with people who cater to his tastes, consequences for his own actions and what he says be damned!

So no. You are wrong. It's not just because he says "Likewise". I'm not so crude as to deny people the chance to agree or disagree with things. It's got nothing to do with it. At least know a bit about the person you're defending before you start pushing others just because they point out he's a hypocrite why don't you?

That aside, there, now you know where I stand on this. What my opinion of the plot is. Do you want to know more? Or do you think I'm in the camp that loves the game and will justify tooth and nail? Because I'm far more than willing to elaborate further on my opinion of the story, and agree that Endwalker was a gigantic mess. I'm in the eChO cHaMbEr of this thread too. I'm just not ignorant.