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

[BRVV]

I LOVE how every other page someone pops up "THIS IS YOUR OPINION NOT FACT REEE!" while it's the "Endwalker-is-the-best" group that spouts out their opinion as fact and use metacritic as "proof". Such nonsense.

It's interesting how many people that disliked EW's story like me, liked Garlemald - i did aswell.

[Dzonathan]

The "Venat allowed the Rejoinings to happen" doesn't really hold water. We know she actively worked to stop the First from being destroyed. We also know that she was creating Warriors of Light throughout the eons. If you want to criticize her for failing to stop them, that's fine, but this implication that she just sat around eating grapes until Rejoining #7 doesn't work.

Once again: You're not defined by your intentions, but by your actions and their results.
In order for Demi-Ascian WoL Saviour to become a thing, rejoinings needed to happen.
Venat did not stop the rejoinings.
Its fair to say she might as well let them happen because she didn't actively prevented them from occuring in the first place.
All while styling herself as supreme guardian diety.

[Rosenstrauch]

It's interesting how many people that disliked EW's story like me, liked Garlemald - i did aswell.

It's mostly a really great story. Getting to see a people who have been hurt so badly finally start on the road to recovery. A people so brutalized in the past and so mired in propaganda that the sight of someone different from them sends them reeling in fear and anger. Getting confronted with that stark reality, helping some of the survivors work through their issues until they finally feel safe in trusting us, it's great. Wonderful, humanizing storytelling.

I don't much care for In From The Cold, mind you. Fandaniel kidnapping us so effortlessly was kind of crap. The initial bodyswap shenanigans was a neat idea, but the actual gameplay of that quest dragged on long enough for it to become tedious and boring. And the ending, with the WoL dragging themselves across the entirety of Garlemald to throw a sword at the world's slowest man, was just fucking stupid.

I swear, if I ever cover that moment in fanfiction, I am going to have the WoL leading the survivors we met at the end of that gameplay sequence. Y'know, the ones who died in the random ass explosion that also crippled our host body? The WoL guiding them to Camp Broken Glass and arriving in the nick of time would be so much better. Hell, I'll have the WoL fire their magitek armor's artillery at Zenos—in full knowledge that this might leave their own body horribly crippled or worse—to stop him from hurting anyone.

EDIT: Also, having said all this, I'm reminded of the kneejerk reaction certain folks who shall remain nameless (because I can't remember their names) had to the whole "the Garleans fear us" thing. Especially that young girl who ended up dying because we terrified her and her sister so much that they tried to run to where the 1st Legion was hunkered down. Just... the sheer vitriol of it struck me—the combination of the "what possible fucking reason could these kids have to fear me?!" and "I'm glad they're dead, I just wish it was me who killed them" attitudes.

That approach to other people is so very... familiar, lately. Reminds me of Twitter, lol.

[Absurdity]

*Checks metacritic*

GoT season 8: 4.1

Endwalker: 9.1

I have to wonder, do you ever just think to yourselves "You know what? I'm in the minority here. The majority of players really loved this, and I didn't."? Because at least then I could sympathize with people hating Endwalker. I can see how people would hate it. I disliked some parts of it. Comparing it to Season 8 of GoT however, which was almost universally criticized for rushing to finish the story is just being disingenuous.

YOU didn't like it. From really any metric you can take however, most FFXIV players did.

Not like "most" players liking it is especially hard to achieve. Most players in this game do not look at a story with any kind of critical eye, they do exactly what the company wants from them, buy product, consume product, get excited for next product.

All Endwalker really needed to do for a 9/10 after the ShB hype machine was give them their favourite characters from previous expansions to fangirl/fanboy over, some pretty visuals to look at, grand speeches about saving the world and some kind of feel good "message" that ties everything together neatly while actually ending the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.

You don't need to necessarily provide an actual good product for people to rate it highly, best example being the 2022 movie Glass Onion.
It sits at a 92% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite it's plot having more holes than swiss cheese and every one of it's miriad plot contrivances being explained away by "the villains are just really stupid".

[Xirean]

I know this has been posted here, but I feel it's somewhat relevant again. I'd be curious of people's own scores/comments.

Spoiled, because large images.

[Rosenstrauch]

I know this has been posted here, but I feel it's somewhat relevant again. I'd be curious of people's own scores/comments.

From what I remember, that image was for a wolqotd thing on Twitter. Basically how your WoL feels about the Scions, rather than how you as a player feel about them. Which doesn't really stop folks from using it as the latter, of course, but I'd always found the idea of my WoL being a 1:1 copy of my own personality to be... unimaginative, I suppose.

Anyways, this one was mine:

Personally, I'm indifferent to most of the Scions. Minfilia and Ryne are really the only ones I love as characters, and the only one I really hate is G'raha.

By contrast, Lily generally likes all of them, even with her misgivings. Were I to reassess this chart post-6.0/Ashes, I'd probably dock Y'shtola two stars at worst—Lily had a falling out with her after the Aitiascope.

[Kozh]

Not like "most" players liking it is especially hard to achieve. Most players in this game do not look at a story with any kind of critical eye, they do exactly what the company wants from them, buy product, consume product, get excited for next product.

Yup, this. And it’s frankly pretty obvious when you realize that the majority of players doesn’t even get the lore right. Even the mentors on lore channel of subreddit discord server made mistakes yet act like they’re all-knowing.

[Rilifane]

Not like "most" players liking it is especially hard to achieve. Most players in this game do not look at a story with any kind of critical eye, they do exactly what the company wants from them, buy product, consume product, get excited for next product.

All Endwalker really needed to do for a 9/10 after the ShB hype machine was give them their favourite characters from previous expansions to fangirl/fanboy over, some pretty visuals to look at, grand speeches about saving the world and some kind of feel good "message" that ties everything together neatly while actually ending the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.

You don't need to necessarily provide an actual good product for people to rate it highly, best example being the 2022 movie Glass Onion.
It sits at a 92% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite it's plot having more holes than swiss cheese and every one of it's miriad plot contrivances being explained away by "the villains are just really stupid".

Or if we want an in-universe example we need to look no further than Y'shtola.
Darling scholary sassy uwu waifu cat girl, has been around for many years yet saw almost no character development let alone enough to justify her being around for so long and getting this much screentime, had multiple fake deaths, only faced pseudo-consequences but as long as her fanclub gets a few tear-jerking moments that make them want to hug their darling waifu, a magical girl scene, a cute "oh oops book fell on my head uwu haha :3" scene and a sassy reply every once in a while that makes them go "OMG y'shtola's answer... I CAN'T I'M CRYING LMAO XDDDD" they'll be happy.
But looking at it a bit more objectively, she's a bland character that barely changed and doesn't have any special role that other characters couldn't easily fill just fine.

[Kozh]

The "Venat allowed the Rejoinings to happen" doesn't really hold water. We know she actively worked to stop the First from being destroyed. We also know that she was creating Warriors of Light throughout the eons. If you want to criticize her for failing to stop them, that's fine, but this implication that she just sat around eating grapes until Rejoining #7 doesn't work.

Oh it definitely works. She seems to create WoLs as fodders to prevent complete rejoining. Until the one guy she’s waiting for appears, then protect him at all cost. And the First? Of course she tried to save it, the time travel plan depended on it lol.

If she truly want to prevent rejoining, why bother spared emet? Even one unsundered surviving is a risk for the sundered.

[Jettinson]

Or if we want an in-universe example we need to look no further than Y'shtola.
Darling scholary sassy uwu waifu cat girl, has been around for many years yet saw almost no character development let alone enough to justify her being around for so long and getting this much screentime, had multiple fake deaths, only faced pseudo-consequences but as long as her fanclub gets a few tear-jerking moments that make them want to hug their darling waifu, a magical girl scene, a cute "oh oops book fell on my head uwu haha :3" scene and a sassy reply every once in a while that makes them go "OMG y'shtola's answer... I CAN'T I'M CRYING LMAO XDDDD" they'll be happy.
But looking at it a bit more objectively, she's a bland character that barely changed and doesn't have any special role that other characters couldn't easily fill just fine.

With how you say, it really makes me think Papalymo died because he wasn't a pretty cat girl, damn it....