Yoshi-P lied

[Avoidy]

its also because this whole arc has ended anyway. We're back to ARR levels of build up so of course to a lot of people the story will be boring. You cant have rising action against rising action all the time, thats not how good storytelling works.

That's potentially part of it on the story-side of things at least (though I disagree that post ew has been ARR levels of build up; I'll elaborate on that later). But when I talked about lackluster content I was thinking of how the new alliance raid just burns down before the bosses can even do anything. Or how variant dungeons were like baby difficulty on the normal mode and then savage/savage+ on the ramped up difficulties with no in between even though we were told it would be ex tier, and then the rewards for completing said savage mode were super lackluster. Or how island sanctuary turned out to be a node clicking timegated experience with some glams held hostage at the end to encourage people to bother with it, and even the devs themselves warned that it would be lackluster and told us not to get our hopes up for it. Or the massive gaps of time (4 months) between each content burst, leading to a story that's obviously not meant to have the same weight as the one that just finished or the one that's going to start in 7.0, a dungeon that's literally "pull 2, stop, pull 2, boss" on loop, and maybe a trial. Or the relic "grind" that's been the same "gib tomes" step repeated twice now. And it's the same amount too, because of course it is. No thought behind it, no special request, literally just hand him tomes, twice in a row, for a reskinned token. Hell, the deep dungeon is the first thing in a hot minute where it looks like players can really sink their teeth into it. Personally, I'm not seeing the hype behind randomized floors of occasionally dangerous trash mobs, but I won't discount it for personal reasons. The only things I've felt were quality in the postgame have been Aglaia, Barbariccia EX, and Hildibrand. The variant dungeon was actually quite enjoyable, but simply lacked staying power. This could have been remedied by tying it directly to the relic somehow (like how they made certain bozja fates give specific coins, etc) but eh. I don't do savage, but literally everyone I know who did this tier bitched and moaned about it every tuesday and now most of them don't play anymore while the ones who do have stopped caring about their weeklies in that regard. I don't want to talk about something I know nothing about, so I'll just let that speak for itself.

In any case, that's what I initially meant. The actual gameplay content we've received has just been lazily done or it's extremely shallow on the end that I've experienced. It's obvious and just common knowledge that their best devs are clearly busy with something else (ff16), so I hope the thing they're busy with (ff16) is worth it since they're putting post-EW's quality on the backburner to get it done.

(going to talk about the story a little bit, so possible spoilers if anyone reading this is new)
Also one last thing -- the post EW story being extremely dull is actually not the nothingburger people think it is. Each chapter of a story should inspire faith in the writers' ability to tell a compelling narrative. Failure to do this might make people stop reading future installments. Now don't get me wrong, when the devs implied that the next chapter might have smaller stakes than what we saw with endwalker, I was excited. When the writers showed the scions going their separate ways and implied that the next chapter wouldn't be about them, I was thrilled. But what did we get? The void expansion. With another potentially world ending threat. And the scions return once more to, uhh, deal with it or something. You claimed that people might be less wowed by the story because it's back to ARR levels of buildup. I wish we had ARR levels of build up. But this isn't build up at all. We're right back in the trenches again, with another world ending conflict only this time it's revolving around characters we barely know and don't quite give a damn about. If this were building to something good, I'd give credit where it's due, but the whole thing feels like a final fantasy 4 filler arc that'll resolve by 7.0. The way the scions were like "guess this is it, goodbye" and then returned immediately in 6.1 or whatever had big "straight to vhs sequel" vibes. You have no idea how much I would have loved an actual reset followed by buildup into what was supposed to be 7.0. If I'm wrong and they route this into 7.0, I will happily admit that I was wrong. But right now I'm not seeing it. I wish the writers would just create an organic and likeable character and not one that's just shoved down my throat like Zero was. I wish they had the courage to truly leave the scions behind for longer than a single patch. I wish characters could die and actually stay dead like they did in heavensward. Genuinely wish the writing team had the balls to make the audience feel something. Would love to be proven wrong in 6.4, genuinely.

[Sheriyana]

...

Hello! This doesn't have anything to do with anything but I just wanted to say that you're my favorite poster here and I love you. Always on point with your posts.

Apologies for the random and odd interruption everyone, carry on with the topic.

[Avoidy]

Hello! This doesn't have anything to do with anything but I just wanted to say that you're my favorite poster here and I love you. Always on point with your posts.

Apologies for the random and odd interruption everyone, carry on with the topic.

hey, thanks!

[Striker44]

snip

Comments like this generally confuse me. You're surprised by a dungeon that is "literally"...well...the same exact design that has been used in every dungeon for several expansions now? I haven't seen the new bosses in Euphrosyne burned down at all yet. They're still going through their entire movesets, most of which have unique mechanics not previously seen in AR's. Yes, we'll eventually outgear it so badly that some parts will get skipped, but again, that happens every patch. Oh yes, and of course, let's just largely disregard the key facet of the latest patch (new Deep Dungeon).

The rest of your commentary is nothing but pure opinion trying to masquerade as if it's facts. Personally, I found the Variant dungeons very enjoyable, and I haven't even gotten around to Criterion yet (or IS for that matter). There's very little I would call lazily done or "shallow" in the new content. Only exception would possibly be using just tomestones for the next relic step, but again - personally I don't mind since I also play several other games, with Destiny 2 being my main right now since a new xpac just came out, so a simpler step where I can do basically anything I enjoy and still progress the relic is fine with me for this time around.