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

[Vyrerus]

Somewhat interestingly, the deep dungeon had nothing to do with Endwalker. It was all Allagan lore and Archsage Noah and other Eureka tie in. Kind of refreshing in this lackluster atmosphere the game is in right now. Still gotta beat it two more times to get the cherry on top.

I wonder if they will somehow squeeze another dungeon or instance out of the Crystal Tower. It's crazy how much has been tied back to it and caught up around it.

[Ardeth]

There is a lot of "tell, but don't show" that I feel kind of hurt EW's presentation.

Like...it would've been nice to see the burning skies of Thavnair fade and appropriate rejoicing, but all the celebration is reserved strictly for Sharlayan which wasn't even subject to the worst of its effects at the time.

Agreed. I'm still stuck on the absolute tonal whiplash that is the Loporrits. They literally Jar Jar Binksed us. Any good will that EW earned with me as a player went down the toliet right then and there.

[EliaStormblade]

I quite like the Loporrits. Now, I mean. They did smack me in the face right after Zodiark, which I disliked. But other than soberly mentioning that I think that was a bad moment, I can't really bring myself to get hung up over it, lol.

[Ardeth]

I quite like the Loporrits. Now, I mean. They did smack me in the face right after Zodiark, which I disliked. But other than soberly mentioning that I think that was a bad moment, I can't really bring myself to get hung up over it, lol.

You know you can quote people, right?

I think up until that point, it was getting good, and then it just fell off a cliff. And even after it climbed out of that cliff, the spector of it lingered way too long. They don't bother me now because the story was so saturated with them after they went away and came back with their spaceship. But again, that initial Jar Jar Binks level of shock and cringe is hard to shake off. I wanted to punt those things more than praise them. Even now, Endwalker as a whole is meh.

[Lunaxia]

Agreed. I'm still stuck on the absolute tonal whiplash that is the Loporrits. They literally Jar Jar Binksed us. Any good will that EW earned with me as a player went down the toliet right then and there.

In all honesty, I'm always surprised to hear about someone being deeply bothered by the Loporrits. After witnessing Zenos and Amon appear right at the climax of what had previously been the first genuinely interesting part of the story since 5.0 and soak up what was left of the faceless and thoroughly dehumanised Zodiark soup like a day old crouton, and then realising this was the writer's resolution to the story's most important, decade old plot point, I didn't have much left in the way of a reaction to give anymore. By the time we reached the Loporrits, it was more or less a case of "Ah. Rabbits. Hm. All right then."

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

My only conclusion was wishing I could go back to before I contemplated buying this game and living in blissful ignorance of how it all ended. I don't know what's worse, the general brain itch it continues to give me whenever I think about it or the unintentional yet inevitable sense of gaslighting whenever I venture near the community and have to hear about how wonderful and moving the writing was.

It certainly moved me away from the game, I suppose...

[Sheriyana]

Agreed. I'm still stuck on the absolute tonal whiplash that is the Loporrits. They literally Jar Jar Binksed us. Any good will that EW earned with me as a player went down the toliet right then and there.

Same! Can't believe that people are so in love with the damn things... They contribute precisely nothing of worth to the story and all they serve is to absolutely wreck the intended world ending tone of the story. But there's people who think FFXIII had a good story (let's fight against our fate by doing the exact thing our fate has preordained us to do and then win anyway because friendship magic, even though we all practically hate each other! and a whole bunch of other bollocks) so the concept of a well told story really is alien to some people.

[Absurdity]

In all honesty, I'm always surprised to hear about someone being deeply bothered by the Loporrits. After witnessing Zenos and Amon appear right at the climax of what had previously been the first genuinely interesting part of the story since 5.0 and soak up what was left of the faceless and thoroughly dehumanised Zodiark soup like a day old crouton, and then realising this was the writer's resolution to the story's most important, decade old plot point, I didn't have much left in the way of a reaction to give anymore. By the time we reached the Loporrits, it was more or less a case of "Ah. Rabbits. Hm. All right then."

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

My only conclusion was wishing I could go back to before I contemplated buying this game and living in blissful ignorance of how it all ended. I don't know what's worse, the general brain itch it continues to give me whenever I think about it or the unintentional yet inevitable sense of gaslighting whenever I venture near the community and have to hear about how wonderful and moving the writing was.

It certainly moved me away from the game, I suppose...

I feel roughly the same. Sure the Lopporits were an utterly jarring tonal shift from "we just slapped the main antagonist of 10 years around like a ragdoll while he wasn't even awake and supposedly unleashed the end of the universe" to "wacky bunny people that look suspiciously merchandisable". But the incredibly botched conclusion to Zodiark's "arc" pretty much drained all interest I had in the MSQ out of me for a long time to the point that I couldn't even hate them, I just felt entirely indifferent.


The fact that MSQ trials are incredibly easy also didn't exactly help with making that "climactic" fight feel any less disappointing. That is however an issue that I personally have with every big MSQ trial, I need to pretend that the extreme version is the canon fight to make it feel impactful.

[BRVV]

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

Just imagine a version where the Sundered escaped to the moon. They drink tea and chat with the Loporrits about their new home, watching the "star" (aka planet - why are we calling that multiverse planet thing a star again?) explode. Savingway comes up to them and says: "You are all save here!" Smiling from ear to ear. Then they all get blasted with the moon by the Endsinger. The End.

[Silver-Strider]

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

My concern is why would your prison for Zodiark also be the place to house your contingency plan. Surely the Aether released by Zodiark after his defeat would have had SOME effect on the moon considering that his whole purpose was to bring about change. That just seemed like something that could very easily backfire, even with the Watcher/Loporrits supposedly monitoring Zodiark and the Ascians.

[ArcturusWhisper]

I am a latecomer to these discussions, I have never posted in the Forum before. But given the continuous proclamation that goes like "95% of players love it, who are you to object", I feel like it's my duty to detail my dissatisfaction, lest the fact that I am still paying my monthly subscription is taken by the developers as I am loving it.

It's weird to me that in an expansion that lauds the idea of never giving up hope, that even the "situations of despair" those other societies had fallen to--that the Scions attempt to answer in their sacrifices--there still might have been a way for them to live on and find happiness, ONLY the Ancients are subject to this bizarre, "nope, chuck them in the trash, they were done, the moment you go into a tailspin your plane is doomed to crash so you might as well let go of the controls entirely" reaction. I would put forth even if the Ancients were about to make a horrible mistake, they still had the right to MAKE that mistake. FFXIV is a game that puts forth the idea that as long as you don't give up, you can atone for horrible things. I believe even the Ancients at their worst could have still had better days ahead of them, just like every other single person or society we see in the game, including those in the Dead Ends.

This is exactly how I feel about the situation regarding the Ancients. Somehow they are singled out as the ONE group that doesn't deserve to hope, to live on. Somehow they alone deserved to be wiped out, everybody else deserve to persevere, but nope, not the Ancients. The most hilarious thing is that some people keep dismissing these opinions regarding Venat as "Ancient lovers just want to hate Venat". It couldn't be further from the truth in my case. Back in Shadowbringer, I was exactly those that want to stick game texts to the screen of those who couldn't stop gushing about how "perfect" the Ancient society was, so that they can properly read them. And yet here I am, despairing at people's ability to be consistent. Regardless of how "imperfect" that society was, regardless of what flaws they had, declaring that they deserved to be wiped out by one woman flies in the face of the morals of Shadowbringer.

5.0: No matter how imperfect, or flawed, people deserve to live.
6.0: lol nope, this particular group deserved to be wiped out for their flaws.

Seriously.

And the sad thing is I adored Venat so much at the beginning of Elpis. She's portrayed as this unconventional, but brave, kind, and adventurous woman who loves people. I wish I can get that Venat back.

[Edit] I forgot, I agreed completely with people that just by wiping her memory together with Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus, a lot of this could already be prevented. Or just not do this time-travel at all, use the Echo! I don't know why they chose the worse possible way to go about it.