The atrocity that was the "In from the Cold" quest ending - *STORY RANT*

[TheMightyMollusk]

For me that's not it.
I'm fine with scenes breaking the tension. Some stories who mastered their rythm do that to a great effect. But in EW it's way overused to the point that it feels jarring.
Cute comic relief (and I must say pointless) scenes with the Loporrits just after Zodiark's death signaled the Apocalypse? It destroyed the pacing of the story at a point when it really needed to pick up.

This kinda feels like a leftover problem from EW being condensed from two expansions into one. Imagine Zodiark being an X.3 trial boss, like Nidhogg at the Final Steps of Faith. We spent a bit of time getting our feet back on the ground and dealing with smaller-scale problems (after Nidhogg, we reunited with Yda and Papalymo and saw the beginnings of the Griffon's rebellion) before getting thrown back into the main conflict to build up the next expansion. In that context, the scenes with the loporrits would've been a cooldown patch before the Final Days hit full-force.