endwalker seen as low point?

[Striker44]

Case, meet point. One could just as easily flip this around and say "they wrote a story I personally enjoyed, therefore the story is great and everyone who disagrees with me should go cry a big, fat river". I'm puzzled as to how certain posters consider such reductivity a good attitude to have. It certainly doesn't solve any real issues, not nearly as much as it stirs the simmering pot of resentment.

You "could" flip that around, but that simply isn't what's happening here in reality. It also (again) ignores how popular EW actually is practically anywhere on the internet outside of this forum. Heck, even some of the usual bitter crew here love to claim that there are apparently dozens upon dozens of fanboy sites around the internet absolutely praising the game, worshiping Yoshi-P, etc., where no criticism of any sort is allowed, and claim that this forum with its few dozen regulars is the "only place" on the internet you can be negative about it...yet then simultaneously try to act as if their negativity is the norm magically shared by most of the playerbase. Umm...what?

To go back to your point, I watched the new season of Stranger Things last summer. There were a few things I really wanted to see happen. Exactly none of them did (in fact the complete opposite). I still enjoyed the season, anyway. Mature people are able to separate "what I want" from "what I can enjoy."

[Narnio]

Story-wise I find it ties with Shadowbringers for my favorite. It isn't as consistent a quality, but some of the highs are better and some of the lows are lower (lowest point in Shadowbringers was Ahm Araeng part 2 for me. Lowest point in Endwalker might be too much of the Lopporits or Hildibrand-style cutscenes, and Labryinthos part 2).

Content-wise, a step backwards compared to Stormblood and Shadowbringers. The variant dungeons are really cool and I wanna see more of them in lieu of the old optional dungeons, but island sanctuary is too passive for me at this time, I'm sure they'll continue to develop it past EW which could turn out neat eventually, but not quite so in the present.

The lack of an adventuring foray ala Eureka or Bozja really hurts gameplay-wise, they were content that took at least some days to complete, the new relic step you can get done in <20 minutes even watching cutscenes. There's another Deep Dungeon instead, which personally doesn't interest me but is worth mentioning.

There's no real crafter/gatherer content either which also hurts, this is the first expac since ARR to not feature some kind of reconstruction initiative. Stormblood's was pretty passive all things considered, but Ishgard Restoration was always content you could dive into with a mountain of rewards. Instead we've gotten maybe two custom delivery questlines, which don't take much time to complete at all.

Having the trial series tied to the MSQ makes sense this round, but also cuts out content at the same time, as we're missing unique questlines that you would jump into post-MSQ. And, personally, those were always something I looked forward to doing and could expand a patch day by another two hours.

[TowaIsBestGirl]

yet then simultaneously try to act as if their negativity is the norm magically shared by most of the playerbase.

I'm inclined to disagree with this assertion. I've certainly encountered nothing of the sort thus far. To be frank, the onus is on the posters coming into an OP's thread to assume good faith until proven otherwise. Blind cynicism serves no purpose but to denigrate those one might rather not see, but if such is the intent it can be accomplished much more easily and with less friction by simply not deigning to participate in any discussion started by any OP the poster has come to blows with in the past. So many of the culprits those on here love to point fingers at, to the best of my knowledge, have not once actually outright claimed to speak for the empirical majority. Some other posters cannot claim the same innocence to such an offence.

To go back to your point, I watched the new season of Stranger Things last summer. There were a few things I really wanted to see happen. Exactly none of them did (in fact the complete opposite). I still enjoyed the season, anyway. Mature people are able to separate "what I want" from "what I can enjoy."

I'm not entirely clear what bringing Stranger Things into this accomplishes, but mature people are also rather capable of refraining from flaunting their supposed mental maturity and certainly not implying others do not possess the same. Both of which you exhibit here, and which discredits you to the detriment of the stance you are attempting to take. It most certainly isn't a good look, nor does it do much to assist in your desire presentation as the upstanding, mature individual you seem to see yourself as.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

In terms of Story:
ShB > HW > SB > EW > ARR

In terms of Content:
SB > ShB >HW > ARR > EW


7.0 better not be more of the same.

But you already know it will be the same minus deep dungeon which will be replaced with a zone for the new relic.

[Boblawblah]

but mature people are also rather capable of refraining from flaunting their supposed mental maturity and certainly not implying others do not possess the same. Both of which you exhibit here, and which discredits you to the detriment of the stance you are attempting to take. It most certainly isn't a good look, nor does it do much to assist in your desire presentation as the upstanding, mature individual you seem to see yourself as.

[Vyrerus]

It's so damn interesting, too. Since Tears of the Kingdom, the game in particular Yoshi-P endorsed as the one for us all to take a break and play? Well, suffice to say its a definitive case of bottled lightning striking twice. If Ninty can do it, why can't Squeenix?

Well, Nintendo had the luxury of delaying Tears of the Kingdom by a whole year or more due to seeing incredible games come out right before it was originally supposed too. With the expectation of dev cycles on XIV, limited and only getting more bare bones staffing, and that pesky thing called capital, Yoshi-P and his team can only do so much. However, it's also because Zelda has a less rigorous story. There are no big moral quandaries in Zelda (as far as I know, I haven't beaten Tears yet). There isn't a large extensive cast of mouthpieces either.

Part of liking FFXIV is liking those mouthpieces and what they say. And taking their suppositions as fact. There is an advantage to sticking to characters this way, but it doesn't stick or land for everyone. Compared to Zelda, which does have some static characters, Zelda's characters hardly preach anything. It's a lot more cut and dry, and it's a game where the game is primary thing you are doing 80% of the time, whereas with FFXIV it lives and dies by its stories. The second those dry up or miss their mark, it starts to rely on MMO style gameplay and socializing in order to be entertaining. Which in our current era is something most people refuse to engage with, and FFXIV isn't really setup for people to engage like that either, while also still playing the game.

tl; dr

Zelda is made with less limitations, restrictions, and exposition. On top of that, FFXIV starts to fall apart the second its story does, for many people.

[KitingGenbu]

snip

Oh God, 7.0 is going to be called Kingdom of Tears isn't it?!?!?

[Elissar]

EW is marked by waste of opportunities everywhere, just like Stormblood.

EW
- relics not attached to variant dungeons, deep dungeons and island sanctuary (as alternative way to farm necessary resource to upgrade)
- Vrtra traveling alone (as a dragon) to the void when we could have called Hraesvelgr and others to support him. 6.4 could have ended this way easily, opening new path to 7.0 from 6.5.
- MCH and DNC should have gained a minigame like BARD. I will die upon this hill lol
- Not using your deity during Myths of the Realm....not even a quote? a reference? a funny joke? an unique reward?

+ Base content is harder
+ 2 Ultimates if you enjoy this kind of stuff
+ Expansion of Fashion Accessories
+ PVP overhaul (questionable maps changes tho)
+ Finally a conclusion for Hydaelyn-Zodiark arc (they were honest with us, i know this is the basic but we are talking about a company).
+ Small graphics changes
+ Savages rewards are amazing, one of the best of ALL MMORPGs.


I rank EW side by side with ShB because i see it as a bridge between excellent to almost-perfect game. I hope they are building meaningful changes to implement on 7.x+.

Stormblood
- Weird screaming when no one is around during Ala Mhigo invasion.
- No EPIC massive battle. They should use squad AI for this kind of stuff too. I am at the lasted rank of all grand companies and during a expansion about WAR, i had no use!!!!!!!!!!!!
- They should have add Isghard's guards and Ala Mhigo as grand companies too. It's been awhile since we moved away from Gridania-Limsa-Ul'dah as main cities in terms of narrative.

Heavensward and Shadowbringers are considered almost perfect by everyone because they did not waste opportunities like they did with Endwalker and Stormblood. Using Heavensward as example, you can farm your relics in multiple ways, you can integrate roullettes with a weekly/diary quests that give you the weird blue crystal that i forgot the name AND khloe's diary. One run, three tasks. For some reason, this concept is not applied for all contents. EW relic farm was just not planned for the long term, ShB was better.

[Archeron]

I wouldn't call it a low point. More like a mid tier expansion at best. The teams definetely not firing on all cylinders with this expansion. It's not all bad, but there is a lot of wasted potential. The story for me personally is a low point however. I've never felt so annoyed with the narrative than I have in 6.4.

[Britha]

No I thoroughly enjoyed it and the story as did most people.