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

[BRVV]

Sure. Easy. Got a release date for me?

FFXV is vaporware confirmed

[Theodric]

Quite a few promising MMO's released too early and suffered as a consequence. Wildstar did a lot of things right, for example, though it released without much in the way of satisfying endgame content and suffered as a consequence. It's a shame, since I liked the art style and some of the lore was pretty intriguing - to say nothing of how great the game's housing system happened to be.

So I'd much rather see Ashes of Creation take its time and launch when it's ready. It'll either succeed as healthy competition or it won't. I'd be a lot more worried if meaningful development updates weren't being shown on a consistent basis and the developers weren't explaining their thought processes for particular design decisions.

[Lauront]

hot vapor

You are completely right that many gameplay features seem to have been abandoned in EW, such as exploratory content. The lack of depth is very clear to see. And as I've explained in another topic, I believe this can have long-term consequences for FF14 if there's an emergent new MMO that really pulls off PvE combat well (the fabled Riot MMO perhaps):

Even if not better at combat, I'm hoping some of the newer/upcoming MMOs eat into XIV's numbers (although I don't think sites like LB are giving an accurate picture of paying subs because there's ways these can be inflated, e.g. through FLCs; we'll see how their Q2 accounts reflect on the game's performance) by being as good/better in other areas, if only to snap SE out of this complacence it's currently mired in. There does come a point (where I'm at, really) where I'd sooner just not play an MMO than play from a selection that just doesn't draw me in in any way.

Problem is a lot of its competitors seem to find ways to self-immolate. I'm hoping Blue Protocol isn't too badly mangled by either of AGS or Namco.

[Xeronia]

I will say I saw the new Encyclopedia Eorzea is on pre-order and I am torn on if I should order it. I would love more info about Shadowbringers stuff and zones I liked in Endwalker but I also don't really want to read more "And this is why Venat was right".

[Atelier-Bagur]

I will say I saw the new Encyclopedia Eorzea is on pre-order and I am torn on if I should order it. I would love more info about Shadowbringers stuff and zones I liked in Endwalker but I also don't really want to read more "And this is why Venat was right".

if you're going in with an already bias for your bias, whats even the point? I doubt it'll reveal anything substantial for the Ancients stuff that didnt already got covered with the msq and Tales of Dawn.

[AwesomeJr44]

if you're going in with an already bias for your bias, whats even the point?

People don't want the story to shove "Venat was right" down their throat. That's not even a bias, that's just not wanting the story to try and force one viewpoint when the character in question is at least morally gray, if not evil with good intentions.

I will say I saw the new Encyclopedia Eorzea is on pre-order and I am torn on if I should order it. I would love more info about Shadowbringers stuff and zones I liked in Endwalker but I also don't really want to read more "And this is why Venat was right".

Honestly, I would recommend skipping it and just trying to find the information online for free. Zero risk of wasting money and you get all of the information you want anyways.

It was me Barry! I'm the one who asked. (In all seriousness, I can't find who asked either)

[R041]

As has been discussed in previous threads ( which you didnt read ), the issues with those were both the future proofing issue and the fact the previous metrics were mixed, one of which is linked in a prev thread, less than 15% made it all the way in all zones. The content itself had poor longterm potential, which is one of the major issues with a zone of this type.

Bozja now is more or less a dead zone, with only PF parties running here and there once its current timeframe has elapsed.

it makes sense that SE would put their focus elsewhere.

Okay.. And what percentage of players have finished all 200 floors of POTD, and 100 floors of HoH to warrant the release of Eureka Orthos? I can tell you these aren't over 10%

What about Ultimates? lol

This doesn't seem to be a very honest perspective huh? I'd say it's almost backed by a bias and hope to believe there's correlation and causation of content type releases with very shaky data, presented as fact and authority.

It's okay to just not reply instead of acting like these things are facts.

[AwesomeJr44]

Bozja now is more or less a dead zone, with only PF parties running here and there once its current timeframe has elapsed.

it makes sense that SE would put their focus elsewhere.

Isn't Criterion dead already? At least Bozja/Eureka were alive throughout their respective expansions, Endwalker content seems to be DOA more times than not.

And no, a new Criterion dungeon that lasts for a week in 6.45 isn't going to revive the one from 6.25. That one's dead and buried.

[DontReadThis]

I have a lot of opinions on the story, but the thing I'll focus on for now is Meteion and how her introduction causes so many problems with the plot that it's obvious she was shoehorned into it because the writers didn't want to follow through with what they started in SHB and make Hydaelyn a villain or at least a morally grey character.

I am convinced the writers never even planned on Meteion at any point until they were halfway through writing the plot of Endwalker.
She introduces a lot of plot holes, such as why Venat didn't bother using creation magic to create something to fight her instead of committing mass genocide. Hermes was also already aware of Dynamis before the Meteion incident, so wouldn't it have been better to leave him alone to find some way to counter the dynamis since his memory was wiped and he would have no reason to let the attack happen?

Also, the time-travel stuff doesn't really work well with SHB's time-travel. Graha's original timeline doesn't really work with the idea of there being a stable time-loop if the WoL is dead before they can time-travel, which would mean the Venat in that timeline would never have met the WoL and never found out about Dynamis.

And what was up with the plan to evacuate the people of the planet with the moon to some other planet? Didn't they say that planet was unusually rich in aether? So, wouldn't leaving just make things even worse and leave everyone defenseless?

The more I analyze the plot, the more flaws I find!

It seems to me like they ended up introducing Meteion in an attempt to contort the plot into justifying Venat's actions, but it just makes things worse the more you look at it.

[AwesomeJr44]

The more I analyze the plot, the more flaws I find!

I've made the comparison in the past, and I'll make it again here. Endwalker is very similar to a modern Marvel movie in that it is completely reliant on the audience's ability and willingness to turn their brains off completely and to not think about anything at all. Unlike previous expansions, if you use even a few brain cells to think about it, Endwalker's story completely implodes.