New EX Mount Completely Unrelated?

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Yeah I can get that viewpoint. For me I was kinda dreading if the 7 mount reward was some sort of big shaggy cat so I'm actually kind of happy with this silliness.

Mythological felines that could have easily been the reward mount. Take your pick.

[angienessyo]

I'm definitely disappointed as cats are my favorite animal so I was really looking forward to getting a giant cat at the end. While Bahamut is my favorite summon in all of FF, this was a really strange turn. I think it would have been better to make the EX reward a cat and give Bahamut as a reward for doing MSQ. Since well, this whole expac is a love letter to 4, why not give people Bahamut at the end of the story? They could have also locked him behind maxing out all the Endwalker tribes, which would have been a lot more exciting than an emote or random head piece or whatever they do this time.

[Darkpaw]

How does a retro dragon version of bahamut from an older game fit, when all the rest of the mounts have been cats/lynx. Unless its a feline.. it does not fit. The extra trials have been FF4 but the rest of the game has not. This is the Final EX mount of the Zodiark saga that we've been building up to and its a spin-off comic reference mount? The spin-off filler mounts should not take away from the rest of the entire game. Talk about ending on a low note.

To be fair. The entirety of Endwalker has been a massive MASSIVE love letter to ff4, while the plots are different the references to FF4 are EVERYWHERE in this expansion. So while I get this is quite the departure from what we are used to with the EX series mounts. Given how much this expansion has drawn from FF4 (arguably this expansion draws the most from any previous ff ever)

I can say I wasn’t shocked to find Amano’s Bahamut was the final ex mount, and ultimately it is what it is. By all means give devs your feedback. Politely preferably.

For me it’s a cool nod as a lifelong player of the franchise. But i do see how if you dont know or didnt play ff4 it’s disappointing for you. But it is in line and within reasonable expectation and it is very related to the game that very heavily influenced Endwalker and the game that is referred to in endwalker.. constantly. Beyond the msq and trials series.

[Sililos]

I was definitely hoping for a cat mount in line with past expansions themes.
The dragons nice but in no way feels fitting.

[Deo14]

It really feels like I'm being punished for not playing FFIV. I needed to complete whole MSQ all the way to 6.0 just to be able to play 6.X, I needed to do that terrible manderville storyline just to get (buy from vendor) relics, Ivalice to go to Bozja and so on.

But having to play 30 years old game just to enjoy and understand references in MSQ is really far fetched.

I'm happy for you guys who are excited about stuff like Zeromus, but I just have no clue who or what that is, so I really feel left out. This is beyond mere references. Other references seem more subtle, or if they were "love letter" to other games, at least it was optional content like Ivalice. Doing this in MSQ seems very off to me.

[DixieBellOCE]

It really feels like I'm being punished for not playing FFIV. I needed to complete whole MSQ all the way to 6.0 just to be able to play 6.X, I needed to do that terrible manderville storyline just to get (buy from vendor) relics, Ivalice to go to Bozja and so on.

But having to play 30 years old game just to enjoy and understand references in MSQ is really far fetched.

I'm happy for you guys who are excited about stuff like Zeromus, but I just have no clue who or what that is, so I really feel left out. This is beyond mere references. Other references seem more subtle, or if they were "love letter" to other games, at least it was optional content like Ivalice. Doing this in MSQ seems very off to me.

Well you are playing the "Themepark final fantasy game" as described directly by the developers. Almost every piece of content in the game is a reference to other FF titles.
This is the first time since ARR that the trial series has been included in the MSQ, Not sure why they bothered when the entire void arc supposedly ends in 6.5/6.55, it could have just been side content.

[Darkpaw]

It really feels like I'm being punished for not playing FFIV. I needed to complete whole MSQ all the way to 6.0 just to be able to play 6.X, I needed to do that terrible manderville storyline just to get (buy from vendor) relics, Ivalice to go to Bozja and so on.

But having to play 30 years old game just to enjoy and understand references in MSQ is really far fetched.

I'm happy for you guys who are excited about stuff like Zeromus, but I just have no clue who or what that is, so I really feel left out. This is beyond mere references. Other references seem more subtle, or if they were "love letter" to other games, at least it was optional content like Ivalice. Doing this in MSQ seems very off to me.

Well since you are referring to me I’ll reply.

Most of this game is a love letter to other final fantasy games. The Ivalice Raids (Rabanastre, Lighthouse, and Orbonne Monastery) are all direct references to and love letters to Final Fantasy Tatics/12, Bozja is an extension of that and still has a lot of 12/tatics in it.

Eureka was FF11 inspired, Eden Raids from Shadowbringers was chock full of FF8 references.

Omega Raids the whole thing was an FF franchise reference.

The first time we hear about ascians and scions are in the ivalice games.

You dont have to play FF4 to get the references to enjoy the game, you dont have to play any ff game to get full enjoyment. They are simply fun nods to those who did. And that’s been part of this game since the beginning.

Ive said before I understand being disappointed by the new mount. We’ve all come expect one thing and got something completely different.

I dont see how them putting in a nice nod to longtime fans punishes you at all. So you didn’t get the reference. That’s okay. It doesn’t cheapen the experience you did have. It doesn’t make any part of the game you did play less important just because you didnt get the “tee hee did ya notice?” References.

It’s not like I or anyone else who played 4 got some reward you didn’t. Or got some additional context you didn’t get. Just a moment of “wink wink nudge nudge… did ya get the reference”

[Deo14]

Well since you are referring to me I’ll reply.

Most of this game is a love letter to other final fantasy games. The Ivalice Raids (Rabanastre, Lighthouse, and Orbonne Monastery) are all direct references to and love letters to Final Fantasy Tatics/12, Bozja is an extension of that and still has a lot of 12/tatics in it.

Eureka was FF11 inspired, Eden Raids from Shadowbringers was chock full of FF8 references.

Omega Raids the whole thing was an FF franchise reference.

The first time we hear about ascians and scions are in the ivalice games.

You dont have to play FF4 to get the references to enjoy the game, you dont have to play any ff game to get full enjoyment. They are simply fun nods to those who did. And that’s been part of this game since the beginning.

Ive said before I understand being disappointed by the new mount. We’ve all come expect one thing and got something completely different.

I dont see how them putting in a nice nod to longtime fans punishes you at all. So you didn’t get the reference. That’s okay. It doesn’t cheapen the experience you did have. It doesn’t make any part of the game you did play less important just because you didnt get the “tee hee did ya notice?” References.

It’s not like I or anyone else who played 4 got some reward you didn’t. Or got some additional context you didn’t get. Just a moment of “wink wink nudge nudge… did ya get the reference”

All of your examples are optional content. And I'm fine with that. And I would be fine with that in MSQ too, but the way it was executed in 6.X, I just end up feeling like I'm missing quite a bit. Problem is that story just feel lackluster, and because I don't know the references, I don't even know how much am I missing.

So let's see, from my POV: Golbez is just basic demon lord that any B-grade isekai can create. There's nothing interesting about him. Fiends are just demon lord's general, just like in any mid isekai anime. For both Golbez and fiends, not much of a backstory is going on with them, not much of a motives except "hurr durr I'm a evil for the sake of being evil". In latest patch, it seems that Golbez was WoL in 13th or something like that, that's about it. Story just keeps yeeting one of the fiends at us every patch. And that's about it. There is some background stuff going with Garlemald and stuff, but that is not very relevant to the story.

This makes me think that there must be more to the story if you know FFIV, and I don't have a way to verify it. And if there are mere references that don't affect story much (or in your words “tee hee did ya notice?” moments), then damn, 6.X is hell of a mediocre story.

But back to topic, the mount seems completely out of place, even if it wasn't some FFIV reference.

[Thurmnmurmn]

All of your examples are optional content. And I'm fine with that. And I would be fine with that in MSQ too, but the way it was executed in 6.X, I just end up feeling like I'm missing quite a bit. Problem is that story just feel lackluster, and because I don't know the references, I don't even know how much am I missing.

So let's see, from my POV: Golbez is just basic demon lord that any B-grade isekai can create. There's nothing interesting about him. Fiends are just demon lord's general, just like in any mid isekai anime. For both Golbez and fiends, not much of a backstory is going on with them, not much of a motives except "hurr durr I'm a evil for the sake of being evil". In latest patch, it seems that Golbez was WoL in 13th or something like that, that's about it. Story just keeps yeeting one of the fiends at us every patch. And that's about it. There is some background stuff going with Garlemald and stuff, but that is not very relevant to the story.

This makes me think that there must be more to the story if you know FFIV, and I don't have a way to verify it. And if there are mere references that don't affect story much (or in your words “tee hee did ya notice?” moments), then damn, 6.X is hell of a mediocre story.

But back to topic, the mount seems completely out of place, even if it wasn't some FFIV reference.

We live in the age of accessibility. If you feel like you're missing out on story, go look up the ff4 story. You can find YouTube videos giving you a quick rundown instead of needing to play the game.

[Darkpaw]

All of your examples are optional content. And I'm fine with that. And I would be fine with that in MSQ too, but the way it was executed in 6.X, I just end up feeling like I'm missing quite a bit. Problem is that story just feel lackluster, and because I don't know the references, I don't even know how much am I missing.

So let's see, from my POV: Golbez is just basic demon lord that any B-grade isekai can create. There's nothing interesting about him. Fiends are just demon lord's general, just like in any mid isekai anime. For both Golbez and fiends, not much of a backstory is going on with them, not much of a motives except "hurr durr I'm a evil for the sake of being evil". In latest patch, it seems that Golbez was WoL in 13th or something like that, that's about it. Story just keeps yeeting one of the fiends at us every patch. And that's about it. There is some background stuff going with Garlemald and stuff, but that is not very relevant to the story.

This makes me think that there must be more to the story if you know FFIV, and I don't have a way to verify it. And if there are mere references that don't affect story much (or in your words “tee hee did ya notice?” moments), then damn, 6.X is hell of a mediocre story.

But back to topic, the mount seems completely out of place, even if it wasn't some FFIV reference.

I wonder if you did the sidequest that goes with the post quest msq, that goes into the motivation of the fiends and Golbez because none of them are evil for the sake of being evil. Even the msq itself makes it clear they are more tragic figures.

And no there’s not really any missing context if you dont play old ff, so it kind of comes off like you are trying to just dismiss the 6.x story. Which hey if it wasn’t for you that’s cool not everyone likes the same thing.

For me even if I remove the lens of fun nostalgia nods I love 6.0 i think it’s a lot of fun and the post ew msq makes sense since yshtola wants to learn travel between the shards. Starting with the void makes a ton of sense to me since they’ve been getting to the source longer than anybody.