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

[Lauront]

It does occupy a rather odd spot for me, because I largely took my leave of WoW for similar reasons to which I'm now likely going to take my leave of this game, i.e. I've lost virtually all interest in its lore given how the writers handled it in EW. Putting aside the lack of any major gameplay hooks to it for me, there's nothing that seems particularly egregious about DT from a story vantage, other than I'd really have liked to see them try their hand at a new cast, because I really have no desire to be lumped with this cast yet again. There's just nothing on the horizon or suggested in the likely storywriting approach they'll be taking forward, i.e. post-6.0 EW, that really interests me.

With EW I just felt really dissatisfied with where they took their own story build up and the approach they took to tying it altogether, which bordered on deliberately misrepresenting the story built up in SHB (sometimes, even in other parts of the self-same expansion, EW) and parcelling off "inconvenient" parts of it to more obscure places, sometimes even in crossovers, and all to push a very specific story conclusion that doesn't hold up if you poke it too hard, with a codex the biases of which are not difficult to discern - and the Elidibus minion is still nowhere near in sight. Still, I did enjoy the game a lot during HW all the way to SHB (mixed feelings on the post-5.0 stuff but it still felt like it was going somewhere), and there were some aspects of EW (like most of Pandaemonium) I liked, so I sometimes feel pangs of nostalgia for the game, but it's not really even a case of being mad about it so much as disappointment that it just doesn't seem capable of holding much interest for me. It's in the place now where I'll keep an eye out to see if it's doing anything to surprise me but yes, very low expectations on that front, too. At the very least there's a lot of new game releases from which to choose, and I'll be very busy with Baldur's Gate 3, no doubt.

[Rosenstrauch]

I have to ask. Is it strange I still feel really odd about Endwalker?

I resubbed this July to try and catch up on the content I missed—6.4, the 24-Man raids, the second and third wings of Pandaemonium, etc. What I found was that I couldn't be bothered to make the effort. Out of all the new content in Endwalker, all I really managed to dip my feet in was Eureka Orthos—not worth it btw—and Island Sanctuary. And aside from walking away from that with a few GPose pictures, I feel like I wasted my time.

Even my writing efforts took a nosedive this month, I think. Though that's also 'cause transcribing dialogue from the game itself is a thoroughly soulless affair, but the chapter I was working on required two scenes of that. It's telling that I ended up cutting the quest "Bridging the Rift" into two chapters—technically three—and had the majority of what happens in them be wholly original stuff.

So... yeah, I think I get what you're feeling. FFXIV is likely going to occupy a place in my mind for a long while, but I doubt it'll ever be a game I actually want to play anytime soon. Mostly I'm going to content myself with pumping out chapters for Ascilia, Scion of Light, and then quietly disappear once I'm satisfied I've done all I want with that fic.

Oh well. There's always the next horizon whatever that'll be. Mass Effect 4 may be coming in the next year, which if it does is certain to revive that community from a shriveled husk. But there may not be a proper new MMO to keep my attention for a long while.

EDIT: Baldur's Gate 3 comes out in like two days, too. Seems like it'll be a game to really sink my teeth into.

[KageTokage]

I have to ask. Is it strange I still feel really odd about Endwalker?

Like, I've made my peace with it, by and large. I don't feel particularly strongly about it one way or the other, and I don't find myself needing or wanting to talk about it all that much. I see a lot of people still really mad about it and at the game which I sort of get, but at the same time I just don't have that emotion or energy anymore. But I still feel... strange, especially seeing the new Dawntrail trailer, like, huh. That really is it.

I guess it feels weird because I've been here since Heavensward dropped, and the Ascians/ Hydaelyn/ Zodiark etc. saga has been a (admittedly not always entertaining, prior to ShB) part of the story that you always saw panning out at some point in the future, but not only has it been and gone so quickly but with such a whump I still find myself surprised it actually happened and that was what we got. It's oddly difficult to come to terms with (not in a super dramatic way, just like, that's how it ended, after all this time? You know?)

I'm just rambling, but yeah. It's like... I don't know, I still feel like I don't have much closure on it, not so much just that part of the story but what it feels like it also turned FFXIV as I knew it into. I sure as hell know by now the game isn't going to give me any, but it's like a limbo I can't get out of. I just don't play anymore, really, or bother with the community all that much, but after a while I tune into what's happening out of sheer habit, and I don't really know what I'm looking for, lol. I guess it'll just fizzle out eventually, but it's sad.

Yeah. It's sad.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is having a good day.

Not really.

I have a similar sense of general...apathy towards anything story-related in the game nowdays and I'll be extremely surprised if they manage to reel me in again with Dawntrail.

There are numerous directions I could see them going in for the next story arc that would genuinely interest me but I'm not terribly confident the execution would be on point even if they did.

[Rolder50]

"I think that depends on our players and whether or not everyone likes the story and wants it to be continued" Mmmm...

I doubt this one hard. If they are any kind of competent as developers, they will have the next expansion or two after Dawntrail already mapped out, and possibly in pre-production already.

[BRVV]

I doubt this one hard. If they are any kind of competent as developers, they will have the next expansion or two after Dawntrail already mapped out, and possibly in pre-production already.

This is from the company that had 2 trailers released for FFVersusXIII and then changed that game to FFXV and removing all connections to XIII. They could do the same with future expansions.

[Theodric]

It does occupy a rather odd spot for me, because I largely took my leave of WoW for similar reasons to which I'm now likely going to take my leave of this game, i.e. I've lost virtually all interest in its lore given how the writers handled it in EW. Putting aside the lack of any major gameplay hooks to it for me, there's nothing that seems particularly egregious about DT from a story vantage, other than I'd really have liked to see them try their hand at a new cast, because I really have no desire to be lumped with this cast yet again. There's just nothing on the horizon or suggested in the likely storywriting approach they'll be taking forward, i.e. post-6.0 EW, that really interests me.

With EW I just felt really dissatisfied with where they took their own story build up and the approach they took to tying it altogether, which bordered on deliberately misrepresenting the story built up in SHB (sometimes, even in other parts of the self-same expansion, EW) and parcelling off "inconvenient" parts of it to more obscure places, sometimes even in crossovers, and all to push a very specific story conclusion that doesn't hold up if you poke it too hard, with a codex the biases of which are not difficult to discern - and the Elidibus minion is still nowhere near in sight. Still, I did enjoy the game a lot during HW all the way to SHB (mixed feelings on the post-5.0 stuff but it still felt like it was going somewhere), and there were some aspects of EW (like most of Pandaemonium) I liked, so I sometimes feel pangs of nostalgia for the game, but it's not really even a case of being mad about it so much as disappointment that it just doesn't seem capable of holding much interest for me. It's in the place now where I'll keep an eye out to see if it's doing anything to surprise me but yes, very low expectations on that front, too. At the very least there's a lot of new game releases from which to choose, and I'll be very busy with Baldur's Gate 3, no doubt.

Yep. That's an effective summary of my thoughts as well. I don't hate the game, I think it has moments of brilliance...but then those moments of brilliance are followed up by very dubious and questionable writing decisions that really reveal that any depth is seemingly entirely accidental. When the game is at its peak, it's very immersive and incredible. Moments such as stepping into Ishgard for the first time and Amaurot's reveal are two very memorable story beats for me. Yet then there's plenty of intriguing plot threads and characters that are built up and then hastily discarded. Which is pretty strange.

So far the only thing to really stand out to me in regards to 7.0 is Derplander's new design. It's not bad and some nice art has been produced as a result but...it's just baffling that we haven't even fully explored the three main continents yet and already the story is pivoting away from them yet again.

[Eisi]

If you're disappointed with Endwalker you are disappointed with the inception and core mythos of the entire world of FFXIV. You will never be able to explain how this world came to be without cringing. There is no coming back from this and no future expansion no matter how great the story can ever redeem this. That's why you feel so hollow. You knew it all along that this was the end.

[Vyrerus]

If you're disappointed with Endwalker you are disappointed with the inception and core mythos of the entire world of FFXIV. You will never be able to explain how this world came to be without cringing. There is no coming back from this and no future expansion no matter how great the story can ever redeem this. That's why you feel so hollow. You knew it all along that this was the end.

Once, The Lord of Light banished Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. And man assumed a fleeting form. These are the roots of our world. Men are props on the stage of life, and no matter how tender, how exquisite... A lie will remain a lie!

[Theodric]

I think it is possible to enjoy an expansion in isolation if the premise itself is intriguing enough. Despite my misgivings towards large swathes of World of Warcraft's story beats over the years, I still managed to enjoy Legion in its own isolated bubble.

I just think it'll take another expansion or two before FFXIV truly pulls out all of the stops. Though by that point, I'm hoping there's some more healthy competition to be found where MMO's are concerned. Putting my issues with Endwalker's story to one side, the offerings and tone of the actual content simply hasn't appealed to me at all.

[ForsakenRoe]

I think it is possible to enjoy an expansion in isolation if the premise itself is intriguing enough. Despite my misgivings towards large swathes of World of Warcraft's story beats over the years, I still managed to enjoy Legion in its own isolated bubble.

Thinking cos I read in a different thread about how the Scions are essentially a hivemind of yes-men, who all have perfect unison in goal and purpose

And then I remembered the Tomb of Sargeras ending. At the end of Tomb, Illidan opens a portal back to Azeroth so you can all escape, but contrary to what Khadgar's expecting, the portal keeps expanding, ripping a hole in reality such that travelling directly to the enemy homeworld is possible (meaning we're super likely for THEM to directly attack US). This is part of Illidan's plan, to make an ingress on the enemy home base and stem the tide there, putting us on the offensive for the first time in the war, while Khadgar's only able to see the 'risk to ourselves' side, exclaiming 'What...have you done!?' as he thinks the Legion's gonna be able to easily overrun Azeroth now they can get there even more directly (instead of all that mucking about in the Twisting Nether). The two characters want the same thing (stop the Legion, protect Azeroth), but they clearly have different thinking about how to do it, to the point where one isn't even filling the other in on the plan until it's executed

Additionally, the classic 'Rejection of the Gift' cinematic, where Illidan is getting forcibly converted to be Light-themed, and tells Xe'ra the Naaru that he's gonna keep using Dark mode, blowing it up. Turalyon, devoted Paladin and servant of the Light, clearly not happy with the fact that a Naaru got EyeBeam'd. Illidan and Turalyon both fight to stop the Legion, but this cinematic shows several things: The two have clearly different opinions on 'how' to stop the Legion, the Light is not a benevolent force and is in fact extremely controlling, and Illidan is apparently able to catch Light infused sword blades with his bare hands, despite being partially demon?

Anyway, it'd be nice if in FFXIV we had more... not conflict per se, but disagreement on method. HW is a good example, Ysayle and Estinien both wanted the war to end, they just had two different ways of reaching that goal. Fordola and Lyse wanted 'what was good' for Ala Mhigans, but one thought it was by winning back freedom, and one thought the casualties the war for freedom would cause was not worth the reward. These are good dynamics. Y'Shtola telling us 'we need to do X' and everyone just nodding like 'yep she's the clever one so lets do that' is getting a little tiresome. At least have Urianger chime in and say 'there's a risk that it will backfire, but I will trust in your judgement' to show he has some doubts about the efficacy of the solution