There was far less content in Heavensward than in Endwalker

[RitsukoSonoda]

My issues with Endwalker IMO are primarily 2 things.

1. We didn't get an exploratory zone and quest line like Eureka/Bozja.
2. The MSQ especially the launch portion of it felt like they were condensing 2 or more full expansion cycles of content into 1 expansion to rush to a story end ASAP.

While there are a number of other things I disliked or had issue with in regards to Endwalker those 2 points are definitely the most prominent.

[Supersnow845]

I’m willing to forgive HW for two things

-good job design for the most part making content more interesting
-it’s the first time they tried a lot of things and almost all of them stuck (diadem being the big exception)

EW has bland job design and just rehashes what we have had for 3 expansions and gives less of it than the last two expansions

[Aravell]

The main difference between HW and EW is that HW has content that's more repeatable, even though they have less content in general. PotD had quite a lot of rewards tied to it, people would repeatedly do that just for the varied items they get from the sacks. As for Diadem, trash it all you want, yes it was bad, but it also was repeatable, the emergency missions giving RNG loot means people have the option to repeat it if they want the shiny BiS weapon.

We're missing optional, repeatable grind in EW. It's not just that the formula is stale, it's that they gave us the bare minimum of engagement using the same formula, so some people would feel inclined to blame the formula.

[Avatre]

2. The MSQ especially the launch portion of it felt like they were condensing 2 or more full expansion cycles of content into 1 expansion to rush to a story end ASAP.

That describes basically my issue with Stormblood, which a whole slew of people seem to think of as a top rated expansion. Everything felt rushes in there for me.

[Elissar]

Bethesda launched Skyrim unbeatable thanks to a bug in Esbern (among others).

Now they released a space exploration game with similar bugs using their archaic engine and people are having fun, making jokes, giving high scores/ratings and playing it, like they did with Skyrim. Bethesda took 21 official updates for Skyrim and they used community mods to re-re-re-release the game.

Meanwhile, CDPR was (rightly) massacred in the internet because of Cyberpunk2077 state on old gen consoles (PS4/X1). People gave a second attempt to shine after Edgerunners and the soon-to-be-released DLC.

Nostalgia is a weird drug


However, amount of content =/= quality of content. We know SE can do more, they just don't want to. V&C could be easily attached to relics farm, and many other lost opportunities were obvious. Objectively speaking.

[OgruMogru]

I miss HW enochian

[RitsukoSonoda]

That describes basically my issue with Stormblood, which a whole slew of people seem to think of as a top rated expansion. Everything felt rushes in there for me.

Stormblood did feel rushed as well due to how the story split between 2 completely different areas. However It wasn't nearly as bad IMO as Endwalker which felt more like what Hollywood did with that Avatar the Last Airbender live action movie where they tried to cover the entire book of water arc with a single movie less than 2 hours long.

[Larirawiel]

Then the story self destroyed itself with Meteion I agree with her, but if Hydlyan told Emet-selch and his friend what happen after time reset then they could have delt with hermes and sent out a gaint fox or something that uses dynamic to kill her, It left a massive plot hole. So not only was the story horrible the amount of things we were given only lasted about 2-3 hours then you have to wait 4 months for a patch to get on for 2-3 hours..

Yes, they really messed time travel thing up. There are so many errors in the story because of it. If you do not know, how to do time traveling right, then do not do it at all.



Cheers

[Carin-Eri]

I'm probably not quite as anti-Endwalker as many on this forum although I will add that, whilst I enjoyed it for the most part, there were certainly segments I didn't think were particularly great. The already mentioned time-travel plot being one example. And it doubled-down on making us play as NPCs too, which I hate.

I will admit that my biggest disappointment was that the expansion didn't really live up to the, frankly awesome, cinematic. Endwalker launched just as I started playing and I didn't therefore reach that part of the game until March 2022 and held off watching the cinematic until that point. I recall being blown away by it (particularly the music), and having watched various reaction videos since, I can say with some confidence that plenty of others felt/reacted the same way. I thought it was amazing - the leitmotifs using the theme music from the previous expansions was perfect and I adore the final movement of the musical piece.

But whilst I enjoyed it (for the most part) the story itself didn't quite deliver on what the cinematic depicted.

[FudoMyoo]

HW is the first expansion with 3 new classes.
HW has dragons.
HW introduces flying.
HW theme song is unbelievable. MSQ had many of us crying buckets.
HW expansion will always rank no.1 in my heart.