These forums are a minority, endwalker was great

[Boblawblah]

Well, I like using reaction images, so I figured I'd use Tink's, since faeries make me happy

aww, that's so cute I'm more of a pooh bear person, but I can respect the fairies

[DiaDeem]

Selene or Tink?

Tink is a faerie... but tends to behave like a pixie sometimes, so depends how spicy you're feeling at the time. Selene's definitely gonna help you heal and be happy to do it. Tink, you probably have to ask her nicely and offer her something nice as a reward. Tink reminds me more of Statice.

[DiaDeem]

aww, that's so cute I'm more of a pooh bear person, but I can respect the fairies

ALL SOFT THINGS ARE GOOD FOR THE SOUL

[Hyperia]

From those I talked with, many agree that the 6.0 story was good, but not all. When it comes to the 6.2 to 6.5 though, well… not much nice was said.

I would have preferred that they spent 6.0 up to zordiark, 6.1 2nd end of days, 6.2 elpsis and Hyde, 6.3 covering the rest of the content. That would leave 6.4 onward for the void story as two patches is all the content t they really had.

Spreading out the story in the above fashion would have allowed for more exposition and better pacing. It would have also better managed the content gap we are facing now.

The void story we got for 5 patches felt like it was a trial series story or at best, two patches of content.

If I had to guess, they crammed everything into 6.0 so the main devs could go help FFXVI launch and create their DLC. That left the junior devs to make content for 2.5 years before the main devs returned for 7.0.

Hopefully SE has learned their lesson and will better manage XIV so we don’t have these problems again. I know they are aware. Cause they play the game an hear the players talk and Yoshi has admitted that they had issues in the 6.x series.

Who knows, maybe I am wrong about devs going to XVI and in all reality they are making 7.0 the soft restart of the game and where new players can start at level 90, bypassing the previous saga.

[Cynric]

From those I talked with, many agree that the 6.0 story was good, but not all. When it comes to the 6.2 to 6.5 though, well… not much nice was said.

I would have preferred that they spent 6.0 up to zordiark, 6.1 2nd end of days, 6.2 elpsis and Hyde, 6.3 covering the rest of the content. That would leave 6.4 onward for the void story as two patches is all the content t they really had.

Spreading out the story in the above fashion would have allowed for more exposition and better pacing. It would have also better managed the content gap we are facing now.

The void story we got for 5 patches felt like it was a trial series story or at best, two patches of content.

If I had to guess, they crammed everything into 6.0 so the main devs could go help FFXVI launch and create their DLC. That left the junior devs to make content for 2.5 years before the main devs returned for 7.0.

Hopefully SE has learned their lesson and will better manage XIV so we don’t have these problems again. I know they are aware. Cause they play the game an hear the players talk and Yoshi has admitted that they had issues in the 6.x series.

Who knows, maybe I am wrong about devs going to XVI and in all reality they are making 7.0 the soft restart of the game and where new players can start at level 90, bypassing the previous saga.

I think originally they planned for 6.0 to end before garlemald and for 7.0 to pick up after that point, but they decided to just put it all together because it would've been odd to break up the story the way they thought about doing it.

I could be remembering wrongly though. I'm personally happy that 7.0 is Dawntrail instead of more Endwalker story that took 2 years to get to myself. I hope it's that soft reset as you say. It would probably be the best path for the game after 10 years.

[Yuella]

I agree. Endwalker has one of the best narratives in video games history. To take the issue of depression and make it an important plot point was very gutsy. Not only the story provides hope for the in game characters, it also gives hope to us, the players. The game's message not only works for the characters but for the real life players who have invested their time in the game. It's an experience like no other.

[Shougun]

I liked quite a few elements of Endwalker, but I did feel they tried to do too much in the story- taking one of those areas out and flexing on whichever remains would have helped. They also tried something different in terms of pacing, but I think I just preferred ShB's pacing /shrug. I really like the visuals of island sanctuary, and the idea, but whoever made it really focused on the 'tower' of progression and a bit too much on the spreadsheet imo XD. Criterion like content is interesting but rewards haven't backed their longevity.

As an aside on story specifically, I loved the Garlean section and was a bit sad that thread ended so soon. It was fantastic. It reminded me a bit of the greatness of the Ul'dah threadline, which I was also sad that it ended so soon lol (I think I was also hoping they did something crazy like actually razing Ul'dah to the ground.. absolutely insane but I had hoped for that thread to continue to unravel). I loved elements here and there for other parts, I quite liked the horror element of the birb girl, I really liked the idea of Ultima Thule and was fine with twitter became the end boss, but I didn't like how "oh well" the companions were as things were unraveling.. I would have liked to see them break down into a greater despair.

Interestingly I think the Ultima Thule beast tribe is one of my favorite tribes ever.

I think I could go on for a while where it's like a neat idea, but then something about the execution has some flaw that damages the neat idea in some way. I appreciate that they've tried a lot here, and I worry non-constructive feedback will read as "actually we don't want you try anything new" :/ .. I don't think that's what people are ultimately saying but they're having a little trouble sticking the landing on some of the stuff, for whatever reason, and some non-constructive feedback might lead one to think "well trying new stuff wasn't worth it". That and of course we have limited interacting communication, so it can be see easy how players feel "hands in the air". Still not terrible, imo, but I have wondered what it would be like if we had the ability to communicate better lol.

Not the best example but one that happened recently that I was like.. "...really?" was the chocobo boots request thread. What in the world is going on there? It's from like 2017. The dude wants boots that are in the game, already.. Seriously? I mean I don't have a horse in that race, but how is that still 'on the docket' as a request? ... Mayhap it's related to some potential new content that we'll receive but uh.. 2017.. unless this is the most epic choco content ever it must be extremely delayed / unimportant.

[Carin-Eri]

Whilst firmly in the 'enjoyed it' camp here, one thing that always stands out to me is actually the 'story' the cinematic told Vs what the MSQ gave us.

That cinematic - the music, the lyrics, the narrative. It was exciting to watch/hear (I still think 'Footfalls' is a masterpiece) and did wonderful job of making it appear that we were heading into an apocalyptic scenario... but that isn't quite what the MSQ gave us - though not going to discuss that as it's nothing that hasn't already been said over the past two years.

Which, again, isn't to say that I didn't enjoy Endwalker- as noted, I very much did - but I'll never quite shake the feeling that the trailer/cinematic depicted a scenario that the MSQ couldn't quite deliver.

[Mosha]

Keep crying about it, you're never getting TP back and that's a good thing. This game isn't for you anymore.

Endwalker story-wise had its high highs but also its low lows. I loved the Elpis and Sharlayan stuff both found the stuff in Garlemald and Thav really boring

[TheMightyMollusk]

you're never getting TP back