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

[SolemnDream]

Part 2:

I could not hate Meteion more. I do not care about an anime loli pet that you brought up last-second to be the "big bad", who tries to tell you that all civilizations are going to be nightmare-horrors eventually, especially when they seek "perfection", and who cries black anime blood in a jumpscare, and who wants to destroy everything ever because *some* civilizations die.

Speaking of Meteion: Japanese writers and Square Enix, please stop writing villains who want to destroy everything due to straw-nihilism. As Lightning said when defeating the final boss of the much-better-story FFXIII, "we don't think like that". So take that message to heart. We people who play your games are *smarter* than straw-nihilism. And it's old and boring. If you like nihilism that much, please stop melodramaticizing it, and instead learn about *real-world* nihilism. Fun fact: you can be a nihilist and still be excited to enjoy life to the fullest and make it better for everyone. I'm not even a nihilist and I know that.

As for tribals. The Hippo Riders were fine, but the Omicrons and the Loporrits were an unbelievably-senseless waste of potential. How did we go from Loporrits not knowing what music was to *instant* rave equipment and a hundred years of music theory?! And what for? They should be having an existential crisis about what to do with all their millennia of work on the moon, and how to make it useful. I would have liked that a lot, and it would have made sense! Instead, dance party "because cute"! And then Omicron tribals *could* have been good, except for how childishly forgiving and power-of-friendshipy the characters acted with the enemies who murdered or even genocided them. And the bad messages, and the stupid race at the end.

I would also like to add that the soundtrack for EW was barebones.

Coming off of my love for Shadowbringers, I was unbelievably angry at Endwalker, and having none of it the whole time— save a little bit of the first parts of Sharlayan and Thavnair, most of Garlemald, the time on the moon with the Watcher, and most of Venat (until Meteion). All of the rest of it was god-awful.

I don't know if I can take the MSQ writing in FFXIV seriously anymore; and for a game that is mostly about writing, that is the biggest crime of all. Now that I've seen your EW tribals, and I've seen Pictomancer and Viper, I'm losing a lot of interest in this game. Please treat your audience with intelligence and dignity— I've seen you do better. ARR was good, HW was great, ShB was amazing, and I really liked Gyr Abania when Zenos wasn't involved.

[Swordsman]

Part 2:

I could not hate Meteion more. I do not care about an anime loli pet that you brought up last-second to be the "big bad", who tries to tell you that all civilizations are going to be nightmare-horrors eventually, especially when they seek "perfection", and who cries black anime blood in a jumpscare, and who wants to destroy everything ever because *some* civilizations die.

Couldn't agree more. I remember back in 2021 when this was first revealed to me during my MSQ playthrough, I just sat there in disbelief. I kept thinking to myself: "is this really it? Is this the culmination of ARR and its four expansions? SE couldn't think of anything better than this?..."

Not to mention dynamis, which is equally silly.

[SolemnDream]

Not to mention dynamis, which is equally silly.

Yeah, there were so many things to talk about that I temporarily forgot about Dynamis and the Walk of Emotional Manipulation. As bad as Dynamis was, at least it was a concept that could work in a better story. I *hate* the kind of logicless, thoughtless emotional manipulation that was going on in those last scenes including the walk.