Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

[Nothv13]

Learn to accept life is not Perfect and Perfection does not exist.


I'll discuss this more in the post I created about the Consequences of other Stars but this is just my thought on this aspect of the 6.0 Storyline.

I always looked at the story and message as being similar to, "The path to hell is paved with good intentions" as perfection is a good intention, but will lead to your demise.

[EdwinLi]

The fate of Tartaru's Carbuncle from 2.X.

This is a rather big surprise for a Side Quest being that we discovered that the Carbuncle that Tartaru summoned back in 2.X days is still around and is found by a Sharlayan research now keeping him as his pet. He mentions Carbuncles normally should have disappeared after their summon at some point but the Carbuncle's Aether is so strong he continue to exists even long after running away from Tartaru due to how strong Tartaru's Aether is to a point he can continue existing.

The Harbor cutscene (Big spoiler for those who did not reach this point and did not complete any Alliance Raid storyline, Raid storyline, and Trial storylines)

I love this moment in the storyline. This one cutscene is greatly affected by how many side stories the player complete being the Raid storylines and Trial storylines.

Characters from all Alliance Raid, Raid storylines, and Trial storylines appear or are mentioned in this one cutcene from the Sky Pirates from Void Ark Alliance Raid storyline, the mention of the talking animals and Tenzen from the Doma Trial storyline, Alpha and Omega from Omega Raid Storyline, the Goblins from Alexander Raid are mentioned to help Hoary Boulder with exploring the Coil Raid location to obtain the item they needed, Ramza, his family, and friends from Tactics Alliance Raid are mentioned to be there but still on their ship, Gaius gave WoL Diamond Weapon from the Weapon Trial storyline to be dismantled for materials, and etc. All these things only happens in this cutscene if players complete specific Raid and Trial storylines.

The amount of crates shown on the Harbor is increased as well compared to a player who has done none of the Raid and Trial storylines.

This one cutscene shows just how much the allies WoL made in the side storylines are ready to come to WoL aid the day he calls on all of them for their help and how all these 10 years of effort with side contents has gained many allies for WoL beyond just Main Storyline events.

[WhiteArchmage]

The Harbor cutscene (Big spoiler for those who did not reach this point and did not complete any Alliance Raid storyline, Raid storyline, and Trial storylines)

I love this moment in the storyline. This one cutscene is greatly affected by how many side stories the player complete being the Raid storylines and Trial storylines.

Characters from all Alliance Raid, Raid storylines, and Trial storylines appear or are mentioned in this one cutcene from the Sky Pirates from Void Ark Alliance Raid storyline, the mention of the talking animals and Tenzen from the Doma Trial storyline, Alpha and Omega from Omega Raid Storyline, the Goblins from Alexander Raid are mentioned to help Hoary Boulder with exploring the Coil Raid location to obtain the item they needed, Ramza, his family, and friends from Tactics Alliance Raid are mentioned to be there but still on their ship, and etc. All these things only happens in this cutscene if players complete specific Raid and Trial storylines.

The amount of crates shown on the Harbor is increased as well compared to a player who has done none of the Raid and Trial storylines.

This one cutscene shows just how much the allies WoL made in the side storylines are ready to come to WoL aid the day he calls on all of them for their help and how all these 10 years of effort with side contents has gained many allies for WoL beyond just Main Storyline events.

That cutscene was amazing, it made me tear up, it made me smile, it's just... the entire expansion felt like a love letter to FFXIV, and THAT scene was a thank you to the player who has done everything. Damn, my first reaction was actually to perk up and yell

"THE PRIMA VISTA?!"

The only notable absences are people of the First, which are entirely justified in being unable to send aid, because... I mean... Granted, when we DID go talk to Ryne I didn't catch any mention of Gaia, which I found odd. There was mention of the festival in the last tier of Eden, though. So at least it got acknowledged.

...Nier, however, I'm more than ok that it got ignored...

[Tracewood]

After two or so weeks, I finally made it to the end. It was real hard avoiding my usual spots like here and Reddit/Twitter since I only was spoiled on a couple small things. That being said, Endwalker hit a home run.

Everything so far, in my perspective has been given some kind of closure. Especially a couple things that had me wondering:

Urianger

made up for his penchant for secrecy that cost us Minfilia and nearly the WoL, he owns up to it and even makes up for it with his temporary sacrifice and to be as helpful and more forthcoming, and conviction to tell the WoL and even throws a little shade towards Graha with his original plan. I'm satisfied with the result that it feels right to forgive him. The dude paid his debt and then some.

Y'shtola

is a bit of a hypocrite when you're being revived at the end of your fight with Endsinger + Zenos... like she nearly dies every expansion but the moment YOU do it, that's too much for her. Had a chuckle. She does have a little revalation about her writing history from one perspective and still wants to gain as much knowledge.

Zone 5,

the banter between the ancients was such a treat, and of course Emet would get upset when he learns he becomes, in his words, a "mega-maniacal madman". Then he and Hythlodaeus come through for you at the end. Then oh, my, GOD, the lore bombs and foreshadowing in Zone 6. He gave us a literal shopping list of things that we could go and speculate when and where we are going. My grin lasted for a while after hearing that. Potential shards? Oh yeah. And we're not even limited to the sundered shards. Maybe we could visit Vana'Deil in all it's texture updated splendor.

Zone 6

This was remarkable. You end up in the place where Midgardsormr and his brood resided before the cataclysm... and when I guessed this was Omega's doing going to the next couple parts proved it. Not sure about the gooey ghosts but they were a fun little diversion.

Final bosses.

While it's a common JRPG trope to introduce the real big bad at the last moment it does have some build up even though it took five expansions to see it in it's original form. And we got to face off Zenos -- the fisticuffs was beautiful. We get to see our WOL actually fight! Not just draw out our weapon or gesture, actually landing blows.

Other things:

I called the Scions disbanding, though not absolute, they're just going to operate in the shadows and apart while Tataru is going to build her crafting empire. She would rival Lolorito, but I want her to rival Rowena... now THAT would be a feat!

Haven't finished all the role quests, but I did finish melee and it's a nice bit of closure for the Company of Heroes.

The second half of Radz-At-Han was a emotional rollercoaster. They pulled no punches with the "outbreak" and the casualties. Every track in this game was perfect for the scenes they used it. Thought we'd see more of it in Ishgard when that one elezen had the black water mist spewing from him.

That stinger and the very, very end of the cutscenes... that was pre final days Elidibus right? It sounds like him foreshadowing Pandemonium raids. It didn't sound sinister enough to be Lahabrea

[Puksi]

Parting thoughts on prior post:

Pretty sure as soon as the dialogue turned to another variation of "won't anyone think of the murderers" I rolled my eyes and tuned out, but I do remember that bit. I took it as less of a "character development" for Arenvald and more another push by the writers to ignore the weight of the Crania Lupi's deeds, though. One minute they are "terrorizing" as Lyse once described, the next they're to be "equals" to their victims?

As they were beating Wercrata half to death, the Skulls practically used Quintus' logic to boot: "We'd have it good if you just let yourselves be conquered!" The threat of Lakshmi only became a thing in the first place because the Skulls murdered the Qalyana broodmother's daughter, Anamika. Under Fordola's command, they murdered a child. Raganfrid keeps saying he forgives none of it, but he certainly does go on and on how tough it must be to beat and kill civilians in order to secure a place with Garlemald.

Blaming families for the choices of relatives is one thing. The Skulls themselves, though, made their own choices, and should face realistic consequences for them. But the writers really did use the classic "I was just following orders" "no matter how depraved" to push sympathy for a Skull whose father turned into a Blasphemy from guilt.

The quest chain in Ala Ghiri with Baut was way more believable than all this.

Arenvald's dream was adventures like we had in Skalla. There's no reason why he needs to put those dreams away in a fantasy world where physics only apply at weirdly selective times.

-

Again, I'm not arguing E-S's atrocities. What I'm still trying to understand is the logic of the writers in dismissing them all to call the "megalomaniacal madman" a hero instead, and call said atrocities some kind of noble "burden". Even if that poster's take was the narrative's intent, like you said it still doesn't work, and placing a mass-murdering dictator in such high regard certainly is a bold take on the writers' part.

For the past three expansions now, the onus has been increasingly placed on characters who have suffered harm to forgive and/or forget, rather than on the ones who harmed them to regret their deeds. I don't know why the writers choose to prioritize this, but it feels pretty awful as a player.

[EdwinLi]

The 1st ever Trust Trial and what it may mean for Season 2 Storyline....

This first ever trust trial being Hydaelyn Story Trial was amazing in its own way. Ya it was just using trust and did not have any players but the experience itself provided multiple things.

1) Story immersion

2) New Mechanic unique to Trust Trial being 2 attempt continues so players have 2 chances if they reach 0 HP before it is Game Over.

3) A good training mode to learn the mechanic of the Trial before players begin playing it again with other players in Duty Finder.

It was unexpectedly satisfying in a certain way I can't really put my finger on but certainly opens up new possibilities in Season 2.

I expect that this first trust trial is a test for trust trials in Season 2 storyline. Considering we may still fight Primals and other beings of greater power during MSQ in Season 2, this could be a hint about the new companions that WoL may meet on his/her journey that will replace the Scions as his/her companions until the Scions maybe return later in Season 2 to join them.

[kaynide]

I’m a bit late to the party, but I’m where I can throw my hat in this commentary on the story. Obviously spoilers!

I’ll start with the to;dr:
I enjoyed the expansion a lot! I would give it a solid B+. I’m not considering any technical issues at all in this- my score is based strictly on mechanics, story and the overall package. The good by far outweighed any grievances I have and I would recommend it whole heartedly.

So what was good? bad? What might I have done differently? (Not that my version would have been better..just my thoughts)

For me, the story up to the moon is rock solid. A+. After that a lot of…started to jump the shark a bit for me.

Story:
1) Post Garlemald, it felt rushed. I felt getting to the moon should have been more involved. Like going to Azys Lla to get tech, ultimately going to the Elpis zone to get space travel. In the same vein, I had thought the Zodiark boss would be closer to 87-88, with the expansion ending with the threat of the Sound looming as a massive cliffhanger. As in, we would have just identified the source of the sound.

2)If Fandaniel was indeed Amon, we should have seen more of that (like, maybe he created the original Garuda in Azys Lla along with the original Ixal. Perhaps Garuda was his sort of unconscious attempt at creating Meteion).

3) I would like to have utilized the Void/13th more. Once we saw how Zodiark worked, I thought perhaps the Ascians attempted to free Zodiark on the 13th shard, which triggered the Sound of that dimension to destroy everything and that ultimately caused the Ascians to realize they can’t free an incomplete Zodiark. I had thought the void sent/Cloud of Darkness were created by the sound warping.

4) I don’t like new “out of thin air” concepts. Or convenient things to take care of plot holes. The idea of “another form of energy” in Dynamis is.. interesting and might eventually be a bigger deal, but it felt very tacked on. As I said above, I would have utilized the void/emphasized it was being “of the void” rather than this alternate form of energy or even needing new names. Similarly the memory restoration upon death.

5) Time Traveling shenanigans. I get why it was done (moar Emettttt) and it was done well…but if you are going to do time travel shenanigans, go all the way and do a full expansion on it. Also “it was all a dream!/memory wipe” was..cheap. Elpis could just exist in modern days, with ancient happenings done via the Echo. At the end of Elpis it was done well to explain Emet’s support of us once his memory was restored upon death…but that goes into my point 3. Also, if we need to time travel, wouldn’t we instead utilize Cid to fix “Alexander” in the basement? And if so much energy was needed to go, why can I now just aether warp there for a few hundred gil?

It might have been better to flashback and just be Azem. The story being told there (what has a right to live) was good enough it didn’t need us telling them the future/having a men in black moment.

6) The source of the Sound being caused by the ancients was a good move. I was team Lavos for the longest, but it was an incredibly sad moment to learn that the universe (as far as Meteion saw) was empty barren/dead. The “ultimately, we are completely, utterly all we have in the entire universe” message is poignant.

Even with all these criticisms, the story ties together and does it well. At first Elpis felt like a misstep..and I’d still argue it kinda is..but it was done well and was certainly enjoyable. Again, good call.

Mechanics:

1) The new stealth escorts were not bad…I’m glad they are trying something fresh. This needs more work..like a circle around the NPC to indicate how close is too close, but overall nice idea.

2) The team has taken lessons learned from Shadowbringers and used them well. Boss moves like tank busters are well marked and mostly clear/understandable. Splitting the story into 2 parts at the beginning to lessen traffic and introducing the first 3 zones quicker with back and forth most likely keeps traffic down. Even just having more downtime moments (like G’raha handling that hamburger) was a great move.

3) With the amount of actual tragedy/death, I think this would have been a good point to actually kill off some Scions. I love them all, but if ever there was a point this would have been it.

4) If you are going to develop resources to let us play as other characters (like Thancred), utilize it more; possibly as side content or flashbacks. The stealth mission in Garlemald was fun for me, I wouldn’t mind seeing more side content entirely around Scions doing special side missions.

[Cleretic]

Parting thoughts on prior post:

I think you're being rather blind to a known issue, in real life, that's being echoed in the story.

When a war is settled, there is a big question of culpability, of exactly who is responsible versus who was simply another kind of victim being used as a tool. Similar issues cropped up around Doma in 4.x; after you've taken new control over a nation, what do you do about people guilty of things that just weren't crimes under a new nation?

The Crania Lupi are a perfect example of a facet of it. They were forced into service, either by outright conscription or a form of blackmail and extortion by their rulers ('your only way to get the respect and protection of the Empire is to join their army'), and acting on orders they weren't coming up with. If a man shoots against his will, under threat of his family being harmed if he doesn't, how guilty is that man of the death that may follow? This is a complicated goddamn issue, enough so that IRL the International Criminal Court basically exists to figure it out. Saying 'but they're all murderers' and calling it a day is dangerously reductive.

Chances are, if you really went through it all, the Crania Lupi probably had members that fall on both sides of this divide (and Fordola might be the hardest question of them all). But the problem is that Ala Mhigo never really asked those questions, they tried to brush it all under the rug. That led to nobody really getting any answers or closure; not only are now liberated civilians leery of that family around the corner whose son joined the Empire, but the ex-Lupi and their family themselves are grappling with the morality of what happened under occupation, wracked with guilt for actions that ultimately may not have been their fault. That creates the pariah situation that we saw in the healer quests; a complicated situation was not acknowledged or approached, and as a result people jumped to the simplest answer, which happened to be the most painful one.

[Cleretic]

2)If Fandaniel was indeed Amon, we should have seen more of that (like, maybe he created the original Garuda in Azys Lla along with the original Ixal. Perhaps Garuda was his sort of unconscious attempt at creating Meteion).

3) I would like to have utilized the Void/13th more. Once we saw how Zodiark worked, I thought perhaps the Ascians attempted to free Zodiark on the 13th shard, which triggered the Sound of that dimension to destroy everything and that ultimately caused the Ascians to realize they can’t free an incomplete Zodiark. I had thought the void sent/Cloud of Darkness were created by the sound warping.

I'm a tad too tired right now to really dig into your whole post, but for the first of these, that both did and didn't actually happen. Your example is confirmed to be wrong; as learned (I believe) in Fractal Continuum Hard, the 'original Garuda' was actually an Allagan general that commanded the Iksalion, who was mythologized over time to become Garuda as the Ixal gradually forgot their origins.

However, there actually were signs of it over time. Perhaps most notable was in 5.4, when the Allagan recording on tempering outright mentions that it was Amon who shut it down. Both of them utilized stuff like the dragons of Meracydia and energy-consuming towers. If you look back at info about Amon, too, you can see that his behavior is pretty much exactly what we saw from Fandaniel; it's just that people were a little blind to that because people started ascribing the qualities to Emet-Selch, despite them fitting Fandaniel closer.

And as for the void, it is actually confirmed how that fell: essentially, the Ascians hadn't figured out that a Calamity is needed on the Source when a shard is consumed, so they whacked the Thirteenth out of alignment and then went 'oh, crap, we screwed that up' when it didn't help. According to the first volume of the Encyclopedia Eorzea, the clash that tipped it over was actually Unukalhai (the Amaurotian-dressed kid from the Warring Triad questline and the Shadowbringers all-roles questline) and Igeyorhm (the Ascian that fused with Lahabrea in the Aetherochemical Research Facility).

[Puksi]

Ala Mhigo didn't brush it under the rug--the writers did. If they weren't willing to delve into the gravity of the situation they created, they probably shouldn't have crossed so many moral event horizons. It's ridiculous to show a child dead in the dirt only to shrug it off and later call the one responsible a "hero"--a "hero" that's shown no regret for any of it, either, except for how it's affected her. The narrative is also very quick to portray the Ala Mhigans who were harmed as "unreasonable", in what feels like an attempt to generate sympathy towards the "Butcher".

In terms of pure story, though, there was zero reason to permit Wercrata to be beaten, and zero reason to kill Anamika. Fordola was in command of both those situations, and could have handled it as Baut handled Ala Ghiri--Baut was a conscript too, yet still had the ability to choose basic decency. Fordola had command over even Imperial soldiers at the tower. Yet she allowed a defenseless civilian to be beaten and a child taken hostage and later murdered--in the end she even killed her own men, her "friends", supposedly also reasons she joined the Crania Lupi in the first place.

The Imperial she ordered to fire on them hesitated to do so longer than it took her to arrive at the decision that she wasn't going to throw away her progress with Garlemald for their sakes. She even admitted in she wanted revenge on the Ala Mhigan people.

Gaius seems to have also been forgiven for forming the Crania Lupi to begin with as well, so there's that. And, of course, they've elevated the founder--and until recently, the Emperor--of Garlemald itself to practically the face of the series lately.

I'm not blind. I'm sick of the writers tossing around these monstrous deeds and lazily ignoring the weight of them--somehow always going directly to redeeming the irredeemable, no regret needed, because reasons. That's the only thing reductive in this conversation.