Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

[RyuDragnier]

Oh, in case anybody hasn't discovered this, there's new dialogue with Rammbroes in Mor Dhona if you ask about the NOAH Report on Emperor Xande.

[Fenral]

Oh, in case anybody hasn't discovered this, there's new dialogue with Rammbroes in Mor Dhona if you ask about the NOAH Report on Emperor Xande.

Thanks for the tip! There's also a "much-crumpled report page" that I don't recall having seen before, and the contents are bittersweet. More sweet than bitter, now, but I'm sure glad it wasn't there back in 2.5.

[Iscah]

Got to the ending a few hours ago. Still processing. Just dropped in to read the last page without looking through everything yet.

Overall feeling: lots of good moments but I did not appreciate the final fight so the whole thing fell a bit flat at the end.

My other criticism is probably much more subjective, and has to do with what we see in Zone 5:

It is very obvious that almost every Ancient, except for I think Emet-Selch, uses the Elezen rigging. I was immediately dragged out of immersion when I first saw Hythlodaeus and went "by the Twelve what happened to your NECK".

Emet uses an Elezen model as well – he just has a lot of custom animations/stances and unique outfit to conceal it, so it's harder to notice without having looked up the character model data.

Elezen do move oddly but I've gotten kind of used to it by this time. Well past the "what is wrong with you" and into "Elezen animations strike again".

Thanks for the tip! There's also a "much-crumpled report page" that I don't recall having seen before, and the contents are bittersweet. More sweet than bitter, now, but I'm sure glad it wasn't there back in 2.5.

The crumpled report turned up after 5.3, from memory.

[Theodric]

Further MSQ thoughts:

Although I stand by my previous comments in regards to thinking that some parts were rushed and other parts a bit convoluted, I consider the portions that take place in Garlemald, Thavnair, Radz-at-Han and Elpis to be some of the best MSQ content in the game to date. I'll need further time to sink my teeth into the side quests, since there's a lot of them.

Between the Reaper storyline and the Garlemald MSQ's, I'm pleased to see that the nuance was handled well and that it was made clear that Garleans have been fighting for survival for quite some time now. I'm curious to see if the Garleans retreat from the frozen wasteland and settle in their original homeland given how frequently it was brought up and name dropped.

I think a genuine effort was made to squeeze as much fan service in as possible for every character brought up even in passing. I can appreciate that and I'm glad that some of the side characters who might have otherwise have been 'one and done' characters showed up again. Sicard being one of the more prominent examples to my liking.

I appreciated the body horror for the monster transformations. I hope we get more stuff along those lines in the future.

As I thought, we're also moving towards seeing our character become an adventurer again. That pleases me and it makes sense given that we have a largely clean slate to work with now. I imagine we'll still see much of Endwalker spent on wrapping up the plot threads established within the expansion itself as well as building up the groundwork for whatever the new storyline happens to be.

Although I would have liked to have seen Hydaelyn and Zodiark team up against the cause of the Final Days and potentially stick around after that fact, I'm glad that they're both gone - having one linger but not the other would not have felt right to me and with the Sundering being revealed as a deliberate act and not an accident, I could not help but see her as an abusive, if well meaning mother figure.

Though as Yoshi-P said, it's a complex situation and a matter of perspective so a lot of people are going to have varied thoughts on pretty much every major event that occurred during Endwalker.

Overall, Labyrinthos ended up being the weakest link for me. It wasn't terrible, though the first portion didn't grip me as much as the first trip to Thavnair did and the second visit to Labyrinthos had a bit too much padding for my liking. Visually, though, the zone is very pleasing. Old Sharlayan, too, is a beautiful city.

[Jirah]

*Spoilers*






Was it ever clear what zodiark’s role was that prevented Meteoin from turning the planet into shit? Because that flew over my head abit.

[Rannie]

*Spoilers*






Was it ever clear what zodiark’s role was that prevented Meteoin from turning the planet into shit? Because that flew over my head abit.

He created a shield of aether around the planet since they saw the issue occurring in areas where aether was the weakest. As well as to be used to jump start the aether since he is a Dark aspected Primal.

[waifugenerator]

Fandanial surmised that Dynamis was seeping into the atmosphere where the celestial aether currents were the most stagnant, so they summoned Zodiark to get that aether flowing again since darkness = activity

[Theozilla]

I just finished Endwalker yesterday (also did all the side-quests) & today I unlocked & beat the two optional level 90 expert dungeons. Looks like one of them might be setting up one of the Beast Tribe quests for EW?

Anyways, man what an ending, I actually got a little choked up during the final cutscenes (after the credits). What a momentous experience & feeling indeed.
During the cutscene after the final dungeon but before the final trial, for a brief moment I was a little worried that the build up might feel somewhat repetitive to 5.0 finale, but the direction it did end up going was a revelation & completely flabbergasted me.
While ShB perhaps had slightly better pacing, EW was truly an ending of endings, that it drew on so much of what came before in the entire game’s history was truly astonishing & amazing. At the present at least, EW is about equal to ShB for me.

I do have a couple of spoiler related questions/clarifications I wanted to ask (sorry if any have already been addressed earlier in the thread)

One minor quibble, unless I missed something, Zenos’ reoccurring dream of the Final Days (from 5.2) and Fandaniel’s commentary of “Could Emet-Selch have found a way…?” wasn’t ever addressed/explained, correct? I wonder if it’s something that’s being saved to explore later in the future MSQ or side content (like maybe the Pandemonium raids?), or is it just a dropped plot point? If it’s the latter it’s not a huge biggie, but somewhat surprising that something depicted in a voiced cutscene wasn’t at least somewhat followed up on.


My other question is in regards to the status of the inhabitants of Ultima Thule after finishing 6.0: namely, are the inhabitants of UT now actually alive/living for real now?
Because I understood that the areas aren't the actual remnants of the original planets (i.e. stars) that the Meteia encountered in their journey, but rather are recreations of them. And I believe Y'shtola and/or Urianger compare the inhabitants to the shades of the Ancients in Emet-Selch's recreated Amaurot. So wouldn't that mean that like the Ancient shades, they weren't the actual original souls of the dead planets, right? But after Meteion is beat and she restores "life/hope" to the universe, did that turn the inhabitants of Ultima Thule into for-real alive/original souls denizens?

Because the way the game discusses them and the side-quests treat them (after beating 6.0), it appears like they are living beings with souls now. (and from what I understood Meteion collected the dead souls of the planets she had visited and sequestered them away in the dead sun, so that they wouldn't continue to be reincarnated/reborn into potential future new lives, right?)

Or were the inhabitants of UT always alive, & it was only the specific individuals that the Scions had to emotionally overcome in order to progress through the zone (the ones that turned into black birds) that weren't alive and were only recreated shades?

Oh, I also recommend reading this little essay this person wrote on Endwalker and Buddhism, as I had a lot of very similar thoughts when playing and finishing the MSQ.

https://twitter.com/SayaKiyohara/sta...818637316?s=20

[Fenral]

The crumpled report turned up after 5.3, from memory.

That sounds about right, actually. I apparently just didn't check the NOAH reports again after checking Ramnbroes' other new dialogue. For some reason.

[EdwinLi]

The Source of Limit Break's power

Well that was a sudden important lore drop in the final trial fight being that Limit Break is the power of Dynamis.

This does bring into question just what kind of powers can Dynamis give our characters beyond just Limit Breaks.