Spoilers of msq

[SamsaraTrickstar]

So up to the first trial what you make of the story? It really as if it GoT season 8 levels of bad. Why they did zodiark so cheap? After all the build up. But moon bunny's was really funny if not firing part.like why we even interacting on them over getting back to help the people we so cared for 30 min before?
How you find it over all?

[Rae88]

I found it amazing overall. I love how it's more of a character drama than straight out action, and I love the rounding out of the Ascians. That being said there is a dissonance for what you experience in the game and what you expect from the trailer, and I can see that causing problems for some people.

To me as a lover of slower character driven stories this fit my preferences perfectly.

[Havenchild]

I thought it was superb. Alot of the intricate plot points are going to be missed by ALOT of people who are either missing clearing content like Bahamut and Omega or skip cutscenes / story skip or are completely oblivious. They do some master class dialogue that has so many reflections throughout the story already established. The Zodiark thing I don't feel was diminished, it just didn't have a buildup within the single expansion that is Endwalker itself, so it coming earlier than not is just jarring a few people. But if that encounter was thrown at the tale end of 5.6, your complaint wouldn't exist. The big bad argument, doesn't hold too much weight as if you were paying attention at all to the story in SHB and onward, you should know that he did NOT cause the final days AND he was also a sundered Zodiark still and not nearly at full power, maybe half?. That's also kinda the whole point of the expansion. Figure out what caused the Final Days and stop that.

Getting to actually you know, have a personal journey with those around you, isn't bad and is something called character development. Sure it feels like "chores" but the story is trying to paint a more personal take on how the world and the residents itself, that you've literally spent years combing through, are handling this all consuming calamity. It's literally the entire narrative point of Endwalker unfolding before you with the "Together, it's possible" mantra.

Threads like this are why I think this expansion might require too much high thinking.

[MoofiaBossVal]

I thought it was 5/10 okay. Was fun for what it was. Wasn't the amazing finale that was promised. The story is not well paced. A lot of the plot threads don't go anywhere and feel like filler in retrospect (Thavnair is pretty much irrelevant so the final days zone would have been more impactful had it been Ul'dah or something, second half of Labyrinthos feels like tedious chores, etc). Stuff that should've happened doesn't happen. That being said, the story was still enjoyable. It's never offensively bad. At its worst it's just meh. Still has some genuinely good moments.

[Powercow]

I liked it. Not sure if I'd rate it higher than Shadowbringers but that's a damn tough act to follow.

Because...

Zodiark isn't complete. He's not only just half-finished, but his heart/core is missing. To top it off, Amon wanted to die. It's very unlikely that he was trying his hardest to beat you if his goal is death.

As for the moon bunnies -- the emissary of God told you to go talk to them. Turns out these are also emissaries of god and have intricate knowledge of everything going on. Given that the situation has dramatically shifted from "stop Fandaniel and Zodiark" to "stop the apocalypse" it'd be a wise idea to listen to the magical creations of Hydaelyn about said apocalypse. The situation back home is stable, for the time being.

[van_arn]

It was a slow start. I spent far too much time in cutscene and not playing the game at the beginning, but the dungeons and trials were an absolute highlight.

Past that first trial the tone has no idea where it's going for a while, but it'll find itself again and kick things into the highest point I've seen in the narrative.

This might be my favorite expansion, but that's only because I toughed it through the first half. The second half was amazing to me.

[wereotter]

It was a slow start. I spent far too much time in cutscene and not playing the game at the beginning, but the dungeons and trials were an absolute highlight.

Past that first trial the tone has no idea where it's going for a while, but it'll find itself again and kick things into the highest point I've seen in the narrative.

This might be my favorite expansion, but that's only because I toughed it through the first half. The second half was amazing to me.

Exactly this. They were trying so hard not to give us leads on what the overriding plot of the expansion would be that they do end up having to spend quite a bit of time building up to it and explaining it in the main quests. So for those who were used to the "we're here to stop the dragonsong war" or "we're here to liberate Ala Mhigo" objectives being clear from the start, this definitely feels a LOT slower.

But once it gets going, man is it good.

[NanaWiloh]

I am really loving things so far. Slower story pacing as well. Would love to see it maintained the rest of the expansion. But I know that would drive a lot of players nuts lol. So have no doubt the pace will return to normal by 6.1