Anyone else feeling disappointed by Endwalker MSQ? MAJOR MSQ SPOILERS!

[Medura]

Personally loved endwalker more than any other expansion, why they have to make my favorite characters villains is beyond me though. I do agree with your points that we are left hanging on a lot, on the other hand, post quests and side stories hasn't come yet and will probably shine light on a bunch of stuff

[Lily_Skye]

tl;dr op is a hater

next

[Zeromon]

I felt like Endwalker took too long and also cut itself short, albeit at different times. The pacing is fine in theory but it was just a touch much going from, let's say Zodiark to the Lopporits. We needed that development with the bunnies somewhere but it being right after Zodiark felt so bad in the moment. Same with Elpis really. The zone and its story was absolutely necessary, but it was so concentrated that by the end I felt Meteion lacked development while also dragging on too much. I think the length of the story was fine, but a different approach where each zone didn't NEED to take the same amount of time (generally speaking) to conclude would have been so much better. By the end I was enthralled by everything EXCEPT for Meteion. She desperately needed a teaser during 5.5 or something, or even less development. Make her like Emet-Selch, being present from the start, or like Necron, completely out of nowhere. Cramming her in during the middle doesn't work as well.

As for the general cheesiness of story, I think it was fine. Endwalker was the conclusion to a decade of story, there was always going to be some sappy moments that, to those who don't care, feels cheap and pointless. I'm fine with it. I will say the final zone with the fake-out "deaths" was a bit much even for me, but as soon as you see Thancred go off-screen of all things, it was pretty obvious they would all come back.

[Drkdays]

FF14 Endwalker: #AlwaysTooLate

It's becoming a meme

[iheartlove42]

I felt like Endwalker took too long and also cut itself short, albeit at different times. The pacing is fine in theory but it was just a touch much going from, let's say Zodiark to the Lopporits. We needed that development with the bunnies somewhere but it being right after Zodiark felt so bad in the moment. Same with Elpis really. The zone and its story was absolutely necessary, but it was so concentrated that by the end I felt Meteion lacked development while also dragging on too much. I think the length of the story was fine, but a different approach where each zone didn't NEED to take the same amount of time (generally speaking) to conclude would have been so much better. By the end I was enthralled by everything EXCEPT for Meteion. She desperately needed a teaser during 5.5 or something, or even less development. Make her like Emet-Selch, being present from the start, or like Necron, completely out of nowhere. Cramming her in during the middle doesn't work as well.

As for the general cheesiness of story, I think it was fine. Endwalker was the conclusion to a decade of story, there was always going to be some sappy moments that, to those who don't care, feels cheap and pointless. I'm fine with it. I will say the final zone with the fake-out "deaths" was a bit much even for me, but as soon as you see Thancred go off-screen of all things, it was pretty obvious they would all come back.

She kinda was like Necron. She's almost completely out of nowhere and only shows up in Elpis, with a slight hint right after you kill Zodiark. It was a clever twist. I thought it was gonna be she made contact with an evil entity. But nope it was that she embraced nihilism and due to Hermes fucking up since he didn't understand how to properly control dynamis she became a god. There are slight hints of her via the vision of the Final Days in 1.0, but her being the cause isn't foreshadowed.

[Raiya]

Maybe it’s because I was a homestuck kid/teen but I found a lot of the story extremely easy to understand and follow (which is good.)

You create a closed time loop (as evidenced by Elidibus saying he might’ve remembered seeing you there at some point… *before* you get there.) You were always going to talk to Venat, and because Venat remembered you talking to her she created Hydaelyn to stave off the threat of Zodiark. Because you helped find Meteion, Hermes heard her report and developed a deep-seated disregard for life that lasted across millennium. This stuff was always going to happen, you were powerless to stop it and infact you were always a part of the catalyst.

A lot of what you’re describing as disappointing seems to be disappointing because you have reader-omnipresence. You are able to see what others (even your player character) cannot. And it seeps into how you view the story and the characters and their motives.

Another thing to mention was Venat was present for Meteion's report as well, she doesn't just learn of the final days, she learns of all the civilisations that had collapsed because they pursued their vision of perfection to the point they were undone by it. When the final days happen the majority of the ancients are so desperate to bring back their loved ones they're literally risking walking into the EXACT same trap that had undone those other worlds. Hence the only choice was to sunder the world not out of simple choice but out of necessity as only through adversity could they ever have a chance at defeating the source of all despair.

Zenos even despite being that guy who just want's a rematch the entire expansion ends up unironically playing his part: his role in releasing Zodiark was what ultimately leads them towards the true cause of the final days and hell he even ends up HELPING bring an end to the final threat just so he could get the attention he craved.

In all honestly replaying the ENTIRE MSQ from ARR after this is all over is probably the only way anyone is going to truly appreciate the entire story as you'd be suprised how much you'd miss the first time around and go "hey i remember that!"

Also I'm going to state based on our information on our Original Selfs, Venat, Hytholodaeus and Hades its's very likely the characters were the absolute mad lads/ladies of the ancient world and I will be VERY surprised if at some point down the line those 3 don't end up reincarnating in the future on another shard for another round of shenanigans only were the team leader this time.

She kinda was like Necron. She's almost completely out of nowhere and only shows up in Elpis, with a slight hint right after you kill Zodiark. It was a clever twist. I thought it was gonna be she made contact with an evil entity. But nope it was that she embraced nihilism and due to Hermes fucking up since he didn't understand how to properly control dynamis she became a god. There are slight hints of her via the vision of the Final Days in 1.0, but her being the cause isn't foreshadowed.

To be honest when you think about it Hermes fatalism was a result of seeing so many creatures he helped create being made disappear as they were unsuitable and questioning what right they had to do so. He lost his reason to keep going and became melancholiac about existence. Meteion remember is a familiar who would absorb the feelings of those she encountered to learn about other people and their civilisations and she shared a collective mind with her sisters. When she linked up with them she is basically overwhelmed by the sheer amount of despair the others had experienced. You can only help but feel sorry for her as she ends up doing what she's doing as she has comprehension of what it takes to keep going in the face of that.

[Alleo]

As I was playing through it I was enjoying it, but it started losing me a bit in the last zone. Thancred's gone but his soul is still floating around? Shame Hydaelyn didn't just give us something that could help with that, with Y'shtola all but affirming it. And as I'm thinking back on it and reading other's thoughts the expansion overall is slowly going from great to okay for me. I think they just got too ambitious and tried to do too much since they were wrapping up the biggest storyline in the game.

For that point: I think the problem was that Thancred and the others made it possible that we could breathe and survive there. If we had just called them back they would not have been able to uphold this "magic" and thus we would have all died. And at the same times their souls also got weaker so there was a danger of them just truly dieing. I think that Hades and Hythlos summoning those flowers changed the Dynamis to our favor which meant that we did not need the souls of our comrades to hold it up any longer thus we summoned them back. Still of course there was only a low chance that the devs would just kill of all of our team so it does take away the suspense. (It also didnt help that they showed the last dungeon in the trailer where we run alongside the trust members)

But yeah overall they always got their plot device just a bit before that. Graha with his spell, Hermes with his time device, the teleportation device for the ship and of course Azems stone.

[baklava151]

I forgot about Graha's levitation spell lol. Which makes me ask what happened when the other towers disappeared.

[Floortank]

I forgot about Graha's levitation spell lol. Which makes me ask what happened when the other towers disappeared.

They answered that in the story. It was a bad answer, but they did.

[Swimcito]

11. The rest of the Convocation: I would have loved to meet them, or see them, or have scenes with them, with their real names, their faces, interactions between them and interactions with others, etc. Really sad we didn't get this chance.

12. Us/WoL/current Azem: I get that since we travelled to the past it would have been weird to see our form as the Ancient Azem; but it would have been nice to learn more about us as Azem, like why did we join the Convocation, why us specifically? It would have been interesting to have Venat tell us more about her friendship with the current Azem. I am still unclear as to why Venat stepped down as Azem.

13. Death in Elpis/the Unsundered World: in Shadowbringers, the way Emet-Selch talked about his old world, he basically either said or implied that in the unsundered times, they were immortal. That mortality now exists because the world is sundered. However when we travel to Elpis, we learn that the Ancients can die, they can choose when to die even. I would have liked more details about this. It left me with many questions, particularly because it related to Fandaniel's pain and anger.

14. Elidibus, again: before travelling to Elpis, it was Elidibus who helped us get there and he said he would spend the last remaining bits of his aether to help us. What does that mean specifically? That he is gone forever now, with no chance of ever being reborn ever again? And if so, why isn't that explained in more details and why don't we see a deeper impact on the WoL?

number 11 and 14 are the only griefs i share with you.

I really would have loved to see Lahabrea and Unsondered Azem for example, still Elpis for me was the best part of EW.

And Elidibus, man i feel sorry for him after all...