[NO SPOILERS] How would you rate all the aspects of Endwalker so far?

[MoofiaBossVal]

Story - 5/10

Mixed bag. Has some highs like certain parts of Garlemald, and the 5th zone, but there is too much filler and there is a lot of bad writing and unsatisfactory plot points. Tied with HW as the worst expansion MSQ in terms of plot.

Job Changes - Summoner is more fun to play now but it sucks that your Carbuncle doesn't do anything.

Dungeons - good spectacle on your first time through, but like the rest of FFXIV's dungeons added after ARR, they're not very fun on repeat. No depth or challenge.

Quests - the sidequests continue to suck as usual. Only good sidequests is that blue questline with the au ra girl at the first town in Thavnair.

Haven't touched the new jobs yet.

Art - is okay. The highlights are the boss battles. The new Summoner and Samurai abilities look good. Otherwise, FFXIV still suffers from the same problem going for a higher fidelity look than WoW, which requires more effort to look good, but FFXIV doesn't commit so it looks overall poorer.

Music - okay. I've added a dozen tracks to my favorite's playlist. This expansion has far too many insert pop songs. They're starting to become generic and forgettable, much like how Utawarerumono has dozens of insert pop songs but you don't remember any of them.

[Darthgummibear]

Also spoiler, Tataru is not killed off so I have to deal with her annoyance still. Yoshi P Please end her.

If they kill Tataru I'll riot.

[lezard21]

The Story
The Job Changes
The Dungeons
The Quests
The New Jobs
The Art
The Music

Story: 3/10. FF has always had some anime vibes to it and XIV was not the exception with each expansion getting progressively more anime (like defeating Emmet Selch with your NAKAMA shooting him with a beam of friendship), but Endwalker hit an all time high straight into cringe territory. The anime tropes and cliches are over the roof which takes away any potential surprise from the story since you've probably already seen it a thousand times before, even within this very same franchise. Previous expansions at least could be serious when the situation merit it, but Endwalker decides to go for anime levity right in the middle of an apocaliptic existence ending event. "Oh ho ho the End of Days are upon us" x 1000 repeat, but let's have a tea party break so good boy G'raha can haz cheeseburger. C R I N G E, I tell you.

Job Changes: 3/10. 1 point for making Monk fun, and then 1 point each for not changing SCH or DRK much. All other changes stripped the complexity out of the jobs, SMN being the worst out of them all. I wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in bots in dungeons since even bots can do a proper rotation now.

The Dungeons: 2/10. Nice visually, but the straight line into trash mob-trash mob-wall-trash mob-trash mob-boss-trash mobs-trash mobs-wall-trash mob-trash mob-boss dungeon structure should have long been discarded.

The Quests: 2/10. It's mind blowing how for 4 expansions they completely stayed away from the bane of MMORPGs, the escort quests, and in what' supposed to be the most biggest most hypest expansion of them all to climax the entire story you can't go 2 quests without some form of escort quest. Maybe because of Covid disrupting the flow of work, or Yoshi-P being abducted to work in XVI they didn't have much time to design something better? Who knows. The one point they get is for the only legitimately good quest "In From the Cold", but it will probably get nerfed to the ground and we won't be seeing quests like that ever again because casual players can't faceroll through it.

Art: 6/10, the last area and dungeons look really nice, but the first areas, the moon, and the trials all look really bland. ShB offered a more interesting visual experience from start to finish.

Music: 10/10 soken carry hard.

So overall: 4/10, lowered to a 3/10 due to the disastrous yet unresolved queue experience. I knew Endwalker couldn't possibly live up to it's hype, but boy was I surprised at how much it dropped the ball.

[Thaciscokidd]

Story: 7.25/10. Its weird. I think I had my expectation a little too high coming off of ShB. Some spots hit right on and others I wish had a little more time to lay some groundwork before the payoff.

Job Changes: 8/10 Classes are fun, a little more simpler but I want to see what balance fixes they do in 6.05 and 6.1

Dungeons: 8/10. All are enjoyable and theme wise did great but suffers from FF XIII hallway disease.

Quests: 7/10. MSQ could use a little bit more action. The new stealth and escort an NPC quests can be built on for the future.

New Jobs: 8/10 Reaper is fun and Sage is just as fun from what I have played.

Art: 9/10. Spot on as always, No real complaint.

Music: 8/10 Good, Certain spot on the moon put a tear down my face with its regular theme and battle theme, but there wasn't a straight banger like "A long Fall" or something I could just vibe to like Civilizations.

[Rokke]

The Story: 8.5/10. Some parts sagged a little but the parts that shone were amazing. As someone who's been playing for a while now, it was a nice sendoff, and I was surprised how often I got choked up. Prior to this the only parts in XIV that really got me were the Seto scenes. After the first couple hours of EW I got myself a tissue box and bin. Discord vc where someone mutes for a cutscene and then comes back sniffing and congested was funny.

The Job Changes: 8/10. So far I have SMN and DNC at 90. New SMN is great, love how fast the new cycle is. DNC is now buttery smooth, the QoL of letting you use both single target and aoe "steps" is amazing.

The Dungeons: 8/10. I think this is the first xpac where I like all of the story dungeons. lv 87 dungeon stole the show with its trusts, but the last boss of the first dungeon gets a shoutout for being super fun as heals/caster. I hit lv 90 much earlier than I should have spamming dungeons for glams lol

The Quests: 5/10 for general quests, waaaay too many follow/stealth quests. They're fun when used properly but they were just way too frequent. 7/10 for role quests. They've got some nice lore for the older cities but theres nothing particularly note worthy yet.

The New Jobs: 8/10. Reaper has been pretty fun so far. My sage isn't very far along but my FC mates are having a blast with it.

The Art: 9/10. 5th zone and Radz are my highlights. Absolutely gorgeous zones that make for great screenshots.

The Music: 10/10. Radz-at-Han is my new favorite city in the game, the music is sosososo good. When Im in a mid to long queue I like to port over and just enjoy the theme.

[Disgustipated86]

Solid 10's all around I think.
It actually managed to top ShB which I thought was pretty damn amazing.

[Izar_Chillen]

Story , great and well VA'd in the parts that had them . They touched on difficult subjects which is nice to see . Its war after all . They had some nice moments for certain characters that had lingering pains of the past , which was hard not to choke up on with that EW themed piano music playing in the background .

Length : I was expecting longer after what Yoshi had said about the length in months leading up to launch.


Dungeons are thematically very pleasing to the eye , and the bosses are fun, fast and interesting.


Music : wow , just , well god daym!


Maps: Most are lovely , but the second area we go to has very weird colours and I found it displeasing , purple walls/sand against orange . very jarring.


Quest designs , good the major moment weren't those simple go to purple circle kill spawned enemies. A major map end story was very impactful and the emotional state it puts you in is well designed and tells the story well , despite it triggering some folk to make a , currently 33 page , whinge about it.


The ARR- EW arc - I think it should have been longer , perhaps in hindsight SB should have not been about Doma and more about Garlemald and the Ascians so come EW more about the past affecting the present could have been fleshed out.

[Moerser]

The Story 10 I loved ARR, hated HW, liked SB and also SHB. I feel its a nice end for the story, tough it feels like EW could have been longer. Best story ive ever seen in any mmorpg, i also loved all the cutscenes.

The Job Changes ?? So far i liked it, but didnt try everything.

The Dungeons 10 cause it feels/looks very nice. I loved the war feelin and that there are losses, bitter moments.

The Quests 10 I play sidequests, so im pleased. And i loved the new NPC-walkaround stuff.

The New Jobs 8 Since i didnt rly need some Reaper but i wont complain. The healer is nice even tough i dont need to be a damage healer. Yeah not bad, ppl enjoy it so what.

The Art 8 I rly like it.

The Music 10.

Greetz,
Mörser out

[SamsaraTrickstar]

Nice topic and format.it can help SE see what people think in a more nice way.

The Story (based on where you are in it): 6/10. Some nice parts but just don't logicly work.
The Job Changes: 5/5. ok for the most parts. I main DRK so not much change (and it's good).
The Dungeons: 7/10. Not bad. Started strong and then got to the standards.
The Quests: 4/10. As bad as ever,to much fatch and filler.
The New Jobs: 9/19. Really well made. Reaper is the most fun dps to me.
The Art: 8/10. Well made.
The Music: 5/10. Nothing interesting and way to much reused things.
New gear sets: 3/10. They really dropped the ball in this one.

[Powercow]

Story - 8/10, for now. We'll see if certain elements get fleshed out later, and to what extent. Hit a lot of the right notes and many of the issues people regularly complain about do make sense, though not all of them. Oh, and the space bunnies are fantastic and I will die on that hill.
Job changes - 9/10. I feel like I'm on crazy pills for actually kinda liking Monk. Shadowbringers monk was one of the most bafflingly-poorly designed jobs/classes I'd ever played in any MMO, and while the new monk isn't perfect it's a damn sight more interesting at least.
Dungeons - 8/10. Pretty basic and formulaic, but that's all I expect from FFXIV dungeons at this point. And for what they are -- setpieces to show off cool visuals and boss fights while leveling -- they're pretty fun. Zot and Babil feel kinda samey, but the ones after all feel and look distinct.
Quests - 6/10. While some are great (In from the Cold), most are fairly basic quests we've done a million times... minus the stalking quests and escort quests. The escorts I don't mind, actually, I rather enjoy the optional dialogue you can get from them, but I'm also one of those weirdos who talks to the NPCs in between quest turn-ins. The stalking quests are boring though. Not only are they almost entirely non-interactive, in some ways they felt ANTI-interactive. Like, I couldn't risk even just pulling random mobs to kill them to pass the time, as the one time I did that I somehow got spotted behind a rock. So not only do I not get to actually do anything during the quest, I'm actively punished for trying to entertain myself. Big mis-step there.
The new jobs - NA/10. Haven't played them. They look cool though. Sage has one really annoying sound effect that feels like it'd get on my nerves after a while, but aside from that, not bad.
The art - 9/10. Another one where I feel like I'm the crazy one for *NOT* liking Elpis (aesthetically, lore-wise it was freaking amazing.) Everywhere else was great.
The Music - 8/10. Good, but honestly I don't see myself listening to many of the zone or boss themes out of game like I did with so much of the other music in FFXIV. Ravana's theme? Dragonsong? Shinryu's theme? Hades? Amaurot? Amaurot (the dungeon)? All absolute bangers. In Endwalker? The trial themes are okay, I suppose. The mid-boss dungeon music is nice. The final zone is alright, but pales compared to Amaurot.