Endwalker was "meh" (for reasons other than technical issues)

[Snapdragyn]

(continued)


Overall, I think it would've been stronger if they had made it into 2 xpacs, one for each half. With more time, the impacts of the major story elements in the first half could've been brought forth better.

Additionally, the stronger (to me) second half could've done even better - especially the quick string of hits right before the end as the Scions sacrifice themselves one by one. Yes, ok, that happened, no time to dwell, on to the next one? Um, no, this is BIG STUFF, how about we make each death really COUNT! Have those come a half level or even full level apart, and THEN the big end bit of bringing them all back. That would have had a lot more feeling to it I think!

(And because some people seem to think 'we have different opinions' equates to 'you didn't play the game & are therefore wrong' - hi, I've played through every bit of MSQ with zero skips, all pre-ShB sidequests except the couple of riddle ones, most of the ShB sidequests as well, & every single job & role quest of every pre-EW job up to 80 (have the 'omni-80' ShB chiev & mount reward). Haven't started on EW sidequests yet; I'll be doing those as I level up alts.)

[Ralts]

I haven't and wasn't able to finish the MSQ to the end. But all I care in an MMO is a group play, not a killer storyline. In that sense, I appreciate OP on taking the issue to the public. I had similar feeling when playing MSQs as well. This could end up much more shallower than expected with so much of 'expectable' outcomes. Well, what can I say.. I've been watching too many Anime series and spoiled too much with so called 'epic' storylines.

But then again, since it's an MMO, if there are some moments of awesomeness, then it'll be ok for me and I've already met Loprrits which is literally an endgame in terms of storyline. Also, MMO is all about group play, you can't be completely free of spoiler when you watch raid strategy videos.. which is why I'm not really weighing too much on MMO's storyline.

So, EW having medicore MSQ isn't so much of a dealbreaker for me.. but the queue......

EW msq isn't perfect, but it's certainly not mediocre. Everything from what happened 1.0 msq up to this expansion was answered and brought to an ending. It's not an easy feat to create a story this grand, while not missing any small details. Don't bash the story, when you don't even bask in the story.

[LukaRoselia]

I honestly couldn't agree more. This expansion had way too much comic relief story pausing nonsense and the major plot points that we were teased were just either touched upon for 5 minutes or entirely non existent.

Zodiark - This expansion was announced to be the end of the Hydaelyn vs Zodiark saga and as though they were both going to be massive prominent good and evil figures. Zodiark however....yeah we just kinda got to the moon not even looking for him and the watcher was like yeah mate he's over there go nuts.

Zenos - What really is there to say.. He had us kidnapped to have a meal and put our soul into a random Garlean soldier for his amusement. He showed up later just to go yo you ready to fight me yet and then just walked away like a sad puppy when we said we had bigger issues to deal with. Then he shows up to assist us only because he still wants his fight. This man was highly prominent in the trailers and was played up to be the big bad then he just...well, existed.

Gaius - I mean...no comment? I'm pretty sure he was seen in a whole 1 cutscene or 2 and never did a single thing.

Garlemald. This nation was played up so much to be the pinnacle of civilisation and technology, this grand empire controlled by one of the greatest threats to Eorzea. We finally get to go there aaaand its gone. Legit just Coerthas Western Highlands 2.0. The people there literally had the ideaology that everyone should accept Garlean rule or be conquered and acted like we were awful warmongers coming to conquer them and expecting them to live by our rules. Hypocritical nonsense at its finest. All that build up in post Stormblood for.....well, that.

We then spent the rest of the expansion being told our planet cannot be saved by some stupid moon bunny lolis we literally just met and we believed none of their words nor agreed with Sharlayan's ideologies but we just agreed to help them just because we needed their ship to chase down Meteion and they just suddenly had a change of heart because the Daddy issues arc was complete or something.

I just honestly don't know how people can say Stormblood was bad for trying to tackle multiple stories at once and has bad pacing but that this expansion is a masterpiece. Just reeks of agenda and trying to put the game on a pedestal out of some desperate urge to assert some kind of superiority complex over WoW and justification for the mass migration and ridiculous over attention the game is getting in the last 4 months.

[Raim]

Heres some actual criticism they can improve upon:
-Why was the moon arc so rushed? No sooner do we get there and were defeating Zodiark as if it was nothing. I understand he was incomplete, but there was very little buildup this expansion to the encounter.
-Why did almost none of the Scions react with any more surprise when we defeated Zodiark? All we got was Y'shtola going "Then he is defeated? The ultimate evil? Good job." Thats it I guess.
-Why did the Scions and the people outside who got word of Hydaelyn's death not react more to it? Its like the Sharlayans and Loporrits present were just "Oh that sucks that our God just died. Anyway."
-Why did we just casually teleport to the moon? How did anyone know it was safe? Why did everyone suddenly act like it was a normal occurance?
-Why did the Scions not have a scene reacting to and discussing how you literally went into the past to the early days of Elpis to speak with the Ascians? Its like everyone brushed it off with "Okay cool good we got the info we needed."
-Zenos showing up over and over going "Ready to fight yet? No? Alright dang.." and just walking away.

[LaughingBanana]

Why does everybody have issues with that easy quest? Do people not check every path?

Well, I can only answer from myself personally:

The search area is just wayy too big, and it halted the pace of the story during the time when I was really excited to see the next part of it (we're gonna go ride a starship to the bad guys' den after all!)--this quest screeched all the pacing to an absolute stop, IMO. That, and I also generally dislike the search for stuff in a circle quests in FFXIV, and this one is the MOTHER of them all, lol.

It took me quite a while running around seemingly aimlessly to find them all. I just personally found it a rather asinine way to provide additional story content, to be honest.

[TofuPenguin]

I certainly felt like the pacing was strange. Was generally ok with the escorts.
I was so excited to see Garlemald... Don't get me wrong. I loved what I received. However, I felt like it just wasn't nearly enough and was very short lived and isolated.
Loved the Elpis surprise. Was sad that also felt as short as it did. I wanted to see/do more in the ancient world. (Holding out that in the future we get to explore more of that timeline.)
Felt like the scion's sacrifice on Ultima Thule was kinda.... meh. All was going well until they were brought back almost immediately after the last of them disappeared. How convenient. Felt like they could have held off on that for stronger impact. (Not that I would miss any of them. I'm actually glad that the WoL's story is moving past them and their clutches of seemingly endless errands.)

Overall, felt like it was an exciting and fun xpac. ShB had a smoother story imo.

[FusiaRain]

I honestly couldn't agree more. This expansion had way too much comic relief story pausing nonsense and the major plot points that we were teased were just either touched upon for 5 minutes or entirely non existent.

Zodiark - This expansion was announced to be the end of the Hydaelyn vs Zodiark saga and as though they were both going to be massive prominent good and evil figures. Zodiark however....yeah we just kinda got to the moon not even looking for him and the watcher was like yeah mate he's over there go nuts.

Zenos - What really is there to say.. He had us kidnapped to have a meal and put our soul into a random Garlean soldier for his amusement. He showed up later just to go yo you ready to fight me yet and then just walked away like a sad puppy when we said we had bigger issues to deal with. Then he shows up to assist us only because he still wants his fight. This man was highly prominent in the trailers and was played up to be the big bad then he just...well, existed.

Gaius - I mean...no comment? I'm pretty sure he was seen in a whole 1 cutscene or 2 and never did a single thing.

Garlemald. This nation was played up so much to be the pinnacle of civilisation and technology, this grand empire controlled by one of the greatest threats to Eorzea. We finally get to go there aaaand its gone. Legit just Coerthas Western Highlands 2.0. The people there literally had the ideaology that everyone should accept Garlean rule or be conquered and acted like we were awful warmongers coming to conquer them and expecting them to live by our rules. Hypocritical nonsense at its finest. All that build up in post Stormblood for.....well, that.

We then spent the rest of the expansion being told our planet cannot be saved by some stupid moon bunny lolis we literally just met and we believed none of their words nor agreed with Sharlayan's ideologies but we just agreed to help them just because we needed their ship to chase down Meteion and they just suddenly had a change of heart because the Daddy issues arc was complete or something.

I just honestly don't know how people can say Stormblood was bad for trying to tackle multiple stories at once and has bad pacing but that this expansion is a masterpiece. Just reeks of agenda and trying to put the game on a pedestal out of some desperate urge to assert some kind of superiority complex over WoW and justification for the mass migration and ridiculous over attention the game is getting in the last 4 months.

Zenos didnt kidnap us not even under his command did that happen.

That was just amon trolling zenos lol

[Asuras]

Sharlayan, Thavnair, and Garlemald all crammed into one expansion is probably the reason why there are pacing complaints. However, I understand why they did it. After the success off Shadowbringers, it is obvious that Garleans, Garleans, and more Garleans was not going to cut it. Personally, I was just tired of it. Stormblood really almost did it in for me. Yet, Shadowbringers was a breath of fresh air and quite frankly surprised the heck out of me. They needed to wrap up this stale saga and put us on something new. I am quite happy Garlemald was just a ruin and not numerous cut scenes of politics, meetings, and Garleans running around here and there. Gritted my teeth through Garlemald (my least favorite zone) and was quite happy with the rest of the expansion (more so for the fact that it put the final nail in the coffin of this story arc... maybe we can get more Shadowbringers).

[YatoShishi]

Endwalker had its good points but overall I am also not its biggest fan for its story. Moon was way to rushed - it was so hyped - Trailer, even a whole music video for 10mins on the moon. For years I wanted to kick Zodiaks ass and for what? "suicide time" - I could look all past that, but the biggest downfall for me was that everything that has happened up to now- literally, the founding of the Allagan Empire, the creation of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, the sundering of Etheirys, the fall of Amaurot… literally every single important plot point in history has all been because of someone’s pet bird getting sad.

[Kozh]

which also fit kinda brilliantly for how it would be the downfall of the Ancients, they didn't exactly have heavy emotions like people normally do, like they were stifled.

This is just untrue. In ShB the writer themselves told us that the Ancients are the same as us. Able to feel happiness, sadness, anger, pain. They're capable of crying.

That's why some people disagree with the concept of dynamis being introduced in EW, because it's not a simple "the Ancients doesn't have emotions", but because they have to make a convoluted reason as to why the Ancients were unable to harness dynamis.