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

[Kozh]

I was also completely unimpressed with everything but the spectacle moments in EW. Not just the things you mentioned, but the whole reason for the Final Days being something new and even retconing previous info we had. The defenders say "oh FF does that all the time", doesn't make it good writing or story telling.

As to your edit, don't bother arguing with the glassy eyed fanboys who attack anyone who doesn't think everything Squenix ***** out is pure gold. We both know it's pointless.

Agree on this, especially the last part. Made a mistake of doing it on reddit, and ho boy, it's not pretty. So much "you just don't understand the point" or "you're missing things, are you a skipper". The nerve of some people smh.

[HyoMinPark]

If so many people "like" and agree with op wtf y'all doing in a forum of a game you consider "meh"?

I don't understand, please enlighten me.

Because people are allowed to share their criticisms? I can say that I enjoyed the story, but I have my own criticisms of it in terms of pacing, lost potential with regards to certain story elements, and stuff inserted into the story that made very little sense/were way too jarring in terms of scene tone. I’ve played this game for over six years. I’ll offer my criticisms as I see fit. Loving a game doesn’t mean blindly proclaiming everything about it is perfection.

Also please leave the game and give your place in the queue for people who actually enjoy it.

No.

[Accolades]

If I could buy a story skip for Endwalker I probably would and maybe look at it later. No matter how a good a story is I'm just not interested.

[Theodric]

I think players who are genuinely enthusiastic about the game are going to look at it with a critical eye. They want it to improve rather than stagnate and they're more likely to identify unfortunate trends and flaws.

Then there's players who don't really think too deeply about the game and just enjoy whatever is put before them. Which is a valid approach in itself - but unfortunately seems to be prone to being accompanied by lashing out at anyone for daring to put forward even mild constructive criticism.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

If so many people "like" and agree with op wtf y'all doing in a forum of a game you consider "meh"?

I don't understand, please enlighten me.

Also please leave the game and give your place in the queue for people who actually enjoy it.

I actually don't have Endwalker and I have not done the story, I also care not for spoilers as I am legitimately only getting the expansion because of Jullus and him alone, like I did Shadowbringers with Ardbert (I am the kind of person that watches a show or movie or reads a book for one or two very specific characters and once they're gone I'm out). I know full well what happens and how meanderingly slow the expansion starts, looking at you Old Sharlyan. I know just how little the writers spend in Garlemald and Thavnair. If Thavnair didn't exist the story would have been relatively unphased as a huge majority of the expansion is spent in Elpis and that absolutely unnecessary Old Sharlyan lore dump at the start.

Endwalker is riddled with slow escort quests and stealth quests, that of which are both the two things I loathe in games, which would have ultimately tilted me into cutscene skipping, thusly I read spoilers. I am very prone to being MSQ tilted to the point of cutscene skipping thanks to ye olde ARR and Astrologian being locked behind its entirety. Shadowbringers was the first, and probably going to be the only, expansion where I actually did watch everything, had to keep a vigilant eye out for surprise Ardbert cutscenes, and even then the story was captivating at nearly all stages. Endwalker though? Yikes, gonna be like Stormblood all over again. I have my ESC key primed and ready for all parts not Elpis, Garlemald or Jullus related as I have absolutely no interest in the lore behind Sharlya or Thavnair. My interest in ascian lore has been waning for quite some time but I'm willing to give them a second chance. That part at the very end of the post credits scene with, what I assume is, bird-form Meteion flying around Mor Dhona actually did make me feel something so I'm also willing to give that shoehorned character a chance, although she's on thin ice.

[AlyaNimfa]

I started EW content last night and I have to say... so far it sucks. The story is slow and boring, there just isn't anything really happening other than more of what I just moved on from. I really, REALLY hope it gets better.. otherwise I don't know how I will manage to finish this.

[TairaSayo]

So I'm not only one. I'm trying to pass Garlemald without skipping every over scene

Let me be clear, 1st legion is more or less what I was expecting from warmongers who lost, general population also on par save slaves (as expected). Alphinaud is crybaby as usual, but I wonder why Sharlayans pass lessons on rhetoric.
But WoL herself, oh my. Who wrote chooses for her? I don't even ask for a possibility to put a sword inside legate guts (we can afford only pretense of role-play after all). But why my options are:
- be nice to him
- be extra nice to him
Why I can't warn him? Or silently look at him? Like what the point of this interaction? Same was at tower, asking villain during abduction "what does you mean, ancient masters?". If context need to be given, Echo scene can can be triggered without any input, after he finished speech.

[hobostew]

The whole of Garlemald came off as this weird NAZI apologist garbage and ultimately didn't even matter to the story. I get what they were probably aiming for (assuming it wasn't weird NAZI apologist garbage) but without going into a full Garlemald expansion that properly explores the Garleans coming to terms with the falsehoods of their foundational myths/propaganda/etc it just doesn't land. They even had Lyse whose sister was killed by the Garleans go full "boths sides amirite" because I guess they expected it to have more impact given her loss but it was just really damn weird and really off-putting.

The rest of EW was pretty standard fare JPRG so I mean it was fine I guess. On the upside reaper is really fun so there is that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Scryar]

The scene when Zenos took our body was such a letdown. Again the writers were afraid to kill off anybody which heavily cheapened the whole thing. It was also pretty ridiculous how Zenos was stopped by the Wol in the body of some level 5 paladin, who could barely kill random soldiers. It's funny how Zenos want's our attention more than anything and yet he refuses to actually do something which would give him exactly that, like killing one of our friends. Not even some B character died This whole ark was completely pointless because of the writers incapability or unwillingness to actually write a realistic story in which the stakes are not only high on the side of the "bad guys".
The scions having this ridiculous amount of plot armor cheapened the whole story for me.
The final days in the age of the ancients = worlddestroying event that leads to the planet and everybody in it being sundered
final days in our age = some random villagers die

This being said. Overall I loved the expansion and the ending of Elpis was my favorite moment in the whole story of FF XIV. The overall ending was weaker than 5.0 imo and there were some parts which unnecessarily dragged out (2nd part of the moon and labyrinthos) but I kinda got used to it. Each expansion had this filler parts and ARR is mainly filler with just a few good parts.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The whole of Garlemald came off as this weird NAZI apologist garbage and ultimately didn't even matter to the story. I get what they were probably aiming for (assuming it wasn't weird NAZI apologist garbage) but without going into a full Garlemald expansion that properly explores the Garleans coming to terms with the falsehoods of their foundational myths/propaganda/etc it just doesn't land. They even had Lyse whose sister was killed by the Garleans go full "boths sides amirite" because I guess they expected it to have more impact given her loss but it was just really damn weird and really off-putting.

The rest of EW was pretty standard fare JPRG so I mean it was fine I guess. On the upside reaper is really fun so there is that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Genuinely shocked even after all this people are still using the N word to describe the garleans, a video game race, when it ain’t even all that applicable in the first place.