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

[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.

[Kuroka]

Absolutely agree on Ultima Thule and Omega. It was obvious from the outset. The same is true of the Moon and Y'shtola revealing the rabbits benefactor is the forum. Obviously the devs know we can figure it out so if there needs to be a moment of 'revelation' at least let us bring it up since we've been aching to point it out since getting to those zones.

There were multiple instances where i really felt insulted for being made this dumb...

[FoxyAreku]

I liked a lot of moments in endwalker, but it sure did have a lot of filler-was more noticeable than any other expansion for me except ARR itself. And it was also very jarring how little actual gameplay there was. Outside of the quota 5 dungeons and 2 trials, I basically never did anything but watch cutscenes. That was lame.

Good story overall but I don't understand people saying it's amazing or the best story ever told, it was just okay for me. Shadowbringers, Heavensward, and Stormblood back when they were current were more fun and resonated with me more (and they all had actual gameplay), but each their own.

[ReynTime]

I liked a lot of moments in endwalker, but it sure did have a lot of filler-was more noticeable than any other expansion for me except ARR itself. And it was also very jarring how little actual gameplay there was. Outside of the quota 5 dungeons and 2 trials, I basically never did anything but watch cutscenes. That was lame.

Good story overall but I don't understand people saying it's amazing or the best story ever told, it was just okay for me. Shadowbringers, Heavensward, and Stormblood back when they were current were more fun and resonated with me more (and they all had actual gameplay), but each their own.

That's also a very good point. Even if you exclude "filler" from it, the pacing was still very bad because even ARR broke the chain of just reading dialogue/watching cutscenes with actual combat far more often than Endwalker... On top of ARR dungeons being simply better designed, bosses aside.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

I liked a lot of moments in endwalker, but it sure did have a lot of filler-was more noticeable than any other expansion for me except ARR itself. And it was also very jarring how little actual gameplay there was. Outside of the quota 5 dungeons and 2 trials, I basically never did anything but watch cutscenes. That was lame.

Good story overall but I don't understand people saying it's amazing or the best story ever told, it was just okay for me. Shadowbringers, Heavensward, and Stormblood back when they were current were more fun and resonated with me more (and they all had actual gameplay), but each their own.

The devs could cut out all the dungeons and trials and people would say it's the best expansion they've ever played.

[RyuDragnier]

The devs could cut out all the dungeons and trials and people would say it's the best expansion they've ever played.

If you're interested in the story and lore, this is the best expansion to date. Lots of closure on events and characters, subtle nods to previous events that have happened, even multiple cases of Fridge Brilliance when you look at the story from the big perspective. Example of one case of Fridge Brilliance.

Why was there no mass amounts of Terminus or End of Days apocalypse weather in old zones besides coding reasons? Because you've already taken care of the majority of sources of despair over the course of the previous expansions. You've helped Eorzea itself massively, cured Tempering, stopped a war Ishgard had for 1000 years and helped make peace with the dragons along with rebuilding Ishgard itself, freed Ala Mhigo and helped it get back on its feet, freed Doma and given their people a future to look forward to, and that's not including all the side stuff you've canonically done before now which has helped others. So of course the few sources of despair in the regions would be small, you've already dealt with the main issues they had at every location, leaving the small loose ends storywise for the role quests (your mileage may vary on how well they did those though).

[Theodric]

If you're interested in the story and lore, this is the best expansion to date.

I think that's rather subjective. A lot of the people who are discussing and weighing in on the story have been following it enthusiastically for years. Furthermore, not every plot thread or character even goes anywhere - many have been abandoned and never mentioned again. The writers are good at making things fit retroactively for the most part, though by their own admission they don't plan everything out in advance and sometimes change the planned story outright.

It was nice to see some of the secondary characters show up again, though so much time was spent on the Scions that could have otherwise been spent elsewhere. At various points the same conversations are repeated, just with different words used.

Personally my feelings are mixed on the expansion. I really liked some parts, disliked others - which is how I felt about Stormblood. So, overall, it sits around the same point for me and doesn't quite surpass Heavensward or Shadowbringers in my eyes.

[kpxmanifesto]

The devs could cut out all the dungeons and trials and people would say it's the best expansion they've ever played.

Well yeah, fanboys will always defend the game.

[Shougun]

I thought the Garlean section was quite nice, how they behaved is exactly how a lot of people behave on many issues (some far minor). The extra touches given the situation were also interesting, like the propaganda music.

Which is one of, many, reasons why I think the story had many gray elements (unlike a post that said it was more light and dark). Bias, propaganda, pride, nationalism, whatever form of fervent emotion that decides self checks and balances are not worth doing anymore because it's impossible to see, feel, or think anything else, stuff that can take good people and make them do bad things or seem really dull when they're really not. With FFXIV often responding with redemption and opportunity to grow, or at worse a relationship of how such things became as they were and not simply "bad is bad", not speaking strictly EW. A message that has generally, but not put in this way before, said many times in this game, imo.

[SgtPepperUK]

I agree with a little of what you say, some of it for slightly different reasons:

Huge Amounts of Pointless Time Sinks - I actually am not too bothered by the things you've brought up but I do have my own gripes about travel and also split zones. I don't like the thing of having to do 6 FATEs to upgrade chocobo speed. Namely, because the chocobo speed is so slow that getting to those FATEs before they're finished, with enough time to get gold on them, is a pain. IMO it would be better to have the faster speed from the off and maybe gate an Aether Current behind the first tier of Shared FATEs instead. This was compounded by split zones, where I would start heading to a FATE to find it was locked behind an invisible wall. One split zone per expansion at most in future is something I would like to see, if they must do them at all.

Too Much Doom and Gloom - I actually think they did a great job of balancing things here. Yes, there are dark moments, bleak moments but it never descends into misery porn, which some games absolutely would have at that point. Garlemald in particular hits a couple of very dark moments but then we help reunite a family for instance. And isn't that the theme of EW, yes, there are bad times and bad things happen but also good times and good deeds? As to Zenos, I'll grant you that one. The last fight with him upset the pacing for me at that point. I would have also liked the option of simply walking away from him.

Dumb Dialogue - Whilst I felt there were a couple of cringey moments on other parts of the story, I don't think it was all that dumb. Garlemald in particular, it actually made sense. These were a proud people who were sure that a plan was in place that would see the empire rise again. Why would they accept that the "barbarians" who, in their eyes, had victimised them historically to the extent that they set forth and found Garlemald, suddenly want to help them? From their point of view, we were there to take advantage of the disaster that had struck them, trying to subjugate them again before they could regroup, spreading lies to make them think the situation was worse than it was.