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

[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.

[Lauront]

I was going to type a lot of negatives about the story but I feel that Emet-Selch and parts of Esteinen kind of gave me my money's worth story wise. I'll probably be one of the only ones who likes how 'simple' Zenos is as well. I also liked Venat but not Haedalyn, if that makes sense.

Nah, I ended up being satisfied with how they used Zenos. They stuck to their guns on him and I found some of his lines interesting.

[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).

[Jandor]

The technology existing is fine, despite the qualms I'll have about it's physical representation being so underwhelming. That, however, is aesthetic taste that is 100% subjective. The biggest issue that rung to me was the fact that the aether that supposedly was used to power the teleporter was completely drained just previous in the same scene in order to shatter the keys that kept Zodiark in check. Failing to break the last one with the very blatant remark that the aether had been depleted. Considering that the trek between earth and moon, regardless of technological efficiency, is certainly no small feat, I struggle to believe there was still enough for him and Zenos to be sent to it's surface. That's not even mentioning that we were sent up there as well. Whether I misunderstood the scene and mayhaps it uses the aether of the individual which would explain the WoL and Co. heading up there would justify that latter bit, but Zenos being Garlean and therefor unable to process Aether and Fandaniel stating that there was none, potentially implying the machine, himself, or both are out, made the whole thing make little sense.

Garleans have aether, they just can't manipulate it innately.

Zenos however, has been able to manipulate aether for a while, he found his innate inability to do so an annoying vulnerability in his youth and was one of the few people willing to sponsor Aulus's research into giving Garleans the ability to wield it.

Regardless though, Garleans are apparently able to teleport using external machinery just fine. It's mentioned in the Garlean base that they use what are essentially the same aetherytes that we do, they just require a machine to cast the teleport spell for them.

Further to all that, it's also established earlier in the story that it's possible to configure aetherytes to send people to other destinations, even if they lack magic and have never attuned to the destination. One of the first things we do in this expansion is chuck Thancred in to one in order to get him to Thavnair. An ascian/telephoroi/allagan/whatever teleporter achieving the same thing is not unreasonable.

Edit: and to add, it's established back in 1.0, and later reconfirmed in Stormblood IIRC, that teleporting uses anima. That particular resources relationship with aether is pretty damn vague, but the machine expending all its aether trying to blow up the ward doesn't mean its teleporting ability would cease to function, as it doesn't necessarily require much, if any, aether to work.

[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.

[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.