Anyone else feeling disappointed by Endwalker MSQ? MAJOR MSQ SPOILERS!

[Elysidelphi]

Warning: I'll be mentioning/discussing MAJOR MSQ SPOILERS for ALL of the Endwalker expansion and quite possibly the entire MSQ! Please do not read if you want to avoid Endwalker spoilers, especially and above all MSQ spoilers!

With that out of the way...How to start this?...

I guess I'll start by saying that I'm a huge, HUGE Final Fantasy fan, especially FFXIV fan and I've been playing FFXIV since 2.0 Open Beta in 2013. I love and adore this game, particularly its story. I honestly did enjoy A Realm Reborn back in 2013 and I remember being blown away by Heavensward and then being destroyed by Shadowbringers. I even loved Stormblood, especially because we got to meet Zenos and Emet-Selch in that expansion.
Personally, I am HUGE into story and lore so FFXIV and FF in general are perfect for someone like me.

Needless to say, I waited for Endwalker excitedly and a bit nervously too. After Shadowbringers and the experiences offered in that expansion, I really really hoped Endwalker would be equal to Shadowbringers or even better. However...

I just finished Endwalker, I finished the whole MSQ and I can't help but feel quite disappointed. I honestly didn't expect to feel this way, I certainly didn't feel this way for any other FFXIV expansion. I've been trying to tell myself that maybe I just hyped it up too much and it's my fault entirely. And yeah, maybe I did hype it up more than I should have, but after Shadowbringers, it was hard not to. However, even if I did hype it up, certain things that happened or didn't happen in the MSQ do not sit well with me at all. It's painful for me to write this as I love this game and the story in general but I want to see what other people think. Maybe you could even change my mind, I would love that!

I want to say that overall, I did like Endwalker and consider it to be a good expansion and story. I loved the music, the gameplay, the new areas and their designs, the new features added to the game such as NPCs following you and talking to you giving you new lore bits, I definitely loved the dungeons and even the solo duties and the trials. The story had quite a few shocking/unexpected scenes and also many very emotional scenes which I absolutely loved even if they made me cry like a baby.

But I cannot help feeling this lingering feeling of disappointment. Like it could have been more, better. Like some characters and plot lines could have been done in a better way.

I will list a few things that happened or did not happen in the Endwalker MSQ that really let me down for various reasons:

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1. Zodiark: he was thought to be this huge threat to the entire world, the eldest and strongest primal, but yet we get to fight him and defeat him very early on in the game and it's also quite easy to do so, we don't really struggle that much. For a villain that was written to be this very ancient, very powerful and very dangerous deity, we got rid of him pretty fast and without much risk to us/others, without struggling and suffering just to defeat him. It kind of reminds me of the Night King from Game of Thrones, another villain hyped up to be ancient and powerful, who got destroyed fast and easily. It feels like wasted potential.

2. Anima: I was really disappointed when I found Anima in a dungeon, I expected to find it in a trial and 100% thought that it was deserving of a trial and its own epic music.

3. Zenos's mother: we don't learn anything about her. Is she alive? Dead? Who is/was she? What happened to her? What was her relationship with Zenos like? What was her relationship with Varis like? Etc.

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4. Zenos himself: at first it seemed that he would receive a more in-depth characterisation, and it also seemed that he would go on a sort of redemption journey, which got me excited for all the possibilities (I believe in second chances even for villains and I believe that it's harder to live and make up for your evil deeds than it is to be killed/executed/locked up); however, at the end, that redemption journey is...gone? vague? partial? I don't know. And I also don't know what happened to Zenos. Did he die (what about his Resonant, can he really die so easily? what about Emet-Selch's secret related to Zenos?) Did he live? Did he go back to our world/planet or did he go somewhere else? So many unanswered questions about Zenos. I strongly feel that Zenos deserved more screen time than he got. A lot more. Especially if they wanted to stick with a redemption journey. I feel that Zenos appeared rather sporadically throughout the story and without much development/insight into his mind/soul. Again, wasted potential, in my opinion.

5. Amaurot: quite disappointed we didn't get to see either the real Amaurot from the past or the ruins of the real Amaurot in the present. Instead we got Elpis. Elpis was great, but I would have preferred Amaurot or even both Amaurot and Elpis.

6. The Final Days + The Sound: I certainly didn't expect the way they explained it so the shock factor was there and was enjoyable but it felt a bit...underwhelming. Meteion being the cause of the Final Days just feels...off to me. However, I still think that Meteion's story was very interesting and presented fascinating moral dilemmas so I'm not saying it shouldn't be there at all. I think it should still be there as it is, but maybe not linked to the Final Days or maybe not being the sole/main cause of the Final Days.

7. Emet-Selch: he was great and I loved him, I adored the dungeon with him, and now I'm kinda hoping that he'll become a Trust NPC at some point. However, again, it felt a bit...off. Like he needed more screen time, more development, more interactions with the WoL. More.

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8. Hythlodaeus: really loved him overall but he ended up feeling contradictory to me. When we go to Elpis and spend time with him, he clearly says he wants to be with Emet-Selch and Azem, help them, be by their side, and he'd only want to die together with them, which I thought was very sweet and brought tears to my eyes. But later on, when Hythlodaeus appears again, this time having his memories intact and clearly knowing that the WoL is that particular Azem that he was talking about earlier, this time he is content to say that he prays that we will meet again if not in this lifetime then in another lifetime and simply walks away with Emet-Selch (yes, I know, both of them being dead/in the Underworld). But they are also Ancients, with powerful magic, and they know that Azem's journey continues, that Azem's duty is not over, and Hythlodaeus previously promised that he would not rest or die as long as his friends (Emet-Selch and Azem) didn't fulfill their duties. So to see Hythlodaeus just walk away so easily after remembering everything, he's not even saying that he will attempt to be reborn or something, he just very serenely walks away. It just felt off to me after everything he had said previously. I also feel that given that both Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus were close to Azem/the WoL and clearly deeply cared about Azem, they would have wanted to find a way to help Azem a lot more, to be by Azem's side, essentially to leave the Underworld and return to Azem's side; since Emet-Selch is Hades, Lord of the Underworld, he may have the ability to do this; furthermore, Emet-Selch knows how it feels to bear the burden of memories and countless lives while trying to always save the day/the world, which is something that Azem now deals with so knowing this and caring so much about Azem, I am surprised Emet-Selch doesn't want to find a way to return and help Azem, help share the burden; I know Emet-Selch says he cares about the past and Azem cares about the current world which puts them at odds, but Emet-Selch could change his mind, he could put his friendship with Azem and his affection for Azem above that personal conviction and we know he could do this because Hythlodaeus tells us and proves to us that Emet-Selch can be persuaded to change his mind; so maybe Azem could try to change his mind or even Hythlodaeus himself could do it; my point is that they walk away way too easily given their history with Azem and their deep affection and bond with Azem.

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9. Fandaniel/Amon/Hermes: I absolutely loved getting a lot more details on Fandaniel and I adored his love and care for all of creation. But I still felt that it was a bit rushed, that certain things could have been explored more. For example, Meteion admits to the WoL that she feels a weird feeling of affection for the WoL; and we know that a lot of her feelings are actually Fandaniel's feelings. Also, when we do fight Fandaniel in the dungeon as he's protecting Meteion, he himself admits that he has affection/cares a lot about the WoL. Yet in that storyline, we've only known Fandaniel for a few days at most, yet he already cares deeply about us. Why? Does he recognise us as Azem? Was he friends with Azem and can he feel that we are Azem? All of that is left unexplored, unanswered.
His Amon life also felt kind of rushed, again more details about his life as Amon would have helped a lot, especially if they were described by himself with his own words.

10. Elidibus + Lahabrea: we didn't get to see their faces the way we did with Emet-Selch and Fandaniel, and we also didn't get to learn their true names; given how important they both are in the majority of the MSQ, when we travelled in the past I had hoped we get to meet them as well.

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11. The rest of the Convocation: I would have loved to meet them, or see them, or have scenes with them, with their real names, their faces, interactions between them and interactions with others, etc. Really sad we didn't get this chance.

12. Us/WoL/current Azem: I get that since we travelled to the past it would have been weird to see our form as the Ancient Azem; but it would have been nice to learn more about us as Azem, like why did we join the Convocation, why us specifically? It would have been interesting to have Venat tell us more about her friendship with the current Azem. I am still unclear as to why Venat stepped down as Azem.

13. Death in Elpis/the Unsundered World: in Shadowbringers, the way Emet-Selch talked about his old world, he basically either said or implied that in the unsundered times, they were immortal. That mortality now exists because the world is sundered. However when we travel to Elpis, we learn that the Ancients can die, they can choose when to die even. I would have liked more details about this. It left me with many questions, particularly because it related to Fandaniel's pain and anger.

14. Elidibus, again: before travelling to Elpis, it was Elidibus who helped us get there and he said he would spend the last remaining bits of his aether to help us. What does that mean specifically? That he is gone forever now, with no chance of ever being reborn ever again? And if so, why isn't that explained in more details and why don't we see a deeper impact on the WoL?

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15. Venat and her plan and her promise: this one is huge for me. Basically after spending some days in Elpis with Venat, Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus and Fandaniel, after Meteion goes rogue, Fandaniel erases his own memories and the memories of Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus, the memories of the last few days; and only the WoL and Venat manage to escape this; Venat promises the WoL that she will remember everything and use all the information to prevent the Final Days. Yet she fails. Why does she fail? How does she fail? What exactly did she even do to even start to attempt to stop the Final Days? Did she have a solid plan? How soon after the WoL leaves Elpis do the Final Days happen? How much time does Venat have to prepare? Why would she not tell the truth to Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus and ask them to not tell Fandaniel? If Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus refused to believe her, she did say that the surrounding aether retains memories of events, so she could have used that to prove to Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus that what happened was real. Emet-Selch is considered the greatest and most powerful mage of his time, why would Venat not want to have him on her side, especially with the Final Days looming over their world? Again, many unexplored/unanswered questions and I'm very VERY afraid we will never get actual in-game answers to them.

[Elysidelphi]

16. Venat as Hydaelyn: in Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch tells us that Hydaelyn was summoned specifically to keep Zodiark in check, out of fear, out of a desire to control Zodiark. He does not say that Hydaelyn was summoned out of pure love for the star. However, in Endwalker, Venat as Venat and Venat as Hydaelyn both go on and on about her love for the star, even the Loporitts go on and on about it. It feels...off. It feels like a last attempt at making Venat/Hydaelyn seem kinder than she really is.

17. Fordola didn't even appear at all, Gaius barely said anything at all, no mention of Unulkal'hai and Cylva

[Failia]

I didn't read any of this, because I don't want spoilers, but you would be better off posting this in the Lore section where people looking to inquire about lore than in the General Discussion where everyone and there mother will be looking...

[Elysidelphi]

Those are the main things that stood out to me and really let me down and I really wish it wasn't so. I think that in many cases a lot of time was spent on minor scenes and minor characters, while more important characters and scenes were very rushed. For an expansion that wanted to come full circle, I just feel left with so many different questions.

I will also confess to something: for me personally, the stories and lore surrounding the Ascians (particularly the 3 Unsundered Ascians, but also all of the other Ascians and their activities throughout the millennia in the Sundered World and its reflections), the Ancients, the Convocation of Fourteen, the Unsundered World, Creation Magic, societies in the Unsundered World, etc., are all extremely interesting and I strongly feel that they haven't been answered properly/fully or to a satisfying degree. I get the feeling that the game wants to move away from these particular stories, which would be heartbreaking to me as I would be left with so many unanswered questions.

So I'm wondering, does anyone else feel disappointed by Endwalker, especially story and lore-wise? In terms of story and lore, what would you have liked to see more of? What would you have liked to see explored more in depth? Are you left with any questions story-wise?