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:

[Elysidelphi]

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.

[Elysidelphi]

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.

[Rin_Kuroi]

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.

this is about the only thing i'll agree with. emet-selch always deserves more screen time. i know he won't get it and that's okay but he always deserves it.

[Elysidelphi]

Zenos' mother died, we learned it from The Hunt Begins. "From the beginning, Zenos was alone. His lady mother succumbed to illness shortly after bringing him into the world, and his lord father was seldom present, occupied as he was with his military campaigns and political maneuvering." Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...s_the_offical/

Anyway, I do not find EW disappointing, I like it more than ShB! I was happy every time Zenos showed up, too bad he didn't have more screentime. That final fight was amazing and I wish I could replay it. A part of me wants him back but an other part thinks he got a satisfying ending.

Other people find Zenos boring but I find his whole being heartbreaking. A force of nature whose only happiness is fighting me because he doesn't know better. He grew up alone, neglected, no one loved him, he was trained to serve the Empire. I admire him for coming back from death and obsessively pursuing that one happy moment just to die again. I think it's beautiful in a sad, twisted way!

I'm not sure if "redemption" would work for Zenos. He doesn't want to become a better person, he just wants to feel that moment of happiness again. I'm glad he decided to help me to get what he wanted and I made him happy in his final moments. But I also wish I could show him that there are many temporary happy moments in life (besides fighting). I wish I could heal his damaged soul. I wish I could go back in time, steal baby Zenos from Varis and raise him with a lot of love. Good night, sweet prince!

Wow! I feel the same about Zenos. I couldn't have said it better than you. I am so, so, SO happy to see that someone else thinks and feels the same as me about Zenos. Do you really think he died?

[Deceptus]

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.
.

The in game lore explained this.

Zodiark was weak because he was incomplete. When the source separated so did Zodiark, every rejoining makes him more whole.

[Elysidelphi]

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.