What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[EaraGrace]

It's impressive how they manage to actually make me hate venat in an expansion that supposed to explain her reasoning. I'd rather she sunder because she opposed the third sacrifice, rather than "oh my, the future sounds beautiful. This guy from the future is my ideal vision of what mankind should be. Brb gotta introduce despair to my (previous) people".

At least it's funny to see how venat's stan is so desperate trying to defend her though, lol.

I never want to hear you complain about anyone being bad faith again, Kozh.

[Caurcas]

We all should've just ate burgers. It would have been a better plot.

[Simple_Barghest]

All I gotta say is. I started playing towards the beginning of Shadowbringers, and all I would hear from both my own friends playing this game and from a massive fucking HOST of other players?
"Hydaelyn is 100% going to be the final boss that's how FF always works."
"She's evil, calling it now."
"Look man Emet-Selch STANS always know."

I was basically the one in my group who kept suggesting that maybe Hydaelyn was legitimately trying to be good, but the writing quality of ARR and Heavensward prevented this. Multiple times, it seemed like she should've had relevance in more of ARR -> HW and patch content that didn't revolve around Minfilia being sacc'd -> SB -> ShB, but was never allowed by the writers to actually DO anything.
We get to Endwalker where we finally get to see Venat and Hydaelyn, and it's more piss-poor writing coupled with a veneer of Big-Good over a picture of "Holy shit how can this person be anything but an antagonist in any other Final Fantasy game."

So I tell my friends.
And now I tell you people.

Congratulations. You got a villainous Hydaelyn.
You got your Mommy Crystal Genocidaelyn. Your big evil angelic mommy milker crystal of sundering.

Was it worth it?


Edit:
And also, friendly reminder that the Live Letter Q&A outright stated that trailers are made before any plot is established.
So yknow.
The story was never going to make any fucking sense following that logic.

[Teraq]

Congratulations. You got a villainous Hydaelyn.
You got your Mommy Crystal Genocidaelyn. Your big evil angelic mommy milker crystal of sundering.

Was it worth it?

It might have been if they had actually committed to it, instead of... what we got. I wanted to kick her face in for what she's done, but instead all I got was a friendly little test of my might while I was left to ponder this convoluted and unsatisfying plot as Y'shtola patted her on the back because Dynamis. At least I didn't have to suffer the day 3 DPS queue because it was trust compatible!

I can enjoy villains that are awful people as long as they are fun and entertaining, but there was no fun or entertainment, merely preaching about 'ummm sweaty, this was all for the best, deal with it'.

Along with everyone treating her like a hero, this was her other biggest crime as far as I'm concerned tbh. I could take pre-ShB Emet, Butler Fandaniel clowning around and Nabriales stroking Minfilia's face like a Saturday morning cartoon villain – I'd say I'm pretty easy to please – but even if we consider her something of a villain I just find her boring at it. Come on sis, FLAUNT IT!

[Lauront]

Along with everyone treating her like a hero, this was her other biggest crime as far as I'm concerned tbh. I could take pre-ShB Emet, Butler Fandaniel clowning around and Nabriales stroking Minfilia's face like a Saturday morning cartoon villain – I'd say I'm pretty easy to please – but even if we consider her something of a villain I just find her boring at it. Come on sis, FLAUNT IT!

The one thing she did which amused me was the similarities between Minfilia and Argos. That's quite the bold statement to make.

[Caurcas]

From an in universe point of view one could understand backing Venat, considering her action led to the existence of them and theirs. Although, once again she is a victim of the writers who thought meteion was a good idea.

[KageTokage]

From an in universe point of view one could understand backing Venat, considering her action led to the existence of them and theirs. Although, once again she is a victim of the writers who thought meteion was a good idea.

I think the actual problem was them trying to incorporate time travel/causal loops into the main story arc. Venat having foreknowledge of everything that was to come just frames her actions in an even worse manner; even if it was necessary to preserve the future.

I was perfectly okay with the Meteion twist because I had long suspected that a "perfect" race like the Ancients most likely engineered their own demise somehow and I felt more gratified then anything else by the time the whole truth of things came to light.

[RoroCookies]

Seeing the QnA and reading everyone else responses only makes Venat seem even more questionable than before.
It’s like she’s been waiting for an chance to force people to her ideals and her ideals only. She just needed an excuse and the power to finally do it without direct consent of the rest of the world. No wonder she was so adamant about becoming Hydalyn’s heart.

[Caurcas]

It's honestly to the point where I can't blame any of the characters for any of their actions.
They don't have any agency beyond what the sub-par writing team gives them, and sometimes this leads to actions that completely run counter to any of their previous characterization or development.
It's also resulted in legitimately not being able to care about this game's world anymore, unfortunately.

It's not just this arc. Prior to ShB some of the most interesting characters and arcs were around Garlemald. Gaius, Regula, Noah, even Varis are/were interesting, especially as we got closer to going to Garlemald proper. Instead all those years of development and waiting, and we got a single zone (cool and atmospheric mind you) whose story is just a footnote in the plot. Same for conflicts setup in Doma and Ala Mhigo. MSQ tier setups relegated to barely there side stories.