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

[Jybril]

Annoying bait post.

This is actually annoying, can you stop? Not every single person is gonna like the games story.
Stop thinking every single opinion is a troll/bait post.
I don't like EW story almost at all.
I stopped caring with Zodiark at being level 83, so I highly agree with OP.
I don't like how we were neck and neck with Garlemeld for years, only to be patched up within 2 hours of gameplay.

This game in EW suffers pacing issues, bad. Just like it did in SB. Instead of chumming everything into ONE SINGLE PATCH.
It shoulda been spread out until the VERY end. The Moon was massive disappointment. I love the bunnies as much as the next
person but it's just really odd, hanging with bunnies then turn around 3 seconds later and Zodiark who "isn't at his full powaaa"
is a boss. Inb4 they bring him back at 100% and we fight him at the end. I just hate this all wrapped up in one patch then let's
do some rando side stuff at the end. If they stopped rushing the story, it'll be tailored better.
I don't care about Herme's and his tiny goth birb waifu who turned evil because reasons.
Besides Zodiark, Garlemeld was the biggest disappointment, really wish they did more with it but alas.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

This is actually annoying, can you stop? Not every single person is gonna like the games story.
Stop thinking every single opinion is a troll/bait post.
I don't like EW story almost at all.
I stopped caring with Zodiark at being level 83, so I highly agree with OP.
I don't like how we were neck and neck with Garlemeld for years, only to be patched up within 2 hours of gameplay.

This game in EW suffers pacing issues, bad. Just like it did in SB. Instead of chumming everything into ONE SINGLE PATCH.
It shoulda been spread out until the VERY end. The Moon was massive disappointment. I love the bunnies as much as the next
person but it's just really odd, hanging with bunnies then turn around 3 seconds later and Zodiark who "isn't at his full powaaa"
is a boss. Inb4 they bring him back at 100% and we fight him at the end. I just hate this all wrapped up in one patch then let's
do some rando side stuff at the end. If they stopped rushing the story, it'll be tailored better.
I don't care about Herme's and his tiny goth birb waifu who turned evil because reasons.
Besides Zodiark, Garlemeld was the biggest disappointment, really wish they did more with it but alas.

....You had this much to say about a "This is Bait" Picture?
You took a Joke This Seriously?

[Jybril]

....You had this much to say about a "This is Bait" Picture?
You took a Joke This Seriously?

I was actually adding onto the discussion of the entire topic, I'm sure you knew that.
Only like the first two sentences were directed at her. Nice try.

You guys get extremely hostile when someone says one thing they don't like about this game and it's annoying.
What's the point of the forum if the first thing people are gonna is call you a troll for it? I'm not sure what's worse this or Reddit.
You can barely discuss on here without getting sent to the stake LOL.

The official forums is one of the few places I've seen others say they feel safe posting critical feedback and even here I see people are trying to shut down conversation. I've been PMed on Reddit by people telling me they didn't like EW and can't express themselves because they'll be downvoted into oblivion if they do. One person told me you'll get dog piled on if you say anything negative in the official discord. Frankly, if you don't want to read opinions about EW that aren't positive you have a lot of options. Let people who didn't like it discuss it.

This person has it right.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I was actually adding onto the discussion of the entire topic, I'm sure you knew that.
Only like the first two sentences were directed at her. Nice try.

You guys get extremely hostile when someone says one thing they don't like about this game and it's annoying.
What's the point of the forum if the first thing people are gonna is call you a troll for it? I'm not sure what's worse this or Reddit.
You can barely discuss on here without getting sent to the stake LOL.

I didnt shorten the Quote like I was suppose to lol.
I was just addressing the 1st half. Ah well, thats my Fail.

I wasn't even being Hostile. I just found it funny that you took a Meme/Joke image that seriously. Maybe somebody thinks its a troll thread...ok?...ignore them, and focus on the people adding to the conversation.
Nobody is taking away anybodies right or ability to Criticize the game, especially when there are in fact valid Criticisms.
Everyone is allowed to voice their opinion, Good and Bad. Just like everyone is allowed to disagree with said opinion. But for some odd reason there is this idea that "Im allowed to say whatever I want...but nobody is allowed to Disagree with me"
I think that is way more Hostile then some "This is Bait" image. Or somebody disagreeing.

[IdowhatIwant]

Not every single person is gonna like the games story. Stop thinking every single opinion is a troll/bait post.
I don't like EW story almost at all.
I stopped caring with Zodiark at being level 83, so I highly agree with OP.
I don't like how we were neck and neck with Garlemeld for years, only to be patched up within 2 hours of gameplay.

This game in EW suffers pacing issues, bad. Just like it did in SB. Instead of chumming everything into ONE SINGLE PATCH.
It shoulda been spread out until the VERY end. The Moon was massive disappointment. I love the bunnies as much as the next
person but it's just really odd, hanging with bunnies then turn around 3 seconds later and Zodiark who "isn't at his full powaaa"
is a boss. Inb4 they bring him back at 100% and we fight him at the end. I just hate this all wrapped up in one patch then let's
do some rando side stuff at the end. If they stopped rushing the story, it'll be tailored better.
I don't care about Herme's and his tiny goth birb waifu who turned evil because reasons.
Besides Zodiark, Garlemeld was the biggest disappointment, really wish they did more with it but alas.

The bold stuff I agree with. The italicized I think you are remembering the events in the incorrect order. I would have preferred to hang out with the bunnies and then fight zodiark. The way the game worked we defeated zodiark and initiated the final days. Then We were stuck learning about bunnys and the plan to get everyone off the planet, but that whole time I kept thinking I wanna see the final days lets go.

Personally I like Garlemalds plot, I think it was my favorite part of EW because the plot was so dark there. The zone itself was very bland and empty which fits the narrative of the plot as it gave it a eerie feel. Although it fits a narrative though the zone could have had more going on with it.

Over all the story has good points and bad points and does suffer from a pacing problem. I almost feel that the story was changed midway through development or through the writing. When you see the trailer vs the product they don't look at that similar. Where garlemald has this large scale war and void monsters flying around attacking airships, but we enter the game to the aftermath of that.
Thavnair feels like it was there just for an area to kill characters off that would not cause any controversy with the player base like what happened when Nanamo was killed off. It felt really off that we had an expansion that was about the apocalypse and we really did not see much apocalypse and all the characters that were previously relevant in the plot all survived. The prepatch to Stormblood an expansion based around war killed off a scion so I find it just odd.
Anima feels like it was used as fan service bait skin, as the story behind anima really fit with what anima was specially when you compare it to the magus sisters.

These are all just my opinions though.

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

I disagree. I thought it was fantastic on my alt.

It'll be even better on my Main as I'm slowly going through the content again and doing as much as I can on them to make up for my alt (old main) skipping so much stuff for just the MSQ advancement.

[Krojack]

I bet money that OP would never be satisficed with whatever the story was.

OP could write a story they liked then we could use Kairos to wipe OP's memory. OP would then hate the story even though they wrote it.

[Skivvy]

I bet money that OP would never be satisficed with whatever the story was.

OP could write a story they liked then we could use Kairos to wipe OP's memory. OP would then hate the story even though they wrote it.

Odd take, but why do you feel like that? Aren't criticisms allowed here or are we striving to become more of an echo chamber than we are?

[OhNooo]

I bet money that OP would never be satisficed with whatever the story was.

Honestly I feel like a lot of players I've seen are opposite of this to their detriment. What I mean is, I get the vibe that a lot of people will defend the story no matter which way the writers take it. They could do something completely crazy that makes no sense and you would still have people explaining why the story had to turn out that way and tell you that the reason you don't like it is because you just didn't pay attention enough or never played a jrpg before lol

[OhNooo]

Elsewhere, the game highlights that non-consensual acts, even when there is a 'good reason' are unpleasant for the target...Equally, the same can be said of the Sundering. It wasn't a consensual act. Venat's followers were the minority within the Ancient world. She admits herself that there was no kindness or justice in the act - and yet there are still some, unfortunately, seeking to pretend as if the Sundering is some big, heroic thing that was all sunshine and rainbows.

This is exactly how I see it too. In my opinion, Venat and her supporters are the same as Hermes - different sides of the same coin in that they decided to judge mankind as if they are the creator of the universe, take away their agency and consent, and decide for everyone how they would live. In Venat's case, it's actually kind of twisted for me because it's like someone giving you the choice between getting r*ped or killed. And then everyone else is like "Well yeah that was morally questionable but it's better than losing your life!" It's a gross violation of a person's autonomy and some things are worse than death in my opinion. I can't imagine it felt good to be torn apart like that, even though the writers don't get into those specifics. But if we were to go by the "stylistic" cutscene of Venat limping around, it looks like it was probably a very painful thing.

Imagine being an ancient and you just lost everyone you care about and are still grieving while trying to hold it together. Meanwhile someone you probably respect a lot is judging you and looking at you with a mix of self-righteousness and pity before basically taking on a role as the judge of the whole planet and deciding how your life will look from now on. Venat and her supporters betrayed their people and then "traded" them in like they were currency for a new group of beings who would maybe or maybe not find an answer to the sound and the only reason it all worked out is because it's an mmo and we can't die so it has to end in our favor.

Anyway, that's my opinion of the whole Venat thing. As far as the story goes for the future expansions...I'm going to be honest and say that I probably won't be invested at all in the future arcs. As several posters have mentioned, it could be better for some players not to look at the story too closely or else you might not enjoy it anymore lol so in my case this probably calls for a casual glance at the new stories but no more analyzing. A lot of it falls apart for me when I delve deeper into EW like I do with books.