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

[RyuDragnier]

If I may, the Final Days as a whole felt really lackluster. We only saw a few zones affected by it , which for as much as it was present in marketing/hype for the game seems underwhelming.

I actually went into detail on this a few months back on another thread. The Final Days requires large amounts of despair. All the old areas had one thing in common..we helped fix a lot of their issues. The weather never changed because there wasn't enough despair to feed on, because we took care of a lot of sources a while back. Garlean invasion, issues with the local tribes, a 1000 year war, two countries subjugated by Garleans, magatama shenanigans, Omega, Shinryu, Bozja, etc etc etc. There wasn't enough fuel in those areas for the Final Days to actually manifest like it did in Thavnair or Garlemald. Hell, Sharlayan didn't even get it because the people there were already living pretty happily.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I actually went into detail on this a few months back on another thread. The Final Days requires large amounts of despair. All the old areas had one thing in common..we helped fix a lot of their issues. The weather never changed because there wasn't enough despair to feed on, because we took care of a lot of sources a while back. Garlean invasion, issues with the local tribes, a 1000 year war, two countries subjugated by Garleans, magatama shenanigans, Omega, Shinryu, Bozja, etc etc etc. There wasn't enough fuel in those areas for the Final Days to actually manifest like it did in Thavnair or Garlemald. Hell, Sharlayan didn't even get it because the people there were already living pretty happily.

Um….slavery still exists in Uldah. There’s still major racism in Gridania. The brothel problems in Doma etc. Like…this is some major headcanon being spouted lol. I think the far more likelier outcome is they just didn’t care to.Also...a single trade deal was enough to be the catalyst to the thavnair final days. If something that minor can cause it uldah and gridania alone shouldve been teeming with blasphemies.

[Xeronia]

I actually went into detail on this a few months back on another thread. The Final Days requires large amounts of despair. All the old areas had one thing in common..we helped fix a lot of their issues. The weather never changed because there wasn't enough despair to feed on, because we took care of a lot of sources a while back. Garlean invasion, issues with the local tribes, a 1000 year war, two countries subjugated by Garleans, magatama shenanigans, Omega, Shinryu, Bozja, etc etc etc. There wasn't enough fuel in those areas for the Final Days to actually manifest like it did in Thavnair or Garlemald. Hell, Sharlayan didn't even get it because the people there were already living pretty happily.

I am going to then question "Why Thavnair?" Thavnair has a whole area devoted to what I think would be the logical counter measure to being overcome by despair as per the lore, Dancers. Ranaa after finishing the story had you done Dancer actually eludes to she was doing this for people in Kugane. It is possible maybe only Troupe Falsiam knew this art but as it is never clarified...I would have at least liked to see one throw away line all the dancers weren't present to help or something.

[aveyond-dreams]

Chiming after having watched the FFXVI trailer to say: those are the kind of vibes that drew me deeper into FFXIV's world around the time the story took us to Ishgard. FFXVI looks like it'll be pretty much all I wanted besides having a party, but everything else seems to more than make up for it. Hopefully FFXIV can find it's own way back to that soon, and not spiral further down the path I've seen it heading lately.

Our hero: traditionally handsome, no strange dissonance vibes like you get from characters like G'raha where the voice isn't matching the appearance.

Our poster(girls): Shiva looks to be massively improved, and the return of romance as a plot point is refreshing to see. In this case Clive's love interest is another blond with short hair but unlike Y'shtola let's hope that her apparent cold upbringing makes for a more interesting personality besides just being a lore exposition tool.

The World: gorgeous, medieval, with a dash of Ivalician political intrigue. Perfect. Though this time the empire wears white and blue instead of red and black.

As for FFXIV...we have the scions, a world map with most nations ideologically aligned with one another and the void. Maybe. They still might ship us off to Meracydia or the New World (and leave the clouds over most of Ilsabard there to stay).

[Lucida3b]

Apologies doublepost but on mobile I cant edit. I didnt really like EW's role quests, although some were better than others (like phys ranged). They suffer from the same issue as the msq, a complete lack of believability. Oooh X is turning into a blasphemy? Haha no they're not. Pranked. Excited to see further the big boss is? Ha you wont be. The constant fakeouts in character deaths has me sceptical anything bad could happen to ANYbody on our side and I'm still yet to see that. The other thing I didnt like, aside from every mob in every quest being recycled from amaurot (same as every mob in the msq, which makes sense from a lore perspective but definately feels like a cut corner on dev time), even the end bosses were recycled. One was a recoloured archaeotania. One was a.. HoH boss. None of them were original. And then, after doing all of the quests, what's the reward? You fight a recolour of a boss from Amaurot and the Garlean story gets conveniently wrapped up and finished. Oh and you get a title that wouldnt look out of place in an ERP community. Thanks. Is it too much to ask for some new monster types, or even new types of monsters that already exist? It's not the 90s anymore. I'm not excited over fighting pallet swap enemies. As much as I agree with everybody else that EW was a contradicting mess of plotholes and fan service, the cut corners in gameplay elements annoy me almost as much as the plot does. I remember seeing the big morbol monsters in elpis and thinking "oooh that's a new mob! Nice!!" And then doing (I think) hw st mocianne arblretum and seeing the same mob there. I was like oh.... if you look for cut corners like this you will see them absolutely everywhere. So I advise against doing that for your own sake lol
.

I think the only notable non palette swap blasphemy creature is the second and third boss in vanaspati, the elephant head spider/cricket thing and the 1st beast 2 : electric boogaloo. Which is a tad disappointing as i liked how surreal they were. Like especially the second boss did feel like something from a nightmare, imagine if we got more of that!. If you really wanted to go full horror a lot of blasphemy/telephoroi's could resemble people but off in some way, proportions are wrong. Full uncanny valley but thats more from my own nightmares than anything else

[Lauront]

Chiming after having watched the FFXVI trailer to say: those are the kind of vibes that drew me deeper into FFXIV's world around the time the story took us to Ishgard. FFXVI looks like it'll be pretty much all I wanted besides having a party, but everything else seems to more than make up for it. Hopefully FFXIV can find it's own way back to that soon, and not spiral further down the path I've seen it heading lately.

Our hero: traditionally handsome, no strange dissonance vibes like you get from characters like G'raha where the voice isn't matching the appearance.

Our poster(girls): Shiva looks to be massively improved, and the return of romance as a plot point is refreshing to see. In this case Clive's love interest is another blond with short hair but unlike Y'shtola let's hope that her apparent cold upbringing makes for a more interesting personality besides just being a lore exposition tool.

The World: gorgeous, medieval, with a dash of Ivalician political intrigue. Perfect. Though this time the empire wears white and blue instead of red and black.

As for FFXIV...we have the scions, a world map with most nations ideologically aligned with one another and the void. Maybe. They still might ship us off to Meracydia or the New World (and leave the clouds over most of Ilsabard there to stay).

I have to admit, in spite of my reservations with XIV and Yoshi, it does excite me, especially with the variety of nations they've written for it, and the fact that it has some AoT vibes with how the Dominants work, coupled with the political intrigue. My hope is that, unshackled from the pressures and desires that constrain XIV (reflecting what they perceive as the fanbase's demands), they will be able to deliver a more polished and intricate experience.

[Theodric]

I like what we've seen of it so far. I just hope that if it does well then the FFXIV team will feel more comfortable being a bit bolder in regards to FFXIV's story and worldbuilding.

[Rulakir]

The thought occurred to me that the reason I've never been able to buy into the Ancients not knowing sorrow is because that is all we're ever shown of them save for a brief time in Elpis. What we consistently see throughout the game is the unsundered don't have a reprieve to the extent that as the hero of the tale we cannot or will not save them even when we're theoretically given the opportunity to do so. It's the Final Days, the sacrifices, the Sundering, the purgatory within Zodiark, the next 12k years of the unsundered toiling to restore their world and everyone they loved, etc.

One of the spirits on the moon says, "Such tragedy, yet no catharsis!" Which accurately represents how I felt about Endwalker. The Scions, by contrast, don't experience much more than the average person. Matter of fact, with the exception of Estinien and G'raha, I've lost more loved ones than any of the Scions have so it's difficult for me to take them seriously when it comes to the subjects of suffering and despair. They are clad in impenetrable plot armor and by virtue of joining themselves at the hip to the WoL have nothing but wins handed to them. Aside from a few select moments, usually involving the WoL failing to defeat a foe such as Zenos or Ran'jit, they don't even experience setbacks. The protagonists plow through all adversity with relative ease, usually one-shot the antagonist, and afterwards have no ill effects. It's laughable to me that the most PTSD the WoL has is accepting drinks from strangers.

This idyllic life the Ancients were supposed to have had we never see. As beautiful as Elpis was, it was fraught with issues. This "perfect paradise" where they knew "naught but bliss" is told to us, by Venat, in a cutscene comprised of strawmen from her POV. Yet, I'm supposed to accept this as accurate despite none of the preceding or proceeding narrative depicting the Ancients or the unsundered world as such?

I've often pondered how many writing sins Endwalker committed despite people claiming that if you didn't like it it's because you're a low intellectual who doesn't understand philosophy. I know "show don't tell" is a significant one for me that EW is riddled with from start to finish, which is particularly unacceptable given these events and the reasons for them are the foundation of the game's lore.

[AnaviAnael]

As we've said before, if the ancients were truly without strife, suffering, and sorrow then the seats of Elidibus (emissary, reconciler) and Pastharot (law and order) would not need to exist.

[Lucida3b]

Pandaemoniumn or there things like the debate on intervention in ShB makes no sense either if they knew no strife