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

[Kazhar]

The thing is she doesn't regret it nor does she have reason to as the ending is exactly what she wanted. She goes out on her own terms completely content, a luxury none of her victims were afforded. Acknowledging the atrocity of her actions isn't the same as feeling bad about them. She would do it all again if it'd achieve the same result.

It fits her characterization. For all the faults in the writing, I don't think they ever implied that she would have done things differently if given the chance. She believed it was a monstrous act, but the correct choice.
Personally I would have found her even less sympathetic if she had second thoughts. You don't kill your entire race for the Greater Good(tm) and then start being sorry about it a bit later.

[Rulakir]

Personally I would have found her even less sympathetic if she had second thoughts. You don't kill your entire race for the Greater Good(tm) and then start being sorry about it a bit later.

I never found her sympathetic in the first place. Her expressing even the tiniest bit of remorse would have softened my impression of her slightly. Sort of like Arthas in WoW. "Do you feel the least bit bad about anything you've done? No? Well, F you then." Basically how I felt about Hydaelyn.

[Vahlnir]

I never found her sympathetic in the first place. Her expressing even the tiniest bit of remorse would have softened my impression of her slightly. Sort of like Arthas in WoW. "Do you feel the least bit bad about anything you've done? No? Well, F you then." Basically how I felt about Hydaelyn.

Thankfully, the writers never really attempted to make Arthas anything but evil after he became the Lich King. I'm glad they didn't do much with him in Shadowlands aside from watching a fragment of his soul fade away into nothingness, because it really would have spoiled a wonderfully written villain. I realize that not everyone enjoyed that ending for him, but I was happy about it. It didn't give Blizzard a chance to ruin him like they did so many other characters. With Hydaelyn...I kinda get the impression that the FF XIV writers wanted the story to go one way initially, then somewhere in the middle decided to go off in an entirely different direction for reasons unknown.

[Theodric]

Heh. Honestly, FFXIV's writing circling the drain on some fronts simply makes me regret the state WoW found itself in. Characters such as Kael'thas, Illidan and Arthas intrigued and appealed to me much more than most of the characters present in this game. I saw the signs that WoW was heading to questionable territory right around the same time I started investing in FFXIV. At the time, it seemed to take its world building more seriously and it maintained a level of consistency that I appreciated. Now it really does seem like FFXIV is simply following the same trajectory as WoW and retconning large aspects of the story in order to prop up certain characters at the expense of others.

How interesting that both FFXIV WoW ended up having their respective stories thrown off course to downplay the atrocities of genocidal women who were then cynically framed as the real victims instead of, y'know, the people they wiped out.

I suppose we'll see what the 'new' story brings to the table as far as FFXIV is concerned. Though so far everything 'new' has simply been tugging at existing plot threads that have been dangling since the days of 1.0 and 2.0 which adds further weight to the theory that the development team wanted to wash their hands of the Ancients and the Garleans for the most part.

[DevonEllwood]

I usually enjoy media more after analyzing it.I have analyzed previous expansions and thought more about them than on the surface level and it hadn't backfired...so I did the same with Endwalker. Endwalker's problem is that it's heavily based around philosophy which is designed to invite analysis and discussion. It will inevitably be over analyzed and it's juvenile, contradictory approach will fall apart.
Players who analyzed the story are not at fault; the writers are for leaving the door wide open.

[Rulakir]

This is from 5 months ago, but some provides some information.

https://youtu.be/IqoV_EF8jAM

- Yoshi-P says Emet was always planned to be in EW even before his surge in popularity. Supposedly this is also why there's still no in or out of game merch for him.
- Elidibus was specifically left contained in the CT at the end of 5.3 to be used as time travel fuel in EW.
- Yoshi-P considers Hythlodaeus "scary" because he's irresponsible (??) and he thought returning to the star was "frightening".
- Hermes is called "humane" and "kind". Surprise is expressed that there are people who don't like him, Yoshi-P attributes this to "looking at your own self, and that's not a pleasant sight". He thinks Hermes' defaulting to Meteion's judgment of the universe gave him a proper weakness.
- Yoshi-P says that everyone, including the writers, read through feedback (but doesn't say from where) and "we have more or less decided the story right now."
- Apparently there's a lot of internal interest to keep exploring the Ancients, but Yoshi-P says a stand-alone RPG "might cause trouble" with the MMO and there's an issue of when they could ever do it. (Maybe when the team SE pilfered from FF14 returns from FF16? :P)

Once again, it's weird for Venat/Hydaelyn being such a central figure in EW she's never discussed. Both here and in the Famitsu interview they only talk about Hermes. As much as I'd love a stand-alone RPG for the Ancients, it would need to be an AU where Azem manages to find a third way forward. EW was enough torture ****/snuff film for the Ancients to last me a lifetime.

[CrownySuccubus]

- Yoshi-P considers Hythlodaeus "scary" because he's irresponsible (??) and he thought returning to the star was "frightening".
- Hermes is called "humane" and "kind". Surprise is expressed that there are people who don't like him, Yoshi-P attributes this to "looking at your own self, and that's not a pleasant sight". He thinks Hermes' defaulting to Meteion's judgment of the universe gave him a proper weakness.

[ReynTime]

I've been thinking lately about how I'd have liked Meteion more as the final boss if she actually acted more like a villain instead of the game hammering the idea she was a victim of Hermes' misguided experiment all over again in the last hours.

Anyone old enough to play this game got the message by the end of the Elpis nonsense. The endsinger we meet at the end has NOTHING to do with the threatening giggling voice we hear upon Zodiark's defeat and I wish they had went with that instead. She's boring and the game had enough scenes where we hug literally or figuratively an antagonist.

[Jagick]

I've been sitting at the Zodiark fight for around a week now, so horribly disappointed at the way everything has been handled up to this point after enjoying the absolute masterpiece (for the most part) that was Shadowbringers. I finally buckled down and read a few spoilers that I was avoiding, desperate to see if this gets any better. Being spoiled in and of itself has no bearing on what I'm about to say, but rather the actual content of what I read does.

I have lost all motivation to continue. I know I need to grind through it so I can be ready to experience whatever comes next, which is hopefully better, but Endwalker thus far and what is to come is sapping me of any enjoyment in the MSQ I generally enjoyed post ARR.