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

[KageTokage]

I still remember the initial story blurb for Shadowbringers claiming we'd "take the fight to the Garlean Empire" for...some reason. I guess maybe at that part of the writing process they were still intending for them to have a significant role to play...or they may have simply been trying to mislead us as we were still in 4.4 when the announcement happened.

The Shadowbringers trailer was also odd because some of the events depicted did actually happen off-screen before we arrived at the First and are referenced in-game, whereas Endwalker's was comparatively rather misleading and implied the Final Days were going to be way worse then they actually ended up being in practice.

[AwesomeJr44]

EW would have handled hope well enough if there was actual despair to be felt. The hope, and the message of hope, was there and pretty solid. There just wasn't any real despair to counter it. I know I never felt it even for a second. So yeah, it rang pretty hollow and fell flat on its face.

^ Partially this. The only people group on our planet who had to face actual real despair got told to suck it up and just die cause they wanted to try and mitigate their suffering instead of reveling in it. When our 'heroes' talk about hope overcoming despair, I have to ask, what despair? Although I do think that the message of hope that the expansion had did need some work, it would have been far better if there was actual despair to overcome with said hope.

[KageTokage]

When I think about it, hope prevailing over despair is an ever-present theme throughout XIV's story, yet despite Endwalker being the one that tried to push it to the forefront, it didn't actually get that much attention.

The Final Days were horrifying and all, but they were fleeting compared to things like the senseless millenia-long Dragonsong War, the decades-long Garlean occupation of Gyr Abania and Doma, and the century-long plague of light on the First. We met people who were despondent and couldn't imagine change after suffering and fear had become like a fact of life to them, but we kindled the spark of hope in their hearts and we built up those who still hung onto it against the odds. The entire focus of those expansions was trying to break the status quo and create a better future for their respective regions.

I still feel like they really needed to put more emphasis on the whole "end of world" thing instead of it just being a footnote that was mostly addressed in a half-zone via a culling of the beasts and some pep talks. I was expecting something truly catastrophic like the entire world having to deal with similar conditions to Thavnair. Imagine if instead of having a beast outbreak in the remote snowfields of the Magna Glacies, all of Eorzea was being affected instead with the Scions having divide their efforts among the city states. Having those unnatural burning skies over places we'd long since grown familiar with would've been much more distressing then those we'd only recently grown acquainted with.

But alas, perhaps I am simply "thinking too hard" about the story.

[Tsiron]

No yeah I definitely agree with you. I think replacing the sky box everywhere is the least they could've done, even if it risks feeling like a retread of ShB with its highly specific sky box. The Final Days were underwhelming as hell...

[Raoabolic]

No yeah I definitely agree with you. I think replacing the sky box everywhere is the least they could've done, even if it risks feeling like a retread of ShB with its highly specific sky box. The Final Days were underwhelming as hell...

It IS pretty sad when Deathwing flying around having a good time blowing up the newbies from zone to zone from WoW's Cata xpac felt more like the world was burning than the most of EW. :/

[LianaThorne]

When I think about it, hope prevailing over despair is an ever-present theme throughout XIV's story, yet despite Endwalker being the one that tried to push it to the forefront, it didn't actually get that much attention.

The Final Days were horrifying and all, but they were fleeting compared to things like the senseless millenia-long Dragonsong War, the decades-long Garlean occupation of Gyr Abania and Doma, and the century-long plague of light on the First. We met people who were despondent and couldn't imagine change after suffering and fear had become like a fact of life to them, but we kindled the spark of hope in their hearts and we built up those who still hung onto it against the odds. The entire focus of those expansions was trying to break the status quo and create a better future for their respective regions.

I still feel like they really needed to put more emphasis on the whole "end of world" thing instead of it just being a footnote that was mostly addressed in a half-zone via a culling of the beasts and some pep talks. I was expecting something truly catastrophic like the entire world having to deal with similar conditions to Thavnair. Imagine if instead of having a beast outbreak in the remote snowfields of the Magna Glacies, all of Eorzea was being affected instead with the Scions having divide their efforts among the city states. Having those unnatural burning skies over places we'd long since grown familiar with would've been much more distressing then those we'd only recently grown acquainted with.

But alas, perhaps I am simply "thinking too hard" about the story.

Really wish the sky did burn everywhere, was kinda sad they limited it.

[Midareyukki]

"It's the end of the world! But only locally. What do you mean the Warrior of Light saw the sky be affected globally twice in another world? Do we look like we're called Norvrandt?"

[BRVV]

Only the garleans and the people of Thavnair are really affected? NO! The whole WORLD is affected! Source: trust me dude

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

I've finally bit the bullet and picked up WoW. Played it for 3 days so far, and barely have a handle on the massive amounts of lore going on with it - yet its stories have made me feel more in 3 days than Endwalker has since release.

Absolutely appalling how lackluster and unsatisfying this expansion has been; the 10 year capstone to a story, done so dirty like this.

[AmpelioB]

When I think about it, hope prevailing over despair is an ever-present theme throughout XIV's story, yet despite Endwalker being the one that tried to push it to the forefront, it didn't actually get that much attention.

The Final Days were horrifying and all, but they were fleeting compared to things like the senseless millenia-long Dragonsong War, the decades-long Garlean occupation of Gyr Abania and Doma, and the century-long plague of light on the First. We met people who were despondent and couldn't imagine change after suffering and fear had become like a fact of life to them, but we kindled the spark of hope in their hearts and we built up those who still hung onto it against the odds. The entire focus of those expansions was trying to break the status quo and create a better future for their respective regions.

I still feel like they really needed to put more emphasis on the whole "end of world" thing instead of it just being a footnote that was mostly addressed in a half-zone via a culling of the beasts and some pep talks. I was expecting something truly catastrophic like the entire world having to deal with similar conditions to Thavnair. Imagine if instead of having a beast outbreak in the remote snowfields of the Magna Glacies, all of Eorzea was being affected instead with the Scions having divide their efforts among the city states. Having those unnatural burning skies over places we'd long since grown familiar with would've been much more distressing then those we'd only recently grown acquainted with.

But alas, perhaps I am simply "thinking too hard" about the story.

They could really have hamped up the whole world in the Role Quests instead of just "oh some Blasphemies are been sighting" to "we saw a blasphemy" at 85 and quickly scalonated to the final days until 89 and then the aftermatch with Old Sharlayan being the only exception with the protection of Hydaelyn.