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

[Lauront]

Yeah, that and their laws on creation magic, rigorous testing of living concepts, Emet's mention of Kairos being dangerous and that its existence might aggro Pashtarot... all make sense when you consider pretty much any one of them could come up with a creation that might wind up wiping out entire planets throughout the cosmos. The fact they seemed to be living in peace in spite of what they could do to each other is a real testimony to how good (or reasonably acting like it) they were tbh.

That's why they're so remarkable for such beings, IMO - they went above and beyond what you'd expect to ensure their powers were channelled into positive uses.

[Rulakir]

Also I guess I can assume this is Azem's mask?

I know it won't be, but I still like the idea that it is. However, I have to admit I didn't think about dual masks for Gemini like Lauront mentioned. Emet's so sentimental I can easily see him not only fashioning his mask after Azem's (at least I think Emet joined the Convocation after Azem?), but also featuring Azem's mask prominently on his armor.

I've largely given up on FFXIV social media so I wouldn't know, but I kind of hope you are right. Back in December I really felt like we were a tiny minority. ( @ the poster who saw fit to remind people of this by posting Metacritic scores and the like. Like... we know, it's why it feels so isolating)

It's amusing how much that Metacritic score is posted. Someone said it's based on the reviews of 1200 players? That's nothing. I'm not familiar with the site, so people posting it in the first place didn't mean anything to me.

Reddit still seems to be a lost cause, but I've found it interesting in an expansion ranking thread in the Lore forum no one has listed EW as first and only one person has it as their second favorite.

[Lauront]

I know it won't be, but I still like the idea that it is. However, I have to admit I didn't think about dual masks for Gemini like Lauront mentioned. Emet's so sentimental I can easily see him not only fashioning his mask after Azem's (at least I think Emet joined the Convocation after Azem?), but also featuring Azem's mask prominently on his armor.



It's amusing how much that Metacritic score is posted. Someone said it's based on the reviews of 1200 players? That's nothing. I'm not familiar with the site, so people posting it in the first place didn't mean anything to me.

Reddit still seems to be a lost cause, but I've found it interesting in an expansion ranking thread in the Lore forum no one has listed EW as first and only one person has it as their second favorite.

There's also the Steam reviews. They're more binary than Metacritic, because it's "positive" or "negative", but even Metacritic seems to get a lot of straight 10s and 0s, so I am not sure there's much of a difference in practice and I'm not sure how many precautions it takes against review bombing etc. On Steam, SHB garnered an 87% positive reviews or so over 2 years. For Endwalker this is 83%. These are still rather small samples, of around 900-1000 in each case. That's not necessarily a bad sample size but you always need to make sure it's representative of the broader population before drawing further inferences from it, which we can't say in this case.

[Theodric]

I also think that there's a rather deceptive element at play when it comes to reviewing MMO's in particular because each content patch can drastically change the quality of an overall expansion. For example, I enjoyed the patch content in Stormblood much more than I liked the expansion's base MSQ and then where Shadowbringers is concerned I ended up liking the base expansion much more than the content we received in the subsequent patches.

Endwalker is in a particularly unique position since the development team chose to abruptly end a lot of the core story arcs at the same time in favour of pursuing some...new, completely unknown story threads as of 6.1 and beyond.

So not only do we have a situation where a lot of people are, quite rightly, raising an eyebrow at large aspects of the story receiving a rushed conclusion...there isn't a guarantee that what comes next is going to grip existing players in the same way as the previous expansion stories did.

[Tracewood]

Haters gonna hate, majority enjoyed it. That's all that matters.

My only complaint is that I wish they'd just shake up how they do endgame but that's never going to happen.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Haters gonna hate, majority enjoyed it. That's all that matters.

My only complaint is that I wish they'd just shake up how they do endgame but that's never going to happen.

I mean, people have given their valid criticisms, some of which are objective truths and problems with the game/ story. But if you need to simplify that way more power to you. However, criticism is important as it’s what the game is based on in the future. Doesn’t matter how small you might think it is, it’s valid. Personally, not even story related, i expected to see some upgrades in the gear department considering this was the expansion that came after the moss successful and profitable expansion in the games history, however we actually got less gear sets lmao.

[aveyond-dreams]

I also think that there's a rather deceptive element at play when it comes to reviewing MMO's in particular because each content patch can drastically change the quality of an overall expansion. For example, I enjoyed the patch content in Stormblood much more than I liked the expansion's base MSQ and then where Shadowbringers is concerned I ended up liking the base expansion much more than the content we received in the subsequent patches.

Endwalker is in a particularly unique position since the development team chose to abruptly end a lot of the core story arcs at the same time in favour of pursuing some...new, completely unknown story threads as of 6.1 and beyond.

So not only do we have a situation where a lot of people are, quite rightly, raising an eyebrow at large aspects of the story receiving a rushed conclusion...there isn't a guarantee that what comes next is going to grip existing players in the same way as the previous expansion stories did.

I feel quite similar. While I enjoyed Endwalker's story a lot I fear about the quality of the next round of patches prior to 7.0. Of Shadowbringer's patches, the only ones where the story felt worthwhile for me to get invested in were 5.3 and 5.5, with the others just not hitting the mark for me.

I also have concerns as to the state the world of FFXIV is left in, godless, bereft of its dominant imperial presence, with a lot of characters whose stories should have ended ages ago (the scions) still finding ways to resurface only to exhaust my patience further-while the characters who I resonated most strongly with (Hades/Hythlo/Venat) have quite literally exited stage right.

In terms of future settings I am also concerned because given the story trends in FFXIV the now freed imperial territories might end up making yet another republic as opposed to more fantasy-like monarchies, grand duchies, etc. and the community sentiment that Meracydia must draw from directly from Africa or Austrailia, which is just a baffling concept to me. The New World being a direct copy of the Americas is also something that I would struggle to stomach an entire expansion's worth of.

To that end, I have been working on a 7.0 concept project with my friend group that I'd like to post under General at some point before the upcoming live letter, which would represent a hard tilt back towards core "Final Fantasy," complete with its own title logo, characters, extended plot synopsis, systems, screenshots, and all. I'll share the completed title screen below, albeit in a reduced size compared to the bigger version for the concept's thread.

[Theodric]

Consider me intrigued!

Overall, I'd say that I enjoyed Heavensward the most. I suppose it helped that although it drew its war to a close and underwent a measure of reform it didn't opt to get rid of the nobility which I appreciated. As someone who is fond of monarchies, intrigue and high society in general I loathe the push by some to have such elements removed altogether from fictional settings.

I always thought it would have been interesting to go and visit a province within the Empire that was actually thriving despite being a part of the Empire. Much like Toussaint from The Witcher 3.

[Lauront]

In terms of future settings I am also concerned because given the story trends in FFXIV the now freed imperial territories might end up making yet another republic as opposed to more fantasy-like monarchies, grand duchies, etc. and the community sentiment that Meracydia must draw from directly from Africa or Austrailia, which is just a baffling concept to me. The New World being a direct copy of the Americas is also something that I would struggle to stomach an entire expansion's worth of.

I have to confess, those kind of inferences strike me as bizarre. With the New World we do have some knowledge of its culture, albeit limited, but with Meracydia we've next to none beyond some specks here and there detailing dragon involvement. I very much share your view on republics. I don't even want to see Garlemald go in that direction - I'd sooner see something like Archades in XII. Surely Ishgard and Sharlayan suffice.

[Rulakir]

I was disappointed Ishgard became a republic. I suppose there wasn't any other way to go about it though since the collapse of the church and they didn't have a monarchy.

As for the New World, it might have some possibilities if they did a Wild West theme, perhaps with steampunk. Machinist being the obvious choice for featured class. I know the woke crowd is already up in arms about any depiction of colonialism, but I don't see why it has to mirror American history which, IMO, is not particularly interesting. They already sort of did a Central Americas theme with the Ronkan Empire and, frankly, as a WoW refugee I'm tired of that aesthetic since it is prominent among the troll races. I'd rather they do something completely new. It's a fantasy video game, the options are limitless, content doesn't have to be based on real world history (and I'd prefer it not).

My main concern with Meracydia is it being HW 2.0 except with dragons vs. Allagan descendants. I loved HW, but am not all that interested in a similar story with a different skin.