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

[anhaato]

I muse on how I would've liked to see Endwalker story handled, or more like what I was expecting going into the expansion, and the avid EW defenders go incandescent with rage. Damn, some thinking out loud got you all that pressed? I didn't even pretend I was better than the writers, I know just how good they can be when given enough room to flesh out a storyline, and without interference from people like YoshiP who explicitly had his hand in the story. EW flopped for me, period. I know they can do better than this, because they have. If you thought my ideas were shit I really don't give a damn, I'm talking about what would've interested me and me alone. At the end of the day I don't pretend to be as good as the XIV writers because if I was then, hell, I'd probably be on the team by now. "That would've been boring and predictable!" well lucky for you I didn't write it. If you enjoy the story for how it is then feel free to not stick your head in a thread full of people criticizing it.

[Brinne]

Personally speaking, the idea of an entire expansion and over two years of content dedicated to Garlemald - especially as a follow-up to Shadowbringers and after so many Chronicles dedicated to them - mostly just makes me feel incredibly tired. I do think Yoshida made the right call under the circumstances, and think Garlemald's role in the story overall, including their downfall, was handled very well. But hey, their fans have a right to be their fans. If I went Full Self-Indulgence, Final Fantasy XIV basically would have turned into Ancient Fantasy XIV after 5.0, and my personal ideal dream version of 6.0 would probably also be deeply disliked by a lot of people, so.

In regards to "fixing" EW, the lowest effort, and probably most plausible version, is literally to just let go of the need to make us like Venat. Let us question her, cut or heavily alter the montage, allow those with the right to hate her and be angry with her to hate her and be angry with her, and call it a day. This would correlate with making some of the more questionable, broader themes go down easier, too. EW would still be messy, but not significantly moreso than any of the other expansions I've enjoyed.

There's more high-effort versions I've spitballed about with friends for fun (including the tinfoil-effort version of "what if Hermes and Hydaelyn WERE written as the same character?") but it mostly has to deal with individual characterizations and arcs for the Scions and such, and allowing the Ancients to have their AU if we're going to the past, moreso than a complete overhaul. Obviously, Zenos stays exactly the same! <_<

As I've said, I've loved this game for almost ten years, and I want to keep loving it. I'm looking for any reason to keep doing so without struggling with the weird dissonance. At this point, I might throw my hands up and actually take the joke option of "Venat is never spoken of again and the Ancients-are-saved AU is established in a Lodestone side story." There are multiple facets to my psychological downfall in regards to EW, I tell you.

[Rulakir]

If I went Full Self-Indulgence, Final Fantasy XIV basically would have turned into Ancient Fantasy XIV after 5.0, and my personal ideal dream version of 6.0 would probably also be deeply disliked by a lot of people, so.

Same. The Ancients have a lot of fans though, so the only people who should hate it are the ones who aren't crazy about them. However, I have to deal with the Scions at length who I'm not crazy about, so. :P My main issue with there not being a Garlemald expansion is that would imply 7.0 was probably going to be devoted to the Ancients, which if that were the case I feel robbed.

It's hard to be excited about the 'new adventure' since all my favorite characters and lore have been done away with now. Endwalker only had a happy ending if you're a Scion fan, as an Ancient fan I think it ended terribly.

In regards to "fixing" EW, the lowest effort, and probably most plausible version, is literally to just let go of the need to make us like Venat. Let us question her, cut or heavily alter the montage, allow those with the right to hate her and be angry with her to hate her and be angry with her, and call it a day. This would correlate with making some of the more questionable, broader themes go down easier, too. EW would still be messy, but not significantly moreso than any of the other expansions I've enjoyed.

Yeah, Venat really needed to be treated no differently than Emet was in ShB. I still would've been unhappy about how EW turned out, but I probably would've been less enraged about it had the narrative not fawned all over her and insisted on everyone loving and praising her when fact of the matter is she's one of the game's primary antagonists. Anyone who doesn't believe that needs to just write down everything she's responsible for on paper and see how that stacks up against the other villains in the series. Just because she didn't do it out of malice doesn't make her good. Everything Thordan did was for the benefit of mankind as he saw it, but there's no debate that he was a villain.