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

[Xirean]

The facts that they stated that they had to go through several story drafts, delayed the expansion partly for the sake of narrative "polish" and apparently didn't finalize the story until the week before EW released

Can I get a source on this?

[not_ya_wify]

• The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
• The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
• Venat, who hasn\\'t had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn\\'t lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?

I\\'m glad to see someone talk about the story being bad. The story was so bad but for some reason everyone loved it. It was kind of all over the place. I understand that they were trying to tie up loose ends while also telling something new but that just made the story incohesive and convoluted worse so than in ARR. Apart from the clusterfuck that is writing there were parts of the story that personally made me hate it so much that I do not want to have to replay it on any alts. I guess I\\'ll have to buy a lot of story skips when 7.0 comes out.

After Shadowbringers, I was team Ascian all the way and this is probably more my personal issue because many people were still Eorzea > Ancients after Shadowbringers while I wasn\\'t. To me, Shadowbringers was a realization that everyone around me has a broken shattered soul and the Ascians were working to save those souls and make them whole again. It was really jarring to me that after coming to this realization the story forces me to murder the only 2 real people left on the planet. It\\'s genocide but we see no remorse from the WoL or the scions. I really wished to join hands with the Ascians and find an alternative solution to calamities that would still allow us to rejoin and repair the souls just like I did with Ardbert and Minfilia with Ryne.

Zodiark was the disappointment of the century and not just because he was relegated to being a minor trial boss after 10 years of hype. Hydaelyn got a lot of exposition into her thought process and reasoning. Zodiark? Just some thoughtless primal we gotta kill real quick. We never got to hear his side of the story. One thing that was pretty clear was that he wasn\\'t evil. He had been saving the world and did what the ancients asked of him. So, why are we killing him again? Because Hydaelyn don\\'t likey.

[not_ya_wify]

And Venat was fucking evil. Yes, I said it. I know everyone thinks Venat is a saint who loves everyone yadda yadda but I hate her with a passion. She chose not to tell the rest of the convocation about the real reason behind the final days and the story excuse for not doing so (um it will make people upset and Hermes could be useful which I know he isn\\\\\\'t because you already told me what happens but anyway) is absolutely ridiculous. She either didn\\\\\\'t try to prevent the final days at all or was just too incompetent to do anything about it. Either way, then of course the final days happen and Zodiark gets called on and Zodiark does exactly what he is supposed to. Yet, Venat is upset about the next sacrifice, so what does she do? She KILLS EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ON THE PLANET. Can\\\\\\'t be sacrificed if you\\\\\\'re dead amirite? Not only does she kill everyone but even worse she condemns them to eternal suffering. Why? Mainly because it sounds cool when she says "henceforth man shall walk." The explanation for it was once again ridiculous. "Um I make you suffer so you don\\\\\\'t wanna die." Except we see plenty of the species that were crying out for Meteion to kill them did indeed suffer a great deal in the exact same fashion as people today. "Um yeah, but like sundering helps people control dynamis." Except it didn\\\\\\'t. Bitch did you see Thavnair? I\\\\\\'d argue transforming yourself is worse than transforming creation Magicks. You may even argue that the Scions needed to be manipulating the Dynamis in Ultima Thule, except she a) couldn\\\\\\'t have known that and b) she didn\\\\\\'t need to sunder everyone. She literally would only have needed to sunder 6 people not including the WoL who didn\\\\\\'t need to be sundered either.

I also agree that suddenly introducing Meteion last minute as the big villain was kind of anti-climactic. Final Fantasy games have a tendency to switch up the villain with another one in the last part of the story but Meteion and Hermes as the ultimate villain kind of cheapened the past 10 years of story. A much better plot twist would have been to reveal that Hydaelyn is evil (which she actually is but we don\\\\\\'t talk about that here) and that she has tempered and mind controlled us this whole time and that we now need to kill her. Shadowbringers lead up to that very well and then we get this mess in Endwalker.

For me personally, the absolute worst part of the story that I never want to have to repeat is that rapey scene when Zenos forces himself into your body. Then the story slaps you in the face by having him come to your rescue while fighting Meteion (how utterly unnecessary). Not only does this creepy rapey stalker guy get his fetish of fighting us satisfied but he gets to be the final fight of Endwalker. I was hoping he\\\\\\'d die of fungus of screen.

[Lauront]

I agree with virtually everything you said there and it sums up my thoughts and experiences on it as well.

[aveyond-dreams]

I see that new artwork was posted of Venat and the other fallen allies in the aetherial sea today. Needless to say unlike the following twitter user, I was not moved to tears by it:

https://twitter.com/redmakuzawa/stat...108370433?s=21

It is such a shame that for a character who was designed so beautifully and aesthetically pleasing, rather than seeing a benevolent goddess here I see her holding my favorite characters hostage in her prison of ice.

[Carin-Eri]

Then the story slaps you in the face by having him come to your rescue while fighting Meteion (how utterly unnecessary). Not only does this creepy rapey stalker guy get his fetish of fighting us satisfied but he gets to be the final fight of Endwalker. I was hoping he'd die of fungus of screen.

I actually disagree with this assessment.

I enjoyed the fact that the story made me give a measure of respect to a character I once disliked a great deal. I like the fact that, by Endwalker, he is actually pretty unimportant/not really a priority to the WoL - he realises this and decides to not let that bother him. Whilst everyone else is pondering the meaning of happiness, here is a guy who found it and knows that all he needs to learn is how to reach it. And he does, because when Alisaie calls him out, he listens.

And he was right about us, when he identified our 'Adventurer' roots. and recognized that we were heroes through circumstance and a need to do the right thing, rather than choice, and the way we fight reflects that. I feel the only answer that wasn't dishonest was "That, I can't deny" (and the grin that my character gave when she said that is one of best things my character has ever done) when he tells us he knows what we are.

I have to add that I truly enjoyed the fight. We were never really on equal terms with him until this fight, and due to that he truly doesn't hold anything back. He pours everything he is in that fight and so do we. Two souls burning their absolute hottest and brightest - the greatest joy Zenos has ever known and the only joy he can ever share, in stark contrast to the theme of despair that the 'zone' had been about.

[Elesh]

• The mighty Zodiark, which has been build up as this mighty(evil) entity over several expansions, turns out to be nothing but filler trash for the first Endwalker trial
• The true cause of the Final Days is a pet-project from an ancient which goes mad after observing countless dead world and possibly causing the death of several world by projecting negative emotions unto them, and is thus dead-set on bringing despair to every world, upon which said ancient goes mad and is now letting her run her course to test humanity if they can withstand/fight despair
• Venat, who hasn't had her memory wiped + still remembers you from being in Elpis, quite apparently doesn't lift a finger to learn about Dynamis herself or to mobilize the other ancients to end Meteion then and there, and instead chooses to turn herself into Hydaelyn, sunder the world and the inhabitants, thereby forcing them to live with and face despair and gambling that their resilience against despair might be enough to face Meteion one day

Really?
This is the best SQ could do in terms of story after ShB?

The beauty of storytelling is that it is fundamentally subjective. I'm sad that you didn't enjoy the story. But the point of the story in Endwalker was that it was an enjoyable story for a large segment of people who fall into the 'not you' category of the world.

[OhNooo]

Yet, Venat is upset about the next sacrifice, so what does she do? She KILLS EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ON THE PLANET. Can\\\\\\'t be sacrificed if you\\\\\\'re dead amirite?

The explanation for it was once again ridiculous. "Um I make you suffer so you don\\\\\\'t wanna die." Except we see plenty of the species that were crying out for Meteion to kill them did indeed suffer a great deal in the exact same fashion as people today. "Um yeah, but like sundering helps people control dynamis." Except it didn\\\\\\'t. Bitch did you see Thavnair?

Nah but see you don't get it. It's not murder! Like for real, if I slash at you and your whole family and break you up into tiny little entities that are way weaker and basically have the lifespan of a gnat compared to what they used to have - people who can't even form words and have to learn how to do everything all over again...it's not a form of murder just because none of you remember anything from before and don't have the same personalities. I mean yeah you're all basically different people now and any friends you had from before who didn't get sliced up are gonna mourn you since they lost the friends they knew, but hey it's a clean slate right? What you can't remember doesn't matter right? It's not like all your hopes, wishes and history matter anymore since it's all wiped clean. If I see one of your friends that I let escape, I'll try to cheer them up and tell them that their friends aren't dead, they just now have 14 new friends they can get to know (I mean since you won't remember them, they'll have to re-introduce themselves and stuff but yeah).

You just don't get it. You can't become too complacent or too comfortable in life - that will lead to apathy and then you'll just wish for death because you're so bored and nothing is fun anymore because you don't experience torture or extreme hardship so you have nothing to compare the feeling of fun to. You gotta like, experience both joy and sorrow to have balance. Idk maybe you can like have a couple of happy days and then we could manufacture some suffering in there to keep the balance that way our civilization won't end up so bored we wanna die. Because feeling like you're ready to pass on is super evil - your personal choices and autonomy have nothing to do with anything. I can't think of anything worse than someone living for thousands of years and then deciding they're ready to pass on - TRUE EVIL RIGHT THERE. A more meaninful existence would be living through unbelievable torture everyday but Forging Ahead ™ and then giving a monologue to your oppressors about how all the torture they're doing to you is just making you stronger, or better yet it would be more noble to be in a remote village starving and dying of malaria. Don't you see that the ones going through all that suffering have a much better existence because they're better equipped to deal with suffering since they deal with it all the time, whereas the first person I mentioned lives a comfortable life with no hardships. Just unbearable! They need to at least have a couple of diseases or maybe a little poverty in their life. I mean look at Sisyphus, one must imagine he's overjoyed:



No but seriously. EW literally turned me into a cutscene skipper. I feel so silly spending so much time looking into the lore..and then seeing the joke they gave us as an ending to a 10 year arc. At this point I wish I could have enjoyed it. But now I'm just a jaded player that chuckles a little when I see an excited sprout "Aww yeah I remember when I was excited to play this game..."

[BaconBits]

It's honestly unfathomable that Venat gets to be depicted as some sort of messianic archetype despite not only being responsible for sundering all of Eitherys into 14 separate shards populated by people with no memories of their previous lives and drastically weaker than before, but also the sheer amount of devastation Emet-Selch, Lahabrea, Elidibus, and the rest of the shattered Convocation would leave in their wake in their desparate bid to reawaken Zodiark and restore their world. To say she has blood on her hands would be the greatest of understatements.

It would have been so much better if instead of doubling down on the whole "Crystal Mommy can do no wrong and loves us because we're her children " schtick, the narrative painted her exactly as she is. A flawed Ancient who jumped the gun on Sundering all of Eitherys based on Meteion's report, and the overwhelming guilt that would come of such an action, even if it was to save a world that isn't her own.

[Rulakir]

Reminder this is what Venat did to everyone but, sure, let's keep treating her as a "good" character.