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

[NanaWiloh]

Poll posted on reddit!! Yep, best to not even touch that better to set it on fire and throw in a hole screaming. Love HW and SHB but I would take anyting coming from reddit with a grain of salt and lemon slice.

[ReynTime]

I too would have voted for Heavensward.

It was the peak of the game in nearly everything IMHO. Story, job design, challenge, writing... Just not in popularity or map and dungeon design.

[Theodric]

As an aside, I think what's interesting is that when it comes to World of Warcraft my two favourite expansions were TBC and WOTLK. The first and second expansion respectively. I'm basing this on many factors and not considering either to be perfect. Though back then, the developers were at least trying to appeal to the core target audience.

When it comes to FFXIV? I think when all is said and done, HW and SB - yes, Stormblood - come away as my favourite expansions. Again, the first and second. I don't include the 1.0 era since I never played it.

Up until Endwalker, I would have considered ShB to be my favourite. Yet so much of what made it intriguing has been done away with and what was set up to give us more nuance was abruptly sent in all sorts of weird directions. Contrary to what some imply, many of us who liked the Ascians and Ancients were perfectly fine with the idea of the story moving on from them. We just hoped that the game itself wouldn't ignore it's own messaging and decide to pretend that genocide is completely justified and a good thing just to prop up a character who would be so much more interesting if she were allowed to be called out in the same ways as the likes of Emet-Selch and other antagonists/villains.

[ReynTime]

Neither 1.0 or 1.23 are my favorite above Heavensward but I do think both did some things better. I have always disagreed with the parroting of 'nightmare' regarding that era of XIV.
The job system was frankly more interesting even if it expected a lot more grind and some builds were very unbalanced. And I liked the delibitation/weakness exploit in combat before Yoshida removed it.

And for how dead the game was during the staff transition phase Eorzea felt more like a living world than it does now... Due the way camps and levequests were designed to be done. I miss walking to destinations and meeting players by the campfire. For all stories about how MMOs with no duty finders "suck" I never had much trouble making parties on the spot then. It didn't feel that much worse than Eureka/Bozja in that regard.

There were a lot of technical problems and baffling implementations, but to me Tanaka's XIV had potential that if corrected instead of completely scrapped would at least have made a more unique game in the current MMORPG scene even if it didn't get anywhere near as popular as it is now.

And in terms of writing while it was very slow paced and the presentation was lackluster the writing was more grounded than the typical shounen manga style that became very prevalent since Shadowbringers.

[Theodric]

I never played 1.0 but having looked into it I do think it did some things much better. It had a darker atmosphere as well - some of which creeped into ARR and HW but has slowly become less and less common as the game desperately tries to get rid of anything even remotely gritty and serious. Which indicates a major shift in their intended target audience.

A shame, that. I care more about world building than any specific character. The Scions are all bland to me but I could more easily stomach their perpetual presence if the game actually let me enjoy some of the darker elements in the setting. Both in terms of major and minor affairs. We've already done it in other Final Fantasy games so I'm really not sure why there's such an aversion to having a full on thief or pirate in our band of associates. An unapologetic but not necessarily cruel one at that.

I enjoy it when there's looming threats in the background. FFXIV has very little of that now and whatever they do introduce seems likely to be resolved almost as quickly as it emerges.

For example, the Daedric Princes are always a threat in Tamriel. FFXIV, meanwhile, has not only rid the board of Garlemald and the Ascians but is apparently set to wrap up the Void as well. That's in addition to the known universe being revealed to largely just be a wasteland of dead worlds.

Everything just feels so clinical and predictable to me at this point. Which is a real shame since I really did like the earlier expansions quite a bit. Yet recent interviews have not given me much cause to believe that recently established trends are going to be any different.

It is what it is, I suppose. We'll see how 6.2 goes and if it's more of the same then I've got other things lined up to play during my gaming time.

[Cach]

If I had to go for the "overall package" instead of "story only" funnily enough I would pick Stormblood. It was the first time I was actually playing along newly released content and I also got really into crafting which ended up becoming one of my favorite activities. I enjoyed the class balance and most battle-related content. I also had a good time in Eureka, before it was cool.

I created a fresh character to help a friend, and that gave me a second wind. I was seriously planning another extended break from the game. I'm a sucker for the leveling up dopamine hits I guess.

Care to speculate what the supposed "certain event, this will completely change the story" they're supposedly doing to kickstart 7.0 is?

[Rulakir]

Care to speculate what the supposed "certain event, this will completely change the story" they're supposedly doing to kickstart 7.0 is?

Best case scenario is a rejoining and we find out now that Hydaelyn's dead the barrier between worlds has collapsed.

Unfortunately, I suspect it's going to be something dumb that Yoshi-P thought would be cool because that seems to be the direction of the game now.

[Jagick]

I'm just imagining exploring a creepy abandoned mental asylum and hearing the scratching of a broken record player and the only sounds interrupting the eerie silence happen to be 'THE MAJORITY', 'YOUR A MINORITY' and 'ECHO CHAMBER'. All to a backdrop of the same words scribbled all over the bare grey walls.

I think people who can't in any way accept and understand different opinions and points of view are actually pretty unsettling and dangerous. It's as worrying as it is sad.

I just had a Eureka moment because of this. It all makes sense now. Endwalker itself is a digital Primal and has tempered a lot of the player base. The rest of us are unaffected because we just so happened to be in close proximity to something like those special radios.

[KageTokage]

Best case scenario is a rejoining and we find out now that Hydaelyn's dead the barrier between worlds has collapsed.

That seems like the most obvious direction they could go in for a "this changes everything" kind of scenario if it results in all the manner of strange anomalies manifesting in foreign lands like Ilsabard and Meracydia that we initially investigate in order to pin down exactly what is happening to the Source and the shards.

With the Ascians and Garleans no longer an immediate threat (Though still lingering in enough of a capacity to give me concern), we need something to shake things up and properly kick off a new story arc.

[Lustre]

If I had to guess it'll have something to do with restoring the 13th which then has some kind of knock-on effect for the source. They'll probably want to market 7.0 similarly to 2.0 in order to leech off 2.0s success somewhat and keep the momentum going. Easier said than done with these drip-fed patches though.