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

[Y2K21]

A good story does not requires someone to die.
That type of story flow is considered 3rd rated script writers and will only create problem when story goes too long.
Just look at World of Warcraft, they let their key characters dies for no reason just for dramatic effect for that one patch, what a joke.
Illidan died then resurrected
Arthas died then resurrected
etc etc
Isn't they planning to bring back someone we killed last expansion already?

First off, Arthas was never resurrected at all.

Second, going into a story where it is an apocalyptic phase where they hinge on the fact that "anyone can become a blasphemy" or raising the stakes so high to stop doomsday -- and yet these stakes never really matter as they dont affect the story nor the main cast or secondary cast of characters. We have had multiple fake out deaths over expansions and this idea of being pushed the absolute limit to save the world. On top of this, we know that this is the end of the main Scion story with Zodiark/Hydalyn -- this is prime time when you do this to focus the story around core characters and create new ones moving forward.

Saying "whatabout WoW" when this is the hyped end of the current saga where this stuff usually happens, goes to show the lack of stakes in play. WoW has the magnanimous problem of going from one doomsday story to the next where there are literally no stakes because the failure outcome is "everyone dies lol" after the 8th version of it..

[Kozh]

A good story does not requires someone to die.
That type of story flow is considered 3rd rated script writers and will only create problem when story goes too long.
Just look at World of Warcraft, they let their key characters dies for no reason just for dramatic effect for that one patch, what a joke.
Illidan died then resurrected
Arthas died then resurrected
etc etc
Isn't they planning to bring back someone we killed last expansion already?

And yet they're so content on killing many npc fodder, in attempt to make us sad.

True, a good story doesn't always need character death, yet for a story focused on war, apocalypse, fighting in general, lack of death only shows the plot armor the protagonists have. Which can be annoying.

When is the last time we had permanent death for major character? Papalymo iirc, back in HW. That's why they keep milking the same dead characters for lvl 89 dungeon.

You complain about character being resurrected? We literally have the scions die and get resurrected in one patch (6.0). Or how about y'sthola back in 5.0, and g'raha in 5.3?

[EmpyreanHelios]

And yet they're so content on killing many npc fodder, in attempt to make us sad.

You complain about character being resurrected? We literally have the scions die and get resurrected in one patch (6.0). Or how about y'sthola back in 5.0, and g'raha in 5.3?

Tbf, I wouldn't have complained if they brought Ysayle back. And you know I would trade Y'sthola in for Ysayle any day of the week!

[KizuyaKatogami]

The problem for MMO is every expansion is going to be consider as an arc of apocalypse.
If you are just going to kill key characters every expansion just for "dramatic effect" then current World of Warcraft is your best example of failure.
The speed they killed off their key characters are way faster than new characters they can make us to care.
No, that is not a good way of story telling and never will.

Its a problem specifically because the entire theme of this expansion is suffering, the song theme is even loss,fire,faith, yet what loss have any of them faces since HW? Its only the fodder npc's or antagonists that ever lose. The protagonists literally get resurrected this expansion as well which just completely contradicts the theme of learning to suffer and deal with the consequences.

[linayar]

Just gonna point out that some of the worst MMOs and expansions in gaming history were wildly praised at release and then later listed as one of the worst things ever.

Case in point: WoW's Warlords of Draenor. At release people were raving about how it was the best expansion the game had yet had. A small portion of the playerbase disagreed and were generally ripped to shreds by those who adored it as the best MMO expansion in the history of the world.

And then reality eventually caught up with that expansion and it became known as the worst MMO expansion ever made.

People who complained about WoD usually say it's because of the lack of content as the expansion progresses. They still think the leveling and initial patch was great.

We're talking about the .0 MSQ, which is not changing. If people end up changing their minds about liking Endwalker as an expansion as a whole, it won't be because of the .0 story because that would've already been factored into their initial impression.

[ApolloGenX]

One thing that annoyed me was that after the memwipe - we are supposed to think no one would believe Venat?

Emet and Hyth already believed us once....there are literally witnesses to the past few days that can confirm things such as Metion "launching" days before the memwipe.

There is just so much disregard for the entire experience that you had there and for some reason an assumption that people wouldn't do something they had already done. Venat had a tracker on Metion, FFS...and did no one notice the giant HOLE blown out of the building and give that a thought?

[TaleraRistain]

Aether is like the Force of ffxiv, but can be scientifically measured and studied. Meanwhile dynamis has never been hinted before EW.

The Dancer questline does. The Kriegstanz and Totentanz describe almost word for word the effect of dynamis on a person. The questline says aetheric manipulation. But we need to take anything interpreted by someone in-game with a grain of salt, because that's seen through the lens of their own understanding. And we saw from the Scions interaction with Nidhana that akasha/dynamis is not a heavily studied field. It's like our real life scientists and dark energy. We use the explanation we have until we have the tools to confirm a new understanding.

[TaleraRistain]

They even go as far as to have Hydaelyn's primal model a literal angelic figure, in case you weren't browbeaten enough as to how benevolent and good she was, while Zodiark appears demonic despite that not befitting his summoners, his heart, or his purpose. A

I think that has to do more with them being portrayed as they are in Amano's artwork, which has been out there for years. Plus we just had an expansion that told us angelic figures don't mean benevolent and good. That's just the form they take as beings associated with Light.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I think that has to do more with them being portrayed as they are in Amano's artwork, which has been out there for years. Plus we just had an expansion that told us angelic figures don't mean benevolent and good. That's just the form they take as beings associated with Light.

To be completely honest though, that does raise a good point. Why is Zodiark, a figure and being born of salvation, take onn a demonic form, whereas the being who was created to keep said other being in check is the angelic and benevolent looking one.I think the main problem though is that yes, we had an expansion show us that angelic figures dont mean benevolent or good yet we still only ever use light in the story, and the main angelic figure is still overall treated as benevolent and good with the demonic figure barely getting any credit for anything after its death.

[Krojack]

I bet money that OP would never be satisficed with whatever the story was.

OP could write a story they liked then we could use Kairos to wipe OP's memory. OP would then hate the story even though they wrote it.