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

[CrownySuccubus]

If you were to take over Ishikawa or Oda's position in the story and rewrite Endwalker to "fix" the story, or an expansion pre-Endwalker, how would you go about it?

Remove Elpis entirely.

The Endsinger is just some unknown, alien entity from beyond the stars. There was no reason she needed to be conveniently from Etheirys. To learn the truth, we go to the surviving members of the First Brood (Vritra, Tiamat, etc.) who all have bits and pieces of clues that Midgardsomnr gave them about what things were like in space, and from their testimonies and Echo hijinks, the Loporritz piece together where the Endsinger is in space.

Bam. Done.

[Nekokaori]

This would actually be quite cathartic. FFXIV: Battle Royale OR FFXIV: The Sundering 2: Electric Boogaloo



I remember this! I was ready to riot. I was not okay with that scene and when it was revealed that he was referencing her and not us, I wanted to spit fire.



I like this question, I feel as though paragraphs could be written about it but off the top of my head, if the time-travel element had to be included as some narrative lynchpin then my key change would have been to wipe the memories of all of the ancients who were "in the know". Leaving Venat with knowledge that she did not use to help her people is the point at which I completely turn on the story and cannot find a way back to being at peace with it. Take all of their memories away and let events play out as they would and I would not feel a fraction of the anger that I do now. I would just be sad but that is something I can accept and move forward with.

like i said i rush threw that togeather give me 2 years and i could work out the details and everything so much better i just went with the first 12 things that entered my head and auto typed it as soon as they poped in

[PawPaw]

Remove Elpis entirely.

The Endsinger is just some unknown, alien entity from beyond the stars. There was no reason she needed to be conveniently from Etheirys. To learn the truth, we go to the surviving members of the First Brood (Vritra, Tiamat, etc.) who all have bits and pieces of clues that Midgardsomnr gave them about what things were like in space, and from their testimonies and Echo hijinks, the Loporritz piece together where the Endsinger is in space.

Bam. Done.

Yep, or this. Elpis was the point of the game where I just had to throw my hands up and ask what the *&!# the writers were thinking. Remove Elpis and the events there and we have a much better chance at a decent story.

[Lauront]

The Endsinger is just some unknown, alien entity from beyond the stars. There was no reason she needed to be conveniently from Etheirys. To learn the truth, we go to the surviving members of the First Brood (Vritra, Tiamat, etc.) who all have bits and pieces of clues that Midgardsomnr gave them about what things were like in space, and from their testimonies and Echo hijinks, the Loporritz piece together where the Endsinger is in space.

Bam. Done.

That'd constitute a huge improvement for me, especially if there was some common thread between what ended the Dragonstar, Omega's world and tried to end Etheirys but in trying to remove Zodiark, its plan backfired, so it eventually returns with the help of its gleeful accomplice, Fandaniel's ancient self, to help it hijack the remaining elder Primal. They had sown the seeds of something like this with the High Seraph - it is an otherworldly being, described as being able to unfurl the threads of creation, and it had a somewhat Terminus-like appearance. I thought they might exploit that and provide an origin story that goes beyond it. Regarding Elpis, I'd also consider removing it, unless they intended to do more with it, like an AU entry point. It's not like alien parasites are well... alien to this series (or other SE IPs... like Chrono Trigger.) With all the tentacle like monstrosities they were showing in Fandaniel's towers, I was hoping we'd get one.

[Xirean]

Question for the thread;

If you were to take over Ishikawa or Oda's position in the story and rewrite Endwalker to "fix" the story, or an expansion pre-Endwalker, how would you go about it? I'm curious, this isn't even a "well if YOU know so much why don't YOU apply for a job on the msq team!?" type of drag, I just think a lot of people in here have interesting takes on where they would've liked the story to go, and I'd like to hear from anyone who feels like succinctly laying out their do-over plan.

I'd mainly want to change certain moments as opposed to rewrite the whole thing.
1: Zenos needs to actually kill someone when he hijacks the WoL's body. He had so much time to run around the camp and did nothing. Very large waste of potential there. Doesn't even have to be a Scion; the story brought all these characters from various moments together to help us. Very easy and low hanging fruit for a murder.

2: I'd like some dialogue options when talking to Zenos to effectively say "I have much bigger problems than you right now." I mainly want this to facilitate his very small character growth. I really liked that Allisae's words stuck with him.

3: Elpis requires the biggest overhaul for me. I don't mind seeing it as a pretty paradise, but we shouldn't be able to explore that as a map as that brings way too many plot holes. Either allow for multiple timelines or have the WoL use the Echo in some ruins or something. You could even keep the dungeon and fighting Venat that currently happens there, we are just in place of whoevers memory we are viewing, perhaps Azem.

4: Let us see the Zodiark vs Hydaelyn fight. Shinryu vs Omega was awesome, I wanted that for the very first and most powerful primals. I wanted to see the very planet being torn apart as a side effect of sundering Zodiark. Making the Sundering of Etheirys an accident as opposed to intentional alongside the changes to Elpis would have taken away the anti Venat ammo.

5: Ultima Thule sacrifices need to stay dead. I don't think all the characters should have died, but don't undo death. Have some sacrifice themselves and the only ones left are who we can do the dungeon with. I actually thought that's what they were going with given that G'Raha and the twins is all we really need for a dungeon trust team.

Remove Elpis entirely.

The Endsinger is just some unknown, alien entity from beyond the stars. There was no reason she needed to be conveniently from Etheirys. To learn the truth, we go to the surviving members of the First Brood (Vritra, Tiamat, etc.) who all have bits and pieces of clues that Midgardsomnr gave them about what things were like in space, and from their testimonies and Echo hijinks, the Loporritz piece together where the Endsinger is in space.

Bam. Done.

This is also a fantastic idea.

[Lauront]

^Agree with all those. They wouldn't require overhauling the story too greatly but would fix some of its biggest narrative stumbling blocks.

[Caurcas]

Also I would disassociate our WoL from Azem. Seems a bit forced to me.

[Xirean]

Also I would disassociate our WoL from Azem. Seems a bit forced to me.

Do you mean make us not a reincarnation of Azem or that Azem doesn't match the PC's gender?

[Caurcas]

Do you mean make us not a reincarnation of Azem or that Azem doesn't match the PC's gender?

Not a reincarnation.

[Xirean]

Not a reincarnation.

Oof, hard pass. There have been hints of who the WoL was for a while, it's really nice to finally have a solid answer for that. I could do with Azem not being gender locked to the character though. Certainly makes them feel less like their own person and more like an extension of us.