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

[Conundrum]

I don’t know how much metacritic reviews matter in the grand scheme of things.

Literally not a single entertainment scoring system on the internet has any credibility.

Bought reviews...

Fanboys/Haters skewing reviews..

Scores based on things other than the quality of the media...

"Agendas"

etc...

[Rulakir]

I like happy endings, but I'm an Ancient fan and they most certainly did not end happily. They could have, which is the frustrating part. Time travel that results in saving the WoL's life? Fine. Time travel that results in saving the unsundered world? Not possible.

The writing needed to be tighter given the controversial elements of it. You have the two individuals responsible for all the genocides (and not just on Etheirys) being treated as good people in bad situations, ironic given the villainous treatment of the Ascians who only existed as a result of both Hermes and Venat. I don't see how anyone can claim the story has been "grey" given the stark contrast in how characters and their motivations have been addressed. Did it result in the sundering? = Good. Did it try to prevent or reverse the sundering? = Bad. The amount of carnage involved in either doesn't matter as everything is reduced to that.

Maybe the problem is that none of the Scions were sacrificed for ridiculous reasons, otherwise we might have some debates on why X had to die when the situation had alternatives. It's not nitpicking to point out that all of Venat's reasons for remaining silent don't hold up to surface level scrutiny since everything she says is contrary to information from quests we did just 1-2 hours prior. It reminded me of someone who'd already decided what they were going to do and was making excuses for it.

[gumas]

^ i do like happy ending too but i hate "clean" happy ending, like everyone is unscathed (yes the wol was like on the edge of his/her life but its all good), ship go back to sharlayan, everyone waving and smile...

like cmon... at least show some "prove" that you have gone brutal fight or something? you literally went to the edge of the world and you come back clean and sparkling? at least make the ship damaged like smoke come out and some part got destroyed or something, or one of the scion is bed ridden but in stable condition.

we have scene where venat literally got pummeled and bloody all over her face and you cant do something like that to one of the scion or to wol in the cutscene or something?

[Conundrum]

I'm pissed no one died. Yeah, "shock" deaths are cheap....but come on.

Thancred could have easily died (his story is over). Then I would like to see Jullus be worked in as his replacement. A Garlean on the team would be a nice addition.

I also dislike that Hydaelyn/Venat came out too "clean".

Also, can someone remind me why Zodiark was "bad" and why we needed Hydaelyn to start with?

[Knot_D]

What's with people's obsession on killing character? Is this western's culture or something? Why not just end them with a retirement instead of killing them??

[gumas]

What's with people's obsession on killing character? Is this western's culture or something? Why not just end them with a retirement instead of killing them??

hollywood flick i guess? someone gotta take one for the team and go out with a bang lol

[Conundrum]

What's with people's obsession on killing character? Is this western's culture or something? Why not just end them with a retirement instead of killing them??

Because you have to show that death is an actual potential outcome. Once that's taken off the table there are no real stakes to anything. Seriously, the second you realize the teary death conga line is going to end with them all coming back...the whole last part of the game falls flat "full of sound and fury...signifying nothing". It has nothing to do with stupid and condescending remarks about "Hollywood movies" and "western culture" or whatever nonsense.

It tends to be fanboys and weird shippers who never want characters to die.

EDIT: The endless fake deaths, and the complete lack of guts to kill any characters is making me care less and less about the story. I feel like everyone is walking around wearing god level plot armor. Squenix has completely lost their nerve in story telling. Introducing a character (like oh say a happy young couple and their baby) just so you can kill them off 5 minutes later is crap writing. I don't care about those characters. It's just a failed attempt at manipulation to avoid hurting a main characters.

[gumas]

it doesnt need to be death, a "retirement" is also fine too. we literally have scene where arenvald end up in wheelchair which make him "retire", and this is from a person with minor role in the whole story.

they should pull this off too to one of the scion, best candidate would be thancred or urianger for me

[Conundrum]

it doesnt need to be death, a "retirement" is also fine too. we literally have scene where arenvald end up in wheelchair which make him "retire", and this is from a person with minor role in the whole story.

they should pull this off too to one of the scion, best candidate would be thancred or urianger for me

"Retiring" being the worst consequence would be laughably lame.

Lets turn the question around. Why are you all so adamant that no one should die? I mean specifics, like addressing my reason why you need occasional deaths.

[Garnix]

What is the point of having main character dying?
Look at Papalymo. The man died, then what? You just don't hear about him until you "see him" in a dungeon at level 89. It's like none of the characters evolve through his death, there is pretty much no grieving, and it didn't impact the plot at all. It served pretty much nothing from a story telling perspective, aside from it being the trigger for Lyse revealing her true identity.
Moenbryda's death became "meaningful" 4 expansions later...
Haurchefant's death is wwaaaaaayyy overused in the story, as the devs seem to think that it is the event that impacted the WoL (and us) the most. (I didn't really care about Haurchefant personally)
Cool emotional death scene though. Same for Ysayle. Same for Emet. Or even Tsuyu.
etc.

Honestly, the only deaths that actually brought something meaningful to the story were Minfilia's (because of the impact it had on Thancred specifically) and Louisoix's (for the impact it had on the whole game).
Having minor characters die and impact the main characters moving forward is much better at this point from my perspective. (for example, kill Runar or Matoya to have some Shtola character development, because she really needs it at this point.)
I mean, I would be fine if any of the scions die at some point, I just don't think it would add much to the story. The only thing I could eventually see impacting the storytelling is if only one of the twins die. If any other character die, it would just be 5 minutes of mourning and then moving on.