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

[aveyond-dreams]

As I grow increasingly desperate for any news of FFXVI, I went back and started rewatching some of Game of Thrones from the beginning to get a similar vibe to it...and was reminded of just how much that sort of material played a factor in retaining me as a player. Especially someone whose previous MMORPG experience was FFXI, a vastly different game, and little more than the 1st 10 levels of transient phases of WoW, Perfect World, etc.

I know we are still so many months away from 6.2 but I find it increasingly frustrating having to wait on another patch that likely will not have any stakes for the main cast. There's very little in the way of intrigue, from either political/war or supernatural events besides the recent void teases. FFXIV's world has become too ideologically homogenous, in stark contrast to the readily apparent differences between the Eorzean city states and Ishgard at the time of Heavensward. Culturally, the world has suffered as well as more countries have been integrated into the "unified world" being pushed for by the events of the story.

If everyone is getting along with each other, that leaves very little room for an interesting plot. Instead we get drawn out sequences of Y'shtola "solving a mystery" or running high school science project experiments instead of something that really makes you go "Woah!" like several scenes that stick out from memory: Heavensward's trial by combat, ARR's Bloody Banquet, and SB's scenes of Yotsuyu demonstrating the full extent of her cruelty. Nowadays there is so little that can compare to that, nearly all of it thrown away to push for forgettable plot points like orphanage building or some business Urianger had with helping out with the treasure dungeons.

Heavensward's world was much smaller, yet so rich. Now the world is so vast, but feels void of the things that made each region interesting whenever we first arrived in them. In wake of the recent controversy that has resulted in more infighting within the community - again - I'm left wanting for some decent escapism. I know that once FFXVI comes out that I'll have my Final Fantasy: Westeros but it's sad that we had that here and lost it to the whims of FFXIV twitter, which would be too distraught over having to potentially endure another plot like Heavensward's. Instead we get expansions set against the literal end of the world, where time travel and magic gizmos prevent anything bad or meaningful from happening to anyone ever. We get writing that is forced to bend over backwards to justify actions that make no sense otherwise, all while the gameplay side of things has its own set of problems that wear away at my will to play along with the failings of the story.

How did we go from such an amazing world and narrative to one like this? Goodness knows if it were up to me I would have been against stripping the story of its boldness, of the things that made it a worthwhile story in the first place. I know some may think my assessment of the situation to be unfair, but the recent story and writing direction simply doesn't inspire long-term confidence. I easily predict that in each subsequent patch that we will be forced to endure an obligatory college living scene in Sharlayan, that G'raha Tia will somehow be caught up in our Void expedition, and by the time we next visit Garlemald that they will be in the process of reverting to democracy and writing their very own Bill of Rights. While it is my hope that Vrtra joins the party, his slot may very well be still taken up by Alphinaud. Or he could join the party, but the adult body that was hinted to be currently in the works may turn out to be a female Au Ra instead of a male Au Ra in order for FFXIV to have it's very own Pelagos situation, because it would fall in line with previous trends we've seen with the localization team. Or perhaps they'll go on and dedicate a scene or two about how voidsent do not have a gender and use pixie-style pronouns instead of retaining whatever original gender they had as humans.

Very little of the above would add much needed depth to the story or move the plot further in a meaningful way. Perhaps I may have been happier if I had never questioned the major issues with Endwalker's story, but at least I'm not oblivious to the cracks in the foundation. We'll have a series of Nothingburger patches and then after a cliffhanger, we'll be left to wait to see just how much 7.0 will go towards redeeming the story in our eyes.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

Culturally, the world has suffered as well as more countries have been integrated into the "unified world" being pushed for by the events of the story.

The irony of this being what's inevitably pushed to happen, when that was exactly what The World Unsundered supposedly was before it got cut into Shards. And how often they treat the old world as "bad" and "wrong", where everyone got along and everyone worked towards the greater good.

I say this as someone who does see the Ancient's world as not being entirely 'perfect' in a modern sense (especially when we take into account those that didn't fit into a 'mold', so to speak, such as Hermes and Erichthonius and probably quite a number of others we never met). But that's part of what made it more interesting, was the fact it wasn't all perfect and not everyone was the same, even those who fit into the 'mold'.

But it's funny how they push this narrative that the Unsundered world was inherently bad because 'despair didn't exist, and no one suffered'... while trying to push the present day into a perfectly unified world where everyone important is nice to each other and cultural differences or backgrounds don't cause conflict.

Nice idea, but when you condemn that same principle for the past while pushing it in the present, it rings very hollow.

[Lauront]

Yes, the sundered have the distinct pleasure of qualifying for not one, not two, but three possible future Dead Ends, if the dungeon is to be believed! Can't wait to hear their response to the future Supreme Deity, there to sunder them for their own good. Maybe this?



...or maybe they'll cheer it on as it happens and thank them for their service. Who can say.

[AnaviAnael]

Imagine if, for example, there was another big bad and it somehow hijacked Meteion from outerspace after the Meteia encountered it, that was actually behind all the extinction of all those worlds, who still wasn't revealed even in Elpis. So then we're left to wonder "what did Meteion really see? Who or what did she encounter that's now manipulating her? What's it's motive?". Even more, say Meteion leaves at the end of the dungeon to go join her new mysterious master, what happened to her? What happened to her sisters? Are they still alive? Can you just imagine. Something to you know carry the remaining 30 hours of plot. Something wasn't taking fucking bunnies on a tour.

I actually had a similar idea to this. Having an entity cause the despair of civilizations would have been a lot more compelling than "every civilization out there came to ruin because reasons and now Meteion is full of despair." (IMO of course.)

[AnaviAnael]

I'm not sure how to feel about the other moons. First, this goes back to my not liking that Etheirys has no natural moons. Second, the moon serving as a prison for Zodiark/spaceship means it didn't exist until after the sundering, so all of the moons for the shards should be 'new' too. Third, I'd say maybe this'll finally address whether or not Hydaelyn was sundered, but I'm hoping we're done with her.

This is from the cutscene "In Shadow's Wake" which can be viewed through The Unending Journey.

[Rulakir]

This is from the cutscene "In Shadow's Wake" which can be viewed through The Unending Journey.

Yeah, but that's literally the single only reference to it in the entire game. Whether or not she's sundered seems like it should be a big deal. Not only does she not appear as Zodiark does, but I don't recall her using dynamis during her trial either. So, if she is sundered I've yet to see any evidence of it outside of that one line.

[Xirean]

Yeah, but that's literally the single only reference to it in the entire game. Whether or not she's sundered seems like it should be a big deal. Not only does she not appear as Zodiark does, but I don't recall her using dynamis during her trial either. So, if she is sundered I've yet to see any evidence of it outside of that one line.

There's also the possibility that she put herself back together off screen.

[PawPaw]

Yeah, but that's literally the single only reference to it in the entire game. Whether or not she's sundered seems like it should be a big deal. Not only does she not appear as Zodiark does, but I don't recall her using dynamis during her trial either. So, if she is sundered I've yet to see any evidence of it outside of that one line.

Since she was sundered that means that when she used the rest of her energy and destroyed her soul that any shards of hers on the remaining Reflections would have died simultaneously, right? Since the "core" is gone?Good old Venat, killing people for the greater good right up until that last second.

[Xirean]

Since she was sundered that means that when she used the rest of her energy and destroyed her soul that any shards of hers on the remaining Reflections would have died simultaneously, right? Since the "core" is gone?Good old Venat, killing people for the greater good right up until that last second.

So I'm curious about this. I understand the information comes from a QnA, but the implication that if one piece of the soul is lost then all the others are too. We know that death doesn't qualify for this as Ardbert died without us dying. The soul being destroyed begs the question, do any of the souls in those primals go back to the lifestream? We summon Hyth so that seems possible, but it also seems contradictory. Also, if one soul shard being lost deletes the rest, what about all the blasphemies? Obviously there are now several shards that are just lost but did that delete their reflections too?

[Fiel_Tana]

I have a theory that the story we got is not the story that was originally written and some pieces were left behind in a rushed rewrite.

Things like that line about Hydaelyn sundering herself doesn't make sense within the story we were shown. If she was sundered, why did she become weaker against Zodiark with each rejoining? They'd be gaining strength at the same rate.

Other scenes like in Elpis when we're shown how to use the echo to read the history of a place also seems out of place and causes story inconsistency.
That means Venat could have easily shown trusted people the truth of what they were to face. Why would Emet & Hytho not even bother taking a peek to see what happened during their mind-wipe and that Venat & Azem's familiar also entered but didn't come out? Really?! No one was the least bit curious?

If that scene weren't added, those questions wouldn't come up... but it was. So what does that scene really add to the story we got?