Endwalker vs shadowbringers story, which did you enjoy more and why? (spoilers)

[Minarisweet]

I've seen a lot of people saying they enjoyed shb story more and I'm honestly intrigued on the why, this is not meant to be an objective opinion thread or whatever but I just wanna see why did people enjoy their favorite and what do you think played a part on it? Im curious.

Personally I liked endwalker more maybe because there was a lot more interactivity in the gameplay and the closure of many themes on the story, also the moral topics touched with ultima thule and the final fight with zenos.

[Silver-Strider]

ShB's story was better paced and had more emotion to it.
Every questline seemed rigged to turn me into a sobbing mess; from the entire MSQ, to the Role Quests, to every character introduced with some heartfelt backstory. It all felt very real for a world that had lost so much to the Flood and Sin Eaters.

By comparison, EW was a huge let down in virtually every regard. I'm sorry your business is failing but you're really going to try and sell that as the catalyst that kicks off the end of the world? What? The drunk that lost his wife in a mining accident last expansion has you topped by a country mile my dude.

[MagicalChase]

Shadowbringers I think. It felt more like an adventure than endealker did because the maps didn’t feel so disconnected. and there was emmet selch and less chores. It might just be that endwalker is fresh in my mind but a lot of the chores in it were painful

[AziraSyuren]

Endwalker. ShB was more tightly and consistently written but I found the entire first half of the story to be unbearably dull. EW kept more of my attention more frequently and more or less did everything I wanted the story to do. I enjoyed the themes covered by EW much more, too, so I can forgive any logical inconsistencies in the story.

[EaraGrace]

Personally Endwalker. It felt like a beautiful culmination of the story so far, as well as hitting those high notes more consistently than I felt SHB did.

[Skyborne]

Shadowbringers.

I've spent enough posts reeing about all my dissatisfaction with EW, even though both had themes and messages I agreed with, Shadowbringers executed its own better in my eyes. It had its filler and boring points but it did feel like we got dumped into a world with the apocalypse incoming. Some say there was a bit too many sympathetic antagonists and they are tired of it, but I liked how pretty much everyone got a chance with little/no judgement in ShB, including even Ran'jit and Vauthry getting their moments. Even with Eulmore being the 'decadent' and 'hedonistic' city, the people were still given a chance to change and weren't all condemned. The Chais certainly showed it. I was kind of eh on Ardbert at first, but the moments with him including the one where he tries to help out in Lakeland only for his axe to phase through... I felt for him, and would look forward to the Sad Ardbert Talks in the inn room.

The Big Talos scene where everyone comes together and contributes and it grabs Gulg right out of the sky and then you're thrown into the dungeon with the bombastic encouraging theme was probably my favorite next to Amaurot reveal and the humanization of the Ascians. The whole Amaurot thing honestly kind of ruined everything else for me and made everything else feel smaller and pointless, I must admit, and also I got to that part at around 4 am with no sleep so their voices spooked me hard at first. Even though they were ghostly I got the sense that, yes, they were people, just with a different culture and in a different time, and even though Emet-Selch judged mankind, the story and narrative itself remained fairly neutral. Good iconic moment just before the final fight.

[Theodric]

Shadowbringers.

It had a more consistent and touching narrative. Endwalker felt like a bad fever dream after a certain point and didn't really serve as a satisfying conclusion to many of the story arcs that had been in the making for years. Whilst Shadowbringers encouraged players to come to their own conclusions regarding various characters, Endwalker proved to be incredibly tone deaf in many of its assumptions. The entirety of the second phase of the final boss consisting of flailing about was also bitterly disappointing to me. I want a game first and foremost, not a glorified visual novel.

[Lauront]

I enjoyed SHB far more. The revelation of Amaurot, learning more of the ancient origin of the Ascians, Emet-Selch, the truth behind Zodiark's creation, the light/dark visuals, the cast of characters etc. Post-MSQ stuff was a mixed bag, and I had conflicting views on 5.3, but overall I still enjoyed it for the most part, and I ended up liking how they portrayed Elidibus.

EW had maybe Elpis as a highlight, and some other stuff like Garlemald and Sharlayan which I enjoyed to some degree, but the conclusion to the main story arc that SHB shed more light on was disappointing to me, and it just got boring with the same droning narrative preachiness and "this looks like that, so it's totally the same" muh themes, that I switched off and begged for Zenos to return to spare me of it if only for a time.

SHB also still had the mystery of how it would all end - with EW that is gone and with it not being particularly satisfactory to me, I can say I barely rate it above SB. That expansion I found more consistent. EW was more of a rollercoaster. So SHB is not a difficult pick for me.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I thought it would be Shadowbringers but for me Endwalker. Endwalker capitalizes on years and years of storytelling though while Shadowbringers is a stronger self-contained story.

[AziraSyuren]

he entirety of the second phase of the final boss consisting of flailing about was also bitterly disappointing to me. I want a game first and foremost, not a glorified visual novel.

Honestly yeah, I 100% agree with this. I really hope the EX version fixes this like it did for Hades.