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

[einschwartz]

(Copied my post from another thread)
Shadowbringers.
It's the expansion where I feel the focus is entirely on my WoL. I also love stories with despair, gloom, dark and depressing themes. Seeing my character in pain and struggling gave me a lot of satisfaction and immersion. I already love my character but ShB makes me love him EVEN MORE. Additionally, I've always been a huge fan of Emet's Japanese VA so it was a cherry on top!

For Endwalker I would have like it more if not for the pacing issue. I feel like they want to balance out despair and hope in this expansion, which is fine. But how they section them are a little jarring. I'm mostly disappointed the sense of urgency and dread from the Final Days are almost non-existent compared to ShB. I tolerated it though the one that hits the nail for me is the "this is emergency button to teleport everyone back to safety". While I don't expect SE have the courage to off everyone but being told that just completely dismiss the tension I had for the story at that point.

I will say that they have improved / got creative on solo duties (including the stealth and escort tasks). Not everyone a fan but I honestly like roleplay sections a lot! I will give EW a bonus point for this aspect.

[ReynTime]

Shadowbringers. Even if I don't think it's my favorite or even second favorite expansion story-wise.

Compared to Endwalker it had a lot going for it... It didn't feel rushed. And yeah I do mean I didn't feel like 5.3 was rushed even if I thought it was too soon to finish off that Ascian. Endwalker felt rushed and padded at the same time, which is just... really really baffling.

Shadowbringers also managed to be self contained enough AND add more to the main plot without making the fact they hadn't planned things out until Stormblood too obvious. Endwalker's "conclusions" to the story that 1.0 started involved pulling things from where the sun doesn't shine and an unhealthy dose of plot devices that will probably not be used again.
5.0~5.3's build up was so good that those patches alone were enough to get me hyped for how the climax would go... well despite what they did to G'raha in the end...

Some of the design and writing decisions in ShB were still somewhat fresh. Endwalker went and rehashed a lot of it... From the dungeon boss theme trying to make a Footfalls remix out of Insatiable to the forced predictable fakeout drama and body horror scenes because people wouldn't shut up about the creeeepy scene in Ahm Araeng.

Shadowbringers had its share of filler and often brushed its own sense of dread and urgency aside randomly (and very early), but the main difference here is until the final stretch of 5.0 there were plot reasons for a less constant urgency. Meanwhile in Endwalker the planet is literally ending and yet we're OK with wasting time giving a tour to useless bunnies because they're cute and sell merchandise or playing dress up with them.

Both expansions share a lot of the same writing problems but there is a reason only one of them earned the lead writer ovation.

Shadowbringers took the story that the current team had to "adopt" and continue with a lot of gaps they couldn't/can't fill, and elevates it. Endwalker takes the story's original direction, throws it into a garbage dump then spits on it.

[Minarisweet]

Im picking up that everyone felt the pacing was bad and too much story that a lot of the time that could be used in story telling was used on filler... And that yeah some stuff like elpis and garlemald definitely could've been an expansion on its own. I kinda feel like since endwalker had the sins of the father basically, (a lot of story before the change of writer) moving foward we might get better stand alone stories with elements of the past like shadowbringers... but that's just what I think will happen.

[MediocreIndigo]

I enjoyed them both a lot but personally I think I like Endwalker a bit more. It resonated with me more from a thematic perspective and I felt it wrapped things up nicely while still leaving room for new storylines. That's not to say Endwalker was flawless, it definitely had its issues and I didn't love everything about it, but I still enjoyed the story overall. I also think it's a bit unfair to use pacing as a reason to put Endwalker below Shadowbringers considering the latter also had pacing issues. That being said, both expansions are amazing, and Shadowbringers has its own qualities that set it apart from Endwalker. I appreciate how Shadowbringers revealed important plot points that the story had been building up to for a long time. While I might like Endwalker slightly more, the difference is pretty slim, and my opinion could potentially change in the future.

[StriderShinryu]

It's too early to call. We still have a ton of EndWalker left so it's not really fair to compare all of ShB with basically 1/5 of EW. And part of my reasoning for this is that, frankly, the later patches saved SB for me and the later patches really hurt ShB for me so I'm not going to make any definitive statements either way.

That said, if we're just looking at the first sections of both, I'd say the two are very close. While ShB had Emet as a very compelling antagonist and the First was really interesting, I never really cared much for Ardbert (or the Warriors of Darkness) and despite the threat of the rejoining, I found it hard to care about the First as more than a cool place to visit. It largely felt too detached from The Source. There were some great characters like Lyna and Feo Ul but it was too divorced from the world I cared about. EW had pacing issues and the complete waste of space that was Zenos still got too much screen time (even if he barely got any at all) but I actually cared about the world and the characters a lot more.

[PawPaw]

As far as I am aware, Endwalker is complete. Unless you mean the raids that haven't been released yet? The patches beginning with 6.1 will be starting an entirely new story and won't be following the usual trend of continuing the MSQ of the prior expansion to around patch .3. It's wrapped up.

[StriderShinryu]

As far as I am aware, Endwalker is complete. Unless you mean the raids that haven't been released yet? The patches beginning with 6.1 will be starting an entirely new story and won't be following the usual trend of continuing the MSQ of the prior expansion to around patch .3. It's wrapped up.

While the story arc of Hydelyn and Zodiark is supposedly done, the story of Endwalker won't be complete until we're heading into 7.0. The story of EndWalker will include whatever story content they create to lead us forward and into the next arcs.

[IdowhatIwant]

While the story arc of Hydelyn and Zodiark is supposedly done, the story of Endwalker won't be complete until we're heading into 7.0. The story of EndWalker will include whatever story content they create to lead us forward and into the next arcs.

No the story of Endwalker is complete and has concluded. All the patches are leading into the next story arc. 6.1 is called Newfound Adventure...

[Brynne]

I really enjoyed both expansions' stories, but I liked Shadowbringers more. It had a more contained, tighter storyline, and Emet-Selch was a fabulous villain. I feel like Fandaniel, Zenos, and Meteion didn't quite live up to his standard. I also enjoyed how personally the story related to our WOL and their struggles. Endwalker was really good, but it didn't hit quite as high a note with me as Shadowbringers did.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Personally, i would have to go with Shadowbringers by a mile. Emet was a fantastic antagonist, intriguing, and contributed so much to the story, and that isnt even getting into Elidibus. While i did have gripes with the story, it isnt nearly as much as my gripes with EW.

Endwalker feels like there was far too much going on behind the scenes.We have the build up in shb patches of Zenos saying that we will come to him full of rage, and that just doesnt happen in EW. Something like him killing a friend would instigate that, but he does nothing of the sort, so all of that is just a dropped plot line. The Venat worship and inability to disagree with her, to tell her off, and to bring up other ways of moving forward will forever disgust me, and this expansion just showed me that im not on the same moral thinking as the devs. They preach about learning to deal with suffering and sacrifice in this expansion, yet the main cast doesnt have to deal with any of that in this expansion, and hasnt had to for a long time. They didnt have to deal with loss or any consequences whatsoever, so it feels extremely tone deaf for the devs to insinuate they know of suffering. The final antagonist as extremely underwhelming to say the least, and the fact we end this 10 year arc with giving a psycho bird girl a hug is....yeah. I forgot am i playing an mmorpg or reading some slice of life anime novel?Somehow the apocalypse that originally decimated the planet leaves 0 scratches on the main cast, and only thoroughly affected 2 regions. The two main deities this whole arc is supposed to be about, were put on the backburner and hardly got any spotlight whatsoever. Instead much of the spotlight was given to a character who should have died in Stormblood, but instead they just rehashed his story and made us fight him....solo.....again...what is this now the 7th or 8th time? No exaggeration.

Lets not forget too, the asspulled dynamis plot, that just comes out of nowhere and has never been heard of before is all of a sudden this huge driving force for the story,needed to ensure the protagonists can live another day and dont need to suffer any consequences for their actions.Oh but remember guys! Suffering is necessary! Sacrifices may need to be made! But as long as youre lucky enough to be a main character in the story, youre exempt from all of this.