The feeling of beeing Home ...

[Shikiseki]

I was hoping that at the end of 6.0, we'd go on a new adventure on our own and not have the scions dictate the story yet again. I really like the cast don't get me wrong, 6.0 felt like a great closure on pretty much every character so I was quite disappointed to see the wheel spin yet anew with the same old cast.

As for the story and character writing, they could really look at their own ranks like Octopath Traveller, which the recent mobile game actually outdone most of the cast we see in just 4 little chapters...
There was a reason the ancients were liked infinitely more than the scions because we had a connection with others for the first time and they felt like our gang - that party dynamic is what I wanted to see and find on our new adventure. The scions are the real limiting factor for the MSQ atm...

They can stay as side story content but it's about time to let them go already

[Hysterior]

I would leave the Game but right now I have 9 Full Retainers, paid for nearly 80 Days, and nearly 80 Days paid Gametime. So what can I do?

Just don't play? You're not getting a refund so what is paid is paid but just don't keep your auto-sub on.
I think we are quite a few to have been trough something similar. I barely play the game anymore but I come back whenever there is a decent update on the way.

(And you definitely don't need 9 retainers if you barely play... just sell all that junk and cancel them to save some REAL money)

[BRVV]

The money is already gone. If you log on just because you did spend the money, then you only end up spending your time. Don't get tricked by the sunk cost fallacy.

[Raoabolic]

Can't we as customers not demand atleast that the story is good, when all else was just reused stuff?

Speaking of which, I got a hearty chuckle when I realized the void is just using the same assets from the Walk of Echoes in FFXI, lol.

[hagare]

snip

enjoy your 8 months xD

[MikkoAkure]

Why is Yoshi acting like Garlemald deserves this ending? Isn't that a bit presumptuous to say, "Some of the Garleans did a terrible thing, so let's completely destroy Garlemald." It's like wiping out an entire country just because some people have done something evil there. Where's the logic in that?

Isn't that a bit presumptuous to say that someone isn't allowed to do something in their own story because in your own opinion they don't deserve that fate? Ala Mhigo, Rabanastre, Valnain, Doma, and Bozja weren't asking for their cities to be destroyed either.

Garlemald wasn't even destroyed by an outside force, they did it themselves across two civil wars. Emet-Selch himself said he set that up back when he was introduced and instead of naming a sensible person as heir, Varis names his psychopathic son so it wasn't a surprise what happened when he killed his own dad and at least 2 legions got upset enough about Zenos being leader and decided to invade their own city against a guy who doesn't care whether the city or the empire stands or not.


As far as the assets go, they've been recycling gear and monsters since ARR. This isn't new. There's also a 63 track Endwalker album that says it's not the same music.


The lopporits can die in a fire though.

[DeNada]

Isn't that a bit presumptuous to say that someone isn't allowed to do something in their own story because in your own opinion they don't deserve that fate? Ala Mhigo, Rabanastre, Valnain, Doma, and Bozja weren't asking for their cities to be destroyed either.

Garlemald wasn't even destroyed by an outside force, they did it themselves across two civil wars. Emet-Selch himself said he set that up back when he was introduced and instead of naming a sensible person as heir, Varis names his psychopathic son so it wasn't a surprise what happened when he killed his own dad and at least 2 legions got upset enough about Zenos being leader and decided to invade their own city against a guy who doesn't care whether the city or the empire stands or not.


As far as the assets go, they've been recycling gear and monsters since ARR. This isn't new. There's also a 63 track Endwalker album that says it's not the same music.


The lopporits can die in a fire though.

No, do not touch my precious lopporits! They are the best thing to have ever come out of the expansion :3

[SentioftheHoukai]

Isn't that a bit presumptuous to say that someone isn't allowed to do something in their own story because in your own opinion they don't deserve that fate? Ala Mhigo, Rabanastre, Valnain, Doma, and Bozja weren't asking for their cities to be destroyed either.

Garlemald wasn't even destroyed by an outside force, they did it themselves across two civil wars. Emet-Selch himself said he set that up back when he was introduced and instead of naming a sensible person as heir, Varis names his psychopathic son so it wasn't a surprise what happened when he killed his own dad and at least 2 legions got upset enough about Zenos being leader and decided to invade their own city against a guy who doesn't care whether the city or the empire stands or not.


As far as the assets go, they've been recycling gear and monsters since ARR. This isn't new. There's also a 63 track Endwalker album that says it's not the same music.


The lopporits can die in a fire though.

Kindly stop pretending like there's ANY equivalence in this. Ala Mhigo, Rabanastre, Valnain, Doma and Bozja still exist as do considerable sums of their peoples. Garlemald's native territories are in ruins and are never coming back, and most of their people are dead. As you said, they were victims of Emet-Selch's "treachery" so you cannot honestly say they brought it on themselves either.

Any story is capable of being subject to questioning, analysis, and a variety of interpretations. The forums are indeed one of the lesser-used sites by the playerbase, but it is not the only place where in-depth discussions of the story are taking place. One thing that is certain is that there was not enough material to generate over 600 page threads during Stormblood, which is the only other expansion to have had a controversial reception by the community when it comes to story and writing.

That is indeed a poignant point, Aveyond. By all rights, it should raise questions about the current quality of the MMO that the latest greatest expansion is contentious enough to generate this much discourse when nearly no other compares.

Any story is subject to that - the issue comes more when people declare themselves the ultimate objective arbiters of what is "good" or "bad" rather than acknowledging that they're expressing opinions. I'll disagree that Stormblood was the "only" other expansion to have a controversial reception...honestly, the forums have had negativity like this about every expansion.

In terms of the "600 page thread" (I only know of one that exists), I see it as a matter of two things:

1.) Endwalker has the largest overall playerbase of any expansion. We have the most people actively playing the game during this xpac than during any other. When you have significantly more people playing, a larger pure number of them will make their way over to the forums (even if it's still just a minuscule % of players), which in turn means threads created here will likely be significantly larger.

2.) Endwalker is loved by many more people, particularly compared to Stormblood. An echo chamber of negativity can only sustain itself for so long on its own - it needs an injection of disagreement and debate to keep going. There's so many people who enjoy EW that, again, you find more of them making their way over here and offering their praise. It isn't 600 pages of negativity. Much of it is back-and-forth debating and, yes, trolling between people who were disappointed in EW and people who immensely enjoyed it. The main difference between EW and SB is that there are more people who found EW thoroughly enjoyable and are contributing to the discussion.

Once again, I'm gonna have to humbly request that you cite that claim of yours Striker. I'd like to see some examples, in AD VERBATIM of any of us ever saying that we were the, and I quote: "Ultimate Arbiters of what is good or bad". Unless you can prove anyone ever said such things, I think you may wish to consider ceasing such slanderous insinuations. I believe it is less that we need to state everything we ever say is an opinion, and more that you Striker and certain others need to start considering that what we say is our opinion rather than believing we think we are objectively right about everything we say. As it stands, it feels more to me like some of you are seeing us in the worst possible light from the get go and it's tainting your judgment of us which ought to remain unbiased.

It's funny how desperate some posters are to counter this supposed 'minority' of players who have concerns about the direction of the game. In reality, I think they're so married to the game that they continue to see any feedback that isn't glowing praise as a personal attack. Interesting that we're supposedly such a minority but every thread that is even slightly critical of Endwalker is effectively camped by those with an apparent allergy to criticism of the game.



Yep. It's a real shame but it's hard to ignore the unfortunate fact that the development team have shifted their target audience to the point where they're rarely willing to throw a bone in the direction of those they once sought to cater to directly. Then again, maybe creating an immersive and consistent game world was a lucky coincidence back in the day - limitations were even bigger back then which maybe meant more focus on making the game feel 'lived in' and 'consistent'.

Indeed. You'd think that if we were such an insignificant "always negative minority" they'd possess no motive to combat us so fiercely.

Curious indeed.....

There is a difference between having concerns and flat out being rude or being a naysayer that thinks the game does nothing right. Otherwise, the entire point of a forum is debate.

Tone is everything. It's awful to imagine the developers going to a fanfest and having people say in person some of the things I have read on these forums that have been so rude.

Once again, none of us have ever said such things. What we have stated is that we believe many things are of much less quality than they were before. That Endwalker is an overall drop in quality in many respects is something many of us who are critical of it believe. However, very few of us have stated we believe it gets nothing right.

[Reap00]

I'm sorry I didn't know you owned this Forum.

You can defend Endwalker as long as you want. The story was sooooooo exciting that I don't even know where to start. How about all the scenes where we were eating?
The color of Joy Cutscene 2
At the end of the world
Friends Gathered Cutscene 1
Or with the Loporrits on the Moon. We travel to the Moon for Zodiac and end up with bunnies letting us do chores, try on clothes among others.
Or how about a Bunny named Puddingway? How cute that a bunny can think only about Pudding while the World is gonna end, so lets bring him down to Etheirys and show him some Pudding Recipes. We have time for everything ... no stress.

Should we praise SE for this?

Endwalker was mostly recycled material, with a questionable story. The monsters, the gear, the music, most things were not new. Over 2 years time and then we get just that? Corona or not, even with Corona SE made millions each month. Do you think they said to all those millions, no we don't take you, since we are in a pandemic right now? Can't we as customers not demand atleast that the story is good, when all else was just reused stuff?

The story ... lots of questions left:

Where did Dynamis suddenly came from?
Why did only Hermes knew about this?
How did he found out what Dynamis is and what it does?
How could he create Meteion so that she and all her sisters could survive in the Dynamis?
Why did Venat make it her very own Trial?
Why was Venat silent and preferred to just watch as Emet-Selch, Elidibus and Lahabrea destroy 7 shards and all life with them?
Why was the Moon advertised so boldly and then was a total disappointment?
Why isn't Zodiark in the Unending Codex? Or Elidibus as the heart of Zodiark?
Why are we now fighting the Twelve in the Aglaia Raid? What kind of sense does it make? We start the New Story (Newfound Adventure) as Adventurerer to fight the Gods?
Why is Yoshi acting like Garlemald deserves this ending? Isn't that a bit presumptuous to say, "Some of the Garleans did a terrible thing, so let's completely destroy Garlemald." It's like wiping out an entire country just because some people have done something evil there. Where's the logic in that?

Endwalker was fantastic. The forums are a very small minority of complainers. The story is not questionable because you have that opinion. I know it is a shocker. This is a part of life you will have to come to grips with as you grow into maturity.