Endwalker is pretty great

[Theodric]

I wouldn't consider Island Sanctuary to be the equivalent of either Bozja or Eureka. It's closer to the garrisons of World of Warcraft, a feature added to that game back in 2014.

Bozja and Eureka revolve around combat. Island Sanctuary revolves around clicking on nodes and then navigating menus to get the opportunity to wait for a timer to conclude.

It's also largely solo focused. Even if you invite someone to your island, there's not much the guest can actually do. At least when it came to Bozja and Eureka you had that sense of 'bringing the server together' as they worked towards shared goals. Ishgard's reconstruction system captured something similar and we got that in addition to Bozja!

[Kaurhz]

At any rate...

The story I like in terms of thematic, but I don't think it was able to really reach a good balance between threat/urgency and otherwise more 'lighthearted' moments, which is where the base story for Shadowbringers really hit the nail on the head. For the most part, I attribute this to the simple fact that Endwalker was crunched into a single expansion, and Shadowbringers didn't really give an appropriate build-up for this. I think it was sort of obvious that the initial build-up was done with 2 expansions in mind. Had they had the proper build-up, it could have been better

The portrait system is great, though I do want to see it expanded upon, as per https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ishment-Plates

I like IS, but it does need some more ongoing updates, which I hope they'll continue to do. It's different strokes for different folks. I personally do prefer it over exploratory content, seeing as they've been doing exploratory in some fashion since 2015, so a break from this is appreciated. Granted, I would have liked to see the relics be more diversified than just tomes - But in the same vein, this is nice motivation to work on hunts.

[Stormpeaks]

The two Endwalker ultimates stand as the greatest ones to date

I am pretty certain that most of my friends actually found it the most boring ones, however I respect your opinion if you found it that amazing.

The portrait system is super fun

It literally breaks all the time, it's one of the absolute worst systems that is in the game right now, you cant even change glams without breaking it, sometimes when getting in/out of content, it also breaks, sure, the idea is fun, the implementation however...

Crystalline Conflict has been a massive improvement over The Feast

CC is 100% better, but then again that wasnt hard, feast is terrible, still balance is still not the best, but CC is better I agree.

Side Content
Orthos and Island Sanctuary I consider equivalent to the past expansions' equivalents in Bozja and the like. It largely comes down to a matter of taste as to which one strikes your fancy.

Lol I'm very sorry what ? Orthos and IS comparable to Bozja Eureka ? Not in any way, in particular IS, IS is literally an automated farm that you visit one every week or week and a half, how is this a good comparison ?

Endwalker's Story

I wont talk on the story as I dont follow it, but it seem mostly negative from what I hear from friends and read from the forums

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I wouldn't call IS being comparable to Bozja. Current Diadem IMHO is closer to that plus squadron mission(s).

You either grind for it solo (squadron command missions & gathering in Diadem)… or leave them on ‘auto’ then come back next day to pick up your reward (squadron, again).

In Bozja, nothing in there ‘plays the game for you’. The only identical part is they’re an instanced zone.

[Boblawblah]

I think IS has the potential to be fun, but it's never going to be a replacement for grindy content like Bozja, it was made for a different type of player.

I'm a very casual solo/story player, so for me Endwalker was fun. I didn't actually like the story the first time, I got frustrated with parts of the story and let that taint my whole enjoyment of it, but when I played it again, I tried to get into it more and enjoyed it quite a bit more. As for everything else (pvp, higher difficulty raids, etc) they don't interest me, but I'm glad they're there for people that do like them.

[Saraide]

I'd hate for SE to come away from these forums with the wrong impression, so I'm going to do something pretty rare and illustrate why this expansion has been a major success.

Dont think you need to worry about that really. Public opinion isnt swayed either way by what forum posters have to say, if anything it's the other way around.

[Atelier-Bagur]

"Um naw youre pretty wrong. Endwalker is not so great"

On a serious note, to me EW has brought some good new ideas for the game;

The pvp revamp and new game mode, duty support for msq dungeons, portraits, some needed QoL features, Island Sanctuary, Variant/Criterion Dungeon, New Deep Dungeon etc.

At a perspective, its actually pretty nice, the only issue is that most of the big feature stuff didnt land as good as it shouldve making the expansion look "lackluster". Emphasis on "look".

Its why I think of it as investments as the idea that this content grows to become something really good in the future.

[VentVanitas]

The portrait system is super fun

the portrait system is the most bugged shit EW has dropped so far. Sometimes your portraits can just break for no reason even when you make zero changes to your glamour plate or gear set. Why do adventurer plate portraits not break when I make changes to my gear set/character, but regular portraits do? It's inconsistently designed.

The recently added restrictions for portraits (having to show your char's face) ruined a lot of the portraits and pose ideas I previously had too, all because a handful of jackasses decided to ruin it for everybody involved and show their ugly character's rear end.

[Gemina]

the portrait system is the most bugged shit EW has dropped so far. Sometimes your portraits can just break for no reason even when you make zero changes to your glamour plate or gear set. Why do adventurer plate portraits not break when I make changes to my gear set/character, but regular portraits do? It's inconsistently designed.

The recently added restrictions for portraits (having to show your char's face) ruined a lot of the portraits and pose ideas I previously had too, all because a handful of jackasses decided to ruin it for everybody involved and show their ugly character's rear end.

The bugs involved with the portrait system doesn't take way that it was still a nice feature to implement that no one was asking for, but many enjoy. They just need to fix it so it is less cumbersome and more user friendly. I've seen players do many creative things with their poses, which tells me those particular players are having fun with it.

Your face being a requirement is a given. That restriction should have been in place from the get go. I've still seen portraits with players getting around it though. Just requires a little more creativity. As an example I just recently saw a DRG in a duty and his portrait just showed his lance with a ghostly effect from the lance's particle effect and background used to hide his face. I believe he was using one of the backgrounds locked behind content.

[IDontPetLalas]

The bugs involved with the portrait system doesn't take way that it was still a nice feature to implement that no one was asking for, but many enjoy. They just need to fix it so it is less cumbersome and more user friendly. I've seen players do many creative things with their poses, which tells me those particular players are having fun with it.

Your face being a requirement is a given. That restriction should have been in place from the get go. I've still seen portraits with players getting around it though. Just requires a little more creativity. As an example I just recently saw a DRG in a duty and his portrait just showed his lance with a ghostly effect from the lance's particle effect and background used to hide his face. I believe he was using one of the backgrounds locked behind content.

I would agree that the bugs don't detract from the concept of a portrait, however for the "many" that enjoy it there could equally be many that don't , given the number of default portraits that show up. So as a number of people have said, there are multiple usability issues that should be addressed.