The Rising made me realize something.

[CuteBucket]

I will say it every chance it's relevant: Endwalker should have been two expansions. An Ilsabard expansion dealing with the final defeat of the Garlean Empire and the political fallout from that event, which then would lead into an expansion dealing with the Final Days and solving the fate of the Ancients. Both these stories needed far more time than they got. I liked Endwalker but it also drives me insane at how rushed it all was. I really liked us going from fighting Garlemald to rescuing them from crisis. I'm one of the players that LOVED "In From The Cold" and wished it had more consequence than it ended up having. I really like the concept of Meteion and learning the truth of the Ancient world and how things came to be. Endwalker gave me so many things I love and yet it also disappointed me at how little breathing room it had. It's such a love/hate relationship.

And then with the patch content, especially the Myths of the Realm raid, it just felt like this slap in the face of all of the world building and lore I'd come to love and get invested in over the years. It's not even that we got our answers to the mysteries--it's that as soon as we got our answers, anything and everyone involved in those answers is killed off and shoved off stage. No chance for further story. No chance to have our answers point us in a new direction and lead us to more story. The solving of one mystery could easily lead into another. Getting an answer to a mystery doesn't have to be unsatisfying if its done well. But they really did just decide to solve everything, and now there's no mystery.

Tempering? Oh that's just warped creation magic the Ascians taught people. We can fix it now. Except when we forget we can fix it.

Hydaelyn and Zodiark? We finally get to see them and speak to them! What could that mean for the future of-- Aaaaand they're dead, never mind.

The Twelve? Oh yeah, those were Hydaelyn's old buddies. Technically they already died, she just made some imaginary friends from the remnants of their souls she ate to become Hydaelyn in the first place. Interesting concept though, if you think about it. But we won't explore that at all. All the gods are now suicidal for some reason except for one because Hydaelyn is gone, I guess. Oh, you wanted them to matter or do anything? No, see, that's part of the old lore and the Ancients, and even though we made a whole expansion about hope and perseverance and that life is beautiful and worth living, all of the ancient characters and anything related to them have to die now, because...uh...mankind is worthy now! We don't need them anymore, so they might as well die, apparently! (can you tell I hate how they handled a lot of these characters?)

[DonutSteel]

What did Dawntrail introduce to fill this void? Nothing. We wrapped up just about everything. There's some lingering questions on what to do with the people of Solution 9 and their horrible regulator system, I guess? That's not really a threat or mysterious, though. We have the Azem Grail, but there's not much urgency or mystery behind it, because we already know what it does.

What is mysterious about Tural? Nothing. We solved every mystery it (barely) gave us. What is dangerous about Tural? Nothing. We killed the one war-mongering guy and stopped the extra-dimensional AI teenager that appeared and wanted to eat everyone's souls. Tural doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy nation because it lacks this mystique and wonder all the other nations have. It feels like a Disneyland dark ride with a companion in the same seat as you that won't shut up the entire ride.

What stings is so many of the questions left unanswered are mostly stuff that someone should have questioned immediately or knew the answer to. Nobody did simply because the plot didn't want us to and moved us along to the next thing.

The Twelve? Oh yeah, those were Hydaelyn's old buddies. Technically they already died, she just made some imaginary friends from the remnants of their souls she ate to become Hydaelyn in the first place. Interesting concept though, if you think about it. But we won't explore that at all. All the gods are now suicidal for some reason except for one because Hydaelyn is gone, I guess. Oh, you wanted them to matter or do anything? No, see, that's part of the old lore and the Ancients, and even though we made a whole expansion about hope and perseverance and that life is beautiful and worth living, all of the ancient characters and anything related to them have to die now, because...uh...mankind is worthy now! We don't need them anymore, so they might as well die, apparently! (can you tell I hate how they handled a lot of these characters?)

Hard agree on some of the Twelve. Most of them ended up ranging from harmlessly milquetoast to downright insulting if you know anything about some of their followers. The designs were decent though.