Replayability and rewatchability for Solo Instances

[Carin-Eri]

My thoughts drifted back to this thread this morning - I was watching a streamer reaction video of the solo instance Vs Zenos at the edge of the universe and again found myself wishing I could simply click something in-game and play it myself.

And again, I know it is possible to replay via New Game+ but... as much as I adore Endwalker, I don't really want to play through the entire second-half of it with replaying that one fight as my primary motivation.

[Shistar]

They pulled this same stunt with Anima. Just showing off a really cool boss we assume is a big trial and it wasn't. Endwalker messed around with our expectations on this front, however.

SHB had an Lost City of Amdapor boss as a big bad in its trailer, and it wholly unrelated to that dungeon in the game outside of light themes. Even the gremlin's lines were actually things Emet-Selch would later taunt us with.

That model happens to be the same they use for the sin eater that kills Tesleen, Forgiven Dissonance, which we later get to kill in Holminster Switch. Not a major boss, but one that did have some emotional impact if that scene got a reaction out of you.

[Espon]

I didn't find Vali disappointing, as much as I found them paling in comparison to the much cooler solo duty in the same leg of the story, Gulool Ja Ja was, by every metric, the Turali counterpart to the Warrior of Light, and the feeling of facing against someone who is essentially one of your predecessors is amazing, it was amazing against Venat, it is amazing here.

Though thinking about it, I feel you might be right that Vali would've been a better final boss, like maybe their presence could also serve to better explain Gulool Ja Ja showing up at the Golden City, other than "Gulool just planned to follow the winners all along", like maybe he had gone to Yak T'el to fight Vali again, maybe even planning a heroic sacrifice to take them down once for all, since he was by now depowered without the Head of Reason and even at their peak they could only seal Vali away, but then Wuk Lamat and Koana, with the Scions' help(including WoL as "the Scions" to be clear, WoL IS a Scion even if the term is broadly used to refer to the group outside of them), manage to strike down Vali without any losses, and Gulool gets to feel this absolute sense of pride in his children.

I was kinda expecting Gulool Ja Ja to be the second trial as the final challenge. They could of easily made Zoraal Ja the final boss and pushed Eternal Queen to the 7.2 trial (Zelenia could take a hike). Might of even made the story flow better.

I'm expecting a Gulool Ja Ja fight in the final alliance raid, though. There's a reason Sareel Ja summoned a younger version of him, and I doubt it was just to show him off. Plus, FF11 also had a Gulool Ja Ja that lead the mamool ja in that game.