Endwalker story sucks. Spoilers

[Albertacanady]

SPOILERS ALERT


I don't even know where to begin. There are so many plot holes that the number is countless. I asked someone if there were fillers and I was told no the story was amazing and it had no fillers. I spent what felt like 10 hours going back and forth on the map during quests which require you to walk (and not use your mount) from one spot to another - an intentional time sink amounting to hours. Several hours talking about food with dialogue no one should give a shit about if they value their time the least bit. Then you have the big bad dude of the last few expansions; responsible for millions of deaths just casually walking around spouting cringy dialogue about wanting to duel the warrior of light and only living for the spirit of competition. People ignore him because that is what he deserves for looking and talking stupid the way he has been since the start.

One of the final cutscenes involves a ship pooping out primals (bosses from the past) to propel itself forward lol. And then of course the most evil villain of them all is an underage girl created by an old guy as a "Pet" - the most cliche of clichest characters in a weeb fantasy you can imagine. They also used the excuse of "barren planets" to give us zones with literally nothing on them - very similar to bozja where it was an ugly wasteland. And they keep doing this because they get to increase profit margin year after year meanwhile people swallow this garbage whole and then thank them for it.

The cutscenes are also rehash of previous cutscenes with same clothing and facial expressions; you can tell an absolute minimum was put into this expansion. Actually there are no facial expressions in this game. I am not making it up - the game lacks actual facial expressions and the only way they show anger is with a squint and they show joy by having characters jump up and down. Zero facial expressions outside of that. They could have invested money into few good CGI cut scenes with real expressions and menace. Instead you have this ridiculous pacing and a story line that makes no sense and is completely out of sync. You know that they are capable of doing better because right in the end there is 10 seconds of physical contact and weapon clash. And there are emotions present in some dialogue avatars. Outside of that they don't want to bother rendering. So not only are they repeating the animations and models but the story itself is repeated over and over. And it makes you wonder what the writer was doing the last four years. I am being very generous here. This review is after years of being brain washed to like something and say nothing negative about it.

Active Thread Warnings:
Let's keep the "Game vs. Game" rhetoric to a minimum, there's no real need to bring WoW-related discussion into a criticism of the Endwalker story-arc.

[Ryzeth]

Pretty terrible take tbh.


Protip: If you try and break it down into edgy points like this, you can make an argument for every story in the history of ever, sucking. Your entire thing just comes across as low quality bait.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

One of the final cutscenes involves a ship pooping out primals (bosses from the past) to propel itself forward lol.

I thought it was an okay cameo.

But yes, Endwalker is a mixed bag. Death by a thousand cuts. The pacing is really wonky, with long stretches where nothing happens (particularly Labyrinthos), and a ridiculous cutscene-to-gameplay ratio (as cool as Elpis was, it felt like I was watching a movie rather than actually playing a game). Rushed plotlines (Garlemald). Lack of tension because meaningful dies (like the scions or the nation leaders) or no zones we care about are trashed (Final Days should have taken place in Eorzea, not some new country we have little investment in). Messy retcons (Venat having prior knowledge of the future makes her look really bad when she does literally nothing to change the course of history, the introduction of yet ANOTHER power system in the form of Dynamis, etc). Last act is a lesser rehash of ShB's last act (heroes pursue the villain to a fantastical final zone and explore the ruins of a long dead civilization populated by shades, last dungeon is the heroes seeing the fall of said civilization while the villain narrates, pre-final trial cutscene is the Scions trying to talk down the villain as they get struck down one by one). The final, ultimate antagonist of the story came way too late and just doesn't have the charisma like her predecessors. Emet was blessed with a great voice actor and carried the final act of ShB. Zenos has been in the narrative since Stormblood so he would've been more impactful as the ultimate villain then some girl who was introduced 10 hours ago. And we're supposed to let the villain - who wiped out the rest of the universe - off the hook just because she is a little girl.

meanwhile people swallow this garbage whole and then thank them for it.

Depends on who you ask. Youtube, r/FFXIV, 4chan, Spacebattles, etc think that FFXIV is the bestest thing ever. You see more mixed opinions on Endwalker on MMO-C and the official forums.

[Tojara]

Not a big fan of Zenos in general and realistically speaking he could be absent from the story and everything would have transpired the same. The only thing they would've had to change was who arrived to save you at the end, which wouldn't have been difficult to come up with to be honest. I understand the point of his character and that in the stories context (about having a purpose in life) that he actually has one, but it still doesn't make him a good character.

The final boss was whatever. To me it wasn't amazing but it wasn't awful either. I'd still take Meteion as a final boss over Zenos though. The only way he would ever work for me is if they completely changed what transpired with him between the end of SB and all of EW. Him showing up and absorbing either of the major primals in EW would've been way too predictable, and boring IMO (and is probably what most people expected to happen).

Regardless, the rest of it was pretty good and I thought was mostly told well. As an individual expansion I think there are better entries in FF14, but considering it had the task of wrapping everything else up, it did it fairly well IMO. Which is a tall task in an age where the shark gets completely jumped trying to close out a story, and/or just never having a satisfying conclusion.

It's your opinion to have I guess, but yeah, if you break things down into individual points without a lot of the context you can make anything really seem like shit. It's still as a whole a really good story if you have the patience to sit through it all.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I think the overall problem with Endwalker is that it does not fulfill the expectations that early FFXIV promised. ARR and HW have a very different scope and tone than later FFXIV. In ARR, the fate of all existence is not at stake. People are not having existential crises over vague questions like "what is the meaning of life"? and such. You just have this fantasy world with different countries that are having problems with beast tribes, and then this empire starts invading so you're fighting against them. That's it. And then when the empire is repelled, people go back to their feuding, with Ul'dah being in the midst of an economic crisis and a political power struggle. But then later on, people's local problems are swept under the rug, everyone starts holding hands and singing "love and peace!", Organization XIII starts taking over the narrative, and the overall story starts becoming about fluffy feelings.

The EW trailers promised that there would be this huge, massive world wide apocalypse with millions of monsters everywhere, and meaningful character deaths, but I suppose I should have known better given all of the fakeout deaths and the lack of consequences over the years.

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The final boss was whatever. To me it wasn't amazing but it wasn't awful either. I'd still take Meteion as a final boss over Zenos though.

See, Zenos to me at least fits the setting (or earlier FFXIV, at least). Liberating kingdoms from a blood thirsty glory hound who tortures their inhabitants to try to create a warrior who will threaten him? Fine. It's yet another formulaic arc of One Piece but that's okay. Him doing it again but on a global level? Eh, okay I'll roll with it.

Girl throws temper tantrum over the course of tens of thousands of years, wiping out all other life in the universe, because a guy told her to ask "what is the meaning of life?" and becoming the embodiment of despair? Uhhh, this sounds like a Kingdom Hearts plot.

considering it had the task of wrapping everything else up, it did it fairly well IMO.

Many the questions that Shadowbringers raised remained unanswered after Endwalker. Why can't Garleans channel aether? Why was Zenos having visions of the Final Days? How did the Unsundered escape the Sundering? Why did Azem not help Venat's group combat Zodiark? Etc.

[Calfredd]

SPOILERS ALERT

That's nice, Billy.

Girl throws temper tantrum over the course of tens of thousands of years, wiping out all other life in the universe, because a guy told her to ask "what is the meaning of life?" and becoming the embodiment of despair? Uhhh, this sounds like a Kingdom Hearts plot.

She was literally designed and created to be an Empath, connected to her other Empath units, and it wasn't the course of tens of thousands of years; she was hit by all those emotions at once when the other ones finally made their report. She wasn't drip-fed despair and depression, it was shoved down her throat. You have a tendency to be overly simplistic and pessimistic when it comes to most topics (haven't checked if you are the same with your unknown and underground Trials of thread).

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It's still as a whole a really good story if you have the patience to sit through it all.

Eh. I think entertainment has a responsibility to waste as little of the audience's time as possible. And Endwalker wasted a lot of time, IMO. This was the longest expansion MSQ so far, but I don't feel like we actually got more stuff of substance. In fact, it feels like the story became even more decompressed than it already was. There are good moments here and there, like the tensions with the Garleans, or the first 1/3rd of the moon arc when stuff was actually happening, but there is just too much slog in between each. I came to Thavnair to infiltrate and destroy a tower, not to do chores for elephant people. I came to the moon to kill bad guys, not get taken on a 2 hour long tour by rabbits. Why am I moving boxes in Labyrinthos? The Sharlayans have staff who can do that. If the spaceship isn't ready yet, then I'm either going to go help fight the final days in the rest of the world, or rest in my room while I can. And so on. It's starting to feel like the Witcher, where people say "it has 100 hours of content!" but is that 100 hours of good content? Or is it 20 hours of good content and 80 hours of mediocre to so-so stuff that wastes your time when you could be enjoying other good entertainment?

If I have to "sit through" something, that implies it shouldn't really be there in the first place.

[Maljinwo]

The only thing dissapointing on Endwalker were the Final Days
I expected more out of them

It did wrap up the story in a good way. Sure, there are some nitpicks. But that's ll they are. Nitpicks

[Tojara]

That's more or less alluding to 'sitting' through every expansion. Even the biggest advocates for this game who think it can do nothing wrong would probably still admit that there's a lot to get through. There are times the story is crippling slow, and the best way to enjoy EW in it's entirety is to pay attention to the story from the start. I think it's worth it, but at the same time I don't fault people for realizing how many raw hours it takes to get through the story. That last part is more for those trying it for the first time, it's a lot to get through. If you've kept up with it over the years than that's an entirely different story.

IDK I don't watch anime or any cartoons really. I do know however from playing a lot of FF games that they do eventually transcend the typical adventurer shit and delve into deep shit beyond just conquering nations, so it's not like I wasn't expecting something of that level to happen. Did I want more from the End of Days? Yeah, but the story was centered around stopping the End of Days. I doubt they wanted to do anything crazy in regards to destruction in previous non EW zones because this game is full of spaghetti code and probably would've broken the game to be honest. Easier to show shit going crazy in new zones I suppose.

[Mojo03]

I mean, you can make anything sound terrible if you word it the right way and you seem to be doing that.

I thought it was good for FF14 and I’m not a big fan of the story of FF14.

I felt more engaged overall with this one than I did with the others.

I’d totally agree 40ish % of it was super mediocre to bad though (mostly the bunnies, labyrinthos, end of days sections)

And also that they flopped Zenos storyline hard.

On the plus side, I think the highs were higher and more often than previous expacs.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Did I say Endwalker was terrible? I said I thought it was a mixed bag, and that it ultimately wasn't what I expected. Despite that, the game was good enough for me to stick with it through the end, which says something when I have a backlog of other games I could have been playing (and wouldn't had to have played early in the morning or very late at night to avoid hour long queues).

I am curious as to what comes next. If they stick with the current direction of the game, I'm unsure if I'll make it through the next saga, but FFXIV has more going for it than the MSQ. Or at least, it did. We seem to be getting less and less content outside of the MSQ with every expansion, perhaps the next livestream that reveals that future of the game will be promising.

[xmirrors]

It is carried hard by masterfully crafted emotional scenes (which are, themselves, carried hard by Soken's brilliant score) and fanservice; they are what people are going to remember. Same as Shadowbringers.

It's a great story, though. It is a slog gameplay-wise to go through at points, but there is always something going on story-wise that makes you want to keep going. I almost wish it wasn't an MMO so they could tell the story without trying to fit in out-of-place MMO-style quests. Alas, I was satisfied with what we got. Nothing will ever be perfect and there are things I wish were done differently (like the Final Days...a true tragedy that only Radz-at-Han and briefly Garlemald had any in-game events) but the overall package was fantastic.

I hate to be an EW simp but the fact is that it remains the highest rated FFXIV expansion and this is including the fact that there were massive server/queue issues and sales had to be stopped.

[Devilyaki]

As troll of a post this was I did agree with some points. The start and end of each zone were great, the middle dragged on.

[Drindorai]

The laziest flame thread of all time by somebody not brave enough to post on their actual account.

Well done you've surely done something this day.

Also funny to see Val in here spreading their negativity as usual on a blatant troll post. Every single time you see Val whining about the story, which is like every other post, it's because their terrible headcanon didn't come true.

Go back to whining that people on some discord were mean to you OP.

Although I guess this thread, for as obvious a flamebait troll one that it was, fits right in with MMO-Champion or some people on the subreddit. So well done on that regard.

I did laugh at this though:

You see more mixed opinions on Endwalker on MMO-C and the official forums.

Ah yes the worst dens of fucking toxicity and garbage don't like a thing. Shocker.

I love that people like Val can't be bothered to even be honest about a character like Meteion. They have to reduce everything about them to some one sentence thing to complain about them. It would give their argument an iota of merit if they bothered to actually engage with what that character and story were actually doing.

[Nask]

The laziest flame thread of all time by somebody not brave enough to post on their actual account.

Well done you've surely done something this day.

Also funny to see Val in here spreading their negativity as usual on a blatant troll post. Every single time you see Val whining about the story, which is like every other post, it's because their terrible headcanon didn't come true.

Go back to whining that people on some discord were mean to you OP.

Although I guess this thread, for as obvious a flamebait troll one that it was, fits right in with MMO-Champion or some people on the subreddit. So well done on that regard.

I did laugh at this though:



Ah yes the worst dens of fucking toxicity and garbage don't like a thing. Shocker.

Game not perfect = toxic. What a joke of a shill you are. Have you done your daily prayer to SE? Will you suck them off when NFTs come?

[Drindorai]

Game not perfect = toxic. What a joke of a shill you are. Have you done your daily prayer to SE? Will you suck them off when NFTs come?

Please point to where I ever said the game was perfect.

Thanks for trying.

There are a number of things to criticize Endwalker over. I've talked about them in other threads. In my opinion Garlemald didn't work for what they were trying to do with it, for example.

But that doesn't mean this joke of a thread has any merit.

Although I'm glad to see we can just call people shills now without being infracted. Good ole consistent moderation at work.

Also NFTs are a fucking joke and if they actually add them in the game I will stop supporting it. Thanks for assuming my opinion though. You should go back to attacking anyone criticizing current WoW, at least you're marginally better at it than this.

[Lochton]

Endwalker is not great but it ain't bad either, I cannot give a final conclusion until the patches are done.

[Nask]

Please point to where I ever said the game was perfect.

Thanks for trying.

There are a number of things to criticize Endwalker over. I've talked about them in other threads. In my opinion Garlemald didn't work for what they were trying to do with it, for example.

But that doesn't mean this joke of a thread has any merit.

Although I'm glad to see we can just call people shills now without being infracted. Good ole consistent moderation at work.

Also NFTs are a fucking joke and if they actually add them in the game I will stop supporting it. Thanks for assuming my opinion though. You should go back to attacking anyone criticizing current WoW, at least you're marginally better at it than this.

Want to try a bit harder?

[Drindorai]

She was literally designed and created to be an Empath, connected to her other Empath units, and it wasn't the course of tens of thousands of years; she was hit by all those emotions at once when the other ones finally made their report. She wasn't drip-fed despair and depression, it was shoved down her throat. You have a tendency to be overly simplistic and pessimistic when it comes to most topics (haven't checked if you are the same with your unknown and underground Trials of thread).

That is literally all Val does on this subforum. Thank god other people see it too. It's some cursed WoW Pyromancer energy where because their awful headcanon of what they want the story to be didn't happen, it's bad. And they will twist and turn and pretzel logic every single thing into some insanely overly simplistic pessimistic point to continue to complain about it.

- - - Updated - - -

Want to try a bit harder?

Not really no, because I know you're as dishonest an actor as the OP. Especially from someone defending current WoW. So I have no desire nor need to prove anything to someone like you lol.

[Nask]

That is literally all Val does on this subforum. Thank god other people see it too.

- - - Updated - - -



Not really no, because I know you're as dishonest an actor as the OP. Especially from someone defending current WoW. So I have no desire nor need to prove anything to someone like you lol.

I am sure you can do better, try again.