Evaluating "Endwalker" - A Comprehensive FFXIV Retrospective
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- Ahead of Final Fantasy XIV's newest expansion "Dawntrail" releasing this Friday, I wanted to give a retrospective of my overall thoughts on Endwalker.
This video is a little less planned out than my FFXVI video and as you might be able to tell from my voice, I'm sick--but I just wanted to get these thoughts out there before we move on to Tural!
Looking for an FC? Here is my FC's community finder page: na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...
0:00 - Intro
2:30 - Base Expansio nStory
20:54 - Patch Storyline
25:45 - Dawntrail Story Concerns
29:10 - Gameplay/New Content/Changes to Old Content
37:48 - Closing - Ігри
I mostly agree with your takes, honestly.
I have some vague recollection that Endwalker was supposed to play out over 2-3 expansions but that since Shadowbringers was so popular they smooshed it into one so everyone would go into it excited. That was the wrong move.
I think we should have had two:
One being a Garlemald expansion dealing with the Towers, Fandaniel, Zenos. We learn Fandaniel is Amon and this revelation has time to breathe and sit with us. Amon is someone we've known since the game came out and his creations have been penultimate or final raid bosses over the years. We needed more time with him. End this expansion on the Moon with us killing Zodiark, post-patch content is the Final Days coming to the world where we revisit old locations where people are turning into monsters. A leader of one of the original three cities dies permanently.
Second expansion: We go to Thavnair and help them deal with the Final Days then, to end everything, we go back in time to Elpis, learn about Hermes and it ends with the Endsinger at Ultima Thule. Post-patch content is a victory lap that also sets up new storylines.
I think this would have worked way better.
Interestingly enough World of Warcraft, a game not famously known for its story, is doing its own Endwalker in an apocalyptic event that wraps up plot points from the last couple of decades. Their end times/wrap up story will be three expansions long because even they recognize they can't fit it all into one and have it land.
Thank you for giving me something to chew on while the servers are down. I don’t agree with some points, I agree with many others, and I found it all interesting. Editing and pacing are superb. I admire how much work you put into this.
Thanks for the view and happy adventuring in Dawntrail!
27:54 naw thats how you get wows msq which is super unengaging for me
Regarding stripping your power to make stakes higher again - they did that right before Heavensward if I remember correctly with Midgarsomr removing your link to Hydalin. I think them doing something where like... we lose the power of Azem somehow for some reason it could work maybe?
I'm really glad there's people that have the same views on this expac as I do. Not everything i agree with, but a lot of it I do. I was SO excited for endwalker after release. I'd loved the story and the game was in such an amazing position, with all the various content to go through, and I was so hopeful that endwalker's content patches would make it shape up to be the best expansion. But I can't really look past how disappointing every single patch was. Squenix's complete failure to provide their new content with interesting rewards and the utter lack of any sort of progression beyond leveling a job, was just so depressing. The completely rigid formula they've set themselves to is going to sadly be the downfall of this game. I've been trying to keep my hopes up for Dawntrail, but all the time i'm reminded of their stale structure and get worried that dawntrail will suffer all the same issues we've faced since Stormblood, hell, ARR too.
9:47
I don't really agree to this like you said, they are meant to be portrayed as human-like.
Just because they were a powerful god like race doesn't mean they are immune to emotions, or else the ascians wouldn't have done what they did. They feel fear, hope and those are represented there.
I also don't think that just because Elpis exists it invalidates the mistakes or sacrifices of Emet etc. In fact through Elpis you understand him way more as a character and the role he played and his position on the convocation.
Also your point about teleporting to Elpis to see them again doesn't really make sense from a narrative point because at the end he does show up again acknowledging you kicked his ass in ShB and that you are worthy of bearing the responsibility of carrying on the legacy they made. They don't really live happily in that pocket of time..
Good of you to show your love for the game by making a 40 min video though!
My point about being able to teleport was more in regards to alleviating some of the feelings of tragedy from a subconscious perspective. If I could visit an IRL afterlife and see loved ones, even from afar just to look at them now and again, it would make the tragedies of their passing a lot less impactful.
Endwalker has a strong second half for the story, the first half was a chore imo which funny enough was the opposite of FFXVI. The zenos body switching with you thing was so dumb and pointless, I still don’t get what it was for.
FF16’s gameplay teaches us a lot about Yoshi’s design philosophy considering how much it borrows from FF14, in the worst ways. The slow pruning of any choice or agency in FF14’s gameplay systems (job identity, TP systems, cross class skills, etc…). Some of these choices were good, some made the game incredibly sterile and then when you look at FF16 having basically no RPG systems, it starts to make sense. Those aforementioned systems needed work and progress, not thrown away altogether and replaced with 4 tanks that play identically, 4 healers that suck to play, and DPS that also play identically with 2 minute burst windows dominating the design. Sure, ARR monk was janky but it felt distinct to any mmo I’d played. It doesn’t feel that way anymore.
the flattening of the overworld is another thing. Layered map design like Black shroud is completely absent from any post ARR content in favor of dull, lifeless overworld with 0 charm or activity. Just automaton NPCs mindlessly droning around. Some places like Ultima Thule and Elpis are gorgeous but otherwise worthless to explore. I get it, it’s an mmo, but still. So much of what I fell in love with FFXIV for has been cut out and replaced with inoffensive, frictionless and heartless display pieces. I’ve been playing since 2.0 and the dungeons are similarly boring now. No sense of exploration or fun, just hallways broken up by trash mobs catering to the people running them over and over again instead of making a fun initial play through.
As far as the story, it was really good but it doesn’t hit the emotional highs Shadowbringers does because I frankly don’t care about Hydaleyn as a character like I cared about Emet or Elidibus since she’s barely there in non crystal form. Rehashing zenos and having some absurd anime fist fight in space was just gratuitous imo though. I guess I’m over the whole existential nihilism theme for JRPGS since we’ve been inundated with them. Endwalker does it well enough but Shadowbringers made me genuinely question why I was doing what I was doing and if it was worth it. Endwalker doesn’t. It’s an animal rights activist giving an obviously impossible question to ChatGPT 4.0 then losing his mind over it. Just hard to buy it.
3:38 Lyse and Hien have been retconned out of the story. They responded to stormblood critiques by just deleting people from the story. Lyse is an OG scion and gets no growth or time. Again, this instinct to react to any *friction* by completely scrapping the system/character is such a plague on the game. How many times have classes been completely reworked? How many times have they gone back and forth between “we’ll never do this content again” to “okay we’ll do it again.” Just really feels like since FF14 is basically the only thing Square has going for them they are terrified of doing anything radical or committed in fear of losing any subscribers.
9:42 OMG yes!!! Thank you!!! I thought I was going crazy. They were 10000 times cooler when they were this ancient communist society that progressed past class distinction, when they were just Emet’s illusion, this last breath of their society through the lens of someone who lived it, you got to make abstractions in your head. You got to imagine how their lives would have been. Fast forward to endwalker and it’s a bunch of guys dicking around in an open field doing nothing. Thats not an ancient advanced society. That’s a renaissance fair in some small Michigan town. so incredibly disappointing.
I guess in summation, I just dislike where the game is going. I’ve pre ordered ever single expansion and despite my reservations as early has HW seeing this trend, I was excited for launch day every single time. It’s one of my all time favorite games but I genuinely don’t know if I even wanna bother catching up to the current patch content to even play Dawntrail. Idk how many more hallway dungeons and “move out of circle” trial fights I have in me. Thanks for the video, you are a braver man than me for making this lmao. I hope you don’t get too much shit. Sentiment on endwalker post Zepla video seems to be swinging so hopefully you’ll avoid most of it
A new expansion is out and now a slew of videos come out that boil down to "Actually, Endwalker isn't that good" and it's almost always someone who thinks the story that plays out in their head is better than the one we got because of unrealistic/nonsensical expectations or they just didn't pay attention
I have a video on my channel from 2 years ago espousing the same thoughts in a less organized manner; so these thoughts are very much the same I've had since launch.
Ooooh, spicy take right off the start. I feel like I wanna give my takes as the video goes. Lemme keep editing this comment.
Edit 1: 4:20 dude, yeah. The Loporits, the twins' mother - Ameliance and father - Forchenault, Erenville, Montichaigne, fricken Hythlo, Jullus, Quintus, Venat!!, Vrtra, Nidhana, Matsya. Did none of these characters connect with ya?
Edit 2: 8:17 Well not really, depending on how the story went, we could have had Anima, Hydaelyn, or some other new trial at 84. Zodiark at lv 84 is frankly the last choice anyone predicted. I definitely see how that can be a disappointment to someone who has played this game for 10 years but honestly on hindsight, what did you expect? You really killed all hope of Zodiark being born with massive power in SHB, the actual zodiark fight was in 5.3 with the warrior of light because that's the heart of zodiark. Elidibus is the Venat of Zodiark. Zodiark was a shell after 5.3. What you fought in EW trial 1 was Fandanial.
Edit 3: 10:42 ah yes, who could forget Emet's fall from gays. Some say Hythlo is still there waiting for him, forsaken for eternity.
Edit 4: 12:08 Looks like someone didn't do their role quests. At that point in the story you are literally introduced to all the role quest givers to show you how every part of the world is affected and needs you help. And if you did do them you would get to meet Hien in the phys ranged role quest. So there that's 2 of your complaints solved in one missed aspect of the story. Even if you tell me oh that's side content, ain't nobody got time for that, you are still introduced to that aspect of the world in the main story and told how the rest of the world is affected so it's unfair of you to say we weren't shown the stakes of the situation.
Edit 5: 13:42 Okay so you know about but are just throwing a hissy fit about how the "story isn't exactly how I pictured it in my mind for 10 years", bud, nothing was going to be equal to the paradise in your mind. Your rant reminds me of those ancients who wanted to summon Zodiark to remake their perfect wo..... you're an Ascian! XD
Edit 6: 14:09 No, cause the world could be destroyed by then. I feel like you are being a jaded old meta player who lost all immersion in the story and just going through the motions at this point.
Edit 7: 15:02 Damn, tell us how you really feel.
Edit 8: 20:58 Yeah I disagree. Your character experienced the same things as you the person playing the game did, why would you expect the in game characters to feel differently from you? The entire point about Emet is that he was a good dude who did bad deeds, we put him down for his action but why must we hate him? Just like how we understood Emet's actions, don't you think the in game characters understood Emet too? Do you view in game characters as 2d no brain exposition spewers, or actual people with complex emotions?
Edit 9: 26:14 okay I'm gonna stop the video and watch it some other time but general thoughts so far: Ye no you experienced the story how you experienced it and I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with it but it does feel like you robbed yourself of a lot of good experiences because of the baggage you brought into the story instead of just experiencing the story.
Edit 10: 26:51 afaik you didn't agree to help her, just that we would visit the new world and see before making up our mind.
Edit 11: 29:09 Ye no fair point lol but I disagree that being a witness is just a better way of telling the story. It's cool if that's how you prefer it but not everyone does.
Edit 12: 40:03 Clap Clap Clap, hey gj on the vid. I had a lot I disagreed on but cool to see your vid. Glad you enjoyed the PVP changes, I did too. Hope you enjoy DT but goddamn man, when was the last time you took a break from FF it sounds like you desperately need one.
I agree with a lot of your takes on the main story of base Endwalker. A lot of it was lost on me. I disliked the time travel, I disliked the memory erasing, I disliked the explanation of the Final Days with a final boss shown at nearly the final hour of the video game, I disliked how the Final Days happened in only one area and didn't really affect anywhere else on the map, I disliked Ultima Thule execution. I was so shook when Thancred was gone, but then we focused on dragons and it became clear what was about to happen. I loved the Garlemald section - Jullus is probably one of my favorite side characters, in any video game. His story had me captivated way more than most of the things going on with main characters. The tones in Garlemald were excellent. I really wish they fleshed that out way more.
Seems we agree on almost everything! Thank you for the view and the comment.
8:47 -- Alright, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
The story of the allagans is a heartbreaking development, that Endwalker allows you to personally experience. And then, those same Allagans that you befriend being the Ascians you fought for literal years now, heightens the tragedy and loss that you experience through a kind of reverse-empathy here. Defeating Amon for the last time, and his speech about never finding the answer he was seeking, questioning if in the end the only true meaning to life, the only thing that connects people from across the entire world is their suffering and inevitable death. I actually cried during moments like that, and to have a character I had grown fond of in Ellipse die in front of me after that. Hell, the moment the story in Ellips went dark was impactful me too. It was true, cosmic horror at its peak for me. I'm just going to stop it here, because I know I'm going to spend the rest of the video disagreeing with everything you dislike about the game and its story.
The allagans or the ascians?
I came into this with anger, then watched the video in the entirety and frankly you've ruined Endwalker for me, purely because I realise you have a point and I'm starting to agree with it, I hate that I agree with it.
I feel new writers are important.
Everything in Garlemald was a massive disappointment. I wanted a proper modern metropolis to walk around in, see Garlean lifestyle, but it's just ruins full of people who hate anyone trying to help them for no reason. Elpis was cool but the story was badly executed. You appear small and need to be upscaled and aethered-up by Emet and then that's immediately forgotten, the WoL should have come back in time as a giant but no, they just made that scene just because, and because they already made the ancient shades tall.
The Elpis story was stupid too. Emet and Hythlo just stand there to let their memories get wiped instead of flying through the gate out, and they have plenty of time to easily escape. Venat does nothing with her countless days/months/years/decades/centuries of time to use her high standing in the Ancient society to change things up, or to prepare for the attack, maybe make an army of a million Meteion-like drones who can hunt her down while using dynamis for power? But no, I guess doing nothing and then becoming the ultimate villain of the story is fine too. Zodiark also felt so wasted, he has no agency and neither does he ever do anything bad in the story. He gets summoned, does exactly as told and then gets attacked by some crazy woman and stomped into 14 parts for no reason whatsoever.
Venat really was the big bad and I'm glad she's dead, but the story for some reason didn't allow me to call her out on all the monstrous things she did. Like imposing 10,000 years of intentional suffering on everyone just because.
There's also that moment where Emet looks to the camera and tells you, the player, not to unsub because there's still this list of things the game can go to, which was both so immersion ruining and hilarious to see.
As much as I also would have liked to see Garlemald in that state, seeing it in ruins was a nice subversion of expectations for me. It also really sold the narrative of "even the foe we've been scared of so long is NOTHING compared to this bigger threat"