Just want to throw this out here... it seems a lot of comments disagree with my opinion on the story, which is fine, I don't dislike the story of EW as I said, I just had some problems with it, I do wish I went into more depth to explain myself better, and about that. This video was intended to be much longer with very in-depth analysts on everything Endwalker related, talking 2-3 hour run time, but I stressed that I wouldn't finish that in time before Dawntrail release, or I would get it out just before when nobody would care... so I shortened the script down to be about an hour long... in wake of that, there is of course some things I just didn't give enough time to talk about or explain, Endwalker is a large expansion and talking about all the details in a 1 hour video doesn't do it 100% justice. but yeah... just wanted to explain that! I'll continue to give my critique and praise to FF14 going into DT and I'll learn more to be a better critique in general, so please have patience with me, this is for first real attempt at a review, so they'll get better over time, surely!
I am blown away by how many people seem to think the Scions' "deaths" in the 6.0 finale were supposed to be fakeout deaths. They weren't. The Scions knew the WoL could and would bring them back. Y'shtola and Urianger even say as much. The game makes no effort to hide this from the player. The Scions did what they did to clear the way because they trusted the WoL to finish the job.
When we say they were fakeout deaths means that we knew they were coming back anyway because this story will always go for the safe route and power of friendship stuff. Fakeout deaths not from a lore point of view.
It should’ve been communicated more clearly, but they knew that Thancred was still alive, just that his aether had been dispersed and he wasn’t in a physical form anymore. But the scions were willingly putting themselves at risk of annihilation to help the WoL reach Meteion. There was no guarantee it would work, thus it was a huge sacrifice to make. It’s like they were all putting a loaded gun to their heads.
@@MatsuzoSF in this case it is. But really how people call it is not important at all. The bottom line is that we all knew they would come back soon because the writers always play it safe, which made those deaths have no impact on a lot of players.
Exactly. Thancred's scene in Shadowbringers was a fakeout death. EW's was very much an end of story character sacrifice series that's relatively common in RPGs.
I really am curious to know how Endwalker will be viewed in the years to come, going from 7.0 to 8.0 especially. Endwalker was so many firsts for me in Final Fantasy 14: My first raid tiers, my first post patch cycles, community events, live letters, and my first ever MMO, that I am eternally grateful to now be a part of, and to have made some of the best friends I’ve ever had the pleasure of making, such as yourself Azu. Sure a lot of it was far from perfect, nor do I think my biased perspective is one that’s best for the games future, being that category of a still relatively new player growing into a veteran role, and I know people way smarter than myself can talk about how FF14’s future can learn from what was lack luster in Endwalker, but I know I’m going to look back at my time with Endwalker will be some of the best times of my life. Nor can I wait for what the future of Dawntrail.
I agree with you, I've been playing for 18 months, a lot lol but I started after the release of Endwalker. I quite enjoyed Endwalker but like you said we were kinda sprouts 🌱 and I can understand long time veterans were maybe a bit disappointed. I'm happy you said cliché in the video because I listened to another video about Endwalker and my first thought about Endwalker was the cliché parts. Maybe SE are afraid to go a little out there, idk but eye rolls aplenty. I wish people didn't default to cliché, it's predictable and boring. I also enjoy the gathering/crafting side of FF14 which never seems to be even a little bit important in the expansion experience roundup. I get that expert recipes have to be difficult, but I think they are ridiculously difficult, but I guess SE like rotations a lot. I have done them but I'm guessing most people didn't.
I’m a long term veteran and I absolutely loved it, considering what they had to do, and the expectations laid upon their shoulders I was thoroughly satisfied. The bits after the main story were a bit cronky but blah. Ultra hyped up for the Dawntrail changes especially the graphics and the luscious new zones! Hope you folks have a blast in two weeks! 🎉
It will be viewed favorably. Its patch cycle has been rough, its job design is boring, and its content is lackluster. However, future players will play through EW's story (which is solid) and not engage with its content much, so its flaws will be forgotten. At worst, people may feel the 6.1+ MSQ is rather weak. HW was also a complete mess when it was current but people have forgotten that now.
Every expac we have some video essay about how the current expac is the worst of the game the why "insert" previous expac was the best thing since sliced bread. Its part of the cycle. The raid scene literally died in Heavensward but it was the best expac baby. Shadowbringers had 1 ultimate no deep dungeon and the majority didn't like Bojza but it was the best expac baby. Like its crazy. Get ready for the video essay about how Island Sanctuary was the hidden gem of EW 2 years from now mark my words.
A extremely good conclusion for a saga. Everything in endwalker a pretty much simplified so people won't have to "grind out stuff" before moving onto the next expansion.
I feel like one of my biggest critiques of the Endwalker story was the fact there were no major Scion deaths. I feel like the writers are too scared to kill off the scions permanently, which I feel like they should have at least killed like one or two of them in Endwalker (it is a finale after all). As gruesome as it is, I hope at some point soon we see some of these older characters exiting the story, otherwise they'll just be taking the spotlight away from the new cast that should be getting it instead. Story's still good, I am not gonna quit the game for them not killing Thancred or whatever, but it feels disingenuous at this point whenever expecially Y'shtola "dies" because I am just going to expect her to pull her ass out of the grave for the *fourth* time. If I know none of my favorite characters are in any danger, then the stakes are affected.
8:48 --- This was adressed in one of the media tour interviews (I think the one with Preach) : apparently they want to stick to the formula because it makes timing easier for everyone. If you queue for a dungeon, you usually know how much time you need to set aside for it - which is super helpful if you dont have much time on your hands. You can call it boring, but it has some big advantages which shouldnt get overlooked.
Didn't Azurite essentially say in the vid that they'd be fine with keeping dungeon lengths the same as long as the content inside the dungeon was fairly new and interesting? I think they mentioned "no trash mobs, but have an extra boss" as one way of doing it.
I beg everyone saying "The patch content is wholesale copied from FFIV" to actually play FFIV. Its like Tezuka's Star System, actors are the same but the roles, story, etc are vastly different ((Shoot, you don't even face Scarmiglione at Mount Ordeals)).
@@MatsuzoSF tbf like 90% of FFXIV's playerbase has never touched another FF before, but that this one little lie has managed to spread so far built off nothing but having the same names (and not even most of them either) is wild.
i don't think the issue is that it copied it exactly. I think the issue is it was close enough that things were predictable in the game. People were saying zero was going to be a pld several patches before it happened. I don't think the patches were bad, but that part of it sucked along with imo it felt rushed at the end. Hopefully we will get more story later. Unless it ties in pretty quickly with dawntrail I think it would have benefited the arc to give it more time.
When people say this doesn't mean it is exactly like IV, but a lot of the things that happen develop in a very similar way. When you see fuckin Goblez talking to 4 entities, you already knew who the bosses were going to be. Even the devs knew we knew and didn't cover the names of the upcoming trials on the live letters. The fact that Goblez turns out to be good, Zero becomes a Paladin and of course we knew Zeromus was going to be the final boss. Predictable as fuck.
@@Punkadelic2112 Again I say actually (re)play IV. What are Golbez's motivations between the two games? Ze(ro)mus'? What was the structure of the story? A couple superficial similarities (similarities I might add were already played up in the marketing between ShB and EW) don't mean anything, the plot of 6.x and IV are vastly different, in fact I'd say HW is closer to IV's plot than anything in 6.x outside of having some of the actors of IV.
P1S was why I actually did Savage. If it had been harder, I just wouldn't have done Savage. I still don't do much, as I have no static and only want to do so much in PF, but thanks to P1S NOT being more difficult, I also did P2S and P5S. I've never done an at level Savage before this expansion, so imo, it was GOOD design, not bad design.
Endwalker's biggest sin was not having much replayability with its various content, it was the expansion I had to take the most amount of breaks, not because I wanted to, but because there was really nothing left for me to do at the time and I was just waiting for the next patch. But I'll say that overall it was a good expansion, with some lows (like the alliance raids) but with very high highs
At the very least it has plenty to go back and do once Dawntrail releases with Criterion and 2 Ultimate fights, but yeah stuff to actually keep us busy like a meaningful relic grind or exploration zone were just absent and it was a bit of a shame
On the topic of dungeons: I don't think that changing up the grouping scheme would make players feel different. I do think that introducing harder mechanics can wake people up in dungeons. I think if they introduce harder dungeons they should offer rewards that scale linearly, but are achieveable and not entirely meant to be spammable (I.E you wanna run it a few times for say, a specific gear piece or set). They could even let us toggle debuffs/buffs to place on the dungeon to let us scale rewards ourselves.
I cried during the walk because of the memories from the Quotes, didn't care about the scions since I knew they would come back. Agree on Barbie, I hadn't had so much fun in an EX since Titan Ex (ARR)! Really wish they made dungeons less...ehhh...the same? Learning 2 patterns for Carbuncle isn't much to ask until you do it with pugs...then is way too much!! WAYYY TOO MUCH!!
I really wish I did cry because I felt like I missed something but the story telling in that speificic department just un-immersed me, if that makes sense... the story writing is good, just that particular point, ugh T_T also try about party finder xD which is why I'd say P9S is one of the best first floors, because it's still challenging but it isn't as much to remember as Carby
this was a great video! I really love watching your videos I can tell you put a lot of passion into your vids! Keep up the awesome work! we are all cheering you on!
Aside from that, fairly good lookback at endwalker's content. You are kinda giving me the motivation to do ultimates, but I have to consider how much time I'll dedicate.
Honestly, this is mostly how I feel about Endwalker. There were a LOT of things I didn't like about EW, and it's honestly probably the only expansion of FF14 I actually disliked (I'm a Stormblood enjoyer). That being said, it accomplished it's goal of ending the story. It wasn't the ending I wanted, and the content was kinda meh, but it did what it set out to do so in that regard it was success. I'm going into Dawntrail with a bit more dread to be sure, especially after seeing the state of classes at the media tour, but we'll see how it goes.
As someone who's color blind, P3S made it impossible for me to beat. It sucked too because the PC version has a color blind setting but is missing in the console version of FFXIV " the version I play on" during the time before I got a steam deck. I hated that fight so much and I gave up during that raid tier
I felt exactly the same way about the ending of 6.0 with the lead up to Endsinger. Felt like all the heartfelt moments with the scions were hollow since I knew they weren't gone. Zenos saved the ending for me though. I was immediately back on board and excited when he barged in.
I didn't mind it as much with Graha and the twins because it seemed like they already caught on at that point that you cpuld bring them back, but Estinien and Yshtola/Urianger part annoyed me because it felt like the game was trying too hard to convince me they were dead.
@@UTO7for me it was the other way around, thancred and estinien were quite impactful (despite me knowing they would be back) but the moment y'shtola openes her mouth it completely ruines the entire section, i just wanted g'raha and the twins to get over with this shit so i coulď go beat up the endsinger
3:20 oh, you’re not the only one who didn’t shed tears during that moment. The possibility of Scions’ revival was too heavily hinted at, and so I was like, “yeah yeah, it’s all very sad, but I know we’re going to revive them soon enough”.
I agree a bunch when it comes to Abyssos Savage being so backloaded. These fights just felt so long and it became so easy to mess up towards the end with fatigue over a long night.
FFIV was my first final fantasy. There is so much more to it than what made it into Endwalker. Do yourself a favor and give it a go, it has such a fantastic story.
Just like I did in Shadowbringers, in Endwalker I beat the story, leveled my crafters, then peaced the hell out. It Dawntrail I *really* want to play all the new content at release instead of two years later lol.
I didn't do the last raid tier so my ranking excludes that, but this is my take on the floors I did do Favorites: P3S for it's prog, difficulty, and how fun it is after you've beaten it. I absolutely loved this fight and I really like the tradition of the third floor being a wall P4S Phase 2, it's just a really fun fight that's very pretty and I love how the last mechanic you're kind of just counting down and holding your breath that nobody makes a mistake. Phase 1 was also really fun, I'd probably put it up here too P8S Phase 1 was a really fun fight to prog and conquer. Phase 2 is also fun but not as fun as the others for reclears just because a lot of the mechanics are simple once you understand them. P2S I think is a very strong fight that does everything well in general. It's not too easy but not very hard either and is super interesting which is very fitting for being a second floor. P5S similar to P2S, it just does its job as a first floor really well and it's fun. I did get frustrated a little about how complicated people made Devour though. There's technically only two patterns but you can solve them both with the same logic but people get really mixed up about that. (Stand opposite of Carbuncle, watch the corner where the teeth move backwards, then just mirror its movement) Least Favorites: P6S and P7S. Just overall kind of slow fights, with not a lot going on most of the time. P7S in the first week or two was really fun and difficult, but when people discovered that marker trick and trivialized the mechanic it dropped a lot of what was interesting. It didn't help that the first half of the fight is very slow and simple too though
Dynamis and Hermes I think were the worst parts of Endwalker. Hermes's was a such a contradiction of disagreement with the norms of his people, while being seemingly ignorant of the true nature of what he disagreed with (death). Dynamis, which I wrap Meteion and all of Ultima Thule into, was also... just unrelatable. It came out of nowhere as this overbearing force of nature that is not understood, is overwhelming, and is a semi-tangible mechanism for the literal power of friendship. I agree that the Scions "dying" in Ultima Thule, didn't effect me at all - once I understood what actually happened to Thancred after Meteion explained it, it was just a big Ohhh ok, so he's not dead. Thancred's "death" after the fight with Ran'jit was far, far better and more convincing... even if it was fake. Then Estinien just solidified the assumption its going to happen to everyone. Its like ok, this is a nothing burger cuz they're not gone. The belief in that, and the rush of the whole concept of Dynamis and its consequences with Meteion, made the walk feel kinda forced. I know what they were trying to do, and it was a good way to do it, but the whole setting just didn't reinforce the impact for me. Garlemald was the best EW had to offer, by far. The human element and the psychological/emotional consequences of pride and war were expertly told. Very good stuff.
Hi Azurite I have a question, do you script your videos in preparation or do you do voice recording on the go with bullet points? Just curious on what most FFXIV TH-camrs do
This video in particular was fully scripted with maybe 1 or 2 extra lines of improvisation. For the most part my videos are scripted, but it depends on the content, my mentor roulette videos aren't scripted and I just narrate what's happening, same with my recent glamour video. But big high effort projects like this and guides are fully scripted to make it as consice as possible! That said I think having bullet points is a perfectly valid way to produce a video, even high effort ones, you just might catch yourself talking more fluff, but you can easily edit that out!
I actually don't think p10s is "difficult" perse. as in all the mechs are quite easy to solve with the hardest one being the guns i think. it's just the pace and combination of the mechs that make it difficult. but it was one of the fastest fights i learned. with the caveat that i still make mistakes sometimes because those combinations really get you (especially the ball lazers after the group/pair/spread mech)
Definitely easy to solve, nothing is complicated, it's just like you said, it's very fast... Bonds 3 requires the spread/stack or stack/spread to get into their 2 positions ASAP... And almost every time I healed I had to LB3, and getting a tank LB3 on Harrowing Hell was a rarity... ;w;
Interesting seeing your perspective on ToP. For me DSR/UcoB were boring as fights with UcoB at least having an amazing audiovisual flair that made up for the snoozefest. ToP/TEA on the other hand were the ultimates that hooked me the most and made me want to multikill/get all weapons for them, mainly due to the fun factor. Now do I think p1 of top is amazing? no, arguably thordan is a better first phase. That said, I dislike both of them and beetle being short and far more forgiving in your time wasted in case someone fucked up is a positive. As for DSR, p6 is possibly the highlight of the fight for me, best phase hands down, with p7/p3 coming as close second (p3 for having a full uptime boss with mechanics at the same time, p7 because of it being a better golden bahamut in terms of mechanics. I hope they keep making different 'styles' of fights since if ultimates all became like dsr or ucob I'd very likely stop doing them due to pure attrition/boredom. Conversely if all fights became like ToP/TEA, it sounds like a good chunk of the playerbase would do the same (you included from what I gather)
I think I would have had more of an issue with this expac if I had been playing for longer but the nice part of EW was that it gave me tooooons of time to complete the backlog of content from previous expansions despite having only started playing in 2021
I feel like opinions are going to shift around over time with Endwalker. Overall it was okay, but the relic system was the biggest eyesore to me. I feel like it made people turn against the Mandeville quest line. I feel like they will regret that decision for sure.
To me the sacrifice of the sions as you ventured ultima thule was never seen by me as an attempt to jerk tears with deaths or so but instead each and every scion committing their fullest faith to you as you journeyed on showing that they knew you'd push through to the end and so they gave their all to build the path for you to your goal and I personally really liked that. The only part of endwalker I hated was the stupid zenos shit with the body swap and all that just completely out of character and weird.
I agree... They use the "fake-out" deaths way too much, to the extent there's no weight to any of it. It just feels like a cheap plot device. I even half expect Papalymo to show up at some point again. Re: Dungeons and the repeated formula.. Yes. Outside of the visuals, XIV's dungeons are among the most uninspired in any MMO I've ever played. YoshiP was asked about that, by Preach, I believe.. and he confirmed they'll be keeping the same formula.. "because it works for them", basically.
Players: Dungeons are kinda shit, innit? Yoshi: Oh yeah, they kinda are Players: So what are we doing about it? Different routes, more usefull drops from trash, scaling difficulty, enviromental puzzles or mechanics? Yoshi: Actually, nothing.
@@ich3730 I mean they did its called Criterion but it turns out most people actually don't care for "interesting dungeons" if there wasn't something shiny at the end. Surely all these people will do Criterion this time around since they've complain so much for the dev team to put something shiny in the dungeon. Surely @twocatsgaming6628 And to op at least finish the rest of that quote, the reasons they keep dungeons the same cause it fills a specific purpose, if people want "harder" or "more interesting" 4 man content they would have to develop a new type of content. ala Criterion but turns out its just mostly noise since no one actually wants to do them.
EW 6.0 MSQ is *almost* a media literacy test. On the surface it's tying off loose ends in the story. Viewed through the lens of a player, not the WoL, it's a big victory lap reflecting on each expansion and exploring what it's like to be this all powerful killing machine that isn't *really* a part of the world. It recognizes and plays with that inherent detachment the player has with everything going on. - Zenos taking your body put you in the shoes of an NPC trying to chase down your character and you KNOW what they're capable of. - Labyrinthos = ARR, Thavnair = HW, Garlemald = StB, Elpis = ShB. - Zenos himself was "a player uninterested in the story and grinding out levels." - The Endsinger's whole schtick can be translated to "the servers will shut down some day and everything you've done will be gone, so why bother playing at all then?" - The "worlds" in The Dead Ends are MMOs falling apart from poor development, PvP-centric, and full with players that have done everything there is to do in the game but can't bring themselves to quit. - Hell, at the very end, Zenos basically straight up says, "I know once this is over, you're going to go run side content and $#!%. Am I wrong, *Adventurer*?" That's a few elements, but the most notable to me. So yeah, if you took the EW story at face value, a lot of its plot can feel a little bit contrived.
I understood what they were trying to do and I think most people did when Zenos said that. It's way too in your face. Problem is I play this game for its story and worldbuilding. I've done savages and extremes, but I just log in, queue, log out. I have no stakes about people trying to build homes away from home in MMOs, Zenos talk about "lol just beat the final boss so we can go back to grinding" fell so flat and I've run hunt trains. The whole expansion felt like it was trying to hammer a point I didn't care about. Maybe if I hadn't started playing in 6.x it would have meant something, but nah
I'm sorry, but this is just your interpretation. Any of the comparisons you make can only make sense if you completely put aside all of the lore and implications of what actually happens in the story. EW has a lot of retcons and is very contrived while trying to push it's themes. They made mistakes, and the story has flaws. I don't think that people who have seen that failed any kind of "media literacy" test.
Other people probably pointed this out, but the 6.X storyline is using FF4's villains, but is not following FF4's story at all. You said yourself "I have not played FF4" so this assumption that it was a cheap re-run of FF4 ruined the experience for yourself.
18:20 ? 18:56 ! an ongoing thing i presume? :p unfortunately the healer definitely has more power in this fight xD (17:20 yet an other attempt on their life? xD)
Didn't cried during "the walk" either for the same reasons. Really this expansions storytelling made me feel nothing. Only emotional part to me was when Thancred asks us if we regret joining the Scions. Brought very nice memories back. But that made me emotional for previous expansions merit, not Endwalker. Also I lost a lot of friends to Endwalker because it bored them and quit the game. Most have no desire of coming back for DT. But if this underwhelming expansion was the price to pay for the next one(s) to be good, then it good.
Sacrificing an exploration zone for these 2 pieces of content sucked... but at least they've experimented with it and can improve upon them for DT! We're also getting an exploration zone in DT alongside lifestyle and criterion so that's always good!
We already knew how the elitists felt about EW so you weren't hard to figure out either. However, for people with jobs that are bound to PF if we want to clear something, there was too much high-end content. We don't want to be stuck for weeks trying to finish a single fight. It's too boring, too frustating, too dependant upon other players and ultimately, it's just not worth the little time that we have. Instead, they should have focused on a much better story line and instances for the relic quests: from Eureka and Bozja, these relics were a serious disappointment.
Aight I guess I’m an Azurite hater, haven’t watched much of your stuff but I thought I’d give this video a try. The initial story criticism is just inane. It reduced everything down to bare parts like Garlemald was one of the best zones in the game. From the intensity of the scenes to raw horror of transforming a man we once knew into a primal (Anima) and using his voice to mind control the population to the point where even when we try to help they’d prefer to fucking die in the cold harsh wastelands that was once their home. Insane to boil that down to “well zenos tried to kill one of our friends but failed” like sure… I fucking guess that could be your take away. And don’t get me started on “fake out deaths” how could it be a fake out if they straight up tell you like “yo dog you have deus machina in your pocket”
Hate is a strong word for an opinion, I simply thought they could of fleshed out Garlamald more, not that it's bad or anything. As for the "fakeout deaths" It just feels cheap because we as the player know they aren't really dead except if we fail, which we won't because that's just not how the narrative of this game flows. As stated in the video, I'm no story expert and there are some elements I most definitely missed out, but I wanted to get my opinion out there regardless for the sake of a review. Hate me all you want if it makes you feels better in your opinion, it's a bit of a sour stance over someone's else's opinion over story telling but you do you, this is the internet and I'm fully aware people will hate over anything you challenge.
@@AzuriteTV hey dog, I came back to this later, it wasn’t really my intention to make you personally feel bad. But I think if you’re not really focused on the story you’re going to drum up a bit of aggro from folk who care and were really affected by the story . In the case of the “fake out deaths” you can boil it down to the ultimate dick riding. Basically everyone saying they can come to terms with potentially dying because they have full faith that you will find a way to save them and the universe. Scions dick riding is nothing new but as mentioned this is kinda of the capstone, you can’t really ride a dick any harder. Once again, I wasn’t really thinking about how I’d affect you, I was just expressing my disdain for your opinion. Calling myself a hater was very much meant to not be as scathing as it seems you have interpreted to be, but I think that can be chalked up to a cultural difference. I’m not a big fan of your general video structure it would seem, but that’s no reason to ruin your day, I know it must be exciting to release a big project like this! I’m sorry to be a downer.
tbh i think endwalker will be seen as a very good expansion in like 2 or 3 years, just like heavensward, many hated heavensward when it released, the stuff we got was unbalanced (raids) and outright bad (diadem) and many people hated the whole warrior of darkness stuff until they used it again for shadowbringers. I think the same will happen with Endwalker, people will tell you how good and heartwrenching the story was and in like 4 years they will use the Void world/Zero story again for an expansion and everyone will say how great it is.
Ehh. Yeah. I think HW's issues get glossed over because it's ancient, though it'll be a while before people forget the mess that was EW. SB has the opposite problem. The content was an absolute banger (best expansion hands down), but it's so old now that most people really only engage with its story. IMO, rating expansions by how they felt at the time: SB > SHB > EW > HW HW has the excuse that it was the first ever expansion, but it's kind of sad that EW loses to an expansion that was actively derailed by the Covid pandemic.
It is what it is, gamers are the most predictable. hype-->honeymoon-->get angry--->reminiscence about previous game--->repeat. Remember when everyone hated Eureka and Bojza somehow 1 expansion later we apparently always loved that content.
@@XT91 Amen! Eureka and Bozja where both hated the moment it dropped, but as soon as endwalker came around everyone loved the zones. Same with the relic weapons.
@@XT91lol, I feel bad that at first I was not feeling bozja and found it boring, until I got the whole lfg and lfm thing, it was always about cooperation with randoms and doing it all together, from there I actually had a lot of fun and ended up loving it and loving also the scale of it. It had story, extreme trial, two zones, a lot of actions to experiment, duels, 3 alliance raids! 1 savage 48 players raid, at the end my opinion changed from ok to amazing content all around (I don’t really love Eureka though 😅).
HW was much worse when it was current. Hell, it's the only expansion we've had where content was completely removed. EW definitely the second weakest expansion though. And they have far less excuse for it.
Just want to throw this out here... it seems a lot of comments disagree with my opinion on the story, which is fine, I don't dislike the story of EW as I said, I just had some problems with it, I do wish I went into more depth to explain myself better, and about that. This video was intended to be much longer with very in-depth analysts on everything Endwalker related, talking 2-3 hour run time, but I stressed that I wouldn't finish that in time before Dawntrail release, or I would get it out just before when nobody would care... so I shortened the script down to be about an hour long... in wake of that, there is of course some things I just didn't give enough time to talk about or explain, Endwalker is a large expansion and talking about all the details in a 1 hour video doesn't do it 100% justice.
but yeah... just wanted to explain that! I'll continue to give my critique and praise to FF14 going into DT and I'll learn more to be a better critique in general, so please have patience with me, this is for first real attempt at a review, so they'll get better over time, surely!
I am blown away by how many people seem to think the Scions' "deaths" in the 6.0 finale were supposed to be fakeout deaths. They weren't. The Scions knew the WoL could and would bring them back. Y'shtola and Urianger even say as much. The game makes no effort to hide this from the player. The Scions did what they did to clear the way because they trusted the WoL to finish the job.
When we say they were fakeout deaths means that we knew they were coming back anyway because this story will always go for the safe route and power of friendship stuff. Fakeout deaths not from a lore point of view.
@@Punkadelic2112 That's not what people generally mean when they talk about fakeout deaths.
It should’ve been communicated more clearly, but they knew that Thancred was still alive, just that his aether had been dispersed and he wasn’t in a physical form anymore. But the scions were willingly putting themselves at risk of annihilation to help the WoL reach Meteion. There was no guarantee it would work, thus it was a huge sacrifice to make. It’s like they were all putting a loaded gun to their heads.
@@MatsuzoSF in this case it is. But really how people call it is not important at all. The bottom line is that we all knew they would come back soon because the writers always play it safe, which made those deaths have no impact on a lot of players.
Exactly. Thancred's scene in Shadowbringers was a fakeout death. EW's was very much an end of story character sacrifice series that's relatively common in RPGs.
I really am curious to know how Endwalker will be viewed in the years to come, going from 7.0 to 8.0 especially. Endwalker was so many firsts for me in Final Fantasy 14: My first raid tiers, my first post patch cycles, community events, live letters, and my first ever MMO, that I am eternally grateful to now be a part of, and to have made some of the best friends I’ve ever had the pleasure of making, such as yourself Azu.
Sure a lot of it was far from perfect, nor do I think my biased perspective is one that’s best for the games future, being that category of a still relatively new player growing into a veteran role, and I know people way smarter than myself can talk about how FF14’s future can learn from what was lack luster in Endwalker, but I know I’m going to look back at my time with Endwalker will be some of the best times of my life. Nor can I wait for what the future of Dawntrail.
I agree with you, I've been playing for 18 months, a lot lol but I started after the release of Endwalker. I quite enjoyed Endwalker but like you said we were kinda sprouts 🌱 and I can understand long time veterans were maybe a bit disappointed.
I'm happy you said cliché in the video because I listened to another video about Endwalker and my first thought about Endwalker was the cliché parts. Maybe SE are afraid to go a little out there, idk but eye rolls aplenty. I wish people didn't default to cliché, it's predictable and boring.
I also enjoy the gathering/crafting side of FF14 which never seems to be even a little bit important in the expansion experience roundup. I get that expert recipes have to be difficult, but I think they are ridiculously difficult, but I guess SE like rotations a lot. I have done them but I'm guessing most people didn't.
I’m a long term veteran and I absolutely loved it, considering what they had to do, and the expectations laid upon their shoulders I was thoroughly satisfied. The bits after the main story were a bit cronky but blah. Ultra hyped up for the Dawntrail changes especially the graphics and the luscious new zones! Hope you folks have a blast in two weeks! 🎉
It will be viewed favorably. Its patch cycle has been rough, its job design is boring, and its content is lackluster. However, future players will play through EW's story (which is solid) and not engage with its content much, so its flaws will be forgotten. At worst, people may feel the 6.1+ MSQ is rather weak.
HW was also a complete mess when it was current but people have forgotten that now.
Every expac we have some video essay about how the current expac is the worst of the game the why "insert" previous expac was the best thing since sliced bread. Its part of the cycle. The raid scene literally died in Heavensward but it was the best expac baby. Shadowbringers had 1 ultimate no deep dungeon and the majority didn't like Bojza but it was the best expac baby. Like its crazy.
Get ready for the video essay about how Island Sanctuary was the hidden gem of EW 2 years from now mark my words.
A extremely good conclusion for a saga. Everything in endwalker a pretty much simplified so people won't have to "grind out stuff" before moving onto the next expansion.
I feel like one of my biggest critiques of the Endwalker story was the fact there were no major Scion deaths. I feel like the writers are too scared to kill off the scions permanently, which I feel like they should have at least killed like one or two of them in Endwalker (it is a finale after all). As gruesome as it is, I hope at some point soon we see some of these older characters exiting the story, otherwise they'll just be taking the spotlight away from the new cast that should be getting it instead.
Story's still good, I am not gonna quit the game for them not killing Thancred or whatever, but it feels disingenuous at this point whenever expecially Y'shtola "dies" because I am just going to expect her to pull her ass out of the grave for the *fourth* time. If I know none of my favorite characters are in any danger, then the stakes are affected.
8:48 --- This was adressed in one of the media tour interviews (I think the one with Preach) : apparently they want to stick to the formula because it makes timing easier for everyone. If you queue for a dungeon, you usually know how much time you need to set aside for it - which is super helpful if you dont have much time on your hands. You can call it boring, but it has some big advantages which shouldnt get overlooked.
Didn't Azurite essentially say in the vid that they'd be fine with keeping dungeon lengths the same as long as the content inside the dungeon was fairly new and interesting? I think they mentioned "no trash mobs, but have an extra boss" as one way of doing it.
I beg everyone saying "The patch content is wholesale copied from FFIV" to actually play FFIV. Its like Tezuka's Star System, actors are the same but the roles, story, etc are vastly different ((Shoot, you don't even face Scarmiglione at Mount Ordeals)).
Yeah I heard that in the video and I was just like
"Tell me you never played FFIV without telling me you never played FFIV".
@@MatsuzoSF tbf like 90% of FFXIV's playerbase has never touched another FF before, but that this one little lie has managed to spread so far built off nothing but having the same names (and not even most of them either) is wild.
i don't think the issue is that it copied it exactly. I think the issue is it was close enough that things were predictable in the game. People were saying zero was going to be a pld several patches before it happened. I don't think the patches were bad, but that part of it sucked along with imo it felt rushed at the end. Hopefully we will get more story later. Unless it ties in pretty quickly with dawntrail I think it would have benefited the arc to give it more time.
When people say this doesn't mean it is exactly like IV, but a lot of the things that happen develop in a very similar way. When you see fuckin Goblez talking to 4 entities, you already knew who the bosses were going to be. Even the devs knew we knew and didn't cover the names of the upcoming trials on the live letters. The fact that Goblez turns out to be good, Zero becomes a Paladin and of course we knew Zeromus was going to be the final boss. Predictable as fuck.
@@Punkadelic2112 Again I say actually (re)play IV. What are Golbez's motivations between the two games? Ze(ro)mus'? What was the structure of the story? A couple superficial similarities (similarities I might add were already played up in the marketing between ShB and EW) don't mean anything, the plot of 6.x and IV are vastly different, in fact I'd say HW is closer to IV's plot than anything in 6.x outside of having some of the actors of IV.
P1S was why I actually did Savage. If it had been harder, I just wouldn't have done Savage. I still don't do much, as I have no static and only want to do so much in PF, but thanks to P1S NOT being more difficult, I also did P2S and P5S. I've never done an at level Savage before this expansion, so imo, it was GOOD design, not bad design.
Endwalker's biggest sin was not having much replayability with its various content, it was the expansion I had to take the most amount of breaks, not because I wanted to, but because there was really nothing left for me to do at the time and I was just waiting for the next patch. But I'll say that overall it was a good expansion, with some lows (like the alliance raids) but with very high highs
At the very least it has plenty to go back and do once Dawntrail releases with Criterion and 2 Ultimate fights, but yeah stuff to actually keep us busy like a meaningful relic grind or exploration zone were just absent and it was a bit of a shame
On the topic of dungeons:
I don't think that changing up the grouping scheme would make players feel different. I do think that introducing harder mechanics can wake people up in dungeons. I think if they introduce harder dungeons they should offer rewards that scale linearly, but are achieveable and not entirely meant to be spammable (I.E you wanna run it a few times for say, a specific gear piece or set). They could even let us toggle debuffs/buffs to place on the dungeon to let us scale rewards ourselves.
I cried during the walk because of the memories from the Quotes, didn't care about the scions since I knew they would come back. Agree on Barbie, I hadn't had so much fun in an EX since Titan Ex (ARR)! Really wish they made dungeons less...ehhh...the same?
Learning 2 patterns for Carbuncle isn't much to ask until you do it with pugs...then is way too much!! WAYYY TOO MUCH!!
I really wish I did cry because I felt like I missed something but the story telling in that speificic department just un-immersed me, if that makes sense... the story writing is good, just that particular point, ugh T_T also try about party finder xD which is why I'd say P9S is one of the best first floors, because it's still challenging but it isn't as much to remember as Carby
this was a great video! I really love watching your videos I can tell you put a lot of passion into your vids! Keep up the awesome work! we are all cheering you on!
Good video very long but good :)
I'm glad you started making content as well. Looking forward to more in future.
Aside from that, fairly good lookback at endwalker's content. You are kinda giving me the motivation to do ultimates, but I have to consider how much time I'll dedicate.
Honestly, this is mostly how I feel about Endwalker. There were a LOT of things I didn't like about EW, and it's honestly probably the only expansion of FF14 I actually disliked (I'm a Stormblood enjoyer). That being said, it accomplished it's goal of ending the story. It wasn't the ending I wanted, and the content was kinda meh, but it did what it set out to do so in that regard it was success. I'm going into Dawntrail with a bit more dread to be sure, especially after seeing the state of classes at the media tour, but we'll see how it goes.
Congrats Azu you aren't editing this video instead of playing Shadow of Erdtree
As someone who's color blind, P3S made it impossible for me to beat. It sucked too because the PC version has a color blind setting but is missing in the console version of FFXIV " the version I play on" during the time before I got a steam deck. I hated that fight so much and I gave up during that raid tier
Fire video, Azu 🔥
Really good review of Endwalker! In my point of view it was a nice expnasion, but I hope DT can build up on it's foundation and be even better
I was indifferent about EW until Zero's story started. I really enjoyed it from then on.
I felt exactly the same way about the ending of 6.0 with the lead up to Endsinger. Felt like all the heartfelt moments with the scions were hollow since I knew they weren't gone. Zenos saved the ending for me though. I was immediately back on board and excited when he barged in.
I didn't mind it as much with Graha and the twins because it seemed like they already caught on at that point that you cpuld bring them back, but Estinien and Yshtola/Urianger part annoyed me because it felt like the game was trying too hard to convince me they were dead.
@@UTO7for me it was the other way around, thancred and estinien were quite impactful (despite me knowing they would be back) but the moment y'shtola openes her mouth it completely ruines the entire section, i just wanted g'raha and the twins to get over with this shit so i coulď go beat up the endsinger
I had a great time in endwalker. I just wish I did the 2 ultimates and criterion.
They aren't going anywhere! You'll still be able to go back and do them! and old Ultimates are a very active piece of content, so don't stress it!
3:20 oh, you’re not the only one who didn’t shed tears during that moment. The possibility of Scions’ revival was too heavily hinted at, and so I was like, “yeah yeah, it’s all very sad, but I know we’re going to revive them soon enough”.
I agree a bunch when it comes to Abyssos Savage being so backloaded. These fights just felt so long and it became so easy to mess up towards the end with fatigue over a long night.
FFIV was my first final fantasy. There is so much more to it than what made it into Endwalker. Do yourself a favor and give it a go, it has such a fantastic story.
Just like I did in Shadowbringers, in Endwalker I beat the story, leveled my crafters, then peaced the hell out. It Dawntrail I *really* want to play all the new content at release instead of two years later lol.
I didn't do the last raid tier so my ranking excludes that, but this is my take on the floors I did do
Favorites:
P3S for it's prog, difficulty, and how fun it is after you've beaten it. I absolutely loved this fight and I really like the tradition of the third floor being a wall
P4S Phase 2, it's just a really fun fight that's very pretty and I love how the last mechanic you're kind of just counting down and holding your breath that nobody makes a mistake. Phase 1 was also really fun, I'd probably put it up here too
P8S Phase 1 was a really fun fight to prog and conquer. Phase 2 is also fun but not as fun as the others for reclears just because a lot of the mechanics are simple once you understand them.
P2S I think is a very strong fight that does everything well in general. It's not too easy but not very hard either and is super interesting which is very fitting for being a second floor.
P5S similar to P2S, it just does its job as a first floor really well and it's fun. I did get frustrated a little about how complicated people made Devour though. There's technically only two patterns but you can solve them both with the same logic but people get really mixed up about that. (Stand opposite of Carbuncle, watch the corner where the teeth move backwards, then just mirror its movement)
Least Favorites:
P6S and P7S. Just overall kind of slow fights, with not a lot going on most of the time. P7S in the first week or two was really fun and difficult, but when people discovered that marker trick and trivialized the mechanic it dropped a lot of what was interesting. It didn't help that the first half of the fight is very slow and simple too though
Dynamis and Hermes I think were the worst parts of Endwalker. Hermes's was a such a contradiction of disagreement with the norms of his people, while being seemingly ignorant of the true nature of what he disagreed with (death).
Dynamis, which I wrap Meteion and all of Ultima Thule into, was also... just unrelatable. It came out of nowhere as this overbearing force of nature that is not understood, is overwhelming, and is a semi-tangible mechanism for the literal power of friendship. I agree that the Scions "dying" in Ultima Thule, didn't effect me at all - once I understood what actually happened to Thancred after Meteion explained it, it was just a big Ohhh ok, so he's not dead. Thancred's "death" after the fight with Ran'jit was far, far better and more convincing... even if it was fake. Then Estinien just solidified the assumption its going to happen to everyone. Its like ok, this is a nothing burger cuz they're not gone. The belief in that, and the rush of the whole concept of Dynamis and its consequences with Meteion, made the walk feel kinda forced. I know what they were trying to do, and it was a good way to do it, but the whole setting just didn't reinforce the impact for me.
Garlemald was the best EW had to offer, by far. The human element and the psychological/emotional consequences of pride and war were expertly told. Very good stuff.
Hi Azurite I have a question, do you script your videos in preparation or do you do voice recording on the go with bullet points? Just curious on what most FFXIV TH-camrs do
This video in particular was fully scripted with maybe 1 or 2 extra lines of improvisation. For the most part my videos are scripted, but it depends on the content, my mentor roulette videos aren't scripted and I just narrate what's happening, same with my recent glamour video. But big high effort projects like this and guides are fully scripted to make it as consice as possible! That said I think having bullet points is a perfectly valid way to produce a video, even high effort ones, you just might catch yourself talking more fluff, but you can easily edit that out!
@@AzuriteTV thx for the detailed reply 👊
I actually don't think p10s is "difficult" perse. as in all the mechs are quite easy to solve with the hardest one being the guns i think. it's just the pace and combination of the mechs that make it difficult. but it was one of the fastest fights i learned. with the caveat that i still make mistakes sometimes because those combinations really get you (especially the ball lazers after the group/pair/spread mech)
Definitely easy to solve, nothing is complicated, it's just like you said, it's very fast... Bonds 3 requires the spread/stack or stack/spread to get into their 2 positions ASAP... And almost every time I healed I had to LB3, and getting a tank LB3 on Harrowing Hell was a rarity... ;w;
Interesting seeing your perspective on ToP. For me DSR/UcoB were boring as fights with UcoB at least having an amazing audiovisual flair that made up for the snoozefest. ToP/TEA on the other hand were the ultimates that hooked me the most and made me want to multikill/get all weapons for them, mainly due to the fun factor.
Now do I think p1 of top is amazing? no, arguably thordan is a better first phase. That said, I dislike both of them and beetle being short and far more forgiving in your time wasted in case someone fucked up is a positive.
As for DSR, p6 is possibly the highlight of the fight for me, best phase hands down, with p7/p3 coming as close second (p3 for having a full uptime boss with mechanics at the same time, p7 because of it being a better golden bahamut in terms of mechanics.
I hope they keep making different 'styles' of fights since if ultimates all became like dsr or ucob I'd very likely stop doing them due to pure attrition/boredom. Conversely if all fights became like ToP/TEA, it sounds like a good chunk of the playerbase would do the same (you included from what I gather)
I think I would have had more of an issue with this expac if I had been playing for longer but the nice part of EW was that it gave me tooooons of time to complete the backlog of content from previous expansions despite having only started playing in 2021
Great video, enjoy Elden Ring mate
I feel like opinions are going to shift around over time with Endwalker.
Overall it was okay, but the relic system was the biggest eyesore to me.
I feel like it made people turn against the Mandeville quest line.
I feel like they will regret that decision for sure.
Bonus comment: The Alliance raids were S tier
@@Umbral-sb4so You mean the walking simulators where you actively had to try to die?
They're one of the most divisive parts of EW lol@@Umbral-sb4so
I honestly hated the Manderville questline in the end of the relic quest… and I hope they will not come back as a important quest line ever
@@Umbral-sb4soAglaia was solid. The other two were glorified dungeons. Braindead uncreative mechanics, no damage, zzzz.
To me the sacrifice of the sions as you ventured ultima thule was never seen by me as an attempt to jerk tears with deaths or so but instead each and every scion committing their fullest faith to you as you journeyed on showing that they knew you'd push through to the end and so they gave their all to build the path for you to your goal and I personally really liked that. The only part of endwalker I hated was the stupid zenos shit with the body swap and all that just completely out of character and weird.
I agree... They use the "fake-out" deaths way too much, to the extent there's no weight to any of it. It just feels like a cheap plot device.
I even half expect Papalymo to show up at some point again.
Re: Dungeons and the repeated formula.. Yes. Outside of the visuals, XIV's dungeons are among the most uninspired in any MMO I've ever played. YoshiP was asked about that, by Preach, I believe.. and he confirmed they'll be keeping the same formula.. "because it works for them", basically.
Players: Dungeons are kinda shit, innit?
Yoshi: Oh yeah, they kinda are
Players: So what are we doing about it? Different routes, more usefull drops from trash, scaling difficulty, enviromental puzzles or mechanics?
Yoshi: Actually, nothing.
@@ich3730 I mean they did its called Criterion but it turns out most people actually don't care for "interesting dungeons" if there wasn't something shiny at the end. Surely all these people will do Criterion this time around since they've complain so much for the dev team to put something shiny in the dungeon. Surely
@twocatsgaming6628 And to op at least finish the rest of that quote, the reasons they keep dungeons the same cause it fills a specific purpose, if people want "harder" or "more interesting" 4 man content they would have to develop a new type of content. ala Criterion but turns out its just mostly noise since no one actually wants to do them.
EW 6.0 MSQ is *almost* a media literacy test. On the surface it's tying off loose ends in the story. Viewed through the lens of a player, not the WoL, it's a big victory lap reflecting on each expansion and exploring what it's like to be this all powerful killing machine that isn't *really* a part of the world. It recognizes and plays with that inherent detachment the player has with everything going on.
- Zenos taking your body put you in the shoes of an NPC trying to chase down your character and you KNOW what they're capable of.
- Labyrinthos = ARR, Thavnair = HW, Garlemald = StB, Elpis = ShB.
- Zenos himself was "a player uninterested in the story and grinding out levels."
- The Endsinger's whole schtick can be translated to "the servers will shut down some day and everything you've done will be gone, so why bother playing at all then?"
- The "worlds" in The Dead Ends are MMOs falling apart from poor development, PvP-centric, and full with players that have done everything there is to do in the game but can't bring themselves to quit.
- Hell, at the very end, Zenos basically straight up says, "I know once this is over, you're going to go run side content and $#!%. Am I wrong, *Adventurer*?"
That's a few elements, but the most notable to me. So yeah, if you took the EW story at face value, a lot of its plot can feel a little bit contrived.
I understood what they were trying to do and I think most people did when Zenos said that. It's way too in your face.
Problem is I play this game for its story and worldbuilding. I've done savages and extremes, but I just log in, queue, log out. I have no stakes about people trying to build homes away from home in MMOs, Zenos talk about "lol just beat the final boss so we can go back to grinding" fell so flat and I've run hunt trains.
The whole expansion felt like it was trying to hammer a point I didn't care about. Maybe if I hadn't started playing in 6.x it would have meant something, but nah
I'm sorry, but this is just your interpretation. Any of the comparisons you make can only make sense if you completely put aside all of the lore and implications of what actually happens in the story. EW has a lot of retcons and is very contrived while trying to push it's themes. They made mistakes, and the story has flaws. I don't think that people who have seen that failed any kind of "media literacy" test.
I love essay videos btw
You and I are in the exact same boat. Ultima Thule was crap and unimpactful you see thru the veil of the story so easy in alot of parts off Endwalker
"The story is copied from FF4"
"I haven't played FF4"
Lmao.
Other people probably pointed this out, but the 6.X storyline is using FF4's villains, but is not following FF4's story at all. You said yourself "I have not played FF4" so this assumption that it was a cheap re-run of FF4 ruined the experience for yourself.
18:20 ? 18:56 !
an ongoing thing i presume? :p unfortunately the healer definitely has more power in this fight xD (17:20 yet an other attempt on their life? xD)
It was a friend, they kept rescuing me and trying to get me killed too >,>
@@AzuriteTV lol, I am very familiar. arm's length is vital in p12 raid wide with the 2 floating platforms
Didn't cried during "the walk" either for the same reasons. Really this expansions storytelling made me feel nothing. Only emotional part to me was when Thancred asks us if we regret joining the Scions. Brought very nice memories back. But that made me emotional for previous expansions merit, not Endwalker. Also I lost a lot of friends to Endwalker because it bored them and quit the game. Most have no desire of coming back for DT. But if this underwhelming expansion was the price to pay for the next one(s) to be good, then it good.
I have a big issue with Criterion and Sanctuary Island.... I really think making everything else but that would have been better...
Sacrificing an exploration zone for these 2 pieces of content sucked... but at least they've experimented with it and can improve upon them for DT! We're also getting an exploration zone in DT alongside lifestyle and criterion so that's always good!
We already knew how the elitists felt about EW so you weren't hard to figure out either.
However, for people with jobs that are bound to PF if we want to clear something, there was too much high-end content. We don't want to be stuck for weeks trying to finish a single fight. It's too boring, too frustating, too dependant upon other players and ultimately, it's just not worth the little time that we have. Instead, they should have focused on a much better story line and instances for the relic quests: from Eureka and Bozja, these relics were a serious disappointment.
What went wrong here, you finished way too early for Elden Ring to be released already
I crunched this video more then I realised I would
Aight I guess I’m an Azurite hater, haven’t watched much of your stuff but I thought I’d give this video a try. The initial story criticism is just inane. It reduced everything down to bare parts like Garlemald was one of the best zones in the game. From the intensity of the scenes to raw horror of transforming a man we once knew into a primal (Anima) and using his voice to mind control the population to the point where even when we try to help they’d prefer to fucking die in the cold harsh wastelands that was once their home. Insane to boil that down to “well zenos tried to kill one of our friends but failed” like sure… I fucking guess that could be your take away.
And don’t get me started on “fake out deaths” how could it be a fake out if they straight up tell you like “yo dog you have deus machina in your pocket”
Hate is a strong word for an opinion, I simply thought they could of fleshed out Garlamald more, not that it's bad or anything.
As for the "fakeout deaths" It just feels cheap because we as the player know they aren't really dead except if we fail, which we won't because that's just not how the narrative of this game flows.
As stated in the video, I'm no story expert and there are some elements I most definitely missed out, but I wanted to get my opinion out there regardless for the sake of a review.
Hate me all you want if it makes you feels better in your opinion, it's a bit of a sour stance over someone's else's opinion over story telling but you do you, this is the internet and I'm fully aware people will hate over anything you challenge.
@@AzuriteTV hey dog, I came back to this later, it wasn’t really my intention to make you personally feel bad. But I think if you’re not really focused on the story you’re going to drum up a bit of aggro from folk who care and were really affected by the story .
In the case of the “fake out deaths” you can boil it down to the ultimate dick riding. Basically everyone saying they can come to terms with potentially dying because they have full faith that you will find a way to save them and the universe. Scions dick riding is nothing new but as mentioned this is kinda of the capstone, you can’t really ride a dick any harder.
Once again, I wasn’t really thinking about how I’d affect you, I was just expressing my disdain for your opinion. Calling myself a hater was very much meant to not be as scathing as it seems you have interpreted to be, but I think that can be chalked up to a cultural difference. I’m not a big fan of your general video structure it would seem, but that’s no reason to ruin your day, I know it must be exciting to release a big project like this! I’m sorry to be a downer.
tbh i think endwalker will be seen as a very good expansion in like 2 or 3 years, just like heavensward, many hated heavensward when it released, the stuff we got was unbalanced (raids) and outright bad (diadem) and many people hated the whole warrior of darkness stuff until they used it again for shadowbringers. I think the same will happen with Endwalker, people will tell you how good and heartwrenching the story was and in like 4 years they will use the Void world/Zero story again for an expansion and everyone will say how great it is.
Ehh. Yeah.
I think HW's issues get glossed over because it's ancient, though it'll be a while before people forget the mess that was EW.
SB has the opposite problem. The content was an absolute banger (best expansion hands down), but it's so old now that most people really only engage with its story.
IMO, rating expansions by how they felt at the time:
SB > SHB > EW > HW
HW has the excuse that it was the first ever expansion, but it's kind of sad that EW loses to an expansion that was actively derailed by the Covid pandemic.
It is what it is, gamers are the most predictable. hype-->honeymoon-->get angry--->reminiscence about previous game--->repeat. Remember when everyone hated Eureka and Bojza somehow 1 expansion later we apparently always loved that content.
@@XT91 Amen! Eureka and Bozja where both hated the moment it dropped, but as soon as endwalker came around everyone loved the zones. Same with the relic weapons.
@@XT91lol, I feel bad that at first I was not feeling bozja and found it boring, until I got the whole lfg and lfm thing, it was always about cooperation with randoms and doing it all together, from there I actually had a lot of fun and ended up loving it and loving also the scale of it. It had story, extreme trial, two zones, a lot of actions to experiment, duels, 3 alliance raids! 1 savage 48 players raid, at the end my opinion changed from ok to amazing content all around (I don’t really love Eureka though 😅).
big sad that we have krile in the next expansion. i cant stand that character.
thank you for what?? literally worst expansion of all time!
“Erm actually” 🤓
HW was much worse when it was current. Hell, it's the only expansion we've had where content was completely removed.
EW definitely the second weakest expansion though. And they have far less excuse for it.
It's mid at worst. Content brainrot has just conditioned you to think things are either the worst or best thing ever
Criticise Endwalker - "You're an elitist and hate casuals"
Praise Endwalker - "Worst expansion ever"
I'm tired.
Yeah you tell em! Opinions aren’t allowed here 😤