Board 8 > It's time. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Grand Company of Eorzea gets more hype the more content youve done too because it adds more NPCs to the meeting where its formed based on several factors (jobs youve leveled etc). Literally spent like 20 minutes going around talking to all the old faces in my playthrough.

Yeah i noticed that! My monk and samurai lalafells

Wow this whole garlemald segment is so badass. Random survivor camps in the snow, a derailed train, an abandoned oil rig with survivors who are hoarding the resources. A shitty distorted version of the imperial theme on the radio

I love how theres people living in the subway. They really nailed this shit

Like this is not how i expected the invasion of the empire to go at all. This is how you subvert expectations right here

And of course the imperials still believe in the propaganda

I hit their leader with a haurchefant quote and it flashed back to us sharing hot chocolate

Garlemald is an extremely well-written section, loved it for a lot of reasons

Garlemald is some of the best and most heart-wrenching writing in the entire series

The legatus shot himself and the blood got all over the flag. Thats so fuckin metal

And then YO THE ZENOS DINNER SCENE

They chopped up the emperor into tiny pieces and used the country's worship of him to turn him into a primal abomination, AND ITS FUCKING ANIMA SON. ITS SO METAL

Fight was fucking awesome too. And i like how the second phase goes down to Anima's dick face, just like FFX

That fight is fun, yeah. Release week as WHM we kept dying to Oblivion because it was an enrage and people kept on dying before the phase change and the resultant damage-down-of-shame made it so we couldn't just wait that phase out.

On the moon now, and fuck yeah namingway

Also every FF story goes off the rails in the third act and ends up in space somehow, but ff14 is the one where all the lore checks out and it actually makes sense this time lol

The rabbit guys are incredibly silly, but the concept of evacuating the planet on the moon is such a cool concept i aint even mad at it

At first i was like holy shit is this what dawntrail is gonna be? The new planet we discover? But then when they said reflection 1 would die, i was like nah the scions will find a way

The sharlyans are probably the contacts that the rabbits are talking about

Thats why theyre hoarding knowledge and creating a biome. Like holy shitttt

And ya know, they actually prime the player for the space rabbits by giving you a space dog as soon as you get to the moon. Like as soon as i saw the space dog and space cactuars i was like alright whatever happens im immediately on board

Marking this because things are ready to happen.

The level 83 trial gets no mention huh

The sheer audacity of them to make Zodiark the level 83 trial, what an experience it was to get there on day 1 of release.

Yeah i was not expecting to fight zodiark that soon

TomNook7 posted...

Yeah i was not expecting to fight zodiark that soon

The only thing in that fight that really messed with me was the rotation of the battlefield, and having to mentally figure out the lines at the same time.

(and my brain always made the that's numberwang joke, Now it's time to rotate the board!)

TomNook7 posted...

The magus sisters tho! Also i hate Fandaniel, but i love the elephant guys + their city

I feel like a lot of people are either pro Zenos and anti Fandaniel or vice versa, not too many who like or hate both. I personally really like Fandaniel and am very meh on Zenos.

Danny Boy and Daddy Thicc are both great IMO.

Yup pro zenos and anti fandaniel here

I love all the ff14 villains but fandaniel is the first miss for me. BUT im still seeing his backstory so well see

Yotsuyu is the only miss for me (well Thordan, but to be fair he didn't have enough screen time to be bad and the actual vibe is cool. Just not enough). Fantastic boss fight in 4.3 but on the whole just incredibly lame.

I think Fandaniel is very well written and well acted, in that you're supposed to despise him and I do. Zenos is just boring imo.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Yotsuyu is the only miss for me (well Thordan, but to be fair he didn't have enough screen time to be bad and the actual vibe is cool. Just not enough). Fantastic boss fight in 4.3 but on the whole just incredibly lame.

Yotsuyu had a good story undermined by nobody in the game treating it with dignity outside of Gosetsu -- and, unfortunately, being eclipsed by an excellent story in the same vein with Fordola

Not_an_Owl posted...

I think Fandaniel is very well written and well acted, in that you're supposed to despise him and I do. Zenos is just boring imo.

I was pretty "eh" on Zenos going in, and I'm very pro-Zenos coming out. Ishikawa cooked with him.

I wouldn't say I'm pro-Zenos even after Endwalker but he was certainly waaaaay better used in Endwalker than Stormlood imo

Endwalker somehow making Zenos great was the greatest magic trick I've ever seen.

Although I think we're trending dangerously close to spoiler territory, so let's cool our jets.

i found myself even more anti zenos after endwalker. fandangle was kinda eh

Matsya saving the baby is my favorite scene in all of ff14.

Preach

Beginning-of-expansion Matsya was my Ive only had him for an hour and a half but if anything happened to him character so that scene was super tense for me.

TomNook7 posted...

Matsya saving the baby is my favorite scene in all of ff14.

*Clears throat*

ESTINIEEEEEEENNNNNNNN

He's the Azure Dragoon

Still super shitty that he was getting doxxed by people upset over his Girls animation.

Isquen posted...

Still super shitty that he was getting doxxed by people upset over his Girls animation.

what?

Seriously that might be the most stupid case of harassment ever, of all time (not that its ever not stupid)

TomNook7 posted...

what?

JoCat, animator/creator of crap guide to D&D (and also MonHun videos, and FFXIV role videos). Pretty funny stuff, but, uh, yeah. The shitty part of the Internet started making IRL threats his/his family's way and he pulled back on public videos as a result.

TomNook7 posted...

what?

i'm guessing wedge's post is a quote from a content creator, who got harassed off the internet because he made a cute little song about how he likes girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Y5KVtU810

Alright i'll preach

Like, man. When the mom and baby jumped in the water to escape the blasphemy, and the next shot was my character diving in headfirst after them with zero hesitation

And then the game is like "here you go now play" and youre swimming underwater. That was ingenious. I was panicking like OH FUCK WHERE ARE THEY

Then you find the mom and shes dead and the baby is missing like OH FUCK

Frantically searching, and baby is at the bottom of the lake - but isnt moving

Then we're like "matsya take this baby while we hold off the enemy"

Matsya like "IDK MAN I HAVE ANXIETY"

Matsya running with the baby, and the baby starts to turn dark HOLY FUCK. Then matsya turns dark NOOOOOO. Then matsya starts crying.

Like god damn - i damn near became a blasphemy in real life

Like the world is ending, and the heroes are trying so hard to at least have ONE win today

And they really nailed the futility and dread of it all. Like how is anyone NOT gonna become a blasphemy at this point

But then OUT OF LEFT FIELD YA BOY ESTINIEN, he comes down out the air like ">:] dont worry the scions are here", like fuck yeah

TomNook7 posted...

Alright i'll preach

Like, man. When the mom and baby jumped in the water to escape the blasphemy, and the next shot was my character diving in headfirst after them with zero hesitation

And then the game is like "here you go now play" and youre swimming underwater. That was ingenious. I was panicking like OH FUCK WHERE ARE THEY

Then you find the mom and shes dead and the baby is missing like OH FUCK

Frantically searching, and baby is at the bottom of the lake - but isnt moving

Then we're like "matsya take this baby while we hold off the enemy"

Matsya like "IDK MAN I HAVE ANXIETY"

Matsya running with the baby, and the baby starts to turn dark HOLY FUCK. Then matsya turns dark NOOOOOO. Then matsya starts crying.

Like god damn - i damn near became a blasphemy in real life

Like the world is ending, and the heroes are trying so hard to at least have ONE win today

And they really nailed the futility and dread of it all. Like how is anyone NOT gonna become a blasphemy at this point

But then OUT OF LEFT FIELD YA BOY ESTINIEN, he comes down out the air like ">:] dont worry the scions are here", like fuck yeah

So good

When Endwalker hits, it hits

Alright boys, tell me if im trippin:

Theres way too many cut scenes in this game

I clocked 8 hours straight of nonstop cut scenes at one point

Theres literally an 8 hour gap between the vanaspati dungeon and ktisis hyperboreia, with only one duty fight against venat in between them

By the time i got to the big showdown with Hermes, my brain checked out. And like now i just beat Hydaelyn and i kinda feel nothing at this point

Its kinda crazy that ive gotten through this msq so fast too im already 90% done in 2 weeks. Meanwhile all the other expansions took at least a month each. Its weird because on one hand endwalkers msq is faster paced than the others, but actually feels slower because theres not as much gameplay. At this point im basically binge watching a tv show

Im sad to say my opinion on endwalker is souring a bit. But again - maybe im just trippin - after all this is the highest rated expansion by both critics and fans

Is it the highest rated expansion? I feel like Shadowbringers is considered a little better in general, though that might be because of the patches being better.

The Hydaelyn battle was one of the best parts, so it's too bad you didn't like that. I really loved Elpis in general - my favorite part of EW.

i mean i'm not really a big fan of ffxiv's story or just ffxiv as a game in general and the abundance of nonstop dialogue boxes and the fact that the "gameplay" is 90% fetch quests is a part of that but that'd apply to most expansions anyway. i thought endwalker's story was fine. i think most people prefer shadowbringers by a bit, maybe just because it's a bit more focused whereas endwalker is trying to do its own thing while also ending a bunch of arcs.

Endwalker is great, but there is a lot. A LOT. Of fluff. Like holy shit a lot of fluff. Also, the second visit to Labyrinthos, apart from the reunion with Moenbryda's parents, is boring as hell and no amount of ill-fitting music is going to fail to remind me of Kholusia v2.0, which was at least somewhat exciting while it was going on

Actually, it's a problem with Labyrinthos as a whole. It seems like a zone I would love but everything in it is fucking boring - story, layout, fish... even the impending doom of the world is just a big ol' "meh, we'll get there with minimal problems since everyone's on board, right?"

Elpis is a pretty cool payoff to the end of ShB though, even if it's not the most amazing of "omg spoiler" zones.

----

That said, of course there's a lot of cutscenes. A big thematic takeaway I got from the expansion is "we hope you've enjoyed the journey and all its ups and downs." I also don't want to spoil anything from the *post* MSQ (the usual "after the credits roll") but the post-MSQ patches aren't very well received if you try to marathon them. Take them like a week a patch instead of one sitting and they're more digestible.

Elpis is probably my favorite part of the entire game including all expansions so idk I dont really agree

I'm just soured by how many ophiotauroskin map runs and failed Furcacauda catch attemps I've had to do.

I love Ktisis Hyperborea as a dungeon, though.

Endwalker has some big pacing issues, but I loved the high points. Not feeling anything from the Hydaelyn trial is definitely surprising, that was hype as hell.

Isquen posted...
Endwalker is great, but there is a lot. A LOT. Of fluff. Like holy shit a lot of fluff. Also, the second visit to Labyrinthos, apart from the reunion with Moenbryda's parents, is boring as hell and no amount of ill-fitting music

lmao yes exactly. I cant believe how much everything came to a screeching halt with this. Just two hours of a never ending slog of fetch quests, finding scientists, hyping them up, when it's like man we're in the third act what even is this. And the entire time its got hype music, even though what I'm doing isnt hype in the least

And also like... I've been taking notes through my journey on the lore and stuff, but like... why was Amon made to be such a big deal here? This random ARR patch background villain that I encountered 3 years ago that I wouldve forgotten about if not for my notes. I get that he's one of the people Fandaniel possessed, but man after you beat him, theres a 20 minute cutscene and he has this giant speech talking about his motivations and it's like... wtf who even are you lmao

In fact lets talk about Fandaniel... so my brain kinda checked out, but from what I can make of it, Ascians got shattered into shards, but only a few Ascians, and Fandaniel is just a title, so his real name is Hermes, and one of his shards went to this random Allagan scientist named Amon, and another went to some random dude in our time, who just randomly decided to possess Asahi's body, and now he's just a little shit who wants to end everything because Hermes was sad his dinosaur died one time, but nobody remembers that because Hermes just happened to have a memory-altering device ready to go just in case? Its all so exhausting

Like I mostly enjoyed Elpis, it's a beautiful location (Endwalker is 4 for 4 with the locations so far holy shit), and I enjoyed Emet Selch and Hythlodaeus, but everything else about it was a giant slog imo

The very first time I got the warning "multiple cutscenes are about to play; please set aside time" was in ARR patch before the red wedding. So whenever I got that warning from then on, I was like "aw shit it's go time". But in Endwalker, EVERY cutscene is multiple cutscenes lol. I'm just tired

Amon is literally the most important Allagan (even more so than Xande, because he was behind resurrecting him) and is directly responsible for nearly every atrocity one of the most long-standing plots in the game committed. Hes the reason behind basically every single Allagan dungeon in the game, including The Binding Coil.

And you misunderstood the shard thing. Amon is a shard of Hermes (who is Fandaniel on the Convocation), just as we are the shard of Azem. Emet raised Amon to full Ascian as happened with Gaias previous life and her former boyfriend, etc. Amon is the one who possessed Asahi and has always been Fandaniel.

The rest Im really not sure what to say to other than it seems youve misunderstood a LOT of what is going on in Elpis including Herms motivation.

Elpis was basically the culmination of 10 years worth of lore payoffs back-to-back-to-back and I find it hard to understand how someone who otherwise has been paying attention to the story so far seems to have missed basically all of it.

Yeah I guess this is on me man, because I don't even remember The Binding Coil. All the Allagan stuff in ARR patch just kinda came and went for me - I'm usually one & done on all content - I never went back and replayed any of the dungeons or raids or anything, so I've just kinda forgotten most of it.

It's kinda crazy to me, like is the average joe mmo gamer really keeping track of all this? Because I'm a crazy person who obsesses over lore and takes notes, and I can barely keep track lol

So much of the Ascian/Elpis stuff feels convoluted, BUT like I said earlier every FF game gets convoluted in the third act, and at least 14 has the lore and buildup to have it all check out. And at least they found a way to eventually make the Ascians interesting, considering how bland they were in the first couple expansions

ill say labyrinthos part 2 was ok for what it was. it was the cool off bit after the hypeest shit of elpis and the calm before the storm of the Final Zone. it did have the trial which was great and i liked the (dont remember exactly when it happens so ill spoiler it) eorzea brings all the things scene. but yeah still kind of a drag mostly.

Binding Coil, Crystal Tower, Void Ark, Azys Lla... yeah, Amon did A LOT.

A takeaway from Shadowbringers, though, which applies easily to Endwalker, is that shattered Ascians can easily carve out their own path. You have. Gaia was starting to despite another one who loved her - the mind stuck in stasis as Eden - trying to get her to join him (PS - in the Savage what-if, he succeeds and she becomes the final boss of E12S to the tune of The Extreme from FF8)

There's also precedence that the more you do the body hopping thing, the loonier you become over time (see: Lahabrea). Heck, there's even some further fuel for the insanity theory in Zenos himself, what with the person-who-should-be-capital-D-Dead still hounding you. So yes, Fandingus was Amon once, but no telling who or what he was before that (but after the Shattering.) Also of note is that the body of the possessed did not approve - you've been in the Aitiascope, you saw just how livid Baby Bowlcut was afterwards- and for once his hatred wasnt primarily directed at us. (As an aside, I wonder how Ardbert-in-us reacts to Elidibus-in-Ardbert, or if the First has it's own flavor of lifestream where a part of either of them are.)

Also for the Aitiascope, it's worth noting that sundered Fandingdong apparently most closely identified as Amon instead of Hermes - the soul remembers that sort of thing in 14-land.