Endwalker, which is the second Ishikawa-written expansion and the conclusion to the long Hydaleyn/Zodiark saga, is probably the most ambitious and story/cutscene heavy expansion so far. The question of whether it lived up to its potential thus becomes threefold:
1) Did it satisfy as a story on its own?
2) Did it satisfy as a concluding arc to everything that was built up until now?
3) Did it live up to the first major expansion written by Ishikawa?
The answer to all of these ultimately is yes for me, but some of them have asterisks to them, more than others. Endwalker is an absolutely fantastic story that is worthy of the quality threshold that Shadowbringers set, but it also has a fair bit of narrative issues in a way that Shadowbringers somehow magically avoided in every way. At the same time, it has some of the most emotionally potent storytelling and the best scenes in the game so far, which is to say the story of its quality is far from simple.
Let's start off with what I liked, which is a lot. I think Endwalker has excellent themes that are explored and reinforced with a level of extensiveness that feels really unique for this game, it's present in every single section of the game in one way or another, and as a result it is allowed to get a lot of different and varied depictions that really play into each other and makes it all the more emotionally powerful and valuable for me, it really sounds like something that would be simple but it manages to be a beautiful celebration of the strength of the human will and the things worth fighting for in life. Again, I know this sounds simple but the places Endwalker takes it are great. Whenever this aspect is in the forefront I pretty much have no issues, it even manages to give of one of the villains some pretty interesting screentime. Endwalker is just as a story filled with so much love and empathy and it's hard to dislike any of that.
But it isn't like any of this is not concrete either, I think it leads to some storytelling sections being really effective. In particular one of them stands out as the best part of Endwalker and probably the game in general as a result.
Which leads into another aspect I want to talk about, I love that Endwalker remembers the themes and lessons of the past expansions and all of them are displayed here really interestingly in the context of the story going on. There were definitely also plot moments where a lot of the allies from previous stories came together, as you would expect of something like this, but I found myself consistently more charmed with this as it applied to the main characters and themes.
In particular, I think Endwalker as a sequel to Shadowbringers is like absolutely excellent, I think the themes of Endwalker do a lot to complement Shadowbringers' and it also has a lot of incredible things that address a lot of questions some of which you didn't even know you had with Shadowbringers that overall makes me satisfied with the way Shadowbringers was treated here.
As far as character writing goes.. I'd say Endwalker is largely really good. The scions have some of their absolute best stuff yet, and some of the side characters are kind of mindblowingly excellent here, one in particular serves as the ultimate expression of Endwalker's main themes and left me thinking about them for a long time (and I still am.) However, unfortunately I would also say that Endwalker has a few duds in the side cast, where they have interesting ideas and writing but unfortunately fail to properly pay them off, and it's especially frustrating in the case of one particular character and sours my opinion of some of the story sections.
Which leads nicely into my thoughts on Endwalker's issues. I think the main theme is that it is really good at giving you set up to things but is just not good at paying some of them off. I was quite disappointed with the way they handled some story sections and it made me wonder why they set this up in this way at all. I am at least glad that the final trial and everything surrounding it is filled with the same emotional weight that I mentioned loving in the themes, and to me it is a moment that is almost as hype as base Shadowbringers' final trial.
Anyways once we have the complicated stuff out of the way, I would like to say the music is fucking excellent of course it was did you really expect anything else.
The duties are also genuinely the best duties in the game, I'd surprisingly say I love most if not all of them and I think they just are really good at making them consistently fun now.
The areas are also very memorable here, while I may have issues with story resolutions I think they are just really good at being atmospheric and great locations to explore.
Now, in this review I will switch to talking about Post-Endwalker. Despite me considering it a different entity entirely in terms of MSQ I still think this is a better place than any to discuss it.
The trial series... doesn't exist for this one, as they seem to have put all of that into the MSQ itself this time around. Which is a good time to talk about the MSQ - it's okay. It has some nice aspects and it is definitely decently written but to me it's the biggest lull we've had since Post-ARR (though like do not get me wrong it is definitely better than that for sure). At least the trials are pretty damn fun, like I said great duties.
The normal raids are quite fun too. While I overall prefer Eden, Panda is still an enjoyable story tackling a really novel concept that I am glad that they are addressing, and the fights are satisfying and fun as expected of them. The music in them in particular is also really good.
The (unfinished, so some of this will change when we get the third one) alliance raids are really really fun, I enjoy them both in terms of mechanics and especially music which is honestly shockingly good (and that's saying something for this game). Story wise it has been okay so far but I really like the potential for the lore because it has been giving us a lot of interesting stuff to think about.
And yeah.... I think that's about it? Endwalker is really damn good and super worth playing. It is not the cohesive and well put together masterpiece that Shadowbringers quite is, but it makes up for it nonetheless!
1) Did it satisfy as a story on its own?
2) Did it satisfy as a concluding arc to everything that was built up until now?
3) Did it live up to the first major expansion written by Ishikawa?
The answer to all of these ultimately is yes for me, but some of them have asterisks to them, more than others. Endwalker is an absolutely fantastic story that is worthy of the quality threshold that Shadowbringers set, but it also has a fair bit of narrative issues in a way that Shadowbringers somehow magically avoided in every way. At the same time, it has some of the most emotionally potent storytelling and the best scenes in the game so far, which is to say the story of its quality is far from simple.
Let's start off with what I liked, which is a lot. I think Endwalker has excellent themes that are explored and reinforced with a level of extensiveness that feels really unique for this game, it's present in every single section of the game in one way or another, and as a result it is allowed to get a lot of different and varied depictions that really play into each other and makes it all the more emotionally powerful and valuable for me, it really sounds like something that would be simple but it manages to be a beautiful celebration of the strength of the human will and the things worth fighting for in life. Again, I know this sounds simple but the places Endwalker takes it are great. Whenever this aspect is in the forefront I pretty much have no issues, it even manages to give of one of the villains some pretty interesting screentime. Endwalker is just as a story filled with so much love and empathy and it's hard to dislike any of that.
But it isn't like any of this is not concrete either, I think it leads to some storytelling sections being really effective. In particular one of them stands out as the best part of Endwalker and probably the game in general as a result.
Which leads into another aspect I want to talk about, I love that Endwalker remembers the themes and lessons of the past expansions and all of them are displayed here really interestingly in the context of the story going on. There were definitely also plot moments where a lot of the allies from previous stories came together, as you would expect of something like this, but I found myself consistently more charmed with this as it applied to the main characters and themes.
In particular, I think Endwalker as a sequel to Shadowbringers is like absolutely excellent, I think the themes of Endwalker do a lot to complement Shadowbringers' and it also has a lot of incredible things that address a lot of questions some of which you didn't even know you had with Shadowbringers that overall makes me satisfied with the way Shadowbringers was treated here.
As far as character writing goes.. I'd say Endwalker is largely really good. The scions have some of their absolute best stuff yet, and some of the side characters are kind of mindblowingly excellent here, one in particular serves as the ultimate expression of Endwalker's main themes and left me thinking about them for a long time (and I still am.) However, unfortunately I would also say that Endwalker has a few duds in the side cast, where they have interesting ideas and writing but unfortunately fail to properly pay them off, and it's especially frustrating in the case of one particular character and sours my opinion of some of the story sections.
Which leads nicely into my thoughts on Endwalker's issues. I think the main theme is that it is really good at giving you set up to things but is just not good at paying some of them off. I was quite disappointed with the way they handled some story sections and it made me wonder why they set this up in this way at all. I am at least glad that the final trial and everything surrounding it is filled with the same emotional weight that I mentioned loving in the themes, and to me it is a moment that is almost as hype as base Shadowbringers' final trial.
Anyways once we have the complicated stuff out of the way, I would like to say the music is fucking excellent of course it was did you really expect anything else.
The duties are also genuinely the best duties in the game, I'd surprisingly say I love most if not all of them and I think they just are really good at making them consistently fun now.
The areas are also very memorable here, while I may have issues with story resolutions I think they are just really good at being atmospheric and great locations to explore.
Now, in this review I will switch to talking about Post-Endwalker. Despite me considering it a different entity entirely in terms of MSQ I still think this is a better place than any to discuss it.
The trial series... doesn't exist for this one, as they seem to have put all of that into the MSQ itself this time around. Which is a good time to talk about the MSQ - it's okay. It has some nice aspects and it is definitely decently written but to me it's the biggest lull we've had since Post-ARR (though like do not get me wrong it is definitely better than that for sure). At least the trials are pretty damn fun, like I said great duties.
The normal raids are quite fun too. While I overall prefer Eden, Panda is still an enjoyable story tackling a really novel concept that I am glad that they are addressing, and the fights are satisfying and fun as expected of them. The music in them in particular is also really good.
The (unfinished, so some of this will change when we get the third one) alliance raids are really really fun, I enjoy them both in terms of mechanics and especially music which is honestly shockingly good (and that's saying something for this game). Story wise it has been okay so far but I really like the potential for the lore because it has been giving us a lot of interesting stuff to think about.
And yeah.... I think that's about it? Endwalker is really damn good and super worth playing. It is not the cohesive and well put together masterpiece that Shadowbringers quite is, but it makes up for it nonetheless!