Maybe the real endwalker was the test of your reflexes

hoooly fuck this is just me rambling

"Henceforth, he shall walk."

Endwalker was possibly the most emotional a piece of media has ever made me. I'm thinking back on this game currently, and the biggest thing that comes to mind is "Holy shit, i'm so glad that I got to experience ff14's story". Although this isn't as amazing as I think shadowbringers was, but the way Endwalker is written and executed feels like a perfect finale to an era.

I started my ff14 journey as someone who didn't really care about the msq, who just wanted to see what it was like, and thought an online final fantasy game seemed like something i wouldn't like.

But, over the past 4 expansions, I grew to care so deeply for these fictional characters and worlds. I certainly have my fair amount of gripes with the game, especially with the dungeons and trials usually feeling lacking.

I personally am a story above all else type, but I found the gameplay so middling in comparison to prior expansions. There's no denying the character writing is at it's peak here, but worldbuilding was nowhere near as strong or enticing as SHB.

The biggest thing keeping this expac at a 5 stars is just how much it means to me. The very meta nature of endwalker and how i've strengthened real friendships through this game lead to a DEVASTATING Ultima Thule experience. And it is that way for most people, from what i've heard.

It felt really personal, but so many people say it reminded them of vastly different things in their own lives. And I think that's magical, especially when, through a shit ton of tears, I simply stopped playing the game, and talked through how I was feeling regarding very real things this game was making me think about with my friend. And we had this conversation in the in-game chat, in Ultima Thule, right before entering the dead ends.

This is the biggest example, but there's tons of story moments that really hit me hard, and even if I feel like Endwalker was sometimes tonally inconsistent, it has the highest highs and what I think is one of final fantasy's best cutscenes in years.

Endwalker is certainly not a perfect expansion, but I felt something very powerful while playing it and i'm honesty not sure how to explain it. You are asked at multiple points if your journey was fulfilling. And for me, who hit 1000 hours as I reached the final day, I'd say it was.


Gameplay: 6.5/10 - the mainline content was pretty okay, Endsinger was good, but the optional content is SO MUCH FUN
Plot: 9/10 - not as narrative focused as shb but delivers emotionally to make up for it, and expanded on things in shadowbringers that I really wanted to know more about.
Pacing: 6/10 - Either very slow or very fast with little inbetween
Visuals: 7.5/10 - they are really pushing the engine here, props to the vfx artists

conclusion: 9/10 g'raha burgers

I'd give the at-launch main body of Endwalker a near perfect score. It's a huge emotional climax to the story told throughout the previous expansions that manages to take you to new, surprising places while still feeling like a satisfying conclusion. The boss fights are fantastic, the characters are great, the soundtrack delivers hit after hit. There are a couple of minor annoyances - some elements feel rushed or incomplete, like Garlemald, the longtime antagonistic nation, here reduced to a speedbump on the way to bigger conflicts. As with Stormblood, since the zones are all spread out and discobobulated the sense of place and connection is weaker, and why large chunks of the story take place in Thavnair I'm still not really sure. These come out in the wash though. The whole of the MSQ is stronger than the sum of its parts.

The same, I'm afraid, cannot be said for the patch content. Shadowbringers delivered, in my opinion, some of the greatest hits in the entire game with Ishgard Restoration & Bozja. These were meaty, community oriented projects that would allow players to sink hundreds of hours into them, or much less and still have fun. There's no comparable content in Endwalker. Island Sanctuary is an absolute bust, a single player idle game that consists of alternatively right clicking rocks or showing up once a week to collect rent. Variant & Criterion dungeons are hits, and I do like having a hard-as-nails 4 player content, but they don't fill the void left by the bigger group activities. Manderville Weapons are deeply underwhelming.

Most disappointing is the post-game story. We knew going into Endwalker that the typical format established in Heavensward wouldn't apply here - Endwalker's story climaxed in 6.0, not 6.3. What we didn't know was that the next expansion storyline wouldn't start until 6.55, meaning the entirety of the 6.X MSQ is an overblown filler arc. I was so disappointed when I realised the standout new character Zero was disappearing like a movie-only anime character when the story came to a close (and worse still, trading in her cool Scythe for a boring Sword!) Maybe it'll all come to bear in a future Bozja-style Void content, one can only hope.

I am sympathetic to the developers, who pushed hard to get the base game out, and struggled on working through the pandemic. I hope that the content drought in the post game is the after effects of the pandemic finally appearing out of the pipeline, and that Dawntrail will be a return to form. Fingers crossed.

This game and this expac changed my life. Like there's a certain experience that just cant be found anywhere else than in mmos. Playing this on release and seeing discussion revolving different parts of the story, talking about things with friends, travelling the journey with new friends you've made along the way; its just magical. All of the memories you make, the challenges you overcome, and the growth you have, on top of just having a fantastic game overall is amazing. Endwalker specifically really feels like the culmination of the entire final fantasy franchises lifespan come into appreciation of its players. Will probably forever remain my favorite game.

One thing I immediately noticed when going into shadowbringers is that the pacing of the story is suddenly really, really good. There is never a single point in the story where I feel like I'd rather be doing something else. Not only that, the story glued me to my seat on more than one occasion. It really recontextualized how I view this game and its setting, and I fucking love it. The only complaint I can think of is that some side characters get less screen time than I felt like they should have, but even that's because I care about them so much.

The game takes the improvements in encounter design and player abilities from stormblood, and goes really far with it. The patch content duties are extremely fun, and both the trial and raid series made me actively lose my shit about how good they were. I really don't have much of anything negative to say, this is an amazing video game.

Ever since I finished Shadowbringers I have been urging people to play FFXIV and experience this game, and Shadowbringers is one of the defining reasons. I haven't been so attached to a story and its characters in a long time. The story pulls you in instantly, you're in a new land with so much to learn and discover. The conflict is great and kept me engaged the whole way through, and the characters were all interesting and likeable. Shadowbringers is a must play for anyone, the story is something everyone should experience.