This review contains spoilers
Endwalker had the impossible task of finishing a decade-long story. There was simply no way this was going to be a perfect and elegant ending—too many threads to bring together, too much lore to handle, too many accumulated issues over the course of these 10 years. It is a wonder that it manages to finish everything it set out to do.
In short, 6.0 encapsulates everything I love and hate about this game. It is absolutely ridiculous in the best and worst ways—we punch despair to death on a magic platform floating the back of our archenemy who turned into a dragon god (again!), we travel to the past, we see plot-relevant people returning from death through the power of deus ex machina, we kill and dethrone multiple supreme gods of creation, and we share wholesome moments with bunnies and friends.
I will skip over gameplay. MMOs are not for me. I find them tedious, messy, and overly complex. This is not an absolute judgement, just a matter of personal preference. Endwalker did not offer much really new here except a couple of new "stealth" sequences which are thankfully short.
The narrative has its very low points. The moments after a grand revelation, in which we are mired with an absolute overabundance of lighthearted content are one example. Don't get me wrong, the Loporrits are adorable and I love them, but both their questlines were painful filler. Endwalker also fumbles—once again—when trying to address geopolitics and how to handle fascists, though I did appreciate the WoL did not fix 60 years of eugenics and imperialism in 5 days through the power of friendship and rainbows. Zenos and Fandaniel barely deserve a mention, tired and mediocre discount-bin villains as they were—at least they mostly disappear after the first third of the game. I feel almost dirty dealing with them after fighting against Emet-Selch.
The character-focussed sections are, as always, the shining beacons of FFXIV, the reason for which I play this game. Nothing that hits as hard as Shadowbringers, but that's at least in part because Endwalker simply had a lot to do, and needed to do it in the most brazenly melodramatic manner. The special moments we shared with our companions were always preoccupied with signalling a major chapter of their story had reached an end, and that this end was supposed to be a good one. When a secondary protagonist dies without 25 minutes of mourning cutscenes and is then quickly followed by another, you just know their arses are 100% safe. This rather dampens the emotional impact of the whole thing. Meeting the Amaurotines, on the other hand, is lovely and, a couple of suspiciously retcon-y moments aside, really expands our understanding of these people were and why they did the things they did. Except for Hermes, whose main character trait is "misguided attempts at dealing with personal issues."
My biggest disappointment was the amount of compromises when it came to previously fundamental aspects of the world. Our planet/star is suddenly no longer Hydaelyn; the mothercrystal is not some fundamental pillar of existence, just rocket fuel; primals are trash mobs; summoning no longer tempers anyone.
But, with everything said and done, I'm happy I played this game, I'm happy I experienced this story, and I'm happy it's done. I will forever treasure the characters, the story, the gargantuan scope of the narrative, even as I will probably never touch a multiplayer game ever again.
In short, 6.0 encapsulates everything I love and hate about this game. It is absolutely ridiculous in the best and worst ways—we punch despair to death on a magic platform floating the back of our archenemy who turned into a dragon god (again!), we travel to the past, we see plot-relevant people returning from death through the power of deus ex machina, we kill and dethrone multiple supreme gods of creation, and we share wholesome moments with bunnies and friends.
I will skip over gameplay. MMOs are not for me. I find them tedious, messy, and overly complex. This is not an absolute judgement, just a matter of personal preference. Endwalker did not offer much really new here except a couple of new "stealth" sequences which are thankfully short.
The narrative has its very low points. The moments after a grand revelation, in which we are mired with an absolute overabundance of lighthearted content are one example. Don't get me wrong, the Loporrits are adorable and I love them, but both their questlines were painful filler. Endwalker also fumbles—once again—when trying to address geopolitics and how to handle fascists, though I did appreciate the WoL did not fix 60 years of eugenics and imperialism in 5 days through the power of friendship and rainbows. Zenos and Fandaniel barely deserve a mention, tired and mediocre discount-bin villains as they were—at least they mostly disappear after the first third of the game. I feel almost dirty dealing with them after fighting against Emet-Selch.
The character-focussed sections are, as always, the shining beacons of FFXIV, the reason for which I play this game. Nothing that hits as hard as Shadowbringers, but that's at least in part because Endwalker simply had a lot to do, and needed to do it in the most brazenly melodramatic manner. The special moments we shared with our companions were always preoccupied with signalling a major chapter of their story had reached an end, and that this end was supposed to be a good one. When a secondary protagonist dies without 25 minutes of mourning cutscenes and is then quickly followed by another, you just know their arses are 100% safe. This rather dampens the emotional impact of the whole thing. Meeting the Amaurotines, on the other hand, is lovely and, a couple of suspiciously retcon-y moments aside, really expands our understanding of these people were and why they did the things they did. Except for Hermes, whose main character trait is "misguided attempts at dealing with personal issues."
My biggest disappointment was the amount of compromises when it came to previously fundamental aspects of the world. Our planet/star is suddenly no longer Hydaelyn; the mothercrystal is not some fundamental pillar of existence, just rocket fuel; primals are trash mobs; summoning no longer tempers anyone.
But, with everything said and done, I'm happy I played this game, I'm happy I experienced this story, and I'm happy it's done. I will forever treasure the characters, the story, the gargantuan scope of the narrative, even as I will probably never touch a multiplayer game ever again.