I was dreading this review the most because I KNEW that I’d have so much to talk about, because similar to my time as a sprout, I could never turn off my critical brain. I had my mind honed to see faults in logic or inconsistencies in characterization from my time in Dawntrail. After all, this entire endeavor to go through all expansion MSQs has been to first and foremost pinpoint the origin of the decline in writing quality we see prevailing in Dawntrail.
While it was easy for me to go through Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringer’s MSQ stories, both from the base games and patches, because of how relatively tightly knit and easy to follow the stories were for the most part, EW didn’t have the luxury to be as tightly knit as its predecessors, due to executive meddling. As far as I’m aware, lead writer Ishikawa had enough material to write about the Ancient world and the Final Days until 8.0, but Yoshi-P wanted to finish with the Ancients storyline to start a new story. Hence why EW has so many inconsistencies and questionable narrative decisions all throughout its runtime. -------
To preface, in spite of the gripes I'll be presenting in later blogs of this review series, I actually enjoyed my time in this EW 6.0 NG+ playthrough. I had a lovely time with the story of the Scions and I’ll get into more detail on that later, but first I’d like to say how I’ll go about writing this entire review series.
Firstly, I’ll write my general thoughts on EW’s 6.0 MSQ in this current blog, touching upon different narrative, story and execution related aspects. Then I’ll start making specific mini-essays and rants in separate blogs and later I will write companion blogs dedicated to 4 major topics I’d like to analyse in depth, namely: 1. Venat/Hydaelyn 2. The Ancients 3. The time-travel 4. The Warrior of Light -------
EW comes as a direct continuation to the story, as well as the lore revelations we got in SHB. I noted in my post-SHB NG+ run review that a lot of the plot points presented in the build-up to Endwalker don’t seem to have a lot of common ground with each other, and this is because they pay off in the first third of EW, until we fight Zodiark, forced to do so by Zenos and Fandaniel.
The central focus of the first third of EW is the mysterious plans of the Telophoroi and the questions of how and more importantly WHY they want to bring about the Final Days of old into the present. An exercise in futility given the mastermind behind this entire plan is a madman who actually stated that trying to reason with him is pointless. As such the Scions find out the hard way that Fandaniel is always one step ahead of them at every turn, and all they can do is try and stop him.
Unfortunately, not much comes of it as they fail to stop Fandaniel from killing Zodiark and undoing the magic which protected the Source from the Final Days of old. -------
Now… so far the story is pretty tightly knit, with a sprinkling of moral quandaries in Garlemald which truly elevates the writing quality quite a lot as it expertly displays the horrors of a fallen nation, torn apart by civil war, infighting and an overwhelming struggle to survive in the unforgiving climate of the region.
The writing for that part made a lasting impression on me even as a sprout and I will have to reiterate how exceptionally well written Garlemald’s plight is, presented through painfully human characters like Licinia and her sister and Jullus. -------
Where the story starts fraying at the edges is when it tries to tackle the various elements that make up the origins of the Final Days and ultimately the cosmology of the Source and its thirteen Reflections. A mix of executive meddling, intrusive writing and questionable narrative choices and characterizations is what plagues the remaining two thirds of the story, specifically in the areas just I mentioned.
However, the story of the Scions finding a way to combat the Final Days in the present is well done and thanks in no small part to how much characterization they all get in EW. -------
EW goes out of its way to make you understand each and everyone of the Scions, what drives them, why they fight, why they would put their life on the line to protect those they hold dear and it’s inspiring in so many ways seeing the characters that we saw for the first time in ARR become such fully rounded characters in the course of this story.
While SHB primarily focuses on the secondary characters hailing from the First and the villain, Emet-Selch, EW is in its entirety a story about the Scions and how their friendship and companionship has opened their eyes to the beauty of the world they live in, ultimately driving them to lay down their lives to save the star. It is the story of a handful of exceptional people who never gave up on the world they love.
“To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom—it is indolence.” - Archon Louisoix Leveilleur
The Scions embody these words, they go out of their way to save everyone that they possibly can, even though they find out that they often cannot. And it is heartwrenching whenever they cannot save someone, Licinia and her sister, Lord Quintus, Mehvan and Qerasaf to name just a few. -------
The cast of secondary characters and villains is solid. Even though I have a bone to pick with Fandaniel, he’s a great character and has managed to make me laugh more often than not. Zenos is still fascinating to follow, if nothing else than his obsession makes for an interesting case study of what boredom and lack of purpose does to a man.
Antagonist Fourchenaut Leveilleur is also a really well written character and his development throughout the story is probably the most heartfelt out of all of the characters that EW has.
I will not go into detail about Venat here, she’ll have a blog post all to herself in due time, but she USED to be my favorite EW character when I was a sprout going through the story for the first time. She no longer is, by virtue of all the things I’ll be talking about in the aforementioned blog, but I will say that it was lovely interacting with her within Elpis. She is a truly charismatic and whimsical character that has great chemistry with Hythlodaeus and especially Emet-Selch.
My NOW favorite EW character, from this NG+ run is ... well Meteion. But a close second is Hythlodaeus. He is an amazing character: smart, funny, considerate, delightful, kind. What’s there not to love about him? Oh and he’s bloody gorgeous! His friendship with Emet-Selch is so lovely, though I’m sure Emet would beg to differ, given that the latter is always the contrarian. Emet has a grumpy, “I don’t wanna be here” air to him that makes him exceedingly fun whenever you interact with him in Elpis.
Lastly, I’d like to talk about Meteion. While I don’t have a lot to say about Hermes as a general character, I will say that I like Meteion much more than I did in my first playthrough, because I sympathize with her plight and I truly wish that she hadn’t succumbed to despair in the first place. But I’ll talk more about that in my mini essays to come. -------
Now as far as combat content goes for EW, it bugs me a lot that we have very few solo duties that drive the story forward, compared to previous expansions. Even so, they are all VERY memorable solo duties as they are crucial to advancing the story… though I would argue that the only one that did feel a bit tacked on was the one in which you have to fight Venat to prove yourself worthy to ride her bloody familiar.
Yes! Even though I’ve made it clear that I don’t like Zenos, and I find that the solo duty where you fight him ruins the beautiful moment at the end of The Final Day when Meteion manages to feel hope again with the help of the Warrior of Light, I still believe that that fight was necessary to getting rid of him once and for all!
As for dungeons, I believe EW has the largest number of leveling duties that I like: Vanaspati, Ktisis Hyperboreia and the Aitiascope to be precise. Wonderful and very story relevant duties with amazing music and combat. And regarding trials, all of the EW 6.0 trials are bloody amazing. -------
Speaking of music, EW’s music is really well done. It’s probably my third favorite collection of songs after SB and SHB, in that order. And the zones in EW, I will say, it took me quite a long time to warm up to Thavnair, Labyrinthos, Mare Lamentorum and Ultima Thule, but I’ve always liked Garlemald and Elpis. -------
Miscellaneous talking points: - Krile is such a lovely and thoughtful character towards Elril all throughout the story and it really bothered me that she was always left behind to worry if her friends will even return. Also her not going to meet Hydaelyn was just so rude. She’s the one that has the most right to see Hydaelyn, after the Warrior of Light and yet she doesn’t. - For a long time, it bothered me that the Scions adopted the name of Etheirys so readily for the Source… but considering how I currently view Hydaelyn, it’s as good a name as any. - G’raha’s insistence to see everything we did together as an adventure, even as the sky above us was fucking burning was incredibly annoying and his wanderlust was getting on my nerves as it came out during the most inappropriate of times - I’d forgotten that Hythlo was supposed to take up the seat of Emet-Selch and that him, Hades and Azem were supposed to return to the star together. That was sad. - The game loves wasting my time with busy work just before the climax of the story. I had better things to do than escort the Lopporits through Labyrinthos. - Galuf Baldesion brought G'raha over to Sharlayan? No wonder Krile is so fond of him. - Moen' parents ;( Urianger's personal character development is endearing -------
More blogs to come in the following days.
Stay safe, my fellow Warriors of Light. - Warrior of Light, Elril Moonweaver
