ralgr

They set a very high bar with the Shadowbringers expansion but they surpassed that or at least matched it in Endwalker. The development team delivered an emotional, gripping, and all around amazing story that wraps up the Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc that was worthy of it. A better ending to this saga 10 years in the making I can scarce imagine. There are very noticeable improvements in quality for everything from dialogues, animations, zones, to music. Speaking of music, every piece introduced this expansion did not fail to immerse me and elevate the area or scenes where they are played. They also introduced some more RPG elements to the story by allowing you to roam with quest-important NPCs which increases the immersion and gives the writers more ways to convey information relevant to the character and the story. They are also good for taking lots of screenshots. Combat contents such as story missions, dungeons and the three trials are all 10/10 for me with regards to music, battle design, and atmosphere. Except maybe the follow the NPC stealth missions. I'd give it a 5/10 as its not bad but also not great. Job changes this time leans generally towards a positive note except for Dark Knight. It has not been changed much from Shadowbringers as they only added more off gcd cooldowns to it, leaving you with still just the 123 combo. It also still has the worst invulnerability cooldown out of all the tanks. General sentiment is that its gameplay is much too similar to a Warrior and does not have much of an identity, which I am inclined to agree. Saying that, I do have some minor critiques pertaining to pacing and the usually consistent number of objectives for quests in a certain part of the story before heading to the final zone. This part was the preparation phase of the journey where the quest flavour overall was laid back. However, the music played on this series of laid back quests had a tone of urgency to it which I thought was unsuitable. Further there was the issue of the number of objectives for a particular quest in this series. Usually, you have to talk to, kill, or gather around 3-4 things, but this quest had an unusual 8 objectives that was certainly unfun to find. That said, the conclusion for this series of quests was a very beautiful and heart-breaking scene that marked the first time I full on cried. Be that as it may, this bad experience is eclipsed by all the things Endwalker did right. And there are a great many things they did right. Overall, Endwalker is arguably their best work to date. The expansion exceeded my expectations in every aspect and further cements Final Fantasy XIV to not only be one of the best MMO, but also one of the best RPGs currently, in my opinion. Some players might meme a bit about it being critically acclaimed but it actually lives up to that and more.

The story for this expansion is as great as everyone says. On par with any of the great RPGs available today, owing to the dedication of the whole FFXIV team. Each named side characters introduced are well fleshed out and not throwaways for the sake of the story. The music for each zone and dungeons are fitting and a joy to listen to even at many repetitions. As for the looks of the zone, most of them are improvements to previous content partially owing to the use of larger range of colours. A minor gripe storywise for me is that sometimes, even when our character is at a position to do something to resolve a situation to a happier end, they just watch instead for the sake of the story. For example, our character may be well in position physically to intercept an enemy to rescue someone but instead just looks on in shock, leading to a death that could have been avoidable. I think it would add more believability if, for example, our character was on the other side of a chasm as he looks on, but that is not the case on some NPC deaths. There were also changes to all classes. I can only speak of my experience playing as a Dark Knight, however. The new DRK changes are pretty straightforward and removes the spammy element. The only underwhelming skill I have encountered is the final skill which is to summon a shadowy figure to unleash some damage using DRK skills. My problem is, its just that. Its only function is to be used on cooldown as a damage increase with no interaction with the player. I was expecting it copy what the player would do, and so summoning it must needs preparation to deal the most damage, which sadly is not the case. Some new content available is more of the same as previous expansions. A respectable amount of dungeons each with a unqiue aesthetic and atmosphere, and three trials with an additional extreme modes for two of the three, all of which are suitably challenging. However, FATES in the new zones have been revised and now gives incentives to players to acutally do them for more than just for experience by adding a rank system and currency to it. Earned currency can be spent on various rewards ranging from mount speed increase of the zone, materials to chocobo bardings. You will have a rank for each zone which determines what items can be bought from the Gem Traders, which are the vendors for the FATE rewards. Rank goes up to 3 with the better rewards unclokced for purchase at rank 2 and 3. Levelling to max will take a mix of main scenario quests, dungeons, and other activities such as FATEs. More on the dungeons, Shadowbringers also introduces the TRUST sytem, which now allows our characters to do dungeons with certain NPCs that are integral to the story. This feature boosted my immersion to the story immensely as you can now take your time on the dungeons to look at every detail you desire without the pressure of potentially wasting other players' time. The NPCs also engage in colourful banter, which makes it all the more immersive. Additionally, they are helpful in learning the dungeon boss mechanics as they are coded to do them properly. The only downside would be that the TRUST NPCs will have potentially a lower damage output compared to players. Potentially. However, after completing the story, the NPC levels will drop and will require you to level them up by taking them to dungeons. They acquire a set experience per run and will require multiple runs to level up, but according to some players, your experience gain will outpace theirs, which in my opinion, is a problem.