I have to say I enjoyed the new Endwalker expansion to Final Fantasy XIV. I’m assuming if you’re here you’ve already played through Main Scenario (at least as of 6.01).
It was tough to get into. Eventually we end up in Garlemald and I’ve always had mixed feelings about the Garlemald storyline. This kind of makes me think I wouldn’t have liked 1.x’s storyline. But that’s probably another topic altogether.
I admit that I was not expecting a suicide in the story and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand I think experiencing something so dark in the already so dark winter months was tough, but I also think maybe more exposure is good. Not in a we should be desensitized but maybe it should be a topic of discussion.
I don’t know that I’ve heard anything on it yet, maybe it’s too early to hear stuff like that. I have to say that there’s a part of me that wants the suicide to have been stages so much that Quintus isn’t even dead. I’m not sure to what purpose that would serve and I think maybe it’s more effective this way. I hope future Endwalker patches address this, I’m not sure how I don’t want a therapy session with Alphinaud but–why is no one talking about it?!
There’s a lot of other things in the story where the characters seem to have lost their common sense and don’t go to the resources they would in the past. The most prominent example in my mind is when working on the ship–the first name that came to mind was Cid. Where the heck is Cid? I almost thought he was dead until they showed him. I was starting to wonder if I had missed his death somehow.
Involving Ryne earlier might have made sense too. I know the Warrior of Light got caught up in a lot of stuff so venturing to the first would’ve caused problems. I got the sense that there was fear that just by having the Warrior of Light go to the First was going to cause the spread of blasphemies. It was a bit strange to almost come out of the exchange empty handed.
Then we did what any Warrior of Light/Dark would, go onto a super computer and summon an Ascian. I know or think I know that they wanted to de-villify (is that a word?) and humanize the Ascians. Many of them being previous Ancients (or whatever the actual proper name is for them). Honestly I really had connected with Emet-Selch. I was like I shouldn’t feel this way but Emet-Selch is one of my favorite characters (move over Estinien and Tataru). I’m not sure what it is but he fascinates me pretty deeply. I feel like he and Sephiroth would have a lot in common and a lot to talk about had they met.
I think that Emet-Selch would hold disdain for Sephiroth. It’d be interesting to see them in battle. I honestly don’t know how that would translate. You have Sephiroth who is well versed in black magic and well actually a wide range of magic. I think you think of his black magic first though. He has a Great Katana. So he’s kind of like a black magic samurai. Emet-Selch just has a huge advantage when it comes to wielding magic in general. It’s almost an unfair comparison because of what is available to them–Emet-Selch has more access to magic than Sephiroth could hope to achieve. They both have powers that reach a god level though. The problem I think is that Sephiroth–for some reason I’m inclined to think of his power as more “barrowed” than intrinsic. I think my concern is that Emet-Selch might be able to hold him back and isolate him and make him not a threat.
I was so excited to show up in Elpis and see Emet-Selch. I was over the moon. I’m not sure what to make of the Emet-Selch we see in Shadowbringers in comparison to the Emet-Selch we see in Endwalker. I know he became an Ascian. I no longer know what that means or what it involves. Does that simply mean that he is an Ancient? I thought becoming an Ascian had another component to it. Like it was a cult and it transformed people to give them unlimited rebirths not like their people had it to begin with. Maybe that’s something that I missed though. Or maybe that’s something we learn later? I guess there are still gaps in the story that could be filled in. And it’s possible it could be done so in passing where it’s not a primary point.
I suspect the places mentioned by Emet-Selch about places to visit are places we go to in future expansions. I don’t know that we would get many new zones in future patches but that is also possible. It could be they end up being dungeons which would disappoint me to some extent… maybe… lol