Like, this team knows how to do an expansion like ShB which is somehow both tightly paced and atmospheric, where there's almost never dead time/filler in the story and yet everything still has just the right amount of room to breathe. They were able to characterize Emet so well & make the tragedy of his character come through so clearly. Even though he's never explicitly been set up as an antagonist before he's handled in such a way that we can see his influence throughout the game's entire history.

(Endwalker spoilers below)


And then EW came along and has huge chunks of filler (the entire moon...) while rushing some story beats so badly they never even land (UT is such a mess), half the characterizations make no sense (why doesn't Venat just tell Emet & Hythlodaeus what happened? Why does Hermes act like they're trying to destroy Metion when literally nobody has even suggested that??), and the antagonist appears out of nowhere 2/3 of the way through the expansion solely to let them do a "it wasn't Zodiark OR Hydaelyn! Got you!" twist. It's just start to finish such a huge waste of nearly a decade of setup


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @nogodsnomeowsters's post:

Gonna ROT13 a response to this, just providing some context to some things that I think we both agree were not handled as well as they were in previous expansions, your feelings are very much valid (apologies for the wall of text, haha):

V guvax n ybg bs gur cnpvat vffhrf jvgu Raqjnyxre ner rkcynvarq va zl zvaq ol gur vqrn gung gur fgbel jnf bevtvanyyl vagraqrq gb fcna 2 rkcnafvbaf vafgrnq bs bar (6.0 raqvat jvgu gur Mbqvnex svtug ba gur zbba, cbfg-cngpurf orvat gur Ybcbeevg zbba ohfvarff, 7.0 orvat gur ortvaavat bs gur Svany Qnlf va Gunianve hc hagvy Raqfvatre), naq sbe fbzr ernfba gurl sryg vg cehqrag gb jenc guvatf hc abj engure guna va n srj lrnef gvzr. Pbhyq or jebat ba guvf, ohg V guvax gb tbrf gb rkcynvavat ubj gur Ybcbeevgf srry nf qvfwbvagrq nf gurl ner, ohg V guvax gur rzbgvbany oernx ng gung cbvag va gur fgbel jnf arprffnel, bgurejvfr vg jbhyq or na rkgraqrq crevbq bs zvfrel hc hagvy Rycvf (Tneyrznyq vagb Svany Qnlf ortvaavat). Vg qbrf fhpx gung jr urne gur Fbat bs Boyvivba, gura abguvat hagvy jr'er qbar jvgu gur Ybcbeevgf, ohg vg vf jung vg vf.

Gur guvat jvgu Irang abg orvat noyr gb gryy Rzrg naq Ulgu nobhg gur shgher riragf cbfg-Xnvebf vf na hasbeghangr fant qhr gb gvzr geniry va jevgvat pnyyrq gur Cer-qrfgvangvba Cnenqbk. Jr pbhyqa'g unir orra noyr gb gryy Irang nobhg ubj shgher riragf bpphe jvgubhg gur fhzzbavat bs Mbqvnex gnxvat cynpr gb oevat hf jurer gur JbY vf ng jura gurl gryy Irang nobhg gur riragf. Va Irang'f zbabybthr nobhg ubj jul fur unfa'g erghearq gb gur fgne ng gung cbvag, fur qrgnvyf gung fur sryg fbzrguvat nxva gb sngr nf gb jul gur jbeyq vf gur jnl vg vf, fb creuncf gung senzr bs zvaq vf jul fur pubfr frperpl. (Gurer vf nyfb gur guvat gung Ryvqvohf gbyq hf orsber tbvat onpx va gvzr, juvpu gur JbY pnzr gb haqrefgnaq nf "gurer vf ab culfvpny jnl gb punatr gur pbhefr bs shgher riragf", tvivat gurz gur pbasvqrapr gb gryy Irang, Rzrg rgp nobhg shgher riragf gb ortva jvgu, ohg guvf qbrfa'g nqqerff Irang'f zbgvingvbaf nf zhpu)

Bire gur pbhefr bs gur Rycvf nep, jr yrnea sebz Urezrf gung gur trareny pbhefr bs npgvba jura qrnyvat jvgu enzcnag/snhygl perngvbaf jnf va snpg gb qrfgebl gurz; jr frr gur syvccnag angher jvgu juvpu Napvrag fbpvrgl ivrjf perngvbaf ("Pbaprcgf" gb gurz) jura Ulgu znxrf gur JbY gurve eborf, naq gur fvghngvba ertneqvat gur sver jbys guvat jura vg fgnegf nggnpxvat erfrnepuref. Urezrf' rzcngul sbe gur perngherf, gur tevrs ur srryf naq gur pbagenfg bs gung gb arneyl rirelbar ryfr va gur Napvragf' fbpvrgl vf bar bs gur znva ernfbaf nf gb jul ur jnf fb cebgrpgvir bs Zrgrvba. Uvf sreirag qrfver gb frr vs bgure yvsr rkvfgrq va gur havirefr jnf creuncf vasyhraprq ol uvf rzbgvbany vfbyngvba, ur arrqrq gb xabj ur jnfa'g nybar va uvf tevrs, ur whfg sbhaq gur nafjre (gur JbY) gbb yngr.

I think it's important to remember that for ShB they had something approaching infinite creative freedom for the story: they had to make it work with the preceding MSQ/setting, yeah, but they weren't particularly beholden to any given story beat/plot point and thus got to fill in blank space more than they had to make sure 1+1=2. In contrast the entire point of EW on a meta level is wrapping up an immense amount of existing story beats/plot points stretching back to 2.0, or even 1.0, and trying to pull it off in one expansion's launch MSQ.

This does nothing to change how much anyone dis/likes either of them and your opinions are very valid! I just think it's useful context for understanding why they are Like That.