It’s so hard to write about the FFXIV’s latest expansion without
spoiling the story, that’s why this post came late, called Endwalker:
the season finale of the first story arc from FFXIV, it’s the
culmination of the eorzea chapter that first started 10 years ago.
old guy!!! (wait, I sprouted?)
Storywise: Since Shadowbringers the Scion of seventh dawn has been
taking a huge undertaking in their role, from negotiator and spies to
spawning the Trust system to help players navigate the dungeons and now
they can participate in a Trial (there are two in the initial release
and even their name is a spoiler). After a stint in the First (a
glorious one) the Warrior of Light and the scion prepares for their
advance to the seat of the empire: The Garlean territory, only it’s a
little different from our imagining in Heavensward or even Stormblood,
this plot twist is a major spoiler, heck even their zone is a spoiler,
their trek there, you guess it: spoiler but here’s something: your
favorite (and maybe forgotten) characters since the ARR age will be
there since it’s the ultimate Avengers team up from the first quest to
the last, hilariously some characters will even berate you if you forget
them
Nothing changed much from the combat and crafting system, there are
two new class: The Reaper is a new melee dps that outdps every class
initially (so much that they buff all dps class in the first major patch
to catch up), The aerods wielding Sage is a healer that heal people by
shooting at things and IMHO it’s the fun one, I leveled a total of five
jobs only from the main story quest (plus a bit of fate grinding in
‘that place’) There are some experimental quest sprinkled here and there
including a story stealth mission starring Thancred which spawned the
“This is Thancred” meme, speaking of stealth quest there is a long
mission that somehow is both frustrating and awesome at the same time,
frustrating because there’s time limit albeit a long one and awesome
because it contains some light puzzle element( which answers I
accidentally stumbled upon) and in the end it evolved into a small
resource management game.
oooo, guiding hooome, oh wait we're already home
But the special mention goes to the music, I’m not a musician, I
played instruments abysmally but I love sounds and in Endwalker it’s
clear that Masayoshi Soken is finally getting comfortable putting his
rock in almost everything, Endwalker theme follows the Shadowbringer
theme with distortion guitars intersped by orchestral rock sound, the
dungeon boss theme is another beautiful composition, almost all theme in
the expansion are some form of the main theme, and they’re all good.
The new songs including a promotional version of “Fly me to the moon” by
Sia, a new ending song “Flow Together” another rendition of “Answer”
which is the song of the first FFXIV expansion, and it’s other
iteration: “Your Answer” to complete the ensemble. The expansion theme
itself is a mirror image of Shadowbringers which applied a more intense
sound and visual, Endwalker brought the light back with more emotional
and mellow themes
Zenos return as the main villain because psycopath is hard to kill,
also respecced as the new Reaper class, the new Ascian Fandaniel is now
act as the mysterious gleeful crazy person/immortal being and yes minor
spoiler there are bigger villain, with their own plot twist and unusual
circumstances. You see: the theme of Endwalker is everybody deserves a
second chance and since it’s Final Fantasy where the last quest is
usually: KILL GODS, yes even That GOD deserves a second chance and that
my friends makes this the best Final Fantasy because inbetween the
tear-jerker and smiley moments, the difficult fights and struggles,
those past, present, and future things mashed together you still in the
end get your greatest wish that is KICK ZENOS’ ASS, although as spoiler
goes: it might not the way you’re thinking of. But we’ll kick his ass, I
can guarantee that.
