Endwalker is a Spectacular Conclusion | A Final Fantasy XIV Retrospective & Story Recap

Bit of a stretch to put "retrospective" in the title but hey! This is a look back at Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker's main story. It's a great ending to a 10-year story, but there's a couple of stumbles on the way. Then there's what many consider a filler arc in the Newfound Adventure storyline and the setup for Dawntrail.

This whole thing came about as I wanted to go back through the story in the run up to Dawntrail's release. FFXIV's entire 10-year long story arc surrounding Hydaelyn and Zodiark came to an end with the fourth expansion, Endwalker, and I wanted to take a look back and see what it did well, and where it could be improved. This retrospective series is based on a more casual perspective of someone playing the game as a (mostly) single-player JRPG, as opposed to going over every aspect of the MMO (which would take SIGNIFICANTLY longer!). So here it is - the grand finale! Let's revisit Endwalker in 2024!

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:33 Journey Across the Seas
19:30 A Fallen Empire
34:42 To The Moon
45:20 The Final Days
53:58 The World Unsundered
01:11:37 The Mothercrystal
01:21:20 To the Edge of Creation
01:39:20 Newfound Adventure Arc
02:11:52 Dawntrail Setup
02:17:39 Outro

#FinalFantasyXIV #FFXIV #Endwalker #FinalFantasy14 #FinalFantasy #ff14

[DynaChris]

Hey everyone! Thanks everyone for all your support on these videos! This one took a bit longer than I expected it to, but here it finally is!

What do YOU want to see in Dawntrail (and future expansions)? ❤

[Thederpyguide]

I think Zenos is great in endwalker, he's not really supposed to be a grand rival here I feel instead he's a reflection (for lack of a better word) of what the WoL could be like, he's a sad lonely man who refuses to take steps to make friends and help others which would help his own wants even, a fight with you, he's a version of the WoL who is selfish and unable to recognize his own flaws making him a great foil to show the growth of the WoL as a person and a hero.

Zero reflects this as well as she's a version of Zeno who did learn to accept and give help and grew into someone who could stand next to the WoL as a true friend. I really was impressed with the explanation of his character through these two ideas throughout endwalker!

[FallzVentus]

I think you're forgetting that we told Venat about our ENTIRE adventure. She knew how things were supposed to go to the moment we meet her in Elpis. So her not telling us about Meteion is literally her maintaining the timeline so things go as they are supposed to.

[MissKashira]

I feel like EW redeems Zenos as a character. My issue with him in Stormblood is that we don't have a conflict of interests. SB was an expansion about politics and Zenos doesn't care about politics. Both the WoL and Zenos spend most of the expansion attempting to cause a rebellion. We're one convo away from being allies. However in EW Zenos is finally relevant to the theme because he is *an answer to the question.*

You have this guy who cares about one thing in the entire world and so he dedicates his entire life to achieving that goal. Then he dies, comes back and dedicates his entire life to achieving that goal - again. His answer to what to live for is "whatever you want." It's your life, do what you want with it and if you want to dedicate it to a single battle, that's your decision. He even has a mini-arc when Alisae points out to him that if what you want to do requires the cooperation of another person, then you have to consider their goals for them to consider yours. She basically taught him the power of friendship so that he could get his fight to the death. 🤣

[thomasderosso]

Zenos: "Was it good for you, too?"
DynaChris: "Eh, you're mid."
Zenos: "...Shit." [dies]

[commiekittiessaymao]

I've been watching your entire FFXIV collection in the lead up to Dawntrail to hype myself. I just wanted to thank you for making such a thoughtful, insightful and well-crafted retrospective into the FFXIV series. I know it'll be useful for future Adventurers starting out their journey in Eorzea. And just for the record, you're correct in your assertion that Stormblood *is* the most underrated and wrongfully disliked expansion of them all, as well as my personal favorite. ;)

[xxfrostxx]

An interesting side note on Zenos' name change; The Garleans would have received their language and much of their culture from Hades. That thought gave me a laugh when I realized that the strongest word for a traitor and betrayer of the nation and its people, Viator, was the Latin word for Traveler. I guess he really was still mad at Azem after all those years.

[Lulink]

I've never played Paladin during the MSQ so maybe I can't relate, but I think G'raha Tia being a paladin in that one fight is great because he's imitating the greatest hero he knows: the WoL.

[SapphWolf]

I took Zeno to be the dark mirror to TWoL. In storm blood we were there to kick Garland ass. Zenos is appropriately then, in charge of stopping us, but he doesn't care about his comrades and leads primarily through fear, not loyalty like we do.

By Endwalker were dealing with an existential, supernatural threat and are simply concerned with helping others. All others. Zenos is, therefore, completely self obsessed only interested in getting his rocks off in one last, big, climactic battle against us. So he is simply biding his time until we're no longer distracted. He's even willing to help a little if it will expedite his fight with us.

However him being our dark mirror means there's at least part of us that does long for a good fight and does secretly really want to fight Zenos again. That all of our heroics aren't entirely selfless. Part of us lives for the adventure, helping people is just an added bonus.

Finally giving in to his request and giving him that final epic clash he's been jonesing for felt like us accepting that part of ourselves. Which dovetails nicely into Dawntrail. Us embracing our need for adventure and battle and heading off to lands unknown! At least that's what I got out of his character that is.

[sciguy]

The Endsinger isn't our final boss, we're HER final boss and she failed her DPS check and hit OUR enrage.

[the_dark_soul_of_man]

I still love that the number of seals on/chunks missing from Zodiark matches the number of shards that haven't been rejoined.

[Precaricat]

Zenos is a better fit this expansion as he acts as foil not only to the Warrior of Light/Hydaelyn, Meteion and Fandaniel.

In answer to Hermes question about what gives life meaning:

Fandaniel: Nothing, so let the world burn.
Meteion: Nothing, and so everyone would be better off dead to avoid being faced with that painful reality.
Zenos: Nothing, so we are all free to pursue our desires - let nothing stand in our way.
Warrior of Light/Hydaelyn: We all do, each and every one of us. Its up to us to decide the answer for ourselves.

Zenos is a hedonistic nihilist. The closest to a breakthrough he gets is when he finds something (fighting the WoL) that requires considering something other than his own desires, which is why Alisaie's comment impacts him so profoundly.

[FiendDrow]

As someone who got absolutely stonewalled by Hein in FFIII, and by proxy took offense with the existence of Amon at the end of the game and in the Crystal Tower raids, Fandaniel's reveal literally made me jump out of my chair!

Also congrats on getting all these videos out before Dawntrail, it's been a blast going through these!

[Teldarin]

I saw Endwalker's Zenos as a great foil to Hermes and Meteion. Both parties basically have the same belief, that life is ultimately meaningless. But the way they act upon that personal truth is what matters. Meteion and Hermes despair at the thought of life not being worth living and want the suffering to end, but Zenos' personal answer is hedonism. If life doesn't matter, why not have some fun with it, while you can? And this is why I really like his pursuit of this "spark", this fleating moment of meaning in his life. It's by no means a healthy outlook on life, but in a strange way the perfect antithesis to Meteion and her song of oblivion.

The Endsinger being undermined by this last solo duty is kind of the point, if you ask me. This final stretch is not about Zenos or the Meteia, but the WoL. We get a final reminder of our long journey in our way to Meteion and during the Trial with a combination of all boss themes. Hell, the music that plays in her second phase, while we curb stomp her, is *our* theme song.

[SuperSnivMatt]

Still very early into the video but just got to the part of Thavnair with Vrtra, and I’m so glad when people talk about how good of a character he is. Being part of the first brood who was divided on humans, and the only one of the Brood to not have his own horde. Because he saw his people as the ones he guides and cares for, even when they don’t even know he exists. He’s one of my favorite characters ever from how complex and sweet he is despite being a giant dragon who is near ageless

[Reycied]

I'm continuously surprised at the vagrancies of folks' reactions to parts of the story. You find the quests where you help the Garlean survivors dull, whereas I found them interesting and...in a way, harrowing. The devs, I feel, did an amazing job of depicting a populace spoon-fed state propaganda their entire lives. Of COURSE Eorzeans are rapacious barbarians, who will steal your land and enthrall your mind--it's what you've been told every day for years, with few (if any) voices of reason to advocate for a broader view. It also gives us a look at the Garlean people as PEOPLE, rather than a faceless multitude of jackbooted thugs. They're not bad people, they're just hungry, and cold, and scared.

Honestly, it kinda warms my heart that so many people have such different reactions to different parts of the game. The patchwork of the fandom is as beautiful as it is varied.

[thomasderosso]

One of my favorite things about Zero as a concept is that (I forget where) it's implied/stated that the avatar a Reaper bonds with is their reflection on the 13th. So the WoL's is the 13th shard of Azem, and Zero is the 13th shard of *Zenos.* (If anyone reading this is confused by her gender, keep in mind that Ardbert is a male hyur no matter what the WoL is.) So through the Endwalker postgame, we're helping a portion of the weirdo stalker who considered us his friend to *actually* learn about friendship and become a better person.

[tidus]

I'm a big fan of long form content. Please keep up the great work!! I can't wait to see what else you make!

[Tarrot]

On Time Travel:

There are 4 examples of time travel forward and back shown throughout the game.

One is the Alexander raid, where minimal spoils, has multiple examples of time travel in it where it is a closed loop, where things from the future impact things from the past to cause the future things.

One is in Bozja, where Mikoto's Echo in effect sends us to the future, where we learn what is going to happen, and then in the past, with this knowledge, take actions that enable the future vision to happen, even against our will. This is, like Alexander, a closed loop.

One is Elpis, where by Argos, we know that we had to have done the actions in Elpis to have befriended Argos to ride him on the moon. We break basically every single possible rule of time travel in Elpis and nothing changes. This is a third example of a closed loop, and basically implies that no matter what, we can not break the loop.

The 4th example is the G'raha example, which is the one example of time travel that doesn't fit a closed loop. But, G'raha has a special thing no other instances have: Omega. Omega, as shown by his raid series, has the ability to go across dimensions, as he can summon from other FF games. There is a reason the device to travel through time incorporated both Omega and Alexander, since Alexander could time-travel, but they needed a stronger way to do so.

Of note, the world where G'raha came from still exists, and there is a short-story on the FF14 website from Migarsormor's perspective on defending the world G'raha left. Which means there's a version of the FF14 world where Zodiark isn't killed. And where the Convocation potentially achieve their goal. My pet theory is that this will be the "final" expansion of 14, when they want to shutter the game.

[zaheela]

I never understood why people are complaining that the post msq quests are filler… I remember when we first met ardbert and his group back in heavensward post game everyone felt that was filler or “pointless”….

And then shadowbringers happened…