From the very beginning, the big cosmic conflict between the semi deities hide linen Zodiark has been at the heart of Final Fantasy 14 story.
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker Expansion Review
And Incredibly, the end Walker expansion delivers a powerful ending to that story, and one that should remove any doubt that Square Enix is MMO RPG spins one of the best Final Fantasy tales to date. All of that comes with a small but potent set of new classes and some outstanding boss battles.
In Walker picks up right where 2019 is phenomenal shadow bringers expansion left off, eventually resolving many unanswered questions in satisfying ways. Here the Warrior of Light heads out with the science of the seventh Dawn, as the hunt for a way to destroy towers at the nefarious assets have summoned to bring about the end of the world the following 50 or so our journey takes us to many locations we’ve heard mentioned but never visited.
Be there the scholarly city state of Charlotte in the South Asia inspired island of thousandaire are the frozen wastes of garland hauled in yes in Walker eventually takes us to the moon. But if you want an idea of how wild it gets, that’s not even the craziest of places you’ll go.
One great strength of Ian Walker story is how successfully have some verts ideas of how this year’s long story would come to an end. While it’s overall less personal than what we saw in shadow bringers. its strongest moments are those that highlight the impact of war and strife at an individual level.
In the process, the writing ventures in the dark places that other MMO stories would hesitate to go and it handles them well. It’s moments with the main villains initially come off as a tad weaker, but the ending brings their arcs to conclusions that are both surprising and satisfying. In Walker story works so well in part because it’s carried by carefully crafted cutscenes so extensive that they often last 15 minutes or more, you could skip them technically, but the voice twins in particular are so integral to the plot that doing so runs the risk of missing out on essential information, or finding yourself in strange new places with no idea of how you got there.
Taken together they take longer to watch than whole seasons of many popular TV shows. But it’s a testament to the strength of in Walker’s writing that only a few feel like a drag to watch
was your cut dismissal truly the best you could offer. much of your time outside the cutscenes involves simply running from one point to another.
The advantage of this approach is that the storyline isn’t tarnished by the ridiculous scenarios other MMOs come up with the justify asking you to kill x of y enemy and many quests of non combat objectives. Some of these work better than others.
My favorite style of new quests simply has you walking around with NPCs and chatting with them for a bit of extra lore. less successful are the new stealth missions, that Miki trail and NPC but immediately if you’re Cory spots you know unlike those in the old Assassin’s Creed games and are no better here.
The absolute worst quest technically involves little more than finding specific people to chat with in a village but there’s sometimes so hard to find that I felt like I spent half an hour on it. Mercifully such moments are rare and and Walker in their memory is often swiftly shoved aside with some all inspiring sight or a tear jerker. cutscene Square Enix complements this masterful storytelling was some of the most intriguing combat classes. It’s introduced in years.
So far my favorite is the Reaper, a surprisingly intuitive DPS class that switches through enemies with a gigantic side and calls upon a race to aid and battle. It’s flashy, it’s heavy hitting and yet it’s surprisingly simple. And it’s a fun new way for newcomers to finish their journey to the new level cap of 90.
The new sage job is considerably more challenging, as it’s all about keeping barriers on allies and healing friends by doing damage to enemies. It plays like a combination of scholar and white mage and honestly, I’m still getting the hang of it. But I can tell from watching more experienced healers that it’s a rewarding powerhouse in the right hands. Beyond that, in Walker doesn’t add much to the traditional Final Fantasy 14 gameplay. The bosses for trials and dungeons are some of the best I’ve ever fought in this game.
The dungeons themselves still involve a little more than jogging down a very pretty corridor from one boss to the next considering some of the places we go in in Walker. I’m surprised Square Enix wasn’t more creative of their design.
Fortunately, in Walker does much to make up for the absence of big new features with a pile of welcome quality of life improvements. Some are small like the way mini maps now pop up when you use the fast travel network in cities. There’s a more substantial, such as how the pile of abilities needed for gathering to collectibles has been replaced by an intuitive mini game, even combat classes got some much needed love. summoner, for instance, went from being one of the most complicated DPS classes to one of the simplest, while retaining everything that made it appealing in the first place.
And then some, I’m especially pleased that my summarise AOE rotation is simpler, and monks no longer have to worry as much about standing in specific spots to deal the most damage. In Walker delivers a powerful emotional story with some bold choices. But it’s important to understand that you’ll get the most out of it.
If you’ve been with these characters from the beginning, and with roughly 50 hours a story piled into hundreds and the expansions that came before it. Its barrier to entry is now so high that well, it almost reaches the moon. But if you’ve been on that journey for a while now, this is an expansion.
Well, we’re seeing to its end, packed with meaningful story cutscenes unforgettable new zones, and Walker marks a satisfying conclusion of Final Fantasy 14 story, as we’ve noted until now, while it doesn’t introduce many new gameplay elements, it does deliver two new excellent dps and healing jobs that should appeal to both new and experienced players, and some of the best boss battles we’ve seen in this decade old game. If this is how Final Fantasy 14 show runners into story, then I’m more than ready to walk with them from the beginning to the end of the next one.
For more on Final Fantasy, watch our tour of some of Ian Walker’s new areas, and a review of 2019 expansion shadow bringers and for everything else, stick with IGN.
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