Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

The gameplay and quest structure of Endwalker largely matches that of the base game. As with many MMORPGs, players interact with each other in a persistent world that responds to their actions. Due to ongoing issues with numerical values, such as enemy health pools, growing large enough to threaten overflow errors, Endwalker includes a numeric down-scaling, sometimes colloquially referred to by MMO players as a "stat squish." Two new jobs were introduced as well. The first is Sage, a healer that uses magical objects called Nouliths to direct aetheric energy to create barriers and amplify the character's own offense abilities.[1] The second new job, Reaper, is a scythe-wielding armored melee fighter that calls on the aid of an avatar of the void for greater power.[2]

In addition to the battle system adjustments, a new "small-scale"[3] player versus player (PvP) called Crystalline Conflict launched in an update.[1] Estinien Wyrmblood, an ally who formally joined the player and their allies in the lead-up to Endwalker, was added as an option for the Trust system that debuted in Shadowbringers. Further new content to come after launch includes the Myths of the Realm, a 24-player raid series that will explore myths and legends surrounding the twelve deities worshiped by the people of Eorzea, and Pandæmonium, an eight-player raid series focusing on a mysterious dark power connected to a past villain, Lahabrea.[3]

Endwalker will debut a new system called Island Sanctuary in which players can tend a garden on a deserted island and interact with pets. The concept behind Island Sanctuary is "slow life" and is intended as a relaxing solo pursuit for players without the pressure of competition.[4] The existing player-owned housing system will also grow to include a new housing area, called the Empyreum,[5] located in the formerly isolationist nation of Ishgard. A new lottery-based method of acquiring a house will also be implemented, among other potential changes, to promote availability for certain plots or wards, and to ameliorate player concerns about the current system.[6] Sometime after release, the World Visit system will be expanded to allow players to travel to other data centers, greatly increasing the number of players one may connect with.[1]

The main characters of Endwalker, clockwise from top: Venat, G'raha Tia, the Warrior of Light, Estinien, Alphinaud, Tataru, Urianger, Y'shtola, Zenos, and Thancred; Alisaie (center).

Endwalker opens as the Warrior of Light and their companions travel to Old Sharlayan to learn what its leaders know of the Final Days, the former encountering the apparition who reveals herself as Hydaelyn. Upon arriving, the Scions are forced to divide their efforts: remaining in Old Sharlayan, Alphinaud's group continues their investigation hindered by the Forum, while the Warrior receives a rare flower that changes color in response to emotion as a gift from Hydaelyn. Meanwhile Thancred's group aids the alchemists of Thavnair in using dragon scales to develop a means of protection from primals. The group is then summoned by the satrap of the city-state Radz-at-Han, learning that Thavnair's true ruler is the ancient dragon Vrtra. The Warrior aid the head alchemist Nidhana in testing the finished product before she is captured by Fandaniel, who reveals himself to have been the Allagan scientist Amon. The Warrior and the Scions rescue Nidhana and the others used in summoning the Magus Sister primals, destroying the spire while learning it was gathering Aether and that it’s core is a human limb.

The Scions then join a group of Grand Company members to infiltrate Garlemald and stop Fandaniel and Zenos. After contacting a holdout faction of Garleans and welcoming them into the group, the Warrior of Light and company learn that Fandaniel used the corpse of Varis zos Galvus as a medium to create the primal Anima who is the source of the spires. Though Anima is destroyed, it amassed the energy needed to weaken Zodiark’s seal on the moon with Zenos and Fandaniel escaping to the moon to break the final seal. The Warrior follows them, but cannot stop Zenos from releasing Zodiark; Fandaniel then merges into the incomplete primal and destroys him at the cost of his own life. With Zodiark revealed to be a necessary evil to stave off the Final Days, they begin anew. Zenos departs after realizing the Warrior is more focused on stopping the Final Days than him.

Regrouping with the other Scions in Sharlayan after meeting the Lopprits on the moon and their mission by Hydaelyn to ready a planet-wide evacuation, the Warrior learns Radz-at-Han is being attacked by monsters like the ones they saw in a recreation of the Final Days. The group learns that these monsters are some of the villagers, transformed under a state of despair to soulless abominations. The satrap is killed during an outbreak in Radz-at-Han; Vrtra is forced to reveal his true position as ruler, while the Forum invites the Hannish people to join them in their evacuation. At G'raha's suggestion, the Warrior meets with Elidibus, who is still trapped on the First. He uses the last of his power to send them into the past to learn more of the Final Days from Fandaniel's original self, Hermes.

The Warrior arrives in the past at the research facility called Elpis, meeting with past versions of Emet-Selch and his friend Hythlodaeus, as well as Hydaelyn in her original form as Venat. The Warrior divulges to her, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodaeus of what they know about the Final Days. Armed with that knowledge, they decide to seek out Hermes and his empathic creation Meteion. She and her sisters, the Meteia, are linked together via a collective consciousness; she remains by Hermes' side while the others scour the universe, seeking answers to Hermes's question of what gives life meaning. Receiving her sisters' findings that numerous civilizations across the universe perished for various reasons, Meteion concludes that life has no meaning and that it should be destroyed to spare all life in the universe needless suffering. She then departs to join her sisters at the edge of the universe, from where they will flood the planet with their despair, thus triggering the Final Days. Wanting to test mankind's fitness to exist, Hermes allows Meteion to escape and attempts to inflict all present (himself included) with a spell that erases their memories of Meteion and their time in Elpis, but the Warrior and Venat escape.

After the Warrior returns to their time and shard, the Scions win over the Forum with Fourchenault taking them to the Aitiascope, a device located in the center of Labyrinthos used to access the aetherial sea where Hydaelyn dwells. The group encounter Fandaniel in his previous form as Amon, restoring his memories as Hermes before being dragged into oblivion by a revenge-driven Asahi. Hydaelyn reveals her ages-long plan to stop the Final Days and is mortally wounded while battling the Scions as a final test. Hydaelyn gives the Scions a crystal revealing Meteion's location and access to the Mothercrystal, using its aether to power the christened starship Ragnarok. She also imbues the crystal of Azem with the last of her aether before fading away.

Guided by Hydaelyn's crystal, the Scions travel to the location known as Ultima Thule. Meteion intercepts the ship, and traps them in a recreation of the dying worlds her sisters visited, with each Scion sacrificing themselves so the others can proceed. The Warrior uses Azem's crystal to revive Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus, who cause Meteion's true personality to surface, weakening her influence on Ultima Thule and allowing the Warrior to restore the Scions with the last of Hydaelyn's power within Azem's crystal. An anguished Meteion begs the Warrior of Light to stop her and her sisters before vanishing. With the path forward open, Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus pass on to the afterlife once more with former assuring the Warrior of Light that they still have so much more to see, even of their own world.

The Scions pursue Meteion and face the Meteia as they converge into the Endsinger, who overpowers the Scions. The Warrior teleports their comrades back to the Ragnarok via a previously supplied return device and, with the unexpected aid of Zenos, defeats the Endsinger. A repentant Meteion realizes the answer to her creator’s inquiry before departing. Before rejoining their friends, the Warrior accepts Zenos' offer of a final duel to the death. The Warrior barely emerges victorious, but collapses alongside Zenos, who dies after asking if the Warrior had found purpose in life. One of the escape devices lands next to the Warrior's body, which teleports them back onto the Ragnarok. The Scions heal the Warrior back to consciousness as they arrive back in Old Sharlayan. With the Final Days averted and no more world-ending threats, the Scions decide to publicly disband to ease Eorzea's reliance on them and go their separate ways until the day that needs them to reunite comes, with the Warrior planning more adventures. In a post credit scene, an unknown figure muses a future confrontation with "the dread beast Pandæmonium".

Planning for expansions like Endwalker begins shortly prior to the release of the preceding expansion with a "scriptwriting retreat" involving producer and director Naoki Yoshida and the main scenario writers, Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda.[7][8][9] The story was largely finalized by October 2019.[10] The process for developing an expansion involves laying out the progression from main game to expansion in detail and categorizing these elements so that developers would not get confused between patch content and expansion content which were being created simultaneously.[8][11][12] Expansions for Final Fantasy XIV are designed to compete with offline RPGs in length and content.[4][13] In terms of content, roughly 70% of development time is devoted to standard features common to every expansion, such as new dungeons and classes, and 30% is devoted to creating unique features and modes of gameplay.[10] Development for the PlayStation 5 version of the game was part of the latter 30%.[10] This version takes advantage of the console's larger internal memory to improve load times and includes higher quality graphics, DualSense controller rumble support, and improved audio.[14][15] With the completion of the PlayStation 5 version, an Xbox version is now in active development.[10][16]

Development of Endwalker was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Square Enix moved to remote work in April 2020 due to the state of emergency declared in Tokyo.[17] One major obstacle was the inability to connect to internal servers remotely for bug testing. The quality assurance team reconfigured the office to adhere to social distancing guidelines.[18] Development was back at 90% efficiency by June 2020.[19] Endwalker was originally planned for a Q3 2021 release but it was ultimately delayed to Q4 2021.[20]

Expansions for Final Fantasy XIV are traditionally announced at Fan Festival, a biennial convention that takes place in Japan, North America, and Europe. However, these events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[14] In their place, Square Enix announced the expansion at an online showcase in February 2021 and released additional information at a digital "Fan Festival Around the World" in May 2021. The latter encompassed livestreams of concerts and panel interviews with developers as well as in-game events.[21][22] Yoshida chose the timing of the digital Fan Festival to fall in between the two story-based updates in Patch 5.5 of Shadowbringers to encourage speculation about the plot of Endwalker.[23]

Yoshida describes the story for Endwalker as the conclusion to the "Hydaelyn–Zodiark arc" that began with A Realm Reborn in 2013.[20] The decision to conclude the long-running arc came about after the success of 2017's Stormblood expansion secured greater funding for the title as a whole.[20] Unlike previous expansions where the main story continues in content added in patches, the primary conflict of Endwalker will resolve within the expansion itself and the patch content will debut a new story arc.[24] The development team has a preliminary road map for at least five years of content beyond Endwalker.[10]

Shadowbringers introduced Viera and Hrothgar as playable races to the game. However, due to time and resource constraints, only one gender of each was made available at the time. Endwalker will debut with male Viera, while female Hrothgar will become available at a later date. The development team was able to implement these additions using 30% time to address the tremendous desire for them.[25]

Music

Masayoshi Soken composed the soundtrack to Endwalker.

Main article: Music of Final Fantasy XIV

Masayoshi Soken composed the majority of the expansion's score in addition to his duties as sound director. Due to his health issues, Nobuo Uematsu was asked to prioritize his other projects and did not contribute to the soundtrack.[16] At Fan Festival 2021, Soken revealed that he had been in treatment for cancer since March 2020 and had hidden his diagnosis from most of the development team.[26] With Yoshida's support, he arranged for materials to be brought to his hospital so he could compose while in treatment. He credited his recovery to composing as if "nothing had changed", which gave him something to live for. As of May 2021, he is almost in full remission and his doctor cleared him to perform at Fan Festival.[26] The main theme of the game, "Footfalls", incorporates elements from grunge and shoegaze.[27][28] It also quotes musical phrases and lyrics from each of the previous expansions' main themes to highlight Endwalker's status as the conclusion of a long-running story arc.[28][25] Sam Carter of Architects provided the main vocals with Amanda Achen, who had performed on Shadowbringers, on background vocals.[29]

In December 2021, musician Sia covered "Fly Me to the Moon" as a tie-in promotion because of the game's focus on the moon. This cover features elements of "Prelude", a theme included in many entries of the Final Fantasy series.[30]

Endwalker received "universal acclaim" for the PC and PlayStation 5 version according to review aggregator Metacritic.[31][32]

Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the title for being a "joy to progress through from start to finish", lauding the lack of boring fetch quests and the quality of life improvements. GameSpot noted the game's excellent dungeon and trial designs and its earnest storytelling while criticizing the plot's pacing issues for feeling too rushed and bloated at the same time. GamesRadar+ called the expansion a "landmark achievement in narrative development" and cited it as cementing Final Fantasy XIV as "one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made." Leif Johnson of IGN praised the title's ability to deliver enriching content despite its aging resources, writing, "Packed with hours of meaningful cutscenes and unforgettable new zones, Endwalker marks a satisfying conclusion to Final Fantasy XIV's story as it has existed to date." PC Gamer called the two new added jobs "terrific fun" and the narrative both "ambitious" and "messy", saying that the expansion "represent[ed] FF14's development team at their peak."

• Official website