As of this writing, I am two days past having finished the main story for Endwalker. I am still processing everything that happened. More than a game, Endwalker has been an experience, the culmination of a journey began with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For some, the journey is even longer, from the maligned original Final Fantasy XIV. At the end of this expansion, the weight of those years feels heavy, firmly entrenching you within the story of your character.
As with all expansions to FFXIV before it, Endwalker comes with some gameplay renovations. Most jobs have seen some actions completely revamped, and all jobs have had their stats altered to deal with the bloat the game had been experiencing. My level 80 jobs went from having over 120,000 HP to having around 26,000, while my level 90 job has about 45,000 now. The introduction of Sage, a new healing job, has also wrought some major changes for other healers, as the development team tries to fit healers into either the "pure healer" or "barrier healer" categories. Some other jobs have been completely revamped, such as Summoner. Some new game mechanics also serve to keep quests evolving. A new type of escort mission has been added, as well as a stealth type mission. While the latter can be frustrating at times, these two provide some interesting flavor to keep things from devolving into fetch or kill side missions. New instanced missions continue to add mechanics, including a fascinating one where the floor rotates under you, challenging your spacial perceptions.
The music is astonishing. Every expansion seems to take things to a new level somehow, and I really don't know what to say about how they keep managing it, other than to say that Masayoshi Soken is a genius. Some revamped and reused pieces dot the expansion, all very appropriately, and the new score puts an exclamation point on the emotional journey the story sends you through.
I've made several mentions of the story already, but just to put a little extra detail here, again, it truly feels like an epic journey of a hero. The story ebbs and flows, building somewhat more slowly perhaps than Shadowbringers or Heavensward. It does have a bit of the same problem as Stormblood, where the middle part of the story seems at times dull and misplaced, though this is partly a function of the story reaching one of its peaks immediately beforehand. There is more humor interspersed as well, which some might find off putting in the otherwise serious nature of the story. After the full plotline starts coming into focus, however, it is one wild emotional ride after another, reaching a fever pitch in the last third that never lets go. So many of the setting's core questions are answered in devastating fashion, and it causes you to look back on other events in new ways. Throughout, the companions you've met along the way are integrated into the story even more so than in Shadowbringers, and they truly feel like friends you've known and had experiences with for years. The final chapter of the story highlights this, while also echoing many of the themes of previous expansions, and results in a finish that truly feels like everything you've done in the game has led to this one singular moment.
At the time of its release, Shadowbringers was hailed by many as one of the greatest Final Fantasy stories to come out in recent years, and fans wondered how Endwalker would compare. In my final estimation, Endwalker meets or exceeds Shadowbringers and is a fitting culmination in the story of Final Fantasy XIV. While the developers already have plans for a new story arc to follow this one, the ending of this one stands as an achievement that must be experienced.