Will Final Fantasy ever make a "Dark Side"?

[Alleo]

No they wont. This would take at least twice the amount of written story line and it somehow would have to make sense. Then you have to ask the question: Should we really stick certain races behind a label so that people that want to play race x have to accept whatever the game throws at them? Also how long would a evil side even make sense? WoW makes it (as far as I know) always so that somehow peace is achieved at the end only for it to be destroyed in the next expansion. Just doesnt feel like good storytelling after a while.

[sarehptar]

Although our own characters will probably never get to clearly go to the dark side, one tool the game does have in place is the "roleplay" game mechanic that allows us to play as NPCs. We may see more opportunities to play as the actual bad guys in the future, at least for a few specific duties, if people really start asking for that.

(But you know, with our characters' actions being such a matter of perspective, I'm pretty sure there are already lots of NPCs who think we're pretty evil. XD)

[Rongway]

One thing that isn't out of the question though, as it has happened in previous games and even happened in this game once already during a certain quest line not named because spoilers, would be having to fight ourselves. Previously, the player playing as their WoL fought a manifestation of their WoL. In order to do something fresher, they could do a roleplay battle gauntlet where the player has to play as some or all of the Scions one at a time vs the player's WoL character. The AI WoL wouldn't need to have their complete job action set but should at least perform a subset of their job's actions during the fight, with each phase exhausting a Scion and forcing you to switch to the next. After the final phase, all the exhausted Scions get up and LB the WoL because that's the only way they can incapacitate them.

I think something like that could be real neat if done right.

[Controller]

And that isn't a bad thing.

Games are entertainment and different people are entertained by different things. Not everyone needs or wants a "dark edgy side" to their protagonists to make the story worthwhile and enjoyable.

Whoa.. I never meant that as a bad thing :O I'm in agreement that I like it this way. I like being - THE GUY- Or the - Overpowered OP- Or insert whatever nickname for the WoL you want here. D: DON'T HATE ME!! XO

[Theodric]

Whether something is 'edgy' is subjective in itself. Either way, the Dark Knight job quests are held in very high regard and have proven to be among the most popular in the game thus far. So much so that Fray even made it onto the list of Final Fantasy characters in a recent popularity poll.

The game isn't afraid to have the protagonists resort to shady acts to secure victory, either - as seen in Othard when Hien manipulated the Xaela into being fodder for a war and again when he subjected those stationed in Doma Castle to the cruel and unusual death of drowning and crushing by debris after deliberately flooding the place. Among many other examples throughout the game. Despite that, he's still one of my favourite characters.

Then, of course, there's the fact that FFXIV draws on the darker/more mature Final Fantasy games over those with more simple plots. Ivalice is a major point of influence for the setting as a whole and there's many other JRPG's out there that embrace darker protagonists and anti-heroes. Shadow Hearts, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Vagrant Story being excellent examples.

[ItMe]

OP, you asked about Final Fantasy.
I gather you're asking about more than just 14?
Is there any indication that they might?
Because since Final Fantasy Adventure they've always made the good guys THE GOOD GUYS.
They don't write stories with important moral problems or shades of grey. Hell, the plot of most Final Fantasy games kinda boil down to "evil person wants to be God, go kill them."

[gumas]

there is no way we will do anything "dark" at least in this game, when the premise of this game is literally "band together, do good, a grand adventure, help people, and vanquish evil" kind of plot.

the BEST i can think of if we player really want to do something dark is to put one instance where we control the bad guy (zenos for example) and fight the good guys, just like how we take control of estinien or alpinaud in previous case, thats pretty much it.

[Theodric]

The Warrior of Darkness and Scions broke into the home of a pregnant woman and slaughtered both her and her unborn children in the latest patch, so the game definitely does not shy away from having the protagonists do some very questionable things. In addition, as mentioned earlier the writers themselves are on record in various interviews stating that character actions and motivations are a matter of perspective rather than a case of 'good' and 'evil'.

Barring a few rare exceptions such as Zenos who are deliberately designed to be completely without redeeming qualities and sympathetic/justified motivations.

[Rosenstrauch]

The Warrior of Darkness and Scions broke into the home of a pregnant woman and slaughtered both her and her unborn children in the latest patch, so the game definitely does not shy away from having the protagonists do some very questionable things.

Much like how we've been creating sapient life to sacrifice for our own ends in the Empty, I'm not entirely sure this is what the writers intended the takeaway to be when writing out the plot of our trip to Anamnesis Anyder. It's... pretty disturbing, thinking about it.

[Lersayil]

Much like how we've been creating sapient life to sacrifice for our own ends in the Empty, I'm not entirely sure this is what the writers intended the takeaway to be when writing out the plot of our trip to Anamnesis Anyder. It's... pretty disturbing, thinking about it.

Which I find strange. Sometimes they all but shove our faces into moral dilemmas such as these, while other times they seem to completely ignore them... and I'm really not sure if its for convenience's sake, or a stroke of great writing, expecting the reader to pick up on them by themselves.