Disappointed in one Endwalker Aspect [SPOILERS]

[OhNooo]

To me, Hades is treated far more heroically and sympathetically than I feel justified and that his overwhelming continued presence and treatment inside the game was colored by his popularity outside of it.

Oh I definitely suspect that the writers may not have expected such an overwhelming response from the players about Emet and may not have intended to bring him back at first. I think there for sure was fan service with that.

But that is to say- how one reacts to characters is subjective. And after so many complaints about the WoL standing expressionless during cutscenes or only nodding, these later expansions are starting to address those complaints by adding in reactions- which means not all will land.

And XIV isn't an open sandbox game, at least not the MSQ, nor does it have branching paths, so the single path that it does have has clearly defined protagonists and antagonists and supporting cast and one side will be the protagonists' side and the other given the focus needed to make antagonists work for the story.

Yeah I do remember hearing about those complaints. They can't win no matter what they do because they can't please everyone of course. I think the fact that they stepped it up so much with the story in Shb caused a lot of people to become more invested/interested in the story and then you get disappointed when something doesn't turn out the way you want or when you have to pick a dialogue option that you don't want to pick. I definitely have to keep reminding myself that it's an mmorpg with no branching paths and with the story and direction already decided.

[Denishia]

Oh I definitely suspect that the writers may not have expected such an overwhelming response from the players about Emet and may not have intended to bring him back at first. I think there for sure was fan service with that.

My tinfoil hat theory that Emet narrating Endwalker [My actual biggest complaint about the choices in EW on a purely personal, only for me, gripe is that Emet narrating each zone started each new chapter on a sour note, it was one of my biggest fears going into EW. Also the stealth following of children was one side-quest too many] was a change halfway through the development of the game and that the original plan was to have Alphinaud reciting a letter home [the incandescent joy that I felt when the narration finally stopped being Emet and was now Alphie]