Is it just me, or are Expansions getting more brutal and depressing every time?

[ItMe]

IDK they don't really feel brutal or depressing for me when we always beat the expac boss with the power of love and friendship.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Don't mistake aesthetic darkness (ie, creepy monster designs, dark color palettes, cutscenes of monster transformations, etc) for actual story darkness. The tone of the story as of late has become your usual happy-go-lucky shounen JRPG.

[Gameovers]

New to Final Fantasy games, huh? Might I interest you in perhaps a Mario or Sonic the hedgehog game?
I don't mean to be offensive, but its rather difficult to think of a purely feel good game-mainly because to be a hero, you must overcome obstacles.
And obstacles don't tend to be friendly and wholesome.

Eggman blows up the planet in Sonic Unleashed, in the opening credits. Shit Mario isn't all sunshine and rainbows either if you played the RPGs. You should've offered something like the care bears.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Don't mistake aesthetic darkness (ie, creepy monster designs, dark color palettes, cutscenes of monster transformations, etc) for actual story darkness. The tone of the story as of late has become your usual happy-go-lucky shounen JRPG.

"As of late"? When was it anything else? The game has always been heroic fantasy.

[Ultaniku]

You are absolutely allowed to feel how you feel and shouldn’t have judgements made against you. There were some moments that did get fairly dark, the moment in Thavnair with a certain lovable boy RUNNING had me very unsettled I’ll admit. I do tend to lean towards maybe you need an extended break if it’s for your mental health. The story as a whole wasn’t overtly dark, but if you’re the type of person who can’t separate your reality and a game’s reality then I would take a little break if those moments distressed you.

[Krotoan]

Is it just me or did everyone miss how they referenced every major character who died during the game? We are at the culmination of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark Arc, those were part of the story as well. Do we really NEED someone to die, let alone a major character just to try and create bigger stakes? People are dying everywhere. We may not have seen it happen with our own eyes but it's apparent when you talk to the NPCs and other characters that people ARE dying and in large amounts.



My favorite example of taking a minor character and IMMEDIATELY making me care for their well being, to the point I had to stop talking to people on discord, I ignored my phone because I NEEDED to know what happened (spoiler):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3egJrN4CGzU

Also I listen to Japanese audio because I prefer the voices, and in Japanese Matsya has a much higher voice and is more child-like himself which makes it even WORSE when he starts losing himself but continues to run and cry while losing hope. It made my throat close up when I thought he was about to be just another "despair monster".

EDIT:

There were some moments that did get fairly dark, the moment in Thavnair with a certain lovable boy RUNNING

beat me posting by a couple minutes XD


In the end

Yeah, I was not worried we'd save the world, or that any of the Scions would not be back immediately after the Bigbad was defeated, it was pretty cut and dry. These games don't end with the heroes losing.

But the writing and direction was such that I DID care for a lot of new/minor characters and their stakes and lives mattered, their losses and defeats HURT.



As for OP:

Considering the subject matter of this particular expansion, I can imagine the overall themes of the game were a bit heavy on an empathetic mind. Especially if you've dealt with depression, the parallels were not lost on me and I had side thoughts that maybe there should be some warnings if you HAD depression and were playing this game...

But the game HAS always had emotional stakes, otherwise it'd be just another power fantasy and that gets boring after a while.

[Ultaniku]

That small section of Thavnair had me deeply invested in the well-being of a minor character to the point I was yelling at my screen as I was watching it play out.

Knowing my character and the twins were fighting and unable to help was very disheartening to me as Matsya was trying his best to remain hopeful and was slowing losing himself while trying to save an infant who was also losing itself to despair.

So back to the OP, I do understand feeling more attached to even no name NPCs or minor characters, but again if it’s to the detriment of yourself I do think taking a step back would certainly help.

[Lily_Skye]

thats the point of this expansion

[hynaku]

I would say less and less content for each expansion each time. The Darkness should be over this expansion and start going back to the light i hope.

[DamianFatale]

I don't believe so. If anything, I've thought that things have been played very safe - at least for the protagonists - ever since Stormblood. The 'darker' moments are almost always limited to throwaway characters, sympathetic antagonists, outright villains and...dead characters brought back to life just to die for a second time.

As someone who generally enjoys darker and grittier stories, the way in which FFXIV handles such things often just comes across as non-committal. Especially with the amount of fake deaths amongst the main cast.

Papalymo died for our sins. And he was a main character. Arguably one of my FAVORITE main characters.