Critique of Endwalker Characters

[Theodric]

Many ff games have main character deaths though, i’m not sure why this is often stated not to be the case. Ff2,4,5,6,7,10,12,13 to name a few

Yep! There's also many other JRPG's that were bold enough to kill off major playable characters, including but not limited to Suikoden V, Grandia 2, Breath of Fire 4 and Shadow Hearts.

[TaleraRistain]

You don't need to kill off characters to make them interesting-but after 8 years of this ridiculous amount of plot armor and fakeouts people are just out of patience. Doesn't matter how, just get the yes-men off the screen.

Lackluster backstories combined with nonexistent goals gives me hardly any reason to root for any of the scions besides Estinien. After everything characters like him and Ysayle had been through, why should I care about Urianger and how he was bullied for reading books? Top it all off with their barely-present personality traits and overt fanservice "slice of life!" scenes just wears my patience down further.

Remember when Celes attempted suicide and jumped off a cliff into the ocean in what was one of the most beautiful and dramatic scenes in the entire FF series? Or when Garnet cast down her tiara as she ran to embrace Zidane in a genuine display of emotion? The numerous times when Zidane and Steiner went at it with each other? Lightning punching Snow in the face in response to one of his long-winded "hero!" speeches? Even Jack from Stranger of Paradise is more interesting, outright rejecting the stereotypical fantasy nonsense going on around him because he just wants to kill Chaos and probably go out for a smoke.

Half these scenes I mentioned above would be too problematic or traumatic for some fans of this game to handle, it seems. Instead we get G'raha Tia and the fanclub go out for hamburgers: the expansion! Can't wait to go get sushi or something with Thancred in 6.1, hopefully the story of Myths of the Realm will make up for the lack of anything interesting going on with the main cast these days. The writers need to ask themselves:

What is this character's main goal?
What is this character's motivation to achieve this goal?
Who does this character get along with and who do they dislike?

If the answers to these questions are nebulous ideals, "supporting my friends," and getting along with just about everyone under the sun who isn't an Ascian or Garlean then respectfully there needs to be some reconsideration in how to handle these characters moving forward. Add in the building blocks that are missing, or let them take an extended vacation.

IX is my favorite game and I absolutely love Zidane but you cannot complain about a character being covered in ridiculous amounts of plot armor and not acknowledge that he was covered from head to toe in it, too. We knew he wasn't going to die. There was absolutely no way the game was going to end like that. And the only reason they give for how he stayed alive? I sang our song. Now I LOVED that ending. I cheered to see them together again. But that was Plot Armor 101. Which just shows that plot armor is not always a bad thing.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Depends on your definition of main character. Many of the games you mentioned have guest or side characters die. Minwu, Josef and Ricard were not the main party. None of the main party in 6 die unless you leave Shadow behind but I believe I read somewhere the creator's canon version is waiting for him and he survives. Reddas was a guest character. X and XIII if taken alone though even Fang and Vanille didn't die but turned to crystal and we know characters can be restored from that.

Now that's not to say that side character deaths can't be impactful. I often see a lot of complaints that only side characters die in XIV and we weren't connected to them so it's meaningless. I personally have always remembered the deaths of Josef and General Leo, even if they are side characters and I find plenty of the XIV deaths impactful because I truly liked those people.

They were pretty prominent characters, considering they even got their own side story of the game about them i’d regard them as main characters. Shadow imo still counts as most people aren’t going to keep him alive unless they look it up. Reks is a pretty main character considering he’s the person that one of the main characters’ story revolves around. 13-2 was what i was getting at mainly. And off there’s 15, type 0 etc etc. Point is it’s almost a staple for their to be prominent consequences at the very least for the main party, and all of that was missing in Endwalker.

[aveyond-dreams]

Zidane's plot armor was justifiable because we spent the entire game with him as an active protagonist with a distinct personality, just as flawed as it was endearing, and one that would be impossible to make the star of a video game by today's moral standards. The same cannot be said for Y'shtola and the few and far between sassy moments she has or the fact that Thancred's story finished in Shadowbringers and is hanging out as the party appendix these days.

[NanaWiloh]

Many ff games have main character deaths though, i’m not sure why this is often stated not to be the case. Ff2,4,5,6,7,10,12,13 to name a few

All this death talk, I like the way tales of berseria ends. Velvet embracing her brother in a endless cycle of life and death, then sealing herself and him away while locked togather. A sacrifice for her and a display of mercy to her brother.

[xenahawk]

Um yshtola brings the sas plain and simple. Pretty much all her speeches i can think of never disappointed. From her belittling the leader of the tribes in the steps in stormblood to sending my toon to bed without dinner in shadowbringers and cant be certain but pretty sure she was gonna put me down like a rabit dog too but thats yshtola so im fine with that . Point being she like all the other scions have had some pretty memorable moments. I for the most part felt that the more personal cutscenes in the storytelling were the best part from the get together in the room and the guest to your room. But i guess to each their own for what a person likes.

[Theodric]

Y'shtola insulting Magnai felt out of character to me given her insistence on respecting the culture and customs of the aggressive Beast Tribes back in the days of ARR. Though the Scions venturing into territory that is not theirs to claim and acting as if they own the place and know what is best is, sadly, nothing new.

For all the screeching and drooling they indulged in over Garlean conscription they sure did overlook Hien effectively tricking the Xaela into fighting a war that did not concern them. Then again, the protagonists in this game have never had any fixed moral compass or stable 'themes' I suppose...

[TaleraRistain]

They were pretty prominent characters, considering they even got their own side story of the game about them i’d regard them as main characters. Shadow imo still counts as most people aren’t going to keep him alive unless they look it up. Reks is a pretty main character considering he’s the person that one of the main characters’ story revolves around. 13-2 was what i was getting at mainly. And off there’s 15, type 0 etc etc. Point is it’s almost a staple for their to be prominent consequences at the very least for the main party, and all of that was missing in Endwalker.

C'mon Reks? You're gonna split hairs like that? He's playable for the prologue, a tiny portion of the game. And you mention Reks and his effect but not Rasler? The only difference there in character motivation is one is playable and the other is not.

You can't really take 13-2 and what happens there if you don't also take LR and what happens there and all...that...gets sorted out in the end with the new world. I enjoyed 13-2 as a game but I try not to think about that whole narrative too much.

Plus people complain all the time about Haurchefant and how he wasn't important enough but he offered us friendship and sanctuary when the world turned against us. He was a huge part of our motivation, but I've definitely see people complain they didn't feel connected to him or he wasn't an important enough death. Or characters like Papalymo who was a main character but people don't think he was important enough when he was an actual Scion and VERY relevant to the story of anyone that started in Gridania.

[TaleraRistain]

Zidane's plot armor was justifiable because we spent the entire game with him as an active protagonist with a distinct personality, just as flawed as it was endearing, and one that would be impossible to make the star of a video game by today's moral standards. The same cannot be said for Y'shtola and the few and far between sassy moments she has or the fact that Thancred's story finished in Shadowbringers and is hanging out as the party appendix these days.

See I disagree. They're just as active with distinct personalities to me so their plot armor is justified. So it seems you only have a problem with ridiculous plot armor when you don't agree with it.

[Remish]

Sometimes the characters surviving over dying could be as simple as because the CEO or boardroom people said to keep them alive for merchandise reasons. I could fully believe that some of the cast was written to die and that some supervisor was like, "but that would hurt our merchandise sales". Sometimes, the situation for story weirdness is as simple as that. The companies are always willing to make the story janky if it makes them more money in other departments. I think we sometimes forgot that businesses such as SE will do this. Products don't usually sell as well if the character is dead. Just how marketing works.