Critique of Endwalker Characters

[Theodric]

Etsy is a place for artists with freedom of creativity and not big industry merchandise. Which is usually cheaper than any official merchandise so the comparison is apples to oranges. They also said their lack of Emet merchandise was that they wanted to wait until his role in the story was over. Pretty sure they addressed that at some point.

Etsy still shows that there's significant demand for merchandise based on many characters that are largely absent on the Square Enix store for reasons that, honestly, don't really hold up. Why, exactly, does a character's role in the story need to be 'over' before merchandise is sold? That certainly isn't the case for Y'shtola or G'raha.

It can't be an aversion to selling merchandise based around antagonists, either, based on the presence of Sephiroth and Rufus Shinra figurines being sold.

I daresay some characters, particularly the Scions, are artificially pushed more heavily than their actual popularity would arguably justify.

[Nav_Fae]

Etsy still shows that there's significant demand for merchandise based on many characters that are largely absent on the Square Enix store for reasons that, honestly, don't really hold up. Why, exactly, does a character's role in the story need to be 'over' before merchandise is sold? That certainly isn't the case for Y'shtola or G'raha.

It can't be an aversion to selling merchandise based around antagonists, either, based on the presence of Sephiroth and Rufus Shinra figurines being sold.

I daresay some characters, particularly the Scions, are artificially pushed more heavily than their actual popularity would arguably justify.

Because SE is a business and it's about money. Everything they do is about money. Let's not pretend it isn't. The story is an afterthought to sales. Always has been. Always will be. If those sales are achieved with the current personalities, then it isn't going to change. Their profits will speak wither or not they need to adjust character personalities. I'm pretty sure SE doesn't care what Etsy's demand for merchandise says. They have their own marketing formula and fan creations probably aren't factored into it. For the same reason Nintendo shuts down fan projects.

But we get it, people need to die to be good. That's all this thread has turned into and SE isn't ever going to listen to that feedback. That's all most of us are taking away from this discussion anymore.

[aveyond-dreams]

Because SE is business and it's about money. Everything they do is about money. Let's not pretend it isn't. The story is an afterthought to sales. Always has been. Always will be. If those sales are achieved with the current sales, it isn't going to change. Their profits will speak wither or not they need to adjust character personalities. I'm pretty sure SE doesn't care what Etsy's demand for merchandise says. They have their own marketing formula and fan creations probably aren't factored into it. For the same reason Nintendo shuts down fan projects.

The present design of male viera was directly inspired from "fan creations" as they interpreted the artwork the OP had in the first post as what fans wanted. You ask, they give. Emet-selch etsy merch and fanart comissions were extremely prominent during the Shadowbringers era, in my circles far more prominent than pictures of the same generic catgirl at least.

In any case I agree that we'd be better off with new characters. Preferably ones with contrasting personalities (see the dynamics of the trio, the dynamics of many other rpg parties really) and with sufficiently varied backgrounds so as to not have them all with the same outlook on life and how the world should be. And for goodness sake give them a hair color other than white.

In terms of heroines and postergirls, some of my favorites include Garnet, Oerba dia Vanille, Leliana, Morrigan, and Yuna.

In terms of males: Kain Highwind, Zidane, Balthier, Alistair, Ignis, Gladiolus

and in terms of villains-because the absolute last thing we need is another Hermes: Thordan, Kuja, Kefka, Ardyn, Gabranth, Caius

Also important to note is that at least once Yoship managed to acknowledge the fact that Hermes was a divisive figure in an interview sometime in January, I think. It really does feel like he was thrown in there just for the sake of "subverting expectation!" which may have worked if they had sufficiently developed him, instead of randomly thrusting him onto us.

[Lauront]

Because SE is a business and it's about money. Everything they do is about money. Let's not pretend it isn't. The story is an afterthought to sales. Always has been. Always will be. If those sales are achieved with the current personalities, then it isn't going to change. Their profits will speak wither or not they need to adjust character personalities. I'm pretty sure SE doesn't care what Etsy's demand for merchandise says. They have their own marketing formula and fan creations probably aren't factored into it. For the same reason Nintendo shuts down fan projects.

But we get it, people need to die to be good. That's all this thread has turned into and SE isn't ever going to listen to that feedback. That's all most of us are taking away from this discussion anymore.

No, it's more that EW would've been a good point to remove some characters whose stories have more or less peaked. And an apocalypse where the stakes are (or should be) high is as good a time as you will get to do that.

[Anienai]

No, it's more that EW would've been a good point to remove some characters whose stories have more or less peaked. And an apocalypse where the stakes are (or should be) high is as good a time as you will get to do that.

Your signature is legendary!

[Theodric]

Because SE is a business and it's about money. Everything they do is about money. Let's not pretend it isn't. The story is an afterthought to sales. Always has been. Always will be. If those sales are achieved with the current personalities, then it isn't going to change. Their profits will speak wither or not they need to adjust character personalities. I'm pretty sure SE doesn't care what Etsy's demand for merchandise says. They have their own marketing formula and fan creations probably aren't factored into it. For the same reason Nintendo shuts down fan projects.

But we get it, people need to die to be good. That's all this thread has turned into and SE isn't ever going to listen to that feedback. That's all most of us are taking away from this discussion anymore.

Given that Square Enix recently reported a loss of $48 million due to the Avengers game which had some, uh, 'interesting' creative decisions that didn't go down well with those of us not submerged in the Twitter sphere, I daresay the company would do rather well to look at what fans are actually asking for and shake things up a bit more as a result.

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/square-en...0its%20release.

To say nothing of the company's recent announcement that they were deciding to flirt with NFT's, a concept that has proven to be exceedingly unpopular with many gamers across the board.

Source: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ared?p=5790881

[Nav_Fae]

I daresay the company would do rather well to look at what fans are actually asking for and shake things up a bit more as a result.

Endwalker is my favorite expansion so this fan thinks they're doing fine and that is the opinion I will sail away with and I will die on that hill