What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Theodric]

Umm. Are you serious? Is she willing to see anyone "good" die in this game? As if the plot armor for the "heroes" wasn't already at laughable levels.

More reason for me to really hope that we get some writer changes going forward; I don't need to play in a cotton-candy land where the only bad things that happen are to those they dictate to be the "villains" or to throwaway NPCs.

It's a stance that even Yoshi-P appears to be echoing of late which is annoying. They're seeking to appease a vocal portion of social media followers who would have everything reduced to 'good guys' and 'bad guys' which in turn leads to things becoming very stale and predictable.

Even Matsuno was held back by Yoshi-p and told that he couldn't kill off anyone of note during the Bozja storyline. I don't like death for the sake of death but I've never asked for that - I just think that if someone intends to tell a story about war and loss then there should be some of the latter for the protagonists instead of conveniently just emotionally manipulating people into finding the antagonists sympathetic as they - and only they - stand to lose absolutely everything.

[Ixon]

I too would like my video games to have stories with meaningful development and consequences. Otherwise, what separates Endwalker from just twitter fanfiction?

Whatdya mean? We lost Fandaniel, Zenos, Venat/Hydaelyn, Zodiark, Ahewann, Quintus, the two sisters that got mauled, that one kid that got turned into a meatball and squished. /s

[Theodric]

What's annoying is that I can totally see the writers bringing back Emet and Hythlodaeus somehow but it'd feel so contrived and forced that it'd ruin them for many of their fans. Especially if they had a complete shift in behaviour, attitude and perspective to the point of effectively being entirely different characters. Much like with Gaius.

I consider 'character development' to be something more than just conveniently jumping ship and agreeing with the player character on every front.

It's made worse by seeing how differently the single player games handle rival and antagonist figures. Seifer. Kuja. Rufus. The Turks. Golbez. To name but a few.

We don't see them imprisoned or killed. They just do their own thing and survive the events of their respective games. Meanwhile FFXIV seemingly takes pleasure in setting up the antagonists to have sympathetic reasons for doing what they're doing only to punish them to bizarre degrees for...daring to not just roll over and die in the face of awful circumstances.

As if they're meant to give up and not do what they feel is best when not lucky enough to have the stupid 'I WIN' button at their beck and call that is the Warrior of Light.

[Rulakir]

I love G'raha to pieces so it doesn't bother me. The "hero worship" is the closest they're probably going to get to romantic undertones. However, I can see how it would be annoying for anyone who doesn't like his character. There are some characters who if they started fawning over me would make me uncomfortable.

I liked Moenbryda more than most of the other Scions. It wouldn't have bothered me if they'd kept her and ditched someone else. However, surely Ishikawa was aware that Moenbryda was a disposable character when she wrote her. She's alive for, what, 5 quests? This couldn't have come as a shock.

Given her penchant for not wanting to kill characters and coming up with reasons for them to return combined with the overwhelming popularly of Emet, I'd like to think we haven't seen the last of him yet.

Answers and Flow can both die in a fire but I'm OK with the rest. 'Neath Dark Waters is probably my favorite song in the game.

I hate that I have to keep looking up songs on YouTube because they aren't labelled like "Amaurot theme". :P

My favorite tracks - that I don't know the names of - are Azys Lla, the Tower of Babil dungeon theme, Garlemald night theme, Coerthas Western Highlands (day or night), Lochs night theme (shame it's wasted on a zone you spend 15 minutes in), and I've been listening to Endwalker Midboss Theme "On Blade's Edge" (Epic Metal Cover by Skar Productions) a lot too.

[PawPaw]

I don't like death for the sake of death but I've never asked for that - I just think that if someone intends to tell a story about war and loss then there should be some of the latter for the protagonists instead of conveniently just emotionally manipulating people into finding the antagonists sympathetic as they - and only they - stand to lose absolutely everything.

Agreed, I don't want to see Scions and side characters getting bumped off just because I'm bloodthirsty but there is only so much I can suspend disbelief when we are constantly being thrown into these super high risk situations and no one is coming away with as much as a scrape. There are no consequences for anything that this group does and that makes me more detached from them and the believability of them as characters as a whole. Why would I ever be anxious and nervous for the protagonists at any point when no matter what they do, they always come out on top?

Oh, Y'shtola's died again? Oh well. Give her five and I'm sure she'll be right back. Yawn.

[Teraq]

Agreed, I don't want to see Scions and side characters getting bumped off just because I'm bloodthirsty but there is only so much I can suspend disbelief when we are constantly being thrown into these super high risk situations and no one is coming away with as much as a scrape. There are no consequences for anything that this group does and that makes me more detached from them and the believability of them as characters as a whole. Why would I ever be anxious and nervous for the protagonists at any point when no matter what they do, they always come out on top?

Oh, Y'shtola's died again? Oh well. Give her five and I'm sure she'll be right back. Yawn.

It's amusing how the entire last leg of EW feels like the least high-stake to me because we are literally in Feely Emotion Space that runs on The Power of God and Anime. Scions sacrificing themselves? We know they'll be back right away. Twitter Hivemind chucking planets at us? Yeah whatever I'll just Power of Friendship through that. Twice.

You just know there would be no other outcome when it's gone full anime.

Meanwhile back on Etheirys everyone in Sharlayan is okay just watching the sky that definitely stays blue.

(Ancients and Dynamis though? No, The Power of God and Anime doesn't work like that!)

[Ixon]

It's amusing how the entire last leg of EW feels like the least high-stake to me because we are literally in Feely Emotion Space that runs on The Power of God and Anime. Scions sacrificing themselves? We know they'll be back right away. Twitter Hivemind chucking planets at us? Yeah whatever I'll just Power of Friendship through that. Twice.

You just know there would be no other outcome when it's gone full anime.

Meanwhile back on Etheirys everyone in Sharlayan is okay just watching the sky that definitely stays blue.

(Ancients and Dynamis though? No, The Power of God and Anime doesn't work like that!)

Agreed, I don't think I was emotionally invested at all in the last zone till Zenos showed up, and was a bit disappointed in the "dead but not really" approach they took with your allies.

I'd like to think that there was a Loporrit(Filmingway? Screeningway?) off screen with a camera recording everything in the final zone and projecting it onto a massive flat screen in the sky back on Etheirys.

[Teraq]

I'd like to think that there was a Loporrit(Filmingway? Screeningway?) off screen with a camera recording everything in the final zone and projecting it onto a massive flat screen in the sky back on Etheirys.

I hope they used their connection to Hydaelyn somehow to project it into the Aetherial Sea too! Because I want Fandaniel to see it all and ragequit.

Guess we'll just have to wait for Thancred's alleged "cool moment" in 6.1 to pay off, because I remember nothing of what he did in Endwalker other than the "This is Thancred" meme.

Speaking of Ultima Thule reminded me of Thancred's greatest EW accomplishment: he was a great atmosphere, single-handedly evening the score in the Universe's most important game of Calvinball. Him losing his aether was all part of the grand plan so he could make the finest oxygen and nitrogen atoms around. 10/10 would breathe again!

[Caurcas]

I too would like my video games to have stories with meaningful development and consequences. Otherwise, what separates Endwalker from just twitter fanfiction?

I mean now that we have crummy maguffin race out of the way to justify crummy loli bird antagonist and just crummy maguffin plot in general out of the way (Shadowbringers started this dreck) we might get a good story again.

[KageTokage]

It is kind of silly that I'm subconsciously unable to worry about the well-being of the Scions at this point due to them having plot kevlar.

It's mostly the secondary and/or new characters that are at any risk, but the lack of screentime is naturally going to limit any impact their loss will have unless it's someone who's been around for multiple expansions.