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

[AziraSyuren]

Since Stormblood I always felt that there was more to Zenos's story, that his desire for a fierce battle in order to "feel" something would have some more development. And once I saw him made his "return", jumping from body to body I was like "yeah, I knew it! his real backstory is coming later". Aaaaaaaaaaand... it never happened. Instead he became a mere power lvl monster and a poor attempt at Vegeta, and they had the gall to flaunt "yeah, we couldn't be bothered to make an actual backstory. Would it have changed anything?" And honestly if they couldn't deal with that by the end of this story, the "story to end all stories" I don't see how I could care about anything relating to that character if he ever comes back.

Speaking of wasted potential, remember the multiple times through the story where the echo was said to allow "transcending the barriers of the soul"? Like the ascian fusion at the end of Aetherochemical Research Facility and Zenos possessing Shinryu, not to mention all his body swapping. It was said that we hadn't yet gained full control of what the echo could do... And then there's the mess with the echo and the blessing of light in EW. I'm not completely sure how that game of calvinball ended but it looked like soul-transcending was completely dropped.

He had a backstory. A very cool one that perfectly explains his behavior and motivations, at that.

It was just in side content.

All of it.

[aveyond-dreams]

He had a backstory. A very cool one that perfectly explains his behavior and motivations, at that.

It was just in side content.

All of it.

Admittedly, I would have been able to enjoy Zenos more in Stormblood aside from his 1 scene with Yotsuyu had they bothered to show us the events of one of his short stories in game. Instead I found it some years later after someone had posted it to the Final Fantasy Wiki. Sure would have made for better entertainment than suffering through the early stages of Gyr Abania with Lyse.

However, it would do little to solve the later problems with his character, which completely exhausted my patience with him. I do not want the villain of an mmorpg to be a foil to me. That cannot work when the character is entirely your creation like the WoL, whose personality is up to us to determine. Villains need to have their own distinct personalities and goals that go beyond "seeking the ultimate fight" or whatever it was Zenos wanted.