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

[CrownySuccubus]

Other Final Fantasy games do not have this issue so pronounced except for FFV, in which 3 of the 4 remaining party members are female. Most of the time the cast is balanced in such a way that there is a good mix of youthful and older, more masculine figures. FFXII had Vaan, Balthier, and Basch. FFXV had Noctis, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladiolus. Something for everyone, yet in FFXIV it feels like we've been cheated out of having that and the writers continue to rub it in people's faces the more they push nonsense scenes with the likes of G'raha or further dampening down Estinien's personality.

I'm 100% on board of having more body types to work with, especially if it goes both ways and we start seeing more "amazon" ladies like female Roe, more female "beasts" like Kimahri or the Hrothgar, or (dare I say it) huskier body types like FF8's Ward. However, I do need to question the idea that the bishounen saturation was not prominent in older titles.

Pretty male protagonists has been the standard in the series since the beginning. Yoshitaka Amano's signature art style is all about making the central characters look as effeminately beautiful as possible. The default Warrior of Light template from the very first game is literally what Elidibus transforms into in 5.3.

Likewise our protagonists in FFII (with one exception).



FFIII, and FFIV, etc, etc..



I could keep going, but I think the point is clear. (FF4 had Yang, Tellah and Cid, but they definitely get a lot more downplayed compared to the main cast.) Tetsuya Nomura isn't much better, either. Cloud Strife was, after all, pretty enough to not just pass for a woman...but be considered more beautiful than his actual female companions. The benefit of Nomura's work is that he does, at least, diversify his male character roster, as with the aforementioned Ward, in addition to Barret, Setzer, Snow, Wakka, and half of the FFXV cast.