
Originally Posted by
CrownySuccubus
This again goes into that "finale" point I was talking about before. Estinien, Thancred, Urianger... even the WOL have all gone through hardships and lost people they care about. Alisaie lost a good friend on the First. I know you don't like G'raha, but even he's been through some stuff for over a century. Alphinaud and Y'shtola...I honestly can't remember, so you kinda got me there.
As I said, I don't particularly care that they didn't "suffer more" in Endwalker specifically.
I mean, the antagonists in question are Fandaniel, Meteion and Zenos. The prior two are preoccupied trying to kill pretty much everybody all at once and the latter is hyper-focused on killing one person, who is literally the player. I'm not exactly sure what kind of ending was being expected here.
Also ignoring the "plot armor" part. We've been over that ad nauseam, and I'm not getting into that again.
Again, the only way you can argue the characters haven't suffered "lasting consequences" is if you look at Endwalker completely on its own and divorced from the rest of the story. Again, I don't particularly disagree with the sentiment that the expansion was toothless on its own merits, but again....I don't see this as some absolute, objective failing of writing as you seem to be implying it is.
Again, the majority of these games have main characters die in the first or second acts of the story. Not the final act, which is what Endwalker is. Of the games you listed, the ones that count for that are FF6 FF9, and I think FF2....but it's been a while since I've played it.
At this point, I feel like we're going in circles.