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

[SentioftheHoukai]

scenes clearly done in an attempt to make me cry (seriously, they ruined the Haurchefant scene with so much flashback. I roll my eyes every time it happens)

So like, am I the only one who failed to form some manner of attachment to that dude? The game seems to want to keep making me angst over some knight I feel like I barely even really knew. Haurchefant barely shows up in Heavensward proper, and his ARR presence is limited to a single not all that lengthy quest chain. It really feels like when he died I'm more like....

"Oh no! Anyway!"

Because the guy never really registered on my radar.

[Cach]

So like, am I the only one who failed to form some manner of attachment to that dude?

I only remember Haucherfant because it kinda reached meme status, the count's acting afterwards is legitimately good but I never cared about the character itself. Not much a fan of how that kind of melodrama is handled in general by the game tbh.

I would make for a lousy MSQ reactor, can't weep on command.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I only remember Haucherfant because it kinda reached meme status, the count's acting afterwards is legitimately good but I never cared about the character itself. Not much a fan of how that kind of melodrama is handled in general by the game tbh.

I would make for a lousy MSQ reactor, can't weep on command.

Haurchefant's character was mostly relegated to the Coerthas storyline in ARR, and he was one of only few characters whom supported you dearly throughout the exile and proudly proclaimed it whenever you talk to him optionally that it was very endearing. But he seriously was just a minor side character that somehow the fandom elevated him so highly that no matter what I always see fan art and posts about him. Its kinda annoying to be honest.

What about all the other side characters in this game huh!? where's the love for Hien or Arenvald, Gosetsu or heck in EW Matsya had a pretty powerful performance during the Final Days at Thavnair yet Ive barely seen ANY acknowledgment for him via fan art or stories yet the tall dark bunny sarcastic bunny boy Erenville who barely did anything noteworthy (besides the amusing quip about fooling a gleaner) gets so much attention and love from the community?

I swear the FFXIV community has some terrible priorities, and its not just stuff like this but also people's weird takes and fixation on overselling HW and ShB saying things like "its the best jrpg story ever told". I love this game's story to death but never to the point I make such annoying claims as well as also constantly crap on ARR or SB like they dont even matter. OF COURSE THEY MATTER AND THOSE STORIES WERE JUST AS GREAT!

Ok vent over, I just the more I interact with the FFXIV community, the more I start to hate it.

[Adamantini]

So like, am I the only one who failed to form some manner of attachment to that dude? The game seems to want to keep making me angst over some knight I feel like I barely even really knew. Haurchefant barely shows up in Heavensward proper, and his ARR presence is limited to a single not all that lengthy quest chain. It really feels like when he died I'm more like....

"Oh no! Anyway!"

Because the guy never really registered on my radar.

Despite appearing a few times, I became more attached to him than many characters who appeared many times (I wouldn't mind seeing all the Scions die, I'm already sick of them).

The few times he appeared, he tried to help my character, and there wasn't that desperation to make me swallow the character (of course I'm talking about the English translation, and I won't get into the subject of how he is in Japan, even because I don't play the Japanese version).

However, they've been hammering his death since SHB, with thousands of flashbacks, references, and desperately trying to make me cry with it, that I've had enough of the phrase "a smile better suits a hero".

The more they force me to like something, to get emotional about something, the more I feel like the story gets stupid, and the less I do what they want. Seriously, write the story in a natural way, emotion and affection comes naturally.

Moenbryda, on the other hand, I feel just like you do. I don't give a shit about her.

Also, she was an ARR character, and doing two terribly long scenes while the world is ending was cringe to say the least. I didn't even remember her name until Urianger started talking to me on the moon about it. So far so good, but soon after we have another gigantic litany on the same subject, and I got a raised eyebrow thinking "guys... the world is ending. Couldn't you have done this sooner?"

[ReynTime]

The haucherfant fanservice that they do to this day has gotten old. I'm on the camp that enjoyed his character and didn't mind the way his death was handled in Heavensward. Yes I do think he was a friend to the WoL and a great knight with strong sense of justice... But wish this game stopped trying to make me act as if he was a life-changing mentor that I lost? We didn't spend that much time together. Considering screentime during the MSQ and the legacy of the fight to end the Dragonsong War I'd argue Ysayle should have been more impactful instead.

I always defend Heavensward as the peak of XIV in nearly every way but when you think back on those details, they were already taking writing decisions based purely on fan reaction instead of logic.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The haucherfant fanservice that they do to this day has gotten old. I'm on the camp that enjoyed his character and didn't mind the way his death was handled in Heavensward. Yes I do think he was a friend to the WoL and a great knight with strong sense of justice... But wish this game stopped trying to make me act as if he was a life-changing mentor that I lost? We didn't spend that much time together. Considering screentime during the MSQ and the legacy of the fight to end the Dragonsong War I'd argue Ysayle should have been more impactful instead.

I always defend Heavensward as the peak of XIV in nearly every way but when you think back on those details, they were already taking writing decisions based purely on fan reaction instead of logic.

Honestly its not even the game....its the community at fault here. Why are people so obsessed with Haurchefant? Its making the writers try to shoehorn him every single time and its like come on

[Lauront]

Honestly its not even the game....its the community at fault here. Why are people so obsessed with Haurchefant? Its making the writers try to shoehorn him every single time and its like come on

It's a little bit of both, because they themselves feed this "hunger". As others have said, I'm in the camp of having liked the character, but not quite understanding this strange obsession with him... but I take a fairly detached approach even with characters I love when it comes to fiction.

FFXIV makes this mistake repeatedly honestly. You're told you should care about certain characters and certain events but you're never really given time or a reason to do so outside of the cutscenes showing that the WoL does for some reason.

I think it also comes down to a misalignment of both how many people in the broader playerbase actually like the characters compared to sites they draw their feedback from (let's say the bluebird site is probably the worst case of it), as well as with regard to the intensity of any emotional attachment to the character. Is this more strongly expressed on said sites, sometimes to obsessive degrees? I'd say yes.

There's plenty of characters I'd rate highly and enjoyed (Elidibus or Emet-Selch, for example), but at the same time, if they began (or continued) taking the approach of just wheeling them out for cheap emotional manipulation, I'd find that pretty repulsive...

I agree that they don't understand moderation, and just keep hammering you with references to a character who's proven popular. What they need to think of is why the character became popular in the first place, and that rarely will be rooted in unabashed fan service/ego-worship of the main character.

[Jagick]

So like, am I the only one who failed to form some manner of attachment to that dude? The game seems to want to keep making me angst over some knight I feel like I barely even really knew. Haurchefant barely shows up in Heavensward proper, and his ARR presence is limited to a single not all that lengthy quest chain. It really feels like when he died I'm more like....

"Oh no! Anyway!"

Because the guy never really registered on my radar.

I didn't care when Haurchefant died either. Before I got to Heavensward (or even his portion of ARR) everyone was saying that he was basically your ride-or-die friend as much as Garrus Vakarian was in Mass Effect. Then he proceeds to barely show up and do next to nothing. When Ysayle died? I was gut punched for a week because we spent so much time with her, learning her motivations, and seeing her develop as a character (and enemy turned ally.) When smiling elf man died I was just like: "...Okay..." You can't just tell me that my WoL cares about a character, or that the people around me care about a character. You have to actually give me a reason, you have to give me a journey and a relationship and trials and tribulations with the character.

FFXIV makes this mistake repeatedly honestly. You're told you should care about certain characters and certain events but you're never really given time or a reason to do so outside of the cutscenes showing that the WoL does for some reason.