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

[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.

[BRVV]

The WoL's intervention very much did have an effect. It's part of the causal loop. Elpis is set at a point in the timeline long before the 8UC (which I'll note is in fact the original timeline) and splinter (in which the game is presently set) divided. E.g. the WoL from the splinter going back to Elpis and maintaining the casual loop will keep the 8UC timeline going as well. Think of the 8UC and tangential timelines as being like two branches extending from the same tree limb.

As for "current" events: Zodiark isn't dead in the 8UC, which means modern Meteion is not yet a threat to that world.

Game's got plenty of plot holes, but I wouldn't count those among them. I do, however, believe the use of a causal loop wasn't the best decision.

Yeah that seems to be the only way it all makes some sense... with terrible implications. Weren't we told again and again that we CANT change anything? Guess they meant it in "it's already part of the timeline, bro". So we have 2 kinds of time travel. The Graha one that splits the timeline and the non-splitting one. The method could be the same. As you laid out, if i understand correctly, it depens on wether you go to a time before the shards were created or after. Why is this all bad, though? Well for one we have not been told if we could just travel again and there lies the problem.

Let's assume a new enemy appears. One who didn't exist before the split. Perfect! We can travel back and stop or change everything! Maybe he will never be born! But what if that being did exist in the united original. Well boys, girls & everybody else... let's travel to where the world was one and just vibe. Do whatever you feel like. Set something on fire idk. Or just harass everyone to tell you how to stop new evil dude. After all we CANT change the original timeline, right?

But i have to admit: it does make sense. I wouldn't want to see it because i thought the time travels were identical.

[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?"

[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.

[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

[Theodric]

I was always indifferent to Haurchefant. If anything, the game doesn't kill off characters often enough and seems overly concerned with either playing it safe or milking certain character deaths to ridiculous extents even though it's perfectly happy to downplay and ignore others.

Papalymo, for instance, is rarely mentioned by comparison - and even Ysayle doesn't get brought up as much as Haurchefant.

[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.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I was always indifferent to Haurchefant. If anything, the game doesn't kill off characters often enough and seems overly concerned with either playing it safe or milking certain character deaths to ridiculous extents even though it's perfectly happy to downplay and ignore others.

Papalymo, for instance, is rarely mentioned by comparison - and even Ysayle doesn't get brought up as much as Haurchefant.

Yeah, I think thats the real kicker thats been a neggle for me. She was very prominent in her time in post ARR and HW that after her death she was sorta...forgotten a tad bit and while Im glad they gave her some recognition in the Aitiascope, I think I'm more bothered that Aymeric or the Ishgardians dont acknowledge her memory for her being one of the first major people in their history to go against their tainted dogma.

Probably another reason why I didnt care that much for the Ishgardian plight in HW (nor why I dont think the expansion was that great).