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

[Atelier-Bagur]

New characters need good writing and it would appear all the competent writers are on vacation or jumped ship.

or you just have terrible sense of taste but its ok to be wrong so whatevs.

[MagiusNecros]

or you just have terrible sense of taste but its ok to be wrong so whatevs.

*tips fedora*

*eats dumpling*

[Absimiliard]

No new character will be 'interesting' from the getgo. Absolutely no matter what it will be, the moment new character is introduced as part of 'main group', there will be SOME loud people who will instantly start a bemoaning of how much they hate them and how boring and predictable/annoying and obnoxious/generic and unintereting the new character is and how they cant wait for them to die off to get replaced with a 'more interesting character'. All while in next paragraph complaining about scions always being there and relevant.

No, but there are ways of making a character at least appealing enough at introduction to warrant some investment in where their story arc will go. Enough people dislike Zero that one should at least be willing to entertain the idea SE failed to do this. As well, one should acknowledge the possibility of the direction that character's development has gone in being something more than just a handful of players dislike.

Very seldom do video game characters that stick around for an excessive period of time not wind up overstaying their welcome. You can witness this in action with the myriad of Scion complaints from practically all of the different demographics playing this game. The Scions going their own separate ways after sadbird's defeat gave me a taste of something bitter: hope that SE had realized this. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed in the very next patch.

[Atelier-Bagur]

*tips fedora*

*eats dumpling*

*starts running towards the camera real fast*

<wonder if anyone would get the reference>

[Heroman3003]

No, but there are ways of making a character at least appealing enough at introduction to warrant some investment in where their story arc will go. Enough people dislike Zero that one should at least be willing to entertain the idea SE failed to do this. As well, one should acknowledge the possibility of the direction that character's development has gone in being something more than just as vocal minority some posters would like to represent nay-sayers as.

Very seldom do video game characters that stick around for an excessive period of time not wind up overstaying their welcome. You can witness this in action with the myriad of Scion complaints from practically all of the different demographics playing this game. The Scions going their own separate ways after sadbird's defeat gave me a taste of something bitter: hope. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed in the very next patch.

Enough people will be loud about disliking any character to make a sweeping statement about writers' failure, won't make it any more true. Zero is by far the freshest breath of air in terms of new characters not overlapping too hard with old/pre-existing ones, IMO. And while her personality is 'bland', thats kinda the point. She's in a 'learn how to feel' character arc right now, and we haven't really had cold and distant allies since like... Heavensward I'd say, where that was only by virtue of Estinien and Ysayle being too at odds with one another to properly get closer to us. Her arc is nothing groundbreaking but absolutely nothing in entire history of FF14's writing really ever was, it was just good execution of existing tropes and subversions and that's what I like about it, nor do I expect anything groundbreaking either (and if there will be, I'll just be satisfied with a pleasant surprise). And of course, there's a big issue of introducing a whole cast of new characters to replace old ones - it will be even harder to give them all time and attention needed to be nearly as developed and likeable. Hell, even Scions were basically scattered after ARR and then slowly re-introduced few-by-few to try and salvage the fact that it was pretty hard to get invested into any scions except one(s) you meet in 1-15 MSQ. I'd say it was mostly successful for me. And I am definitely more a fan of cast being slowly altered over time rather than suddenly dumped and replaced with a bunch of literally whos. That definitely would kill investment for way more players than the few who are bored of existing characters.

[Absimiliard]

There is no need to introduce a cast of characters to replace the Scions. One of the staples of being the/a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy as a whole has been wandering, and this has typically been done with no or very few allies until such time as they were needed. It's also rather common for Final Fantasy protagonists to group with different people at different times, oft times finding new companions (and parting ways with old ones) as they reach new areas. Those companions needn't be fleshed out beyond merely being given interesting personalities and perhaps a bit of backstory to discover along the way. They are, after all, temporary.

It's fine for the Scions to pop up from time to time, but there's zero reason to have them be there every single time. Let the WoL strike out on their own for a while or something. It would be a nice change. Etheirys has a vast amount of land yet unexplored by the Warrior of Light. It's time for the devs to embrace the title they gave the game's protagonist, by having them step out on their own in search of new adventures.

[MagiusNecros]

There is no need to introduce a cast of characters to replace the Scions. One of the staples of being the/a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy as a whole has been wandering, and this has typically been done with no or very few allies until such time as they were needed. It's also rather common for Final Fantasy protagonists to group with different people at different times, oft times finding new companions (and parting ways with old ones) as they reach new areas. Those companions needn't be fleshed out beyond merely being given interesting personalities and perhaps a bit of backstory to discover along the way. They are, after all, temporary.

It's fine for the Scions to pop up from time to time, but there's zero reason to have them be there every single time. Let the WoL strike out on their own for a while or something. It would be a nice change. Etheirys has a vast amount of land yet unexplored by the Warrior of Light. It's time for the devs to embrace the title they gave the game's protagonist by having them step out on their own in search of new adventures.

Yep that's what I want. Emet Selch said it best. "And I see you insist on the same familiar company. Are you so lost without them?"

Just let the WoL do their own thing. Without Scion assistance.

[SassyAssassin]

There is no need to introduce a cast of characters to replace the Scions. One of the staples of being the/a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy as a whole has been wandering, and this has typically been done with no or very few allies until such time as they were needed. It's also rather common for Final Fantasy protagonists to group with different people at different times, oft times finding new companions (and parting ways with old ones) as they reach new areas. Those companions needn't be fleshed out beyond merely being given interesting personalities and perhaps a bit of backstory to discover along the way. They are, after all, temporary.

It's fine for the Scions to pop up from time to time, but there's zero reason to have them be there every single time. Let the WoL strike out on their own for a while or something. It would be a nice change. Etheirys has a vast amount of land yet unexplored by the Warrior of Light. It's time for the devs to embrace the title they gave the game's protagonist by having them step out on their own in search of new adventures.

I agree with what angry looking man said, I want my own adventure, Scions can take a little holiday and reunite after :3

[Heroman3003]

I won't deny, it'd be interesting story.... If FF14's storytelling structure allowed for such story to be viable. From the first cutscene to the last quest of MSQ we have always been told what to do next one way or another. We have always been following people around, who will talk about environment and people around you and give the journey direction. There was never agency, and there never can be with silent protagonist in linear story with intentionally ambigous motives and personality of said protagonist. Scions 'disbanding' was clearly stated that it was basically a ruse to fool the public and they will all stay connected as friends and help one another - which is precisely how patches played out so far. And that they will get together again if world needs it, which will most likely happen by 7.0. In this game's structure there can never be true 'our own journey'. The part about wandering the world and exploring is handled via side content of all types. Us doing it is us doing the 'our own' wandering and adventuring of this game. And its a pipe dream to ever expect any more from an MMORPG with story structure like that.

[MagiusNecros]

In this game's structure there can never be true 'our own journey'.

FFXIV simply doesn't have a structure like GW2, ESO, FFXI, LotR:Online, SWTOR, Secret World Legends.

FFXIV has a story driven narrative but the narrative isn't about you 90% of the time. It's more about these NPCs and the player is a just a supporting character or plot.

It's like a DnD campaign and your characters only purpose is to participate in combat and deal damage. No real story involvement.