*SPOILERS* Terrified for the remaining Scions!

[Infindox]

While I don't mind having Graha around I won't ever argue that he should be permanently dead, because in any other FF he probably would have been. I know I teared up a bit when he finally turned into crystal because he was by all rights dead. Deader than dead. Then to make people feel better I guess they needed to bring him back? Sometimes it feels like I'm watching a Disney movie rather than playing an FF game. Heck, even some Disney films have consequences like character deaths. lol

I was all ready for him to be dead or at least we had a huge fight with his body in trying to put his soul back in on the Source but nah, a quick cutscene change and he's back. It kinda made the "risk" that was supposed to be there of moving him back to the Source that way almost irrelevant. I'm not here to say that I want characters that I love to die, but there really needs to be some stakes and some heartbreaks involved instead of this plot armor.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Hmm... really, is it really a bizarre approach though?

Yes, it is. Endwalker is probably going to be a retread of FF8. There is supposed to be this huge invasion of all of thousands and thousands of terrifying monsters ravaging the world... but we all know that in the actual game it's just going to be a few mobs wandering around on the ground in a zone (aka same as before the supposed apcolaypse began), and everyone will survive and get a happy ending.

In one of yoshi-p interview he stated that they don't want the players to feel like they wasted investment on the npc and the world (eorzea) after endwalker.

Not a problem. Rerunning dungeons with trusts isn't canon anyway, so it doesn't matter if a party member dies during the story but you can use them again in trusts later. It's not like you'll actually lose the ability to use that character in trust dungeons, making all of your time grinding them up meaningless.

[Lauront]

I posted this in another thread, but I feel it needs to be said again

I may have said so before, but good post. It will be worse in 6.0, because this is concurrent with an apocalypse unfolding. It's not like other FFs shy away from character deaths or death in general - 7 is famous for a very big death scene. Not sure why this game needs its protagonist cast wrapped in multiple layers of adamantite plot armour.

[Kozh]

Not a problem. Rerunning dungeons with trusts isn't canon anyway, so it doesn't matter if a party member dies during the story but you can use them again in trusts later. It's not like you'll actually lose the ability to use that character in trust dungeons, making all of your time grinding them up meaningless.

I don't think he solely means about Trust as investment, but also emotional connection. Connection with other players, with the npc, with eorzea itself. So even though we may have a completely new adventure on different continent, they probably will make us interact with old npc again

[Theodric]

I don't think he solely means about Trust as investment, but also emotional connection. Connection with other players, with the npc, with eorzea itself. So even though we may have a completely new adventure on different continent, they probably will make us interact with old npc again

We shouldn't miss out on a compelling story because of a fear that an 'emotional connection' might be broken. The development team have already killed off characters that people find popular and antagonists have repeatedly topped the charts in character popularity polls. We don't need a ridiculously bloated cast with no room for new characters to show up and involve themselves in the story.

Imagine if we were to get an expansion exploring Inner Hingashi but there's barely any room for actual Hingan characters to play a part in the story as anything other than minor entities? That was essentially the problem with the First. Imagine how many completely new characters we could have interacted with if the Scions did not accompany us?

[KizuyaKatogami]

When people talk about not wanting the emotional connection of characters to be severed. What about those that have an “emotional connection” to antagonists, and have to constantly see them fail due to protagonist plot armor and plot holes, completely disregarding story elements and lore just so the protagonists can win. What about that hm?

[SannaR]

Ishikawa did tell people to become prepared to say a few goodbyes. Now what that means, who knows. Could mean death or retirement. Heck the WoL could go full derp and do something that even many of the Scoins aren't ok with. After all we are at the end of a story and 6.1 is supposed to start a new one.

[MicahZerrshia]

When people talk about not wanting the emotional connection of characters to be severed. What about those that have an “emotional connection” to antagonists, and have to constantly see them fail due to protagonist plot armor and plot holes, completely disregarding story elements and lore just so the protagonists can win. What about that hm?

We could lose any of the scions and I wouldn't bat an eye. Y'shtola, Graha or Alphinaud meeting their maker would actually be cause for celebration for me.

But some of the villains we lost actually made me ugly cry

[RyuDragnier]

Again, every single ff game has had characters die, had consequences for the protags, and have had the antagonists even win. But for some reason 14 hasn’t been following that. I sure wonder if it has to do with the fact the playerbase is super sensitive about this kind of storytelling. I mean, 8 years and people still haven’t gotten over elf boy. Honestly, it really does affect the story because typically, they give character unrealistic amount of plot armor and have them create plot holes which disrupt the story. Case in point Graha at the end of ShB where it was an insanely big plot hole that just ruined the story for me, all to keep some of the characters alive.

FF14 actually has been having antagonists win. The Ascians succeeded with the 7th Calamity, and in the bad future they won with the 8th Calamity. They've been behind the Garlean Empire who won multiple victories until we started turning things around. Hell, Gabranth has succeeded with his plans in the Bozja storyline.

IMO the three most likely to die this expansion are Thancred (who has only had a role in Eden) G'raha Tia (has enough knowledge and merged with Crystal Tower on the First to where it's definitely foreshadowing of his end), and Y'shtola (too many false death flags, has had no optional content with her, giant hanging thread of being able to see Aether slowly killing her).

Meanwhile Urianger and Alphinaud are likely to take a bow and stay in Sharlayan to help them transition back onto the political stage. Krile, Alisaie, Estinien, and Tataru are likely going to be staying for future stories.

[Claviusnex]

We shouldn't miss out on a compelling story because of a fear that an 'emotional connection' might be broken. The development team have already killed off characters that people find popular and antagonists have repeatedly topped the charts in character popularity polls. We don't need a ridiculously bloated cast with no room for new characters to show up and involve themselves in the story.

Imagine if we were to get an expansion exploring Inner Hingashi but there's barely any room for actual Hingan characters to play a part in the story as anything other than minor entities? That was essentially the problem with the First. Imagine how many completely new characters we could have interacted with if the Scions did not accompany us?

I think they could have content where the Scions aren't part of it without having to kill everyone off and still stay within the games story framework. After all there is plenty of time the WoL is off on their own I assume doing other hero things. One of the things I like about ESO is many of the main characters stick around but aren't part of the story in every release. There is no reason FFXIV could not do something similar.