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

[Theodric]

Very true, Final Fantasy VII is many things but a hugbox for comfort characters isn't one of them. How they will handle upcoming sacrifices in the story remains to be seen, but if nothing else at least the journey in the remake felt good to be a part of. I can't say the same thing for my journey with the Scions, who have no grit or uniqueness to them. In the first 5 minutes of the added dialogue in the remake between Barret and Cloud, the two of them show more personality than the entirety of Thancred during Endwalker.

Honestly? Even if FFVIIR chickens out on 'that' scene it won't bother me as much simply because it doesn't have a spiteful and gleeful habit of ensuring that the antagonists die horribly and lose absolutely everything around them.

Much as I dislike the recent direction of FFXIV it's good to know that there's still games with the aesthetics, character designs and tone that I enjoy.
Both the antagonists and the protagonists in the single player games manage to appeal to me quite a bit whereas in FFXIV the 'good guys' are so coated in sugar and inoffensive that it becomes all the more frustrating when someone who breaks the norm arrives only to be killed off, made to change their ideals or simply find themselves hidden away in side quests.

I just hope that FFXIV can strike a better balance between appeasing those of us who prefer the likes of Varis and other stoic and serious characters as well as those who want the 'HaHa He EaT buRgAR!!' scenes. Such elements wouldn't bother me nearly as much then.

[ReynTime]

Very true, Final Fantasy VII is many things but a hugbox for comfort characters isn't one of them. How they will handle upcoming sacrifices in the story remains to be seen, but if nothing else at least the journey in the remake felt good to be a part of. I can't say the same thing for my journey with the Scions, who have no grit or uniqueness to them. In the first 5 minutes of the added dialogue in the remake between Barret and Cloud, the two of them show more personality than the entirety of Thancred during Endwalker.

The original VII sure. But this is a very different SE now.

I'm surprised people still have doubts they won't chicken out on everything, considering the red flags so far: (SPOILERS)

The alternate universe and multiverse pretentious nonsense they added has been pointing towards "let's fix everything to make fans who hate deaths/sacrifices happy".

You want to tell me Wedge being alive wasn't a red flag already? Or the fact literally every named character from Sector 7 escapes from death wasn't either?

My prediction is that even Biggs is alive. And somehow they will find a way to have Zack return sometime in Part 3, and Aerith's death will not happen.

If they had actual balls they'd have Aerith and a few other characters die again/stay dead and try sending a message of letting go rather than rewarding the fanbase for being so hung on characters they like dying.

I lost optimism for SE long before FFXIV 1.0 even came out so I have a different perspective from most people in a FF game forum I guess. The last FF I enjoyed was XII, and even that one I can no longer go back to, which means the only ones I persistently have fun replaying are I ~ X and XIV.

("than how a handful of people view Graha")

Ok serious talk. What is it about a portion of this game's fanbase that they feel this weird necessity to reassure themselves and everyone witnessing a discussion that people disagreeing with them are a 'minority'.

Seriously, every time I see a negative criticism to any aspect of the game I can already see at least one person holding a cup of tea, trying to contain their hands as they start shaking, then telling themselves to take a deep breath, and give a nervous smile to their fellow yesmen/women who look absolutely horrified that someone who had bad things to say about the game exist, and thus the person smiling says: "Don't worry! Don't worry guys!! It's just a minority!! Everybody knows the SILENT MAJORITY loves everything about this game, right????"

[Raoabolic]

I lost optimism for SE long before FFXIV 1.0 even came out so I have a different perspective from most people in a FF game forum I guess. The last FF I enjoyed was XII, and even that one I can no longer go back to, which means the only ones I persistently have fun replaying are I ~ X and XIV.

FFX-2 is a lot of things but I will shill for it's battle system. I could play X-2's via purifico dungeon all day. Just strip the story to it's bare bones and let me play as the three magical girls that transform into FF classes!

[RyuDragnier]

FFX-2 is a lot of things but I will shill for it's battle system. I could play X-2's via purifico dungeon all day. Just strip the story to it's bare bones and let me play as the three magical girls that transform into FF classes!

Man I love FFX-2's battle system. It's a shame the international version culled the amazing Cat Nip trick, I don't think I'd have been able to clear Via Purifico's final boss without that max damage Trigger Happy spam. <_<

[Lauront]

Between the Rebirth announcement, and that for Dragon's Dogma 2, today is a very good day.

So now that Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 has been announced for next winter, it seems like its release will compete with 7.0 for my attention (depending on what Yoship's definition of winter turns out to be). I suppose now the question is whether I'm more willing to put up with Nomura-style writing or the current cringeworthy writing direction of FFXIV, unless something changes in the coming patches.

Catboy Doctor Who eating burgers in the void or chasing after Sephiroth with the FFVII cast. At least one of these will prove to be a story with some substance...

XIV is now in a situation of life support for me - we'll see if it makes it off it in the coming patches etc.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

announcement for Dragon's Dogma 2

Whoa, really? That's awesome (and it's about time).

[YukikoKurosawa]

I would have much less issue with their unwillingness to kill off characters who matter if they would stop with the fakeout deaths. How many times must we go through a slow-motion moment of a Scion being mortally wounded, only for the next scene to show they're perfectly fine, sometimes without even bothering to explain how they survived such a serious injury. How many times must we watch everygone go "D:" and scream "[insert scion's name here]", and then they're just fine. Why do you waste screentime on these pointless moments.

But absolutely nothing has been worse than Parting Glass. A 1 hour nonstop cutscene centred around Nanamo and seemingly the scion's deaths. Then a CGI expansion trailer reshowing this, and a moment in said trailer hyping Lolorito to be this big villain.

Then just "LOL NVM SHE'S FINE WE SWITCHED THE POISON FOR SLIGHTLY LESS POWERFUL POISON"

"LOL NVM THE SCIONS ARE FINE (well except Minfilia but she doesn't actually die till ShB)"

"LOL NVM LOLORITO'S COOL"

And we just swipe it all under the rug. Why the fuck did you waste an hour of my time, create a CGI trailer reinforcing the tragedy of that quest and building up a character involved as a major villain, then just "lol nvm"? The only saving grace is that HW did have the stones to kill off two major characters, but still. The point is they waste so much time on these fakeout death moments. It's not just annoying because they're fakeouts, not just because it causes you to stop taking any "death" seriously because you know they will be fine, but because it wastes runtime on moments that are utterly pointless because they amount to absolutely nothing on top of the afformentioned problems with them. I just roll my eyes whenever it happens now. The only moment that's been on par with as bad as Parting Glass in terms of fakeouts is Ultima Thule's fakeouts. I guess that's worse, but it was so painfully obvious that I wasn't even that mad, I was genuinely convinced by Parting Glass only for it to be nothing.

It's very clear they do not think the average person playing their game is very intelligent otherwise they would not keep doing this. Between everything else mentioned throughout these 500+ pages, I honestly think it's time for new blood on the writing team. Not to potentially monkey paw, but I'm not confident in the writing team going forward. A combination of being terminally online, too obsessed with fanservice, a lack of will to have actual consequences for anyone or anything the players actually care about, inserting extremely bizarre moral messages, a seeming lack of consistent vision, and an utter lack of respect for the intelligence of their audience.

Whoever is going to be writing the story now as I know it's a different writer needs to be, at the bare minimum, someone kept off of social media permanently.

[Kisshu]

Snip

If I recall correctly, the darker tone was what they were going for into HW, but the higher ups said it needed to be changed as it was too dark. So parts of the HW plot was given to the retconning of ARR finale.

[YukikoKurosawa]

If I recall correctly, the darker tone was what they were going for into HW, but the higher ups said it needed to be changed as it was too dark. So parts of the HW plot was given to the retconning of ARR finale.

What's worse is that the entire Nanamo subplot didn't even need to happen at all. We already had sufficient setup for HW with the Dragons and Ysale and their conflict with Ishgard. We already HAD the tie in, we already had what we needed as reason to go help Ishgard. The entire Nanamo subplot only bloated an already overly bloated Post-ARR. The fact that they changed their minds on actually following through with any of it only makes it 100 times worse.

[Lauront]

It's very clear they do not think the average person playing their game is very intelligent otherwise they would not keep doing this. Between everything else mentioned throughout these 500+ pages, I honestly think it's time for new blood on the writing team. Not to potentially monkey paw, but I'm not confident in the writing team going forward. A combination of being terminally online, too obsessed with fanservice, a lack of will to have actual consequences for anyone or anything the players actually care about, inserting extremely bizarre moral messages, a seeming lack of consistent vision, and an utter lack of respect for the intelligence of their audience.

Whoever is going to be writing the story now as I know it's a different writer needs to be, at the bare minimum, someone kept off of social media permanently.

Aye, at this point I'd be inclined to agree with that.