I think we talked about character death in other FFs many pages ago and the fact remains that the one title you can directly compare FFXIV to by virtue of both being MMOs is FFXI and that doesn't exactly have NPCs dropping left and right.


Quote Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami View Post
Gabranth was a pretty pivotal member of the main cast, considering he makes numerous appearances throughout the entire game. 6 or 9 aren’t exceptions to the ff formula. If we want to make a case for a formula it’s that a main character usually dies. This has been prevalent as early as ff2, and has since been a thing in ff4,ff5,ff6,ff7 and ongoing.
You can't say Gabranth counts as a "main character" when he's an antagonist, is never playable, and kills Vaan's brother and Ashe's father in the first 15 minutes of the game. The closest we get to the deaths in the main cast are guest characters like Vossler and Reddas (comparable to Moenbryda and Papalymo) and the fake-out death with Fran and Balthier at the end.

None of 12's main, playable characters die.

If you're going to count Gabranth then at that point you may as well count Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Yotsuyu, and Zenos who are all villainous characters who have a change of heart before or after they die and/or help us before or after their deaths.