Quote Originally Posted by CrownySuccubus View Post
Again, the majority of these games have main characters die in the first or second acts of the story. Not the final act, which is what Endwalker is. Of the games you listed, the ones that count for that are FF6 FF9, and I think FF2....but it's been a while since I've played it.
FFII kills Josef very early. Kills Scott, Gordon's brother very early. Kills Minwu rather late in one of the final dungeons, second or third to last. Kills Ricard Highwind when he sacrifices himself so that the party and Leon can escape Hell Emperor right before he raises Pandemonium.

FFV has Galuf die right as the final act starts, the final act being the optional tasks of collecting the 12 holy weapons/super spells etc.

FFVI kills Shadow in two different areas. At the end of Floating Continent if you don't wait for him, and then in Kefka's Tower he chooses to go down with the tower to try and repent for his past. It also kills General Leo right before Floating Continent, and kills Cid at the start of World of Ruin if you don't feed him enough of the healthy fish.

FFVII kills Aeris, what, mid way through? I'm not a big 7 fan.

FFX killed Tidus and Auron.

FFXI... it's been a long time, but... It kills Lion in RoZ, only to bring her back through some Crystal Line chicanery if you do all of CoP as well and then the RoZ CoP crossover mission, Apocalypse Nigh. In ToAU they killed some new side characters, and one of the main characters to the expansion. That would be Luzaf, the pirate king of Ephramad, though technically he escaped Hell to come back to try and get revenge on Aht Urhgan, so technically he was already dead/on borrowed time. WoTG killed more side people, some ancestors of NPCs you meet in the current time, and you have several missions dedicated to bringing Lilisette back to life after the first battle with the Spitewardens where her existence shatters due to idk, time paradox or something from her father being turned into a Spitewarden iirc. I don't recall any big deaths or side deaths in Seekers of Adoulin, but I will admit I've only played through it once, and even that was several years ago now. Rhapsodies of Vana'diel had some bad stuff happen that I don't recall fully, only done it once as well. Don't know anything about Voracious Resurgence. Haven't done any of it.

Anyway, it's not beyond Final Fantasy to kill characters in the final act. Endwalker's problem was trying to have its cake and eat it too. Oh boohoo, all the Scions sacrificed themselves. Oh wait, half way through those necessary sacrifices, the Cat Girl Awooga tells you point blank that you can just bring'em all back with the Azem Stone. Killing all emotional impact that could be had, if you were even inclined to think it was going to be permanent.