Quote Originally Posted by Striker44 View Post
Where I take issue is the idea that someone has to die or suffer some major, permanent catastrophe in order for a story to be "good." Frankly, to me, that's simply and bluntly not true. There are a ton of stories I've thoroughly enjoyed where in the end there are "setbacks" for the protagonists along the way, but ultimately they come out on top as the clear victors. It doesn't take "guts" to kill someone off for the sake of killing someone off to make a story "good" in some person's mind, and immediately calling anyone who disagrees with you on that "idiots on Twitter" doesn't do anything to help that cause. When I play FFXIV, I'm playing a video game. I'm not looking to see Game of Thrones were my favorite characters are constantly getting offed and replaced. I'm looking to kick back, relax, enjoy a good story with my favorite team (i.e. the Scions), and I can still 100% experience moments of emotion, sadness, anger, etc. along the way even if I "know" everything will turn out all right in the end. I might even say it's that confidence that things will be okay that makes me so thoroughly get into and ultimately enjoy the rest. It's a video game. In the end, I want it to leave me feeling happy. Quite simple really.
I understand what you mean and i agree in part. I want a game to make me feel happy.
But i also want a game to make me feel sad, make me feel invested and give me a reason to care.

The tone of the expansion felt a little, well "tone deaf" because it was all about moving forward, despite the losses and suffering.
But we didn't lose anyone this expansion.

Yes, most characters lost people in the course of previous expansion, but i already felt sorrow for these people. I needed to feel that during Endwalker too, to better emphasize with the theme of the story.

And the scions needed to feel it again to reinforce their desire to forge ahead like they say.
It's easy to move forward when you and your companion are fine.

I think killing one Scion would have been in service of the plot, to paint the gravity of the situation (it's the final days, the actual apocalypse) and challenge the character belief.
Imagine having Alphinaud or Alisaie die, i love these characters and i would feel very sad to see them die. But at the same time it gives a reason for everyone else to continue despite their loss.

It just makes everything more impactful to have meaningful death, especially of beloved characters.
They can't keep only bringing up Haurchefant or Moenbryda deaths for years, we need to lose characters we have a deep connection with too.