Critique of Endwalker Characters

[aveyond-dreams]

While I generally enjoyed playing through Endwalker’s story, a lot of the longstanding cast members of the game fell quite flat this time around. There were significant problems in their behavior throughout the plot, feeling rather vestigial. Simply put, it is time to trim the fat. Scions like Y’shtola, Urianger, and Thancred have become completely stagnant and their continued presence serves more as an annoyance rather than adding anything significant to the game.

In comparison, other characters like Estinien and the trio of Ancients deserved much more on-screen time than they received.
I do not think we can confidently proceed into 7.0 with the cast as it stands now, unless major events happen in the 7.X patches that we don’t know about or if they finally retire for good instead of continuing to eat away at our patience. My thoughts are below:

•Y’shtola can no longer be taken seriously as a character. She has had a fakeout death scene each expansion since Stormblood and comes across more and more as a know-it-all with a conceited personality. Her traits of intelligence/being inquisitive could be easily transposed onto other characters with little consequence, and she has no role to play forward apart from future research into Shard-travel. Contrast this with some other prominent female characters:

oYsayle – sayings such as “you are truly beyond redemption!” and her frequent bickering with Estinien made for a more interesting party dynamic. She was a lot better at standing her ground and actually had impactful moments such as when Hraesvelgr shattered her delusions and her sacrifice to save us.

oVenat – an intelligent woman who was far less patronizing in our interactions with her, was interested in our character’s story and actively tried to connect with us beyond just explaining lore. She joins in when characters like Hythlodaeus are joking around, rather than the occasional one-off sassy comment or chuckling to herself.

•Either she progresses in a meaningful way, or she needs to exit the plot. FFXIV is in desperate need of a new poster girl, literally anyone but Y’shtola at this point. The only way I imagine that anyone can continue to tolerate her presence is if they like the way she looks, because there is hardly anything going on in the personality front these days besides the same old tired expressions. Bonus points if the new poster girl has hair a color other than blond or white. Dark or red haired characters are shockingly rare by comparison.

•Hythlodaeus was a breath of fresh air, his gag with the shark was quite funny and I’d like to see more moments like that in the future. Usually most rpgs have a party member like him who is a jokester, like Zidane or Bartz. Like Hades, I cannot think of an instance where he’s worn away at my patience whenever he was on screen.

•Thancred’s arc is over, and his role as a “spy” or rogue no longer fits with his current class. The role of the party’s spy could easily go to someone else, just like Y’shtola and Urianger’s role of being the brains/explaining lore. Besides the “this is Thancred” meme and his sacrifice in Ultima Thule, he could have died on the First and Endwalker would have largely been unaffected by his absence. His purpose has been served-let him go already. My present level of interest in him is -10/10.

•Our interactions with Hades were the best part of Elpis and he remains a fan favorite for reasons which need very little explanation. He has a no nonsense, snarky personality and he isn’t afraid to go against the grain and argue with other characters. No stoic nodding from him. You have to convince him to do things, like an actual person. What I’d give to have someone like him as a member of our travelling party.

•Hermes was a character who would have benefitted from a significantly larger amount of time fleshing out and showing us more meaningful or traumatic events happening to him the little we saw in game. He is a villain who I had very little patience or interest for.

•Meteion was great to interact with but like Hermes suffered from too little time spent with her prior to her transformation, though I ultimately had sympathy for her as an individual when she was overtaken by the hive mind of her sisters, who I read as overpowering and suppressing her until we finally broke through to her again in Ultima Thule.

•Estinien as his usual, no-nonsense and straightforward self helped make our interactions with the scions tolerable. Seeing him in action in battle gave a much needed “cool” factor that was otherwise missing in our party. Instead of prattling on about lofty ideals, he was grounded and had his head in the game. My only major complaint is how off-putting it is to see him with his hair tied up-he is significantly more heroic looking with his long hair flowing in the wind in battle, which also helps cover for how absurdly long elezen necks are.

•Alphinaud’s idealistic ramblings got stale ages ago. Seeing him fail catastrophically in Garlemald was a refreshing knockback, but his purpose in the story is otherwise fulfilled. His job change to a Sage is also somewhat problematic-with a style of weapons and fighting that would clash badly in any setting that lacks high-tech elements. I cannot picture him exploring a Heavensward-style kingdom, nor the New World in this getup. It’s completely out of place. I am also uninterested in what I can only assume is the future plan to democratize Garlemald much in the same way that Ishgard was, and I’ll gladly skip those cutscenes to spare myself the headache.

•As for Urianger I was largely uninterested in his backstory with Moebryda and the goings on with her parents. A character that was there for a while and then sacrificed herself to save Minfilia of all people did little to earn my sympathies. I was unmoved by stories about how lonely he was as a child or whatever other fluff was going on, he was a lot more tolerable in Shadowbringers compared to Endwalker. Unless there’s more deep lore to explain, he can go ahead and exit the stage and given us all a break from Shakespeare.

•Alisae was not too bad, and has the excellent feature in that she has somewhat of a backbone compared to the rest of the party. Like Estinien, she is unafraid to leap into the action and her concern for the player character came across as genuine, but care should be taken as to not overdo it. A believable character whose presence added much needed fire to the cast.

•G’raha Tia seems to serve a role more of comfort than anything else. I understand that when writing fanfiction that’s what it’s all about, but he practically has no stakes anymore. Apart from his scene in Thavnair where he temporarily displays his leadership prowess from his Crystal Exarch days and him shielding Alisae during a battle scene, his presence didn’t add very much. Coupled with how his character spiralled into meme territory after 5.3, his current reputation is that of an insufferable hero-worshipper, and one with one of the most bizarre hairdos in the entire game. Adored by his fanclub no doubt, but getting on the nerves of everyone else.