Critique of Endwalker Characters

[Nav_Fae]

Many actually do. People tend to dislike boring and one dimensional.
Being open about it? Well every one knows how pissed FFXIV can't do anything wrong fans get when criticism is given

I think people will hate any main cast. Even the new 7.0 main cast will be hated. It's a battle that no TV show, movie, video game or story will ever win. It's simply the way it is.

[Conundrum]

Did you finish the story? There was a bit at the end where they all discuss breaking up the band.

Everyone went their separate ways. The Scions aren't a thing anymore and there's a good chance that we're moving on from the majority of them outside of a quest line here and there.

We're more than likely going back to the "adventure in need" trope again instead of the "WoL" shtick.

Y'shtola has no interest in collecting 20 boar hooves. Or I guess in ffxiv's case, running around between 7 zones talking to people one time back and forth for 20 mins to complete one stage of one quest.

So you're safe.

As was mentioned that was a fake out for...reasons.

It will be undone by the third quest of 7.0...very likely well before then.

[Izar_Chillen]

Their complete lack of guts to kill any main characters has seriously started to hurt my enjoyment and opinion of the game. It was ignorable up until Endwalker...but the fake death conga line underlined, highlighted, and shined a spotlight on it.

Now it feels as if there are no stakes or consequences to anything.

Game of Thrones was awesome BECAUSE they chopped off Ned Starks head. (shut up about S8)

The Walking Dead was awesome BECAUSE Sophia was killed.

But everyone knows Waifu and GQ model aren't dying, neither are the kids.

Reminds me of the Red Letter Media Critique of SOLO: A Starwars story . They went out of their way to try and make the audience believe Han and Chewy were in great danger on the rail track heist , fully aware that we know they they survive because this is a pre a new hope era story.


Kills any suspense , emotion and suspense of disbelief.

[Rilifane]

I think people will hate any main cast. Even the new 7.0 main cast will be hated. It's a battle that no TV show, movie, video game or story will ever win. It's simply the way it is.

Hating the main cast on principle is a thing many teenagers/ yound adults do because it comes across as edgy, unique etc. to prefer side characters but most people grow out of it. So no, the main cast isn't doomed to be hated by everyone. Many people love the main cast of the MCU, Supernatural and other long series that have the same main characters around for years, if not decades.
Some people will dislike the main cast, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for nothing but "I just don't, okay?" which is also fine because different strokes for different people but saying that people just generally hate the main cast is a poor attempt at deflecting thoughtful and reasonable critique of the main cast.

[Conundrum]

Hating the main cast on principle is a thing many teenagers/ yound adults do because it comes across as edgy, unique etc. to prefer side characters but most people grow out of it. So no, the main cast isn't doomed to be hated by everyone. Many people love the main cast of the MCU, Supernatural and other long series that have the same main characters around for years, if not decades.
Some people will dislike the main cast, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for nothing but "I just don't, okay?" which is also fine because different strokes for different people but saying that people just generally hate the main cast is a poor attempt at deflecting thoughtful and reasonable critique of the main cast.

Also, being disgusted by their impenetrable plot armor is NOT "hating the main cast".

Using my previous example...pretty much everyone loved Ned Stark in GoT, but his death elevated the story.

[Iscah]

I really don't mind the "fake deaths one after another" thing in Ultima. On the one hand, it's a story trope in itself, but more importantly it's a matter of putting yourself in the character's mindset.

It doesn't matter what you the viewer know about the likelihood of them all being revived in half an hour's time, because the characters don't know they're in a story. What matters is the grief and resolve your character must be feeling in that moment – no choice but to press on, no choice but to sacrifice themselves one after another on the small hopeful gamble that you will be able to reach Meteion and unravel it all, but also keenly aware that you might not.

[Izar_Chillen]

Also, being disgusted by their impenetrable plot armor is NOT "hating the main cast".

Its more , for me at least , feeling very disappointed , that they fear backlash over telling an impactful story chapter or moment . They tried with In From The Cold , they got moaned at by some vocal minority of players for daring to challenge our emotions through gameplay.



Tell your story Business Team 3 . Regardless of some people getting upset if you kill main characters if you write it to mean something , to tell the moment , to make the world feel dangerous , risky , painful then do it , we know you like to tell a dark side to a tale as seen in moments in EW


Its cant all be fluff and happiness , the world was dying from an age old threat , it had to be sad and had to be gloomy . As from here on out we have yet to see the rest of the world. We have a land of Mercydiua to see , heck we've barely see the lands of Eorzea and Othard for goodness sake . What's out there??? For a story to be told ,for it to hold it cant be sunshine and moonbeams where only the unpopular die.


Dare to scare SqE the WoL needs to be a baddass/protector of the realm for its better reasons and not to continue to be the big brother/sister for the twins to grow up safely and the saviour of Shtola stealer of Archon names and the abuser of flow the only magic that seems to do anything ( her flare skills as seen in cutscenes does sod all)

[VirusOnline]

Their complete lack of guts to kill any main characters has seriously started to hurt my enjoyment and opinion of the game. It was ignorable up until Endwalker...but the fake death conga line underlined, highlighted, and shined a spotlight on it.

Now it feels as if there are no stakes or consequences to anything.

Game of Thrones was awesome BECAUSE they chopped off Ned Starks head. (shut up about S8)

The Walking Dead was awesome BECAUSE Sophia was killed.

But everyone knows Waifu and GQ model aren't dying, neither are the kids.

Stranger than Fiction was also a great movie when it spoke upon death and how impactful it is to the plot of a story.
This will always be my favourite quote:

“No one wants to die but unfortunately we do. You will die someday, sometime. Heart failure at the bank. Choke on a mint. Some long, drawn-out disease you contracted on vacation. Even if you avoid this death, another will find you and I guarantee that it won't be poetic or meaningful.”

Warning EW spoiler

When the scions "die" at the end of EW, it felt cheap. It was predictable what was going to happen. They're going to live, of course.
Had I the choice of writing, Alisae would have persihed in the crossing scenario of Garlemald.
Theancred would have perished and been the soul guiding essence on Ultima Thule.
Yshtola would have given her life to break Meteion's Ultimatum instead of Zenos.
As a result of these deaths, Estinien would have become tempered and become more loyal to protecting what the scions stand for. Perhaps even the new leader.
Alphinaud would become detatched and angry (which could lead to a personal questline where we are able to change his attitude or let him be)
The consequences of motions of deaths changes things that imo must be changed.

[Nav_Fae]

Hating the main cast on principle is a thing many teenagers/ yound adults do because it comes across as edgy, unique etc. to prefer side characters but most people grow out of it. So no, the main cast isn't doomed to be hated by everyone. Many people love the main cast of the MCU, Supernatural and other long series that have the same main characters around for years, if not decades.
Some people will dislike the main cast, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for nothing but "I just don't, okay?" which is also fine because different strokes for different people but saying that people just generally hate the main cast is a poor attempt at deflecting thoughtful and reasonable critique of the main cast.

I was actually enjoying and agreed with this post until your very last sentence starting from that but; because I never made any effort or attempt to deflect the criticism. I didn't even say the criticism was unreasonable. That is a twist off what I said. What I was implying is that there will always be people that dislike a main cast of characters and that no individual story driven plot will please everyone with it's characters.

[Beytran70]

I agree with a lot of these points which draws into perspective the general reasons I think Endwalker is the weakest of all the expansions thus far, narratively. One of the main things I did like in EW were the characters, but the fact that most of them really aren't that great objectively just goes to show how weak I felt everything else was. While Final Fantasy has always thrived on the stories of its main characters, everything else was still important since without the overriding narrative the main cast has nothing to do, nothing to change with, and I think that is where Endwalker failed for me after Shadowbringers.