FFXIV has lost it's heart

[Basteala]

Honestly, that makes sense. The heart of FF14 has always been its characters, the dynamic between those characters, and even the quiet but telling reactions of the WoL as they drive the narrative and in turn are driven by it. There's a lot of little moments missing between the characters that--without them--turn them into caricatures. People acting out a part. Mostly there to move the plot along and nothing else. It's like the writers knew what archetype each Scion was, for instance, but none of the nitty gritty that made them special.

It's very hard to get emotionally invested in a story when the people in it have no charisma left to them. There's a reason why Erenville's so popular in DT--he's one of the only characters to retain a sense of soul this expansion.

Someone getting stronger and more determined over time and then winning a fight under different circumstances does not make them a shonen protagonist.

That's kind of exactly shonen protagonist.

And that's *fine*. I rather liked the idea of mentoring up someone from a cowardly lion to a hero type. The problem isn't even Wuk Lamat, but but everyone else not named 'Erenville' around her.