But but but the characters are BORING!

[Alfon]

I wanted to speak my mind about the only valid criticism that I find about this game. How the main characters, the two solstice warriors, are so plain.

The game has some cool and interesting characters (I love the alquemists) but the main characters are just plain. They are heroes. Even worse: They are born heroes, and perfect friends that never truly get angry with each other. They don't have an arc.

And that could and should be improved in future entries or expansions or whatever. BUT, I want to say that while I think the developers should put more work in that writing, I still think that they work in this context, in the context of this game.

Many jrpgs have perfect characters without arcs. They are called "avatars". They don't talk and they don't have conflicts. Conflict surround them, without touching their personas. That's because the game is not about the avatar: The avatar is a proxy for the player, like an isekai. It's the neutral axis, so the player can see the world unbiased. Then the other characters are allowed to be imperfect, to have arcs, problems to solve, personality flaws. They can have those, because the main protagonist doesn't have them.

It's a very old school way to write games, think of games like most of the old dragonquest games, or some of the final fantasy ones. It's very old school. But think also in some old shows like goof troop. The main protagonist is the cool, kinda perfect, kid. Then his friends are timid, fat, angry, etc... think of Recess. Then you can make up some small problems for the protagonist to face, after some episodes. But it's usually dumb, simple stuff.

In this game the two main characters are not very interesting to not steal the flame from the world and the other characters. They work like avatars. The thing is, they are in a middleground because they talk, they have something that looks like personality at first glance, they are kinda like full characters without being true characters in spirit.

So I think they work, they fulfill their role of helping the player see and enjoy the world unbiased, without stealing the moment from other characters. For me, they are ok.

But at the same time I agree with everyone who hate them for being so plane and boring, because they have been deceived. They thought they were gonna be full fledged characters when they aren't. And that's on the developers.

I admire them for how they have combined, mixed, old school jrpg style with modern sensibilities and mechanics, but I can totally see people disappointed for Fale and Valere.

****Yes. I just remembered their names for the last line. And I am replaying the game. That's how plain they are XD, I CAN BARELY REMEMBER THEIR NAMES XDDD

So this post is a combination of criticism against the game but also a defense of the game. It makes sense in its context that Fale and Valere are plain and boring. But they could be better.

[Varg]

Imo it more seemed to revolve around Garl and his sidekicks. :)

[Nacho]

The main characters being plain is fine. The problem is that until a certain point in the game, they're not even plain. They're backup dancers for the Garl show. Even after that point half the NPCs only care about Garl (and talk about him like he's the most amazing person ever when all of the mischief is his fault). Once the writers realise that the characters need to talk about something else and you start the stories from the other party members, they're fine.