This thread has more people playing it each day than the actual game.
I was more invested in the key behind the ice wall in Banjo Kazooie 30 years ago than I am in any of this game's cockamamie plot hooks.
It's a crutch for people with no creativity to give their character designs more depth than they actually have, like how Tetsuya Nomura adds increasing amounts of pointless zips, belts and capes to his designs as time goes on, so Cloud went from this in Final Fantasy 7:
View attachment 8593527
To this in Kingdom Hearts:
View attachment 8593528
Concord did it too, so many characters in that game were over-designed to the point you couldn't even guess what their battle role was supposed to be.
What's funny though is, depending on the character, overdesigned can actually be beneficial. It's just you have to actually have a reason to overdesign them.
Feels like a scuffed take on Jinx
View attachment 8594389
Case in point. When the character is actually a massive lunatic to the point her chaotic appearance matches her chaotic personality. (doesn't have to be but it's beneficial with her at least)
The thing is though, it only works when the character is crazy. Cloud in Kingdom Hearts is a depressed goth and in FF7 he is a soldier. His original design of all black with armor works better for both, Goths like all black and metal, and soldiers tend to wear simple color palletes to make them easier to spot fellow soldiers. Similarly, I doubt more than one or two Jinx-like characters are in the game if any. And if the bitch doesn't deserve to be locked in a padded room in Arkham Asylum trapped within the phantom zone sealed within the eternal time labyrinth. The point of character design is I should be able to figure out who the character is by looking at them.
With OG cloud "So he's a soldier who is determined to accomplish his goals with beeg veapon. Cool, I wanna play him." Which is exactly who he is. With KH1 Cloud "So, he's a vampire demon thing with a cloak who's weak point is probably his left shoulder given it's the only part of his body with any real armor. Also, he must break his big sword a lot considering he's got bandages all over it. Definitely a villain right?" Which is absolutely not how Cloud is like in the game at all.
Similarly, Jinx is a psychopathic murderer who was abandoned and abused so long her mind was twisted into a maniac. I definitely get that vibe looking at her.

Similarly, what's the backstory of a concord or highguard character like this one? He looks angry and has a cape. Is he a supervillain? Did he just lose someone important to him? He has an electric polearm so does he fight like a Spartan? Also, he has several pouches and grenades so is he perhaps heavy artillery? His spear definitely looks strong and while somewhat leathery his armor definitely looks like solid armor. Maybe he flanks? If his main weapon is a spear he likely runs fast right?
Now some probably is accurate, but I refuse to go to the wiki to learn more. But I also know not all of that is accurate because there's contradictions in my own assumptions, again, this would be fine if he was a maniac like Jinx, as she's contradictory to her own mind. But this guy appears sane, just made by insane people.