Q8:
Shadowbringers was incredible! I was amazed by how it answered some of the main mysteries, such as the Ascian's objective, the past of the Warriors of Darkness, and the Crystal Exarch. How long have you been thinking about this story?
A8:
Please note this answer has spoilers!
Thinking back to when the Warriors of Darkness first appeared (in the patch 3.x series), we didn’t have any of these plans set. When we were thinking about how to wrap up the foreshadowing for the Warriors of Darkness, we decided that it would involve Minfilia of the Source traveling to the First to become its savior, and from there we decided that the Warrior of Light would eventually travel to the First, and came up with the proceedings, including saving the First.
However even at that point, we hadn't decided when we would do this.
We wanted to mark a conclusion to the stories of Doma, Ala Mhigo, and Garlean Empire in patch 4.0, so we finally decided we would do this about two weeks after Stormblood release.