Character relationships?

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Originally Posted by Camiie

I have a feeling the WoL would settle down into family life about as well as Goku.

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LoL! Cooking and dishes! :D And bad table manners ;)

The person I want is dead.
*Cries on Haurchefant's grave. Gets frostbite*
Ideally as a Lala, I'd probably end up with Pipin lol.
HE ISN'T AS CUTE AS HAURCHE'S!
His hair does NOTHING for me! ; - ;

Lyse got my attention when she upgraded her wardrobe, but Y'shtola is the only scion that I would bother rescuing, if I was given a real choice. Having the others indicating a romantic interest would probably make things even more uncomfortable. I would not want Aymeric to get even more creepy. His voice makes me cringe.

Yotsuyu on the other hand... I could work with that.

Krille please o/

I'd date Estinien. Like, I'm a touch miffed that he never came forward despite being so central to Ala Mhigo's liberation, sincehe basically deus ex machina'd that cannon to bits so the liberation wasn't annihilated. I hope he pops in in 4.x and just makes his affiliation to the Scions more official.

But that's why I think a series of "friendship" quests is the best happy medium for this. We get more personal content with these NPCs we love, but it doesn't jeopardize future storylines, nor does it hurt the current marriage between players system or the open ended nature of the WoL as a character.

The most high friendship would do is change some dialogue options down the road.

This topic has been popping up lately...

Many already stated that this idea wouldn't work because the writers will have to keep certain 'married' NPCs alive. The way I see it, if they wanna kill that character, go right ahead. If NPC dies, the player just gotta move on.

I personally wish that the idea could work because:
1) AYMERIC
2) It's comfortable to me (and maybe others) than marrying another player - yes, I have trust issues (and I wants the dress XDD)
3) IT CAN BE OPTIONAL! Players against the idea be like: "this is not a dating stimulator""I'm cheating on my EB partner""the idea is dumb/weird" - no one has a gun to your head saying that you have to do it.

All in all, I support the idea, but I'm not counting on this will actually happen. I kinda see why the dev team are hesitant because some players may get too attached to a certain NPC and if they die, all hell breaks loose and they don't have time for dat. lol

Oh, hell to the no!
Side quests where you get to know important NPCs better -> Good.
Weird and forced shipping with NPCs for weird fetishes -> I cri evrytiem.

It doesn't need to be an outright relationship or eb. Just let us bond with the NPCs by giving us quests to hang out with them, fully voiced with long cutscenes and descissions we have to take. That way we actually care for them.

Maybe a questchain where we get wasted with Thancred, trying to hit on fair maidens and failing miserably, ending with a scene of our character and him strumbling drunk through the backstreets of Ul'Dah. Could even get it a little more serious with him breaking down because of Minfillia and you having to console him.

Or get a quest from Matoya, telling us to distract Y'shtola from her work, ending up in Gold Saucer, able to do mini games with her. She has such a competetive side that she would maybe give us a run for our money.

Or training with Lyse, or having to mediate some sibling squabbelt between Alphinaude and Alisae or... the possibilities are endless.

I know it would cost money for voice acting and require a lot of work for something that is not a gear threadmil, resulting in sub money, but it would feel so Final Fantasy to actually do stuff with our companions for once that isn't saving the world.

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Originally Posted by Gun-Cat

GOOD STUFF

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YES EXACTLY

Just a fun quest chain that's just hanging out with fellow Scions! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT MAN

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Originally Posted by Gun-Cat

It doesn't need to be an outright relationship or eb. Just let us bond with the NPCs by giving us quests to hang out with them, fully voiced with long cutscenes and descissions we have to take. That way we actually care for them.

Maybe a questchain where we get wasted with Thancred, trying to hit on fair maidens and failing miserably, ending with a scene of our character and him strumbling drunk through the backstreets of Ul'Dah. Could even get it a little more serious with him breaking down because of Minfillia and you having to console him.

Or get a quest from Matoya, telling us to distract Y'shtola from her work, ending up in Gold Saucer, able to do mini games with her. She has such a competetive side that she would maybe give us a run for our money.

Or training with Lyse, or having to mediate some sibling squabbelt between Alphinaude and Alisae or... the possibilities are endless.

I know it would cost money for voice acting and require a lot of work for something that is not a gear threadmil, resulting in sub money, but it would feel so Final Fantasy to actually do stuff with our companions for once that isn't saving the world.

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Now this is something I can get behind

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Originally Posted by Gun-Cat

Awesome input.

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This would be nice but the only problem is, these quests would then have to be label's missible or said NPC can't "die" because it would just be another Culinary Lv 50 all over again lol. The other option would be to make these quest mandatory. I always did love the little side quests in JRPGs where you did get to learn about the characters more (Mana Khemia <3).

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Originally Posted by Coratanni

Maybe unethical to settle down until the world is safe again... But why is it unethical for the Hero to fall in love?

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You are a high profile target and the last line defense as the hero of light. Anything that happens to your "lover" could have ramifications that could lead to siding over to darkness. Pretty much ending the game. It also becomes probelemic for developing characters the way the creators need them in order to propel the story. In order to kill character X you will have to not be romantically involve with them. This gives away set ups for betrayal and deaths to improve your character.

If they do kill them or make them evil you will have a back lash from those players trying to build a relationship with that character. If they do they now to have to make 2 - 3 different avenues to fit this into the stroy. How do you cope with the lost to not go over to darkness vs not losing them and not coping with the lost. There is a lot of issues with adding this element to the game this late. It is best in my opionion to make this a holiday event, but not cannon. I have no issue with this daiting sim, but it should not be anything that would cause to the story to adjust for this. I would love to be the ruby princess' Senpai, but we all must make sacrifices in order to save the other 6 parallel worlds.

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Originally Posted by Reaperking386

I would love to be the ruby princess' Senpai, but we all must make sacrifices in order to save the other 6 parallel worlds.

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I'm still mad that Dev... and Po.... I mean the Ruby princesses didn't sing me a Song about the Ancients.

We do have relationships with the scions, its called friendship.

You can have romance options with other players. there's a whole ceremony surrounding it.

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Originally Posted by RayfeDes

Alphinaud if your character was a girl then Alisae if you were a guy.

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They are 16 years old, man.

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Originally Posted by Anarnee

We do have relationships with the scions, its called friendship.

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I ship the WoL with friendship

http://memestatic.fjcdn.com/pictures...5e_6337607.jpg

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Originally Posted by Averax

They are 16 years old, man.

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They were 16 at the start of ARR, they are 18 now (they are pretty ovbiously not fully grown yet though).

I personally think that relationships with NPCs dhould be left to the player's imagination. It is very easy to imagine that Aymeric has a thing for me, SE doesn't need to make it explicit.

I do like the idea of having more side quests revolving around building up friendships with the characters, and even non-canon storylines for seasonal events though.

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Originally Posted by Meraii

I do like the idea of having more side quests revolving around building up friendships with the characters, and even non-canon storylines for seasonal events though.

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^ I actually would be more satisfied with this; it would be a lot of fun seeing your favorite character(s) appear in seasonal events - last year's Starlight Celebration was a perfect start :)

I would greatly enjoy this if it was a Side storyline that acts as a Post-X.0 Side storyline.

They can have the character that appears being based on the intro choices players pick like back when WoL had to pick their 1.0 companion in 1.0. Events follow mostly the same but some scenes and dialogue can be adjusted based on the NPC depending on their Gender, Race, Personality chosen, and Class/Job (DoW/DoM or DoL/DoH).

With this being a Side Storyline that updates every expansion they don't need voice actors for it and can be a Extra Storyline players can choose to go through or not.

This would also allow the develoeprs to create a separate life for the "Romanced" NPC while the WoL is living their separate life as the Warrior of Light thus preventing the issue that the WoL and the chosen Romance are being forced to be together most of the time as if they can't have a life without each other always being together.

Having a relationship in the MSQ would greatly limit the developers ability to develop the chosen Romanced NPC and also limited who can and cannot die in the storyline.

I can see it for maybe side characters that don't have strong story relevance, but not from the scions. Maybe that one npc that you like the design of at the market place. You can start up a social link like quest chain where you help them do different things and build up affinity with them eventually leading to a higher level of relationship. Or create npcs specifically for this.

It won't work on scions or important npcs due to them possibly dying n stuff. It would make for interesting dialogue changes though. It would just be to limited.

other things that could be incorporated through this
companion system - allow you to take the npc with you to fight alongside one another outside of dungeons, raids, etc.
a quest (daily?) - where you do things with your partner whether it is fighting monsters, crafting, or gathering, etc.

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Originally Posted by Anarnee

We do have relationships with the scions, its called friendship.

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I'd say it's stretching it to call what we have with the Scions a "friendship."

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Originally Posted by Oscura

I'd say it's stretching it to call what we have with the Scions a "friendship."

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I always saw it more as a mutual interest type of relationship. After all the WoL only became part of the Scion because of the Echo.

This is not exclusively an adult game. It is most likely played by younger people from age 10-13. Romances are not appropriate for that age group.

Well, its not romance at all but the whole story with Lyse was a neat feeling of camaraderie. It was a nice change to the lamenting of alphinaud and his angst towards everything.

I think it would be neat to have the adventuring fellow system ffxi had where you can change their personality, weapons, gear, etc...

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Originally Posted by ArcanoJones

This is not exclusively an adult game. It is most likely played by younger people from age 10-13. Romances are not appropriate for that age group.

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Yet two Valentine Events ago, it was about the dude finally telling the Elf chick that he loves her or her finally realizing the dude likes her. It isn't SE's responsibly to worry about people that are under 13, are playing this game. Hell, this game has many implied raped scenarios that you would think it's an M game. Love is always on the mind of Teens, so this perfectly normal for this age group.

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Originally Posted by ArcanoJones

This is not exclusively an adult game. It is most likely played by younger people from age 10-13. Romances are not appropriate for that age group.

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What? Almost every Disney movie has some kind of romance going on, and most of those are targeted to 5 year olds and older.

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Originally Posted by Meraii

They were 16 at the start of ARR, they are 18 now (they are pretty ovbiously not fully grown yet though).

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Any source on that? I was under the impression that the entirety of ARR+HW somehow took place in under a year.

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Originally Posted by Ametrine

I would love for a series of side quests that would allow you to get more personable with the Scions or other important story NPCs.

I know the devs are mostly against the idea of letting us romance NPCs, MSQ or some characters isolated to a romantic sub-quest series, but having affinity quests with popular NPCs would be great. Just friendship quests.

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This sounds like a great compromise. I'd love to interact with more of the characters on a personal level. I feel like a barely even know the Scions, since the only time I interact with them is when we're fighting for the fate of the world.

One of my all time favorite MSQ moments was sparring with Hoary Boulder and Coultenet. There were no grand stakes, it was just friends and allies hanging out and getting to know each other.

I wouldn't mind this or some sort of favourite companion, whatever you want to call it.

I definitely would love to know more about some of the characters in the game, even the dead ones, like Moenbryda. Waiting for the inevitable time travel arc where we see everyone when they were younger lol

I'd be down with path companions that make this possible, not so much npcs that we already know and have plot armor, at least of all those that often order us around.

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Originally Posted by basketofseals

Any source on that? I was under the impression that the entirety of ARR+HW somehow took place in under a year.

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They're still 16. The game's timeline is trapped in a time bubble. In ARR they mention Ala Mhigo being conquered 20 years ago and they still do in Stormblood. Pretty much the only indication of time passing they've mentioned in the MSQ is how it took 2 months to go from Eorzea to Hingashi.

I'm honestly pulling these numbers from where the sun don't shine, but my guess is that ARR took place over 5 months, HW + 3.1-3.56, maybe 3 to 4 months, and as stated in the previous post, it's already been 2 months at the very least in SB, so I'm guessing 5 months or so (Not sure how long the journey back was) have passed from beginning to end of 4.0 MSQ. These are all just guesses.

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Originally Posted by FateAudax

Persona 5 please.

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My first thought and I'd love to see something like that implemented. Would love a little romance in game.

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Originally Posted by Kallera

I'd be down with path companions that make this possible, not so much npcs that we already know and have plot armor, at least of all those that often order us around.

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This would be pretty cool, make your own companion to level with like your chocobo but also build a more meaningful relationship with. And let the player decide the type of relationship be it friend or something more romantic instead of our current coworker relationships with the scions.

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Originally Posted by Kallera

I'd be down with path companions that make this possible, not so much npcs that we already know and have plot armor, at least of all those that often order us around.

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Bring! Back! Path! Companions!

I'll marry my path companion what a brilliant idea.

I liked Thancred before he became edgy and old. Estinien seems like he knows how to treat a lady... at least somewhat formally. At any rate I'd have chosen Ser Adelphel if he weren't tempered :(

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Originally Posted by dinnertime

They're still 16. The game's timeline is trapped in a time bubble. In ARR they mention Ala Mhigo being conquered 20 years ago and they still do in Stormblood. Pretty much the only indication of time passing they've mentioned in the MSQ is how it took 2 months to go from Eorzea to Hingashi.

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The kettle to the Mettle quest makes it reasonable to assume that 2 years have passed: http://i.imgur.com/VSkHdEM.png / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQhuqdl7TdE
Aside from that, it would be a fallacy to assume no time has passed. Whilst SE won't give a statement on the specifics (so that they don't write themselves into a continuity error, no doubt), other mentions in-game talk about having met the player 'a lifetime ago' or other progressions in time and the fact that NPC characters have changed (hair growth etc) is indicitive of time passing.
So although the official line is simpson-esque time bubbles, within the world of the game the characters would have to have aged for any of it to make sense and a popular theory is that each expansion exists in a timebubble of roughly a year.


This is all an aside to the main point of the thread though. :P

Re: people who are saying deep relationships (platonic or otherwise) won't work with the Scions because "what if they die"...

It's like y'all have never played a Bioware game. :P

That would go against the ambiguity of our character. We're a silent protagonist for a reason.

If there ever to be a relationship type thing, it would work better as a side quest where there can be options without interfering with the story.

A path companion type scenario would be awesome!

If anything, it would be great to see the world and explore lore via a regular adventurer after we've gained all the fame and power we've had. Fighting with us like our bird, too? Great!

Plus, it would keep it mostly isolated from the MSQ, keeping it open for the writers.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Re: people who are saying deep relationships (platonic or otherwise) won't work with the Scions because "what if they die"...

It's like y'all have never played a Bioware game. :P

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True, and its also a relatively common story element to rile up the main character by killing off their love interest. One that SE has done before.

So talking about implementing character romance is like asking "Which character do we want to die next for the big bad to be scary and push the WoL?"

Which is probably why Y'shtola got the bench for the majority of SB.