Quote Originally Posted by Eloah View Post
But, it's a player made speculation sheet based on familiar NPCs that look as though they appeared in 1.0 and 2.0+.
If they were actually visually familiar, I’d think the theory might carry some weight. (eg. if they’d found people who had those retainers and were able to confirm the 2.0 character looked like the same person as the 1.0 retainer.) But as the listwriter said themself, the characters don’t look the same. Some aren’t even listed with the correct clan for the 2.0 character.

I agree the game is very good with bringing back obscure characters unexpectedly, but there are enough “provably coincidental” names on that list that I wouldn’t put any value in the others being intentional, based on name alone. It’s definitely not proof that these characters have been “placed and used strategically” as you first described it - although there certainly are some as-yet-unimportant minor characters that seem to have been put in place for future events.