I really hope than Fandaniel and Zenos are not... (spoilers)

[KizuyaKatogami]

Every single AAA project SE puts out is written mandated by the 'rule of cool' though. I guess the earlier years of 2.0+ XIV made people hopeful it wouldn't be the case for it.
I also fully believe they didn't have 5.2+ properly planned as early as they like to brag and killing all antagonists that had grounds on 1.0~3.0+ too early was a massive mistake they're trying to compensate with pulling stuff like a surprise crazy ascian out of their rear and rehashing Zenos.

Ishikawa isn't looking like that good of a writer since 5.1 and I'll be extremely surprised if she somehow turns it around with Endwalker.

Finally someone said it. 5.2 and 5.3 just felt so terrible rushed and it was one of the few times it’s very noticeable. The main sign i saw was when they built up the whole thing of the crystarium people becoming WoL’s(which made elidibus’ plan seemingly be that they’d start another flood of light) which honestly would’ve been such a good plot. How are the scions gonna prevent people from doing good? But then….that entire plot thread is dropped in a single one off comment in 5.3 of “oh they decided not to.” Really? Elidibus barely having much screentime in the other expansions despite being the primary ascian, and then only getting literally 2 patches was another big sign. What’s interesting to me is according to Yoshi, Eden was supposed to be the final boss of ShB, which makes me wonder what they had planned for Emet and Elidibus. But yeah it seems like they just kill off characters that they don’t know how to write. First Regula, Then Varis and then Elidibus. All 3 had potential but they were cast aside and instead we get zenos who somehow has more screentime than the main ascian who’s been around since 2.0…I have very low hopes for Ishikawa in charge of 6.0. She seems to only be able to write sob stories and sympathetic character arcs, and the one character whom she didnt do that with(Zenos) is one of the blandest. Her writing just feels very same-y, with the amaurot instance in 5.3 just feleing like Drk 2.0.