Would you be ok with a good rival figure for 7.0+?(6.0 spoilers)

[SeiyaSoiya]

So I want the next expac to introduce with a character creation
you can pick any race and gender combo
once you finish making the character, you follow the story of this character for a while
turns out their entire purpose for existence is to want to kill the WoL, for revenge or for whatever reason, it is not revealed
there is 2 voice actors for this character, one for male and one for female
the rest of the expansion focuses on following both stories from the WoL's point of view and this new nemesis point of view, culminating in their encounter and the appropriate reveals.

[RyuDragnier]

I will accept Gabranth as a good rival character, as everything in the Save the Queen storyline set things up for us to meet again and painted exactly who he is. A man with the same ideals as us, willing to do what it takes to achieve them, manipulate even allies when necessary, and even folding his hand when he finds somebody else is achieving them for him. Leaving us guessing as to what he wants, when/if he'll turn on us, and whether or not this will be the time we have to put him down.

[Atmaweapon510]

Jowy's problem was that he literally betrays you without warning and you don't really know why until the 3/4s through the game.

Ran'jit isn't a rival, he's just an obstacle to overcome. With Zenos they actually tried, and tried again to make him a foil of the WoL which is what gives him the rival status.


Theoretical rival isn't going to outright betray you, you'll just end up finding yourselves on opposite sides. While in frenemy status, they're going to join you in trust dungeons whenever your goals align. You're not going to be forced into any auto-lose duels, in fact you can have choices like: "Let them go" or "Capture them" which still lead to them escaping in the short term (linear narrative) but still colors your motivations. Later on, you might even have the option to agree with them, only for them to railroad you back into the ideal hero archetype because they realize that it's more conducive to the greater good that you have better optics if you don't dirty your hands... especially if you're a rumored pants thief.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Could be fun if you had a rival as one of the party members, rather than as a main antagonist, which we already did with Zenos.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Now facing off against an errant shard of Azem, on the other hand... that could indeed be interesting. Extra points if it ends with the WoL reabsorbing said shard to become 9/14ths rejoined.

Wow, this and an earlier post that reminded me about Guild Wars makes me think: wouldn't a trial or story instance fight against our doppelganger be dope? Sure, there's the DRK level 50 fight, but it's pretty short and not very involved (also, i despise someone telling me how i should think and how i supposedly feel, since they were way off the mark with all that whining).

[Kesey]

No.

I think the rival concept isn't helping the story at this juncture. Look at Zenos. Look at Ranjit. Look at Nero. These guys aren't moving the plot.

Let's have a villain who puts us in a moral conundrum and has a coterie of monsters to fight without these "rivals" who do no more than muddy the water. The writers for this game are better then that!

[Kesey]

I'm not sure about a rival, exactly, but the next party-group desperately needs way more contrasting characters. A major issue with Endwalker was that the Scions were effectively all on the same page about everything - Much of the time you could have easily swapped dialog between characters as they're reacting to events without anything changing. And not to go there, but a few conflicting opinions on certain characters from the Scions would have gone a long way towards a lot of people's enjoyment of both Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

More than anything, I hope we don't carry the Scions forward. I like them, but I've had quite enough at this point. There are many more existing characters that I'd like to adventure with, to say nothing of whatever new faces might come along. Instead of a group of sterling goodguy PHDs and genius savants, I'd rather have a more FF6-onwards type party of misfits who fill a variety of technical and narrative roles, and bring more to the table in terms of ideals and perspectives.

I appreciate that you said this. I've personally felt the established character of Fordola would be a grand addition to the team, along with Estinien and Alisaie would be a great base to rebuild a team of contrasting personalities.

[KageTokage]

I was honestly expecting Fordola to be present in the EW MSQ after she mentioned wanting to know just what in the world was going on with the empire and Zenos.

She would definitely be an interesting person to have around considering how much of an aggressive cynic she is compared to the Scions who are more subdued about it if at all.

[Rulakir]

I've seen numerous other people comment that they want to trade some of the Scions for the Ancient trio. I feel like, given the option, I'd be down for that as well and that's horrible. We shouldn't feel that way and the fact that that was the takeaway a not-insignificant number of people got from our brief adventure sans the Scions is a failure of writing.

No trio, just Emet and Hythlodaeus. I'd trade everyone but G'raha and Estinien for them and not feel bad about it either. Thancred is iffy because I can't stand Minfilia and too much of his character has been wrapped up in her. The other Scions I honestly wouldn't care if I never saw again and it's not that I dislike all of them (although some I do), I'm just apathetic.

[Cleretic]

Wow, this and an earlier post that reminded me about Guild Wars makes me think: wouldn't a trial or story instance fight against our doppelganger be dope? Sure, there's the DRK level 50 fight, but it's pretty short and not very involved (also, i despise someone telling me how i should think and how i supposedly feel, since they were way off the mark with all that whining).

Honestly, probably not especially worth it. City of Heroes introduced this mechanic, and also showcased where exactly it hits problems on a functional level; that requires basically designing, right now, nineteen to twenty boss fights (depending on if you let Blue Mage in), the vast majority of which most players will never see. Not only that, but every future job added requires them to make another new boss fight for that--that was actually somewhere City of Heroes fell over after a few years, they just didn't add the ability for the doppelgangers to use later powersets, which meant the doppelganger couldn't... y'know, fight.

I think the closest you'll get on this is the Warrior of Light trial, and the Bozja duels; the trial is clearly meant to evoke a 'fight a boss version of the player character' theme with jacked-up versions of player abilities (that even then doesn't really feel like that if you aren't into one of the showcased jobs), and the Bozja duels covering a 'fight your combative equal one-on-one' angle, with some of them even having comparable skillsets to player jobs.