Looking back at this Yoshi P statement(story spoilers)

[kpxmanifesto]

Ummmm. The quotes both the OP and I have are verbatim from the articles involved. Which article do you have with that quote?

Should I have started this response with your famous "Lmao"? Would that make it more true?

Ooo someones upset. Pride gets petty when poked, they say.

[TaleraRistain]

Apparently Ishikawa's initial draft for the story was pressed to be changed, i wonder why hm?

In the Famitsu interview, they talked about going on a "residential" together. That sounded to me like some sort of retreat where they went to work out details. Yoshida was definitely there from the sounds of it and I imagine Oda and of course Ishikawa and whoever else was involved in the narrative.

Ishikawa said this

"But the problem was… we’re used to the writing process, and so feeling that “here and here are the remaining parts of the story we have to talk about, so let’s accept the rest”, the residential went very smoothly. I was in charge of filling in the details of the story elements, but when I looked at the structure of the content again, I thought “this might be okay for just another expansion, but if this is labelled the ‘finale’ is it really okay?” So I reworked the story from the plot outline. The end result was ready 2 days before the deadline."

Yoshida said this

"During the residential, the core parts of the story were listed, but after that Ishikawa said ‘we didn’t reach agreement, so I rewrote it.” As a result, when we compared the story decided on at the residential, and the rewrite Ishikawa presented, we thought “it was the right choice to rework this”.

That sounds less to me like higher ups forcing a change and more that they were working through the creative process and they made adjustments as they progressed.

My WoL truly seems like they have no personality, 90% of the time the way they react to things is through palm punching, fist clenching, and "menacingly" stepping forward.

This *is* personality, though. We are gung ho and won't back down. Consider the point someone made previously. We caused the Final Days to come back. Yes, Fandaniel took over Zodiark but Zodiark wasn't at full power. Did we know for absolute sure that Fandaniel would be able to destroy the world with Zodiark? If we couldn't say that, then it stands to reason we chose to fight him as Zodiark. And that goes along with the idea that we're gung ho and won't back down. Whether we get a rush from it or enjoy it can be debated. But our actions have shown that we're going to be the person that puts ourselves in front of the threat. We just don't always take a step back and consider if it's a threat we really need to confront at that moment. But that is a facet of a personality.

[kpxmanifesto]

After a whole expansion where he's the antagonist, and then his long, drawn out epic death cutscene followed by an emotional scene with him saying "remember us", it would have been a bigger fake-out death than anything the Scions ever had if Emet just randomly showed up alive just because he's popular. His popularity already led to his return in Elpis and his narration of EW and that was already more than expected.

Honestly, the writers are so inclined to bring back popular characters that I wouldn't have been surprised if Emet somehow came back alive. Technically he did come back when he was summoned on UT if only for a brief moment. That's the power of being a fan favorite.

[KizuyaKatogami]

In the Famitsu interview, they talked about going on a "residential" together. That sounded to me like some sort of retreat where they went to work out details. Yoshida was definitely there from the sounds of it and I imagine Oda and of course Ishikawa and whoever else was involved in the narrative.

Ishikawa said this

"But the problem was… we’re used to the writing process, and so feeling that “here and here are the remaining parts of the story we have to talk about, so let’s accept the rest”, the residential went very smoothly. I was in charge of filling in the details of the story elements, but when I looked at the structure of the content again, I thought “this might be okay for just another expansion, but if this is labelled the ‘finale’ is it really okay?” So I reworked the story from the plot outline. The end result was ready 2 days before the deadline."

Yoshida said this

"During the residential, the core parts of the story were listed, but after that Ishikawa said ‘we didn’t reach agreement, so I rewrote it.” As a result, when we compared the story decided on at the residential, and the rewrite Ishikawa presented, we thought “it was the right choice to rework this”.

That sounds less to me like higher ups forcing a change and more that they were working through the creative process and they made adjustments as they progressed.



This *is* personality, though. We are gung ho and won't back down. Consider the point someone made previously. We caused the Final Days to come back. Yes, Fandaniel took over Zodiark but Zodiark wasn't at full power. Did we know for absolute sure that Fandaniel would be able to destroy the world with Zodiark? If we couldn't say that, then it stands to reason we chose to fight him as Zodiark. And that goes along with the idea that we're gung ho and won't back down. Whether we get a rush from it or enjoy it can be debated. But our actions have shown that we're going to be the person that puts ourselves in front of the threat. We just don't always take a step back and consider if it's a threat we really need to confront at that moment. But that is a facet of a personality.

To me it feels more like an autopilot. After what we learned in EW, we're essentially a puppet with Venat pulling the strings. We had no agency, everything was predetermined the entire time. For all we know, the final days could have come back either way. Either we defeat Zodiark and that causes it, or Fandaniel just controls Zodiark and has him put down the shield.

As far as the writing goes, i believe the decision to go from another 2-3 expansions for the arc to 1 was implied to be an executive decision was it not? Which would then affect Ishikawa's writing.

[TaleraRistain]

To me it feels more like an autopilot. After what we learned in EW, we're essentially a puppet with Venat pulling the strings. We had no agency, everything was predetermined the entire time. For all we know, the final days could have come back either way. Either we defeat Zodiark and that causes it, or Fandaniel just controls Zodiark and has him put down the shield.

As far as the writing goes, i believe the decision to go from another 2-3 expansions for the arc to 1 was implied to be an executive decision was it not? Which would then affect Ishikawa's writing.

Everyone's mileage varies. I don't feel like a puppet with my WoL

That came up a couple places in the interview


"------ Yoshida goes on to explain that around the time of Stormblood, the team didn’t really think about how the story would continue long term. When making Shadowbringers, it was said that about 80% of the plot points have been revealed, and he thought after ShB it may be possible to keep things going from 1-2 more expansions. Looking at the fan response immediately after ShB, he felt that there should be one more expansion."

"Ishikawa: We expected that there’d be 1 expansion about Garlemald. The idea was that Anima would be the boss, then the next expansion you’d fight against Hydaelyn, Zodiark and so on.

Oda: So the flow of the story itself didn’t change too much.

------ Oda explains that the devs seek to balance delivering on players’ expectations and also having unexpected developments. Players were already expecting to fight Hydaelyn and
Zodiark, so it was debated among the devs whether to deliver the fights straightforwardly, or have a surprise development where one of them would take over the other and fight you. In the end, the team decided to go for the straightforward route, and the last boss would be something unexpected.

Yoshida: At the residential no one thought Hydaelyn or Zodiark should be the last boss."

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

The fact you think Emet, the unsundered ancient who's major skill revolved around the underworld and its workings, coming back after being "killed" is more of a fake-out death than the combination of the UT fake out deaths just tells me everything i need to know lmao.

[Tehmon]

Does anyone actually think Emet and Hyth won't be coming back during the next saga one way or another? Please, they are way too big to discard. I'll be surprised if the writers manage to keep themselves from even referencing them in any way whatsoever in the expansions to come.

[kpxmanifesto]

Does anyone actually think Emet and Hyth won't be coming back during the next saga one way or another? Please, they are way too big to discard. I'll be surprised if the writers manage to keep themselves from even referencing them in any way whatsoever in the expansions to come.

Yeah, man I don't think so. Both characters are incredibly unpopular and SE has never had a history of pandering to its audience, so there's approximately a 0% chance of them ever making a return.

I can't even type this out with a straight face. Of course we'll see them again in the future. Lmao.

[MikkoAkure]

The fact you think Emet, the unsundered ancient who's major skill revolved around the underworld and its workings, coming back after being "killed" is more of a fake-out death than the combination of the UT fake out deaths just tells me everything i need to know lmao.

He died at peace with everything, it would have been a disservice to bring him back in actuality with his parting words to remember him and his society in an emotional scene. He even says at the end of EW that he doesn’t want to come back any time soon.

They already brought him back via a summoning rock so that he could help us kill his friend and stop the plan he had been dead set on for 12,000 years. Anything more than what we got at the end of EW would’ve been a bit much, especially since we already had the main villain of ARR, the main villain of HW, and the 2 main villains of StB come back to life after being “killed”.

I think the fact that you’re stuck on the dead antagonist and keep asking for something bad happen to the main characters tells me everything I need to know.

[Rulakir]

I didnt have a say in anything, i didnt even get a chance to express myself to Venat and how much i disagreed with her actions, so no, the WoL isnt me, if it was believe me things would be a lot different.

I have to agree. My WoL as depicted in EW was not me and I haven't felt that strongly about it since ARR when my character was essentially lobotomized and happily going along with whatever the Scions told her to do even when they openly admitted that she was just a weapon in their arsenal. (Incidentally, no, I would not have joined the Scions in ARR had I been given a choice because the way they treated my WoL with the exception of Thancred was unacceptable, but there's no diverse response option to that question either.)

This person said it best:

No matter how noble Venat's intentions were, no matter how deep her guilt, I simply refuse to believe our character would nod and smile at her, a person who has done so much bad and has never answered for any of it.