Looking back at this Yoshi P statement(story spoilers)

[linayar]

Meanwhile the expansion is consistently pushing the theme of dealing with loss,suffering,sacrifice yet none of the main cast actually experienced that this expansion lmao. The devs need to practice what they preach.

A theme of loss, suffering, and sacrifice does not have to be personal and can be experienced empathetically.

Ok, that's great and all. But, did anybody really think that any of the scions were going to die at the end of EW?

I don't think that's relevant, and in fact, I personally don't think of either consequence. Predicting a character's death is not something I tend to do when I'm going through a story.

[KizuyaKatogami]

snip

Main characters die all the time though in the series, that’s my point lol. 14 seems to be one of the very few ones that doesn’t take those risks and instead prides itself on its slice of life deus ex machina anime moments.

You really don’t remember many fake out deaths or death baiting? Flow? Sultana? Yshtola getting stabbed? Gosetsu and Yotsuyu?Thancred in shb? Yshtola in Shb? Graha in Shb? Merlwyb in Shb? Mikoto in Shb? And then to top it all off every single scion in Ultima Thule. Probably more than that i just woke up though . I fail to see how this much death baiting and fakeout deaths is any better than killing someone off and having that death serve as motivation or to introduce an emotional crisis in the characters and to show physical and actual ways that they are affected by the crisis. Again, this was a planet decimating apocalypse. They hyped it up so much, stakes being the highest they’ve ever been yada yada, Yoshi P with his constant comments in interviews of “no one is safe.” And yet, nothing. I’m sorry but between the convoluted plot, the constant random cliffhangers (like the body snatch scene), it just reeks of some things got changed. Especially if you go back to the end of ShB and realize there was 1-2 missing fandaniel lines from a trailer and Zenos’ whole huge speech of “the WoL will come to me full of rage” doesn’t even happen and he does nothing to instigate that. It just seems like the devs at this point are too scared to kill anyone off after seeing how attached they are to Haurchefant and what apparently horribly reception they got after the ARR banquet scene.

In the end, Yoshi p himself acknowledged there hasn’t been losses on the main cast side for quite some time now, so the fact it’s even acknowledged by the devs is pretty telling.

[kpxmanifesto]

I don't think that's relevant, and in fact, I personally don't think of either consequence. Predicting a character's death is not something I tend to do when I'm going through a story.

Not relevant? Lmao, man the whole point of this thread is about Yoshi P's statement regarding death/sacrifice of characters.

[Vahlnir]

Main characters die all the time though in the series, that’s my point lol. 14 seems to be one of the very few ones that doesn’t take those risks and instead prides itself on its slice of life deus ex machina anime moments.

You really don’t remember many fake out deaths or death baiting? Flow? Sultana? Yshtola getting stabbed? Gosetsu and Yotsuyu?Thancred in shb? Yshtola in Shb? Graha in Shb? Merlwyb in Shb? Mikoto in Shb? And then to top it all off every single scion in Ultima Thule. Probably more than that i just woke up though . I fail to see how this much death baiting and fakeout deaths is any better than killing someone off and having that death serve as motivation or to introduce an emotional crisis in the characters and to show physical and actual ways that they are affected by the crisis. Again, this was a planet decimating apocalypse. They hyped it up so much, stakes being the highest they’ve ever been yada yada, Yoshi P with his constant comments in interviews of “no one is safe.” And yet, nothing. I’m sorry but between the convoluted plot, the constant random cliffhangers (like the body snatch scene), it just reeks of some things got changed. Especially if you go back to the end of ShB and realize there was 1-2 missing fandaniel lines from a trailer and Zenos’ whole huge speech of “the WoL will come to me full of rage” doesn’t even happen and he does nothing to instigate that. It just seems like the devs at this point are too scared to kill anyone off after seeing how attached they are to Haurchefant and what apparently horribly reception they got after the ARR banquet scene.

In the end, Yoshi p himself acknowledged there hasn’t been losses on the main cast side for quite some time now, so the fact it’s even acknowledged by the devs is pretty telling.

Despite those things being present in Shadowbringers I still enjoyed the story. Now it might be starting to revert back to a point where I might not be playing the game for the story again. lol That's where I was in the latter half of HW and the entirety of Stormblood. Up until the lead-in for Shadowbringers. Which is a shame. I enjoyed Endwalker, but it wasn't without its flaws. I'm...hesitant about the story's future.

[MikkoAkure]

Main characters die all the time though in the series, that’s my point lol. 14 seems to be one of the very few ones that doesn’t take those risks and instead prides itself on its slice of life deus ex machina anime moments.

Again, a handful of games where main characters die in the series doesn't make a rule and doesn't make FFXIV one of the "few" ones.

FF13, everyone is revived at the end of the 2nd sequel. FF12, the main characters go through an extremely similar plot to FF14 and none of the main characters die, 2 get a fake-out. Reks is not a main character and he doesn't even die on screen, he dies later after getting stabbed. FF11, the other MMO, another fake-out death with Lion and we lose a tertiary character with Fickblix. Unless you want to count the sympathetic villain in ToAU. FF10, at the end we lose one main character who already died and wasn't killed or sacrificed just "my job is done, peace", as well as the main, main character but his death his reversed in the sequel. FF9, lots of horrible happens, none of the main characters die except maybe Vivi in the near future after the game. FF8, none of the main characters die. FF6, none of the main characters die despite the whole world ending. FF3 DS (the one with actual main characters that aren't blanks), everyone is safe. One character suffers a major injury in the novelization, which is immediately repaired with magic as if nothing happened.

Per the very recent Famitsu interview, the remaining Scions are considering main characters as they would be in a single player game. They're not even NPCs anymore, we play as them sporadically starting in SB and we play a bunch together at the very end of the ShB patches.

Guest characters don't count in this. If you want to count guest characters or important NPCs, then we can include Ysayle, Papylymo, Yda, Minfilia, Mide, the Samurai quest NPC, Ejika, Gunnhilder's Blades, Anogg, half of the original Scion NPCs, etc.

If you want to count Type-0 which isn't a numbered FF game, then we can also throw in Tactics, Tactics Advance, Tactics Advance A2, Crystal Chronicles Series (with multiple fake-out deaths), that all end with the main playable characters alive. And then FF7 Remake for its main cast (so far) and fake and reversed deaths for side characters.

Read the comment of the person that I was responding to. The other person believes that the scions were never meant to die and that they were going to be back no matter what. Unfortunately, you cannot answer on his behalf without fully knowing the argument that he's presenting.

No, Iscah knows what I'm talking about.

[kpxmanifesto]

No, Iscah knows what I'm talking about.

Lol, your arguments are different.

But anyone who went into UT thinking that the characters were going to die there one-by-one hasn't been paying attention... Did you seriously think that these developers would have ended the whole game's original arc with all of the main characters dead except for the WoL and ending on the note "well at least we saved the world"?

You're saying there's no way all the characters would've been killed.

Because they still needed to sacrifice themselves for us to reach that point where maybe we could bring them back.

He's saying that there's a chance that they might not come back.

Those are two very different arguments, so I'll ask you again. If you think that the scions weren't going to die in UT, then why have the scions be taken away in a cloud of black swirling smoke? Was it just so they could set up the cutscene where the WoL walks up the stairs by himself? Just for a theatrical moment?

[aveyond-dreams]

Perhaps if the Scions actually experienced character development during the events of Endwalker people would not be so eager to retire them from the story, no matter the means. Shadowbringers served as a "reintroduction" to them in a way as they evolved due to their experiences in the First.

Most of their personal arcs were completed by the time we got to Endwalker and instead of anything meaningful all we got were meme-moments and rambling conversations in the College land of Sharlayan. I do not have a reason to care of the alleged plight of these characters since their stories are pretty much over.

Stop wasting my time with them if they cannot serve any further purpose besides lore exposition and tell new stories with new characters.

[MikkoAkure]

Lol, your arguments are different.

I don't think you're understanding correctly or you're purposefully getting things mixed up in order to make a weird point.

The characters disappear in black smoke in UT, yes? They don't die but their "sacrifice" gives us paths forward in the zone and yes, a cinematic walk up the stairs. If the WoL dies, they all die. If the WoL lives, they can get back to the ship and reverse everything. The writers introduced a device that was pointed out several times to pull people in by their aether to the ship. It was dumb fake danger the whole time, but it still served a reason to the story and we were given a reason why they could be returned from it. Y'shtola even says they can save her but tells her not to because they need to go on.

The whole point of the zone was to show how our friends will sacrifice themselves for a chance to save the world, and we did. My point was that the foreshadowing ahead of time and throughout hinted that they will be recovered and considering the tone of the game as a whole, the Scions were going to end up OK even after "sacrificing" themselves for us to move forward.

We were both explaining the same thing. Iscah expanded on it to give a reason why the characters had to "sacrifice" themselves. I'm not sure how you're seeing it differently. I bolded parts to make it easier.

[kpxmanifesto]

It was dumb fake danger the whole time.

Ok, so you acknowledge that the scion "death scenes" were just bluffs by SE. Cool. That's the point of this whole thread, nothing more, nothing less. There are some people who don't think so for some reason, like Iscah, who thinks that they might've actually died. The question is, how can anybody think the scions were actually going to die with the amount of dumb fake danger in this game? When SE makes this many fake death scenes, the audience begins to think they aren't ever going to be in danger hence many players knowing that all the scions were going to be just fine on UT.

I don't think you're understanding correctly or you're purposefully getting things mixed up in order to make a weird point.

No, that's what you're doing. You need to remember the original point of this thread: "that a story like 14's needs to have some sacrifices/death to make it realistic, and that going forward we should essentially expect to part ways with some characters, yet after playing Endwalker this doesnt seem the case at all." You giving me reasons for the scions disappearing in UT is you going off on a tangent. Stick to the main point of the thread, please.

[MikkoAkure]

No, that's what you're doing. You need to remember the original point of this thread: "that a story like 14's needs to have some sacrifices/death to make it realistic, and that going forward we should essentially expect to part ways with some characters, yet after playing Endwalker this doesnt seem the case at all." You giving me reasons for the scions disappearing in UT is you going off on a tangent. Stick to the main point of the thread, please.

My point is that a story doesn't need sacrifices and death in the main cast to make it realistic, and using examples from other FF games.

UT came up because the OP himself brought it up.

Whats the point in the narrative for the scions to come back after UT? The arc is over. Of course, the writers will now give them a new purpose, but at that point they had all achieved their purposes and goals, and were willing to die to save the world. Even Yshtola tells us not to bring them back, she was at peace with her eventaul decision, so why bring them back?Whats the point of having Yshtola tell us not to bring them back just to bring her back? Whats the poing of having the twins sacrifice themselves and have their long speech only for literally 5 mins or less later they come back?

I'm not allowed to talk about stuff the OP brings up in his own thread?