This is from 5 months ago, but some provides some information.

https://youtu.be/IqoV_EF8jAM

- Yoshi-P says Emet was always planned to be in EW even before his surge in popularity. Supposedly this is also why there's still no in or out of game merch for him.
- Elidibus was specifically left contained in the CT at the end of 5.3 to be used as time travel fuel in EW.
- Yoshi-P considers Hythlodaeus "scary" because he's irresponsible (??) and he thought returning to the star was "frightening".
- Hermes is called "humane" and "kind". Surprise is expressed that there are people who don't like him, Yoshi-P attributes this to "looking at your own self, and that's not a pleasant sight". He thinks Hermes' defaulting to Meteion's judgment of the universe gave him a proper weakness.
- Yoshi-P says that everyone, including the writers, read through feedback (but doesn't say from where) and "we have more or less decided the story right now."
- Apparently there's a lot of internal interest to keep exploring the Ancients, but Yoshi-P says a stand-alone RPG "might cause trouble" with the MMO and there's an issue of when they could ever do it. (Maybe when the team SE pilfered from FF14 returns from FF16? :P)

Once again, it's weird for Venat/Hydaelyn being such a central figure in EW she's never discussed. Both here and in the Famitsu interview they only talk about Hermes. As much as I'd love a stand-alone RPG for the Ancients, it would need to be an AU where Azem manages to find a third way forward. EW was enough torture ****/snuff film for the Ancients to last me a lifetime.