Did anyone ever figure out the "spoilers" in the Zodiark/Hydaelyn artwork?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Peoplr keep giving me terrible reasons for why Hydaelyn/Venat was supposedly written terribly. I suppose these are the same group of people whom also believe Lyse was also written poorly. I should learn to ignore folks who dont know jack about good character writing.

[kaynide]

Peoplr keep giving me terrible reasons for why Hydaelyn/Venat was supposedly written terribly. I suppose these are the same group of people whom also believe Lyse was also written poorly. I should learn to ignore folks who dont know jack about good character writing.

I mean, you are entitled to your opinion sure, but people are gonna like/hate on what they like/hate.

As for Lyse, I happen to think she was indeed poorly written.

There was no mention of a “Lyse” character until suddenly there was a whole huge backstory about a girl who has been hiding her identity…from people who already knew she wasn’t who she claimed to be. There was no need for it and it didn’t really add to her character. She could literally just have stayed as Yda and said her sister died, or there could have been mentions/searches for a Lyse much earlier (3.0ish) to build up that this Lyse is important. It’s just out of left field.

People can dislike her leadership role but I don’t really care there- a lot of that can be hand waved as off camera happenings.

Honestly it’s more of the same “wtf are they grafting on the story now” like Dynamis, rather than introducing concepts/lore early and letting them grow/develop naturally. If Dynamis was really going to be a thing, it should have been introduced at the latest by Shadowbringers.

[Iscah]

The logo for the expansion isn't Ultima Thule at all, but is in fact the Moon - this is proven by the title screen outright showing the Moon looming over Hydaelyn which then literally turns into the logo - if SE wanted to hint at Ultima Thule they would have done so.

Just because they placed one circular logo thing over a different circular thing in an image does not prove that they are the same thing. On the contrary, it's why people assumed it was the moon until they got to Ultima and saw the dead, hollowed-out planets. There's no need to hint at it beforehand – just put it there and let people realise that's what it is when they arrive at the context.

The Cradle of Darkness does not take up that much of the moon's surface, or it would have been very visible from the planet.

All the talk of the moon's importance turned out to be a red herring. Still somewhat important but not the centre and goal of the plot we assumed it would be.


Edit to add: I also have a vague recollection of Yoshida hinting in a pre-release interview that the logo might not be the moon.