Kill a scion

[vetch]

Kill the WoL only one who needs to die.

FF14: Shadowlands expansion. Go to the afterlife and stop Sylvanas Zenos from destroying the universe.

[Ranaku]

Tbh. i don't want to see the scions dead dead but at least retired and following their own goals.

Like at the end of endwalker the scions "disbanded" just to get back together immediately like that wasn't even a thing ever. Also slowly all the fake deaths makes me think the writers have turned into cowards. What happened to the HW storywriting? Where we had loss and struggles and heroic sacrifices.

But from there on out, all scions are now just packed to full of plotarmor that i didn't even believed for a second that any of the scions would be even harmed in EW. And not in the expansions to come either. It's just sad, so so sad.

[Kazhar]

What happened to the HW storywriting? Where we had loss and struggles and heroic sacrifices.

Different writers, literally. Maehiro has his own issues but at least he seems to understand the value of a more focused cast and creating stories with real stakes.

Let's hope Hiroi shakes things up a bit because Ishikawa's writing quirks have gotten quite tiresome.

[DPZ2]

Let's hope Hiroi shakes things up a bit because Ishikawa's writing quirks have gotten quite tiresome.

You're assuming much if you're reading the localizations from the original Japanese. Or have you been reading Japanese forum posts complaining about the storyline?

[Rithy255]

I personally don't even want scions in the story in any major way (they can be fine background and/or characters that pop up but apart of the main cast again? please no), I wanted a new cast but looks like we're stuck with scions :]]]

At this point I don't think they're going to kill any off and if one does "die" no one will believe it, until they realise it was for real this time!
I really hope we don't get anymore cheap fake deaths, it's one of the biggest issues with the story.

I'm personally not looking forward to the story and keeping my expectations low, all I really hoped for was a new cast but we're strictly not getting that.

[UkcsAlias]

At this point I don't think they're going to kill any off and if one does "die" no one will believe it, until they realise it was for real this time!

Yet if they dont, they will be stuck with poor story writing options. A single death can make everyting uncertain for other scoins, which can help later on in the story. And yes, that means a lore packed character is permanently going to be gone. But this adds a lot of freedom for devs to make new characters to potentialy fill the gap.

The problem now is that the fake deaths would make even a real death feel like its going to be fake. Thats how bad a single EW section was done. There were many things they could have improved there to get the WoL to be alone. The obvious fake sacrifices only made the entire section a piece of cringe. I was happy once the twins were gone so at least i didnt have to bother waiting for something that was predictable well ahead in time (and because they finaly stopped talking). Even though i knew they would all survive (i didnt even care how, as i knew it was bad story writing anyway), it at least progressed the important part of the story that i cared about.

A single death can grant massive benefits towards writers, players and the story in general. The greater the character reputation, the more freedom it grants.

[Remolia]

Be careful what you wish for. Destiny players said they wanted a darker theme game and the devs killed the coolest character in the game.

Coolest characters in the game and Scions are completely different things.

[ReynTime]

Different writers, literally. Maehiro has his own issues but at least he seems to understand the value of a more focused cast and creating stories with real stakes.

Let's hope Hiroi shakes things up a bit because Ishikawa's writing quirks have gotten quite tiresome.

Endwalker's issues weren't her fault. She was given more freedom in Shadowbringers, but in Endwalker even Yoshida himself interfered in the writing.

[Kazhar]

Endwalker's issues weren't her fault. She was given more freedom in Shadowbringers, but in Endwalker even Yoshida himself interfered in the writing.

I believed this at some point, but no.
Most of what I hated about Endwalker was her doing, according to her own answers to interviews and Q&A.
Hermes? 100% her and she even put more Hermes apologism in Eureka Orthos, completely unprompted. I doubt Yoshi-P tasked her to do that. (She also said before EW that Hermes and Meteion were her favorite characters.)
The completely out-of-character Emet-Selch speech at the end of Ultima Thule where he winks to the camera and hypes future Final Fantasy XIV (tm) content? She actually suggested it to Yoshi-P, not the reverse.

You're assuming much if you're reading the localizations from the original Japanese. Or have you been reading Japanese forum posts complaining about the storyline?

I have no idea what you're talking about and I suspect this is yet another attempt at silencing opinions.
But no, you don't need to read the text in its original language to get a grasp of a writer's style. DRK, Stormblood Eastern MSQ, Eureka Orthos, Omega, Shb 5.0 and EW 6.0 are unmistakably her work.
Look at the parallels between Sidurgu / Rielle, Thancred / Ryne and Hermes / Meteion. Or the bigger focus on emotional and intimate conflicts over worldbuilding in her quests.

[NanaWiloh]

Yet if they dont, they will be stuck with poor story writing options. A single death can make everyting uncertain for other scoins, which can help later on in the story. And yes, that means a lore packed character is permanently going to be gone. But this adds a lot of freedom for devs to make new characters to potentialy fill the gap.

The problem now is that the fake deaths would make even a real death feel like its going to be fake. Thats how bad a single EW section was done. There were many things they could have improved there to get the WoL to be alone. The obvious fake sacrifices only made the entire section a piece of cringe. I was happy once the twins were gone so at least i didnt have to bother waiting for something that was predictable well ahead in time (and because they finaly stopped talking). Even though i knew they would all survive (i didnt even care how, as i knew it was bad story writing anyway), it at least progressed the important part of the story that i cared about.

A single death can grant massive benefits towards writers, players and the story in general. The greater the character reputation, the more freedom it grants.

Character deaths are most impactful when not expected. So I would say the writing is successful if you no longer expect it.