Dawntrail's MSQ story is a disaster and waste of potential. [full spoilers]

[PaleYonder]

It's insensitive, too, especially if we take the game's word that these are not the real people but just AI programs.
Especially for Erenville, who's just processing the fact that his mother is dead, which has been obvious for hours and he knows it, this is just not something he should have to go through. And if they're not real, it's not even proper closure. One can have a nice conversation with the AI, but in the next sober moment it would sink in that the conversation didn't happen with the real people anyway, and one's just dug too deep and made oneself more miserable.
It's very human to want to try anyway, and I relate, but I also think making them go through with this is unconscionable as a friend.

Now, it's on the writing and the execution again: If Wuk's first well-intended naive suggestion to go talk to everyone was painted as the short-sighted thing it was, an oversight of individual empathy for the sake of a broad-brushed ideal and charging in, and we as the WOL got to say, "No, my friends have copies of relatives here, this'll mess with them, I'm not allowing this," it'd be interesting, and it'd show an actual character flaw in Wuk that maybe she'd actually reconsider and course-correct, and we'd have a moment of character growth. But things are on rails, and the rails don't know where they're actually going because there's no solid philosophical fundament here.

With Ishikawa's writing, I sometimes disagreed with philosophical points, and my WOL and I had to come to different conclusions and my head-story would diverge in some cases based on that, but I didn't mind that; the philosophies were there, and I got to engage with a literary counterpart and pick apart my own views within this fantasy framework, and I enjoy that a lot.
This zone lacks that. As others have said already, the writing doesn't follow its own baseline of what is what, and who is a person and who, or not. If they're real people, this is all terrible and tragic and should at least get a bit of weight even if we make the same decisions. If they're parasitic programs, why are we even bothering with any of this?
If they could live peacefully and things were happy and not a drain, we could leave them alone. If they are not only fake AIs but the whole thing, including the act of sustaining them, is a huge drain of aether that has to come from real people's souls, as Cahciua suggests, why are we not brushing aside all ideas of going to talk and shutting the thing down right now?
In that case, since it's a game and of course we should explore the new shiny zone: To go and wander around and "understand the locals" would only have worked if we didn't get a resistance briefing right at the start but maybe wandered in cluelessly through some plot contrivance and tried to figure out what was even going on. And if then we learned this was what the game says it is, then we'd know our course of action. But going in fully knowing? What are we even doing?

[Reinha]

It's insensitive, too, especially if we take the game's word that these are not the real people but just AI programs.
Especially for Erenville, who's just processing the fact that his mother is dead, which has been obvious for hours and he knows it, this is just not something he should have to go through. And if they're not real, it's not even proper closure. One can have a nice conversation with the AI, but in the next sober moment it would sink in that the conversation didn't happen with the real people anyway, and one's just dug too deep and made oneself more miserable.
It's very human to want to try anyway, and I relate, but I also think making them go through with this is unconscionable as a friend.

I'm in the camp "they are just programs" and the whole last zone was utterly ridiculous and bad storytelling. Why are we parading around entertaining an AI? Just shut it down. Why are we trying to remember the random AIs so that they can live on in our memory when they are not even people? Why are we letting AI mom condescend to Erenville, who is already in pain from the loss of his mother?

It's like they came up with a concept of separating soul from memory but failed to show how nonhuman the memory AIs are. They should have felt like soulless computer programs just adhering to their programming and running their memories in a loop, unable to form new emotional connections or react with feelings. Then Wookie's maid-mom-AI wakes up from the loop and starts talking like she's really there and the whole concept falls apart. There was also nothing about Erenville's mom's personality that suggested she did not have a soul, unlike Otis.

[PaleYonder]

I'm in the camp "they are just programs" and the whole last zone was utterly ridiculous and bad storytelling. Why are we parading around entertaining an AI? Just shut it down. Why are we trying to remember the random AIs so that they can live on in our memory when they are not even people? Why are we letting AI mom condescend to Erenville, who is already in pain from the loss of his mother?

It's like they came up with a concept of separating soul from memory but failed to show how nonhuman the memory AIs are. They should have felt like soulless computer programs just adhering to their programming and running their memories in a loop, unable to form new emotional connections or react with feelings. Then Wookie's maid-mom-AI wakes up from the loop and starts talking like she's really there and the whole concept falls apart. There was also nothing about Erenville's mom's personality that suggested she did not have a soul, unlike Otis.

Yeah, I'm personally in the same camp, and I agree. A recent-ish game that did this better IMO was Cyberpunk 2077; the AIs there felt suitably uncanny or wrong to different degrees depending on how well they worked, and you'd detect it after seconds or much later or maybe not at all but keep your doubts. The classic cyberpunk dilemma done competently. And I'd be cool with a game story that throws down on the side of "AI are real people with souls", as long as it's consistent in what it expresses. This here isn't it.

[Tsumdere]

I'm in the camp "they are just programs" and the whole last zone was utterly ridiculous and bad storytelling. Why are we parading around entertaining an AI? Just shut it down. Why are we trying to remember the random AIs so that they can live on in our memory when they are not even people? Why are we letting AI mom condescend to Erenville, who is already in pain from the loss of his mother?

It's like they came up with a concept of separating soul from memory but failed to show how nonhuman the memory AIs are. They should have felt like soulless computer programs just adhering to their programming and running their memories in a loop, unable to form new emotional connections or react with feelings. Then Wookie's maid-mom-AI wakes up from the loop and starts talking like she's really there and the whole concept falls apart. There was also nothing about Erenville's mom's personality that suggested she did not have a soul, unlike Otis.

100%.

The game kept telling us they were AI and telling us not to feel guilty about wiping them out, but they cram it down our throats that by all intents and purposes they are not AI.

If it was obvious that they were programed to be "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" or in a clear time-loop where they fruitlessly repeat the happiest day of their lives with no growth or thought, then this plot point wouldn't feel as bad.

But that is NOT what we were shown. Think of how horrific and tragic it would be for our characters' loved ones to be mere echoes of their former selves instead of... literally just sentient.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

I'm in the camp "they are just programs" and the whole last zone was utterly ridiculous and bad storytelling. Why are we parading around entertaining an AI? Just shut it down. Why are we trying to remember the random AIs so that they can live on in our memory when they are not even people? Why are we letting AI mom condescend to Erenville, who is already in pain from the loss of his mother?
*snip*

The problem is we're told one thing and yet shown a completely different thing. We're told by Cahciua that they were just AI and so we shouldn't feel bad about deleting them and that there is no other solution. However, every scrap of evidence you see proves the contrary.

Evidence they aren't people:
-Cahciua says so.
-They have no souls even though they are made from soul aether.

Evidence they are people:
-Cahciua has spent all of her time inside Living Memory acting against the interests of Living Memory. She's an explorer, so she immediately devised a way to explore the outside world. If she's being controlled by an AI, the AI is making her lead a rebel faction against it and making her strong arm people into destroying it. We're supposed to believe this while also believing at the same time it's making Sphene kill people to preserve it.
-Everyone we meet inside Living Memory is self-aware. They know that they are dead. They know where they are. They know what they are. They can object to their state of existence.
-People in Living Memory can make plans and decision. Not only has Cahciua run a rebellion on the Source. The man who wants to marry his love can evaluate the risk of retrieving the ring, the likelihood of being destroyed and having to wait even longer before he can be reunited with his love and can decide not to get the ring. That's a thinking person. That's someone calculating risk and reward and making decisions accordingly. Krile's parents work out that we are about to delete them and come to say one last goodbye. They are working out intentions. Reading emotions and making decisions like any person would.
-The characters care about the happiness of the people in Living Memory. The WoL dresses up as a bunny to entertain children. If it's just as AI, dressing up as a bunny and acting in a play to make the AI happy is absolute insanity. We didn't put on any plays for the robot army in Everkeep. The characters clearly view these kids as sentient, Wuk Lamat even says we're doing this to give them "happy memories." Memories we will then delete.
-People in Living Memory can have unfinished business. That means they are capable of having wants and desires. And they have force of will to maintain their form until those desires are met.

Artificial life is still life. All evidence shows these were people in every way that matters. And we deleted them because one character who was morally against this state of existence (but wore a regulator anyway to end up here) insisted we do so.

[lolnotacat]

Words.

Well said. The moment Cahciua wand waved away the personhood of the endless is when I gave up on the story entirely. I had mostly checked out by that point, but whatever bit of me that was still invested just disappeared into the aether and I started story skipping from that exact moment.

The fact the writers just dismissed one of the greatest philosophical questions "What is life?" and will probably become the most important question sometime in the 21st century "When does AI classify as life?" with a throwaway line because the writers were unwilling or unable to delve deeper into it (especially after the sundering scene with Venat that people still argue over the morality of) just shows that they weren't up for the task to write this story and should stick to their depth like shounen anime.

[Bunyon]

-People in Living Memory can have unfinished business. That means they are capable of having wants and desires. And they have force of will to maintain their form until those desires are met.

That felt so awkward to me. Making it so three or four random NPCs don't get deleted because they feel the need to do completely menial tasks, just to have an excuse for you to get aether currents after the zone is deleted....... It brings up so many implications. I mean, how believable is it that every single person in that zone was completely and utterly satisfied to get erased permanently, when you have someone who didn't get erased because he was in the middle of a tour and didn't finish giving it...? It's so awkward.

[Kaecilius]

That felt so awkward to me. Making it so three or four random NPCs don't get deleted because they feel the need to do completely menial tasks, just to have an excuse for you to get aether currents after the zone is deleted....... It brings up so many implications. I mean, how believable is it that every single person in that zone was completely and utterly satisfied to get erased permanently, when you have someone who didn't get erased because he was in the middle of a tour and didn't finish giving it...? It's so awkward.

Not only that, but some of them learn from you and express hopes for the future... only to then immediately disappear.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

That felt so awkward to me. Making it so three or four random NPCs don't get deleted because they feel the need to do completely menial tasks, just to have an excuse for you to get aether currents after the zone is deleted....... It brings up so many implications. I mean, how believable is it that every single person in that zone was completely and utterly satisfied to get erased permanently, when you have someone who didn't get erased because he was in the middle of a tour and didn't finish giving it...? It's so awkward.

There was no aspect of the last zone that did not feel completely mental to me. Even if these people are "just data" then we are deleting the history and culture of a dying shard to make a program that's currently wiping it's personality "sad." The program didn't even notice they were gone. It was still assuring them the entire time we made our way to her. Even if you're on the side of them not being people what we did was messed up.

But if you consider them people, what we did is sociopathic. I had time for tourism, but I didn't have time to find a way to save the memories of thousands of people on the grounds of "they'll live on as long as we remember them." We learned one thing about maybe 20 of them. Imagine how much Krile could have learned from her parents if we didn't just delete them. All the things that couldn't be covered over one meal. Erenville could have taken his mother with him to see the world if only we'd spent that time inventing Alexandrian USB drives and not eating tasteless ice cream.