Quote Originally Posted by SDaemon View Post
The Azem crystal is literally summoning seven random adventurers from out of nowhere to team up with you. In Ultima Thule you use the crystal to summon seven random people, who have no connection to the plot you just went through, and yoink them into your fight. The Trusts are at least characters relevant to the plot of the MSQ, despite how flimsy a reason they have for being there. I'm not suggesting there should be an alternative to the Azem crystal, only that the Azem crystal from a narrative standpoint feels more jarring and flow breaking to me than 7 NPCs that have been consistently in the MSQ up to that point joining in for whatever reason.
Okay you seemed to miss the point and thank you for not being able to provide an alternative solution.

As I mentioned in my OP, the Trust system is good narratively for Trials when used correctly. It completely fits for the Hydaelyn trial as we have had the other seven scions journey with us down into the Aetherial Sea, so they've been with us on the journey to the end destination which is the mother crystal, Hydaelyn even speaks to each of the seven scions one at a time to give even more weight to them being there. On the flip side, it would feel pretty jarring during the MSQ to have the Scions all there with you, instead use Duty Finder you do the trial with 7 random people without even using Azem's crystal. That's cool though, some people will no doubt preferred doing that trial with other random players, but having all that dialogue and interaction between the Scions and Hydaelyn about testing us all and instead do the trial with 7 randoms would break the narrative.

I did say that I understood the Azem crystal summoning might not be everyone's cup of tea, however it was explained to us well in the SHB patches MSQ when we speak with the memory of Hythlodaeus, therefore narratively it makes sense when we use it given we ourselves are Azem, even if you don't like it as a tool. It's far better compared to say when we're in the Ruby Sea with Alisaie and Lyse, we enter the vault and Susano appears then Alisaie tells us to find 7 adventurer friends who might be nearby in the area. If this was the case also in say Ultima Thule WITHOUT using the Azem crystal, why on earth would there seven random people at the edge of existence?

The 93 and 99 trials do not use the Trust systems narratively well, several NPCs are shoehorned in out of thin air or doing a 180 based on how their characters would behave, which is simply bad writing and lacks narrative cohesion. FFXIV is lauded as the story driven mmorpg of the genre, it should do better than it did during the Dawntrail trails from a narrative perspective.