The Next Expansion cycle needs 2 things. 1) A Break from the Scions and 2)Time Skip

[-Teria-]

I'm the opposite. The Warrior of Light is the protagonist. The Scions are our party members and friends. We just saw what happens when they get sidelined for an entire expansion and somebody else gets the focus. Hell, we saw what happens when we get sidelined and it's not enjoyable.

[Wired-Lain]

Every expansion taking place within the same year gets more and more insane. We're long overdue for the passage of time. Would very much be in favor of timey wimey shard shenanigans, leaving characters like the twins behind.

I'm the opposite. The Warrior of Light is the protagonist. The Scions are our party members and friends. We just saw what happens when they get sidelined for an entire expansion and somebody else gets the focus. Hell, we saw what happens when we get sidelined and it's not enjoyable.

I think the frustration there is less of the characters not being around, because they were, but that they just kind of stood around offering nothing and having nothing to do despite being present. I wouldn't call it sidelining if we were physically separated from a couple of them tbh

[Rolder50]

I would like to see adult twins, sign me up.

[Musashidon]

i mean you are getting your wish with the reflection thing since the void will be the next expansion it just depends on how much of the expansion is the void vs something else.

post endwalker ended with us starting to fix the void with light from the first essentially doing a two birds one stone fix to both reflections so the story will either be the void alone or the void/the first. course i will say SE has been on a big story twist with the last two expansions and i could see us doing something the first wise 7.4/7.5 and seeing them do a the void/lightning reflection related.

but i do think it would be in SE's best interest to do a solo expansion that is based around one area as they seems to get a better reception over all.

[-Teria-]

I think the frustration there is less of the characters not being around, because they were, but that they just kind of stood around offering nothing and having nothing to do despite being present. I wouldn't call it sidelining if we were physically separated from a couple of them tbh

The problem extends beyond the scions. We, us, the Warrior of Light, felt unnecessary in much of the narrative as well.
Much like the Scions stood around offering nothing and having nothing to do despite being present, we didn't really have much either. 90% of the MSQ cutscenes where we were standing there could have happened without us present and they'd have played out the same. Sometimes the camera pans to our character's emotionless, dead eyed face just to remind us we're still actually there.

[SongOfTheWind]

His VA is likely not the same price point these days as it was

His English VA. I am sure they don’t write stories to accommodate it, also English dub is notorious to recast actors left and right, so there is little issue if they truly can’t afford (which I doubt)

[Voidmage]

I could see it.
As horrible as DT was it showed that the potential for good new characters to join us is there.
Koana is good and I would have liked someone like Otis.
Give characters like them to an actual competent writer and we could have some interesting team comps.

The scions I fear are burned out. The writers have no idea what to do with them anymore.

I don’t know about a time skip. I love the whole shard thing but I fear they would just rush them.

At this point I would already be happy with two things.

Give the WoL more focus again because that’s the person I actually created and use in the game.

Bench Wuk Lamat forever, burn her or whatever just get her away from me.

[seraseth]

I don't think we need to be done with the scions as a whole, but maybe with them as 1 solid block.
Only take along 2 or 3 of them with us when what we're working on is of obvious importance to them (like if we were investigating the south sea lalafells, obviously krile would want to be involved). The others can be off doing their own thing for that story. And then swap out who is with us for any particular expansion/story *based on the needs of that story*

And it doesn't have to be all or nothing. The people we left behind can make a cameo if we happen to hit a problem that their expertise would be helpful for. Depending where we are and how easy it is to get away, we can pop over and see them to ask for advice, or send a message.

Basically just weave them in where it makes sense because of their interests or their skills, and fill out the rest with new people we meet on the way. Just make sure to keep the focus balanced on several interesting characters that play off each other and have different opinions and insights. No more 1 person show

[KisaiTenshi]

Both of these could be accomplished by sending the WoL to another Reflection BY THEMSELVES.

Timeskips do not work, and make for extremely poor story-telling, because we already had one between 1.0 and 2.0 and are still picking up the pieces from that.


The only correct execution for that is to overplay the Isekai trope by having the WoL basically "yoinked" into another reflection.

eg.
(That's from Ultima 7 part 2's final CG movie, where the guardian pulls you through the portal to a world he controls and where the system of government and magic is completely upside down from how the previous 4 games work.)

And that's easily done by having a reflection be a de-facto mirror-universe of the source. We've seen some of this with the first (how the 3 city states have "something" in the first where they should be located, plus the entire "shadowbringers" theme) but why not go the entire way and have a reflection that represents a dark "source" where Garlemald was the one subjugated by Ishgard (who has made dragons extinct), Thanaland and the Twelveswood are war zones, and the land of La Noscea just rules the seas so access to other cities by sea is impossible at first. Ala Mhigo and Doma were never taken by the Garleans.

So that would allow the developers to do a couple of interesting things:
- Revamp the three cities maps to be a single map instead of split maps, and give them an "evil" ruler vibe
- Revamp Ishgard and the surrounding Cortheas into an area not devastated by the moon crashing. No more Ice.
- Remove all the random moon debris
- Put some walls up between Thanaland and the Twelveswood.

I'm not saying that is what I want, but It would offer the developers a way to not have to create more landmasses but instead use a reflection with the same near-identical landmasses. It could be one where the Version 1.0 opening cutscene of the keeper of the lake never happening, and the "allagan empire" never coming into existance. Hence the Garleans never have the opportunity to adapt from their tech. Heck if we want to go a step further. No Red Moon at all.

[CNitsah]

I dunno why people are trying to push the "retire the scions" narrative thing because I legitimately hate it
we still have scions who could use more characterization even. Krile, who got kinda shafted in DT, let us bring Graha on more adventures LIKE WE PROMISED HIM, the scions B team at the rising stones, Clive, Mikoto, etc.
hell, Yshtola could use some more spotlight too in all honesty
the Scions are our JRPG party members, I would not replace them at all.

Honestly, I would have prefered they retired most of them at least for dawntrail than what we got. I'm all for keeping them... If they can make them relevant one way or the other. Seeing how few they matter and how Alphinaud and Alisaie were shoehorned there, I feel like this was the idea when they planned and advertised the whole "disband the scions", and just after that, they got cold foot and we got that.