Yoshi-P tells PC Gamer that he is "not shocked" by mixed DT reception

[Asari5]

i'm so tired of this entire 'oh its a new story arc, they have to build a new foundation first'
thats such a ridiculous statement used by so many people... including yoshida now.

can it make a story better? sure. does it make players more attached? sure. but does it need it to be good? NO!
the problems this story has dont have anything to do with it.

you have over 30h... do something with it. but i guess if you use all the time on one character saying the same things over and over again then its not enough. and the sad part? there are barely any gameplay parts in there apart from the usual dungeons

[Mondschnee]

After looking at this interview, I'm really doubtful whether or not they actually understood our feedback or if this truly is pure PR-speech and there's more to be read into it. Personally, I felt really worried after reading this, because as much as I want to see the "write her with more confidence" that others have pointed out, to me it reads more like "we don't really understand what the playerbase didn't like about her".

What's more, in other interviews it sounded a bit like 7.1 and 7.2 are already set in stone which would mean the writing won't improve until 7.3 at the earliest.

Oh dear.

[Lyth]

For whatever reason, it sounds like Yoshi-p is unsure why the response was so poor and is still floundering about what his next steps should be. I thought that his shogun interview comments sounded like shots in the dark as well, as I wouldn't have thought Hingashi to be a bailout strategy for the arc.

"If we had maybe portrayed her as more of a confident character, maybe we would not have encountered that kind of situation."

This is the same person who travelled to a foreign land, marched up to the most powerful person they could find, appointed them as her underling, and then forced them to travel back to another continent with her. I don't think it gets more assertive than that.

The problem wouldn't be solved by waving a wand and magically making WL more 'charismatic'. Any character that had so much screentime at the expense of completely sidelining the player character's involvement was going to be resented, especially when the original storytelling style was interactive fiction. I've seen people even flip over their opinions on her to the negative in complete exasperation from seeing her jump in and solo the final boss.

There were a lot of writing issues around the storyline as well, but the directorial mistakes were in allowing an entire expansion to be centered on a character that they'd never tested reactions to, and in forgetting that the player needs to be front and center to the storytelling experience.

[SeriousPan]

YoshiP can't throw his staff under the bus and blame their bad writing for where we're at in the story. It's not good for morale and would just make him look bad to all his staff. There's no way he's this genuinely ignorant on why Wuk Lamat failed. I guess he's instead choosing one thing that won't cause any blame to be thrown on his writing teams ineptitude. It doesn't help, I suppose, that the one thing he chose to address as a reason for her failure is so provably false.

"Write her with more confidence"

How much more can she have? She basically blasts through the challenges with confidence up the butt and faces no push back at all. They should look at how Ryne was written and take some notes I think.

[Voidmage]

The problem wouldn't be solved by waving a wand and magically making WL more 'charismatic'. Any character that had so much screentime at the expense of completely sidelining the player character's involvement was going to be resented, especially when the original storytelling style was interactive fiction. I've seen people even flip over their opinions on her to the negative in complete exasperation from seeing her jump in and solo the final boss.

It really reads and feels like she is the new favorite of the devs and they will do absolutely everything to keep her relevant.
Criticism? Nah if she was confident everyone would love her lmao. Really reads like „you didn’t get it stupid player.“

Either someone there is madly in love with her or they wanted to make a new face for FF14 to market in the future.

The Japanese side is also starting to react to this interview.
Granted there aren‘t many posts yet but the opinion is more or less the same as here.
Quote of one:

„ I read an interview with Yoshi P from overseas.

The premise is that Ukramato asked Hikasen and Akatsuki for help, and it must be because of their skills and knowledge.
Despite that, was there a scene where Ukramato marveled at the skills and knowledge of Hikasen and Akatsuki, or sincerely wished for a solution to a problem that he could not solve himself? It's not that a

story where the player is devoted to support is bad, it's just that there is no presence of support.
Players are not NPCs or content supporters, they are playing FF14 for the purpose of the game experience.

I feel that the criticism of Golden Legacy is not in her character, but in the perspective of the Golden Legacy story.
It was said that "if she had been portrayed as a more confident character," but instead, I thought that if her perspective had been directed more toward the player, it would have been different.“

[Mondschnee]

YoshiP can't throw his staff under the bus and blame their bad writing for where we're at in the story. It's not good for morale and would just make him look bad to all his staff. There's no way he's this genuinely ignorant on why Wuk Lamat failed. I guess he's instead choosing one thing that won't cause any blame to be thrown on his writing teams ineptitude. It doesn't help, I suppose, that the one thing he chose to address as a reason for her failure is so provably false.

"Write her with more confidence"

How much more can she have? She basically blasts through the challenges with confidence up the butt and faces no push back at all. They should look at how Ryne was written and take some notes I think.

You are right, he can't do that. But I agree that the example he gave wasn't a good one.
I genuinely hope you are correct and he/the team understands, not only in regards to Wuk Lamat, but other criticisms as well.

[Sacae]

You have to be careful when interviewing Yoshi-P. Generally, you want to be vague, e.g., "Many players complain about overcentralizing the story of Dawntrail on a specific character," rather than, "Many players complain about Wuk Lamat."

If you provide too much information, Yoshi-P will hyperfocus on one aspect of your question to the exclusion of the rest of it.

[Carin-Eri]

not only that... but what kind of mental gymnastics are they going to have to do to convince us... to do whatever saving needs to be done next time?

They can just have the Wukkie do it as far as I am concerned. let whatever homeless waif go ask her for help in saving the world. I am on vacation and she is obviously more powerful. if we needed help then quite obviously... she is more powerful than us... and any god/eikon we have faced.... and I say.. "have fun catgirl... now bugger off"

Agreed.

They've created a problem in a sense, because at this point the next time a world-ending threat appears we should simply suggest that Wuk Lamat is the one to deal with it and explain that her 'Power of Understanding', and "Listen to me!" limit break, are far more powerful than anything the Warrior of Light has ever achieved

[ViaDesperare]

The Japanese side is also starting to react to this interview.

Is it just the JP forum side or something like 2chblog too? I didn't see anything on 2chblog yet.

It really is going down the Zestiria Rose-Alisha controversy route, now we just need them to use one of the VAs to ask for Wuk to be allowed to be a part of the FFXIV cast or something and it'll be the same. It'll probably be Sena and not Ayaka though. Then after, the writer or YoshiP will move onto another series and then kill it, like how Baba murdered Sakura Wars.

Edit: NVM, it's up on 2chblog so it's getting notice for sure. 2chblog link

Edit2:
Translate Quote with over 200 hearts.
"It's the lowest score ever, but it's expected!
Even in overseas reviews, the scenario was slammed, and it was even said that "I was keenly aware of the absence of Natsuko Ishikawa", but it was expected!
It was given a somewhat unpopular rating on Steam, which is famous for its lenient reviews, which is something only a serious ○○ game would get, but that's to be expected!
The character, who was introduced as ``everyone will love'' before its release, has become the most hated character in FF14 history, even being called a must-have on overseas forums, which is to be expected!"

Edit3: LETS GO!

[PercibelTheren]

It will probably take us a few expansions to have one anywhere remotely close to shadowbringers in quality. More likely we will have stormblood or heavensward quality.

I'd be cool with Heavensward quality. Heavensward's story was amazing and it was on par with Shadowbringers for me.