YoshiP “Torn" Over What to do with the Scions (Interview)

[Shibi]

I personally think Erenville should stay combat job-less and be a party member that doesn't fight but helps out in other ways. It's an interesting dynamic that he has.

I don't think he loses that dynamic if he had a dagger in his backpack. A RedSGE (who doesn't really dps properly but heals fully stealing the healers job) is just too much. but ok Fine I can accept it as I am not too invested in that specific, we could have grabbed any NPC to replace that DPS without making a RedSGE. That RedSGE was the mistake.

Alphi had Zero reason to be in the dungeons with any healer.

[chizLemons]

(...) For DT, it was fine that the twins went… but even though they had a few speaking parts here and there, they didn’t really feel like themselves. Krile should definitely have had more spotlight… (...)

Graha was okay, and in particular, the gondola scene was great, but they could’ve given him more in the lead up to LM. (...)

The gondola scene was good, but everything else, for me it was NOT okay for G'raha either. For me he felt very out of character.
My point about having a reason for their absence and presente stands that, considering how he was acting, I'd rather he never appeared - at least I could pretend he was actually busy. Yes, even if that meant sacrificing the gondola scene...I could list everything that was off, but to not risk just getting off-topic, that didn't happen with just him. No one was acting like themselves, they all talked the same way, and only commented half-heartedly about things that were currently happening. Never about their own opinions or feelings.
G'raha semed like he was being more unique only because he talked about the First, but that was VERY weird coming from him - after he came back to the Source, he never talked lightly about his past experiences. Except for the gondola, he was talking about his life as the Exarch like it was something mundane he did once. It didn't sound like him.

And I also agree with what have been said in the thread already, that the reasons for the twins to be there don't make any sense, and didn't add anything to their character. I love them, but it actually feels bad that they were there: not only it didn't help them in any way, but they weren't themselves, and didn't contribute like we would expect them to. And if they weren't there, I don't think it would have changed anything for Krile, either. They could just take all of the lines from them and have Krile saying them, and it wouldn't change anything.

Yes, there were MANY missed opportunities that would make them all feel relevant and important to the story, and the writers didn't get it.
In the end, it's not about having the Scions or NOT, it's about GOOD WRITING. YoshiP is asking the wrong questions.
If the writing is good and respects the characters, Scions or not, people will be happy. If they justify the characters not being there by still making them feel alive and part of the world, it's not going to be a problem.

I'd love to still have the Scions there and I think they can still be included in meaningful ways, but DT was far from it.

[KisaiTenshi]

IMO, the only scions that can't have a bridge dropped on them is Y'shtola and G'raha, for purely story-party configuration reasons. It is unlikely that Y'shtola will ever be killed off permanently (she'd died 3 times already, cue "cat's have 9 lives joke", because she's basically the Brand face for 14 for crossovers, appearing in like 14 other games), and even G'raha (basically is the only 3-role all-rounder) has technically died twice. Everyone except the WoL who went to the First also technically died at least once, and then a second time with the Endwalker story.

Everyone else, their story is done and party configuration's do not require them. It is UNLIKELY that Estinien will ever get that treatment because he's ... um.. Hot, and players like him. Nobody else really is necessary to push the story forward. G'raha is the fanboy, he's basically demoted to sidekick after Shadowbringers. Y'shtola's long-term story isn't over until she finds a way back to the first, and even then I don't think Yoshi-P would drop another bridge on her.

As for "putting the scions on a bus", Thancred and Urianger were basically put on a bus for DT and only showed up when needed. The twins likewise were put on a bus and only showed up when needed. If the four of them are never seen again, people will miss them, but they are pretty much dead-weight on the MSQ if they don't have a purpose for being there. Wuk Lamat and Erenville's stories are also effectively complete so there won't be any reason to bring them to the next expansion.

Like G'raha basically needs to have a crowning moment of awesome post EW before he can be put on a bus, but that means without a 3-role all-rounder, that means at least two other previous existing NPC's are required to be in the story for story-mode with NPC's combat. Hence Y'shtola and G'raha. People are going to get sick of them if they are always present in the MSQ so I would actually suggest rotating between G'raha and Y'shtola (as they serve the same "don't be spock" infodumper) in the next expansion rather than keeping them always in the main adventuring party.

Honestly, just give me a proper Isekai at this point. Shadowbringers was effectively an Isekai ~ For the Scions, but it was temporary. Ryne has been put on a bus because she can't come to the source. Nobody else from the first actually is a party member, but I wouldn't say no to Gaia and Ryne being brought to the Source as Healer and DPS NPC's for half an expansion before they go back on the bus. Heck, figure out a way to bring Runar from the Source so Y'shtola can have her story have a good-end, Runar plays the extreme-fish-out-of-water while Ryne and Gaia go sightseeing during the MSQ when another NPC is required to be present, because that makes sense to. That is basically what Estinein did in DT.

You can bring back a NPC into the MSQ as long as their reason for being there makes sense. The problem in DT is that everyone's reason for being there was dubious except Krile. Krile came with you because of hints dropped during EW. Erenville got promoted from minor MSQ character in EW to party-accompaniment-also-convienently-knows-WukLamat-the-person-who-is-the-MSQ-lead. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it feels like Erenville's character was largely wasted and felt like "the only reason Erenville is here is because we needed a male bunnyboy we introduced last expansion, but had no major reason to use" to go with "we also need a female lion, the new character this expansion." Not saying I would have wanted other character types, but am saying that Lyna, Almet, Cymet and Uimet were the only representations of their expansion to be voiced and have plot relevance.

Next expansion, either I hope they don't add more races, or they come out with a race that is just straight up androgenous like a giant mamet that can just wear "everything", finally giving players the option to have that lalafell head on a Roe body for lulz.

[Mondschnee]

Really, I don't mind if they keep only a few selected Scions around during an expansion for as long as their contribution is impactful and they have a reason to be there.
What I disliked the most was how out of character especially Alisaie and Alphinaud felt during Dawntrail. So if they stay around, I would hope that they stay in character, and I would hope that they make efforts to give them a new story arc, too.

And I would love if it if they keep Erenville around. He's free to travel with us now, after all...

[Len_]

Does it even matter? They've long since killed their personalities and homogenized them all anyway. They're just mascots at this point. Barely even characters.

[Carin-Eri]

I personally think Erenville should stay combat job-less and be a party member that doesn't fight but helps out in other ways. It's an interesting dynamic that he has.

I still think he's going to be involved in the Beastmaster limited job quests, personally.

[Vensaval]

It's incredibly worrisome how out-of-touch Yoshi-P has been sounding in these interviews.

"...you can’t please all the people all the time, as they say."

Yet Dawntrail attempts to achieve just that and fails in nearly every aspect. Not that I should really expect them to, but none of these interviews have addressed any player complaints to a satisfying degree. It's getting irritating.

[ovIm]

After the last few interviews I read with Yoshida I feel more and more confident saying - I am pretty sure Yoshi-P has not played Dawntrail. Most likely, he did not have the time in between juggling all his responsibilities. And it shows.

I'm fairly certain most people are fine with having new characters and a new short term crew to travel with, so long as the story is written and presented well.
We don't need to constantly cling to old things to make things work, this would ultimately water down the experience down the line.

[Nebelheim]

It feels yoshi-p possibly didn't play test dawntrail and left all responsibilities to junior staff and told them "have fun and try to be creative" while not overlooking anything and being too trusting that junior devs would make something good/playable. And it also felt yoshi-p was more out of touch then usual or corporate putting him on way too many projects at once while trying to maintain ff14 but also putting more responsibility onto others.

[Hallarem]

After the last few interviews I read with Yoshida I feel more and more confident saying - I am pretty sure Yoshi-P has not played Dawntrail. Most likely, he did not have the time in between juggling all his responsibilities. And it shows.

I'm fairly certain most people are fine with having new characters and a new short term crew to travel with, so long as the story is written and presented well.
We don't need to constantly cling to old things to make things work, this would ultimately water down the experience down the line.

Yeah, tinfoil hats on, but it does sound very much like he didn't oversee this project at all or only a bit here and there.