Yoshida's latest interview, Comic Exhibition Taiwan 2025

[Auro_Seldaris]

^to be fair under that schedule that would have left what amounts to elpis->labarynthos->ultima Thule as the totality of 7.0 and I don’t think it would be possible to make that plotline stretch any further than it did already. Elpis already feels like it goes on for 5 hours too long and I don’t even think elpis is 5 hours long

EW was too rushed but each part of EW couldn’t really adequately be stretched to fit two expansions and a patch cycle without serious pointless bloat or additions we cannot guarantee they would have added or not. The final days are too time sensitive to drag out over patch cycles (it’s why we removed everlasting light in vanilla ShB) but if you pushed all of the final days to 7.0 then 6.0-6.5 wouldn’t have anywhere near enough content as I feel like people overestimate how much people would have wanted a “sympathetic garlean” expansion, and if we spent 3/4 of it opposed to garlamald we would just be retreading SB

You can't say with any authority what they did and did not have planned, or what did and did not end up on the cutting room floor. You're purely speculating, whereas Yoshida is literally telling you they had plans, but they cut and rushed things.

No one is disputing that they intended to do Garlemald. They have said consistently that they wanted to speed up the end of the arc and us being a primal slayer, especially with how the game grew in Shadowbringers.

As for the other post about Zodiark not being the last boss, the writers all agreed that he should not be the last boss and this was their viewpoint even if Garlemald wasn't included. My guess is because this would have been too obvious and predictable.

As Hallarem said, there has been plenty of people saying over the years, "NUH UH THEY DIDN'T HAVE A GARLEMALD EXPANSION PLANNED YOU'RE JUST A FASCIST WHO WANTED THEM GLORIFIED". Especially since I could never quite find the interview where it was previously mentioned that this was true. It was always dismissed as a fanwank "rumor". Now here it is, in print and indisputable.

To that point, can you provide a source saying they "all agreed Zodiark shouldn't be the last boss"? Because it seems like the perfect cliffhanger leading into patch stories. Kill Zodiark, ominous red color, mysterious voice saying "Ah...at last!", Final days commence, how is that not literally perfect cliffhanger material? Again, just like the other guy, I think youre making an assumption, and you don't know what they did or did not plan. Besides, just because something is predictable doesn't mean it's bad, and just because something would be "subverting expectations" or "a bold choice" doesn't mean it's good. The Last Jedi certainly "subverted expectations" and was definitely a "bold choice"... doesn't mean it was actually good.

[Jeeqbit]

act like everything before Dawntrail essentially doesn’t matter.

If that was the case, prior MSQ wouldn't be required.

Instead of expanding the story meaningfully, they recycle plotlines from other Final Fantasy games

It's always been intended to be a final fantasy themepark ie. a coming together of the different final fantasy games with multiplayer features. That's how they've seen it since the relaunch in 2.0. They reused lots of things from the start such as ifrit, titan, garuda, black mage, chocobos, shiva, ff11 mobs, cid, bahamut, gold saucer (ff7), ivalice (ff12), absolute virtue (ff11), weapons from ff7, Quezacotl from ff8, eden (ff8), archfiends (ff4), magus sisters (ff4/ff10), lots of FF9 stuff in DT, ff11 alliance raids.

They do this because everyone's definition of final fantasy is different depending on which ones they've played. So by making it have elements of all of them, all final fantasy players will find something familiar.

reuse old assets

Standard and expected for a game developer to make maximum use of models they put lots of work into. I would too if I was developing a game, unless I decided to use AI, but players would be very upset if they were using that so reusing will have to do.

[yesnt]

If that was the case, prior MSQ wouldn't be required.

Yoshi literally considered a new starting point for new players. Dawntrail can be followed without much knowledge about the prior world building. Also, you can buy story skip. So, it's not like prior MSQ was ever required for anything.

However, making prior MSQ optional wouldn't make sense from a business point. It gives the players a reason to subscribe to the game and play through the expansions for months or longer.

They do this because everyone's definition of final fantasy is different depending on which ones they've played. So by making it have elements of all of them, all final fantasy players will find something familiar.

It's not just a couple of elements, though, if we are being honest.

Now, since you disagree, please elaborate which part of the MSQ was absolutely mandatory to understand Dawntrail.

[Supersnow845]

You can't say with any authority what they did and did not have planned, or what did and did not end up on the cutting room floor. You're purely speculating, whereas Yoshida is literally telling you they had plans, but they cut and rushed things.

I didn’t say with any authority what they did cut. I’m saying based on what we have from EW stretching EW’s current plotlines across 2 expansions wouldn’t work. Sure they probably cut a lot of potential plotlines but we don’t know the quality of those cut plotlines, they could have been fantastic or they could have been awful. We see EW as rushed now, who’s to say that if they gave it two expansions we wouldn’t see it as a slow bloated mess after the fast and tight ShB?

The only thing I speculated on was how popular a garlemald focused expansion would have been if it took a similar tone to the time we did spend in garlemald

I for one didn’t see enough I liked in EW to think they could pull that across 2 expansions but that’s entirely my opinion

[Hallarem]

I didn’t say with any authority what they did cut. I’m saying based on what we have from EW stretching EW’s current plotlines across 2 expansions wouldn’t work. Sure they probably cut a lot of potential plotlines but we don’t know the quality of those cut plotlines, they could have been fantastic or they could have been awful. We see EW as rushed now, who’s to say that if they gave it two expansions we wouldn’t see it as a slow bloated mess after the fast and tight ShB?

The only thing I speculated on was how popular a garlemald focused expansion would have been if it took a similar tone to the time we did spend in garlemald

I for one didn’t see enough I liked in EW to think they could pull that across 2 expansions but that’s entirely my opinion

Yeah, if you went with that logic sure, stretching the current EW over two expansions wouldn't work. EW was a bloated fastpaced mess, how many nations and areas did we visit again? THavnair deserved more, Garlemald definitely deserved more.
We are left with speculation but it would've been their job to make more areas for Garlemald. I for one would've probably focused on Thavnair and Garlemald in one expansion, deleting the whole of Labyrinthos and their spaceship.(because it makes no sense)
And made us care for both nations more (at least the good parts of Garlemald) while the patches would hype up the Final Days sorting out the world going crazy and hyping up the mystery until the whole world unravels in 7.0 and we need to fix it.. insert Elpis and Sharlayan.

[Auro_Seldaris]

I didn’t say with any authority what they did cut. I’m saying based on what we have from EW stretching EW’s current plotlines across 2 expansions wouldn’t work. Sure they probably cut a lot of potential plotlines but we don’t know the quality of those cut plotlines, they could have been fantastic or they could have been awful. We see EW as rushed now, who’s to say that if they gave it two expansions we wouldn’t see it as a slow bloated mess after the fast and tight ShB?

The only thing I speculated on was how popular a garlemald focused expansion would have been if it took a similar tone to the time we did spend in garlemald

I for one didn’t see enough I liked in EW to think they could pull that across 2 expansions but that’s entirely my opinion

I would have rather had whatever they had planned for Garlemald Expansion and then Endwalker, than what we got for Dawntrail.

Sorry, you can't convince me that finishing the storyline in an organic , logical fashion is a worse idea than rushing it to get to... Dawntrail.

Hell, somewhere out there is an alternate universe where we got Westwolves instead of Dawntrail, I'd rather have taken a gamble on that.

[Supersnow845]

Yeah, if you went with that logic sure, stretching the current EW over two expansions wouldn't work. EW was a bloated fastpaced mess, how many nations and areas did we visit again? THavnair deserved more, Garlemald definitely deserved more.
We are left with speculation but it would've been their job to make more areas for Garlemald. I for one would've probably focused on Thavnair and Garlemald in one expansion, deleting the whole of Labyrinthos and their spaceship.(because it makes no sense)
And made us care for both nations more (at least the good parts of Garlemald) while the patches would hype up the Final Days sorting out the world going crazy and hyping up the mystery until the whole world unravels in 7.0 and we need to fix it.. insert Elpis and Sharlayan.

I could see that working but again I’m not sure, I mean garlemald as a sympathetic nation never really resonated with me (entirely personal opinion) so in my mind I’d struggle to be engaged with a garlemald + thavnir + maybe corvos expansion as an example which was kinda the original point I was making I might just have sounded authoritative than I meant to sound

I would have rather had whatever they had planned for Garlemald Expansion and then Endwalker, than what we got for Dawntrail.

Sorry, you can't convince me that finishing the storyline in an organic , logical fashion is a worse idea than rushing it to get to... Dawntrail.

Hell, somewhere out there is an alternate universe where we got Westwolves instead of Dawntrail, I'd rather have taken a gamble on that.

Dawntrail’s quality doesn’t factor into the conversation because this is about short EW vs long EW. Your belief that they rushed EW specifically to reach DT has no foundation, the interview specifically said they sped up EW, not they did it because they wanted to tell DT

I’m simply saying from my perspective nothing in EW’s plot threads engaged me enough to keep it going for two expansions, that point is entirely seperate to whether I think a hypothetical 2 expansion EW is better than DT (even ignoring it might still be followed by DT anyway)

[Hallarem]

I could see that working but again I’m not sure, I mean garlemald as a sympathetic nation never really resonated with me (entirely personal opinion) so in my mind I’d struggle to be engaged with a garlemald + thavnir + maybe corvos expansion as an example which was kinda the original point I was making I might just have sounded authoritative than I meant to sound

I never really considered Emett's take to be right, but he made me listen. Thats the beauty of its game, it USED to treat you like an adult and show both sides no matter how wrong the other side was objectively without shying away from the wrongs done by the "right side".
Corvos is actually a good addition to that, would give some G'raha development, good catch.

[Themarvin]

The DT way can work and more, but he should focus on making the game for the players much much more...

[Daralii]

I never really considered Emett's take to be right, but he made me listen. Thats the beauty of its game, it USED to treat you like an adult and show both sides no matter how wrong the other side was objectively without shying away from the wrongs done by the "right side".
Corvos is actually a good addition to that, would give some G'raha development, good catch.

Sorry, but they can't have Raha act like a rational adult that's over a century old more than once or twice per expansion, it would get in the way of him being the WoL's goofy fanboy.