Quote Originally Posted by Rocl View Post
This particular point can actually be different depending on optional small talk, actually (or is addressed entirely, depending on your outlook on such things).
Should you return to the Source after meeting Feo Ul, Tataru's dialogue does change to indicate she's met Feo Ul and that you should go back to the First and let her worry about the Source. The quest in question, "Travelers of Norvrandt" actually changes a multitude of small talks! The Scions have kept many of their allies in the loop regarding the missing Scions, it seems.

Tataru, Matoya, Lambertient and Arenvald all change after this; Lamberteint doesn't quite believe the Scions are in another world, Arenvald worries for Alphinaud, and Matoya asks us to tell Shtola to come visit when she returns.(I do wonder why they've been updating Lambertient since 4.4...) Of those four people, three of them have the same small talk after completing 5.0's MSQ—Tataru's dialogue, however changes. For clarity's sake, here are Tataru's 3 states:




Admittedly, I learned this after I'd personally completed Shadowbringers by way of poking around GarlandTools and the like—but I do have a vague memory of checking in on the Rising Stones before Amaurot to see what, if any, diaogue changed and was amused/happy to see at least Tataru's did while the other Scions in the Stones didn't.

Another somewhat fun fact, is that the only other time dialogue on the Source changes is after you slay your first Lightwarden, Temulun (Cirina's grandmother) changes her small talk to the following:

Everyone else on the Source, other than those I've mentioned here, just seem to have a flag for whether or not you've completed relevant quests (the lv80 job quests) or Shadowbringers (the more mundane Scions). The citizens of the First seem to have a multitude of states, typically dealing with whether you've restored night to the area they reside in, if the Light's come back, and if it's Lakeland or the Crystarium there's even more nuance... it's honestly surprising and I'm ashamed to say I missed most of the interim steps!
Garland Tools has failed me for picking up NPCs' changing dialogue at the various stages of the story. Normally it would all come up in the talk dialogue tab for the triggering quest, but a lot of their script seems to be missing. (eg. Lyna has absolutely no non-quest dialogue linked to her, even though she's standing at her guard post throughout the game and can be talked to.) The final quest should have loads of new dialogue, but only lists a few people back on the Source. Some of the text that should turn up there can be found on the individual NPCs and just hasn't linked to the quest script, other things are just nowhere to be found.


On being able to go back and get updated conversations from people on the Source during the game, I'd still take their comments as part of the "adapting the concept from linear story to interactive RPG" process where the story itself wouldn't send you back to the Source at all, but because you can ignore the plot intentions and go back there, the character do have dialogue to acknowledge that. I'd see it as similar to how the game adapts dialogue according to whether you've completed relevant optional quests or not. (eg. your completion-or-partial-progress of the Binding Coil at Lv50 can result in four different versions of dialogue from Alphinaud and Alisaie at Lv60 reflecting that progress, even though "canonically" you should have completed it at that point and the other three versions of the scene shouldn't really exist.)

The script twists in all sorts of ways to accomodate players who haven't done everything they were supposed to have done at this point. You weren't supposed to leave the First and drop in on Tataru, but you did, so she'll have to react to you. Just like you probably weren't supposed to ditch your companions in Dravania or Yanxia to go visit the Gold Saucer and play mini-games, but the game isn't going to stop you.


Definitely interesting that Lamberteint is getting dialogue updates though. I was just saying to someone the other day that the Garuda leadup quests are worse than Titan because at least the Company of Heroes have ongoing use as supporting characters... So. Could see his knowledge being useful in this situation - I just hope they make him more likeable than he was in ARR if we're going to have to be dealing with him.



Quote Originally Posted by Enkidoh View Post
Although we were indeed the intended sole target of the Call spell, and that the Archons's souls being called instead were just unlucky accidents, the Crystal Exarch actually states that the spell was actually "difficult to master" and that Archons were drawn there accidentally by his "fumbling hand", which all sounds to me like it took him ages to master the 'art' of calling the player:
Different interpretations, then - I read that as "I reached across but my aim was off, so I picked up the wrong person". If it's just a matter of reciting the words and aetherially 'reaching out', then it's the reaching and aiming that he has to work on.

That line you quoted is also what indicates that the spell has to be set for a specific target, and getting the wrong person is at least part of why it didn't work as intended.