Alternatives to NPC romance, since it's a polarizing topic

[rance-sama]

Not gonna happen.
JP players would freak out upon seeing others dating their favorite NPCs like they do already in other games.
Besides, we already have people who spend their life savings commisioning drawings (SFW or otherwise) with their favorite characters thinking that makes them their "canon" love interest. It's freaky really.

[Tennyoelf]

I would think even this would lead to the same problems the developers have stated they would run into if they added NPC dating into the game, specifically that it ties their hands too much when it comes to writing story. -SNIP for room-

I don't believe it would because even though they're our buds, they can still have a life of their own. If your best friend wants to go to another country to live, you can't stop them. You'll be sad but you'll wish them the best and try to stay in contact. The same idea applies here, if you're buddies with Urianger and he wants to go off to another world, you can't stop him, but we could easily have an extra line put in if we do his buddy quest as I proposed. That line could be something of the effect "I'm really sad you're going, but I hope you get what you need and I'll try to write to you."

Though I do see how having access to Urianger's buddy quest could be troublesome if he's gone. The quests themselves could be timeline locked? Like, if you don't do certain quests in post-ARR content, Urianger is still there at the Waking Sands even during ShB, though he is supposed to be unconscious at the Rising Stones. Instead, the starting NPCs for these buddy quests can be new NPCs, or some other mechanic. Such as Urianger getting a letter from someone, and the moogle or person delivering it has trouble finding him but found you instead. The quests would then be meant for a certain period, the NPCs references not new revelations, but ones meant for the time period. They can even have them become flashback quests that rely on your echo to relive the time you grew close to your bud.

I do believe there are ways to do it that won't tie their hands in terms of freedom in writing what they want, which would not be possible if the quests were more romantic in nature. If your lover wanted to go live in another country, that would mean breaking up and hard feelings, or even going with them. Being best buds doesn't have that extra layer of complication that could come about if romantically bound. True, you could argue that best friends can have the same awful feelings involved with going away as romantic partners, but in general, people tend to put bigger importance on romantic relationships than they do good friends.

[Tennyoelf]

As I mentioned in the other thread on the front page regarding this topic, a system of interacting with specific NPCs would be fairly easy to implement based off that we already have a similar system in FFXI. Interacting with key points in main cities would let you call your companion NPC and hold dialogue with them along with the other aspects of that system. It'd probably be best as an area you click in The Rising Stones and then are able to interact with a few important NPCs from your story. Doesn't even have to be dating which for some reason people love jumping to immediately, it can just be a friendly get-together with some banter to give you some insight on how those characters feel about developments in the story.

I would argue that you can already do that by talking to the scions while they are in the rising stones.

I do like the idea of calling on your companions, though I was thinking more about content with favorite NPCs besides the scions themselves. Though what FFXI has is a good jumping-off point!

(Double post because of word limit! Sorry!)

[SenorPatty]

They could do it. After all, we did get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmMKtuEuVA&t=429s

Yugiri had me swooning, ngl

[TheMightyMollusk]

Just write fanfic?

[Tennyoelf]

I don't mind stuff like the dinner with aymeric popping up now and then in quests, but I don't really want a feature dedicated just to 'hanging out' with npcs. Romantically or otherwise.

Well, my idea is more about a questline with which you help out the NPC with a smaller issue than one that is world-shaking. These would be simply side quests that help you bond with a friend and get to know them more.

[Brynne]

Though I do see how having access to Urianger's buddy quest could be troublesome if he's gone. The quests themselves could be timeline locked? Like, if you don't do certain quests in post-ARR content, Urianger is still there at the Waking Sands even during ShB, though he is supposed to be unconscious at the Rising Stones. Instead, the starting NPCs for these buddy quests can be new NPCs, or some other mechanic. Such as Urianger getting a letter from someone, and the moogle or person delivering it has trouble finding him but found you instead. The quests would then be meant for a certain period, the NPCs references not new revelations, but ones meant for the time period. They can even have them become flashback quests that rely on your echo to relive the time you grew close to your bud.

To take this further, you could even have a separate interface like the New Game + where you initiate these quests. Maybe they even take you into an instance or set things back to how they were during the time period the quest takes place in. Seeing as how they're already doing that for New Game + it should definitely be doable for friendship quests.

I'd just like to learn more about the characters and have my character interact with them. The characters are already considered friends with the WOL; this just gives you a chance to interact with them a bit more. It shouldn't impact the story at all if done right.

[Tennyoelf]

Not gonna happen.
JP players would freak out upon seeing others dating their favorite NPCs like they do already in other games.
Besides, we already have people who spend their life savings commisioning drawings (SFW or otherwise) with their favorite characters thinking that makes them their "canon" love interest. It's freaky really.

Well, that's why my idea is about doing buddy quests that are not dating, not romantic in any way and are simply our WoL helping a friend and bonding with them, AS FRIENDS.

They could do it. After all, we did get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmMKtuEuVA&t=429s

Yugiri had me swooning, ngl

Well, that's not what my idea was about, it's about having an optional side quest that helps us become better FRIENDS with certain NPCs. Sure they could do romance, but the developers already stated why they have trouble with writing romance, as it gets messy and interferes with possible future story ideas for the NPCs in question.

Just write fanfic?

Yes, I could. I write a lot myself, but the idea is having canon content that would make everyone happy and that means NOT having romance quests but BUDDY quests that focus on bonding platonically with certain NPCs. I'm personally not a lore expert and the developers know their characters better than anyone. I rather have a quest with the NPC that isn't romantic in nature but allows me time with them than not having anything at all? Plus my married WoL can do those quests too.


I think I need to make a tl;dr at the end of my OP.

[Tennyoelf]

To take this further, you could even have a separate interface like the New Game + where you initiate these quests. Maybe they even take you into an instance or set things back to how they were during the time period the quest takes place in. Seeing as how they're already doing that for New Game + it should definitely be doable for friendship quests.

I'd just like to learn more about the characters and have my character interact with them. The characters are already considered friends with the WOL; this just gives you a chance to interact with them a bit more. It shouldn't impact the story at all if done right.

Yup, that's how I feel! Those are great ideas and since they've already implemented in the game, it would be easy to do!

[rance-sama]

Well, that's why my idea is about doing buddy quests that are not dating, not romantic in any way and are simply our WoL helping a friend and bonding with them, AS FRIENDS.

Granblue had an Idolmaster collab and even before it was released, JP players were threatening stopping playing the game if the Idolmaster girls interacted with male characters even as friends.