Looking back at this Yoshi P statement(story spoilers)

[KizuyaKatogami]

I was sifting through some interviews with yoshi p the other day and i came across some interesting ones but this one stood out to me. It was done after 5.3/5.4 i believe.

“We don’t like adlib in terms of like, ‘Oh, this character is going to go or this character is going to die.’ It’s not random, either. At the same time, yes, people might notice that those in the core cast may not have died over the course of the story,” he explains. Since Final Fantasy XIV constantly depicts wars, conflicts, and battles, he says it’s “unrealistic to not have any sort of sacrifices even on the ally side. So I mean, I don’t mean to scare you… this is not, by any means a threat of any sort, but don’t get too comfortable knowing that, ‘Oh, these characters are safe’ because you might be in for quite a shock.”

So it seems here even Yoshi P understands that a story like 14's needs to have some sacrifices/death to make it realistic, and that going forward we should essentially expect to part ways with some characters, yet after playing Endwalker this doesnt seem the case at all. Im curious on what changed. I would think such a high stakes, major conflict/battle as he calls it would be the prime time for something like this yet....nothing.

[Catwho]

I don't think they're going to kill everyone off all at once, but I wouldn't be surprised if we lose another couple of Scions before 7.0 is done.

Part of me thinks Y'shtola or Thancred are next on the chopping block - but Y'shtola has the benefits of 1. Incomplete narrative arc (she still hasn't learned Warp yet) 2. being way too popular.

So yeah, my vote goes to Thancred for the dead pool.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Problem is that the characters translate to crossover and merch. They all appeal to a niche demographic and if they kill any of them off they risk losing some player goodwill. They can try to reintroduce a new character in the same archetype, but that is always going to be a gamble, and more often than not is either poorly received or splits support (see Lyse).

If consumers as a whole didn't attach themselves so much to characters it might not be as much of a problem. But they do and like any franchise they can't really risk upsetting the balance.

They could kill Krile probably and be fine, but that wouldn't have any weight so why would they bother?

[KageTokage]

I was honestly prepared to let go of Thancred back in Shadowbringers, but when he ended up being fine that's basically where I became subconsciously conditioned to stop worrying about the Scions.

At this point, I'm having doubts that even if they did choose to off a long-established character that it would be executed well enough to make it actually feel like a worthwhile decision writing-wise.

[MikkoAkure]

There's a difference in killing off a character in a stand-alone game/story and killing a character off in a continuous story that is now 10 years old.

Especially from Shadowbringers onward, the Scions have been treated less as side-characters and more as the WoL's party members as if this were a single-player game. This was reinforced with the Trust system and with Ishikawa's comments in a recent interview:

Interviewer: The way the Scions have been depicted has changed a lot too.

---- Ishikawa says that one idea behind the Trust system introduced in ShB is that you can keep going on adventures with the Scions after the story is over. Yoshida says that back during the development of HW, Oda and [ARR/HW lead writer] Maehiro told him that they strongly want to recreate the feeling in classic FFs of going on a journey with party members, so they wrote the story of WOL, Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle’s journey as a group of 4. This idea was developed further in ShB.

Most of the major character deaths we've had in FF have been from characters who either just showed up in the expansion they die in, or are introduced in the X.4 or X.5 patch before the expansion they die in. Exceptions are characters who have been around since ARR (or before) but were on the periphery and never really truly a part of the main crew and/or not developed well. At this point, the main core group of Scions we have now have been through so much together and are now so popular that I don't see them dying. Besides that, they've all had so many close calls that I feel like it wouldn't pack as much of a punch anymore.

[Jin-]

Ultima Thule was the perfect time to off them. They did their job and faced their demons. Yoshi and his team is too scared to take any kind of risks, it even shows in the content.

[Raoabolic]

As George Lucas says "You can't sell dead Han Solo action figures". Now carbonate frozen Han Solo figures on the other hand...

[Vahlnir]

This was one of my very few gripes with Endwalker, honestly. It was the dang end of the world. A battle that led to the edge of the known universe. And...everyone's fine? Seriously, not even a scratch on anyone!

[Hyperia]

I expect them to “retire” several of the scions in the future. 3 of them will go back to the first as they have connections there. That effectively removes them from the playing field without having to kill them. It also allows them to be brought back as needed, but if killed, it’s a real pain to reverse a death.

[Kozh]

I was actually thinking it would be urianger who's going to bite the dust, since he's the one who matches Yoshida's description of "no npc is safe even if they're quest giver".

But yeah, shame they prioritize merchandise over story integrity.