Live Letter Thoughts

[BaconBits]

Giant greenhouse that's heated by cerulean heaters. Course I wonder if it snowing would count as having them be watered as they did say that when it rains it would count as that. Now when will that apply to regular gardening Yoshida? I wouldn't have to touch some friends crops some days cause of all the rain it'd be doing where their houses are.

With how much rain Gridania seems to get, you'd never have to water your own crops again.

[Alleo]

Pretty sure Devs mentioned multiple islands for future updates as this should be regularly updated from 6.2 forward, so various biomes could be a thing and likely well just brings materials on over.

And as it was shown a few pages back the slide only talks about updating the island. So do you have further proof with this multiple islands? Otherwise its probably misinformation or misinterpretation and could lead to disappointment because it makes way more sense that they will upgrade the current island we get with the next patch instead of just throwing more and more islands at us.

[Jeeqbit]

And she used her own free will by not telling people what was going on, paving the way for the destruction of all but a handful of ancients. Nothing about this strikes me as a hero, and to have to sit through hearing about how wonderful she was in 6.2 isn't going to make for a palatable experience for those of us who do not think highly of her actions.

It was her that started this. Nor are we asking for the Ascians to be "absolved" we want the game to acknowledge beyond a passing statement that what she did was wrong, and to stop propping her up as a benevolent goddess when she wasn't one.

She acknowledges she did terrible things. Since SE wrote this line from her, they are obviously aware of it.

But she also endured eras of time while preparing a way to reach Meteion and to create a means of escape from the Final Days, preserving the continued existence of her people's souls.

It's not a perfect thing. She did good things and bad things to achieve her aim of saving the star.

She provides her own explanation for why she can't tell anyone. Hermes could go crazy again and Emet-Selch wouldn't believe her when he didn't the first time, so she had to identify specific people that would believe her and use the information right.

Emet-Selch even admits to us that their ways would not have led them to Meteion, so it's his opinion that if Venat had told them it would not have caused them to arrive at Meteion. Their best solution would probably have still been to summon Zodiark, so nothing changes.

[aveyond-dreams]

She acknowledges she did terrible things. Since SE wrote this line from her, they are obviously aware of it.

And then the game proceeded to paint her as a heroine in the Codex entry, and are now poised to refer back to us as her champion. I feel as though my character has been manipulated and deceived by Hydaelyn too much to consider himself her champion. We were supposed to not be the Warrior of Light anymore and just be an adventurer. What has become of that promise?

But she also endured eras of time while preparing a way to reach Meteion and to create a means of escape from the Final Days, preserving the continued existence of her people's souls.

Perhaps if she had told the Convocation what was going on and had Hermes locked up before he could further sabotage everything, she may not have had to. In any case it wasn't her that preserved anyone's souls, that was the function of Zodiark whose summoners' souls weren't consumed by him like Hydaelyn did hers. Had the final sacrifice of plant and animal life come to fruition, they likely would've been able to escape their predicament.

Instead she sundered the planet and humanity went from the state of risking blasphemies spawning whenever they used magic, to risking turning into one for succumbing to despair. To classify her as a hero for doing such a thing is something I simply cannot wrap my head around.

She provides her own explanation for why she can't tell anyone. Hermes could go crazy again and Emet-Selch wouldn't believe her when he didn't the first time, so she had to identify specific people that would believe her and use the information right.

Her explanation was found wanting by enough people to generate discussions surrounding the topic that have carried on to this day. It was not well-written. The logic underlying her actions should have been handled with greater care so as to remove all doubt and ensure precise clarity as to why these things had to play out the way they did. This wasn't accomplished.

The echo existed in that era, so she was more than capable of proving herself true to anyone. Not believing her isn't a good enough explanation, not given what the game already showed us.

Emet-Selch even admits to us that their ways would not have led them to Meteion, so it's his opinion that if Venat had told them it would not have caused them to arrive at Meteion. Their best solution would probably have still been to summon Zodiark, so nothing changes.

Summoning Zodiark and performing the necessary sacrifices to return the stability of creation magic and the lives lost in his original summoning seems to like a far better option than being left in the compromised state the Sundering left humanity in, with Venat's backup plan of sending them out in space without the protection of Zodiark almost assuredly putting them directly within Meteion's reach.

Do you see why people have taken issue with the way in which this story was constructed and the ways in which it attempts to justify its plot points? This experience has severely undermined people's confidence in future storytelling along with the many issues surrounding the treatment of:

Garlemald, now a republic left in runs.

Zenos, whose more compelling teases in Shadowbringers weren't followed up - and given this game's lack of permanent death for main cast members has his fans wondering why they were not afforded the same courtesy as fans of the Scions have been in terms of bringing them back.

The Ancients, of whom an inconsistent picture has been painted through a combination of conflicting visions, writing, and interpretations.

Now the Void, which many of are cautious about getting too invested in given the fact that the 6.2 trailer showed dawn breaking in its skies and the implications that the loss of this game's demon realm would have for its worldbuilding. Moving forward we would like to see in 6.2 and beyond less one-sided protagonist centric victories unless similar concessions are willing to be made for the antagonist faction as well, less of a focus on subverting expectations and generally being more clear as to what we should expect, and for the world to not be left in a lesser state as a result of our journey through it.

[SentioftheHoukai]

Because it is all relativism, what you are effectively asking for, or at the very least advocating for with this sentiment is a very long history of indoctrination to effectively be annulled in a very short period of time. The world is vast so that isn't happening. They have already made it pretty clear through the story that it is no longer as simple as black and white and leaves it up to your own perception to determine who was right, and who was wrong. - The game doesn't need to tell you that.

We weren't exactly heading into Endwalker as "OOOO the big bad Zodiark" - This was practically tossed out the window courtesy of the lecture as provided by Emet-Selch in Rak'tika. The only basis for us going after him and subsequently viewing him as bad was just due to external factors (e.g., Zenos and Fandaniel wanting to suckle his power)

Edit: Just as I have said enablement from a third party factor is not an absolvent, otherwise ultimately the stick-pointing game would be, and should be put in the direction of Hermes.

None of this matters, it's all lazy excuses from Yoshida anyway. It's not moral relativism either, not when we the Warrior of Light are canonically writing the Unending Codex (Tataru tells us to begin writing a Journal so we won't forget things from now on, after which the Unending Codex starts gaining entries) which says Hydaelyn was the Will of the Star (when in reality she stole it from Zodiark before his ashes had even begun to cool) the entire time and is responsible for everything good about the Sundered world. Considering this, and the way the Omega quest ended on a Hydaelyn-positive message anyways (The motto of "FORGE AHEAD" being mouthpieced at us at the end, why was rando alien planet's recording aware of Hydaelyn's arc words anyway? More propaganda from the devs, becuz ofc) as well as Loporrits dancing on Zodiark's grave its hard NOT to think a vast majority of 6.2 is a metaphor for Yoshida's middle finger waving flagrantly in the face of any who cared even the slightest bit about the Ancients. We don't want a giant retcon of the lore, we just want some people in game to give a shit that Hydaelyn effectively erased an entire planet's worth of people. Instead, we get to cover it up.

I've been going over and reviewing some of the lines we heard from the Scions in Shadowbringers, and frankly if the Scions retained ANY of their previous characterization from the aforementioned expansion they should have had MAJOR issues with how Hydaelyn did things, but they don't. Ergo, they're Out of Character. Alphinaud's rumination on the erasing of history and the value of being remembered by one's loved ones, Y'shtola's rebuking and condemnation of Emet-Selch's mass murder and genocide, Thancred's confident declaration that he would NEVER accept an Ascian's assistance after all the suffering their kind has wrought. All of this flies completely in the face of the way they act in Endwalker, and their refusal to look at Hydaelyn through the same lens of looking glass. It's insulting to one's intelligence to think Yoshida thought we would not notice these discrepancies. He may as well have called us Autist Retards directly to our faces.

[Shougun]

For people who watched the island livestream: was there anything about weather and possible biomes? I know the map is pretty solidly green, but I can dream.

Unfortunately this island is located somewhere tropical. It will have mostly sunny and rainy weather. The lack of biome choice is rather disappointing. I would've preferred a smaller and more customizable island than one that is locked to the tropical biome.

Not a feature to just quickly make, but I do hope they consider giving us some control- through mirage, creation magic, moogle magic, whatever nonsense needed to do it lol.

Would be cool to change the skybox, etc to like Elpis (floating island), or Azim Steppe, ETC. Depending on zone some changes to lighting and maybe a few tree swaps could go a long way to selling the idea. Something like a desert would be a lot harder, but perhaps still not impractical (replace ground texture, swap ..a lot.. more models).

Besides selecting a snow like 'skin' to your island there also might just be like a Christmas event or something and some part of your Island gets snow for a little while.

Few ways to do it, I agree it would be neat if we get some variation somehow- regardless of the technical physical location of the island.

[LisSquid]

Seasons on the island would be incredible, not going to lie.

[Solarra]

Still, people have been taking a fictional story WAAAAYYYYY too seriously. Please step back a few minutes and root yourselves in reality. None of those characters ever existed. The choices they made about what to do and the consequences of those actions never happened. Nothing says you need to like the story told or any specific characters but getting yourselves worked up so much over it is not healthy.

You didn't major in Literature, did you? :P

[SannaR]

I don't think it's a dawn breaking. I think it's just God rays or in this case Moon beams. We had the same kind of thing happening in the 1st in each of the zones affected by a Lightwardend.

[Hurlstone]

Getting to change the weather and environment on the Island Sanctuary would be awesome, and if its not an added feature now then hopefully its something they can add via some Sharlayan Aether Converter. Personally speaking I want my island to always be rainy!

I don't think it's a dawn breaking. I think it's just God rays or in this case Moon beams. We had the same kind of thing happening in the 1st in each of the zones affected by a Lightwardend.

Yeah it feels like jumping the gun to assume that is whats happening. I do not think we will 'restore' The Void any time soon. Perhaps start it on a road to recovery? But there will be too much that needs to be accounted for to restore it to what it once was, such as what will happen to Reapers and the Fiend we have made our pact with? I feel The Void arc is more a ‘get in and recuse dragon sis/see if it can be used to travel elsewhere’ hence why its taking up the post-patches and not is own expansion, as far as we are aware. It may also be setting up future antagonists for 7.0 and beyond. I could be completly wrong, but we shall see come 6.2!