What Zero Could've Been

[tokinokanatae]

My problem with the MSQ this time was Y'shtola, but mainly because I felt like she sort of sucked the air out of the room.

Her interactions with Zero were given the primary focus--even though I could very easily see Zero having interesting dynamics with the other two as well as Y'shtola. For example, Estinien on the surface likes to act a lot like Zero, pretending that his friendship towards us (and now the other Scions/Vrtra) isn't as much of a factor in his actions as it actually is. I'd like to see Zero put him on the spot by asking him what he's "getting" out of coming to the Void. And, for Vrtra, considering the amount of aether he has, I would have found it interesting if she insisted on him being the primary feeder for the deals Y'shtola brokers, or even Vrtra getting frustrated with her transactional nature when they got more concrete word regarding his sister and she wants to haggle down to the last drop of aether what they can and can't expect from her.

I've said in the past I feel like the writers sort of rely on Y'shtola in a way I don't like, namely to use her as a narrative device to explain locales or new functions of magic to us. This means her "hunches" or "theories" tend to be "fact" nine times out of ten, instead of something she has to refine and work on as she gains more knowledge. I would have liked to see the Void be a struggle for her to navigate or something to throw her more off guard than she was. Something that makes her feel like she's also going with us into uncharted waters, instead of acting as our all-knowing navigator through them. I don't mind her and Zero having a unique bond in theory--and there's certainly time for the others to get their own with Zero--but I will confess 6.2 MSQ did leave me a little colder overall than I would have liked going into 6.3.

[Absimiliard]

I feel the Trust system could benefit from some randomization going forward. Rather than the Scions (barring dungeons where it is narratively appropriate, of course) accompanying the WoL into battle, the roles could be filled by randomly generated NPCs. It would do a good job of giving that "I'm fighting alongside random adventurers" feel the game lost a long time ago. Couple this with decreased Scion presence in the story, and you've got a recipe for success.

[Brinne]

My problem with the MSQ this time was Y'shtola, but mainly because I felt like she sort of sucked the air out of the room.

Her interactions with Zero were given the primary focus--even though I could very easily see Zero having interesting dynamics with the other two as well as Y'shtola. For example, Estinien on the surface likes to act a lot like Zero, pretending that his friendship towards us (and now the other Scions/Vrtra) isn't as much of a factor in his actions as it actually is. I'd like to see Zero put him on the spot by asking him what he's "getting" out of coming to the Void. And, for Vrtra, considering the amount of aether he has, I would have found it interesting if she insisted on him being the primary feeder for the deals Y'shtola brokers, or even Vrtra getting frustrated with her transactional nature when they got more concrete word regarding his sister and she wants to haggle down to the last drop of aether what they can and can't expect from her.

I've said in the past I feel like the writers sort of rely on Y'shtola in a way I don't like, namely to use her as a narrative device to explain locales or new functions of magic to us. This means her "hunches" or "theories" tend to be "fact" nine times out of ten, instead of something she has to refine and work on as she gains more knowledge. I would have liked to see the Void be a struggle for her to navigate or something to throw her more off guard than she was. Something that makes her feel like she's also going with us into uncharted waters, instead of acting as our all-knowing navigator through them. I don't mind her and Zero having a unique bond in theory--and there's certainly time for the others to get their own with Zero--but I will confess 6.2 MSQ did leave me a little colder overall than I would have liked going into 6.3.

Probably one of the more grating things about Y'shtola in 6.2 - that unfortunately did drag Zero down a bit along with her - is the way she, multiple times, happily "got one up" on Zero in ways that felt childish or made no sense (in the case of 'we gave you your name so we you have to repay us') or even weirdly unfair ('we promised you dragon aether but gave you apples') and it always worked without issue. It's one of those cases where I could see the writer strings tugging in terms of "see how clever Y'shtola is?" and Zero being yanked around somewhat as a narrative puppet to accommodate that. I realize part of the point was also to illustrate that Zero wasn't as hardened as she presented herself, but the way it was done felt pretty contrived to me.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

This is kinda Nice.
Civil Discussion.

But amusingly its not about Zero. But...the overall topic did die a while ago.

[Absimiliard]

This is kinda Nice.
Civil Discussion.

But amusingly its not about Zero. But...the overall topic did die a while ago.

Hm. ...Well, I'd bet money we'll be using Zero as a Trust at some point in the near future. There we go. An entirely suppositive tangential connection.

[SassyAssassin]

I feel the same way, I thought Estinien and Zero would have opened up to eachother in a way they wouldn’t with any other npcs or even us.
I don’t know why they push Yshtola so much in game, the only thing I can imagine is because she might be popular in the Japanese community since they even made an overpriced doll of her instead of any others.

[Kes13a]

Hm. ...Well, I'd bet money we'll be using Zero as a Trust at some point in the near future. There we go. An entirely suppositive tangential connection.

they could add a herd of chocobos to trusts for all it matters. never plan on using that part of the game. so, I still get the feeling of fighting alongside random adventurers lol

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Hm. ...Well, I'd bet money we'll be using Zero as a Trust at some point in the near future. There we go. An entirely suppositive tangential connection.

w00tw00t we did it team!

But on a serious note, I think I can bet that 6.3 our next Dungeon will have her as a Trust.
Vtra will tank/dps, Y'shtola will Heal/dps, and Estinian and Zero will be dps.
Im curious though if the next 2 fiends will be an Eden Garuda and Ifrit situation (whoops, there I go now not talking about Zero)

[Absimiliard]

I feel the same way, I thought Estinien and Zero would have opened up to eachother in a way they wouldn’t with any other npcs or even us. I don’t know why they push Yshtola so much in game, the only thing I can imagine is because she might be popular in the Japanese community since they even made an overpriced doll of her instead of any others.

So whatever happened to that whole Y'shtola using up her own life to see thing? It's likely the lore wasn't quite so fleshed out back then as what we have now with regards to aether, but it seems fairly likely this would mean she'd been using her spiritual aether to see. Physical aether regenerates, so using that ought not eat lifespan. So uh... salty cat lady die when?

they could add a herd of chocobos to trusts for all it matters. never plan on using that part of the game. so, I still get the feeling of fighting alongside random adventurers lol

They're all red, named Comet, and have friendly fire enabled. ....And for some reason they always attack you instead of enemies.

w00tw00t we did it team!

But on a serious note, I think I can bet that 6.3 our next Dungeon will have her as a Trust.
Vtra will tank/dps, Y'shtola will Heal/dps, and Estinian and Zero will be dps.
Im curious though if the next 2 fiends will be an Eden Garuda and Ifrit situation (whoops, there I go now not talking about Zero)

I'm hoping they decide to handle it the FFIV way. By which I mean we fight each fiend one at a time, before finally re-fighting all four of them simultaneously in a single encounter at or near the end of our little foray into the Void.

[Theodric]

Y'shtola always struck me as a strange choice for the game's mascot in general. Personally I would have preferred the official mascot to be the player character - depicted as he is in the various cinematic trailers.