Do we really need the Scions again?

[AlucaDragonheart]

I understand that people love these characters, but do we really need all of them back again? Their character arcs were concluded pretty well in Endwalker, in my opinion. Do we really need to see Y'shtola still being sassy and being the one who explains everything to us? Do we really need to see Estinien being terrible at handling money once again? It's a shame that instead of meeting a whole new cast of characters who will join us from 7.0 onward, we're just back to the same recycled characters again. Erenville could've been the catalyst, the first of our new companions, and then we could've slowly built up our new cast of companions along the way, but I guess that wasn't their plan.

[Sindele]

Every time someone posts a new one of these threads, the Scions get booked for one more expansion.

[Striker44]

There's nothing stopping them from introducing new characters alongside the familiar cast. Zero has become a main character and Vrtra a major supporting character throughout the 6.x patches while certain Scions are still involved. But yes, whether you or I personally like it or not, we "really do" need the Scions again. They're tremendously popular among the playerbase at large and our main "party" for this FF adventure. They're not going anywhere.

[Stormpeaks]

There's nothing stopping them from introducing new characters alongside the familiar cast. Zero has become a main character and Vrtra a major supporting character throughout the 6.x patches while certain Scions are still involved. But yes, whether you or I personally like it or not, we "really do" need the Scions again. They're tremendously popular among the playerbase at large and our main "party" for this FF adventure. They're not going anywhere.

"I think they're popular so the playerbase thinks they're popular"

Talk for yourself, it aint the first time you do this buddy, you dont speak for the playerbase

[SieyaM]

There's nothing stopping them from introducing new characters alongside the familiar cast. Zero has become a main character and Vrtra a major supporting character throughout the 6.x patches while certain Scions are still involved. But yes, whether you or I personally like it or not, we "really do" need the Scions again. They're tremendously popular among the playerbase at large and our main "party" for this FF adventure. They're not going anywhere.

I don't know if I would call Zero a main cast member yet. She's been with us for a handful of patches and seems very much like a special guest for this whole 13th shard story we're doing at the moment, which I assume will be concluded in 6.5 since every one of the scions that is involved with it will be leaving for the new world in 7.0.

[CNitsah]

There's nothing stopping them from introducing new characters alongside the familiar cast. Zero has become a main character and Vrtra a major supporting character throughout the 6.x patches while certain Scions are still involved. But yes, whether you or I personally like it or not, we "really do" need the Scions again. They're tremendously popular among the playerbase at large and our main "party" for this FF adventure. They're not going anywhere.

The problem with that is it's hard to introduce new characters when the main cast is already full of 8 people. Everytime a new character was introduced, it was with a smaller team. Even when Ryne was introduced, the first thing the story did was find a way to push the twins away for one zone, while Y'shtola was not in the equation yet, so the new character would not be drown under existing characters. Same for Zero. It's hard to imagine them introduce more than one (maybe two) main characters, and they will be in competition with the old ones.

I'm also part of the people that thought the 6.0 last scene was a declaration of intention for the characters, but it wasn't. I was slightly disappointed when I saw that half of the trailer was basically there just to say "Yeah, they all will be there". My biggest issue is that except for Estinien, all the scions have the same background : scholar from Sharlayan. It made sense with ShB and EW, but I wish we'd go back to more diverse cast, like in ARR (with Cid, Biggs and Wedge being important) HW (with Ysayle and Estinien) or SB (with Hien, Gosetsu, Yugiri, or even Lyse). I like (most of) the scion, but a little variety after 2 extensions would be nice. Keep some, add new characters, and then in the next expansion, take other, and leave the one you had in the previous one.

Now, I still have interest in the next extension, but I feel they just missed the perfect opportunity to introduce new cast member. I have difficulties to feel the adventure and going to the discovery of a not well known continent with 5 scholars of the world most advanced and knowledgeable country in my backpack.

[Iscah]

The problem with that is it's hard to introduce new characters when the main cast is already full of 8 people. Everytime a new character was introduced, it was with a smaller team.

That seems to be the plan here, though. Split the Scions into multiple groups, so we're only travelling with a few of them and some new or relatively low-on-screentime allies and whoever we are working with on arrival. Then the others might be popping in and out of the story as "rivals" but not constantly present or taking up time in cutscenes.

[ForsakenRoe]

Can they at least sod off for like, more than 2 patches though? We're meant to have disbanded, couldn't we have, say, Y'shtola and Urianger go away for an expansion (as in, 7.0-7.5) and then come back, presumably with new outfit/new job learned? It's seeming like Krile's gonna get that treatment (cool), but I just don't get why we can't have similar happen with the main lot. At this point I kinda care more about the side crew because the fact they're 'side crew' means they're actually more at risk of a permanent death. If Thancred's setup for a death in SHB was fated to just be 'lol fakeout gotcha' from the start, then the main team is officially immune

I think I'm gonna eventually go insane if Y'shtola keeps forcefeeding me the lore explanations for things I already worked out half an hour ago, please just Flow yourself and stay there till like 7.3 or so

[AlucaDragonheart]

I think I'm gonna eventually go insane if Y'shtola keeps forcefeeding me the lore explanations for things I already worked out half an hour ago

And that's one of the biggest issues I'm going to have with this expansion, instead of meeting a new character/companion who is a native of Tural, who will explain the lore of their home and their various legends to us, Y'shtola will instead read it all from a book and relay it all back to us, as she always does.

[ForsakenRoe]

And that's one of the biggest issues I'm going to have with this expansion, instead of meeting a new character/companion who is a native of Tural, who will explain the lore of their home and their various legends to us, Y'shtola will instead read it all from a book and relay it all back to us, as she always does.

Exactly. Like, I'd forgive them slightly if it was Uri who was the nerd who explains the lore, cos it fits his character, he's super bookworm (that'd be really funny, people hope to get lore explained by him but come out with more questions cos of how he talks, imagine). Instead they crammed together every possible character archetype onto Y, presumably to try and create the most broad-reaching 'waifu'. And instead for some, it makes her the most unlikeable character on the cast. The devs are trying too hard to make her appeal to as many people as possible, I guess. Can't wait for her to randomly 'discover' a way to undo her 'blindness'. At least Thancred remembers to make mention of the fact his aether's scuffed, and changed jobs to combat it somewhat, but you could explain Y's eye color change as 'she lost her contact lenses in the Lifestream' and it'd have as much effect on the narrative as the current explanation seems to