Cylva wanted to meet Zero but the game didn't allow me to introduce them

[Eisi]

Heyho!

So I was excited to introduce Cylva/Unukalhai and Zero finally in 6.5! Just a cute little extra scene nothing major, I'm aware that it's something only 5% of players

Edit: accidentally posted it already, I wasn't finished!

Anyway, I'm aware few people will see it so it ain't gonna be a big deal. But the writers made Cylva say she wants to meet Zero. Why did she say that? Why didn't they do something so they wouldn't need to write an extra scene If they didn't wanna do it? They just left it out completely and it feels awkward. It's so important if you played the side story. I recommend every writer to take things like that into account before writing plot points that might haunt you later. Now I just wish Cylva and Unu had never been in the story to begin with. We probably just imagined them like Fray. All they are is weird ghosts without meaning.

[Cleretic]

You ever heard of something called 'the future'? It's a wonderful place where things can happen, you just have to wait and see. They probably will meet sometime, they just didn't meet now!

I think it's an interesting wrinkle to their respective stories, actually: the notion that they are working to the same purpose, completely agree with each other and would like to meet, but are just so distant that they can't plausibly meet up, at least not yet: even if they somehow found a common place to meet up (already unlikely), they're coming from such different directions that doing so would be a real hard task. It's an interesting seed for future Void-focused storylines, which I think at this point they've narratively committed to.

Besides, getting them to meet at the point where they suggest it would be REALLY hard even for us: that's a multi-legged journey relying on multiple vessel transfers that have some iffy tangential questions about them that, given Zero's current nature, you'd really want to get straight. And even that trip leaves Golbez stranded, which sucks, because he should also be invited! He and Unukalhai have some stuff to talk about RE: whose fault that flood of darkness was.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and also they'd have to get Cylva voice actors, which isn't exactly nothing.

[Eisi]

No, they could have plausibly met up at the Crystarium when we were there with Zero, you played the story, you know that. I'm glad for you that you liked the fact that they didn't meet and I don't want to take that away from you, that's not the point.

We have fundamental differences that can not be reconciled and if we met at the writer's table and you decided on not having them meet up, I would always oppose you with all my heart.

I agree that they will meet in the future where Cylva and Unu have been freed from the shackles of being inaccessible content for most. That doesn't erase the fact that it was in my opinion a wasted opportunity that significantly reduced my enjoyment of the Crystarium episode in the story. It wasn't due to too lofty expectations on my part, it was a reasonable expectation.

It's fine to be disappointed and it's fun to be critical and to be negative. It's not a big deal that needs immediate correction as though there was a destructive spirit of malice at work that only seeks to reduce other people's enjoyment.

I know there are people that wallow in misery about the game. That's not me. To prove this I will make a positive thread in this subforum soon about Azdaja.

[SannaR]

We didn't tell Zero about them until we were leaving the 13th post triumph. Could the writers have had that chance happen while we were on the 1st? Well, yeah. I think that if they had gone and done that then we would have a different gripe from others in that the story dragged on. As with the last patch people felt that doing something people have asked for the devs to do which is to show us getting permission and working with people and not doing the memed and just assumed doing it without asking was annoying cause it wasn't straight to the point. So I doubt a short hey come meet two survivors of the 13th would have faired any better.

[Alleluia]

The line where we can tell her about Team Void Quest, and her reaction to that line, tells me that they'll be involving them in the future somehow. Whenever we return back to the 13th. I dunno if they're gonna bring them in to the MSQ or stick to a side quest chain or what, but it seems pretty certain they'll be playing a role.

And since Zero didn't know about them before we got to the first, and we were on a slight time crunch and were already busy while we were there, I'm not too surprised the WoL didn't tackle that conversation at the time. She knows now, though. So you'll likely get the meeting eventually.

[Eisi]

Yeah I'm deffo looking forward to that happening.

I am 100% certain that the writers couldn't make the scene work for for example lack of resources rather than them believing that it was better for the story not to have it.

[Cleretic]

We didn't tell Zero about them until we were leaving the 13th post triumph. Could the writers have had that chance happen while we were on the 1st? Well, yeah. I think that if they had gone and done that then we would have a different gripe from others in that the story dragged on. As with the last patch people felt that doing something people have asked for the devs to do which is to show us getting permission and working with people and not doing the memed and just assumed doing it without asking was annoying cause it wasn't straight to the point. So I doubt a short hey come meet two survivors of the 13th would have faired any better.

I think there's also logistical and technical factors as well: how much of the storytelling would feasibly have to change (quite plausibly for the worse) if there was a scene introducing Zero to Cylva back when she was in the First, when Zero hadn't even thought of fixing the First as an option? Honestly, I'm not sure, but it'd be a lot more than just one isolated scene. And do you know the last time we've had an entirely optional MSQ scene reliant on having done previous content? THIS PATCH, Gaia was the first time! And technically isn't even a new scene, just an extension of an existing one; I'm not even sure if it's technically possible for them to do an entirely conditional start-to-end cutscene, which is what you'd have to do to introduce Cylva during the first visit.

[Iscah]

While I can understand why we couldn't get them to interact, it still could have been handled more elegantly IMO.

Maybe while Zero is in the First, Cyella moves away from her usual "stand and provide exposition" spot (bonus points if they set up some kind of observe-in-the-overworld scene with the Virtue Hunters team having a party or something) and if you talk to her she says it's chaotically busy today and she can't talk now. So you've tried to make the offer but can't get a word in edgeways.

Same avoidance of crossing the story streams but without the weirdness of her being fully free to meet with Zero right now and you're just not making the offer.

[Supersnow845]

At this point they are actively making the content worse for people who do all the content to pander to people to only do the MSQ and it’s actually making the MSQ worse because of it

There is literally zero reason why they couldn’t have met, we all know it’s because “4 role quests scary” but it’s in universe explanation is so thin as to be non existent; it just comes across as bad storytelling at this point

Gaia was barely handled any better

[Tsiron]

If they hadn't been so intent on retreading last patch's story, the uh "Ryne and Zero are following you" section could've instead been in the Crystarium, with an optional talking spot next to Cylva and Unukalhai, if all conditions are met...