YoshiP “Torn" Over What to do with the Scions (Interview)

[Talamh]

Well I always hated the Scions.
I never wanted to join them, I never wanted my character to pick up the mantle of Warrior of Light.
As a result, my character barely feels like my character. A slave to the story and it's decisions.

But you are forced, to do the story whatever or not you want to and I've always despised that with XIV.

Stormblood was my favorite expansion. Felt like we did something of use there.
Followed by Endwalker where it felt like they finally took some daring risks.

But the Scions.... Just... make them go away..
I hate them, the Top 1%....

Hot take: The scions should have died in Endwalker, to reaaaaally drive that despair home.

If it were up to me, they'd died earlier.
But XIV lacks guts when it comes to killing characters.

I think the problem they are running into on this front is that it’s hard to actually characterise the WOL’s response because everyone has a different headcanon around how much their WOL interacts with others (for example in my headcanon my WOL hates graha for reasons that’s are way to complex to explain), they seem to be trying to dodge around this with Azem ever since they stopped using Alphinaud as a standin for how the WOL should be feeling in that particular situation but DT really had some bad points where they forced you to feel a certain way that they have avoided up till now

If all the scions died around the WOL everyone would have a different belief in how they think their WOL should have responded to the situation because square refuses to commit to anything more than the scions could be anything from barely tolerated work colleagues to life long friends

According to the game, the Scions are your bestest of bestest friends.
It's hammered in like Titan spamming Weight of the World.

I can't really distant my Wol's responses anymore from what the game dictates and I hate that.
The best I can muster is a frown and a nod.

The Scions was a mistake.

[Hanayumi]

Personally want new characters for msq, with 1 or 2 scions popping in and out every so often Maybe having scion come into more of the side content would be better... I mean take Arcadion for example, if they really wanted to do a tournament arc id be cool if we actually went up against a couple of the Scions...

[Carin-Eri]

If it were up to me, they'd died earlier.
But XIV lacks guts when it comes to killing characters.

Noraxia (counting her since she wouldn't have been with the Scions if you hadn't shown her how special helping others can be), Moenbryda, Haurchefant, Ysayle and Papalymo disagree.

Though it has been a while since they pulled anything like that.

[Lyth]

This discussion came up frequently last expansion. It's fine to gradually introduce in new cast members and change the story focus over time. That way you can see who the audience responds well to and who the audience doesn't. But it needs to be a gradual shift rather than an abrupt one. Introducing in a completely new replacement main character that dominates the script and expecting the audience to love them is a terrible idea.

I think a recurrent problem here is that feedback tends to be applied uncritically.

[Ashpd]

Well, I agree with that. As long as they don't have any mortal danger or any good moment to send off, they can't be rem-WAIT A MINUTE. TWO WORDS.
ULTIMA
THULE

[TheMightyMollusk]

That's one element of DT that amused me: Estinien's presence. Him being in Tural actually felt more natural than the other Scions. Not sure if this was because he didn't have an agenda and just headed that way because (basically) 'why not' but, for me, it worked.
And I almost feel that they should've taken that approach with the Warrior of Light.

Estinien was well handled in DT. He's there for entirely his own reasons (just because he wanted to see somewhere new), his duel with Galool Ja Ja sets up the Dawnservant as a powerful fighter (we know how strong Estinien is, so someone who can match him in a duel, even if neither are going all-out, is clearly strong too), his reappearance later makes sense given his prior motive (they just opened the gates to Shaalaoni, he's there to see new places, of course he'd check it out), and he gets to be involved in the climax of the story without interfering (he's the rearguard, helping out the locals without completely overshadowing their own contributions).

[MsQi]

They need to stop trying to force us (our WoL) to feel a certain way about people. We should get to create our own team.

[BakoolJaJa]

All the recent interviews are so tone deaf. All of them. Every single one. It actually makes me worried.

Somehow literally none of the feedback from the past years has been understood it seems. None of the current feedback is understood. "Wuk Lamat is not confident enough" is NOT the takeaway! "Seems like players can't manage a second with the entire cast of scions breathing down their necks" is NOT the takeaway! "7.0 was a testing ground for character arks, and uhh, idk, players not happy for some reason" when Krile/Erenville get 5 minutes of screen time is NOT the takeaway!

This is all the same crap as the viper changes. "We're listening to feedback." What feedback? Where? Literally nobody is giving you this feedback, not in a single country, language, social media, etc.

I really hope they manage to get back on track somehow and start monitoring feedback properly. My copium for 8.0 improvements is starting to run out, I feel like they'll do something even more stupid next expac. Like idk, send the WoL and only Wuk Lamat to Meracydia, act like "look, you didn't want scions and we were playing with the idea of sending WoL alone, but that would be too much, so here! Enjoy! Also she's more confident now! And all the cool shit we put into side quests, the MSQ is literally just talking and fetching stuff for Wuk Lamat!"

[Raven2014]

I highly recommend YoshiP to go play Trails of series if he's struggling with handling old characters. The trails series at this point has dozens of games that spans over a decade, so it has accumulate a massive roster of characters. And while you can debate certain aspect of the story just like everything, its handle of old characters is always good. The series regular introduce new cast and put the focus on them, but it also regularly rotate in the old cast. And the way it does it, each time it feels like a love letter to old fans and it makes me feel good about their appearance.

Funny enough, there is someone among the Scion that I think has always be handled in similar way to the Trails game, and that's Estinien. He's not constantly at our hip or on a speed dial with us, but each time I run into him I giddily with excitement. Remembering back to ShB we haven't seen him in a while, then suddenly after a long absence we saw him breaking into the Garlemald base with Gaius and that was so cool. It's the only instance in the entire game that I didn't mind playing an NPC.

[Zaniel]

I'm for a slow approach, ease them out but hold them in the wings for very brief and only directly appropriate cameos.

The other issue is who has finished their personal story?
- Thancred: has come home completely, the only outstanding matter is his being able to reunite with Ryne, that is it, his personality and story are complete. He's become the father of his lost love's "daughter", it doesn't get more complete than that.
- Estinien: his role as opposite and compliment to the dragons has come full circle, he's at peace, comfortable with his life and happy to just relax in the sunset. His home country has overcome its problems and he's overcome his anger and needs.
- Urianger: Not quite complete but he's never really had a personal journey other than the pain of Moenbryda. That's resolved and he's found a home helping the Loporitts.
- G'raha: Mixed bag, obviously his main story is complete in a pretty total and final fashion but he still has some story to tell as his younger self, in many ways he's a better "narrator" than Alphinaud because he's even older and wiser. I'd keep him around not because he needs to develop but because he's the valuable sage to provide counsel. Doesn't need to be omni-present.
- Krile: Obviously a long way to go story-wise: keep.
- Y'Shtola: Probably the Scion who most needs to go, she's become a weird deus ex machina who gets trundled to solve magic problems and her personality is dying. She's the Scion who is most suffering as a character by being held onto. Just have her pop back in once she solves dimensional travel then she can retire on the Source.
- Alphinaud: Has become his father and grandfather in one, he's come home after exile, his great goal of ending the continental wars has essentially been realised and his story is far better served in the halls of power as a "young Fourchenalt" than out on the field. Check in with him as we need in various capitals but not as a companion.
- Alisaie: Probably the last original Scion who hasn't finished growing, she still puppy-dog's the WoL a little instead of becoming her own self (in spite of her major accomplishments). She needs a final run to become a complete person.