Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi P talks about the Scion’s 'halfhearted' role in Dawntrail and says they'll probably use smaller, more select groups of beloved NPCs going forward

I have many opinions about the story of Dawntrail, in Final Fantasy 14. It's a narrative I enjoyed but found more issues with the longer I sat down with it. My biggest complaint was that it didn't prioritize its characters well. I felt some were underused at best and cardboard cutouts at worst.

It's not that focusing on the new cast is bad, but I think you have to commit to it either way. You can have your Scion friends take on a genuine, thoughtful role as a supporting actor if you wish, or you can choose to have them busy elsewhere.

During my interview with Naoki Yoshida at Gamescom, last week, the game director revealed that this is a problem the Dawntrail development team has been struggling with. The fan response has taught them how to work with Dawntrail's enormous cast in the future.

Yoshi-P explains: "We wanted all the Scions to be showcased, but we also wanted new characters to be showcased, and we wanted see what the response would be." "We wanted people to say, 'Oh, no, we don’t want any Scions. Please, get rid of them.' Or, on another hand, people may say, "hey, we want back our Scions." We thought we would have to do this [eventually]. In that sense, we accepted the challenge."

Yoshi-P's comments are a bit misleading, but I get the impression that the Scion roles in Dawntrail was a band-aid that the team had to remove at some point.

"As expected," he continued, "there were some people who argued that they wanted to see Scions more in focus, and there were others who said they wanted the Scions to take a back seat and not be the focal point. In that respect, I felt we learned a lot from Dawntrail.

Yoshi-P tells that people didn't want to see the scions in a halfhearted way.

It's a relief for me as a FF14 fan who has invested a lot in the story. I was wondering why, during Dawntrail's first hours, Alphinaud and Alisaie - both characters with a lot of experiences that are similar to Wuk Lamat - were mostly silent when they had the chance to talk to her.

Yoshi-P cites a few examples of fixes the team is considering: "For instance, one possibility for the next story would be that the Warrior of Light embarks on a solo journey." The team could also "forgo new characters" and instead have "all the Scions working together moving forward."

"As I said before, presenting some characters in an unfinished way is not a good idea. We would like to create stories that are more dramatic. The word 'dramatic,' could mean several things - again, this was a quirk that I had it translated to me at the time - but as he continues to explain, you could substitute 'deliberate,' for that word.

Confession time: While I have married G'raha Tia several times in my fantasies, a scene in Dawntrail where he speaks with the player in a gondola is a great example of how I envisioned the expansion using its returning party members. I told Yoshi-P about this, and he said:

"G'raha has a huge fan base, so I'm very aware of what kind of reaction I could get if he didn't appear in an expansion." He's got me.

"But, having said that, just because a character does not appear in a particular expansion doesn't mean that they will never be seen again." We are looking at doing things in an order. Yoshi-P envisions a future where FF14 rotates its core cast (including the Scions of the Seventh Dawn) based on the story, but in smaller, more digestible groups.
"So, maybe in a certain expansion, such and this character will be the focal point, and then in the following expansion, another group will be the focal point. I think this is the most likely route to take."