Quote Originally Posted by Theytak View Post
But why is this the case? It can't be that difficult to make the Healing focused pet at least somewhat competent at one of the most important aspects of healing.
Theory 1:

The part of the Development Bros' development (bro?) kit that handles spells cast by AI things is just wonky and not very advanced. Spell-casting monsters in FFXI started out as either random Black Mage beastmen, or big and scary things with a less than a half-dozen big and scary spells to augment their big and scary TP moves.

The current incarnations of the spell-casting automatons are so different than the original spell-casting monsters that they may well be the equivalent of some impoverished Russian guy's ingenious Russian ceiling fan built out of lawn mower parts, tin foil, one pair of pliers in lock position, and one pack of chewing gum.

Those guys are just doing the best they can with something weird and wonky, working on something way more complex than was ever meant to exist, using a decade-old development kit.

This might also explain why the Development Bros don't even know what the puppet actually does half the time, if that's not what it "should" be doing in accordance with a crazy mess of code piled onto itself endlessly.

Theory 2:

Like the last son or daughter jettisoned from a dying world, the Soulsoother automaton has been imparted with all the knowledge of its progenitors. All of it. Every bit.

Thus, how the Soulsoother cures is a window into how the Development Bros think curing a bro works.

This would definitely account for why the Development Bros don't know what the puppet actually does half the time, although I don't think "explain" is the right word here.