Ability to see the future: Loose plot thread?

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

That kind of made me question why they even bothered with it in the first place because basically every purpose it served could've been accomplished through more mundane means and it felt like it mostly served to build artificial suspense.

The main role it played in the entire mess was allowing Mikoto to be used as Resonant fodder...but they could've just as easily made Misija be an antagonistic Echo user akin to Ysayle and had her be captured strictly for her knowledge of the relic instead.

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Honestly, I think it might just have been the sort of thing where you have to try it before you learn it won't work.

I’m not against it being used well. Averting fate/destiny can make for a great plot, if done well. Changing the future too, but I’m reallllllly against destiny/fate/time travel being thrown it in without it being a major plot point.

Like, I’m all for Chrono Trigger and God of War dealing trying the change fate as the main focus, but in FF… ehhh.

I really don’t like the time travel shenanigans we got, so I hope they don’t muddy it further.


Minor echo moments with glimpses of things to be, not so bad though.

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Originally Posted by Cassar

I've heard the theory of Azem having this ability and honestly that would make sense and it would be pretty neat.
What kind of bothers me is the fact the Scions (or anyone, for that matter) could've like asked for Mikoto's aid during the final days or something, her ability would be incredible in times of need, yet no one even thinks about it!

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It really depends on other factors: Can Mikoto and other echo users even use it on their own? We for example cant use our echo when we want to. And on top of that we have Mikoto that was like: I keep silent about it because the future should happen as a I see it. And to top it all off, how far away into the future can they see?

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

That's the other beef I had with it.

The Echo has been firmly established to work by reading the "memory" aether of either souls or the environment, so being able to predict the future is decidedly not something that falls within the scope of what it's previously been shown to be capable of doing and they didn't even bother trying to handwave it by saying it's predicting the flows of aether or some such (Which is how Xenoblade did it).

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Well we do have Fordola with the made up echo that is able to have future sights when it was about her attacks. We had to use a device otherwise she just would have known how to stop us because she saw it coming.

I am not against adding to the echo. We have learned with Endwalker that you can see visions in different ways and we know that the echo worked different for people like Minfilia and Kryle too. Yet I am also not a fan of future sight. As in seeing it happening. Having that as being able to predict attacks is okay but Mikotos echo is too much imo.

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Originally Posted by Cassar

I mean come on, there's an individual in this world that can see the GODDAMN FUTURE!!! That's like the most useful ability in this entire universe!!
(Let me know if I'm overreacting lol)

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The Priestess of Apollo, Cassandra, would definitely disagree about the usefulness of that ability.

Hey now if Apollo wasn't being a dick and cursed her prophecies to not be believed she at least would get about the same respect as the Oracle of Delphi. Just that with her stuff people could actually try and change the outcome. Unlike the things the Oracle would tell you.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Hey now if Apollo wasn't being a dick and cursed her prophecies to not be believed she at least would get about the same respect as the Oracle of Delphi. Just that with her stuff people could actually try and change the outcome. Unlike the things the Oracle would tell you.

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I was amused at the story told about Croesus of Lydia's encounter with the Oracle. "Should I invade?" "You will cause the destruction of a great empire" ... unsaid: "your own". It was a great profit center (pun intended) for nearly 1500 years, but changed hands, er, I mean gods, more often than many corporate conglomerates of today.

While it can be an interesting storytelling device, linking it back to the Echo on a more consistent basis adds some complications.

In particular, there's the issue that reading the past is something that could be done consciously in Amaurotine times, either by reading a memory when someone accesses it consciously, or simply by reading the aether of the land itself. If future sight becomes a recurring concept, then it'll likely have to fit into that same framework somehow. As a once off it doesn't matter so much.

Not to say that it can't be a fun storytelling device, though. Divination is probably the most undervalued school of magic, and it's probably up there with Illusion in terms of entertainment value in pen and paper settings. I think that it could make for a fun job concept as well, especially if coupled with some rewind time effects.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Well we do have Fordola with the made up echo that is able to have future sights when it was about her attacks. We had to use a device otherwise she just would have known how to stop us because she saw it coming.

I am not against adding to the echo. We have learned with Endwalker that you can see visions in different ways and we know that the echo worked different for people like Minfilia and Kryle too. Yet I am also not a fan of future sight. As in seeing it happening. Having that as being able to predict attacks is okay but Mikotos echo is too much imo.

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They at least had a simple explanation for why Fordola's ability worked, which was that the incorporeal aether mobilizes before the physical body which provided a very short term precognition in a logical manner.

XIV is very fond of trying to explain how magicks and other supernatural phenomena work at least on a surface level, so them just coming in saying absolute future sight is a thing without any explanation whatsoever about the "how" of it was really awkward.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Hey now if Apollo wasn't being a dick and cursed her prophecies to not be believed she at least would get about the same respect as the Oracle of Delphi. Just that with her stuff people could actually try and change the outcome. Unlike the things the Oracle would tell you.

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And we should be fine, after all, it's not like the Greek gods exist anywhere in the game's setting as capricious enough assholes to do horrible things like--

Oh. Right.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

They at least had a simple explanation for why Fordola's ability worked, which was that the incorporeal aether mobilizes before the physical body which provided a very short term precognition in a logical manner.

XIV is very fond of trying to explain how magicks and other supernatural phenomena work at least on a surface level, so them just coming in saying absolute future sight is a thing without any explanation whatsoever about the "how" of it was really awkward.

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That, and Fordola's "precognition" was just that she became able to see cast bars and aoes with the echo just like us