Our passive characters and why the 2.55 story fails (BIG SPOILERS) (rant warning)

[Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn]

It's a fair point. I think, however... FTBs can imply passivity (no visual cues like us taking up a fighting stance to counter that), especially when you add in that a few scenes after when, instead of helping our liberator, we did outright flee. On camera.

It's not bad to have a problem with that, really. And I understand it unless you consider the following:

The FTB in this case didn't assume a struggle because, again, some of us would've chosen to be captured because Teleji, no matter how much of a rat he was, loves having a captive audience and to be visible. He's not the type to quietly behead you when he's setting you up to take the fall.

Teleji Adeleji basically publicly accused us and the Scions of treason, from what I can tell outside of those present at the banquet there has been no formal announcement to Ul'dah. That means the damage was already done when Raubahn cut you lose. Everything the scions are doing right now is getting their strongest member on the most important task they're faced with right now, getting their names cleared so they can move freely about the city-states again. There is no one stronger than you, and so the 'hold the line' bit was because they needed you, yes you, specifically out of there. Because if you all held the line together and things just went pear-shaped, that'd be it. You'd all be rotting in a cell next to Raubahn awaiting that trial and public execution to finish out Lolorito/Teleji's scheme.

They told you to keep moving because you've proven time and again you're the one who can rise to any challenge, and that's what they need right now.

[Risvertasashi]

It's not bad to have a problem with that, really. And I understand it unless you consider the following:

All fair points. re: FTBs - My point was just that the "fade to black" isn't entirely a blank slate. It does imply certain things, especially if there aren't any cues to counter said default implications.

I'm not entirely sure they couldn't have given us some sort of 'fight and be forced to retreat' kind of deal for the Raubahn scene, though.

But I'll add once again. Overall I actually liked the story and cutscenes. It's fun to discuss and provide feedback, but don't take anything I'm saying to mean 'I HATE 2.55 MAIN STORY!'

I think, ultimately, most of our problems/criticisms come back to that age old problem in RPG gaming... we want to have more control over our actions. Agency, as it were. The technology isn't here yet and may not be for a long time, but there are tricks that can be used to give the illusion and make some things a bit more palatable.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

blah

I think that might stem more from JRPGs than WRPGs, but that's just me guessing. JRPGs, well a lot of them, push the story onto you and you don't have any choice other than following it. You could call them glorified books.

[Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn]

*snip*

Do I seriously need to do this with every post? Starting to get annoying with it's restrictions...

I'll leave the FTB alone at this point, because I get the feeling we're just going to go in a circle here.

I will admit to sort of wanting a brawl in Ul'dah instanced fight near the end to bring it all together. Wherein the WoL's echo plays the part of where we try to step in and get absolutely stomped as we try to assist Scions. And then we get to play it off as 'Well, probably shouldn't do that this time' sort of deal. But I think they wanted to make those final cutscenes just something you can pop some pop corn, sit back, and enjoy.

But then I sort of think out of respect the WoL trusted Nanamo's people with his gear as a show of good faith and Alphinaud managed to reprocure it, so it's also entirely a case with at least my toon that he was like 'okay, so kinda outnumbered and I'm not much of a pugilist... let's just kinda see where this goes and hope something comes up.'