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

[seekified]

Passive characters here and there, but still - we got like an hour and a half of actual cutscenes where some real shit goes down. I've never played an MMO that does that before.

[Krazymagic]

I dont feel like writing an essay response to the OP about how I completely disagree, so I will just say that I completely disagree with the OP. I felt the story was excellent. I understand why certain things are done the way they are done (ie: the passiveness) so I never am bothered by it. The last 2 quests in the story line had me on the edge of my seat...Better than half the movies you watch these days. I have zero complaints.

[MacHorz]

I just think we will see all people in Ishgard back; my theory: The Ishgard People saw this coming, helped everyone or most and brought them to Ishgard. Since we cannot enter this place until June, we wont meet them again also the syndicate wont find them there!

[Felis]

Uhhh...No? The reason we could beat primals was because of the blessing of light. The Echo is what helped us not get tempered by primals. If they just had the Echo they wouldn't be able to kill primals. The blessing of light allowed us to have strengths past mortal limits. The Echo only allows us to know all languages, not being tempered by primals and see past events but can't interfere with them. I am pretty sure Minfilia can't kill primals even though she has the Echo.

And exactly this blessing of light got sealed after the first meeting with Midgardsormr.

[Defteros]

I dont feel like writing an essay response to the OP about how I completely disagree, so I will just say that I completely disagree with the OP. I felt the story was excellent. I understand why certain things are done the way they are done (ie: the passiveness) so I never am bothered by it. The last 2 quests in the story line had me on the edge of my seat...Better than half the movies you watch these days. I have zero complaints.

you don't even have complaint about how they handled Minfilia?

srlsy?

[Defteros]

I just think we will see all people in Ishgard back; my theory: The Ishgard People saw this coming, helped everyone or most and brought them to Ishgard. Since we cannot enter this place until June, we wont meet them again also the syndicate wont find them there!

actually, in the last part, yugiri says that her people (meaning the Domans) are looking for the Scions

[saber_alter]

The player character is a soulless puppet devoid of will.
All they do is nod and follow instructions and do not see blatant things that will get them into trouble later. For example, immediately after being informed that many of the Crystal Braves have been compromised, my character comes upon a random Crystal Brave and... tells him exactly what she's doing and who she's come to meet. Surprise surprise, this guy is one of the bad guys.
and our character is supposed to know this? i don't like the fact that my character is so good natured, but we honestly don't know who is a turn coat and who isnt until Nanamo hits the floor.
The most egregious example of this is just after Nanamo's poisoning (an element which by the way was so incredibly obvious, the creepy handmaiden who poisoned her might as well have been wearing a black top hat and mustache) our character passively submits to arrest by Teledi and a bunch of generic goons. No resistance from a multiple world saviour with a weapon that is worth more than all the goons' gear combined, nope, off in chains she goes!
Meanwhile Thancred faced with the exact same situation chooses to fight, and hey he gets away.
sometimes fighting is the solution, sometimes complying is the solution. in our case, we were right in front of the Sultana's body; fighting would have simply been a death sentence to us, like it or not playing the passive game makes it look like we were just caught up in it.
Alphinaud is really stupid
Okay, come on, really? I can buy he's a bit naive, but so incredibly dumb that 90% of his private army turn against him? And I can only assume Yoshi really hates Alphinaud, as they keep drilling home the point that he's dumber than a kettle of fish. Even after recognizing that the Braves have been ridiculously compromised and after knowing one of his men was murdered by his fellows, he still goes off to meet a bunch of Braves alone and can thank pure dumb luck that he still has his head.
He was caught up in his own hubris. He isn't the first to get himself caught up in a situation like this. the story of the well meaning and powerful idiot has been told often before.
Raubahn is the only character in the entire plot with a functioning brain
everyone knows it doesn't make any sense, and that Teledji is obviously making a power play, but after being accused like that you think FIGHTING is the solution? "you all are traitors!" "no we aren't!" *stabs noble accuser in full view of everyone
Every Scion except Thancred is completely useless
Even after Smirking Dummy (I forget his name) cuts Raubahn's arm off and admits to masterminding Nanamo's death, the rest of the Scions stand there and watch passively as Smirking Dummy and Raubahn fight. Most embarassingly, when Raubahn is punted across the room, Ysh'tola acts... only to shield herself and her fellow passive bystanders. No really, thanks for your support lady!
The worst part, the absolute worst part of course is when Raubahn unties my character. "Great!" I thought. "Now it's on! Together we will..." ... be told to run away even though in any logical term, Smirking Dummy + Random Goons vs. Me + Rauhban + Scions = Smirking Dummy loses.
see previous comments.
Now before you say it yes, even if they still had to run from the whole Ul'dan army they'd be in a better position!
yes. dead from being overwhelmed by every crystal brave and brass blade in Ul'dah, or "Eorzea's light in the shadow" looking like they assasinated the sultana, and with their compatriots murdered every single brass blade and crystal brave. good job winning the hearts of the people hero.
Let's shoe-horn Cid in, in a really bad way
So really. Me and Alphinaud flee to the Black Shroud and then get on the Enterprise for shelter in Coerthas? (we fled to black brush station. in the c. Thanalan. not the black shroud.)
Excuse me? We just went through several scenes where the leaders of the Eorzan Alliance state they will always put their own interests first and you're telling me it's not save in Gridania? Senna would just allow Ul'dans to search her territory, cajole her people and forcibly remove a Gridanian citizen (which my character is not that they'd remember that of course)?
After they went and gave the crystal braves pretty much free reign to do what they want, yes.
I would totally get this idea if Cid, say, flew up to the Ul'dan ramparts and rescued our character that way. Which is entirely possible since he has an airship
the thing is, we weren't even near the Ul'dah ramparts, we escaped through a tunnel that leads to ruins just outside Ul'dah. also airships filled with ceruleum are quite flammable, and the crystal blades have *gasps* mages.
Now please understand this is not me nitpicking. If I wanted to nitpick I'd point out that Yugiri with her mask off apparently walked around Coerthas in the middle of a dragon invasion without comment.
I can deal with minor niggles. I can't deal with a plot that's utterly disjointed and only works if every single character is drinking gasoline.
This story is not good, and makes me fear for the expansion if all we're going to get is more of this.
Auri aren't dragons. they would have turned her back at the gates if they were not tolerant of her. either that or she didn't let them see her walk in.
Unless, of course, this is all a genius subversive narrative intended to prove the Garlean Empire and everything Gaius said absolutely right. Eorzea completely needs the authority and leadership of Garlemald because hell, everybody in charge of it has no business leading a parade, let alone nations or organisations. Gaius was right in some ways, but controlling eorzea is like controlling the middle east. good sodding luck.

TL,DR: only an idiot fights in retaliation when being accused of treason.

[Lillia]

all i can say is... Nanamo hit me in the feelers and fueled my rage towards Lolorito and Tedliji along with IIberd being added to that list soon after.

( Did anyone bother talking to any of the NPC's after the indicent? Crafter masters have a new dialog if you trained under them and I personally find the Alchemist one enjoyable. )

[Felis]

I think most of the things our character did made sense. Not so much the npc's though...Minus Raubahn that seemed to stay true to his character. You also need to realise that our action moments can't be placed in cutscene format. How would you even achieve this in a mmorpg. Different races, different height, different classes/jobs, gear, weapons. I wouldn't want to be the person trying to create a cutscene with so many factors...

CS end, fight start. If you win, the CS start again where it stopped. If you lose you have to do the fight again until you win.

Our "cutscene" action moment are our instanced fights. That's the way you need to look at it.

exactly

[Aeyis]

TL,DR: only an idiot fights in retaliation when being accused of treason.

Yeah like Thancred and Raubahn.

I'm also pretty sure if you just killed every monetarist and all the brass blades a lot of people in Ul'dah would completely support that. Twice, since its you doing it. Bonus points added if you offer refugees work as new Silver Blades.