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

[Sushikins]

There is a significant difference between killing monsters, Garleans, Primals, Beastmen and corrupt people out in the wild and killing groups of guards in town who to the general populace are just doing their jobs.

[AdamFyi]

im preety sure thers an achievement on how many enemys you struck down. i honestly fail to see how those few brass blades/ crystal braves make you look different if you would have killed them (in comparison to the hundred thousand beastmen, traitors, garleans and whatever else you allready killed)

I doubt some of the achievements are in any way directly linked to the story. So they're non-canon. As for killing people, there are a few problems I can see and some have already stated. Killing a few Brass Blades would pose bad since the Syndicate can use that as ammunition against you. Killing a few Crystal Braves would pose even better ammunition for them to use against you. Not a lot of people know about the Crystal Braves turning against the Scions as it all happened in private, so they'll just assume you turned traitor and kill some of your own. Welp.

Edit: I think we can dismiss the use of side-quests as an argument. Most of those happen outside the MSQ. Hell, you can go through the whole 2.0 to 2.55 MSQ without having to touch coil.

[Riepah]

There is a significant difference between killing monsters, Garleans, Primals, Beastmen and corrupt people out in the wild and killing groups of guards in town who to the general populace are just doing their jobs.

What's the difference between killing corrupt people in the wild and killing corrupt people in the city? Both of those groups of people could've "just been doing their jobs" to the general populace. It couldn't be any more obvious that they are corrupt when they're trying to frame the savior of Eorzea with poisoning the Sultana, of all things. What reason could we possibly have to do that? How do they think the Warrior of Light benefits in ANY way from killing the Sultana? Besides - what the general populace hears about this whole incident is in the hands of the Syndicate anyway. They can tell the common people whatever they wish to tell them, even if we didn't resist, they can claim we did and killed half a dozen innocent guards. I mean - duh, what were the scions doing? Papalymo and Yda killed their fair share, and so did Y'Shtola and Thancred. Why is it okay for them to kill corrupt guards but not for us?

Killing a few Crystal Braves would pose even better ammunition for them to use against you. Not a lot of people know about the Crystal Braves turning against the Scions as it all happened in private, so they'll just assume you turned traitor and kill some of your own.

Alphinaud, the very LEADER of the Crystal Braves can confirm it just fine, however.

[ElieDavion]

I doubt some of the achievements are in any way directly linked to the story. So they're non-canon. As for killing people, there are a few problems I can see and some have already stated. Killing a few Brass Blades would pose bad since the Syndicate can use that as ammunition against you. Killing a few Crystal Braves would pose even better ammunition for them to use against you. Not a lot of people know about the Crystal Braves turning against the Scions as it all happened in private, so they'll just assume you turned traitor and kill some of your own. Welp.

what i meant is that murder depends on the point of view and a hero in such a worlds is just a glorified murderer in a sense.

[AdamFyi]

Alphinaud, the very LEADER of the Crystal Braves can confirm it just fine, however.

Wasn't he gaoled?

[Riepah]

Wasn't he gaoled?

Uh, no. He wasn't. You mean Raubahn, the leader of the Immortal Flames.

[AdamFyi]

Uh, no. He wasn't. You mean Raubahn, the leader of the Immortal Flames.

I remember Pipin specifically mentioning about breaking him out because he believed that they were innocent.

[FallenArisen0990]

What is it with all the murder comments!? This is when I start to question a person's mentality. Even if you're talking about something not real, doesn't change the fact the mentality in one's mind is in question. Comments like this are not protected and are taken into account of your true nature. The fact that some are very adamant about what they feel is a sign as to why politics start to intervene with video games.

[Kallera]

I really would like to hear from the devs in the nature of the player's relationship with their own character(as in, are they an extension of our responses, or a stand-in for Derplander, predetermined and set). the reason for this is that multiple quests and cutscenes give mixed signals on this. From Gaius's elevator conversation, the carriage guys in the intro, to various conversations in sidequests, my initial reaction was "Which response best suits Kallera's, what would she say?" The story required involvement, and kept interest and investment in the characters that we log in with everyday. The voices within that we have for our characters, our emotions, that aren't all uniform. I do not believe we all view ourselves as Derplander.

2.55's final scenes, they way they were handled, ended up taking many players out of the story, this is generally a mistake in storytelling. By including agency with the arrest and involvement with the escape, I think the cutscenes would've been taken a lot better.

Examples: Not everyone understands being suddenly whisked from the Sultana's meeting room to the banquet bound, but a lot more would understand getting an option of going quietly, or getting in a quick scuffle where you are overcome by the guards, then taken to the banquet bound. Whose to say going quietly wouldn't result in a punch to the face anyway?

The decisions of the Scions buying the rest time, Minfillia certainly, could've warranted multiple choice reactions ("You ARE the Scions!" "...Don't you die on me!" "Why are you doing this?") To give a sense of it being the last time you might be able to say something to them.

[Nagrom]

Our killing primals isn't unique and only something we can do. The primals have been defeated before without us and our blessing. What makes us unique is that we are immune to being tempered, not that we can kill primals. The company of heroes who we had to do all those quests for back when we were still an unknown had put Titan down. It's even stated in the Ifrit cutscenes that the Flames and Blades could put down Ifrit, just that more lives would be lost as they have to kill anyone that gets tempered.

Also our level isn't an argument, levels are a game mechanic that is only something that is there as a baseline to set content difficulty. Even using that argument just a quick glance through the regions near a nation show guards come in more than a single level range, so who is to say the ones inside the palace wouldn't be of a level that would make them at least mobs in an equal level dungeon to us. The imperial unit inside the Keeper of the Lake are from the same base we ride through, and yet they are certainly stronger than those who are at best an annoyance when they hit us and slow down our ride.