Needs Improvement to Story (Spoiler Warning)

[Belhi]

key word is "a", The Company of Heores, the 2nd highest record holders of primal slaying only managed to slay two. And that is with heavy casualties. The Warriors od Darkness would havce matched the Company of Heroes had we not interrupted them at Paga'than and would had came between them and us for the worked because had we not pre-empted the Garuda and Titan resummoning.

Us? We had slayed a good total of 10 deiforms, with another 5 in sidequests (Odin, Bahamut, Alexander, Sephirot and Sophia), and this isn;t due to the Blessing of Light (otherwise Ravana would has made us mincemeat and Bismarck would had ensured we lived out the climax of Pinnochio) it was due to the Echo which prevented us from being tempered

And then there is the amount of weapons we usually find that tend to be named after mythological weapons (including those of the gods themselves) and if the Lorebook is to be belived, are more ofthen than not one of a kind (Including the dungeon drops and Esoteric weapons)

Oh and back to the martial prowess, we also slayed legiosn of voidsent up to and including one of their weens, the envoys of a different queen and an anchient guardian of a lost relic that can kill voidsent (oh and a black hole)

There is a very good reason Elidibus says we are encroaching on the realm of gods. But on the other hand all of that (Echo and Blessing including) mught be dueto Hydaelyn putting all her eggs in 1 humanoid basket, ina last desperate push for survival.

This is all true but we can still die from a knife in the back or a poison drink. If the WoL isn't paying attention a grunt with a sword could still cut their head off. The WoL is still fundamentally mortal.

That could change as they have the echo. I also agree that the WoL is Hydaelyn's final major play in this war and she has put a lot of faith in them.

[ADVSS]

No we cant. We literally cant die, even if we want to. Wipe to a primal? wake up second later with echo. Die to a story mission or fail it cause npc dies, we come back in time and redo it with more echo strength, we pretty much are god slayers, so...were basically killers of gods. How do you know that drink in falcons nest was just a roofie? it was probably killemall poison, and like all raids, we wake up later, fuzzy headed with 10
% more hp for the next 50 minutes.....

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

No we cant. We literally cant die, even if we want to. Wipe to a primal? wake up second later with echo. Die to a story mission or fail it cause npc dies, we come back in time and redo it with more echo strength, we pretty much are god slayers, so...were basically killers of gods. How do you know that drink in falcons nest was just a roofie? it was probably killemall poison, and like all raids, we wake up later, fuzzy headed with 10
% more hp for the next 50 minutes.....

I do wonder how much of this is gameplay-story segregation, though. Normally I'd say it ALL is, with the Blessing and the Echo simply making us stronger and sturdier than we might otherwise be, but then you have the Warriors of Darkness reviving via the Blessing/Echo in 3.4.

Is there any indication that we have the actual power to cheat death, as far as the actual story goes?

[FJerome]

I do wish they hadn't faked out Nanamo's death mostly because it distracts from the fact that those events had terrible consequences for everyone else that stuck pretty firmly; Wilred is still dead, Raubahn is still missing an arm, Y'shtola is still blind and eating away at her life-force to function and Thancred has still lost his magic and is now aging again as a consequence.

If they had just shown us from the get-go that she was in a coma it'd have all worked a lot better, we'd have felt the impact of everything else a lot harder.

[Alleo]

No we cant. We literally cant die, even if we want to.

Well that depends if this is something only for gameplay or if this part of the story. We know its possible for the WoD to get back up but that was thanks to their special condition. We also don't really kill primals again and again so I would say that in the story we only have one chance to beat the primal and we manage to do so. It was also said somewhere that you going back to aetheryte after being "death" does not mean we are dead but only unconscious. So I would say that us dieing in a battle might be it or maybe we suddenly know how to possess another body thanks to the echo.

[ADVSS]

I do wonder how much of this is gameplay-story segregation, though. Normally I'd say it ALL is, with the Blessing and the Echo simply making us stronger and sturdier than we might otherwise be, but then you have the Warriors of Darkness reviving via the Blessing/Echo in 3.4.

Is there any indication that we have the actual power to cheat death, as far as the actual story goes?

that is a good question, since the echo essentially could just be used to relive the occurence, like a day dream or such, essentially how we get stronger so that the vision is successful, but i could be completely wrong. WoD definately brings that point up moreso, since they apparently gave up the flesh to come to our world, in which would make more sense they just keep coming back.

[Alberel]

Honestly the story itself is meh, which is fine for an MMO. Especially after the last patch fiasco, little of it making sense to me.

FTFY.

Sorry but the story makes perfect sense if you're paying attention. 3.4 was by far the best story update we've had in the game as it finally gave us an overview of the cosmology and it greatly expanded our understanding of what's actually going on and what's at stake. If you didn't understand it then feel free to ask for help. Don't just claim it's bad because you can't follow it.

OP I can only greatly disagree with you I'm afraid. The story was a little weak in places early on but from Heavensward and on it's only gotten better and better. Setting aside the Nanamo fakeout we've had three particularly poignant deaths of main characters as it is, and they have very much remained dead. One of those deaths was actually so big a deal to the community that a memorial to him was erected at the Vegas fan fest. There's even a quest in game after completing the 3.3 MSQ that gives you the chance to mourn all those that died in a very touching fashion (by far the best quest in the entire game thus far IMO). There is very much a sense of loss in this story, the WoL has not weathered the events of Heavensward entirely unscathed and it has greatly affected them emotionally. The scene with Aymeric at dinner in 3.4 was an amazing reflection of this.

Branching story paths are hugely impractical for an MMO as you have to develop multiple times the normal amount of story content and most players will only see a fraction of it. It's simply not an efficient use of resources and uneconomical. It would also make the story a mess for the community as no one would share the same experience and thus this forum would become a nightmare since no one would be on the same page in terms of events.

As for introducing any sort of risk of losing equipment, levels or attributes, sorry but those kinds of mechanics are largely hated in modern MMOs. The only games to feature such things now will be ones targeted solely at veterans of the genre. It'll never happen here.

[Morningstar1337]

Is there any indication that we have the actual power to cheat death, as far as the actual story goes?

In a manner of speaking, yes but we haven't used it that way yet.
The Ascians (who are apparently echo masters) have the power to chest death using their crystals and a mortal host. Which is how Lahabrea survived the Praetorium. If you think this is exclusive to servants of Zodiark, 3.4 reveals another group of echo users, using crystals of light, to that same end. The Warrors of Darkness (both in-game and in story)

The catch however is that you wound give up your soul and your flesh to do so, and that cutscene in 3,4's makes me speculate this state is like a Gender-neutral versions of the Magical Girls in Madoka Magica, with the soul placed in a crystal, a body controlled remotely from it and a "battery life" of sorts. Though we're unsure how much this applies to the Ascians.

yes the Warrior of Light can cheat death, but they so far haven't use the canon method of doing so, and even if they have they could be more of a lich. With that said The deaths and failues I think might be explained by another function of the echo. Has there been any indication in 1.0 or beyond that the Echo's powers include visions of the future?