3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

[Theodric]

Eh, I like Regula. That he survived a fight against the Warrior of Light on three separate occasions is a pretty huge deal when you consider just how tiresome the Hydaelyn's Blessing, The Echo and 'Cid's airship' have become as a means of evading any and all meaningful danger and consequences. I, too, want more compelling antagonists (not to be mistaken with 'irredeemable villains') but we're only going to get them if the 'get out of jail for free' plot devices for the Scions/Warrior of Light aren't just recycled over and over.

We also need less 'dead but not really, just kidding' moments (such as with the Sultana and the majority of major Scions) and we need shades of grey where both the antagonists and protagonists are concerned. Having a few outright villains with no redeeming qualities is fine in moderation, of course.

3.0 was already an improvement over 2.0 but if 4.0 moves to be bolder and doesn't resort to 'fake outs' or 'I betrayed you but not really' moments then it'll be even more impressive than 3.0.

[Lauront]

WoL blessing = boring af.

Sorry, it just is.

[Lauront]

I'm just tired of him after he pulled [...]

Maybe they could stop downplaying Ascians then, by virtue of the moronic WOL plot armour, and put them in a serious instance, rather than boring easy af story mode content.

Just an idea.

They're still fleshing out Regula. Not sure what the rush is or why he is lacking in his current form. Not everything is going to be as eventful as fighting Nidhogg was... and Nidhogg himself had a lot of build-up surrounding him, e.g. when you fought him in the Aery, again plot armour shielded you from his power. Much like it shielded you from Thordan... and a bunch of others. Even in its diminished form.

[Balipu]

WoL blessing = boring af.

Sorry, it just is.

True, but we are the protagonists. We cannot die. It might work in a single player game with a full party of controllable characters, but not here. We need to be a literal one man army. It goes with the genre. Sure it is impressive that Regula survives against us at all, but really how many times does it take to beat up someone before he stops being threatening? It's like in Pokemon.

-Congratulations. But you still need to defeat the previous champion to get his title: Go and fight your old rival.
- Oh you mean the kid I have beaten like six times already? Phew I was scared for a second.

Maybe they could stop downplaying Ascians then, by virtue of the moronic WOL plot armour, and put them in a serious instance, rather than boring easy af story mode content.

Just an idea.

They're still fleshing out Regula.

You don't need to tell me what to do with the Ascians. I'm not on the dev team.

They are still fleshing him out? The last patch is comming in a week. They kinda should have done that before we fought him two times in 3.0.

[Theodric]

In all fairness, a lot of the time it's a matter of:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...orySegregation


'Story' content is always going to be 'easy' for the sake of accessibility. 'Extreme' modes are usually a lot more difficult, but they're a 'retelling' of sorts. Personally I'd prefer them to be a true to life account instead as they allow for the full potential of a particular antagonist to be explored. Oh well.

On the other hand, though, cut-scenes aren't restricted by the same limitations. We need to see more 'successes' on behalf of the antagonists through cut-scenes and less of Hydaelyn's Blessing/The Echo/Cid's Airship swooping in to prevent them from actually coming across as a genuine threat. I'd like to think most people here would agree that such a move would be pretty great. Until that happens, though, claiming that antagonists aren't 'fleshed out' simply because they're not allowed to be a genuine threat strikes me as counter productive. It's not contested that Regula is a considerable threat and a skilled, honourable combatant. We've seen him survive clashing with the Warrior of Light and the lore book enhanced his story further.

[Lauront]

The one man army narrative is just one way of carrying out the story and tbh it's cliched and overdone. But when you are on the level of flummoxing virtual gods, like Thordan and various primals, it does strain belief...

You don't need to tell me what to do with the Ascians. I'm not on the dev team.

Hence the word "they".

[Balipu]

The one man army narrative is just one way of carrying out the story and tbh it's cliched and overdone. But when you are on the level of flummoxing virtual gods, like Thordan and various primals, it does strain belief...

It is an MMO. No way around it. Every MMO has you turning into a god slaying person of mass destruction. FFXIV is one of the tamer ones actually. In WoW you lead your class order even though there really isn't any good reason why you should. In SWTOR you become the ruler of the galaxy after using some weird Force technique to kill off the spirit of the Evil Emperor. Even if you are a smuggler who doesn't give a damn about Jedi or Sith.

[Zojha]

'Extreme' modes are usually a lot more difficult, but they're a 'retelling' of sorts.

And as in real life, the retellings are often far fancier than the real deal.

We owe a lot of myths, legends and folklore to that. A big lizard suddenly turns into a fire-spitting dragon, a squid into a sea monster, one armed men into ten armed men etc. I find it quite fitting this way around actually.

[Cilia]

Personally, I do believe Zenos will be an unsympathetic antagonist - Yoshi-P said so, so there's little room for doubt. I'm just not ruling out the possibility, because it's always possible he could be sympathetic or have sympathetic motives. (Again, this is why I hate dealing in possibilities.) That said we've been told he'll be unsympathetic, so I'm expecting an iron-heeled tyrant or a spoiled manchild ("I'm the Emperor's son, I can do whatever I want!"). Despite that he could still be entertaining - a villain need not have sympathetic qualities or motives to be extremely engaging. Here's hoping he's half as entertaining as the likes of Junko Enoshima, Yuuki Terumi, and Handsome Jack...

The "grey morality" likely comes in with the Resistance, esp. factions like the Masks, not the Garleans themselves. Every Garlean antagonist we've met has been somewhere between "conquerer" and "utter bastard;" Gaius is what's probably considered progressive among Garleans, and he still said he was justified in taking Eorzea for his own simply because we could not stop him doing so. Rhitahtyn had a point in stating that Garlean meritocracy is... meritocratic, but he is undoubtedly the exception that makes the rule - non-Garlean soldiers have a very hard time rising in the imperial ranks, and can and will be executed at their legate's (or even a tribunus') whim. They have to serve 20 years to earn basic citizenship, exceptions notwithstanding. To say nothing of what the Garleans do to people who aren't conscripted.

The Scions are the white. The Resistance (i.e. Masks) are grey. The Garleans are, by and large, the black. While they do have some good points, they are not and will not be the Archadian Empire some want - not without major reforms, at any rate.

As for Regula, while I did hope to see more of him I think he'll be offed in 3.5 one way or another. Even if not, he said that Varis doesn't tolerate failure, so if he goes home empty-handed... yeah. He could survive and have a presence in Stormblood, but what would cause that to happen and what his role might be I haven't the foggiest.

[Balipu]

Maybe Zenos will be an agreeable guy, but for one reason or another will kill off someone we like.
Thordan was and awesome villain and he undoubtedly had good intentions (not to mention he permanently killed Lahabrea) but he tortured Aymeric and was indirectly responsible for the death of Haurchefaunt so KUPO him.