[Spoilers] I'm getting sick of shonen manga power-ups each arc

[Alleo]

Adventurers not being in the cutscenes before or after doesn't really mean anything, your "adventurer friends" are actually a randomly assembled group created by the duty finder, it's probably just way too much effort to keep track of the most recent group you had so they can be inserted into your cutscenes.

Of course dont worry. Heck even SE seemingly cant decide what its true anyway, I just wanted to point out that its not 100% confirmed that we are doing stuff with groups and we have done at least some of those solo including Titania and Innocence so we are not weak. Having Ranjit coming out of nowhere in a country that is at peace with the sin eaters for some time and still beating us like that again and again just is bad imo. He was even more annoying than Zenos for me because Zenos was at least done not that often while Ranjit followed us through each map..

I think it's inherent to the long-running nature of the plot. We already powered up, the only things that can possibly threaten us have to be equally or more powerful than us, and then we have to beat those things. New expansion, new threat, and the cycle repeats.

If anything can be a "reset button" on our ever-increasing power level, I think it would have to be whatever lies at the end of the Hydaelyn vs Zodiark story. Something that brings us down to normal and not cosmically powerful.

Then perhaps any future expansions beyond it can start over with a less reality-threatening conflict.

Realistically we should need to become even more powerful with time instead of less and I cant just see what would happen that would decrease our level dramatically enough. (And this would also mean a huge skill revamp since we cant be weak but still have all of our skills to use) We get more and more near being complete, the echo is not a tool to power us up and not having the blessing in HW for some time really did not hinder us that much either. We are really just a very strong person that can beat guildmasters and old masters easily in job quests even though we just started to learn the job. When shadowbringer started to introduce the concept of split souls and getting those back with calamities I first thought that maybe only the WoL got theirs back thus the gap in power. But as we know everyone on the source has only one soul part less now than us so they should be that great too..(at the other hand other NPCs can also really take quite a bit of beating and the scions have also job changed throughout the story)

[SannaR]

The LTW guildmaster doesn't start to think you're not only good, but got talent until you're lv 30. Then there's the real guildmaster of gsm at least up to 60 still thinks you're stuff is crap to the point where he freaking died while almost saying your stuff is good (Haven't done the 60+ quests atm). I do think it's silly to have all crafting and gathering make us look like the only or at least one of the very few competent member of the guild. Though I don't think we'll ever be on Godbert's level of skill. To me at least with the dol/doh type stuff it lends nicely to your head cannon. As your character could have been a good cook or whatnot before they chose to become an adventure.

Sadly we're always going to be able to beat whatever enemy we're set up against. Would you rather just have someone we win against the first time even if we're told they're really strong or have someone where you have to either run away from/train for a few times and then beat them?

[DPZ2]

Having Ranjit coming out of nowhere in a country that is at peace with the sin eaters for some time and still beating us like that again and again just is bad imo.

Ranjit is not new at this, he has been fighting sin eaters pretty much since the Flood. The current Minfilia is not his first, or second, or third to train ... just the one and only one to not receive training.

If you need to figure a way to reconcile Ranjit's power -- think of a warrior surviving Every. Single. Battle with sin eaters over the course of eight decades (100 years minus the 20 of Vauthry's reign) without benefit of the Blessing of Light or the Echo. Of course he's going to be tougher. The fact that he's also got magical abilities (in addition to martial ones), means he is no pushover. When we, as Warriors of Light, have decades of experience I suspect it would be much simpler to overpower someone with Ranjit's abilities.

[SaberMaxwell]

Ranjit is not new at this, he has been fighting sin eaters pretty much since the Flood. The current Minfilia is not his first, or second, or third to train ... just the one and only one to not receive training.

If you need to figure a way to reconcile Ranjit's power -- think of a warrior surviving Every. Single. Battle with sin eaters over the course of eight decades (100 years minus the 20 of Vauthry's reign) without benefit of the Blessing of Light or the Echo. Of course he's going to be tougher. The fact that he's also got magical abilities (in addition to martial ones), means he is no pushover. When we, as Warriors of Light, have decades of experience I suspect it would be much simpler to overpower someone with Ranjit's abilities.

Or, ya know, about a week with no discernable change in stature other than becoming weaker due to overaspecting our aether to light.

Ranjit should have stalemated WoL, forcing a retreat on our part, and died to Thancred in Ahm Araeng / Eulmore. He was never our sworn foe, he's not our villain, he doesn't reflect any traits we may have or act as a foil to them, but he does for Thancred. If they developed that relationship more, focused harder on the theme of fatherhood and how both sought the same thing (Ryne's protection) but had starkly contrasting ideas of how to achieve that, I'd like him a lot more.

As it stands now I hate him even more knowing that they did hint at all of that, but that he just dies by WoL's hand in a random skirmish in Eulmore with no closure from Thancred or Ryne is disappointing.

Is it feasible he could go toe to toe with the WoL? Sure. My two biggest problems are: the fight we lose to him is anticlimactic; no matter how well the player does, he oneshots you at the end which defeats the purpose of a fight at all (my suggestion was a branching cutscene based on winning or losing, where the major differences are us standing or not when Thancred arrives), and we should never have been the one to kill him in the first place, especially in the absence of Thancred and Ryne. That's like having Superman kill Ra's Al Ghul while Batman is asleep; narratively unsatisfying.

[Mixt]

I would just like to point out that Ran'jit technically only beat us once out of the four times it came to a fight with him.

First time was with the Super Special Magic Martial Arts Lightning Pressure Point thing that paralyzed us so he could beat our faces in while we were unable to move.

Second time that same technique did nothing aside from a fairly piddly amount of damage, we decided to break off the fight because it was taking too long, then the floor collapsed and Urianger went all LOLHEALER and Rescued him into the pit.

Third time Thancred decided to make it personal and sent us off with Ryne because he wanted a piece of the old guy himself, and very nearly killed himself in the process.

Fourth time we flat out stomped him into the dirt.

[Jandor]

When shadowbringer started to introduce the concept of split souls and getting those back with calamities I first thought that maybe only the WoL got theirs back thus the gap in power. But as we know everyone on the source has only one soul part less now than us so they should be that great too..(at the other hand other NPCs can also really take quite a bit of beating and the scions have also job changed throughout the story)

What about the comparative quality of those soul parts though? How can we be sure everyone has a little bit of shattered ancient soul instead of a newer one?
Zodiark seeded the world with new life, I would think the people of the world as it is now are mostly descended from that rather than from the ancients.

Hence Emet's interest in seeing how we do, and his readiness to sacrifice everyone when the world is whole again, and his surprise and denial when he catches a glimpse of ancient in us.

[Reynhart]

If you need to figure a way to reconcile Ranjit's power -- think of a warrior surviving Every. Single. Battle with sin eaters over the course of eight decades (100 years minus the 20 of Vauthry's reign) without benefit of the Blessing of Light or the Echo. Of course he's going to be tougher. The fact that he's also got magical abilities (in addition to martial ones), means he is no pushover. When we, as Warriors of Light, have decades of experience I suspect it would be much simpler to overpower someone with Ranjit's abilities.

Yet, a few days after first encountering him, we're able to wipe the floor with him in the final showdown, despite him supposedly using his best trump card. The Ran'Jit we fought before had "plot stats" to make him unbeatable.
And it was the same for Zenos, even though, at least, we were in a group of 4 to beat him.

[ReviaInfantry]

Did anyone take into account that ranjit is actually getting worse because his relentless pursuit?

He take minfilia, we hit him kinda hard, but he beats us because he's still fresh.

Go to Il Mheg, while we are not in paradise, he has to endure subordinate losses and stupidity and pranks from those little buggers.

Without rest, he wander alone into Lahee~ and while our cat girl nope out of existence, he have to use his powah to get back up.

Then Thancred do an exhausting grindfest and wound him to forced a literal retreat. Probably not much time after back to Eulmore, we came knocking.

In every area, we could find shelter and rest. For Ranjit... Nope, other than Lahee, he prolly didn't rest. When we finally rekt him, he might be at his limits.

[Alleo]

Ranjit is not new at this, he has been fighting sin eaters pretty much since the Flood. The current Minfilia is not his first, or second, or third to train ... just the one and only one to not receive training.

If you need to figure a way to reconcile Ranjit's power -- think of a warrior surviving Every. Single. Battle with sin eaters over the course of eight decades (100 years minus the 20 of Vauthry's reign) without benefit of the Blessing of Light or the Echo. Of course he's going to be tougher. The fact that he's also got magical abilities (in addition to martial ones), means he is no pushover. When we, as Warriors of Light, have decades of experience I suspect it would be much simpler to overpower someone with Ranjit's abilities.

Yet he also has lived in peace for quite some time and only has one part of a soul on top of that. We might not have decades worth of experience but the WoL has no problem beating such old masters in job quests quite often. As we see ingame most of the sin eaters dont pose a threat for us either. We solo most of the normal ones and later even defeat certain lightwardens on our own and while we are already affected by the Light. We are able to defeat Omega and we defeated Middy in his prime even if it was a creation of Omega.

Also why was Minfilia always killed if she has such a "father" on her side.

And at the end we just level up a bit and defeat him anyways. So seemingly we only need a few weeks at most to make up for decades if the plot demands it.

What about the comparative quality of those soul parts though? How can we be sure everyone has a little bit of shattered ancient soul instead of a newer one?
Zodiark seeded the world with new life, I would think the people of the world as it is now are mostly descended from that rather than from the ancients.

Hence Emet's interest in seeing how we do, and his readiness to sacrifice everyone when the world is whole again, and his surprise and denial when he catches a glimpse of ancient in us.

You are right! Never thought about that. Well at least it might make more sense now that we are even better than the rest of the source. (And why Ardbert from the first was still quite strong, he was a part of an Amaurotine soul too)

Did anyone take into account that ranjit is actually getting worse because his relentless pursuit?

We are also getting worse thanks to the light. Even before Innocence we already had problems with seeing correctly and everything turning more and more white. That should have hindered us but seemingly we only got even stronger.

[Jandor]

You are right! Never thought about that. Well at least it might make more sense now that we are even better than the rest of the source. (And why Ardbert from the first was still quite strong, he was a part of an Amaurotine soul too)

I wonder if Amaurotine souls and the echo are related in some way.

When you get to Amaurot they did seem to make a point of mentioning that the Ancients are speaking a different language but the meaning and intent of their words are clear anyway, which seems like an amped up version of the echo's ability to understand people regardless of language barriers.
The Ascians also seem to know a lot about the echo in general, considering it's a gift their enemy Hydealyn dishes out to her followers, and Zenos mastery of his stolen version sure does seem to look a lot like Ascian abilities.

Maybe Hydealyn tempered her summoners like Zodiark did to his, a proper full on tempering that echoes throughout the millennia and countless reincarnations. She's not picking and choosing new people to bless at random, but seeking out and finding her original creators and empowering them with some of their old abilities as best as she can/as best as their shattered souls can handle.

Or maybe I'm way overthinking it.