Why is the WoL so lame in cutscenes?

[Gemina]

I think the WoL can be given general actions that applies to all jobs to make them more interactive in cut scenes. I get why the WoL is passive, but at the same time I know this can be improved upon.

For example we see the WoL on several occasions shield their comrades within a certain radius from being tempered by a primal. More things like this could be implemented. There is literally no reason why the WoL couldn't punch Asahi right in the face as no matter what job you're playing as it is clear that we are supposed to hate that jerk, and the WoL can still make a fist. The WoL can still express a multitude of reactions if they are intended, or a result of the choice we make when given. They don't have to leave everything to our imagination.

[YianKutku]

There is literally no reason why the WoL couldn't punch Asahi right in the face as no matter what job you're playing as it is clear that we are supposed to hate that jerk, and the WoL can still make a fist. The WoL can still express a multitude of reactions if they are intended, or a result of the choice we make when given. They don't have to leave everything to our imagination.

There is a reason why our character cannot physically make contact with any other character, which was illustrated in that cutscene where Asahi first revealed his true motives: to even talk to Lalafells in close confidence, Asahi had to kind of crouch down, making the scene look rather silly. So a Lalafell character would need an uppercut, or aim their punches rather lower.

This is not insurmountable, since we've seen various cutscenes working around it like the aforementioned Asahi one, or the scene where our character helped the Exarch steady his staff, and where we grasp the staff depends on how tall our character is. But it does take time and planning to make sure those cutscenes work for every character type while not looking too weird, and I would argue the Asahi cutscene looked weird, so they might not have gotten it down yet at the time.

I do hold hope for the future, of course.

[Recon1o6]

this patch was pretty bad for "why don't you just shoot him"

Clever camera tricks could bypass the attack problem, like they did in hildibranf with godbert and ultros. Eg showing the wol stepping forward, screen cuts to nearby ally going wtf then shifts to enemy we just struck landing on the ground while we have our weapon out

[Kamatsu]

There is a reason why our character cannot physically make contact with any other character, which was illustrated in that cutscene where Asahi first revealed his true motives: to even talk to Lalafells in close confidence, Asahi had to kind of crouch down, making the scene look rather silly. So a Lalafell character would need an uppercut, or aim their punches rather lower.

Not really - take for instance the Gold Saucer mini-game "Cuff-a-Cur". Lalafells hit the exact same punching-bag that every other race hits, although to do so they have to jump up to do it. However the same animation work used to do that in that mini-game could be used in cutscene's to have Lala's punch ppl in the chest/face/etc.

Cuff-a-cur shows that they can have all races basically punch something in the same place. So assuming these animations could be ported into a non cuff-a-curr cutscene... they could have the WoL punching ppl, regardless of what race/gender/class they are.

[Veloran]

The problem is an animation like that completely changes the tone of a scene, it makes anything comical rather than serious. Hrothgar and Roegadyn also sort of have this issue, in that because of their stature and proportions (and their posture in the former's case) they can make various scenes seem very "off".

[Lium]

I could be wrong, but in gameplay, players aren't really dying are they? Canonically, aren't they being knocked out? Which is why they can be raised? Mechanically, it works the same as dying, but I thought that was the justification for how some jobs can raise others. Otherwise, yes, healer, RDM and SMN WoL's could just raise anyone they wanted from the dead, including Papalymo and Haurchefant.

[Kesey]

I could be wrong, but in gameplay, players aren't really dying are they? Canonically, aren't they being knocked out? Which is why they can be raised? Mechanically, it works the same as dying, but I thought that was the justification for how some jobs can raise others. Otherwise, yes, healer, RDM and SMN WoL's could just raise anyone they wanted from the dead, including Papalymo and Haurchefant.

Another explanation is dying before the destined moment of your death. In other words, if you accidently die in combat and that isn't the true destiny of your character, then they can be raised. But in the case of Papalymo and Haurchefant who died at the moment destiny reserved for them, then they can't be brought back.

I'm not sure ffxiv has lore to explain this, but ffiv and ffvi both cover this topic to explain why certain people can't be raised via magic, if they've died at the moment of their destiny.

[ObsidianFire]

The justification for "Recall" and Home Aetherytes in FFXIV is that when you get "knocked out" your spirit/soul often "panic teleports" back to whatever Aetheryte it uses a lot. Dying for good kinda implies that you took so much damage so fast that doesn't have any time to happen. I get the idea Resurrection works along the same lines.

The people we see die for good in the MSQ like Harchefaunt and Ysayle happened very suddenly in Harchefaunt's case and after Ysayle used up tons of aether turning into Shinva. For Harchefuant, he was pretty much stabbed through the heart with a spear of aether. He'd have been past the point of no return in seconds due to blood loss... and a lot of other stuff related to that. Ysayle used up all her aether summoning Shiva and putting the Gration out of commission. And then took a bunch of direct hits from the Gration's canons. Its a miracle she even had a body by the end.

My take on Resurrection is that it's like Field Surgery. It doesn't actually fix the problem, it just stabilizes the person so they can be healed later. Only... sometimes there's nothing to stabilize/heal. It's already gone/destroyed unless there's someone around who can do a heart transplant or reverse time, etc.

[Cilia]

Remember, kiddos: combat KOs and plotline deaths are not the same.

Just ask Aerith.

[Riastrad]

I always took party wipes and encounter resets as the echo showing you what not to do and and giving you information from an alternate "what if..." scenario.

Raises and the like are simply aether being shoved back into your body and that is why we have the debuff. It's simply not your own aether keeping you alive until it balances with the remnants of yours.