Conjecture Question..Any evidence to support/reject this theory concerning Echo?

[Mjollnir]

Also, still rabid about how Y'shtola even made it off of that situation unscathed and not even bring it up. She has some superpowers... (that telekinetic bullet stop, making copies of herself to surround you, surviving tidal wave, etc.)

I disagree about superpowers. She's shown she can cast Globe of Invulnerability (for want of a better name), which is presumably a 50+ Conjurer spell. No reason to think that her other powers aren't similar Conjurer protection spells; Stoneskin to catch an axe, Protection from Bullets... etc. Survive Tidal Wave? Reraise at the very least.

The copies thing was quite cool, but I think that's just creative use of the Echo by one who knows how it works. At the end of your conversation with a single Y'shtola, she Echoes back a few minutes off you to the start of the conversation so it appears to your memories that there are more than one of her; rinse and repeat five/six times. All it would take would be her sat down for ten minutes beforehand planning out exactly which instance of her needed to say what for it to make sense from your perspective - a flair for the dramatic certainly, but superpowers I don't buy (past lv. 99 CNJ).

The other possibility that's been playing in the back of my mind is that Y'shtola is more than one cat from a larger litter and the identical sisters go under the same name to misdirect their enemies. Maybe some of them have died.

By the way, the *whoosh* that occurs when you're talking to Urianger at the beginning of that scene is just him moving super-quick behind you isn't it, and not you Echoing into a past confrontation in the same spot between him and Y'shtola.

My Echo paranoia has now increased to encompass *whoosh* paranoia.

Also, for now I'm pretty much satisfied with my current revision of my post. Might tweak it later.

So anyway, if the power of the Echo is just to mess with people's memories to change their perceptions of what has happened, how come there was a Balloonfish, dropped by one of the Frenzied Aurelia during the first Echo, in my backpack when I arrive in Limsa Lominsa?

[Orophin]

Now I wish I didn't delete all my cutscenes out of frustration (couldn't find right compressions settings and needed the space). I'll probably check it out later on Youtube and maybe some transcripts from wiki sites.

Right now, as I've said, I'm stuck on Limsa issues - then I move onto punching up Catapult's articles with images / missed dialogue (assuming there is any) because he has outpaced me entirely - then I can do Ul'dah and crank out the main story line... then it's onto the GC storyline, then going back to clean up classes, jobs, sidequests, and regular old NPC small-talk.

Shameless plug, I just recently started encoding all my 1.0 videos to free up some space (nearly 2TB) on my hard drive. So far all of the original (Limsa and Path of the Twelve) and 7th Umbral cutscenes are up if that'll help any. I'm working on class quests right now. (well, when I'm at home anyway)

It's only cutscenes since I did all the recording out of my inn room journal so I don't have the quest text from the actual quest journal to associate with it.

https://www.youtube.com/user/oroelf

@Jacien: For future reference, all I do is record with Fraps, join the videos in virtualdub with ffdshow pack installed and Fraps codec turned on, then use Handbrake to encode to mp4 with H.264 (x.264) codec.

[Jacien]

So anyway, if the power of the Echo is just to mess with people's memories to change their perceptions of what has happened, how come there was a Balloonfish, dropped by one of the Frenzied Aurelia during the first Echo, in my backpack when I arrive in Limsa Lominsa?

My personal belief was that it was a developer's oversight. The city-state quests and events get so convoluted with all the Echo-jumping, it'd be hard to keep plotholes like that at bay.

Maybe when Minfilia says you can interact with objects when Echo-jumping you can also somehow manifest them when you come back? But nothing concrete has ever been stated about it.

Which is why the style of story telling is more direct in ARR and a while back last year it was mentioned that the original city-state plotlines were essentially scrapped (most likely referring to the style of story telling). It's not saying that they didn't happen, it's just that since it literally happened years ago, a good amount of it is no longer relevant in post-Calamity Eorzea.

[Mjollnir]

My personal belief was that it was a developer's oversight.

Certainly possible, but considering the attention to detail so far, I can't subscribe to that theory (unless we get confirmation).

I'm leaning more toward that Y'shtola, Derplander and other members of the Path of the Twelve have the Echo ability, but our character is different. All those folk presume our ability is the same as theirs, but it's a little different due in the main to the intervention of Hydaelyn at the start of the game.

Did our character actually pop into existence at that moment? (certainly possible for the Grid start, easily overlooked in a busy cabin in Limsa's, less likely as one of three on a caravan in Ul'dah's, so perhaps not)

[Kayokane]

My personal belief was that it was a developer's oversight. The city-state quests and events get so convoluted with all the Echo-jumping, it'd be hard to keep plotholes like that at bay.

Maybe when Minfilia says you can interact with objects when Echo-jumping you can also somehow manifest them when you come back? But nothing concrete has ever been stated about it.

Which is why the style of story telling is more direct in ARR and a while back last year it was mentioned that the original city-state plotlines were essentially scrapped (most likely referring to the style of story telling). It's not saying that they didn't happen, it's just that since it literally happened years ago, a good amount of it is no longer relevant in post-Calamity Eorzea.

it's a little to convenient for the devs if we just throw it away as an oversight, as the same thing happens in both Ul'dah's and Gridania's storylines for the Flower and Treant Vine respectivly, not to mention the reverse happens in LL Treasures of the Main. When you get lent the firearm, by an unnamed Corpral, and proceed to take Sthalmann's firing stance provoking an echo jump thorugh Reyner. The gun is then taken away from you by a Roegadyn named Mannskoen. When the echo ends you no longer have the gun... Something is fishy about the Echo, and I think Mjollnir is on to something

[Catapult]

it's a little to convenient for the devs if we just throw it away as an oversight, as the same thing happens in both Ul'dah's and Gridania's storylines for the Flower and Treant Vine respectivly, not to mention the reverse happens in LL Treasures of the Main. When you get lent the firearm, by an unnamed Corpral, and proceed to take Sthalmann's firing stance provoking an echo jump thorugh Reyner. The gun is then taken away from you by a Roegadyn named Mannskoen. When the echo ends you no longer have the gun... Something is fishy about the Echo, and I think Mjollnir is on to something

I agree. The quality of writing is too good for these to be plot-holes and oversights.

[Yrusama]

snip

In that same line of thought, perhaps she's able to cast Blink? It's the same as Utsusemi and the aforementioned Shadow Clone Jutsu, but wind-based. It's been in FF since the original game, though I don't think it ever made it to Eorzea. Perhaps it's a spell learned in Sharlayan?