Can I beat up an NPC in the story eventually?

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I'm at the other end of the spectrum with Yotsuyu's family. Yes, they were monsters, but they were so over-the-top, mustache-twirlingly villainous that it was hard to take them seriously (especially her "dad's" final scene with her just shattered any shred of suspension of disbelief I had left- won't say more than that because spoilers.) SE's writing for them was so heavy handed and they were so obviously desperate for us to hate them that I actually just kind of shut down toward them emotionally. Asahi was slightly better, but the only thing I wanted to do every time her parents were on screen was roll my eyes..

I agree, but Asahi was slightly better?

He uses her traumatic memories to trigger her, intentionally leads his parents to death afterwards, ruins a prisoner exchange uncaring of what happens to the captives, then shows up and laughs about ruining said exchange before shooting an already dying Yotsuyu several times while kicking her in the ribs and calling her a useless whore.

Subtlety was not her family's strong suit.

[Rymm]

I agree, but Asahi was slightly better?

Sorry if I was unclear, but I meant better written, not a better person. Personality-wise, Asahi was as awful as the rest of them (even if he didn't show his true colors right away) but at least he was slightly more interesting than just a walking, talking tragic backstory for Yotsuyu, meant to do nothing more than soften her own outlandishly evil actions and paint her in a more sympathetic light. I have the strong suspicion that SE went too far with Yotsuyu in making her evil enough so everyone would hate her and then had to one-up themselves with the "evil step-parents" trope in order to soften that hate and try to ensure that their 4.3 finale would have enough of an emotional punch.

Honestly the whole main story line dealing with Yotsuyu from 4.0 to now was very heavy-handed and at times it really felt like SE was leading us along by the nose from quest to quest going "Here, feel this emotion" or "Now have this reaction." I get that all storytellers do this to some degree but most have the finesse to not make it so danged obvious. At times they might as well have been holding up those "Applause" or "Aww" cards for a studio audience. I was genuinely surprised by how much I did enjoy the end and impressed with the tiny bit of depth they gave the story at the very last part of the last cutscene.

4.3 spoilers-

I.e. how Yotsuyu was neither totally evil (as she was in 4.0) or totally innocent (as she was with amnesia) but had the teensiest bit of grey in her lingering affection for Gosetsu. Still, I was relieved both when she was still an evil, vengeful b*tch after recovering her memory and when they killed her off.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Oh, no, I understood what you meant. I just meant that I kind of felt the same about him as the parents.

I can agree that the ultimate end characterization for Yotsuyu didn't disappoint as much as I feared it would, though.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I can't remember the exact details of the conversation, but I think Emmanellain was a bit hysterical at that point? Whether Thancred should have done it or not (or just told him off without actually hitting him - which may not have had the same impact, as it were), it was part of Emm's "turning point" where he started to take more responsibility for his actions.

I'm also not sure if we were okay with it, so much as it caught us by surprise as well, and we didn't want to intervene. Or there just wasn't much point to intervening after Thancred had already hit him. He deserved the talking-to. He'd been prettymuch an irresponsible idiot all through the story up to that point.

I think I need to watch this bit again. The fragmented gameplay and cutscene storytelling makes it harder to go back over the story though.

Watching the scene again, the WoL is about to punch Emmanallein themselves, but Thancred intervenes. He tries to talk Em down, but Em's in hysterics and punches Thancred. Thancred no-sells it, then knocks him on his ass, tells him more or less to man the hell up, and walks off.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Yeah, I didn't really want to punch him in the context of that scene, but I did want to slap him upside the head for just sitting there and watching the guard shoot that woman twice for just speaking before asking him what he's doing.

[TheMightyMollusk]

To be fair, the woman did also just poison the WoL and was trying to incite a riot at a peace conference. It was a messy situation.

[Lauront]

Says the knock off Draco Malfoy

I regret nothing. Go back to your beast tribe corner, in the Steppes.

You can send me the money for a Fantasia anytime then.

I'd rather not waste it.

[SenorPatty]

Maybe in the future, they can create default combat animations for each race to use in cutscenes, much like in the same way some emotes are animated according the race being place. For example (just some ideas)

-Hyur: A punch to the face
-Miqote: Clawed attack
-Roegadyn: A throw
-Lalafell: This is a hard one. Maybe a running a start to get a dropkick in.
-Aura: Tail whip.

As you can see, the idea is to get the WoL to perform a combat action that the everyday person could do without a weapon or job (stone).

[ChaoticCrimson]

I still owe Yuyuhase several thousand knocks to his noggin...

[Iscah]

Yeah, I didn't really want to punch him in the context of that scene, but I did want to slap him upside the head for just sitting there and watching the guard shoot that woman twice for just speaking before asking him what he's doing.

I don’t think that’s a fair description of what he did. He made the poor choice of simply ordering the guard to “do something”, but that ties in with the broader plot point that he tends to sit back and let other people make difficult decisions for him - and in this case he’s horrified by what that decision was. It’s clear he didn’t expect the guard to shoot her - let alone a second time, when he’s possibly too shocked to respond.