The Calling

[Morningstar1337]

I think part of the issue is that a lot of the diplomacy, paperwork kind of things aren't exactly appealing for a lot of people to see. While I would have enjoyed it most players want action. And even then I don't think people would have changed their mind on how useless she was, because they only value action.

Specifically sine is a significant portion of the playerbase that do skip cutscenes and/or lack an interest in the MSQ. Though I wonder if the heads of state had gotten similar baggage to Minfillia as politics is by nature part of their gig

[Draginhikari]

I think part of the issue is that a lot of the diplomacy, paperwork kind of things aren't exactly appealing for a lot of people to see. While I would have enjoyed it, most players want action. And even then, I don't think people would have changed their mind on how useless she was, because they only value action.

The thing is we have seen diplomacy and politics in the Main Story before, it is not exactly a foreign concept. All Minfilia probably needed was a short cut scene, or even a general dialogue between her and other characters to at least given an indication of what she does. Same thing with Lyse, she really needed a scene of her leading or inspiring others or something of that nature. It didn't need to be a massive thing but both ARR and the Ala Mhigo section of Stormblood kind of wrote themselves into a corner where there was no time for anything that wasn't immediately relevant to the plot.

Specifically sine is a significant portion of the playerbase that do skip cutscenes and/or lack an interest in the MSQ. Though I wonder if the heads of state had gotten similar baggage to Minfillia as politics is by nature part of their gig

To be fair, if people are skipping the story, they probably don't care about any of the characters regardless of how good or bad they are written.

[MirronTulaxia]

The thing is we have seen diplomacy and politics in the Main Story before, it is not exactly a foreign concept. All Minfilia probably needed was a short cut scene, or even a general dialogue between her and other characters to at least given an indication of what she does. Same thing with Lyse, she really needed a scene of her leading or inspiring others or something of that nature. It didn't need to be a massive thing but both ARR and the Ala Mhigo section of Stormblood kind of wrote themselves into a corner where there was no time for anything that wasn't immediately relevant to the plot.



To be fair, if people are skipping the story, they probably don't care about any of the characters regardless of how good or bad they are written.

I don't think we've seen a character who only does that though and is considered part of the main cast. Alphinaud was like that, and people hated him previously (not necessarily solely for that reason but I imagine it played some factor).

[Draginhikari]

I don't think we've seen a character who only does that though and is considered part of the main cast. Alphinaud was like that, and people hated him previously (not necessarily solely for that reason but I imagine it played some factor).

I would say in Alphinaud's case it had more do with his overblown self-confidence, arrogance, and expressing of our character as means toward his goal rather than any of his diplomatic stances (He does a lot of that off-screen and the few scenes that are shown are more to show his character issues more then anything).

At least in Alphinaud's case, unlike Minfilia or Lyse who shortcomings were made worse by writing issues, was kind of the point of his 2.0 version. Alphinaud was supposed to start off as an unlikable, overachieving, arrogant brat who thought he knew better than everyone else. His arc was basically to have his overconfidence bite him in the ass so he could be built up as a better person after he picked up the pieces. Compared to the other Scions in 2.0, there was a least an indication that they did have an arc planned for him that did pay off in the long run.

[MirronTulaxia]

I did say not necessarily solely. It's just my experience, anecdotal though it is, that a lot of people who aren't super invested in the lore but still pay some attention to the story aren't interested in characters who only deal with social/mental problems without being able to fight as well. If Minfillia had done some fighting that probably would have helped a bit because a lot of the complaints I saw about how useless she was centered on the damsel in distress trope as well, even poked fun at by the developers.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I think part of the issue is that a lot of the diplomacy, paperwork kind of things aren't exactly appealing for a lot of people to see. While I would have enjoyed it most players want action. And even then I don't think people would have changed their mind on how useless she was, because they only value action.

I quite like when this game gets into diplomatic stuff, personally. At least for me though, Minfilia never came off as being the diplomat of the Scions in ARR. Alphinaud did. Minfilia was really just dead weight. And that's not because she was in a talky role exactly, because again, Alphinaud. Minfilia was dead weight because we never saw her succeed in anything the way other characters did. She was always needing protection.

[Morningstar1337]

I quite like when this game gets into diplomatic stuff, personally. At least for me though, Minfilia never came off as being the diplomat of the Scions in ARR. Alphinaud did. Minfilia was really just dead weight. And that's not because she was in a talky role exactly, because again, Alphinaud. Minfilia was dead weight because we never saw her succeed in anything the way other characters did. She was always needing protection.

I mean there is more to politics and management then just diplomacy. A small early game quest-line where the player can see her usual day to day work and help with the paperwork might had gone a long way towards establishing her, or maybe a series of quest delving into the formation of the Scions (with the side bonus of catching up non-legacy players on the lore regarding the Circle of Knowing and the Path of the Twelve)

[Brightamethyst]

What we see: "Hey, the sylphs are trying to summoning a primal. Go stop them."

What we don't see: Minfilia meeting with leaders and diplomats, dispatching scouts, reading and writing reports, and the million other background things that lead to getting that information in the first place. We only get called in after all the office work is done and it's time to fight something. Minfilia is very good at her job, we just don't see it because most of her job is really boring to watch.

[JeanneOrnitier]

And you don't think it's a problem that we don't see that? Because even if it happens, because it's never on-screen Minfilia comes off as never doing anything.

I'm not saying her role wasn't important, I'm saying the portrayal of her role hurt her tremendously.

[Draginhikari]

And you don't think it's a problem that we don't see that? Because even if it happens, because it's never on-screen Minfilia comes off as never doing anything.

I'm not saying her role wasn't important, I'm saying the portrayal of her role hurt her tremendously.

The portrayal was a problem Realm Reborn has as a whole, there were too many elements and too much information to relay in the timeframes given. It's part of the reason why after Realm Reborn a lot of the content became segment out.

Between the Scions Activities, the primal preparation and fights, the stuff going on in Ul'dah, etc Realm Reborn simply tried to cover a lot of ground extremely quickly. Hell, it wasn't just Minfilia but most of the Scions didn't exactly leave much impression on me till they're later appearance for the same reason. They may have done more than Minfilia, but they were still isolated to a few character quirks and behaviors simply because there wasn't much time to expand on anyone.

On the one hand it was kind of necessary since ARR had to be both a full introduction to the world for people that didn't play 1.0 while kind of being a continuation of 1.0 at the same time but it did come with cutting corners on characterization.