45 minutes of cutscenes...

[molleafauss]

Sorry: this is a rant, and am fairly sure that it has been said already over and over again. But as you see from the number of posts I'm new.
And I have to vent.

I just finished the 45 - FOURTY-CRAZY-FIVE minutes of cutscenes at the end of patch 2.55.
Am not joking, this is the image proving it:



Ok, the story, I get it, 2.x builds a DOZEN different subplots but it's great as most of them are resolved in the end (I had a feeling this would happen). I liked it, but am annoyed as I only watched and didn't feel part of it!

Why I can't fight my way out?
I'm the *** warrior of light, dammit, I've felled Ifrit, Titan and Acians and countless other Primals and I should be scared of figthing a few Brass Blades and Crystal Braves?

The biggest complaint I have of all the 2.x patch series is that there are plenty of filler quests (go there, come back, go another place, come back), with very few combat parts. You watch the story unfold but don't feel enough drawn into it.

SPOILER ALERT: this is how, just fresh from the story I see it could be turned into a fantastic finale; mind, all this can probably work with nearly no changes to the current cutscenes.

* Once I get swarmed in the sultana apartments, let Teledji exit and have me fight: we've all been framed, let's jump to the rescue! btw: a level 50 at that point is full IL110 or 120, fighting 4 or 5 enemies should be a piece of cake. Clamped duties can also be an option for all these fiths.
* Then show the video of accusation in the feast hall, Raubhan desperation and Ilber's betrayal.
* Make me enter in the feast hall and fight with all my companions. Here we can even take on 10-15 enemies, maybe while Ilberd and Raubhan do their stuff in the background. Or even with Ilbert coming to fight (invulnerable) the various groups of us.
* Break for cutscene, make Raubhan buy us time to leave the hall.
* Out of the feast hall, have another fight outside: then break again for cutscene where Yda and Papalymo buy us time and Thancred suggest we aim for the tunnels
* Show Yda and Papalymo fight and then the rest of the group in the tunnel, break for another fight.
* Show the cutscene with Thancred and Y'Stola
* Break for a last fight (let me defend Minfilia once for real!) and then show the remaining cutscene till Alphinaud.

In the finale of the ARR MSQ, Castrum Meridianum & Pretorium, you were part of the story, although with other people, but still you were part of that moment.
Here you only "watched" that long moment, your character was there but there was no involvement.
All felt like a movie and not a game, where you can _be_ part of the moments in the story.

Hope this is not how the rest of the story works, because it's irritating and frustrating.

[ItMe]

Hope this is not how the rest of the story works, because it's irritating and frustrating.

iirc that should be the last one like that.
There will be other long cutscenes, but those will be ones that show you what's going on in other places and with other characters.

[LaylaTsarra]

But it's a movie!

[Nestama]

I remember arguing about that back when 2.55 came out
I think the common argument people came up with against you fighting your way out was that your weapon isn't present or something. Which is all fine and dandy, unless you're a MNK.

SE do improve on this thankfully, starting at 4.3 (which some people liked and others disliked).

[Tsaranoga]

Of course you can't fight back, no one told you to fight. The WoL is like a pawn in dragon's dogma: if no one tells him/her what to do, you can't even defend yourself. No one tells him/her to kill, he/she just stands there and lets the enemy escape. Actually, now that i think about it, the WoL is even more of a pawn than the ones in dragon's dogma.

[Kidria]

I think in most cases the idea is you're trying not to incriminate yourself further, which is why you run. Others stay behind to 'fight' but really they thought of it more as 'we'll sacrifice ourselves for the WoL!' and in some cases believed themselves prepared to die, so incriminating themselves meant little to them. I think there was also the idea that while the WoL fell plenty of Garleans, Primals, and yes, corrupt Brass Blades, the shock of the Crystal Braves' betrayal and not wanting to just kill other Eorzeans keeps the WoL from actually drawing steel. Plus you lost the Blessing of Light, so at this point it was still up for debate if you really were as strong as you came off or it was really just the Blessing giving you a boost.

[Enkidoh]

That was argued on the Lore forum back when patch 2.55 first went live: "why didn't the WoL fight back?" And as Kidria said above, it was pragmatism. Your character was in shock at what had happened, and there was also the little detail of having been disarmed before you entered the Sultana's chamber, even PGL/MNK (which despite being able to supposedly fight 'unarmed', actually don't - you still channel your chi through the giant brass knuckles you have to equip gameplay wise). So you were completely unarmed and defenseless (to say nothing of much of the scene the WoL had been handcuffed and was in no position to fight even if they had).

And you knew you were completely innocent, so to fight back would only make you look guilty in the eyes of your accusers (irony is, and this is a spoiler as it's revealed in HW's storyline so if you don't want to see this explaination, don't click, but,

the whole thing was actually a Batman Gambit on Lolorito's part - although Teledji really did want to overthrow the Sultana and seize power for himself, having discovered a distant relative of the defunct pretender Thorne dynasty in the form of Nanamo's handmaiden Miriel which Teledji hoped to install on the throne as a puppet ruler he could control. Unfortunately for Teledji Miriel instead revealed the plot to Lolorito, who decided to manipulate things by paying lip service to him to make it look like Teledji had succeeded, but instead actually subverting Teledji without his knowledge in order to retain Ul'dah's status quo with the Syndicate intact and the Sultana as figurehead (as Lolorito benefits more having the status quo retained), where after making it seem Teledji's assasination plot succeeded, setting up a situation where he knew Teledji wouldn't be able to resist the urge to gloat over Raubahn and thus infuriate him into snapping and thus eliminating Teledji, which is exactly what ends up happening.

The thing that Lolorito did not plan for was us. He assumed the WoL and the Scions would behave and submit to arrest meekly and quietly, to be sent to stew in gaol for a few days until things blew over, then lo and behold, Lolorito would miraculously announce that "false alarm, the Sultana is fine, Teledji was a traitor trying to overthrow the Syndicate and the Sultanate that General Aldwyn had heroically put down, the WoL and the Scions are innocent and will be immediately exonerated and released."

Unfortunately the WoL and the Scions fleeing and taking refuge in Ishgard threw a big spanner in the works of Lolorito's plan, in that he had already announced the Sultana had been assassinated, and that the WoL and the Scions had resisted arrest and fled to parts unknown, causing confusion and chaos within Ul'dah especially when Lolorito then wouldn't confirm the condition of the Sultana as alive or dead one way or the other. Worse, Raubahn also resisted when he dueled Ilberd after killing Teledji, so Lolorito couldn't announce Teledji as being the mastermind behind the plot at that point.

It should go without saying things didn't end up going according to plan.

Also, it's important to remember just what you really are (which the 'Scions sacrificing themselves so you can escape" thing is really about) - as the WoL you are the hope for the entire world, regardless of whether your abilities were slightly constrained at that point or not. Minfilia and the Scions were thus determined to ensure "your light continues to burn" even if you were shunned by the rest of Eorzea at large, hence they sacrifice themselves one after the other to secure your escape, that the hope you embody lives on.

Either way, it all comes to a head in Heavensward's storyline, so keep playing!

[lolicon09]

I'm pretty sure the game warned you about a long series of cutscenes with a confirmation popup to start them

Also, yeah, fight back and kill them all, sure that will make the WoL look innocent to everyone

[AduroT]

The part that gets me is doing that all as a healer. Oh no, she took a sip of poison. Esuna? Cure? Resurrection? I mean if that poison is that good why isn’t everyone using it? Also, why the effort to run in the first place, just Aetheryte out of there.

The cutscene length Is crazy though. Like you get the warning and it’s Hah, cool. Then it Just Keeps Going and I mean Damn. Seeing the warning again later triggered ptsd flashbacks (I mean that’s hyperbole but you get what I mean) but they’ve never really lived up to it as much.

Overall that movie was really great though.

[FoxyAreku]

You don't fight your way out because it would look bad for you to be killing the people/guards of ul'dah and would only hurt your case further.

Not sure why people don't consider that.