Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 2)

To be fair, Yoshida did explicitly state that the outcome wouldn't change, and that the choices were just there to better fit events to your own morality.

I just really wish our choices would actually mean something for once. Really it’s just random flavor text to try and make us feel important or like we have an actual say in things, but it just falls flat because everything is so scripted as it is. Even the small choices we do get, they arent varied at all. For example the Misija choice, i wanted an option to say its not Menenius or Gabranth's fault either, but alas it wasnt an option. Honestly i was asking myself the entire Bozja storyline, why arent we helping the IVth instead of the Bozjans. They seem way better lmao. Guess we always have to choose the underdogs though.

Originally Posted by Theodric

I took the approach of initially refusing to weigh in on the subject of Misija. I didn't blame her for her actions, nor did I blame Gabranth. Later, when given the choice to grant her request of a mercy kill I did as much - and she died peacefully before she could be stabbed.

I was happy with that outcome, personally. Given that the Warrior of Darkness and the Bozjan Resistance slaughtered a medic even as she desperately pleaded for mercy and for her friends to not be slain, the protagonists had even less justification for their usual drooling and screeching about morality.

All in all, I thought it was a tasteful representation of the horrors and complications of war and exactly what I hoped we were going to experience back in Stormblood.

I guess I need to rewatch cutscenes. When did we slaughter a medic?

Originally Posted by Theodric

Yeah, Dyunbu shows up in a number of FATE's throughout the Bozjan Southern Front. The FATE description even lampshades that killing medics is frowned upon, yet the Warrior of Darkness and the Bozjan Resistance do it anyway. All the while, Dyunbu is pleading for you to stop killing her men. She survives initially, joins forces with a different group of scattered survivors and then sees the exact same thing happen once again. She's eventually put down herself in a third FATE.

Even Misija was captured (albeit temporarily) yet lethal force is wielded against Dyunbu. Her field notes paint a picture of her being a pretty likable individual, so it's a shame that it ended the way that it did. Ultimately, though, it's clear proof that the protagonists are not the 'good guys' and that someday they themselves will need to answer for their sins.

Matsuno's great at handling the nuance and realities of war, though. So ultimately it's a good thing - it's not something to be glorified or feel 'good' about. There's no real winners or loses regardless of the outcome. Just a load of dead bodies on either side.

It is sad but it is also the result of mentality between each forces.

Gabranth's army has set standards for themselves in this war due to superior numbers and forces but the Resistance have gone into full kill who and what they can to win the war due to lower numbers and resources.

It is one of the oldest questions of war being what is tolerated during times of war and what is tolerated during times of peace.

Standards of right and wrong can greatly change between times of war and times of peace to a point it feels almost like different worlds during these two different times.


Let me bring up a example of this from a different game I play called Genshin Impact involving a character named Zhongli.

During current era when his homeland Liyue is at peace, people will look down on people who will hurt unarmed people or people who do not intend to fight. However during the era of the Archon War, everyone was killing each other doing whatever it takes to claim one of the 7 seats of Archons to become rulers of a land.

It was literally the Law that 7 Gods of the lower lands must claim the seat by killing each other and no one above 7 were allowed to live as decreed by the Celestial gods living in the land of Celestia. Those who claim the 7 seats will then be given the ability to determine what is right and wrong in the lands they rule.

However, during this era Zhongli was forced to kill many friends who also wanted to claim a seat. Those who did not fighting and kill were considered weak or easy targets thus those who refused to fight were easily killed off by those who did choose to fight. One of Zhongli's friends who was the God of Salt was even killed by her own followers because eventually she will be killed by another God and her followers did not want her to suffer a painful death within what little land she had left. Those who did fight formed alliances together but known one day they will have to turn on each other if there still remains more than 7 lower Gods which Zhongli did with the God of Ash Guizhong. However, Guizhong died during the Archon War at the hands of another God and told Zhongli in her final moments to forget about the puzzle box she gave him (which some people assume that the box may contain her love confession to Zhongli due to their relationship ).

It was only after the Archon War ended when standards for such harsh actions commited during the Archon War were placed by Zhongli and the other Archons in their lands to prevent them from happening during times of peace. Do people still judge Zhongli for what he did during the Archon War? Yes but at the sametime they can't put the standards of right and wrong for a time of peace on him since during a time of war it was right to kill unarmed people and people who refuse to fight due to it being wrong during that time to refuse to fight and not do whatever they can to claim one of the 7 seats of Archons. It was only after the Archon War ended when harming unarmed people or people who do not intend to fight became a standard in right and wrong due to laws established by Zhongli in Liyue.