Flashbacks in cutscenes

[Seera1024]

Fantasia is a gameplay/monetization mechanic, not canon. When you Fantasia to something new, as far as the story is concerned you have always been what you have become.

The question there is if you get locked into what you were when you first did the quest as a male Roegadyn and then fantasia'ed into a female Lalafell, what would happen with the cutscene?

Would you be a male Roegadyn or a female Lalafell?

If it is the former, it goes against their view of fantasia - it can't be a what you always were if you appear as a different race/gender in a cutscene.

If it is the latter, what if you were wearing something with the appearance of something you can't wear as your current race? Such as an outfit locked to male or an outfit locked to Roegadyn.

[Rongway]

The question there is if you get locked into what you were when you first did the quest as a male Roegadyn and then fantasia'ed into a female Lalafell, what would happen with the cutscene?

Would you be a male Roegadyn or a female Lalafell?

It's not a question. Fantasia is not canon. Fantasia is a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character.

[Boblawblah]

It's not a question. Fantasia is not canon. Fantasia is a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character.

I feel like you haven't actually read the rest of the thread, and why fantasia came up

[Rongway]

I feel like you haven't actually read the rest of the thread, and why fantasia came up

I read it fine, thanks. Fantasia is still just a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character. Neither your character nor any other character in the game has any memory of you being anything but what you currently are because Fantasia, as a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character, retcons reality so that your character has always been what you are.

It isn't even a question of "how would the devs implement it?" because we know they would never take the time to have the game keep a record of your character appearance at any given point in the story because it's just not worth the coding time, testing time, and storage space required to do so. It's so blindingly obvious that they would take the point of view that Fantasia is just a metamechanic because it means less programming and bookkeeping.

[Iscah]

It isn't even a question of "how would the devs implement it?" because we know they would never take the time to have the game keep a record of your character appearance at any given point in the story because it's just not worth the coding time, testing time, and storage space required to do so.

They would also have to know in advance which scenes they intend to reference back to, potentially years down the track.

And even then, people may not want the game to remember the earlier state of their character. They may want to see their updated character in old cutscenes when they go back to review them.

[Iscah]

So with that said it's kinda disappointing and slightly immersion breaking when the game will do a big flashback sequence where your character is wearing the same thing as they are currently - I'm sure if you've played through Endwalker you know what I'm talking about especially with how that section encourages you to use a specific glamour prior to the cutscene.

I'm still struggling to recall anything you might be referring to here, so it can't have had a memorably detrimental effect on my experience.

The only time we are encouraged to use a specific glamour is in Elpis (and maybe cold-weather gear in Garlemald) and I can't remember major flashbacks in either of those zones, or in the final zone where I had long since switched out of my Elpis glamour anyway.

[Silverbane]

I just figure that in my memories, I'm the me of today, not me as I was in the past.
And a flash-back is a memory.

I know the Echo is mystical, but if it was merely reading people's memories,
it would wind up showing us a lot of things that didn't actually happen.

[Seera1024]

I read it fine, thanks. Fantasia is still just a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character. Neither your character nor any other character in the game has any memory of you being anything but what you currently are because Fantasia, as a metamechanic put in place so they can make money off people who change their minds about their characters' appearances but don't want to start a new character, retcons reality so that your character has always been what you are.

It isn't even a question of "how would the devs implement it?" because we know they would never take the time to have the game keep a record of your character appearance at any given point in the story because it's just not worth the coding time, testing time, and storage space required to do so. It's so blindingly obvious that they would take the point of view that Fantasia is just a metamechanic because it means less programming and bookkeeping.

The time and resources to implement it is also a point to keep in mind, but the time and resources needed would involve figuring out how to handle it when a player uses a fantasia.

If there were no gender or race locked outfits, then one could just keep a record of glamour/outfit used.

But we do have gender and race locked outfits and therefore the game would have to record character specific data as well to recreate it in the instance the player has since used a fantasia. Even if they are someone who wouldn't fantasia. The game still has to store the data in the case that they do.

Getting players to think about the exact resources needed for their idea can help them realize that their idea is a "it would be nice if we could, but I understand that it's not likely to actually happen" idea.

[Enkidoh]

I'm still struggling to recall anything you might be referring to here, so it can't have had a memorably detrimental effect on my experience.

The only time we are encouraged to use a specific glamour is in Elpis (and maybe cold-weather gear in Garlemald) and I can't remember major flashbacks in either of those zones, or in the final zone where I had long since switched out of my Elpis glamour anyway.

I think she's referring to the scene in the

Dimensional Rift when you return back to the present day after Elpis (specifically the scenes of the Sundering - where in the aftermath it keeps cutting into the scene of Venat struggling through the now Sundered world with a brief flashback to the climax of ShB's story at the end of Amaurot where the WoL is succumbing to the corrupted Light and equally struggling to walk slowly but defiantely towards Emet.

Naturally the scene would show whatever you happen to be wearing right then rather than whatever you were wearing in that particular scene back in ShB - it was a bit jarring for me in particular when I first went through that scene given I hadn't changed my glam from the Sophist gear that I was wearing in Elpis, instead of the PLD glam Enki was wearing back in ShB,

so yeah I can definetely understand the sentiment of this thread.

But there are just too many technical challenges to deal with to implement some kind of flag for what gear you wore back in that scene originally, so I don't see SE changing this.

[Iscah]

I think she's referring to the scene in the

Dimensional Rift when you return back to the present day after Elpis (specifically the scenes of the Sundering - where in the aftermath it keeps cutting into the scene of Venat struggling through the now Sundered world with a brief flashback to the climax of ShB's story at the end of Amaurot where the WoL is succumbing to the corrupted Light and equally struggling to walk slowly but defiantely towards Emet.

Naturally the scene would show whatever you happen to be wearing right then rather than whatever you were wearing in that particular scene back in ShB - it was a bit jarring for me in particular when I first went through that scene given I hadn't changed my glam from the Sophist gear that I was wearing in Elpis, instead of the PLD glam Enki was wearing back in ShB,

so yeah I can definetely understand the sentiment of this thread.

Okay, I do remember that now that you mention it, but still...

...it sort of fits with that scene being a jumble of time and space and metaphor anyway. It could conceivably even be deliberate to show you in that scene wearing Ancient robes, echoing the moment in the scene itself where Emet sees you as an Ancient.

(I was far more distracted in that scene by the way the writers were shredding everything they had previously told us about the circumstances of the Sundering to drop a new narrative out of nowhere, but that's a different issue entirely.)