Why is FFXIV using rubber bullets in the wild west?

[Connor]

I’m a bit confused because like, what else did you expect? A brutal Mortal Kombat murder scene where the guys head pops like a water melon on bullet impact? Pretty sure that’d put the age rating up lol.

I don’t think they’ve ever wanted FFXIV to be that kind of game. I mean, the fact characters rarely - if ever - actually ‘die’ is the biggest evidence of that I’d say.

[BakoolJaJa]

I’m a bit confused because like, what else did you expect? A brutal Mortal Kombat murder scene where the guys head pops like a water melon on bullet impact? Pretty sure that’d put the age rating up lol.

I don’t think they’ve ever wanted FFXIV to be that kind of game. I mean, the fact characters rarely - if ever - actually ‘die’ is the biggest evidence of that I’d say.

Uh... Did Endwalker not happen or something? Because bullets popping heads is kind of a thing already. Nobody is saying you need mortal kombat fatalities right on the screen, but at least let's not regress from what the game used to allow itself.

[Carin-Eri]

Worth noting that they didn't appear to be using rubber bullets during the attack from Zoraal Ja's forces.

Though I guess since the ground forces were, for lack of a better description, robots/androids it was clearly okay to use real ammo - which is a pretty common trope.

[Connor]

Uh... Did Endwalker not happen or something? Because bullets popping heads is kind of a thing already. Nobody is saying you need mortal kombat fatalities right on the screen, but at least let's not regress from what the game used to allow itself.

Not sure how a guy unaliving himself to show how deep Garlean loyalty/sense of duty goes is in any the same as watching some guys shoot each other’s brains out publicly because…????. To prove he’s the good guy? That doesn’t make any sense lol.

What would this character’s ‘death’ have actually illustrated about the context? How would that have driven the story forward in any way other than having some completely-out-of-place brutality just for the sake of it? The game has never been about killing people ‘because it’s a dangerous grimdark world’ or whatever, it serves a purpose (or they come back in a later patch lol)

[Daralii]

Not sure how a guy unaliving himself to show how deep Garlean loyalty/sense of duty goes is in any the same as watching some guys shoot each other’s brains out publicly because…????. To prove he’s the good guy? That doesn’t make any sense lol.

What would this character’s ‘death’ have actually illustrated about the context? How would that have driven the story forward in any way other than having some completely-out-of-place brutality just for the sake of it? The game has never been about killing people ‘because it’s a dangerous grimdark world’ or whatever, it serves a purpose (or they come back in a later patch lol)

Stormblood had Varis shoot and kill Emet('s body) just to make him shut up.

[Connor]

not a single game is 18+ lol
they are meant for teenagers
ff14 is meant for ages 13+

16 (eww) is 18+. I’m pretty sure they made it such specifically because the age rating in FFXIV limited ‘how far they can go’. Going 18+ allowed them to make the ‘dark mature storylines’ they couldn’t do as easily in ffxiv

[Rabblerabble]

I feel like there are deep issues in the writing all over Dawntrail, I went over a few before, but I too felt the rubber bullet duel was a bad choice. The duel also being a "whoever wins is right no matter what" resolution to it was kind of odd, and did not bring the same weight the trial did in Heavensward with Ser Grin and the whole corrupt theocracy.

The loser of the duel gets exiled, sure sounds typical jrpg tropey, but it leaves it open to some kind of redemption ark or maybe another opportunity to showcase this guy's villainy.

I will be stunned if they don't do something else with that whole situation. I think the larger problem is that this resolved in a duel in the first place, sure it is a zone that clearly draws inspiration from 1800s era"West".

A couple examples of fatal duels would be Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson.. if people aren't familiar with that, read about it. Jackson was an interesting man.

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, dueled for different reasons. I feel like we, as an early culture lost out by losing Hamilton over Burr, but trash talking in politics does things to rile people up.

I don't know how uncommon non lethal duels here were in the west, but I do know of several other fatal ones.

I feel like this use of a duel was just out of place, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time, and somehow, through various writers and everyone involved in putting this in the game, it is what we got.

[Connor]

Stormblood had Varis shoot and kill Emet('s body) just to make him shut up.

I mean, it’s not a perfect execution, but ‘showing this character is sick of another’s shit’ is still technically ‘serving a story purpose’ lol. It’s also worth mentioning Emet is also isn’t human, so shooting him wouldn’t really do anything anyway besides maybe annoy him a little or force him to find a new body. I’d still say that’s different from the scenario of ‘guys duelling with guns to prove they’re the good guy’, especially when these guys aren’t ghostly Ascian things lol.

maybe the rating is different elsewhere, but M for mature isn't the same as R rated or A
17+ =/= 18+

No I checked just in case but I think you’re right. I always just assumed M was 18+, but the age rating for it is actually 17+. Still, I think the rest about them ‘using ff16 with a mature rating to tell the stories they couldn’t in ff14’ still stands.

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

Not sure how a guy unaliving himself to show how deep Garlean loyalty/sense of duty goes is in any the same as watching some guys shoot each other’s brains out publicly because…????. To prove he’s the good guy? That doesn’t make any sense lol.

If they used real bullets the guy literally wouldn't have died anyway, the gun was shot out of his hand, he wasn't hit in the head.

That's what makes the rubber bullets so silly, it literally changed nothing about how the story progresses.