LogFAQs > #977696504

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Creating an inconsistency that damages the gameplay fantasy would necessitate putting something above the gameplay.

Damages, but doesn't destroy. The damage is brief and not unexpected for those that have deliberately broken the game. Choosing to momentarily damage the gameplay instead of completely gutting the story isn't putting the story above the gameplay, it's minimizing the total harm done. Even more so where it doesn't damage the gameplay itself, only the power fantasy, and even then only for people that need every aspect of the game to reinforce that fantasy at all times.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

If the gameplay is non canon, why is it even attached to the story?

Because people like grinding to become overpowered in RPGs. Limiting that for the sake of the story takes that away from them. And limiting the story for the sake of making sure everyone is validated for whatever grinding they do creates weaker stories. The compromise is to expect people who grind to become overpowered to be satisfied with the validation the gameplay already provides them, which is pretty reasonable.

Note that I'm not saying that all gameplay is non-canon. Just gameplay that involves deliberately deviating from the story, which is by definition always going to be non-canon because you're deliberately deviating from the canon.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Really? All of the blades would have chosen not to help? All 39 rare blades with their different personalities and values wouldn't have helped him close the gap?

Canonically, Rex's only blades are Pyra/Mythra, Roc, and that one common wind knuckle blade he gets in chapter 2 (and also Nia, but that's a bit different). Roc doesn't have the Leaping field skill (note that every time you jump a large gap in the field, it's a combo of Wind Mastery and Leaping), and the common one's abilities are randomized and therefore non-canon, so canonically, no magic flying powers.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

And it would have completely made their attempted sacrifice to protect rex impossible if rex was able to jump the gap. Rex doesn't even TRY to do it.

Really? Putting aside the fact that Rex *does* try (he tries the grapplling hook, then asks Poppi for help and is refused, then is talked down before he can try anything else), think that one through: Pneuma tells Rex that she needs to stay behind to annihilate the world tree to prevent it from destroying the world (not just saving Rex). Rex jumps over to her. She then... tells Rex to go back? Rex being over there doesn't eliminate the need to save the world, nor is he going to change her mind. The best he's going to accomplish is to sacrifice himself with her, and it stands to reason that she and the rest of the party would have talked him out of that, so why bother spelling out that exchange? The only issue with that sacrifice was that it was immediately rendered moot by Pyra and Mythra coming back (which is something they should have mentioned to convince Rex to leave, further cementing that it was an afterthought that got tacked on after finishing the rest of the ending). *That's* what made it feel stupid and contrived, not the fact that Rex wasn't able to stop them.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Their constraint is to keep telling the same story in the same way with superficial differences.

That's their choice. That's not being constrained, that's just being lazy and unoriginal. Insisting that they be allowed to be lazy and unoriginal is the exact opposite of a constraint. You can then subsequently criticize them for being lazy and unoriginal, but that's very different from outright saying "you're not allowed to put X in a story."

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Maybe if any of them were actually writing interesting stories you'd have more of a leg to stand on

If they aren't interesting, why care about them so much? Why not just skip the cutscenes and eliminate the whole issue?