(07-04-2017, 07:12 PM)Nero Wrote: One thing that really bothers me about MMO stories in general is that most of them try to pull this "YOU are the ONLY ONE who can STOP THEM" thing. Which I Hate, with a capital "H" and the fiery intensity of a million Foreman grills, because MMO stories can never decide if the Hero actually is the Chosen One or not.
Up until now, I had been under the impression that the Warrior of Light had been defeating the Primals by themselves, at least ever since Thordan. Which is acceptable, that's what the WoL is renowned for, the god killer, the eikon slayer. Which is also why Zenos bothered the shit out of me; it's implied that he's some kind of experiment or clone or something, sure, but this wahoo with a golf bag and huge shoulder pads is on-par or greater than shit like King Thordan and Sephirot? Really?
As I recall, there's also zero reason given as to why we are capable of defeating Zenos in the Ala Mhigo dungeon; maybe he was literally just waiting for the Warrior of Light to hit Level 70, I don't know.
Anyway, I thought that the Warrior of Light was THE CHOSEN ONE, defeating the primals by themselves (and requiring help for larger scale things like Castrum Meridianium and the Steps of Faith). I didn't have a problem with that.
What I did end up having a problem with was the story talking about how the Warrior of Light needs the help of friends to defeat primals like Susano, along with some OOC forum talk that "obviously the WoL didn't defeat primals by themselves, they had a bunch of help! It makes sense that Zenos beat them!"
Which bothers the shit out of me, because narratively speaking, why aren't these other heroes mentioned? Either the Warrior of Light is The Chosen One, or he isn't, and if he isn't, why doesn't the narrative acknowledge the army of other loot-crazed wahoos that are clearly present in the setting and who also happen to be just as capable of killing Primals? Wy are these other heroes who are so clearly integral to my success not ALSO realm famous?
I was fine with us playing the "may or may not be the chosen one" sort of card, and I like Zenos, in part because I find him attractive in some way, but also because he feels like what a being confined to a normal sized physical body, should feel like if they are powerful. There seems to be a balancing act on amount of aether and strength of will/aether usage as far as primals and powerful figure goes, so his power and ability didn't really feel off to me.
I will say! The fact that he felt like we were weak to start made no sense to me, seeing as he tried to attack us, and was in some way beaten back even if only for a time. If you want me to feel someone is truly more powerful than me, throw me in a scripted defeat in the DF or give the enemy some ability which I cannot withstand outrightly and give a reason, not just he hit you with a sword and you were taken down though you didn't need healing and weren't knocked out. Given his transference into Shinryu giving him some real power, that made sense to me, because bosses who are in physical bodies similar in size to the player, often feel easier to defeat and limited by the space usage they can perform, so his progression made sense, but his start didn't for me?
Finally, I didn't ever like that we fought with other people and it wasn't mentioned, so I had this whole theory in my head where different realities converge into a single point of battle, combining the WoL from different unknown realities into one space which helped us defeat a common enemy. It was a little ridiculous, but not entirely implausible, but now we have "friends" so that is out the window lol. Not sure what to make of this newer mention thing that is happening, where I call on my "friends". It makes more sense to the mechanics of the game, but not sure it makes sense to the nature of the story.
