I... agreed with this? That's why I said that anon should have just healed us instantly if his goal was to show us how powerful the JDF is. And then we could have moved straight onto the harmony training and learning how to use Jade Qi. Instead of faffing about doing nothing.
There is a massive difference in scaling between an active insta-heal and a passive recovery feat. An insta heal implies an active specific healing hax being triggered.
"Faffing about" and letting the foundation passively do the work without any active input shows that its is just that absurdly high. It’s the difference between casting a high-tier restoration technique versus just passively having a monstrous healing factor. The downtime isn't wasted time; the fact that you can just chill and get the same results.
This is just turning into powerscaling, so won't reply further to this specific point
I was pretty clear on that. What you didn't understand?
Unless by NPC interaction you meant the options where we chose to hang out with people other than Eldra? I'm assuming not, since that means you'd be implying people choose Eldra because it's the route that involves seeing your mentor the least.
Yes, exactly. In Interactive Fiction, having a "hands-off" mentor route is a completely valid design choice. Sometimes you don't want to be attached to your mentor the entire time. Providing a route that essentially gives the player more autonomy to explore other relationships with npcs that they actually care about, is an good thing.
And if the players just choose Eldra because of the extra interactions with the other characters and don't give a **** about her then what's the harm in that?
Besides we already got plenty of Eldra's characterization on her route anyways
Or if the MC gained a newfound appreciation for their family after being spending more time with them due to suddenly getting more free time.
Or even if the MC just recognized that their workaholic mentality is actually kinda toxic after being forced to chill out and rest by Eldra.
....The fundamental issue with what you're asking for here is that it demands
forced character development, which strips away player agency.
Which AGAIN It's what IFs are all about, you're not playing an linear game here.
What if a player is explicitly roleplaying a ruthless, hyper-ambitious anti-hero who
doesn't think their workaholic mentality is le toxic? Forcing the MC into a specific moral epiphany just railroads the character into a predetermined personality, atleast imo
If the author listened to your suggestions and replaced Eldra's training with her dryly lecturing the player about "harmony," or forced the MC to sit in a corner and dramatically brood over their "toxic mentality"
Then I sorry but I think THAT would be skippable and boring as hell
You think that Zhang's and Kaito's training were similar? You're over exaggerating.
Similar in the way that it's just the stereotypical cultivator training.
And no I don't think so.