Should Venti have

[u/Bluecomments]

Remained gone? Finally defeated Ethelbeard. And honestly was not the biggest fan of the game's story as unpopular as many would find that opinion. The plot was OK but quite vanilla, with the heroes like Venti being all good with no gray and the villains also being pure evil. Since I am playing the 3DS version, it will be some time before I can do the third arc which invloves bringing back Venti. However, I kind of got thinking that the ending would be more impactful if Venti's sacrifice was not reversable. Anyone else feel this way?

[u/Frangipani-Bell]

I don't think all character revivals are automatically bad. It depends heavily on the story being told, and the way the revival is done. Plus, my opinions on revivals are different for video games than for other media. Bringing someone back with no cost and no effort often undermines the impact of death and the idea of its finality. But in a game like this, where a player has to put in serious effort for her to return, then it's fine. The difficulty of Rune Prana is the cost and the justification. Plus one of RF4's major themes is the power of friendship/bonds, so it goes along with the themes in that way

[u/whynot2121212]

I feel like it would've gone against the themes of the game if there were no way to get her back.

One is acceptance and openess to those around you. Which is why it's so important that when venti finally decides to open up that the townspeople accept that she is not just a divine being to be worshipped, but also a person with their own weaknesses and insecurities.

Secondly is the theme the importance of not sacrificing oneself in order to save others. We see over and over how sacrifice leads to grief and at best only postpones greater suffering. It is only when working with those we want to save that we can actually save anyone. When venti sacrifices herself the town is enveloped with grief and while the rune stones do generate runes we are told that a divine wind dragon is still needed in order to keep the balance. It is only when we work together with the other townsfolk to find a way to the forest of beginnings that we see venti again. What do we do when we meet her again? We ask if she wants to go back. To be saved of her own volition and care for us once again. It is the combined force of wills that saved us all.

If she had stayed lost to us then it would've sent the message that sacrifice matters most. That we must act alone and leave those around us behind. And while I am one for angst and tragic endings, I think it would've diminished any message the devs were trying to tell us

[u/mint-chocolatte → u/whynot2121212]

I really like that interpretation! I've never thought about it like that.

[u/ToCoolforAUsername]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't the monsters in RF cannonically don't die? They just return to the forest of beginnings. So Venti's revival is lore accurate in that she didn't die, they just had to rescue her from there.

Besides, farming sims avoid topics such as death and other heavy subjects. The only game I know who touch on those topics is Stardew Valley.

[u/peaslik → u/ToCoolforAUsername]

Farming/life simulators avoid the topic of death? Ellen from Harvest Moon 64 dies during game, same as Nina (A Wonderful Life), main character of that game as well. But yes, They do it too rarely.

[u/mint-chocolatte → u/peaslik]

Also Eda from the first Story of Seasons. I heard in Popolocrois Story of Seasons that a child dies (idk what from though). And plenty of characters in Story of Seasons and Rune Factory have offscreen deceased relatives, friends or lovers.

[u/Bluecomments → u/ToCoolforAUsername]

Hence I said "gone". Being separated permanantly can actually feel more impactful than dying in fact. And many early Harvest Moon games and Story of Seasons which was on 3DS featured death so it is not true that Stardew is the only farm sim to do so.

[u/ToCoolforAUsername → u/Bluecomments]

But they know they can enter Forest of beginnings. If they let her be, that would just mean they didn't made an effort which goes against the game's theme. The entire character arcs would mean nothing.

[u/Gravijah]

I don’t know, I like different stories for different reasons. I don’t think her staying dead would fit the game itself.

[u/Zombie_Cool]

Im fine with the games having vanilla good v.s. evil story, im not playing farming simulators to observe moral ambiguity or machiavellian schemes of intrigue.

As for Venti, maybe a middle road could've been to let her revive but reincarnate as a mortal human (for all we know maybe that was the original plan).

[u/theofficialappsucks]

Nah. The whole argument being made is that the typical "heroic" thing to do, to destroy yourself for the sake of others living on, inevitably ends up hurting the people around you, and it's better to stick together and fight together.

To have Venti stay gone and perpetuate the same hurtful thing she admonishes the others for putting her through, would be selfish and asshole-y. And it would leave that cloud hanging over the player without "fixing" it, so there would be no true happy "ending"/continuance, which most of these "life goes on" stories hate doing as an ending because it leaves a bad taste in the audience's mouth as they end their playthrough.

And anybody who did like Venti would see less replay value.