Oh, I agree with that the stakes should be more in the story itself whilst combat helps to set the stage of who and what we are facing. My suggestion goes more along the line of integrating everything so that each system "seems" like it has weight. Story will progress with our actions and choices, but if combat can have some risk, then it becomes all the more engaging.
The way i see it, a combat without stakes is a visual novel without bad endings/"wrong" choices. You could simply press skip, mash your head against the keyboard, and ta-da, you've completed the game and everyone is happy in the story. The stakes that I propose shouldn't really alter the story that much, since if someone dies at the hands of the void it would count as a fail state and you'd have to reload your last save (or autosave) till you get them back, that character would also have their corruption levels increased to a certain point whilst in captivity, and if you develop a bond with said character their kidnapping would have some emotional weight too, you dont want them to suffer or the voidborn to have their way with them like the way Xayah is still looking for Rakan even when she herself knows it's probably too late.
But that's just my ramblings, if i had any idea how to develop a good story i'd have done it by now. I fully trust the vision of this team, and just giving my 2 cents on how i'd tweak the circumstances surrounding combat.
