So, as I've already said, in the process of drawing up all my MMO / custom characters, I naturally had to boot up my copy of Guild Wars 2. GW2 holds a bit of a special place, as although it wasn't the first MMO I ever played, it was the first big budget MMO, and for many years it was the only MMO I was interested in playing!
Unfortunately, over the last few years I've drifted away from it, for a couple of reasons. I could never quite get the hang of the 'horizontal levelling' thing, and once I hit the higher level areas / story quests I would really struggle. Because of that, the living world seasons and the expansions passed me by, and there wasn't a point in trying to get to them as I had a hard enough time just getting through the base game. I did eventually manage to complete the main story and reach Heart of Thorns, but although I did buy the expansion I never really got into it.
However! When I booted it up again recently, I was hit with such a wave of nostalgia, and I remembered why I loved this game in the first place. Plus, some additions like the mount for "full copies" (I assume this means paid) of the base game certainly made things a little easier. So, I decided to fire up an unused character slot and venture out into Tyria with fresh eyes - and I figured I might as well blog about it.
Say Hello to Nameless Higanbana! I decided to go with Revenant, as that was a class I'd not really played much of, and when I saw some of the newer additions to the character customisation I immediately had an idea for a Spider Lily themed Sylvari, and I just couldn't resist! I realise I'm adding yet another Sylvari to my line-up (this makes six, I think) but also, I don't care.
So, for the most part the opening cutscene was much as I remembered it - though I don't remember the bit with the close ups of Nameless' face inside her cocoon. Also, having to fight a plant-like dragon inside the dream is far more ironic knowing the twist about the Sylvari's origins.
I didn't do too much more other than get Nameless into the main game. Admittedly, it took a lot of discipline not to use all my transmog charges to spruce up her look, but as I'm going to be changing armour a lot in the first bit of the game it would be a little bit of a waste XD I did take a little time to unlock the teleports within the grove, as well as get my hands on some different weapons (I wasn't really into the mace, so I went with a hammer instead.) I also took the time to remember why the jumping puzzles in this game are so bloody annoying XD
I was also reminded of just how beautiful this game is. My first character in GW2 was a Sylvari, and the Grove has always taken my breath away with how ethereal and peaceful it is.
Anyway, that's it for this update. I'm still in the starting area, and this is the bit I remember the most, but I suspect as I venture further out I'll start coming across stuff I have no memory of.
