She/Her | Call me Bread | mostly SWTOR | *confused screaming about Rivix's shoes* | Your local lesbian, yelling at the clouds | Icon by the amazing @arkannis | Banner by me
Okay, some incoherent thoughts on 7.9, full spoilers ahead.
The fact that Rivix survives this and Tau... well, I'm not entirely sure about her fate, but it's very possible that she died (albeit it's unclear, esp on Imp side). Not happy with it. Sure, I wanted to have some strong words with Tau, but I like her character.
I get why Republic/Imperial leadership is concerned and suspicious of Commander (esp if they're a saboteur), so I'm not even mad at them for trying to take the situation under control. But I legit was about to lose my mind when Commander almost got arrested, thankfully our loyal Mandos showed up with the fleet and said 'you and what army', what great timing.
Oh, and saboteurs get exposed here. About time, I suppose, though I would love to switch sides openly before that happened (or better even, just leave Commander and their Alliance alone, let them mind their business).
Space section was alright... once. Don't understand why we don't control the ship like in space missions, it made the whole mission slower imo. Didn't feel like doing it the second time, so it's convenient that we can just skip it.
What was more fun is basilisk section. Sure, it went on a bit too long for my taste, but once I understood what to do, it was more enjoyable.
Section with playable Lana and Theron was my favorite, love their banter, love their friendship, it was good for my soul. Hopefully these aren't just Legacy Reborn exclusive and maybe those be included sometimes in future (I say, as if I'll get to play that).
When we meet Shae, Rass goes at her and honestly, valid crashout, his VA kills it with his performance.
Speaking of Shae, just like with Tau, I didn't want her to die, just have some strong words. I imagine Jett is especially not happy with this, because instead of facing consequences of her actions Shae just gets to die a warrior's death about it, and Jett has to pick up the pieces now.
Vindican, Lord Adraas and Eleena appearing as Malgus's illusions was interesting, it gave his character some depth (in the game at least, obviously there's depth in the book).
Also, why is there 3 of him? They look like they're about to say 'mom said it's our turn on xbox' xD
The last part left me so confused. I don't entirely understand, did Malgus actually fight Jadus, or was that also and illusion, and the real Jadus was in the meditation sphere the whole time? If he was, then what was his plan? Bc he wanted to use the machine and send his message to plant fear in everyone the machine reaches and use that for their obedience, but in the end it Malgus who sent the message? Is it bc we stopped Jadus? But then why he needed the sphere? It's currently 2am here, my brain is tired and still racing with thoughts, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.
Regardless, Nul's machine is running, Malgus got his message out, and among the people who heard it is previously non Force-sensitive Commander (they also stop falling debris with the Force. and they said Sabine used the Force too easily in Ahsoka show). I don't mind this, at least for my character. I would be disappointed if Theron also got it, which is seemingly not the case, as I didn't see him among all different people hearing Malgus's words. Anri also didn't hear it, or if she did, she kept an excellent poker face about it.
That's it for now, maybe I'll have more coherent thoughts in a few days.
Let me attempt to sort my thoughts on 7.9 because those were some long cutscenes and alot happend
Spoilers under the cut
Let's just go through the story points somewhat chronologically, otherwise I fear I'll be talking in circles
Your faction finds out that you're a saboteur
I was starting to wonder when this would come back to haunt us, since it has been awhile since the last Saboteur option appeared. I'm looking forward to the fallout of this since LotS ended so abruptly and it was only addressed briefly in the beginning of 7.9 but I have some issues with how it was revealed.
It just...happened. There was no build up, no explanation as to how your faction found out (though my guess is Jadus), they just knew it. That didn't really feel satisfying but your faction finding out did add a nice tension to the story.
On a similar note, I like that Anri (and I'm also guessing Arn) feels betrayed if you're a Saboteur, even if romanced. You will still get the romance specific conversation with them but....it will not be romantic. As much as I would hate for my Agent to have to give up Anri, I would prefer it if the romance ends because of this betrayal but I don't think they'll go there. Anri still worried about my Agent as you would expect from a romanced companion throughout 7.9, I simply didn't get a kiss from her. We'll see were it goes
They both look very sad afterwards though, I have to say.
The space combat thing
When this popped up, I was a little confused
I think it's cool that they integrate optional missions, that most people just miss in base game, into the story.
I don't know what to say about the quality of this section though. I have never played space missions before (though I knew of their existence) so all I know is that playing it felt....off. Because what do you mean I can't even control the ship. It was boring and progression was slow.
I will definetly skip this section going forward and I think they knew that alot of people would want to. I honestly think the motion sickness is just a way of saying "We know alot of people don't fuck with space missions so here's a free ticket around it". I appreaciate them giving us this option.
The multiple perspectives
I had a blast with it
It was kinda fun getting a little insight into how your allies/enemies actually fight and using various skillsets for awhile that feel different from oneanother
My personal favourites were Malgus and Lana. Their figthing styles both had a quick pacing with a unique mechanic to it. Malgus with his pain buffs and Lana with the probe things you have to use before being able to inflict damage
I also loved Therons healing animation
Old man being an old man and to quote @kay1mi here "That MoFo cracks like a glowstick when he does a squat"
There were too many perspectives though.
Krovos (and whoever it is on the Pub side) felt unnecesarry and could have been left out or done by our character on route to the planet (that space mission did not look dangerous at all)
While playing the story it didn't really bother me but looking back I would have liked my character existing outside of the cutscenes a little more + them having some personal stuff happenig to them (more on that later) instead of you running from point A to B the whole time
Overall I really liked having the perspectives as they gave a sense of scale to the story that I don't think we would have had otherwise.
Shae & Heta
I don't know what to say or think on Shaes and Hetas death because I don't know what to say on the whole Mandalorion plotline as a whole. We have been following these two for...three real life years (I think) and since I have only really played anything LotS around the time the updates released originally I have lost the bigger picture on this story.
I'll have to come back to this when I'll do my LotS review but that'll be awhile since I want to replay the entire expansion before that but my closest character for that has just started the Traitor Arc.
What I can say now though is that Shaes death was the only good conclusion for her after she broke out Malgus.
She died a Mandalorian death and if she hadn't, the Republic/Empire would have wanted her head to have at least someone to blame for the Malgus mess.
And Heta getting corrupted by the sword looked cool
Jadus and his feverdreams
I said it before and I'll say it again: Jadus with his Fear Illusions are the coolest villain we had in some time. No notes, it's perfect.
One bad thing about this updates Fear Illusions though: They were all Malgus centered. (Though it was really funny when Jadus put us in the cuck chair when Eleena showed up)
I get that Malgus was in the machine when it happend and therefore the focus was on him but the Commander is still there and could potentially stop Malgus so you would think Jadus would at least try to manipulate them.
Considering our character isn't much in the update outside of cutscenes it would have been nice to have one or two Commander-Fears appearing even if they would just have been mini boss enemies to fight during the "totally real " confrontation with Jadus.
Ehmmmm.....That one thing
I played this update with my Agent who tried to stop Malgus during his speech and....Well
Not only do the non-Force user classes HEAR Malguses speech but they are also explicitly shown to stop a rock in the air
Congratulations you have the force
I sort off knew this was bound to happen (The Voss Prophecy did say what was coming was inevitable and with the whole talk about Nuls machine and the Commander staring at the holocron a little funky....It was bound to happen) but I don't know if I like it
I specifically love playing as the Non Force User classes because they do not use the force and yet suceed against planet eating monsters via sheer force of will. So my opinion on this depends on how they explain the force connection.
If they say "Well, you've always had it" I'm out.
If they say "It's an unforseen gift Valkorion left you after moving out of your skull" I'll be fine with it, I think (They have shown Non Force User Outlanders blocking Arcanns lightsaber via Valkorions force powers before so it's not a stretch and doesn't take away from what I like about the non force using Origin Stories)
There is also a secret third option that is a personal theory of mine, but that's a post for another day
The abrupt ending
My jaw was on the floor when Malgus was done with his speech
I like the credits just rolling after Malgus speech without wrapping any questions up
How you'll go on with your faction, the state of the galaxy after that speech, how the Alliance plans to act on it, what will you do with the force powers/where are they from, etc.. All questions that have not been answered but will likely be in the next update (From what the Devs are saying 8.0 seems to be coming rather sooner than later so it seems we won't have too wait long)
One question I really want to answered now though: Where is Tau? Did she go with Rivix on that Vacation Jadus send him on, or what? Where did she go?
Overall opinion
It is a really packed finale for an expansion that felt like it was full of filler story in the beginning (from what I remember). You can feel that they had to find a way to cram all the puzzle pieces into this update (hence the long cutscenes) BUT
They tried something new and interesting for the finale. Some of it worked, some of it didn't but I love that finales feel like finales again instead of the story just going "Go here, go there, short cliffhanger, new storyline coming soon"
Storywise I am excited for where this is going. With the galaxy in complete chaos the story has potential to open up beyond the Empire vs. Republic conflict again. The story we have been given in 7.9 is a good story, it simply suffers a little from the overall pacing of the Expansion that went from handeling multiple plotlines at a snails pace to mixing them all in a salad bowl while driving in a Speedlimitless zone of the Autobahn.
I am still gathering my thoughts on 7.9 but one thing I'll say now:
My wish came true and I saw my favourite redhead Syl (who is definetly not possessed by my other favourite character) front and center during a cutscene for a whole second
Thank you to 7.9 for finally answering the question of why Lana isn't in charge of the Alliance
She has the stealth ability and that can only mean one thing:
She has fallen victim to the side effects of stealthing
And then Theron and the Commander came around and she never had time to do heroics ever again. She is secretly still level 60 while everyone getting bored at level 80
jbbartram-illu
dededos
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
areudirty
jacobvanloon
2087
