positive thots on VoE (SPOILERS)
seen a lot of negativity about this latest story drop so i just wanted to chime in some things i like. excuse the format im very tired but i have actually really enjoyed this step and i want to add some encouragement for the longer development cycle
the map is gorgeous, full stop
the meta is actually insanely fun, i REALLY enjoy it, ive caught it every time i can and actually want to do it
the voice acting this time around is impeccable, even with the ambient dialogue
there is so much character growth being portrayed in the ambient dialogue, especially with isgarren and meliza
this stupid update made me give a shit about isgarren >:( (positive) and i want to know more. why the fuck was he referred to as daddy.
THE LITTLE ARTIFICER CONSTRUCTS. ALL OF THEM ARE MY CHILDREN NOW. My stewards of galadra... and all of the voiced ones have such lovely voices. the artificer's directive made me tear up.
the STORY beats I felt were actually very well played out holy shit. I am a big 'commander on the back foot' enjoyer, literally i love when we fail so abysmally that the stakes are raised so high
kuda's title change mid dialogue was sick as hell
somebody on the dev team is a big dark souls fan and i want to kiss them on the mouth
i feel like this is shaping up to be the actual devastating aura of lws1 with the political potential of what icebrood saga COULD have been, and im eating it up
i dont understand people saying there was nothing to do this story, the map has plenty to do, people complain about collections or time wasting gimmicks in the story (i do too tbh) but then there are none and suddenly there's nothing to do?? make up ur mind.
the thing u can do is RUMINATE and put together the pieces that are being laid out, which i honestly think is a really nice change. We are in a very political era of Tyria right now with the alliance, and Vloxx's whole concept is political. I WANT to think about the consequences and the future we could have made.
this is the first story drop i have played on launch day that had ZERO BUGS and i know thats not universal but in my 10 years of playing gw2 i have literally never had that happen, i ALWAYS get the unvoiced cutscene bug at LEAST and i DIDN'T this time
the letter you get if you're out of castora when you start the story was a nice touch, as was the call from ludo at the end
i really like what anet has been cooking and i want to let them cook some more
PURELY PERSONAL TAKE HERE as if all of these aren't, but as an RP guild leader whose guild is currently following the storyline (if you ever see anyone repping the Tyrian Alliance Irregulars [IREG] on NA thats my people babey, Cricket Harespring is my guild lead character) i actually really appreciate more time to write out the story between beats.
that one random 2 hour patch bug yesterday was very funny in hindsight honestly we were literally about to do an important cross-guild negotiations rp and we were like 'ok lets grab new build in and out five minute adventure' and then we got to freak out together.
my one and only negative thing i will say on this post is that the last episode of LWS4 where aurene gets deus ex machina'd back to life in the first 5 mins of the episode, following one of the single best story beats anet has ever produced, and then the best episode trailer theyve ever made, is what made me fully quit gw2 for like five years because i got so fucking mad LMFAO (i knew aurene would have to come back but the way it was done was just so cheap imo and absolutely ruined the tension and grief they did SO WELL to build beforehand). So i am begging oh my god please let these consequences get resolved more naturally. Endings have historically been anet's biggest weakness but I really really like what they got going and i am hoping praying shitting pissing farting that with more time to cook, maybe this ending will land.
