Wow... latest map additions

I thought Jahai Bluffs was pretty well done. Not the most intriguing zone in the game for me, but definitely well done. Especially for a living story episode.

BUT

Then I explored a cleared instance of Mythwright Gambit. Wow. Just wow. It both amazes me that the artists in this franchise are so talented, and deeply saddens me that something this beautiful is only in a raid instance and not something open world that the majority of players will get to see. Something that only feels alive while it is being cleared. I appreciate that so much thought and passion is putting into some of these raid environments, even with Bastion and the first raid wing, but is part of the reward of raiding getting to experience some of the most aesthetically pleasing or interesting areas in the game? Perhaps it's just that my taste and what I like falls more in line with whoever creates these raid environments.

It just would have been nice if this was a more widely seen playable space, like the hidden city of abdasim. Would have made an amazing guild hall as well.

I just keep finding when I explore these raids for the first time, already cleared because I don't have much raid experience, that they are usually very well done and extremely unique. Sabetha's environment is also quite impressive, and the surroundings gave me a major Echovald vibe for some reason.

I just hope that going forward we get something as unique and visually stunning as some of the raid environments they have released. I'm sure part of the issue is that the level of detail is harder to achieve in a large environment that has to be event-filled playable space, but just the concept behind some of them is far more interesting to me than some of the living story maps we have gotten. I'm sure part of that sentiment is burn out from being in Elona and seeing essentially the same assets over and over, but this Mythwright in particular is definitely in my list of top three environments in the game if not the favorite.

Any chance of altering the thread title to reflect the subject?

Sounds like a cool area to explore though