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Okami Amaterasu.9237
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Holy kitten, thank you Anet team for a great story this episode! (Spoilers!)
Okami Amaterasu.9237
Member ✭✭✭
Holy Kitten Kitten, thank you ArenaNet for another amazing episode! I’ve been waiting a long, long time to see in the story when
our plans eventually backfire and we fail so incredibly, enormously disastrously just right after promising that everything will be alright. Having Kralkatorrik withstand our assault and then break through Aurene’s defense of us and end up impaling and killing her with Brand was so marvelous and absolutely fantastic! Not only was the shot of Kralk slithering away creepy and ominous, but the whole “slow, uh oh what just happened walk” in the branded destruction with Taimi's? eerie cries echoing in the background really built up the suspense towards that moment and I absolutely loved it. I suppose my only nitpick this time would be the first instance and how it was a little slow, especially with just crystalline sound effects and no actual music, but oh well. If what we get in return are more cutscenes and story development like what we had here, then I really, really don’t care about the little things like that. This was well worth the wait, and I can't wait to see what happens next! Please don't resurrect her, please, thank you.
Once again, I absolutely loved the story. The map is very, very pretty and I loved the verticality to parts of it, reminding me of Verdant Brink in parts and Frostgorge Sound in others. It felt Dwarven, which is something we've needed ever since Lornar's Pass and Dredgehaunt Cliffs. And with the episode's ending, I have no idea where we'll go next, but at least we got out of the desert this time!
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I literally said some curses toward whoever made end scene (im sorry) , and closed game. I really dont feel like playing anymore , and while all was made well , hearing Taimi scream , i was just, done. It felt like game over screen to me, and still does.
. . . .
Oh God!! Please tell me that:
If so, YES!! I can't wait to play through it.😁👍
I'm full of hope that powers absorbed Aurene from Joko bring her back to story.
All is vain.
Just a note to give a high five to the OP, who actually used "kitten" properly... at least in these spaces.
Gaile Gray
Communications Manager: ArenaNet
Fansite & Guild Relations; In-Game Events; Community Showcase Live
Agreed, OP. Anet really nailed it with the story this episode.
Can I have your stuff?
Asura fanatic.
World's largest Zojja fan.
You can't trust Charr. They belong to Bangar now.
Make Dragon's Watch great again (by booting Rytlock out of it).
The Kontract Krewe [RP]: Flailing around Tyria for gold and glory. Mostly gold though.
Honestly the ending kittened me off. I'm sorry but there is no reason at all for the ending of how they killed her off, thats a serious waste of character development when it came to Aurene's character the writers should honestly in a way feel ashamed and i'm not gonna lie i'm mixed about if i want to keep playing at this point or quit entirely, there were better ways to end an episode but the way they chose was such an easy game of thrones style cop out with 0 originality which made it feel like garbage in the end. I was so excited for this and now I wish I didn't play it, never have I seen a story written where a writer would go against what would make a fan like. Seriously like what were the writers thinking on this, its digusting wasting an entire several months and moneys worth of character development like what was the point if they were just gonna kill her off.
~Find your destiny.
you know i just got it when glint said "I must talk to Aurene in private about the key to ascension" Remember how PoF and even joko himself talked about ascension, she's gonna come back but she had to die first to be reborn basically like joko did to become all powerful, so in order for her to become more powerful than kralk and defeat him she must first die and then go through the trials of ascension while in death and come back far more powerful than kralkatorike will ever expect.
~Find your destiny.
remember that now she has joko's power wink wink*
oh, what did joko said somewhere in the story? "my body might be destroyed, but i come again some days after"
The reason they killed her that way was to show that we were too eager to fight Kralk, that Aurene wasn't ready, and that her vision of her death was, yes, inevitable. The point is that it's a blow to us and our friends that we have to take and push through. Yes, Aurene died . . . but Kralkatorrik is still alive and he will slowly but surely destroy Tyria. We still have to stop him, no matter the cost, even Aurene herself. That's why it hits you hard in the gut (if you liked her).
If you'd rather have a story where we always win and even when we "lose" we still win with little meaningful cost associated with it, then I don't know what to tell you other than that'd be a bad story. Real life has consequences, has mistakes. The fact Anet recognizes that now shows they're more trustworthy than ever with the story they want to tell, and I'll be here ready to see where they're going to go with it!
This is why I still buy gems from time to time. There's a sense of maturity in the design philosophy here, lessons learned. That fugacious trial-and-error I sensed in the older maps is indiscernible now; this is just some great level design.
I find it pretty mediocre- nothing has topped when Scarlet destroyed Lions Arch.
Since then; It's all been cheap shock factors and your commander babysitting a giant norn who cant decide if he likes his mom or not and wanted any reason to get angry.
Once I finished the last mission, I logged out due to emotional exhaustion. Great episode!
That literally felt like a punch to the gut; I feel physically ill. For the sake of clarity and brevity, I'm going to default to bullet points.
The Good:
-Dialogue was mostly well-written. I really liked the attention to detail given to all the minor and nameless characters. It makes the world feel real and alive.
-The fight. Once again, the LS team has managed to take what is (upon reflection) an easy fight and make it feel urgent and grandiose. The visuals of the scale really help drive home the sheer size of the enemy and how hopeless of a fight this would be on our own.
-Kralk and his animations. He was huge, imposing, powerful. The way he turns to look at you when you activate the crystal towards the end sends shivers down the spine and conveys his cunning and malice. Toward the end of the final cutscene, as his head withdraws, he looks perfectly sinister. He never says a word, but the body language tells you all you need to know. Fantastically done!
-The narrative. From the moments leading up to the fight to the rallying cry of the battle itself, you can feel the energy, the expectation of something grand about to unfold. And then, at the end, the feeling of hopeless is so severe, I can feel it two hours later in the pit of my stomach. It seems clear that the idea was to build everyone up and then utterly crush them at the moment they feel the most empowered. The staggering walk at the end, although somewhat annoying in its cliche, allows time for the finality of the situation to set in. In this, the story was undoubtedly a rousing success. However...
The Bad:
-I felt all of that the moment Kralkatorrik blasted us and slinked menacingly away. It hit me like a ton of bricks that hope was lost: the forge is destroyed, our Dragonblood weapons are spent, used up our secret amplified crystal weapons, gave up our element of surprise, and we even dropped AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN on him, and none of those things are going to happen again. Every. Single. Advantage that we had was gone. For all that work, all that planning, we put out ONE EYE. If we can't beat Kralatorrik under these conditions, we never will. If killing Aurene was supposed to make us feel hopeless, then it failed in its goal as spectacularly as the rest of the narrative surpassed it: hope was already gone by that point.
-Braham, buddy, I know you're about as good at social queues as the average tenured asuran professor, but now is not a good time to ask "what now?" We're busy grieving here, Braham. Or, at least, we should be. Out of anyone in the main cast, you ought to know what that's like: give us a minute.
-I have never felt so disconnected from "The Commander" as I have been in these last few episodes when it comes to Aurene. With few exceptions, it was easy to identify myself in the roll of Commander. I was my character, and my character was the Commander. I experienced the world through my character's eyes, "first person" so to speak. But that perspective shattered, violently, at the end of the mission. "Where is she?" the Commander asks, as though we haven't already figured it out by the time we limp our way over, as if Brahm's face doesn't say it all (another positive point, there). I remember, in that moment, thinking "Oh, so now you care? Now you're concerned?" Where were you before? The Exalted practically raised her. Caith watched over her. When she disappeared into the mists, did you even look for her? When she came back, exhausted, weren't your first words 'Get off the floor, Aurene?' What kind of reception is that? Taimi was there for her then, and when Aurene ran away because she was scared, it was Taimi who thought to build her a security nest. Taimi's over there next to Aurene's body bawling her eyes out right now and all you can manage is "where is she?"
-We raised her from "birth." She was our baby. She still was one. Yes, I know, she's a dragon, and we're told she's an "adolescent", but she's been alive for less than three years. That's young for humans, and we know that dragons live to be even older. We heard it from Caith, which is as close to hearing from the dragon's mouth as we're going to get: She trusted us. She was scared, but she came back because of us. She loved us. And we failed her. And staring at her corpse, stalagmite through her heart, all we can think to say is "I don't know [what to do]?"
It's so sudden and pointless. We don't even get to see it happen, or have a chance to say goodbye. In a detached sort of way, I can almost admire how it was done. Unexpected, sudden, pointless...it's too real. We got so caught up on the hopelessness theme here, and it shows. The scene is crafted to make me feel hopeless.
But what I want to feel is loss.
(F)
I'll eat my hat if that is actually the end of Aurene (If that's the case, that's p a i n f u l.), but the staging of the last scene was excellent. All the fanfare, All the effort, only for the HP bar to get pulled before it hit 0-
Good slam on the brakes. Definitely interested in the next story segment now.
The "Balance" is a fantasy -- another mortal superstition.
for the first time in many years, I had to log out to avoid a break down...This was a masterpiece, yet sad it was. Now I am looking forward to the Closure, or reveal next Episode (or chapter?)
She's prob not even dead, magical creatures explode when they die. At least wait for confirmation.
The "Balance" is a fantasy -- another mortal superstition.
It indeed was amazing and surprising episode!
Yes pve content is always really great. A shame that they didn't want to put at least 10% of this quality in pvp content too. GW2 would be the best mmorpg for many players for many years.
Story ? 12/10 (speachless)
Map? 12/10 (my favorit part of the map in PoF was that dwarws in snowy area, this is dream!)
Dragnosblood skins? Pure love
Everything is nice!
Ty Anet for new living story, You guys are awesome.
EDIT:
AND THE MUSIC! GUYS! AWESOME last instance music and chores are my favs
Jokaurene
We got rid of aurene
This was a strong episode. The pacing seemed good, and the activities along the way made sense.
The ending was amazing. I haven't felt quite that way since reading Tolkien's Two Towers where it ends with Frodo apparently dead in Shelob's lair. I'm assuming that similar to Frodo in TT, Aurene will turn out to not be dead either. Maybe we'll even see some 'Aurene Lives!' graffiti whenever LS4EP6 finally comes out.
Proud to be a member of the Charter Vanguard [CV] on the Henge of Denravi
Well, last episode we learned that we shouldn't kill anymore dragons because it's bad for the world. Soooo....we go out and try to kill another dragon. Now the fact that Kralkie got away doesn't change that it was definitely our plan to kill Kralk. Now it didn't work but where is the episode where we decided that we were wrong and that we did indeed have to try to kill another Dragon? Or are we really that stupid that we learn something important and ignore it the next opportunity we get?
Nice touch with the Mass Effect 3 feel in the last part but it still felt anti-climactic the way it ended. It didn't feel like a cliff hanger to me but more a kitten / whatever moment.
I fully expect that Kralk left probably with the essence of Aurene in him who becomes the new Kralk and then decides to leave to fulfill the prophecy / dream Kralk originally had.
But really, why was it our plan to even kill Kralk when we knew we shouldn't do that sort of thing anymore? That just made zero sense to me.
"In my experience, if you can't say what you mean, you can never mean what you say. The details are everything." ~ Minister Durano
After an hour or so I sort of realized something.
[spoiler]Trahearne: But I still hear its voice. Mordremoth is alive. One last hateful vestige...a terrible seed planted deep in my mind.
Trahearne: You must kill me, Commander. Before that seed grows...before Mordremoth reclaims what it has lost.
Going to be paying close attention to Caithe next episode.[/spoiler]
You may want to research Schadenfreude.
Just pointing out, we weren't over zealous to take on Kralk or risk Aurene. We were asked to do so by her Mother, her Mother!
Maybe we should start realizing Glint really isn't that good.
The writing was good, this end is perfect for me : breathtaking, and a good way of getting away with this Deux Ex Machina that was Aurene (we already lost Taimi's almighty wits in every occasion previously, fleshing out the character without losing her)...
But now I don't want to play until the next bit of story is released. Returning to farming the new map doesn't feel right at all.
Definitely THIS !
Doug Warobaz - Norn To Be Alive [NtbA]
I liked this episode's story it was a surprising ending.
Also:
That Ghostly Messenger in "The Crystal Blooms" looks like Gwen from GW1
Well we don't know that this is the end of Aurene. It's meant as a cliff hanger where you're left wondering if she's really dead or not. So maybe she isn't? It wouldn't be the first time in a story that a character is not as dead as people assume. Far from it.
"In my experience, if you can't say what you mean, you can never mean what you say. The details are everything." ~ Minister Durano
Well this episode was good. Now we know that kralkatorrik can see into the future and foresaw a world without elder dragons. So thats happening. We know that aureen had some special ascended dragon training that wasnt explained to us. Caith is again a 1stborn as some wierd sylvari branded hybrid. Maybe its a new race. And when a dragon sees the future it cannot be changed.
Well it was only a matter of time with HoT being a really really bad let down and then PoF wasn't as bad but most of the specs in competitive not even usable. So yeah the ending had to come at some point but yeah time to move onto a new game I suppose now that this one is no longer being developed.
I believe it is. It's the same model used for Gwen in Hall of Chains.
I just played through the last story mission. What the ---?!
The writing was awesome, the dramaturgical climax with the camera and slaggy movement, the distorted sound - just wow. I don't think I have ever been moved to tears before in this game.
But, can anyone tell me how I am supposed to still have fun on this map, care about the weapon collection and what not after THAT?!?
Seriously.
I never understood how anyone in their right mind would believe a young dragon could face an elder one in battle like that. It was an insane plan to begin with. No idea how you wouldn't go "What the f---?!" when Eir announced that Glint wanted Aurene to take over Kralkatorrik's place at this point.
♀ Gallery: Guild Wars 1 Memories
No more LW episodes, only Expansions and Side Stories, please!
To be blunt its no that i didn't like the story but it did leave me with a few what the EFFFS screaming in my head. Maybe that was the idea.
I'm not a complete fan of how it bluntly ended I mean the whole way that last bit played out was done well when it came to polish. Don't get me wrong its not that it was done badly its how it bluntly cuts off after that. I would have at least liked to walk around in that area and maybe speak to a few characters who were willing to actually talk even if just a few words. Its one heck of a hanger but yeah... I feel like one more bit even if it was only full of talk would and morning would have been fine.
I don't think Aurene is gone for good though, simply too many key factors say otherwise.
1: no big boom
As all dragons with any remote amount of power even "Vlast" went boom on death and he was not an elder dragon, Even other powerful creatures with high levels of magic went boom. Joko even had mini boom that flashed the room and Balthazar had a big boom when he died. Aurene had no boom. While it can be argued that we simply couldn't see it i don't think its a detail that would have been left out otherwise.
2: Glint spoke of "Ascension"
Which is the first time I can ever recall that word has been used in relation to Aurene which makes me think that her visions were true but misleading in the previous chapter. There was no way to avoid this fate she has suffered. But why Glint had to know this was going to happen other wise things would have been presented differently perhaps she told Aurene this would happen during that moment when we were split away from her in the trials
3: I don't feel like we utilized everything from the trials.
Too much feels like it was just missing. There were some key things we used but some things we didnt use. I hope we will see use of these things in the future as part of the process to bring her back. Its obvious she is going to come back to me anyways. The world has no choice other wise we should have just let balth do the job for us. His ghostly kitten is probably rolling around in laughter at our pain and suffering right now.
Hoooppeeeefully anet does not take the ez way out and go "Cause she ate joko" she can come back to life cause absorbing magical properties. I hope we can get something a bit deeper than that.
My only other critical feedback would be why this episode was so short for the amount of time it took to release. With as short as this episode was I almost expect to see a follow up next month even if its in a pre existing map ore older maps.
I always expected that Aurene would replace Kralkatorrik which made it safe to kill him (she would absorb his magic to prevent world instability). And of course she was on our side which made it safe.
I dont think kralk saw the future himself based on how exactly glint spoke it out. He saw the future of a world without himself through her. Likely right before or right after she was converted to having her own willpower. Lets not forget Glint was not always a good dragon she was on his side as his champion at one point. I dont think he can see the future right now though.
I think we are all taking Aurene's visions a bit too direct. I think the idea is not that the future cant be changed because we changed it in the past back when she was still an egg and then with Blath. and yet again with Joko but in this case we were shown multiple visions of the future and in each one (in the previous episode) it ended with the same result implying that this particular event could not be avoided. I think if anything it shows that the future can be changed but in some instances you must face an obstacle rather than avoid it to continue forward. This might also be part of what Glint spoke of when it came down to Enduring with Aurene
i also think, it is great stuff.
when i remember story in 2012 and compare it i can absolutely see that anet improved themself. i already saw that during hot Story and i really liked the last Episode. great design!
There are crystal spikes driven through her body. Are you kidding me?
♀ Gallery: Guild Wars 1 Memories
No more LW episodes, only Expansions and Side Stories, please!
What happened with magic Aurine suppose to let out if she is gone, I wonder?
"There is always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city."
Whats your point. Its a magical world.
Vlast blew up into no physical fleshy parts but nothing but pure crystal behind
Mordremoth was literally plant life who could live without a body but jumping his mind into others
Zhaitan was literally as dead as it gets.
For all we know Jormag is pure ice and Pirmordus lives under possibly millions of pounds of pressure baring down on him under lava.....
In a world of magic getting spiked through your body does not 100% mean the end of your life lol.
See this guy gets it
I do have a few theories though on how it went down this way now that I think about it. We knew from kormir that what caused the desolation was human gods battling one another there so the mortals had to take him out which they most likely knew would happen. So possibly their reason for leaving was tied to how massive the magic is compared to their own even as gods. If they already knew balthazar would be destroyed the must also know because of their abilities to make portals that kralk would end up being able to do the same and would be the place to release his magic without it destroying tyria.
Then we have aurene as an egg she absorbs mordremoth magic, then balthazar, and finally joko. So from what we saw from the episode and from the visions it pretty much sums up that aurene meets her demise but that might not actually be what happened. Since mordremoths last act was to try to take over trahearn's mind there is room to say that aurene may have done the same thing entering his mind to prevent an explosion of either of their collective magic they had plus absorbed. Then caithe losing the "connection" because the remains aurene no longer have the magic to keep it going. So what aurene has absorbed she technically has the power to kill kralk from within in his almost dead state, go into the mists and release the magic he devoured from there to return it plus make it safer so no magic destroys tyria. Then the powers of joko potentially could be used to reanimate her body to be able to return to it/ transfer the magic kralk before he complete dies into her where its cautiously managed to prevent an outcome that we had to stop balthazar from doing.
That is the only way I could see this not being complete doom worse than before without a dragon's help.
A body's just a body. She's had direct access to another one "minutes" before her death.
Doug Warobaz - Norn To Be Alive [NtbA]
As much as I dislike Aurene,( I mean who names a dragon Aurene? That's not big and bad at all) Remember ascention people, ascention. She'll be back. Sadly with the same name.
Sure but just because you or I might meta-think that one through, doesn't justify what our characters do. There is no indication of our character and the alliance around them having that discussion. So we learned we shouldn't kill anymore dragons and then we go out to kill another one just the same. Without a reason in the story to change our mind on that, the plan was just to go out and kill another dragon and that's a pretty daft thing to do.
"In my experience, if you can't say what you mean, you can never mean what you say. The details are everything." ~ Minister Durano
There are still rules to this world, and Aurene is DEAD. Do you want her to return as a zombie (Zhaitan magic) or Lich (Palawa Joko)?
Their question about the energy that has LEFT Aurene's body when she died was completely unrelated to your funny claims.
How could Ascension bring her back? It is not a ritual to revive the dead, now is it? At least I don't remember it as that from GW1.
♀ Gallery: Guild Wars 1 Memories
No more LW episodes, only Expansions and Side Stories, please!
Just tear my heart out while your at it Anet, it was good but man the feels.
Aside from the main story, I really liked all the small details from this patch. Being a gw1 vet and seeing Gwen as the messenger, glints body and all the dwarf stuff was really cool. Sitting on Jalis’s Throne in the treasure room!
Going back to thunderhead and doing defense again was a throwback as well. The maps really pretty too and the sound team did some great stuff this patch.
I also loved the animations used, especially the whole sequence at the end. I would say more about the story itself but i’m still mulling it all over.
Jadis Narnia, Sylvari Ranger of [VoS]
Praise Joko!
I'm just echoing what a lot of people have said here, but this was a seriously amazing episode. It was such an emotional roller coaster, feeling like we were built up and ready to take down the dragon and then everything changing in a flash as we go from beating on his eye to him escaping and breathing. THAT RIGHT THERE, that's the terror of being face to face with an elder dragon. I don't think we've ever had that in the story before, as even when things go badly we can figure it out and do better. This was everything we had: all the research, taking advantage of weaknesses, the best possible environment with Kralkatorrik wounded already.
A++ Anet. Your writers, animators, story team, just your staff in general is doing some of their best work ever.
The story made me feel like an errand boy
It made me realize that my teammates are morons and once again, your efforts are pointless bc youre taking on the role of supporting character.