Joon's Mansion is the Worst

[DJRM.6075]

I love this game but there have been times when it frustrates me. There is a lot of good to be found in this game, but when the developers do mess up, boy do they mess up bad.

 

Today I did the Weight of the World End of Dragons chapter, or at least tried to. There are many different opinions about what the lowest point of this game has been. Well Joon's mansion is the newest in those lows and perhaps the lowest one of all.

Where do I even begin? The jade bot's wonky controls and constant clipping into surfaces. The mind numbingly boring puzzles. If a puzzle at least seems interesting I will try to solve it on my own before looking up a walkthrough, but when its this boring, no way, just look it up. In the event that you get downed you are sent to the wrong side of the shield with no way to continue the fight and have no choice but to exit and start over.

I don't know about the rest of you but I am not touching anymore of Cantha until at least the respawning on the wrong side of the shield thing is fixed.

[Ashantara.8731]

If you had to look up these simple puzzles, that means they were too difficult for you, which should be the opposite of boring.

And what side of which shield? More specific bug reports help resolving issues.

Furthermore, the Jade Bot's controls are simple and work fine, unlike the ones in the Jade Brotherhood base in the Echovald Wilds.

The only (truly) frustrating bugs in this story mission I encountered were in the final fight while doing the mission achievements. I think those have been taken care of by now, though, as I never encountered them again since I reported them back in March.

[Tukaram.8256]

I could not stand that mansion chapter.  So far the mansion, the rooftop fight with the justice dept dude were the worst bits.  After doing them  I went and explored Shing Jai some more just to relax.  It was a week or two before I tried another piece of the story.  Still not sure if I am going to finish the story. I looked up Extraction Point and it looks absolutely wretched. Not my style at all.  That is my next chapter, and I have put it off for about 6 weeks. 

I really have no reason to finish the story to be honest.  But this is the closest I have come to finishing a story since I started playing Guild Wars in 2006.  😎

[Emberfoot.6847]

It took me 4 goes to get through Joons mansion. One was a DC so discounting that, three goes. Twice was managing to get jammed inside boxes in the final fight, and the other time I managed to end up in a totally locked room with no jade charges thanks to not realising exactly how the bot and my placement was going to work. All in all it was definitely one of the least fun times I had doing EoD, when it felt like it should have been a good one. 

For reference, I did this mission in the last week or so, so those bugs at least are not fixed. 

[Ashen.2907]

I found this portion of the story particularly annoying. I played through the story with two friends and having only one person be able to interact with anything made the whole thing unpleasant. 

ANet: designing even portions of your game to be unpleasant to be played with friends is a bad idea.

[Ultramex.1506]

I had a hunch someone will complaint about the puzzle, though its 3 months late

Guess the newest update broke it, i will re-do the story to see how is it since i have done it twice.

Don't find the puzzle boring though

[Vayne.8563]

This is my favorite story chapter out of every story chapter so far.  That sort of puzzle is exactly what is missing from this game for me. Having come to this game from RPGs rather than MMOs more generally, this was a great story chapter. 

That some people don't like it was always going to be the case.  But it's a good solid story chapter if you like puzzles.  And I didn't look up a walk through.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

I have to agree that joons mansion was the worst part of EoD. 

Not because the puzzle was to hard or bugs etc. 

But it was boring and didn't fit the tension of the story. 

Like, "Ohh kitten we are running out of time!" here have a long puzzle and some mini games. 

Nobody has time for that. Kick the kitten door in!

Grab Joon, slap her a few times until she snaps out of her "crazy phase". 

"Girl. I don't give a kitten about you or your feelings. We can talk AFTER we saved the world." 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by DanAlcedo.3281

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

The puzzle was OK. The jade-battery concept looks a bit off, taking into account how advanced the technology is. Figuring it out the first time was fun. Also found the secret room with Joon's husband and kid mostly out of curiosity. They even appear in Arborstone when you finish EoD, which I really liked.

The battle against Joon was a little short. I was not expecting a turret fight to be honest. Looking at her almost endless resources, I was prepared to fight a Guildwars2 version of Sigma (MMX series) using all kinds of robot-armors and special guards. We had the Iron Forgeman back in core tyria, during LW we had the Twisted Marionette, then in IBS came Pyrotorrick, Icebrood Construct and the Ancient Forgeman. So I was expecting something similar for her 'final form'. Good old expectation vs reality problem ^^. Seems I have to wait for the Inquest to enter the story again.

Sure the mansion has its flaws, like the rest of the expansion. But looking at the other aspects, I think the mansion-section was rather decent.

[Randulf.7614]

It was a bit out of place, but it’s also one of the instances I enjoyed the most. Most f the story - whilst well enough written - had been quite dull from a gameplay point of view. This was different and a bit compelling

[DanAlcedo.3281]

1 hour ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

The puzzle was OK. The jade-battery concept looks a bit off, taking into account how advanced the technology is. Figuring it out the first time was fun. Also found the secret room with Joon's husband and kid mostly out of curiosity. They even appear in Arborstone when you finish EoD, which I really liked.

The battle against Joon was a little short. I was not expecting a turret fight to be honest. Looking at her almost endless resources, I was prepared to fight a Guildwars2 version of Sigma (MMX series) using all kinds of robot-armors and special guards. We had the Iron Forgeman back in core tyria, during LW we had the Twisted Marionette, then in IBS came Pyrotorrick, Icebrood Construct and the Ancient Forgeman. So I was expecting something similar for her 'final form'. Good old expectation vs reality problem ^^. Seems I have to wait for the Inquest to enter the story again.

Sure the mansion has its flaws, like the rest of the expansion. But looking at the other aspects, I think the mansion-section was rather decent.

I too taught that we would fight her in a giant jademech suit. Now that would have been awesome. 

 

 

[Sarius.9285]

what is that logic lol?

5 hours ago, DJRM.6075 said:

If a puzzle at least seems interesting I will try to solve it on my own before looking up a walkthrough, but when its this boring, no way, just look it up.

there was nothing in that instance that even remotely needed to be looked up lol. 

[wondermuffin.9680]

Some of the achievements in that episode (like doing it fast or not getting hit) are so annoying to get solo. Still a better place than Caudecus' Manor though! 

[wondermuffin.9680]

1 hour ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

Also found the secret room with Joon's husband and kid mostly out of curiosity. They even appear in Arborstone when you finish EoD, which I really liked.

Really! I didn't find that...Guess I have to go back and do more snooping around. 

[Farohna.6247]

I liked the puzzles, the jade bot was fine...until I got stuck in the last room.  I liked finding her family by accident, it was an interesting twist that added a layer of humanity...and made you pause and question.  I think upon replay I'll like it better, the first time was kind of ruined for me by being stuck and having to redo the puzzle.

[Super Hayes.6890]

I didn't enjoy this section but I also recognize it was geared for a different type of player than me. As content, I thought it was made well and polished. The pace felt slow but that is to be expected when figuring out puzzles.

[Baseleader.4128]

Any bugs encountered will ofcourse hamper joy, so fair enough. Overall, I really enjoyed the chapter. It was something different, sth I also enjoy in singleplayer type games and thought the mansion was really cool.

[Gibson.4036]

It's odd that people are assuming looking up the solution is tied to difficulty. Sometimes puzzles are not difficult, just tedious, and following a guide gets you through faster.

I'm not saying this puzzle is or isn't that way, just questioning the idea that the only reason you'd go look up a solution is because the puzzle is hard.

[Hotride.2187]

4 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

But it was boring and didn't fit the tension of the story. 

Like, "Ohh kitten we are running out of time!" here have a long puzzle and some mini games. 

Nobody has time for that. Kick the kitten door in!

Good thing that I didn't listen to dialogs / pay attention to "cutscenes" then. I didn't even notice things were on a clock.

[Farohna.6247]

55 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

It's odd that people are assuming looking up the solution is tied to difficulty. Sometimes puzzles are not difficult, just tedious, and following a guide gets you through faster.

I'm not saying this puzzle is or isn't that way, just questioning the idea that the only reason you'd go look up a solution is because the puzzle is hard.

Well said, people sometimes seem to think it's some secret shame.  Some times there are details that I'd miss without a guide or sometimes I'm just in a hurry.  Other times I just do my own thing.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a guide.  

[Sobx.1758]

41 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

Well said, people sometimes seem to think it's some secret shame.  Some times there are details that I'd miss without a guide or sometimes I'm just in a hurry.  Other times I just do my own thing.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a guide.  

Nobody said there's something wrong with using a guide. But at the same time, OP says he'll do "interesting puzzles", but "look up the walkthrough if it's mindnumbingly boring". In this context, what does the "mindnumbingly boring" puzzle even mean? Sounds like OP couldn't find the passage, so he looked up the guide. Seems like it is tied to the difficulty. He's free to dislike a puzzle and he's free to look up the guide. Pointing out a bug is understandable (but better done in the bug section), but "boring!" says next to nothing about what he'd change about it.

Edited June 16, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Xerxez.7361]

Puzzle wasn't hard one part did stump me for a while since there were no guides for when I did it. I mistook one of the Windows you fly your Jade Bot through for a Mirror...

[Farohna.6247]

17 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Nobody said there's something wrong with using a guide. But at the same time, OP says he'll do "interesting puzzles", but "look up the walkthrough if it's mindnumbingly boring". In this context, what the "mindnumbingly boring" puzzle even mean? Sounds like OP couldn't find the passage, so he looked up the guide. Seems like it is tied to the difficulty. He's free to dislike a puzzle and he's free to look up the guide. Pointing out a bug is understandable (but better done in the bug section), but "boring!" says next to nothing about what he'd change about it.

Agreed on it seems tied to difficulty..not sure if OP was expecting to just run in, hack and slash, then run on or what.  If it was confusing or frustrating, by all means use a guide.  Is boring just a term for "I didn't know what to do because I didn't read or follow the hints".... possibly. 

More clarification and definition on what an interesting puzzle is in OP's opinion might be needed.  I definitely would not call it the lowest point in the game though.

[DexterousGecko.6328]

I don't know if I would equate looking up guides for puzzles you find boring to it being too hard as many people are implying. I spend all day on puzzles, I don't need puzzles in my video games too.

 

The mansions puzzles seemed silly, and while I didn't look up a guide, I groaned when I realized they wanted me to move the little batteries around to open secret doors. It didn't help that the plot was boring to me as well.

Edited June 16, 2022 by DexterousGecko.6328

[Rhingeim.3974]

Done it two times on two characters, with one bug (stuck in a box in last fight), without any hints. 

 

Don't think that this puzzle is difficult... Jumping puzzles and everything related to them (I'm working currently on skyscale unlock, and scared by last part of flight puzzles) - they drive me nuts pretty fast.