Tinker.6924 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 I enjoyed how the Soto story began, act 1 felt really engaging, but it quickly became disappointing. Spoiler Soto Act 1 felt awesome mainly because it was coherent (character in retirement getting harassed by a reporter, exactly how things would be post-EoD) and you had story-specific open world content (like investigating the disappearance of the Tower) followed by story-specific instances where you still had to do things (like sneak through a camp). Everything was story-specific and engaging with you having to do more than just watch a cutscene. At some point the Soto story degrades to: story-specific instance (mostly cutscene) followed by repeat the meta x-times, followed by a cutscene and then wait for the next chapter to be released. There weren't any story-specific activities to do in the open world it was all "just repeat the meta". Nayos just felt like a weak version of Dragonstand. The Soto story just seems to miss the obvious thing that any of us would do: use our very extensive military and political connections as the most important Tyrian military leaders in history to warn national leaders of the Midnight King's threat, explain why rifts are opening and demons pouring out eating villagers, and get support. We even had a new-and-improved communication device from Taimi which we did jack all with. Our friends should all be important enough now that they themselves have protege's and followers that they could have encouraged to join us even if they personally couldn't. But none of that happened. So I hope that Janthir has plenty of story-specific open world activities as well as story-specific instances in each chapter and doesn't follow Soto in the paradigm of "story instance, do random regular open world events like everyone else in the end-game, get another story instance, wait for next chapter" which felt cheap: there were only 2 story-specific things there and the rest was general content getting reused. 5 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Macs.1296 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 Spoiler Titans are back.... Probably thanks to the death of Mabon the last Mursaat on Tyria.... more Astral ward.... unfortunately... and more re-writing of canon lore from GW1 is likely Specially after they re-wrote the Eye of Janthir for LWS4 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Player.2475 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 I don't even care too much about the story but it felt like a downgrade even compared to the worst Living Story episodes that they forced themselves to push out during the pandemic lockdowns. In the end we are basically paying the price of a fully finished expansion only to get less than 2 hours worth of story and instanced content every 3 months. To help the player feel like he is getting his money worth, Anet releases these story updates alongside QoL improvements and changes to certain gameplay elements that should've been introduced 9 years ago, just to create the impression that you are getting more than just repetitive filler that's using mostly copy-pasted assets that's not even worth a fraction of the price. If SotO was marketed as a more expensive Living Story Chapter, I wouldn't have been as critical, but the story and other "content" it includes feel too lackluster to even consider it an expansion. If it wasn't for weaponmaster training, there would be little reason for anyone to own it unless they wanted a different way to get legendary armor or skyscale. 6 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilliaCopt.4586 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 (edited) Honestly SOTO last update feels "empty". The story chapter last 5 minuts top. Probably the worst update story wise, if you don't count the mini chapter they added to EOD last year. They wanted to ditch the old commander's "friends" to add some depth to our characters, and at the end, it's like they just rushed the whole thing. I had hope with the first chapters, and it became very disapointing as it progressed. Hope they will rethink the whole process so we can have real story content. And honestly, other than Peitha, i find it difficult to get "close" to the new characters they added in soto, so if they bring back the old ones (like canach for instance..) i really wouldn't mind. Edited June 6 by FilliaCopt.4586 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malus.2184 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 (edited) 18 hours ago, Tinker.6924 said: I enjoyed how the Soto story began, act 1 felt really engaging, but it quickly became disappointing. Reveal hidden contents Soto Act 1 felt awesome mainly because it was coherent (character in retirement getting harassed by a reporter, exactly how things would be post-EoD) and you had story-specific open world content (like investigating the disappearance of the Tower) followed by story-specific instances where you still had to do things (like sneak through a camp). Everything was story-specific and engaging with you having to do more than just watch a cutscene. At some point the Soto story degrades to: story-specific instance (mostly cutscene) followed by repeat the meta x-times, followed by a cutscene and then wait for the next chapter to be released. There weren't any story-specific activities to do in the open world it was all "just repeat the meta". Nayos just felt like a weak version of Dragonstand. The Soto story just seems to miss the obvious thing that any of us would do: use our very extensive military and political connections as the most important Tyrian military leaders in history to warn national leaders of the Midnight King's threat, explain why rifts are opening and demons pouring out eating villagers, and get support. We even had a new-and-improved communication device from Taimi which we did jack all with. Our friends should all be important enough now that they themselves have protege's and followers that they could have encouraged to join us even if they personally couldn't. But none of that happened. So I hope that Janthir has plenty of story-specific open world activities as well as story-specific instances in each chapter and doesn't follow Soto in the paradigm of "story instance, do random regular open world events like everyone else in the end-game, get another story instance, wait for next chapter" which felt cheap: there were only 2 story-specific things there and the rest was general content getting reused. I still have no idea for the reason Eparch did what he did and all I know about Peitha's reason to become the king was to prevent Kryptis from being cannibalised. You become a leader to do something rather than to prevent something. A popular uprising could have achieved the same result without having to overthrow the leader. Edited June 7 by Malus.2184 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker.6924 Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Malus.2184 said: A popular uprising could have achieved the same result without having to overthrow the leader. Regime change without reforms. Yes. That's all that was accomplished. Edited June 6 by Tinker.6924 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybarf Tics.2048 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 (edited) Personally I find the last expansion to be the worst but looking forward to Janthir. Already purchased done & done. Please Anet more engaging underwater stuff. 😉 Edited June 6 by Hybarf Tics.2048 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malus.2184 Posted June 7 Share Posted June 7 I'm glad that the learning period for ANet on this new format was spent on something that's so peripheral to Tyria that it can easily be ignored rather than something important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VedisEverly.7915 Posted June 7 Share Posted June 7 I would really like to see quests again. Even if repeatable. Having to wait for rifts or events made the last expansion boring. Same events over and over again, nothing to to do in between to move the stories forward. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyelogix.1654 Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 On 6/6/2024 at 4:15 PM, FilliaCopt.4586 said: They wanted to ditch the old commander's "friends" to add some depth to our characters, and at the end, it's like they just rushed the whole thing. I had hope with the first chapters, and it became very disapointing as it progressed. Their story was pretty much over at the end of EoD. They did what they needed to do and it should end there with the Elder Dragon saga. It doesn't need to be complicated, but SotO in general was kinda disappointing it started out good, but all those filler story parts were kinda meh. It would have been understandable at the end. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilliaCopt.4586 Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 19 hours ago, eyelogix.1654 said: Their story was pretty much over at the end of EoD. They did what they needed to do and it should end there with the Elder Dragon saga. It doesn't need to be complicated, but SotO in general was kinda disappointing it started out good, but all those filler story parts were kinda meh. It would have been understandable at the end. Yes. And no at the same time. Its not because i move to a new home that my friends have to disappear from my life. They are welcome to see me and stay around. Why would it be different in a game? I would be happy to see canach, rytlock or any other of my friends from time to time , even for a chapter. Erase them entirely was pure non sense. And what they did with zojja was meh.. Peitha was OK at the begining, now she is meh...the other characters from soto are just empty. And soto final chapter was boring really. Let's see which path anet will take now. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poormany.4507 Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 (edited) 6 hours ago, FilliaCopt.4586 said: Yes. And no at the same time. Its not because i move to a new home that my friends have to disappear from my life. They are welcome to see me and stay around. Why would it be different in a game? I would be happy to see canach, rytlock or any other of my friends from time to time , even for a chapter. Erase them entirely was pure non sense. And what they did with zojja was meh.. Peitha was OK at the begining, now she is meh...the other characters from soto are just empty. And soto final chapter was boring really. Let's see which path anet will take now. Based on the teaser and image in the official store page, it seems like the new story will be heavily focused on old characters. Anise, Malice, Caithe, Braham, and maybe Ayumi seem like they will be the main companions. They've also thankfully acknowledged that there were way too many characters in SotO, so hopefully, we'll have a smaller cast this time around and be able to have actual connections to them (I agree that I barely felt any connection to anyone, save for Zojja for nostalgia's sake, in SotO). Edited June 9 by Poormany.4507 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightPath.3972 Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 (edited) I feel the really dropped the ball with Kryptis, and not even story-wise (though that too). It started awesome - we meet Cerus who in his absolute dominance calmly analyzes us as a potential snack. Both showing his immense power over us and also his high rank as a Kryptis noble who doesn't just go into frenzy the moment he sees something remotely resembling food or enemy. This could've been preserved and made into additional combat mechanics - Kryptis excel at psychological warfare, something our Commander isn't well versed at. We could have new combat mechanics focused around both defending our sanity/soul and inflicting emotional damage on Kryptis. But instead we dropped back to regular combat mechanics where Kryptis stopped being Kryptis and just became enemies to beat. Edited June 9 by StraightPath.3972 5 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybarf Tics.2048 Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 Anet make this a special expansion with 1 world boss, 1 jumping puzzle, 1 dungeon, at least one underwater mission, and would still love to play with a Largos character or deep in Janthir bay a secret Largos village with them having a role to play in the expansion. 🤪 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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