Guild Wars 2

I’ve just gotten into the wonderful world of Tyria a few months back. I’ve been enjoying every aspect of it – sinking endless hours into really exploring and immersing myself in this world. Every aspect, that is, but the Personal Story.

I’d trailed off doing my Personal Story quests at about L40…and never went back to it long after having hit L80. I recently decided to remedy this, pushing on with my quest till near completion. But as someone trying to immerse myself and really invest in my characters’ development, some things just really…get to me.

My Rise to Power

I main a Human. I find it real strange that in my storyline, as an originally insignificant, weak nobody, I pop in to save a few troops and citizens from a handful of Centaurs and am suddenly regarded as the Hero of Shaemoor even by Queen Jennah herself.

Just like that, I’m the most trusted emissary of the Queen – she has all kinds of meetings with me in which I could’ve easily assassinated her had my intentions not been so pure. Everyone barely knows me, yet I am suddenly given secret missions of upmost importance. I work my way up the ranks of my Order like a star – when in reality I’d merely slain a few unruly mobs.

Finally, we meet Trahearne and I’m seemingly his only trusted Commander. It kinda throws me out of it a little. It seems…silly. The quests I’m made to do feel trivial, and yet I am rewarded with the highest of honors for completing them. Are the rest of the NPC characters simply that incompetent? That feats of normalcy are mind-blowingly great? That’s not to say I don’t want to be a hero – just that I didn’t want to be a hero after a fetch-quest.

Heck, the same applies to Trahearne. This guy comes out of nowhere, proves nothing to us save for his lack of experience and his naivety, and yet every soldier and every character out there has utmost respect for him and follows him to their deaths. What’s going on?

Storyline Drama

The thing that puts me off most about the Personal Story, though, is the scale of it all. Here we are, supposedly up against the biggest, darkest threat Tyria has ever faced – the all-powerful Elder Dragons. And what are we doing? Killing a handful of Risen. A literal handful. And doing that seems to lift everyone’s spirit. “That’ll show Zhaitan” they say. “We are like a thorn in its flesh”, “We’ve struck at the heart of Zhaitan”. I mean. Did I miss something here?

We proceed to INVADE ORR ITSELF….with a handful of Pact soldiers. Along the way we are faced by similar handfuls of Risen. The quests in this area feel absolutely trivial. We’re going after some small mobs here and there. Setting ambushes for small mobs. Trahearne seems to think this is a path to sure victory. Has he seen Tequatl? Tequatl, a lesser dragon to Zhaitan, can single-handedly wipe the map of all human life.

What’s missing is a sense of dread. A sense of doom. Zhaitan needs to swoop down out of nowhere and put some things in perspective – preferably mop the floor with Trahearne’s now dead body. Where are the armies? Where are our armies? And where are theirs? Or are all great wars fought in pockets of five mobs? As the player, we don’t necessarily need to engage millions of enemies, but we should at least see them off in the distance!

As it stands, the Personal Story feels…weak. Flimsy and uninspiring. It makes me feel like the mobs in any given dungeon’s Explorable Mode are tougher to take down than Zhaitan’s own army. I’m even okay with playing side-saddle to Trahearne…if he was more inspiring a leader. A soft voice with silly naive lines at what’s meant to be the most dire of times (like our camp being attacked and characters we know dying) does not a leader make.

Tonn’s (the Asura that was KIA) wife had more believable lines and drama in the span of five minutes than Trahearne did the entire game – making the dreadful mission of breaking the news to her the most compelling, most enjoyable moment all game. Where’s the sense of fear? Why does marching into the heart of Orr feel….oddly silly? Why do all the NPCs seem incompetent and naive? Why is there no real darkness, no real threat? Is the Personal Story made to accommodate players aged 5 and up? :/

Concerning the Rise to Power:

My human character is a warrior called “Nailbat Karla”. Her personality is suited to PvE, because

1. she likes travelling.
2. she likes money.
3. she solves problems by hitting them in the head with a bat with nails in.
4. she is not above demanding a reward from a nearby person if it looks like the problem she just hit in the head was their problem.

As you may imagine, this makes things interesting when playing the Personal Story and the Female Human says goofy crap like “Me, friends with the Captain of the Seraph? I’d be honored!” and “I grew up on the streets, but even then, I wanted to do something more for my country!”

However, this has an interesting side effect. Your dialogue is always going to be goofy; that’s just how it is in this game. But, if you’re playing as a dishonest person doing a bad impression an honest person, suddenly everything makes sense and it’s the best writing ever. It’s much easier to swallow your character’s meteoric rise to fame when to you all you did was hit some dudes with a bat, since rather than an epic adventure story it becomes a comedy about a bunch of idiots being led around by a vulgar conwoman.

And this works out so well because, yeah, the NPCs are that incompetent. Have you seen those guys fight? They do like no damage.