I will try to be brief as much as possible. This here will in great matter be about my dislikes in Personal Story, what I think could be done better and what can be improved, if not fixed now, then for then next time we get the update and continuation of Personal Story. Lets be fair, rare individuals care to state what they liked, while we all know our dislikes by heart. And because it is eay being critic, I will try to put forward my own solutions and improvements.
First things first, I think I need to flash out my background story, so we all know where my arguments are coming from. I chose a human noble, that missed his chance to perform in circus, was blessed by Balthazar and had an aspiration of a conqueror. This pretty much sums it up. As an order of my choice, I chose Vigil. And I was Guardian, if this by any chance plays and role to it.
I’d like to make a remark, that besides my first choice, that of missing my chance in circus spotlight, I did not notice where my conqueror’s apetite or Balthazar’s favour come into play. Admittedly, I am not entirely finished with story, but since my next mission is to slay Zaithan, I consider it to be pretty close. I know that each of the social backgrounds gets a diferent companions, helpers, friends, whatever you may call them.
As lord Faren was my partner in almost every adventure, where I even gave him the opportunity to shine in the trial against Zamon it was a bit weird seeing him left behind. To this day, he still sits in my house IN the chair, not ON the chair having only 2 vague comments when I click on him. Not to mention, my house is as such as I left it at level twenty or thirty, the last time I stepped in. I recall, when it was said that your personal instance would change as you continue through the story, but since it didn’t change anyhow by now, or at least in the way I would notice, what are the odds of doing so in the last quest?
The story itself, until level 20 and finishing the personal arc felt nice. It was decent. What I miss though is the use of charm/dignity/ferocity decisions in the very fabric of personal story. As it is now, those cinematic frames, are just that – cinematic frames that tell you what to do next and where to go. There is no decision-making process in the likes of where you decide how to tackle a certain problem. Sure, we do get to chose either objective A or B. But in the story itself we don’t choose anything, it is all predetermined, how we react, what we say and how we do it. It would be nice to see that we get to decide in every stage of personal story, if only for our flavour text, how would WE do it, so it doesn’t feel that someone is holding us by the hand all the time.
As the story continues with the initiation in the order of your choice, cracks in the story start to show up. We are introduced to the new characters, while the half of the old ones are forgotten. I was interested in what Countess Anise and Lord Faren think of my joining to a particular order and why wouldn’t Faren join to keep me company? Sure he is laid back, nobleman that prefers chasing skirts through Divinity’s Reach more than wielding a sword but he does have a heart in the right place. Not to even mention what would that do for his reputation with ladies in the city if he actually became a hero in his own right and not always in my shadow.
There is also the matter of open questions, particularly from the starting zone. Why can’t my character join the Seraph, Shining Blade or the Ministry Guard? He sure is deeply involved in the state of politics in the city. Being able to join one of these three factions would give more depth to human character. Why does someone join the Ministry? To spy on them or because he believe they are right? Why Seraph? To help protect the people? What about Shining Blade? Because of the Queen or personal glory? This in itself could be a potential filler content for all those gaps in between the levels.
When we join the Order, in my case Vigil, we are presented with the guide, mentor or tutor. Whichever you prefer to call them. In my oppinion my mentor was great, and his self-sacrfice really gave my character personal motive for war againt the dragons. But I am speeding up. Lets get to the start. First what we do with the mentor is resolve problems in Ebonhawke concerning rogue factions. Sure, it feels nice, but it doesn’t really show in what connection this is with the Vigil itself beyond internal strife between human and charr that is spearheaded by the son of Vigil’s Leader. At the end of the story it feels like we were sent to do the dirty business for her, because she can order us around. What is more important to this point, our personal story is about us, sure we have mentor, but our oppinion has weight and the story is about our adventure.