Guild Wars 2

I have had far too much time on my hands lately and so I’ve played GW2 far too much. In doing so, I’ve created a lot of alts and wanted to get all of the story achievements, not to mention see all the personal story branches and decisions.

I’d like to comment on one particular aspect of the stories that could have made the flow a lot better and have players become more interested in some of the Named NPCs.

SPOILERS!

Having done all story steps in the game, I am familiar with these named sub-characters and thus subsequent play-throughs are more meaningful. While I understand the desire to put in personal choices in the story, I think it would have been better to have had some more continuity with some of these characters so the player doesn’t feel as if they have no attachment with supposedly-important NPCs that come and go, possibly dying off in some way. I believe this is why players have the most feeling for their Order Mentor, because you’re actually with them long enough to form feelings about them (and Trahearne), either like or hate.

For example, my Vigil Norn in Orr did Armor Guard, where Tegwen sacrifices herself. Now, the first time my Norn met Tegwen was in the previous step, Marching Orders. When she sacrifices herself. OK, she dies—but who is she anyway and why am I supposed to obviously care?

However, when I played my Whispers Sylvari, I had some story steps in early levels that involved Tegwen and so I then knew who she was and an “aha!” happened. Then, this particular character completed Blast from the Past where Arda dies. Who the heck is Arda and why am I supposed to obviously care—again?

The first time through the storylines, upon meeting some these interesting characters just to have them die in the same story step, I kept thinking, “OK, who’s dying next? Why introduce these guys only to kill them off?”

I was delighted when I rolled another Norn alt, for example, and under the “Drunk” storyline I got to see the Gear Warband, with whom I was already somewhat familiar from another character that had completed an arc with them in Orr. I just wish that it would have continued with them and not have felt seemingly temporary depending on story branch choices.

Also, I must say that my favorite story-related NPC interactions are Galina Edgecrusher and Snarl Backdraft. Their banter is always great!