Guild Wars 2

I understand that it is common knowledge this game has the worst story in MMO history, but it has to be said again.

I decide to make a new character and play through the story with a friend who has returned to this game. Both have the same options in the storyline and same race but you know it never wants to count the progress…At this point i’d rather hang myself than continue through this garbage you call a campaign.

I can only pray that the GW1 cooperative mission system will return in the expansion.

Trahearne!!!!!

OMG I want him to go away so badly.

It’s funny, I was just about to create a sylvari to replay through the Malyck storyline with some guildies ahead of the next living world season. Not that I think the story’s execution is fantastic or anything, but I still find reason to play it, especially the early parts.

Clawr Island is usually where I call it quits…

I’m sure it’s been debated elsewhere.

Treeherne. Treesus. The man who “helps” get Saladbog, only to forget your name 5 levels later.

Losing your warband/crewe/friends that you’ve built up. Apparently, having ally NPCs go with you into combat was a shining point in GW1. GW2 doesn’t even remember they exist past their relevant vignettes.

You can look at the fact the Story forum has been “archived” (shut down) as proof ANet’s probably not going to fix/extend the Personal Story any further.

Don’t know what’s worse: the writing or the voice acting.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Don’t know what’s worse: the writing or the voice acting.

If you’re Norn, both.

Pretty sure the directing for that went something like:
“Hey, Abigail from accounting, we need you to read these lines! But try not to sound so enthused.”

Lankybrit.4598:

Trahearne!!!!!

OMG I want him to go away so badly.

Funny thing is, he’s actually a LOT better then people give credit for. They just hate paying attention to the personal story.

That isn’t talking about voice acting or writing, but moreso about the “credit” issues people falsely create.

It’s not horrible, it just wasn’t well implemented and, like everything else in the game, never properly iterated. Neither is the living story. So basically, there are two separate storylines on two separate timelines occurring in the same universe, and the resulting cognitive dissonance is not worth it because both stories are mediocre and poorly implemented even when viewed independently of one another.

It’s been 1.5 years. It’s long past time for Anet to get this mess together. Make some serious upgrades to the PS and then fold the LS stuff into it, then go forward with a cohesive, united concept that focuses on epic storytelling and permanent game expansions. Virtually nobody with a brain thinks lots of gimmicky temporary content was ever a good idea.

In all seriousness, I think it’s pretty obvious that with both the PS and the LS, their ideas were much grander than anything content designers, writers, or developers could reasonably be expected to pull off within the framework the game was built on. So it backfired in both cases and now we have two sloppy, disconnected story delivery concepts instead of one united, well-polished one.

I hate to say it, and I’m not trying to call anyone out specifically, but it’s very obvious that the management of the game has just been…. not good.

Kalavier.1097:

Lankybrit.4598:

Trahearne!!!!!

OMG I want him to go away so badly.

Funny thing is, he’s actually a LOT better then people give credit for. They just hate paying attention to the personal story.

The problem is that a lot of people would maybe pay attention to THEIR OWN personal story, but don’t care the heck for Trahearnes personal story, and at least not if they played Trahearnes Story 3+ times.

I actually liked it…Trahearne included. Guess I am just easy to please. I would have preferred that it remain a “personal story” to the end rather than forcing you into a five-man group to do a dungeon but, beyond that, it all seemed pretty good to me.

The transition to and from claw island is where things fall apart. The earlier parts I find are usually rather good.

I think the biggest downfall to the personal story is the fact that it is a root to tree with no branches. I understand why this was done.

I think the other problem is that they split off part of the personal story into dungeons(Story mode). If you let the dungeons(Story mode) replace your main personal story it flows a lot better. But the personal story itself does not require you to play them.

Playing since the beta, still haven’t played Personal Story pass the level 10 or something.
If I wanted a story based game, I’d play something else.

Dr Ritter.1327:

I understand that it is common knowledge this game has the worst story in MMO history, but it has to be said again.

I decide to make a new character and play through the story with a friend who has returned to this game. Both have the same options in the storyline and same race but you know it never wants to count the progress…At this point i’d rather hang myself than continue through this garbage you call a campaign.

I can only pray that the GW1 cooperative mission system will return in the expansion.

That’s your opinion, and nothing else. There are elements of the personal story that are quite good, and elements that are quite bad. And its easy enough to skip through the cut scenes. /shrug

Nick.6972:

Playing since the beta, still haven’t played Personal Story pass the level 10 or something.
If I wanted a story based game, I’d play something else.

And the beauty is, unless you really want to join one of the orders, there is no compelling reason to do it if you don’t want to.

Nick.6972:

Playing since the beta, still haven’t played Personal Story pass the level 10 or something.
If I wanted a story based game, I’d play something else.

Most people need some form of narrative to, you know, actually feel immersed in the game and therefore enjoy playing it.

anzenketh, exactly: up until Claw Island most storylines are just fine, some even brilliant (Charr Blood Legion!). It all falls apart when they get smashed together and we get the phlegmatic shrub as a commander.

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either.

I don’t want the game to go out of its way to paint you as this one-of-a-kind world-saving hero because it cheapens the experience to know that every other player is also that hero. So in that regard I’m okay with the story focusing on others as the hero, and you play your part within that hero’s story.

That said, Trahearne was the most boring of boring characters, and it was lame that he was magically the hero everyone needed without any meaningful struggles or development or anything like that. I’d be okay if that hero character was more interesting and your story weaved in and out with that character’s over your travels.

Unfortunately the initial feedback seemed to be more “I’m not the hero!” than “Trahearne should have been more compelling!” Result will now be that you’re going to single-handedly slay all the dragons and be Tyria’s sole savior, and so will everyone else, which does nothing for either the immersion or the storyline.

Caithe has some compelling moments, for an example of what we should be working more towards. My heart sank in that one mission where you have a vision of Caithe succumbing to Nightmare. There was so much substance to just those few lines of dialogue and it told you so much about the character.

Asmodeus.5782:

anzenketh, exactly: up until Claw Island most storylines are just fine, some even brilliant (Charr Blood Legion!). It all falls apart when they get smashed together and we get the phlegmatic shrub as a commander.

That what i meant with Trahearnes Personal Story. From there its really no longer YOUR story.
I mostly liked the first 20 levels, there it really feels like my story. When the orders come in it already gets a little bit more generic but its still fun for a while since there are at least 3 storylines. And at claw islands it goes down the drain and all thats left is Trahearnes Story.

There is so much missed opportunity in the stories, especially with how they clunk down into sameyness – first with the Orders requiring you to forsake everything you did before, and then Claw Island screwing everything up (Wait just one moment! Why the hell is my Iron Legion Charr Centurion trying to invoke some sort of human god again? That’s not what I signed up for when I chose to try fighting with intellect over trying to facetank threats!)

Kyrel.8942:

I actually like the Personal Story.

My only qualms is that it can conflict with the Living World making things weird like LA.

It doesnt conflict with anything. The personal story takes place loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the LS does in the timeline. The fact that LA appears the same as it does in certain PS missions is irrelevant.

Also, for the OP, it DOES count progress if you tell it to. If you dont accept the prompt to progress your story missions, you get left behind.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Kyrel.8942:

I actually like the Personal Story.

My only qualms is that it can conflict with the Living World making things weird like LA.

It doesnt conflict with anything. The personal story takes place loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the LS does in the timeline. The fact that LA appears the same as it does in certain PS missions is irrelevant.

For those of us who have seen LA prior to Scarlet’s attack, though, it is somewhat… disorientating. I mean, things like Tybalt “selling” his apples in a city that has been reduced to ash, or working your way around debris from the Breachmaker to speak to General Soulkeeper seem more than a little “whut?” to me.

The Pointless.3869:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Kyrel.8942:

I actually like the Personal Story.

My only qualms is that it can conflict with the Living World making things weird like LA.

It doesnt conflict with anything. The personal story takes place loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the LS does in the timeline. The fact that LA appears the same as it does in certain PS missions is irrelevant.

For those of us who have seen LA prior to Scarlet’s attack, though, it is somewhat… disorientating. I mean, things like Tybalt “selling” his apples in a city that has been reduced to ash, or working your way around debris from the Breachmaker to speak to General Soulkeeper seem more than a little “whut?” to me.

Indeed. Any time I’m sent to LA on my personal story now I die a little inside.

The problem with the personal story, is that it’s just so… boring.

Everything is one big scripted event, and it has the same problem Call of Duty’s campaign mode has. (Possibly even worse.)

I want to see more things like Vexa’s Lab. And I want to see actual consequence for failing a quest. Maybe the player is actually booted out, and has to start all over?

Give the personal story more trash mobs we have to fight. Force the player to approach a fight wisely, otherwise they over-agro.

Learn from GW1 how to do an instance right.

Lankybrit.4598:

The Pointless.3869:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Kyrel.8942:

I actually like the Personal Story.

My only qualms is that it can conflict with the Living World making things weird like LA.

It doesnt conflict with anything. The personal story takes place loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the LS does in the timeline. The fact that LA appears the same as it does in certain PS missions is irrelevant.

For those of us who have seen LA prior to Scarlet’s attack, though, it is somewhat… disorientating. I mean, things like Tybalt “selling” his apples in a city that has been reduced to ash, or working your way around debris from the Breachmaker to speak to General Soulkeeper seem more than a little “whut?” to me.

Indeed. Any time I’m sent to LA on my personal story now I die a little inside.

…yeah… I don’t think I can add anything to this.

Playing the Personal Story again, I ask myself: Why is it so boring? The story up until Claw Island is fun and interesting, full of intriguing characters, and awesome twists. But what about the gameplay? Why does the gameplay fall so short?

I will let this image speak for itself:

Kain Francois.4328:

Playing the Personal Story again, I ask myself: Why is it so boring? The story up until Claw Island is fun and interesting, full of intriguing characters, and awesome twists. But what about the gameplay? Why does the gameplay fall so short?

I will let this image speak for itself:

This actually does have a lot to do with it.

Lankybrit.4598:

The Pointless.3869:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Kyrel.8942:

I actually like the Personal Story.

My only qualms is that it can conflict with the Living World making things weird like LA.

It doesnt conflict with anything. The personal story takes place loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the LS does in the timeline. The fact that LA appears the same as it does in certain PS missions is irrelevant.

For those of us who have seen LA prior to Scarlet’s attack, though, it is somewhat… disorientating. I mean, things like Tybalt “selling” his apples in a city that has been reduced to ash, or working your way around debris from the Breachmaker to speak to General Soulkeeper seem more than a little “whut?” to me.

Indeed. Any time I’m sent to LA on my personal story now I die a little inside.

I think it still works well. Destiny’s Edge meeting somewhere sort of private and the apple seller trying to sell his product to the workers and few people who moved back in. I was surprised how well it carried.

I still enjoy the Living Story, but the earlier parts are undoubtedly the most enjoyable for me. It’s not brilliant, but it doesn’t suck by any means. I think it should have revolved more around the player character being the actual hero (like many people, I felt overshadowed by Trahearne—I expected to be the hero, not the sidekick).

What I hope happens is for more personal story to be added eventually (like once a new area opens up with one of the other dragons), and for Trahearne to die in a blaze of glory, thereby allowing the player character to take up his mantle and lead the charge against the remaining dragons. I’ve absolutely no reason to believe that this will actually happen. It’s just a nice thought.

But I still like the Personal Story. I guess I’m just easy to please, and that works out pretty well in my favor.

GW1’s story mode wasn’t any good either. The Missions were so dull and painful to go through just to see the cringe-worthy cutscenes (“Ah, Master Togo! I did not know you were here!”). And once you mess up (Rurik, Mhenlo, Togo) it’s all the same junk over again. Sometimes you’ll get some different missions where you’ll stand at one spot and wait for the enemies to come for you! Woaaah!

It was okay until you get introduced to trahearne or w/e his name is

Nick.6972:

Playing since the beta, still haven’t played Personal Story pass the level 10 or something.
If I wanted a story based game, I’d play something else.

I’ve had the same feeling, and I’ve been thinking for a while why this could be. It’s still better than an MMO with no story in my opinion, by the way, but I’ve come to think there’s only one main factor that kills my immersion and subsequent lack of motivation to continue PS:

Too many branches! What’s the story you want to tell? Of course, in a way it seems to “matter” what I choose to do, but (presumably) because there’s so many branches the way this is then being portrayed in my home area or elsewhere in the world is just really lacking. I feel that a focus on what kind of story/experience they want to deliver, and less on “choices” with only limited results, would make it better. It would also allow more resources to make the story more epic (cutscenes, writing, gameplay, voice overs). Also, sometimes the writing’s just too quirky. I’m fine with humor and light moments, but not if it’s by characters and/or events that don’t seem to matter much, suddenly disappear or don’t seem to remember me etc.

Still love this game though! But story delivery can definitely be improved. There’s so much cool lore to draw from!

Correction. First half of personal is good. Once you partner with trahearn, then it sucks

Beldin.5498:

Asmodeus.5782:

anzenketh, exactly: up until Claw Island most storylines are just fine, some even brilliant (Charr Blood Legion!). It all falls apart when they get smashed together and we get the phlegmatic shrub as a commander.

That what i meant with Trahearnes Personal Story. From there its really no longer YOUR story.
I mostly liked the first 20 levels, there it really feels like my story. When the orders come in it already gets a little bit more generic but its still fun for a while since there are at least 3 storylines. And at claw islands it goes down the drain and all thats left is Trahearnes Story.

If it’s Trahearnes story, then you play the hero in it more then he does as you get a LOT of credit for a lot of actions.

As I recall, my norn ranger (just finished recently for the reward track) got told about how Norn, Sylvari, and Charr were singing praises about HER (Not Trahearne).

The thing is, GW2 did an excellent job at moving the viewpoint. You go from issues relating directly to your character (For example, Human noble’s party being trashed by bandits, or my Norn ranger seeking to get even with a rival), to showing how that issue isn’t all that important compared to the scope of an entire village being destroyed and the people displaced (the aid another part of order storyline).

Basically, they start seeing how big the world is, and how they are stepping into things much bigger then before.

I would have to agree with the Claw Island part. Not because of Trahearne though. It’s because it went from “Personal Story” to “Generic Story”.

It’s not personal if everyone has to do the same exact thing.

With everything there is to complain about, the personal story is by far the least of problems. I understand that everyone’s a critic, but from an objective point of view the story is quite ok. It’s not great but it’s not bad either.

The whole commander of the pact thing is also very much ok and in no way takes away from the personal accomplishments of the player. I don’t know where people continuously keep pulling out those ‘Trahearne stole my limelight’ arguments. He really doesn’t, at no point. Just because the PC couldn’t be leader of the pact, for explained reasons, doesn’t mean they are not the most important link in the whole chain…. Ah but I digress, we’ve been here many times before.

I suppose in the end most people don’t want to be part of a bigger thing, but instead want to be a one man army, going against the very spirit of GW2: “united we stand”.

Nick.6972:

Playing since the beta, still haven’t played Personal Story pass the level 10 or something.
If I wanted a story based game, I’d play something else.

This ^

The early, race specific levels are kind of cool though.

Echou.1923:

GW1’s story mode wasn’t any good either. The Missions were so dull and painful to go through just to see the cringe-worthy cutscenes (“Ah, Master Togo! I did not know you were here!”). And once you mess up (Rurik, Mhenlo, Togo) it’s all the same junk over again. Sometimes you’ll get some different missions where you’ll stand at one spot and wait for the enemies to come for you! Woaaah!

Gw1 story mode was just as bad but some of the quest stories were excellent. Eg, gw beyond and fow.

Common knowledge?

I fully agree with you the story was not their finest work and I hope they create a better campaign system in the expansion and introduce some more interesting characters. It was bad, very easy to progress through and not interesting.

Prophecies and factions had worse stories in my opinion. Only Nightfall and EOTN managed to salvage that for me. Lotro also has a worse main story and is declining at a stunning rate…surprising considering it has a laid down story to follow!!!

Having said that, there are well documented improvements to be made to the story presentation. I’m hoping we will see something half way between the Living Story and Personal story next season which draws on the feedback the community gave regarding how we felt season 1 played out.

I’d rather the BIG story was all in Living Story.

Personal story would be great if it focused on the background of your character’s race and choices. It should be about your college or warband (etc..) to lay the groundwork of who you are and then when you choose Whisper, Priory or Vigil it should pursue those things. Smushing everything into the Pact with one story is generic. I’d rather my character was not the hero of huge battles, lauded by all.

With my first character, Charr warrior, I picked Vigil. Early Charr stuff was great and then it was all fighting, all the time but hey it’s the Vigil right? Next character, an Asura engineer, I picked Priory. After all that fighting and brute force I was looking forward to the archaeology, the book work to puzzle out, the seeking of ancient knowledge to help Tyria fight its foes.. well you can imagine how that turned out. One dabble with dwarfs and it was all over. The only reason to pick any of these is for the armor at the end.

Fine, make us all do the Claw Island, perhaps the scholars get sent there on a discovery mission and are caught up in the fight. Throw in some other big events but keep the story focused on race, personal background and Order chosen. That’s what fleshes out the world, that’s what makes it personal.

While in GW1 everyone did the exact same story every time, with only factions and nightfall having itty bitty split paths (one or two missions really).

Whether it is enough or not is up to everyone’s personal expectations, but at the very least the game offers a branching story line, only merging 2/3rd down the road of your story.

I don’t know why people seem to think Trahearn is such hot stuff in the personal story.

Everybody respects him, but they do not look up to him as a hero. The most admiration he gets is for being a skilled necromancer (but clearly not a great fighter. I am not sure what the guy needs such powerful flesh golems for, but… eh I guess he practices his necromatic skills as a hobby.), and the go to guy to get information about Orr. Beyond that, he seems to have greatly helped a few people in the past. But I’ve noticed that every mention to such things are there to re-iterate that one is paying back a sort of karmic debt (most likely as a cop out to move the story along). Honestly most characters in the game simply seem tolerate him better than anyone else, rather than show much liking to him.

The only reason he can lead the pact, is that the heads of the three orders trust him just enough not to screw up horribly. That sums up his character and purpose in the game. Perhaps that is why he is so hated. Not because he takes all of the glory, but because he is mostly just a crutch to move the story along. He enables the orders to work together, because he just barely has enough respect from the order heads. Some people aid him with crucial skills just because they owe him something or another. Oh yeah, and he just happens to be the just the right guy for the ritual to cleanse the artesian wells. He is just so convenient, that it is almost absurd.

The last thing about Trahearn is that he has an extremely stoic and contemplative personality. That is how you know he can’t be a glory stealer. His personality simply resists anything that can be construed as taking or receiving glory. He is boring, emotionless, and simply not very friendly. I mean, the very reason Trahearn even participates in the final celebration is because he rationalizes that, as marshal of the pact, he needs to have the appearance of being able to be happy and grateful. I’m amazed how how well the voice actor was able to pull off the dead voice of someone who doesn’t appear to have any capability of having more than a hint of emotion. It almost seems like Anet also conveniently designed him immune to being heroic.

With all the titles and leadership and what not, people seem to lose sight of the fact that Trehearne was little more than a figurehead. Think of him as a lesser Napolean. Napoleon was a great field commander, but he also had his 12 marshalls who were all, to an extent, excellent field commanders. This is what the story tries to capture. Your character is little more than an adventurer who some how gets sucked into this nationwide campaign to fight the first of the Elder dragons. The generic-ness of the whole campaign reminds everyone that you, or rather your character, are not a mighty god like hero that people turn to in times of need. You’re just another warrior/guardian/ranger/necromance/mesmer/engineer/thief noble/commoner/warband leader/etc who lives in a world full of other such characters but by a stroke of fortune/misfortune (depending on how you look at it) gets drawn into the fate of the nations and that your worldview has, until that point in time, been very small. I believe that this is what the story writers aimed to get at and to an extent more or less got that across

However, the individual elements that went into making each character feel unique was where it became lacking. Almost every mission involved fighting your way out of things. That is where the generic-ness really takes over. Why were there so many missions where a budding priory/whispers member have to bash his/her way out of a library or a fort and worse still, later get promoted for all this bashing. If it were Vigil then that’s obvious; you are promoted based heavily on your martial merit and leadership ability. What made little sense was that you were also promoted based on those same abilities as a Priory or Order member, despite the loss of your mentor in all cases. You lost a senior archivist/spy (thought Tybalt was too much comic relief for anyone to take seriously)
There was little differentiation between the three orders which dealt the biggest blow to the storylines.

As many have said, Claw island is where things became generic. Instead of just a standard head on bash, it would have been very interesting if the mission required three players, one representing each order so that you could have a Vigil member leading the defense, a priory member sorting out the machines and an orders member sneaking around scouting. This is only just a random thought but it would have been something that tied the three orders into their respective roles, not to mention making a personal story seem more, well, personal.

During the retreat to the harbour, when the mentor was lost for each order, Anet could have made it that the three players had to contribute to the effort. The whispers member has to scout out a route for the retreat, the priory member has to deal with the wounded and the vigil member has to muster the troops and lead the assault to reach the ship. You could also have it that the whispers member has to reach the ship with a small band to prevent the risen from reaching it and sinking it (though why the risen weren’t doing this in the first place is beyond me). They just have to hold out long enough for the majority of troops led by the vigil member to arrive, but who also has to defend the wounded. Little things like this would have made it all more interesting, particularly as it would have introduced players to party play earlier on and be consistent with the final assault on arah where you have to form a party for the first time in the PS.

A complex world requires an intricate story that welds all the elements in that world together. A simple linear fight to the finish does not do it justice

The personal story might not have been as awful if it weren’t for the atrociously bad cutscenes popping up constantly and completely ruining the flow of the scenario in every single mission. The original Guild Wars didn’t have any of that crap and it actually managed to have a decent if not great story, although I did think Prophecies was pretty cool.

If there’s one thing I hope they change in presenting the story going forward, it’s not using those HORRIBLE cutscenes anymore, they are just irredeemably bad. Claw Island is a perfect example of how to use cutscenes in every possible way that’s wrong, nothing like having your epic battle interrupted by some stupid crap instead of actually SHOWING what’s going on with the game itself, not to mention the cutscenes crawl along at a snail’s pace if you don’t hit the skip button.

Actually, now that I think about it I’m obviously wrong about the cutscenes in GW1 because there were a number of them, but they all took place within the game engine and they were pretty sparse unlike the several annoying, boring, crappy cutscene windows that pop up for each personal story quest and completely ruin the flow on top being just plain bad.

Azrael.4960:

(thought Tybalt was too much comic relief for anyone to take seriously)

But Tybald was simply fun. I would have followed him 100 times more likely through the end of the story than Mr. “this won’t end well” Trahearne.

I enjoyed the personal story myself. Shame it only lasts till your about level 20, and then becomes the Trahearne Show!

I have so many characters where they have done the actual personal story bit and then are one or two bits into the Trahearne Show portion of it (which is the great majority of your supposed ‘personal’ story) and I have just lost interest.

Personally I find Trahearne to be one of the most boring, unlikable, tedious and quite frankly irritating characters I have ever met. If ever there was an NPC that did not deserve greatness, it is him.

Added to that, the way the story develops after Trahearne makes an appearance is just terribly, terribly dull. It isn’t even remotely interesting, and you feel no real investment or attachment towards the characters you meet. Some of the worse story telling I have seen in a while, with pointless cut-scenes elbowing their way in all over the place to really add to the tedium.

Now I am not saying that the player character should have the pivitol, world defining role. But I also don’t think that we should suddenly become super, best, bestest, best friends EVER!!! With the talking vegetable that is (Trahearne ). Seriously, that guy is so negative and boring, anyone meeting him would run a mile – not befriend him. It would have been much better if your personal story remained focused on the player, and the little things they do to help which help the bigger picture. Believable things, like freeing captives here, small raids there. Maybe take the personal story into instances now and then, not just at the end (which is jarring to say the least. You do the whole personal story solo, then have to group for a dungeon run at the very last stage).

Lankybrit.4598:

Trahearne!!!!!

OMG I want him to go away so badly.

If you were extremely lucky, you got to kill him in the Krait tower LS. The instances inside the tower each ended with you fighting (hallucinated copies of) your allies. If you did the instance solo, you’d fight a single hero. And if you were lucky, it was Traherne. Man that felt good slicing and dicing him.

anzenketh.3759:

I think the other problem is that they split off part of the personal story into dungeons(Story mode). If you let the dungeons(Story mode) replace your main personal story it flows a lot better. But the personal story itself does not require you to play them.

Yeah. I skipped most of the story mode dungeons because it was next to impossible to find a group doing them at the time. The next PS mission is always really confusing. People you’ve never met showing up or being mentioned as if they were old friends, running off to do something for some unmentioned reason (explained in the dungeon story), and ending up in some new location with no idea why you’re there.

Beldin.5498:

Azrael.4960:

(thought Tybalt was too much comic relief for anyone to take seriously)

But Tybald was simply fun. I would have followed him 100 times more likely through the end of the story than Mr. “this won’t end well” Trahearne.

Yeah, Tybalt was great. He’s just “too much” comic relief because there’s so little of it in the rest of the game (mostly one-liners on scattered NPCs). I picked the Order of Whispers my first run-through and was really disappointed he was killed off.