Guild Wars 2

Soo! Afaik devs mentioned that the story is about to get daaark! I’m just a little bit worried that it’s just the story and not the gameplay. Can GW2’s gameplay get any darker?

Well, there are the Sylvari that have been turned. Presumably they’ll be engaging in various atrocities in their service to the Dragon. The Nightmare Court already engages in that sort of thing so this will probably be their avenue to torture even more of the Dream Sylvari

I’m wondering if stuff like Canach / Caithe turning evil at some point of the story forcing us to kill them would be possible. Or am I going too far?

[mod edit: added spoiler tags]

The Sylvari will get darker. True, mature plot.

Like in Republic of South Africa.

Not completely off topic, but I would like the nights ingame to be dark :P

I really loved the ending of S2. It was so emotional I couldn’t hold my tears. I’d really love to see more momments like that in HoT.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Poly-luminescent_Undulating_Refractor_

Use this to get darker.

Does the majority of a freedom-loving and heroic race getting turned into soul-gnawed shocktroopers for the greatest genocidal menace of our age not fall somewhere pretty far down the dark spectrum? Too big? Not personal enough? I thought the prospect of finding a beloved sibling hanging broken and mangled like some kinda of devilish lamppost in the aftermath of a battle you thought you’d won to be just a bit of a downer…

Maybe it’s just the bright and vibrant colours.

Nike.2631:

Does the majority of a freedom-loving and heroic race getting turned into soul-gnawed shocktroopers for the greatest genocidal menace of our age not fall somewhere pretty far down the dark spectrum? Too big? Not personal enough? I thought the prospect of finding a beloved sibling hanging broken and mangled like some kinda of devilish lamppost in the aftermath of a battle you thought you’d won to be just a bit of a downer…

Yeh, but part of that is the nature of war.

My feeling about “dark” is about the spiral into Nightmare. A more “personal” darkness if you will.

eh.. i just hope to see more “assimilated” dragon minions from the 5 races..not only sylvari. Those designs could for sure look gruesome and “dark” as the OP puts it

Come to pvp! It gets pretty dark few seconds into the match all the way till the end. Everybody dies!

By darker, anet was referring to the Shadow Abyss dye!

the story has been very bleak from the very beginning, its just that the storytelling style has all the makings of an afternoon anime for kids.

I wish to see darker places like in Dark Souls. I hope that root biome wont fail.

Vantablack?
Oh metaphorically dark. Not sure how you’d make gameplay darker though… we’d probably just see more creepy locations and people dying.

Azrael.4960:

Depends on how you define evil. Caithe killed Wynn, at hear request, to prevent the knowledge of Mordremoth falling into Faolain’s hands. By most people’s standards, that act was for the greater good as it prevented more Sylvari from falling into Nightmare. By modern standards, the fact that Caithe bears a great deal of pain for that act, but is forgiven by the Pale Tree, would normally have her labelled as “good”. If she had done the same act, but her intention was just to keep it out of Faolain’s hands and to make use of it herself, that would have her labelled as evil.

Faolain is ruthless but only evil in a modern sense. One could classify her as a sociopath or maybe even a psychopath. She holds no remorse for what she does and will ruthlessly do whatever it takes to do it.

When you look at it, the only bad thing about Faolain are her methods and not really her ideals. She just felt the pale tree didn’t love her for being her, and was trying to make her into something else. Though it could’ve happened before in another memory, perhaps a talking with her mother could’ve resolved all of this.

Huh, this could get very interesting and complicated delving into sylvarie psychology

Keep in mind the rating on this game is basically a PG movie…..so not all that dark.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Keep in mind the rating on this game is basically a PG movie…..so not all that dark.

Actually, it could get very dark. It’s all on how they do it.

Imagine Taimi deciding that the data shows that they can’t stop the dragons without destroying the world. That if anyone is to survive, the dragons have to do what they’re here to do. And, at a critical moment, she tries to stop you. You and your team have to ignore her crying and pleading with you to trust her, and destroy Scruffy then hand her over to Phlunt for everyone’s safety. Of course, being so smart, she’ll escape if they give her any resources, but you can drop by and visit her in her rather empty cell in Rata Sum any time you want.

Taimi limps around in a jail cell, helpless, and Phlunt gets to show everyone that he was right about her all along. And maybe … just maybe … we’re not saving the world, but destroying it.

That’s a good step towards dark, right?

if you want it really dark just lower your gamma.

And yes shadow abyss might help….

/ useless remarks

Darker gameplay? What? You mean like it some caves where you can’t see anything without torches?

Traherne goes dark side :O

That would be an interesting and potentially awesome twist. Leader of the pact suddenly batting for the other team

He means the story RandomGuy, aka: How gritty will HoT be and Edgy.

Judging by the themes of Sylvari Racism I can say that we will get a fairly dark storyline in HoT and the chances of a happy ending are very bleak looking with the Pact’s predicament.

The way I see this, HoT will end with a Pyrrhic victory, if Mordremoth is defeated, its going to cost a lot, and leave Tyria damaged forever.

Season 2’s finale promised that Beyond The Point of No Return would chance the face of Tyria forever.

HoT suggests to me that the great Sylvari struggle will continue even beyond Mordy’s defeat.

I dont mind that A-net has its new 12+ policy of making the story light hearted, but id take hints from Avatar the Last Airbender for a story that can still do some dark and edgy stuff and get away with quite a few edgy themes.

And this game is way more violent than that TV show is, which basically means to me A-net should just enjoy themselves and not be afraid to take risks.

However, I do think we need to have proper long introductions to new characters and some time spent with them before killing anyone off.

There is also a lot of hints Mordy may be sentient for a dragon.

In summary:

TL:DR

- The Story has a lot of room to be the darkest expansion of GW yet with a very Vietnam themed plot regarding loss, betrayal, shellshock, trust issues and overcomming the impossible.
- It needs some element of hope though, a silver lining in this, that can at least leave us with continuation, as fun as the bad guy winning would be, we already had that with season 2’s finale.
- I do personally hope however this is the “Last” Sylvari heavy story we see for some time, Norn/Charr/Asura need “a lot” of attention after this.
- And Orr.
- Also In B4 Evil Treesus/Maguuma Tree Corrupted.

Im betting on a big buff to dark fields

Time for everyone to roll necros

I have a feeling that, Braham is going to become corrupted by Mordy. Then, being a dragon minion, you, Eir, and Zojja have to hunt him down and kill him, or just you and Zojja then Eir walks in once its done and blames Zojja for his death. My two cents. Would that be dark enough for you?

Neobuzzard.3072:

I have a feeling that, Braham is going to become corrupted by Mordy. Then, being a dragon minion, you, Eir, and Zojja have to hunt him down and kill him, or just you and Zojja then Eir walks in once its done and blames Zojja for his death. My two cents. Would that be dark enough for you?

Maybe some, cursing, some boobs and a dragon or three. You know the Game of Thrones method of edgy.

Neobuzzard.3072:

I have a feeling that, Braham is going to become corrupted by Mordy. Then, being a dragon minion, you, Eir, and Zojja have to hunt him down and kill him, or just you and Zojja then Eir walks in once its done and blames Zojja for his death. My two cents. Would that be dark enough for you?

I’d prefer if it was the player, Taimi, and Rox that had to hunt down a corrupted Braham, while the other three biconics go searching for a cure.

When you finally take him down, Eir shows up and says there’s only one way to fix it, kill him to release his spirit. At your prompting, she agrees to wait for the others, and they soon show up with a possible cure. The cure is attempted and fails, causing Braham to break free and attack. Eir puts an arrow through his skull, killing him.

-or-

You do NOT convince Eir to wait, and she convinces you that Braham needs to die to be set free. You do the deed, and shortly after, the other three return with the possible cure. Eir’s horrified to realize that there really was a chance to save Braham, and she gave up on him too soon. She blames herself for his death.

There. That feels much darker.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow_Abyss_Dye

That’s how dark it gets.

leviathan.2148:

Not completely off topic, but I would like the nights ingame to be dark :P

GemFX ftw!

Basaltface.2786:

eh.. i just hope to see more “assimilated” dragon minions from the 5 races..not only sylvari. Those designs could for sure look gruesome and “dark” as the OP puts it

The Norn and Charr already have – the branded and those that worship jormag. I’ve no doubt we’ll see human and asura dragon minions – although aren’t their risen that are of all the races anyway? Do they count as minions? I dunno. But each of the races has a portion that’s done evil and bad things, even aside from the dragons.

Considering they removed the “dark” elements from the original personal story when they launched in China ( related or not ) I don’t see them giving the players difficult moral decisions or grim consequences in the expansion. ( The tamini kill markers don’t even have skull on them anymore and that’s just one example of this current trend of “sanitization” going on )

tldr: I don’t have my hopes up

MashMash.1645:

Basaltface.2786:

eh.. i just hope to see more “assimilated” dragon minions from the 5 races..not only sylvari. Those designs could for sure look gruesome and “dark” as the OP puts it

The Norn and Charr already have – the branded and those that worship jormag. I’ve no doubt we’ll see human and asura dragon minions – although aren’t their risen that are of all the races anyway? Do they count as minions? I dunno. But each of the races has a portion that’s done evil and bad things, even aside from the dragons.

well there are risen of all races cept sylvari…and i would say that they are minions cause many of these guys actually talk and praise their dragon overlords and taunt you with charming stuff…specially champions and bosses and “smarter” and stronger troops. Best example would be the arah bosses and temple priests, that charr champion branded that patrols with his (i assume) turned warband the brand and the champion norn icebrood in the svanir village. Also confirmed is that “humaniod” mordrem (that i assume are sylvari) talk and call themselfes servants and even call out the dragon for help to defeat you as seen in the demo story where a hammer swinging modrem calls for one of these slimy tentacle things that spew out footsoldiers as he was close to death. So yea.. id really like to see some turned versions of the other races running about.

Well, we can kill off some biconics. We can also sacrifice a whole bunch of innocent sylvari (because you never know when they’ll turn). Possibly sacrifice/kill some of the DE. Um…burn down the Grove/Pale Tree? Have Mordy attack capital cities? Introduce some random buddies and kill them off 2 story steps later?

Just some ideas!

Brother Grimm.5176:

Keep in mind the rating on this game is basically a PG movie…..so not all that dark.

What he said. They can try to make it as dark as they want, but it will pale in comparison to what they could accomplish if the game were rated M. That, however, would greatly reduce the audience of the game, and thus the revenue. So is the game ever fated to have a relatively shallow story, but that’s not why I’m playing anyway.

MashMash.1645:

GemFX ftw!

I agree, I use it, but it still has limits

Funny that people mentioned the death of, or a death of the b-iconics.

That’s not dark, it’s everyone’s dream lol.

#SABorRiot

Azrael.4960:

Depends on how you define evil. Caithe killed Wynn, at hear request, to prevent the knowledge of Mordremoth falling into Faolain’s hands. By most people’s standards, that act was for the greater good as it prevented more Sylvari from falling into Nightmare. By modern standards, the fact that Caithe bears a great deal of pain for that act, but is forgiven by the Pale Tree, would normally have her labelled as “good”. If she had done the same act, but her intention was just to keep it out of Faolain’s hands and to make use of it herself, that would have her labelled as evil.

Faolain is ruthless but only evil in a modern sense. One could classify her as a sociopath or maybe even a psychopath. She holds no remorse for what she does and will ruthlessly do whatever it takes to do it.

Has there been any discussion on how Caithe could have just killed Faolain and saved everybody a lot of bother.

Sold Out Again.4129:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow_Abyss_Dye

That’s how dark it gets.

It’s. Sooooo. Edgy!

Ooooooo. Aaahhhhhh!

Andred.1087:

What he said. They can try to make it as dark as they want, but it will pale in comparison to what they could accomplish if the game were rated M.

Not really. A good writer can make a very dark story with a very low rating. It’s not a matter of showing explicit content, rather of making subtext.

And even when talking about explicit content, in Guild Wars: Nightfall, one of the main antagonists tortured and ate the eyes of the PC’s mentor.

They could make dark stories if they wanted to. The thing is, ArenaNet probably doesn’t care that much. They work harder to add mindless grind to the game than to make a good storyline, as seen on how they are taking so long to fix the personal storyline, while delivering the Silverwastes grind.

It will probably become as dark as a thief wearing armor dyed Shadow Abyss with a poly luminescent undulating refractor (black) gem, in the shadows at night time.

Now THAT is dark.

Underwater 4ever.

Serophous.9085:

Isn’t that the definition of a good evil character? The ones who rub their hands together and chuckle evilly are just poor characters. The ones who do terrible things thinking they are pursuing good ends are more interesting. But both are evil.

I hope so the story in this game you have tybalt who says hehe nothing worry about here i just gonna tell you some really poor jokes suitable for kindergarden.
In gw1 npcs were serious about the threats, everything was darker and more mysterious.

Sizer.5632:

Im betting on a big buff to dark fields

Time for everyone to roll necros

Time for everyone to roll necros b/c of incoming greatsword… fixed*

I can see it now… cities filled with necros with dark angel wings backpieces, twilight/eternity, arah light wings (shoulders) glowing gemstore eyes…something like this.