I finished up season 3 last night and I have to say that I enjoyed the story, well the last the last episode and a half of the story. It almost seems as if the folks writing season 3 had no idea what the expansion was about until that last few episodes.
Braham who? Oh yeah, that guy… shh… don’t tell him we are going to the crystal desert.
With the ending of season 3 I am a bit hopeful that PoF and season 4 will have a more focused storyline.
I disliked the fact they put down the mursaat threat so easily. They finally made a reappearance in episode 1 and 5 episodes later they’re dead and gone for good.
(edited by ProtoGunner.4953)
I was kinda annoyed that they tease both Primordus and Jormag as being our next targets, and then dismisses both of them by episode 5. I mean, that’s a small gripe, but it feels like we were lead down one story back just to swing back around when they change their mind. Even Braham piercing the tooth; it fulfills the ancient prophesy, but our actions with Taimi and Balthazar means it’s no longer the time to fight Jormag at all. That’s part of why people felt the entire season was a bit aimless.
One thing I’m glad with is that we end up having to save the dragons instead of fight them. I personally found them to be boring villains (Scarlet/Caudecus are much more interesting) so the idea of fighting one per expac was real off putting. Glad they changed it up, with a twist that we’ll be fighting the human god of war!
All the multiple ways they put Lazarus in the story, all of them, were total and absolutely gratuitous, unnecesary, underwhelming and impossible to understand.
Aside from that, it was fun.
I disliked the fact they put down the mursaat thread so easily. They finally made a reappearance in episode 1 and 5 episodes later they’re dead and gone for good.
I didn’t play the original Guild Wars enough to have any attachment (good or bad) to the mursaat, but I can see how it would be different for someone who played it all the way through.
…it feels like we were lead down one story back just to swing back around when they change their mind.
It’s like there as a complete disconnect between the expansion team and the living world team. They created multiple stories for season 3 hoping one would link to the expansion. When the expansion team finally told them who we were going to fight they dropped everything else.
I have to say I view the finale of season 3 as non-canon.
1) there were so many possibilities for Lazarus in the future of GW2 but before the writers could consider those possibilities the edge queen killed him out of some pretentious grudge.
2) Livia was off fighting other battles in GW1 while Lazarus was conducting his own plans under the radar and pretty much out of sight and out of mind to the shining blade. The only chance they could’ve met was during a small side quest and that isn’t enough to develop that kind of rivalry between them.
3) The shining blade cult initiation, while interesting, also presented serious plot holes for charr and sylvari since the dream can see everything the sylvari see and for charrs it is literal treason.
One thing I’m glad with is that we end up having to save the dragons instead of fight them. I personally found them to be boring villains (Scarlet/Caudecus are much more interesting) so the idea of fighting one per expac was real off putting. Glad they changed it up, with a twist that we’ll be fighting the human god of war!
It also opens the doors for much more possibilities in terms of expansions and stories. Heck we might even see Cantha if we are lucky.
My thoughts on LS3 – it was a massive step up in story writing from previous works in GW2, though the presentation of the mursaat was generally very disappointing. From the lack of their golden-(ancient greek looking) godlike armour in GW1, to the all-too-simple presumed destruction of perhaps the most interesting and dangerous race, I couldn’t help but be concerned that the story didn’t expand on the Mursaat, given they just (practically) reintroduced them.
I must also say that some of the dialogue nuances are very counterproductive to immersion in the game. It’s interesting to have some PC culture in the game, but some of the story dialogue is no better than a chick-flick, and in addition to this; the moments where the story starts to shine through grand cutscenes, it ends far too swiftly to gain any real satisfaction out of these moments. I would highly recommend extending all cutscenes to a more typical length in the video game industry (some could even be minutes long). A prime example of this, would be the great cutscene of Lazarus’ speech at the end of the Confessor’s stronghold; the scene was a mere 50 seconds and ended with a soundtrack fade-out. In subtle ways, the lack of a proper transition (usually bridged by a continuous soundtrack) between the cutscene and gameplay does also take you out of the immersion.
Overall as a review, I would probably give the LS3 story a 6/10 rating, a bit higher than the HoT story and a fair amount more than the original GW2 and subsequent LS.
Just… go further with cutscenes! The GW1 story cutscenes, whilst completely outdated nowadays in terms of graphics, had a very eerie feeling through both the soundtracks and lengthy cutscenes combined, which were very much stories within themselves. Now that you have the GW2 platform, I really want to see some great cutscenes.
“It arrives with no fanfare, no tolling of alarms.
Those who will remember; will speak fondly of the warm morning breeze.”
Some very nice imagery whilst remaining fairly simple.
“Audiences don’t want anything original. They wanna see the same thing they’ve seen a thousand times before.” – Philip J. Fry, from Futurama. Probably best taken with a pinch of salt.
2) Livia was off fighting other battles in GW1 while Lazarus was conducting his own plans under the radar and pretty much out of sight and out of mind to the shining blade. The only chance they could’ve met was during a small side quest and that isn’t enough to develop that kind of rivalry between them.
ArenaNet may well have made the call that canonically, Livia was present during the Naveed/Lazarus quest arc.
Even if she wasn’t, though, Lazarus might have still been aware of events during the War in Kryta, which lead to the destruction of the rest of his race.
But really, all that scene requires from Lazarus’ side is that he recognises her. Livia herself had plenty of motivation to want to finish off the last mursaat once and for all.
I have to say I view the finale of season 3 as non-canon.
I don’t think it’s up to players to decide what’s canon and what’s not. (If it were, as the commander, I wouldn’t have bothered creating a guild after LS2 and I certainly wouldn’t name it Dragons’ Dragon’s Watch.)
I have to say I view the finale of season 3 as non-canon.
I don’t think it’s up to players to decide what’s canon and what’s not. (If it were, as the commander, I wouldn’t have bothered creating a guild after LS2 and I certainly wouldn’t name it
Dragons’Dragon’s Watch.)
Considering the number of people kittenponded to that poll with “why not just keep it at Destiny’s Edge”… yeah.
The dungeons storyline made the PC a DE member, and by the end of HoT, the “biconics” had worked with three DE members to kill a dragon, rescued two others, and almost rescued the third. Furthermore, most of the biconics have some connection to one of the original Destiny’s Edge members. I don’t think any of the original DE members would have complained about inducting the biconics (and, in fact, they’d probably be happier with that than Braham claiming the name for a norn hunting party…)
Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.
Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.
Eh. Episode 3 was probably my least favourite episode of the six, but if we didn’t have any indication of what was happening with Braham until S4, people would be asking until we did. What they’ve basically done is put him on a bus until they decide to come back to him, but at least we know he’s on a bus.
Would have been nice if we could have checked in with Zojja as well…
Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.
Eh. Episode 3 was probably my least favourite episode of the six, but if we didn’t have any indication of what was happening with Braham until S4, people would be asking until we did. What they’ve basically done is put him on a bus until they decide to come back to him, but at least we know he’s on a bus.
Would have been nice if we could have checked in with Zojja as well…
In one instance some ashram researchers are saying she is suffering from serious brain damage and has basically lost her mind.
Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.
Eh. Episode 3 was probably my least favourite episode of the six, but if we didn’t have any indication of what was happening with Braham until S4, people would be asking until we did. What they’ve basically done is put him on a bus until they decide to come back to him, but at least we know he’s on a bus.
Would have been nice if we could have checked in with Zojja as well…
Braham be like " hey boss i want some time to think things through and decide what i want to do from now on". There u dont kitten an entire season and the character gets a break.
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