Guild Wars 2

Story telling wise anets writer made a leap .

that was amazing good story telling.

I couldnt stop. after everybody left the room of scarlet me and taimi stayed and i watched and read her hologram

5Stars for that

Im dead sleepy but i need to know the end

I agree. Spoilers The story instance within Scarlet’s old room was one of the most interesting story instances I’ve personally experienced yet.

Agreed 100%
Story wise it’s best part of LS so far. Rewards were a bit disappointing but apart from that I had a blast

I’ve got to say, I’m really impressed by it so far. They’ve really surprised me with this.

+1 to everything.

Who was Aerin’s VA? Aerin and Taimi stole the show IMO.

Definitely an improvement, not amazing, but definitely good enough to keep me interested for more.

The only thing that really did bother me was them stuffing more Scarlet rubbish into the storyline. So many people hated everything about her, even though she is dead Arena Net’s writers feel compelled to stuff more of her nonsense into the story line.

Aedelric.1287:

Definitely an improvement, not amazing, but definitely good enough to keep me interested for more.

The only thing that really did bother me was them stuffing more Scarlet rubbish into the storyline. So many people hated everything about her, even though she is dead Arena Net’s writers feel compelled to stuff more of her nonsense into the story line.

We hated a lot about what she did, but I liked this particular Scarlet bit because really, it showcased Taimi fangirling, and our team discovering info was more the point of it. It was her reactions that made the segment great. It’s like a slightly better version of Scarlet’s Lair.

sAdam.5876:

Agreed 100%
Story wise it’s best part of LS so far. Rewards were a bit disappointing but apart from that I had a blast

Since the steps are now repeatable that’s probably going to be the standard for LS rewards from now on.

Aedelric.1287:

The only thing that really did bother me was them stuffing more Scarlet rubbish into the storyline. So many people hated everything about her, even though she is dead Arena Net’s writers feel compelled to stuff more of her nonsense into the story line.

While I too hated Scarlet in the first LS, I think I see why they’re telling us more about her in this one.

First, they’re trying to de-Mary Sue her some. That way, she won’t be quite as annoying when people replay parts of LS1 (when that becomes an option).

Second, I think we’re eventually going to need more information about the new dragon, or all of them. And Scarlet’s the one that knew what we’ll need to know, so they’re starting to lay out a trail of her past for us to follow so we can recover that information as the story goes on.

I’d have to agree this is a marked improvement…granted I still nearly vomited when they are STILL forcing the nauseating Kasmeer and cringeworthy Marjorie crap down our throats-as a matter of fact for the first part of the release I was wondering if the rest of discount destiny’s edge-or at least the one male, were going to do anything or they were being sidelined the whole time. Unfortunately they were-here’s hoping throughout the rest of the season the writers remember there are other members of discount destiny’s edge-or that males in some important roles can be a thing for stories for that matter. Normally I wouldn’t care but if people are going to justify polarized writing with ‘equality’ and ‘representing the audience’ then I’m going to hold them to that in everything they do.

Hardly subtle. However, once I skipped that whole foolishness I did actually find it interesting-a claim I could never have made for the entire season 1 experiment, although this released ended very awkwardly imo (but meh-for once they got so many things right it’s easily forgiven imo). I particularly found Braham to be a great improvement (up to about slightly less than average) as he’s no longer just a big dummy with mommy issues. Taimi I never got introduced to-got fed up with LS by that point and just took a hiatus so I never got why people were so in love with her; well I got that it’s because she was disabled…kinda shallow imo but to each their own. However, I must now add Taimi to the few awesome characters they managed to write in GW2 alongside Eir and Caithe…..hmm…..still no males but I digress. She can hold her own as a well realized character imo w/o the gimmick of being disabled so to people who gave the impression that she’s cool only because she’s disabled…shame on you.

I like the criminal connections undertones they have going with the miners but the whole shounen manga style ’I’m super awesomely powerful good guy of mystery but now I will vanish on a journey to fulfill my destiny of mysteriousness but be sure it’ll be of significance later in the plot’ of the master of peace fiasco was a huge “yawwwwn”.

I get what they’re going for with Briar this season…but eeh….that tends to be more effective on a villain people actually ‘like’. Granted if done well it can elevate the general perception of her but….eh, feels like this stuff would have been better in season 1 when she was still alive and planning her little schemes. It almost feels like a filler now.

That was story. I will give them credit-the map actually has features (not mindblowing mind you). I was expecting another Orr tbh. The geography (I don’t like jumping puzzle-esque things but I still appreciate them being there), sandstorm and quicksand are welcomed touches and appears to be in a direction I very much approve-and indeed had expected the base game to be. Events were also a nice touch to help flesh out the map from an immersive standpoint-idk how worthwhile they are in terms of turning a profit but the rewards do seem to have more impact….that could be because you get a flashy chest and lights saying ‘you did something awesome’ rather than them being better though.

All in all half of the story was nauseating, but the latter half really really picked up, most of the character dialogue has been improved, there’s actually quite a bit of stuff that went on in this release as opposed to season 1 releases, the new map isn’t needlessly huge with massive empty gaps of nothing in between events, the map actually has features, there’s the non-intrusive presentation of a potentially interesting sub plot, there’s quite a few interesting ‘background’ dialogue, there aren’t any ‘kill 1million mobs’ event (at least not that I’ve experienced)…all these things are wonderful imo.

Good start to season 2 imo. I believe this may have swung quite a few people back to giving GW2 another shot-I know it did for me.

Removed comments regarding Moderation

Rage.9723:

Which I will NOT be repeating that story. Thus I can not get any of the achievements.

This is one of the few things I didn’t like how they handled-I personally liked this installation so I have no problem replaying, but that certainly won’t be the case for every single release. Why didn’t they make the achievements open from the start? Why literally force players to do it a minimum of two times? If someone is good enough and can get a couple of these ‘difficult’ achievements their first time then by all means let them. This beat story mode to unlock exp mode thing felt weird to me…

Enjoyed this little episode more than anything in living world or personal story so far. Well acted and involved enough to be entertaining. Beautiful music, beautiful art, stin setting, mostly good va, and finally good pacing. Please give a raise to people involved in this release! I think it would be great for everyone if this standard is kept, and improved upon in the future.

Good Job and thank you for a wonderful episode Living World team!

Balsa.3951:

Story telling wise anets writer made a leap .

that was amazing good story telling.

I couldnt stop. after everybody left the room of scarlet me and taimi stayed and i watched and read her hologram

5Stars for that

Im dead sleepy but i need to know the end

I agree, the story telling is WAY better.

Taimi actually kinda seems like she might have a place in the story now, and she seems to be getting a bit more personality. I’m a fan of that.

This was probably the single best story patch the game has yet received, and I haven’t yet finished all instances. In fact, I didn’t even expect to get that many story instances in a single “season episode”. I thought 1 episode = 1 instance, but what we’ve gotten is so much (surprisingly) better. Also much easier to feel immersed into the story.

They even put those story bits about Scarlet that were only present in that one blogpost into the game. (Talk to the holoemitter in Scarlet’s room)

I loved it. Love our “DE” characters even more , and can’t wait to see what’s more in store

Can we expect the zone to expand? Will we be able to explore all of Maguuma by the end?

Sarrs.4831:

Taimi actually kinda seems like she might have a place in the story now, and she seems to be getting a bit more personality. I’m a fan of that.

My personal theory is that Taimi is Omadd’s daughter, thus her obsession with Scarlet.

Thiagugu.9682:

Sarrs.4831:

Taimi actually kinda seems like she might have a place in the story now, and she seems to be getting a bit more personality. I’m a fan of that.

My personal theory is that Taimi is Omadd’s daughter, thus her obsession with Scarlet.

Wouldn’t that cause her to be vengeance-obsessed, rather than fangirl-obsessed?

It is all awesome.
Except the “hard” achievement rewards being poor, and the achievements not being really hard.

Same sentiments as many others in the post – the storytelling this release was fabulous (writing, pacing, design of the new zone heavily on the story). Looking forward to future episodes.

Small spoiler comment:
Also, thanks for giving answers to some outstanding questions.

Taimi is starting to creep me out. She reminds me of Jack from “The Shining”.

I agree the story is great…. it is just too bad the gameplay is horrible. Kinda kills it :/

The story was fine, but much of the accompanying gameplay was not particularly involving. Exploring the Zephyrite crash site worked well, but the fights with Aerin were dreadfully dull and you learnt nothing of his personality and desires outside of the following exposition. He basically just stood there throwing grenades and obviously posed no threat to anyone that was there. I’d quite like to see Anet work on unification of story and gameplay a bit more. There’s no reason why these things can’t be more immersive.

I really enjoyed myself. First, to contrast what some people are saying, I am delighted that Scarlet still has a role in the story. I loved her character and her story—I’m glad to find out more about who she was before she started going bad.
The new desert environment is wonderful—everything is beautiful. I think I spent the most time just running around, trying to look at everything and take it all in. Also, I’d like to applaud a-net on making the mining caves realistic—they are actually dark, like real caves. It always bothered me that caves in Tyria were never dark—they didn’t FEEL like caves. Additionally, the weather effect of the sandstorm is a great touch.
I am enjoying the further development of the living story characters. Kasmeer and Marjory are great. In the previous season, Kasmeer was the vulnerable one and Marjory the “tough” one. That was fine, but I’m glad to see their roles evolving. Now, Kasmeer is acting as the tough one—being protective over Marjory. They’re both showing their competence and depth—Kasmeer has come a long way from the noblewoman we first met in Southsun. I love the showcase of her Mesmer abilities.
Rox and Braham are great as well. Braham’s grown up a lot—he’s using his head a lot more. Rox is great as always.
Taimi makes me laugh because I share my Scarlet obsession with her. While she was in Scarlet’s house, freaking out about everything, my emotions followed hers almost exactly.
While some have made complaints about the jumping in the game, I didn’t find it bad at all. It gives you a challenge, but it’s not too difficult, and the learning curve is good. Within an hour’s roaming, I became comfortable.
Lastly, I like the fact that the story is emotionally engaging. The plight of the Zephrites, and the reactions of the lead characters, catch both my attention and my sympathies. I always appreciate a game that can tell a good story, and portray a wide range of genuine emotions, alongside the gameplay itself. That kind of thing makes the world much more engaging and believable.

the writing, pacing, and story telling of this living story was well beyond anything we’ve had before. it has depth, but it was also engaging – not once did i feel as though i’d want to skip ‘next’ on a cut-scene – the execution was as good as the writing! so, well done everyone who contributed, awesome, awesome, job…

So far this S2 seems to have kicked off with nothing but good (if not great) improvements. I love having a new zone, I love the way the story unfolds. I really enjoy talking to various npc’s all over the map, gathering clues, and visiting yet another room filled with clues. Keep it up Living Story team. The first living story was a bit of a disjointed affair, but the new Living Story so far is a very coherent whole.

The story is good. There are some things that need to be read between the lines, which makes it good;) But i won’t spoil that here:)

As a very vocal critic of Living Story season 1, I have to say, I really, really enjoyed this new patch. If this is the kind of quality we can expect from patches in terms of storytelling from now on, I’m really glad I stuck with the game for so long.
Good job, everyone at ANet.

3 toed tootsie, awesome!

I have a sentiment for devourers digging themselves up from the ground. Much like in Prophecies

Got to say it nice having a Story mission like this again. It has been far too long.

Only down side is that the real action and answers won’t start until farther into the storyline anyways.

As for Scarlet there were plenty of hints she was only a pawn of the real threat to begin with back in Season 1. It was bound to found plenty of links to Scarlet that will explain what lead her into madness.

I expected much less, and got a pleasant surprise instead. The setting (dry top) with all of its little areas that i havent explored yet fully are wonderful. Not just up close, but actualy looking at them from a distance as well. The Dynamic events are good, and from my 3 hours experience they seemed to scale alright for a lvl80 area. Not as hard as Southsun, certainly.

Story-wise, i havent finished everything yet, but already got more story than the time between Marionette and Breachmaker battle. In a single update! That is much and i like it. I wonder if this level of content is going to be kept, or if it was just because of the huge break between LS1 and 2. If we get updates of this volume and quality every 2 weeks even if just story-wise, i will be looking forward to it all. Even if its just every month, come to think of it, since there is enough in this one update to last a month with all its archivements and replayability through multiple characters.

As an engineer main i appreciated another little nod to our profession in the house. Always nice to be recognized. (However, can we just dump those kitten backpacks? Even Aerin looked ridiculous with it. Dont joke about it. Just get rid of it.)
I dont know if other professions get these kinds of small recognition, but if you could drop a few for them it would be greatly appreciated i think.

i agree with everything as well. this new content really surprised me in terms of how much i enjoyed it. the story held my interest the whole time, i liked the setting, i had fun in the battle with aerin, etc. definitely steps in the right directions as far as pve content goes!

At first I was disappointed. I love maps but Dry Top is so small. Only 2 wp.

But the map is beautifully designed. Much more intense and condensed than normal maps. And the story is nicely woven into the map. One can play there because it is fun and interesting and not because of rewards. And that is a great thing.

Though I have issues with some of the story-telling (the relation between Kasmeer and Marjory is portrayed a bit too smack-in-the-face-ly) all in all the way how you tell the story now is much, much better than in season 1. I am happy about this update and excited about the upcoming ones.

More maps, please. And that sword of Marjory’s sister… want it!

I give the update two thumbs up, Season 2 definitely has started great. Dry Top might be small but is pack with content to find and do, along with it being a beautiful map and the sandstorm being a awesome touch. Good amount of story too to go through that definitely been improving over the months. Keep up the good work!

OP,

I agree. This has been great so far. I elated they are hitting their stride with LSS2. If they keep this up it is going to be a fun ride.

I absolutely LOVE the new Champions you guys put into Dry Top. No more can you just sit there and spam auto-attack until it’s dead! Unless you get lucky, and it doesn’t target you. They attack so fast, along with AoE’s, and condensed areas, it makes for very exciting fights that was honestly, one of the reasons I left the game for eight months.

On top of the new bosses, the area’s nice. I’m not a fan of JP’s by any means, but after figuring out where to go, I was fine with them. I admit though, I threw my cap a couple of times.

Storyline’s interesting, but I’m going to have to go through it again to catch everything unless it’s all in the journal, which, in that case, I won’t. Liked learning a little more about Scarlet’s past, even though I’m not that fond of her.

Rewards were good; nothing fancy, but enough to keep you going if that’s what you’re looking for.

Overall I think it’s pretty good little patch to keep busy with for the next two weeks, whether it’s farming Geodes for the recipes, or working on their AP’s. Or just going at it with the new and improved Champions.

Seriously, great job on those champs.

EDIT: Oh, right. Thanks for not adding a million pop-up Scarabs.

Even if ANet is planning to expand Dry Top (someone already found more hidden content ready) it’s still too small. I’d rather not have this as a standard from now on – you know, instead of releasing the full map they will release bits from it with the LW schedule. Let us explore the world and then add different events later. Dry Top just feels too small and condensed especially with travelling vertically rather than horizontally. Well, for us explorers, there’s not much anything to explore.

It was all reasonably fun. Liked the whole Zelda-feel.

Then they introduced yet another overpowered Sylvari as the villan.

WHY ALWAYS WITH THE STUPID PLANTS?!

I was waiting to see if LS2 was good enough to keep me logging in and it is, so far!

I was a little frustrated at the aspect jumping puzzle thing to get in, and hoped that wasn’t a sign of things to come throughout the whole map. Thankfully it wasn’t.

I was also hoping for more challenge in the story steps, and got it. I downed a few times and actually got defeated once which was great! The final battle with Aerin was a little frustrating, but worthwhile once I got him down. I was worried the battle was bugged at one stage, I kept bouncing off his shield, till I realised that I had to target him then all was well.

Story well written and for the most part well voice acted. I thought the Master of Peace was a little creepy. Wouldn’t be surprised if he turns out to be not all so Peaceful. Aerin was like Canach Jr. When he was running around the Zephyr Sanctum, I felt bad things were going to happen to him, he was too happy, too exuberant. Flipsiding him into this murderous hunter took me by surprise in a good way.

DE 2.0… well. Apart from a few gripes about Kasmeer’s fluctuating abilities (“Thats too far for me to portal” when she had previously portalled twice that distance!) things went well, IMO, giving the player plenty of lead whilst still making it feel like we were in a team.

Kasmeer improved for me since I felt she was too ditzy and annoying in LS1. She seems to have come of age a little. Marjory was still the annoying anachronism she was before and as said previously, the forced ’I’d rather be making out with Kas’ vibe was a bit of an irritation.

Taimi is still highly annoying but hey, she’s Asura, so that is part of her design. Whilst I don’t much like her character, she is well voice acted and does the job well. Braham has gotten a personality cell now and is more interesting. Rox really needs to cut down on the uppers, if her eyes get any bigger they will gravitationally attract their own moons.

Belinda… good voice actor, wrong character. Still sounds like a 12yr old on helium, nothing whatsoever like a soldier. Special shout out for Riot Alice. I always liked her, good to see her back. Oh, and I did notice Taimi’s comment for my Engineer on seeing the Steam Minotaur. Might have to play through on other classes to see if each profession has its own subtle customisations.

So far, 8/10 on this LS.

Great story – there was just so much of it. I ran through a lot of my personal story as it didn’t grip me much. This was totally different, I had to stay up too late – just couldn’t put it down at all. Best part of living story ever.

I thought that Dry Top was a bit small, but then there’s so much packed in there, more than meets the eye. I’m loving it, and I’ve still got most of the Achievements to complete yet.
9/10 – Brilliant.

Chiming in, really impressed so far.

True, the zone could be larger. True, the events could be more varied. But gee, other than that hats off, you really gave it all.
Interesting boss fights, well-done story telling, Taimi’s acknowledgement of race and class, Scarlet background done in a good way, very interesting main mechanic to the new zone, new crafting recipes, new item stats, new permanent content, very very awesome way to handle story from now on, hidden goodies, jumping puzzle, diving googles… etc… etc…

You really thought of everything this time, aye? :P

Aside from getting stuck in terrain, a poor jumping puzzle and the lightning aspect crapping out half the time, it was alright.

BobbyStein.2315:

Dunan Atreides.5436:

+1 to everything.

Who was Aerin’s VA? Aerin and Taimi stole the show IMO.

Aerin is voiced by Jon St. John. Taimi is voiced by Debi Derryberry. Glad you enjoyed their performances!

May I ask who voices Belinda? I feel like I’ve heard her before, but can’t place the voice.

I’ll have to disagree.

The holo-journal logs, and Taimi aknowledging your personal story were the highlights certainly, but that’s a bout it.

The rest is still plagued by the same issues that personal story is : pacing problems, frustrating/unbalanced fights rather than fun ones, NPC’s slowing you down and being more an annoyance than a help.

Also the achievements that unlock don’t seem to give access to some kind of ‘unique’ reward, all chests indicate the things you get from the events on the map + ‘other loot’ that doesn’t bode well.

If I were to put myself in the shoes of someone that would have to pay 250 gems for those 3-4 missions, my conclusion would be : not worth it.

I also hope we will unlock more of the map before we get new story missions, because if you’re not big on achievement hunting, there is actually very few thing to do in Dry Top.

I really agree that everything about season 2 so far is an improvement. I hope you guys keep it up with regular new permanent zones even if they’re small like dry top. There’s just no legitimate arguing against more zones.

I would kinda like it if the achievements weren’t arbitrarily locked until a second play through, though. That’s my only real annoyance with this patch. I can’t really seem to find any particular reasoning behind that decision.

Kentsui.4930:

Also the achievements that unlock don’t seem to give access to some kind of ‘unique’ reward

This was specifically asked for by players. All over the forums, repeatedly, throughout season 1. To not bind stuff to the meta-achievement or the achievements in general, so as to remove the “forced grind” of it.

And they listened. :P

Carighan.6758:

Kentsui.4930:

Also the achievements that unlock don’t seem to give access to some kind of ‘unique’ reward

This was specifically asked for by players. All over the forums, repeatedly, throughout season 1. To not bind stuff to the meta-achievement or the achievements in general, so as to remove the “forced grind” of it.

And they listened. :P

Could at least give a title or something, since it is permanent.