YstradClud wrote: »

ESO still gives a decent amount of resources to their writing and questing in my opinion. There seems to be a ton of side quests to do as usual and I often find myself enjoying some of them more then the main quest line. Go have a look at some of the other mmorpgs around and see how streamlined and guttered the questing is.

bluebird wrote: »

I felt there was a lot of build-up and mystery for ... nothing.

Like, the Gray Reliquaries were relevant and tied the story into the whole prelude with Unhallowed Grave... but the stone husks? What was the point other than to have us fight 5 random husks during the last quest? Coven witches create a ritual that allows them harvest souls, which funnelled through a Reliquary makes the Grey Host resurrect... was the stone husk side-plot really relevant? Magic flower grown into random shapes makes Werewolf bodies rez? Why? So random and pointless. The enemies during Harrowstorms materialise without any Husks at all.

It was also only explained away with 2 voicelines and had no impact on the story further than that. When I first saw the concept art in the trailer, I thought we'd have a very cool 'Terracotta Army' vibe - an ancient army imprisoned in stone, waiting to be awakened, or something. But nah. Reminds me of the awesome Mephala reveal during the Summerset trailer, only to involve her in really only one quest and even then her contribution was completely forgettable.

And yeah, I agree with the posters above, the investigation dragged out too long... The reveals weren't relevant enough for an actual payoff for all the back-and-forth legwork and the 'trying to figure out a mystery with the mental acumen of a 5 year old' snail pace that we had for 3/4s of the story.

And the story was pretty cliché and uninspired... plus we're really edging into Disney princess territory.

As in, the only good princess is an orphaned princess. Could we have a situation where family members are written into the plot to explore family dynamics, rather than to fulfil the 'dead family member' trope? Khamira the orphaned cat princess who has to accept her responsibility, Svana, the orphaned Nord princess who does the same, Valsirenn, the woman with a dead daughter whose husband also dies, but her mentor dies too so she has to assume the mantle of responsibility too.

Jesus Christ. Prince Irnskar and Jorunn at the end were honestly a welcome sight, to know that a few characters are allowed to have live relatives (plus the contrast between the Prince and his father's alliance-oriented politics was a good plotline in Eastmarch, and he was allowed to grow as a character without killing off his father first).

The 'twist' was also stale and had no impact at all. For twists/reveals, Orsinium did it well.

Because let's be honest, were any of the players surprised? That Svargrim a caricature-ish grump who hates our guts does nothing for his kingdom and seems to halt any investigation with shady tactics at every turn could have been eeeeevil?! No way! Betrayals/reveals have no weight if the player isn't at least a little bit involved or implicit in the action. Like in Orsinium, that was well built-up and well executed. You believed them at first, you understood their reasoning for what you're all trying to do, and when their treachery was revealed you still understood why they did it.

It would have been an actual twist if Fennorian was working against us. Instead of brewing a protective potion, he tried to make a solution that sped up the harrowing process. And Old Mjolen needs to figure it out the last minute. He isn't kidnapped but disappears on purpose to report in with his true masters. And then we would have been like 'Did we really trust a vampire all along like an idiot because he said he was a member of Ravenwatch? Dayum, that's pretty stupid of us indeed, but hey game, you tricked us cause if you give us a companion we immediately trust them!' Or he could have been involved in some shady/tough choices at least. Like drain blood from the living. But no, even when tortured he was a good little puppy and only drank of his flask which we conveniently had on us.

I also thought the side quests were relatively weak.

Like Rigurt's shenanigans, okay, fine, it's a running gag. But other than that? The lost daughter at Morthal? Ehh. The mother runs off almost gets herself killed (for no reason, because of plot stupidity) and yet both survive... instead of a potentially interesting choice of who we want to save - the mother who did nothing wrong or the child that caused the death of so many.

The 'Pale man' murders side quest would have been a cool reveal... if we didn't have literally hundreds of Falmer enemies all around the zone already. Instead of a cool reveal, it killed all mystery. The shipwrecked sailors? I thought it was going to be great, it had the setup and the ambiance and buildup with the snow effects for it, but it turned into a 'random mage/cultist/necromancer is doing random evil things in this ruin, stop them' quest instead. Compare that to the ebony mine in Vvardenfell quest.

The best quest was the Dwemer Public Dungeon one, but mostly because it was a giant Easter Egg and had huge lore implications. The rest were pretty forgettable. And that includes the pretty forgettable main quest.

So, yeah... not much 'Gothic' about the story... it was more like a dumbed down episode of Scooby Doo with too much magical mumbo-jumbo that just wasn't all that relevant in the end. Oh, and of course, the Team Rocket-style 'smell ya later' convenient disappearance of a certain character... I guess ZOS need to sell their DLCs some way, so overarching stories...yay?

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

He's one character I don't mind at all coming back. He still can too, his status is not 100% sure, and it is Abnur we're speaking of. He's more of an ass and stubborner than a donkey.

Edit: Aaand I noticed now this is a necro

Inaya wrote: »

The prologue quest has me very interested in where it is going