I tested the festival today and have some concerns.

First off, though, I will say that I did like the new quests, of which there are three, though two can be completed at the same time.

What's concerning is that we only get one stupendous box per day, when in previous years, we'd get one for each of the three quests each day. There is a new outfit style, which I assume has a chance to drop from the stupendous box, but I didn't get one. Instead, I got a Cadwell's style page, which is 2 years old now. Why didn't you create a grab bag for those and some of the older mementos?

Now, if the new style page has a chance to drop from the regular boxes, then that's fine. But if it's only from the stupendous ones, and you only get one per day, and Cadwell pages could drop instead, then that's a problem. Yes, the style pages are available from the Impresario, and presumably they're tradable, so I could buy them off lucky players. But, the way my luck usually goes, I'll maybe get one from the boxes and will have to buy the rest. That's ok, but I just want to know if the purple ones also have a chance to drop them. I don't want to waste time farming the purple boxes if all I'll get is the usual mix of old stuff.

Oh, there is a new memento, which requires 5 fragments - I got three in the purple boxes today, so those will quickly become fodder. Though, I suppose I may have had just really good luck with those today.

I'll test more during the week and see what I get, but initial impressions for getting the new outfit style aren't good. I will say, though, that the Cadwell pages aren't even for sale at the Impresario, and since there's no grab bag, the only way to get them is from the boxes or buying from other players. So, that should at least mean you can sell the Cadwell pages for a decent price.

I'm not a fan of how all dialogue options cause Rozette the Rapscallion to break character. Like come on, let me play along, why don't I get a choice to mess around

I'm not sure if I like how the new quests mess up the established symmetry where the old ones led you around in a nice little circle, chaining into each other. On one hand that made this a a really efficent event. On the other hand, it's kinda cool to not have a perfect symmetry and give a bit of extra uniqueness to the individual locations.

Now with Soars being in Stonefalls and sending you Skywatch* there's an objectively correct order to do the quests, instead of being able to start anywhere, since you'll visit Skywatch during Ayreen's quest.

It's cool to see Hammerdeath Arena be finally utilized for something tho, nice to see my old pal, Galrus Grimhorn. Still wondering what his deal is, wish people here had dialogue.

Also, since new quests are being added, let me bring up Jester King Emeric's quest, Royal Revelry; it's just painfully sloggish, especially when compared to the other two OG quests. Having to visit two delves (so many loading screens!) and collect 8 of both ingredients is already a tedious and lengthy task, but then you also have to run around the town dropping the fireworks. The first part should be massively cut down, perhaps split the quest into two variants, one where you have to collect Dragonfire Dust and one where you need Glowing Ayleid Bone Dust, and have the dialogue explain that Emeric already has the other.
And drop the required amount of Dust to like 3-4, cause come on, having to collect 8 is just pointless padding.

Ayreen's quest could also use some variance imo, like add 2-3 extra locations as quest targets (Phaer for example) and have the quest randomly select where it sends you.


*At least that's where she sent me. Are there alternative destination and quest objectives?