Bekkael wrote: »

Also, @SammyKhajit , I just conceded the card game, and the quest progressed with no problem, but I share your annoyance about how that was shoehorned in there.

@Bekkael thank you for this tip. This one didn’t know you can concede the game, silly khajit played it through, which added to the annoyance.

You are spot on regarding the lack of acknowledgment in-game. This is the vestige who helped to save the world several times over, it would have been nice to have some acknowledgment about that.

Galen is really fantastically designed and very atmospheric with the music, kudos to the design team! I can't say anything about the story yet, I've only explored the area so far. But - no new players house! This is a shortcoming...

A pretty good and nice one.

Beautyful designed, great atmosphere, very nice places, like all of them them. Very good designed transitions between the landscapes and the placement/transition from this volcanic places into the "jungle", great. Good Storyline, in the end maybe a little bit to long, but thats ok. Smart Characters with nice skills and the dialogs give them some deepness in their role and their "point of view". Maybe there is a little bit more possible with more sidequests and npc`s that makes this area/landscape more deeply in culture and story.

I'm liking Galen so far.

@Bekkael - I was delighted my characters were addressed as Mercenary, because I have always thought of my characters in every game I've ever played as exactly that: mercenaries. I thought the "Vestige" name was silly from the get-go. One of those "each to her own" things of course!

Dragonlord573 wrote: »

If the zone offered a motif I'd feel better about it.

Vastyr leaves a lot to be desired. I looked around town and felt... Meh. Like after Fargrave I seriously expected more. The town feels like the world design team just threw together a town and forgot the details. Like for a druid town it is lacking that druid feeling.

Terrain is the same. Unless you're in the forests in the northeast it's basically just High Isle 2.0.

Sets: I want what the person who made it is having. Like who the heck made a medium set that has a 5pc bonus that procs on heals? I suppose a dual weapon build with blood craze or something could make use of it if you're a solo build. Just disappointed that the sets year in general just kinda sucked. Just a few outliers

Music: sounds nice, but just like all of ESO's music it isn't anything I'll remember. Is it took hard to make a song I can hum along to? It's like with Western Skyrim, why no french horn?

Quests: no comment, haven't touched them yet. Just the spoilers I've learned drastically disappoint me.

Fargrave really was something special, such a cool idea.

Looks wise though, I think it's a cool city with a lot of personality, just wish I had more homes to go in and loot. Too many unusable doors. There's even a building with no door. And for some reason, a lot of the seats cannot be sat in.

I'm not sure what folks are expecting with the terrain though, it's a tiny archipelago, so I didn't expect something radically different. What would you have wanted to see?

Rather meh 2nd chapter zone, crushed it in 1 night. Understood why they lumped it in as a reward for the Heroes of High Isle event. Overall:

-Story was okay if predictable.
-Too much focus on Zaji and Caska, other alliance captains got sidelined hard
-Quens new partner seemed fun as was the Sea Elf captain, wouldn't mind visiting Pyandorea in a future update
-Terrain couldve been done better, especially the vine district of Vastyr lacked alot of vines and looked like a swamped in bungalow with so much full of sand.
-Embervine layout is annoying with so much loading
-House Mornard style came out very nice, Firesong style not so much
-Mythic armors are good if somewhat niche
-New sets are rather meh and not endgame meta changing if at all
-Druid style furnishings are hit or miss; only a handful will be prized, most ignored by the housing aficionado community
-Maormer stuff being crown store only is big buzzkill for me

I cannot say as I haven't even set foot on it yet. I have yet to even finish High Isle main quest as of this post simply because the writing was so disjointed. As for the music, I literally thought I was back in Disney World theme park, it didn't have that immersive, grounded Elder Scrolls feeling at all. The year long format is just not helping anyone enjoy the game more and it's destroying older, memorable characters too.

There's just no character development anymore so I can't really grow attached to a character and be saddened by their sudden return, death, departure, or betrayal. Remember Little Leaf from Craglorn? That was one of the most excellent examples of great writing, and a character I can actually care about. She had only one zone and a few quests for development but ended up being one of the most liked and memorable characters ever. Eveli Sharp-Arrow on the other hand was an awesome character during the events of Orsinium right up until Blackwood where they stuck her character development permanently into limbo (and made her far more annoying too). People aren't interested in stagnant characters; Like any good book or tv show they want to see characters grow and change as the story develops - oh but wait, the story cannot develop because of the three banners war which will never be addressed.

Between decorating my houses for Xmas and this Heart of Skyrim event, I havent' had time! I did check it out the first day and loved seeing Raz again! I think I quickly racked up 7 quests, so I can't wait to go back to visit and do those.

Galen is just wonderful. Many interesting an fun encounters. The legacy of Bretons did not disappoint in the amout of breton lore dump. =D Main story was very good. Of course the big bad was one of those on the early short list - as per ususal - but that is ok. Just like Orsinium, Murkmire, Summerset etc. A lot of great new characters and approved returnal of some favourites of old. The character development in some cases, particularly Frii, is really good. The voice actor really did an amazing job there. Cleverly written as well.

So now I really want more maormer in the future. And a druid class! Before High Isle I didn't really think there was room for Druids since we have the warden but now I have made a 180. =D And maormer as playable race woud be awesome.

First I was a little disappointed.

Ah, just an extension of the High Isle region. Not very unique.

E.g. the Reach is somewhat different from Greymoor, Deadlands are very different from Blackwood.
But Galen is simply High Isle in a smaller scale.

I did the main quest 3 times:
- xbox NA on a new character

- xbox NA on my first character, as I did not realize before that you should do it on the SAME character who finished the High Isle mainquest, otherwise the third, Ivy throne quest will not trigger. That one unlocks a cool, very large water basin at the achievement furnisher, you can use it to create ponds.

- xbox EU was the third time then.

However, doing it 3 times was not a punishment. The region looks nice, the story, despite "kill the bad overboss" somewhat unique because of the involvement of a spirit as main protagonist. And not too long, if you rush through, you can finish it in 2 hours. If you read all dialogs and kill all mobs, maybe 5 hours.

I have done a few dailies, and just got outdated high isle furnishing blueprints, this disappointed me. I bought all I needed then from guildstores, and will not play dailies there. No need to waste time getting only junk. I guess the region might be as dead as Blackwood once the release-hype is over.

So my feelings are mixed. Nice new druid furniture, beautifull to explore, inviting to finish all sidequests, but not encouraging to stay there for a longer time.

High Isle version 1.2 IMO, I was extremely disappointed at how samey it looks, and that definately had an impact on my wanting to complete it.
I found the so called striking locals, cleared the delves, acquired the wayshrines, and skyshards, killed the bosses, and left, I'll get around to doing the zone whenever, it just doesn't appeal to me right now, had I paid money for this, I'd really be upset.

Glad some of you actually enjoy it, and find it stunning, I certainly do not.

Dragonlord573 wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

I'm not sure what folks are expecting with the terrain though, it's a tiny archipelago, so I didn't expect something radically different. What would you have wanted to see?

For me, wonder. I've been playing Morrowind for the first time, and revisiting Skyrim and Oblivion recently and it has reminded me of something I miss in ESO: the sense of adventure. In TES3-5 I always feel this sense of "what's on top of that hill" that ESO doesn't give me. Like I seriously can't explain it cause in say The Reach in ESO I don't feel the same explorational feel I have when playing Skyrim. It could just be world scale, or variety of terrain. Look at Craglorn or Wrothgar, I actually get a sense of exploration cause it is a big zone and the environment changes.
I felt something similar last night in Galen. I went through a tunnel and landed in the forest in the north east. The transition between environments made me feel a sense of wonder that's missing from the rest of Galen.

That’s fair, was just curious. I can see what you mean. I think Galen is the stronger of the two zones we got this year, for the exact reasons you outlined. High Isle has maybe one or two locales that are exceptional, but I think it’s a pretty but mundane zone.

Craglorn is a cool zone, I also like it’s variety of landscapes. I just wish there more incentives for going there.