#just realized i could try getting the doom laurel to promote hawkules...

[piecesofchess]

So anyway. Finished ZigZag today. I get I've already blabbed a lot about my experience with Arc 2 so far but I'll be collecting all my thoughts below just to log things for myself. Thanks to everybody who added their thoughts to my previous posts about all the P101 Updates.

The obvious thing out of the way -- the new voice acting is meh is at best, but I understand the situation around that and know much can't be done atm. I lament Catbeard having no presence in the story because of it though, and I feel like if he *had* we could've gotten an interesting/funny response to that whole "starting the war" thing, lol. Loved seeing Contessa finally getting to be around more.

Sinbad is fine and I like him, he got better later on. The business in Marleybone had me hooked getting to hear of Napoleguin and seeing Meowiarty again (although I wish more could be elaborated + explored about him and his situation) , but my god. My GOD. That dungeon going after Wheeler is one of the worst fucking things I have ever been through in the game. They seriously need to fix the enemies respawning and having our character locked in-place for post dialogue in there. Bran a Raven lord sucked ass, there was no real point to that whole Thing. But it's cool to see our actions on starting the war are facing consequences and all that.

The business in Aquila I really liked - I found myself thoroughly enjoying Hawkules' presence in the story. I just wish Tartarus played better on a technical level, as the environment is beautiful and I liked seeing Death again, everything was straight up my alley but I ended up getting aggravated with the map, broken quest things, etc. I KNOW KI has been informed of these bugs and I wonder just how much longer they'll sit there like the rest of the things needing fixed have been for years.

Krokotopia was...undermining and aggravating. As I said before, the map needs a serious fix on not forcing enemies to respawn in cramped areas that you need to revisit -- and everything just looks copy/pasted from Wiz and thrown together to be considered a 'new area'. I Just KNOW Krok can be a gorgeous place with a wonderful skyway of its own in Pirate -- just look at Mooshu and Marleybone -- but Kingsisle INSISTSSSSS that none of that can be done, even though it's been proven it can. But whatever. I doubt they will do a graphics re-haul of ZigZag anytime soon, even though I think it's the one new area that kind of needs it.

I'm reaaaally conflicted on this whole story thing. The whiplash of our parents saying 'Go to El Dorado! Don't go to El Dorado!' with KI clearly backtracking to say that it was all a trick from a Wizard just feels...confusing and lazy. Oksana would be a fine idea for an enemy -- in the game she belongs to. It's not that I'm against exploring magic and wizards in P101's story, but to have that replace the enemies we ALREADY HAVE and turn a 180 due to KI's rushed Book 15 update is. So disappointing. If our business with the Armada was finally done with, which it ISN'T, then maybe I'd feel more open to moving on with a different Main Villain or something.

These new worlds and updates are filled with issues regarding the quest mechanics (some question marks not changing, wrong companion models being used, empty dialogue box, no names in some of the dialogue boxes, some quests not being shown as completed even though they are, seeing Go to . , instead of area names, etc), map access still isn't there even though it would be nice to have, and you can still walk through some doors and walls in some areas. It's ridiculous things like these that prove to me time and time again these are being pushed / rushed out for the sake of content and to show that they are 'updating' the game.

Kingsisle...we have already been waiting for years, on what was considered a disappointing, rushed dungeon to end Book 15. I'm pretty sure a majority of us would be FINE waiting for a polished, fixed update. I get they don't have the same budget and team they used to, so updates like these will inevitably be underwhelming compared to Arc 1, but they could at least fix the bugs and make these a bit more playable.

The next update at least looks promising, as it is likely the Queen Elite are going to be in there, possibly Diego and Roberto (the two who I REALLY wanna see from the Wizard game!) and we will finally properly see Queen again...I can only hope KI won't mess it up by rushing the technical aspect of it. Blind Mew said he learned from his mistakes with Oksana, but the damage is done and she's already in the game, so I'm hoping the writing either gets better by integrating the Armada *properly* into it again, or Oksana just gets...better. I don't know.

--I know all of my opinions on this are pretty late, and most of these have already been expressed by other players, but I just had never been enticed by the premise of these updates, and I only enjoyed certain parts of it once I did play them. I am glad to see the crew's writing getting better, as it felt somewhat superficial in the beginning, and to see their dynamic again feels...so good. I genuinely missed them, the companions are one of my favorite things about the game.

I just hope my other favorite part of this game, i.e. the Armada, gets proper time in the story again. I will feel incredibly cheated if we never learn what happened to Kane's mind and how Phule and Queen are progressing with the current state of the Armada. I'm excited to get to know the Queen!Elite and if they'll have any proper names. But I am still craving a new world with its own skyway, or to explore the parts of Valencia we still can't access, and to see another puppet show in the future.

One last thing -- all of this felt worthless without a level cap increase. Hours of progress just to be at the same maximum level once all was said and done. Pouring hours into this just for the story is fine and all, but with dragged-out battles and challenging dungeons that give little reward, it feels like we're still sitting in one place despite moving forward. I hope KI finally implements what we want so we can finally feel like we're getting somewhere.