Category: Reviews

How NOT to build an MMORPG quest (rant)

So far the worst quest I have come across in The Elder Scrolls series (from playing Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and ESO) has got to be the quest “A Lasting Winter” in the Elder Scrolls Online. In this quest, you are tasked with finding powerful relics for Queen Ayrenn’s ratification ceremony, as a part of the Aldmeri Dominion quest-line in Grahtwood. Upon arriving at the Falinesti Winter Site, you’re met by an NPC who gives a vague description of what’s going on. She asks that you find a different NPC, further in amongst the ruins. This NPC will, conveniently, be able to activate certain Welkynd stones around the area. So you have to guide him around an area with absolutely no enemies whatsoever, to watch projections of an Elf denying a Khajiiti trickster God the chance to sleep with her. Since there are no enemies, it makes you wonder why he couldn’t have gone and seen for himself, and just summarized things for you.

Upon completing this, we’re sent to yet ANOTHER NPC, who basically says “I don’t know what’s going on, but what you’re looking for is in one of the caves near here. Watch out for the Frost Trolls.” So you descend into the dig-site, and where you usually expect a plethora of enemy soldiers, you only get a handful of Frost Trolls and some random Skeevers (which doesn’t really make sense, and isn’t explained).

Here is a massive missed opportunity, as the whole setup is that the “big baddie” of this place, is a highly respected General of the Aldmeri Dominion, the very same Dominion that you’re trying to help. So, if you were expecting Dominion soldiers (who’d normally aid you in other quests) hostile or not, you’re in for a nasty disappointment, as only a couple of soldiers survived when the Frost Trolls “arrived”.

And regarding Trolls in ESO, they are tough, with lots of HP, and some powerful melee attacks (none at range though), but they are fairly tedious to fight, even for a group, as they don’t pose any diversity of threat, and because of their bulkiness, they slow down quest progression. Which you only ever want to do if the story is interesting enough, to make you want to experience more of it. And you’d think dealing with the imagery of a god SHOULD be an interesting concept, but here it feels forced.

You are given three markers, for three caves, and the quest says to “investigate”. In typical MMORPG fashion, this means that you have no idea which cave holds the answer. At least, and this is pretty much the only saving grace about this quest, it doesn’t have the mechanic where it’s ALWAYS the last place you look, that contains the answer. But it still breaks the natural flow of the story and play-through of the quest-line.

You find the vault, which would have been inaccessible until finding the correct cave, and enter, hearing that the Aldmeri General is inside, but all her soldiers would be captured inside. So you, again, expect hostile Dominion soldiers, but no, they have all been encased in ice. In their stead there are skeletons, ok, that makes some sense, I guess, but there are also Gargoyles. Not even more Frost Trolls, which though annoying would at least have been consistent. And the game offers no explanation as to why there are Gargoyles there.

You then bumble through an ice and snow-covered ruin, until you reach the General, who you try to reason with. That fails and you have to fight her. She then spawns a clone to fight you, and here is where things get a little buggy. Because of the way this fight is set up, you are to kill either the General or the clone, doesn’t matter, because the one you didn’t kill just becomes the real one, and if you’re too slow, will spawn another clone. If you’re too fast at taking them both out, the game doesn’t follow through, as the quest-line is MEANT for you to fight at least one original and one copy. Killing them too fast means that it doesn’t register, and you have to start the fight over and over, until you get the timing right. It also doesn’t explain why the General is able to spawn a fully non-ethereal clone, other than “she’s possessed by a God, so meh, magic or something.”

Never, since starting to play Skyrim in 2011, have a quest ever agitated me as much as this one quest did. And considering how I LOATHE the quest in Skyrim for Clavicus Vile (because of not one, but TWO characters with workbench-grinder voices), that says a lot.

But I am curious, what is the worst quest in a game that you’ve come across, and what makes it so bad?

Visual Novel review: The Grisaia Series

Finally, I got to conclude the trilogy that is the main stories of the Grisaia series. And boy, was it a ride.

To understand the series, you have to, obviously, start at the beginning; the Fruit of Grisaia (FoG) and take it from there. Yes, the characters are tropés at first (and stay as such, largely, through all three games), but as soon as you get under the skin of each of the main five girls, you quickly realise that the character writing (as in how the characters are “created”) is at a really high level of quality. So high that you start to feel WITH the characters, you groan at Michiru, you sigh with Yumiko or you look at Sachi’s twisted principles from the perspective of the potential victims. Even though Yuuji is the protagonist in FoG, you don’t really get that much under HIS skin, it is very heavily hinted at that his story, before coming to Mihama Academy, is cause for interest. The classic “harem”-tropé where you don’t really know a whole lot about the main character (the “you” in the narrative) is thus in place.

However, Yuuji remains largely untouched in FoG. FoG also provided ten possible endings, which until Labyrinth of Grisaia (LoG) were impossible tell what was cannon and what wasn’t. LoG picks off at a slightly odd point; where NONE of the endings are cannon, but all of them (the “good endings” for each girl) have mounts of truth to them. LoG focuses on Yuuji’s story, and provides the insight into his mind and sight, also because, as we follow his story, so do the girls he live with at Mihama Academy. LoG also gives a very detailed look into the life of Asako; the first person other than his sister, that Yuuji loves (or even likes), which was very heavily mentioned in FoG in pretty much every single flashback from Yuuji’s perspective, so it’s really nice to get that information. LoG also provides five AFTER stories, which does the same as the “main” story of LoG; takes of from a point where none of the FoG endings where truth, but still had grains of cannon lore. These stories tell, what I guess, WOULD have been cannon, had Yuuji actually chosen anyone in FoG (you “choose” for him, but as of LoG, it’s clear that it is not a choice he’d make on his own). LoG also provides a large amount of small extra stories, typically funny skits and shorts that may/may not have been intended as part of the story, but found unfit when it was put together. Kind of like the bloopers to a Jackie Chan movie. LoG’s main story ended abruptly on a cliffhanger, so it was natural for me, that when the final main story branch, Eden of Grisaia (EoG), was published, I was quick to get it.

EoG provides a closure, and it does so with gusto and bravour. Even though shorter than both FoG and LoG (main story), it is the one with most action, often leaving you at the edge of your seat, picking many of the problems from LoG up and dealing with them. However, it also gives Yuuji much more feeling as this gives something that surprises even our all’s male tsundere agent. As LoG’s main story did not have choices, and FoG gave me roughly 30 HOURS of reading before the first choice, I was genuinely surprised when EoG threw not one but TWO choices in my face. It’s an amazing conclusion to this massive trilogy, that I ended up spending +100 hours in. +100 hours VERY well spent, I might add. EoG also added a prequel; how DID the girls at Mihama Academy meet, what was the school like before Yuuji’s arrival in FoG? An amazing little story that fills surprisingly many holes.

If I were to pin the stories, FoG, LoG and EoG up against each other, which I find kind of silly as they really are one long story altogether, I would say that.

Fruit of Grisaia: 9.5/10
Labyrinth of Grisaia: 7/10
Eden of Grisaia: 9/10

My reasoning for this score is that Fruit of Grisaia had so much more “meat” to it’s story, it took it’s time describing details in environments, in characters, in the mood. Especially in Labyrinth, the story felt a bit rushed at times. The fact that it also “denies” the endings of FoG also is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow (though I’ll admit it works much better for trilogy as a whole). Eden of Grisaia is very close to reaching Fruit of Grisaia’s level, the action filled adventure is much more intense than Fruit of Grisaia is, and even though it keeps a steady pace in it’s story-telling throughout it’s entire story, it is still coming up a little short, simply due to it’s length.

But I’d actually like for you to ignore the scores for each of them separately, and instead take the trilogy as a whole, thus I will score it as a whole story.

The Grisaia Series: 10/10

I’ve already explained pretty much my stance and how much I love this universe and in particular, the characters, so there really is no need for further explanations. If you are into VNs (as I am), The Grisaia Series is excellent in terms of art and Voice Acting, but especially the character writing and the overall writing is amazing. Even if you DON’T fancy VNs, I would still recommend this series to you; it IS a bit heavy to get started with, but pays off in the end.