TFS
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I have mixed feelings on the Maleurous saga. While each of them were really, really good bubble episodes, I feel like the overarching plot was disjointed and weak.
I don't feel like we ever really get a coherent answer as to what exactly the Maleurous even are. They can't just be any random person the Avatars perceive as a threat, as this leads to more holes than it plugs up (Why is a teddy bear as much of a threat as a god-destroying weapon? Why weren't Sepulchure or Valtrith or even Nythera as much of a threat as a teddy bear?). Same for them being people corrupted by Doom, as this isn't even true for most of them (and, again, why weren't Sepulchure or Caitiff imprisoned, then?)
Why do they all dress up like the Mysterious Stranger if they aren't at all related to him? Why do they all dress up like Notha if they don't serve or even necessarily care for her? Why does Notha dress up like the Mysterious Stranger? If there really is no connection between the Maleurous and Notha and the Mysterious Stranger, what's the point in asking a question and then only providing an answer that's incongruous to the rest of the storyline?
I also feel like the overall storyline had pretty poor pacing within the context of the game, possibly due to the choice to irregularly update it after long intervals? About half of the Maleurous (Sinnocence, Nameless, Voyna) didn't actually do anything that impacted the saga's overall plot and just felt like filler - since they die without accomplishing anything immediately after being introduced, and do nothing to change the status quo or influence other events in the saga, these feel more like monster-of-the-week episodes than a component of an overarching storyline. While this isn't a bad thing, it pretty clearly comes at the expense of characters and plotlines later in the saga (Notha dumping her tragic backstory on you all at once when you've known her for 10 minutes, going from zero to holy war to zero again over the course of like two quests) that are noticeably underdeveloped.
Ironically enough, these felt like the weakest parts of the storyline while the 'filler episodes' were far and away the best - major events and characters like this feel like they should have had more time to bake rather than coming out of nowhere all at once, while the likes of Voyna got more development than the story actually warranted and were all the stronger for it.
Related to this pacing issue is the sheer number of plot elements that are introduced and immediately discarded without ever being relevant to the overarching plot (the Savior's egg, Notha being a body double for Uaanta's nemesis, the Aequilibria) and serve as a detriment by never being addressed again.
The fact that the Savior egg is never used again was far and away the most mind-boggling one IMO - if it's not pertinent to this plot, why even include it in this storyline? If anything, it just makes the other characters weaker for it - why don't Draco and the protag even think of it until the epilogue and not, like, as soon as the Firmament is breached (I'd almost prefer if it had been permanently memory-holed like Akriloth Jr. was, because this just makes the characters seem like airheads)? If Remthalas/Kathool's ultimate goal is to eat the Drahrs (honestly, gotta respect the power play) why doesn't he care about the wonderful, succulent egg Voyna is holding when he visits her? The Aequilibria being the premise of the current war and then going nowhere also seems equally bizarre - why spontaneously introduce another level to the pantheon in the literal finale to a saga they've had no relation to, and then not actually do anything with it?? I'm not sure if these plot elements were just cut short due to time/development constraints, or if there was an active intent to drip-feed lore/cosmology into the game without any other releases where they could belong (probably just me over-speculating, because Dove's quests in Sunbreeze Grove seems like they'd be the obvious home for this kind of stuff), but in either case they're distracting in a way that detracts from the plot-relevant elements of the storyline.
Remthalas also seemed like wasted potential to me. The early episodes seemed to set him up as some sort of ultimate puppetmaster villain, but by the time the saga ended it turned out he had no clearly defined goal, nor had any action he had taken done anything to influence the plot or further any goal - in every appearence he had just floated around and ranted while refusing to elaborate. I had honestly expected/hoped for him to have stolen the Savior egg and made the finale related to the rest of the saga while somehow tying all of these underbaked plot elements together, but, no, he was actually just crazy the whole time. Despite hosting the finale episode, he ended up having as little effect upon both the overarching plotline and the game's world as Nameless or Sinnocence did, which was really disappointing since I had quite liked the character.
Another character I really liked was Notha, but I feel like she suffered from the pacing more than anything else did. It felt like the storyline was almost over by the time she was actually introduced, and the solution to making up for all of this lost time was having her just dump her tragic backstory on you all at once out of the blue, when you've only known her (as an enemy, I might add) for like 10 minutes. Which somehow results in you being her friend? What?? I understand that the entire point of this character is that she's not very socially skilled, but surely it'd have been better from a writing standpoint to make sure the player (if not the protagonist) has some sort of established investment in this character before explaining the nature of her goals and motives - preferably in a way that isn't just trauma dump out of left field lol.
It's also worth noting how drastically different her speech and behavior is in her first proper appearence - I'd guess there wasn't a handle on what her character should be like that far in advance, as she's much more in-character 10 minutes (4 months realtime) later. I feel like this kinda gives away the rub - this character's implementation wasn't spaced out or developed over the course of the saga because there just simply wasn't a grasp of what she should be like.
Abrupt introduction aside, I actually ended up quite liking this character and thought the option to side with her in the Reckoning war was really cool - I as the player thought this was pretty justified from a lore perspective and thought it was a neat way to tie together the common theme of each Maleurous episide (bad guys good good guys bad). Replaying the whole saga together, though, changed my opinion drastically - this is incredibly out of character for the protagonist. While the Avatars have ostensibly been jerks and the Maleurous have ostensibly been victims, the protagonist has consistently been a cardboard cutout who offers no thoughts or emotion (as has been the case in most storylines for a couple years now, to be fair), and siding with Notha just isn't something this storyline indicates he would do (not to mention Uaanta throwing all of her development out the window to try and rip your head off for disagreeing with her, and then never acknowleding it again). I wonder if a choice like this had been planned at the beginning of development and the incremental specifics that might lead up to it were forgotten about as each episode came to pass - because it's an awesome idea, but there wasn't much build-up.
I think it's also quite unfortunate that the characters and events in this saga aren't really present in the rest of the game (Surely Uaanta, Notha, Myalos, Lock and Key would be interested in portals to the elemental planes? Surely they want to meet DragonFable's usual cast? Surely we should have thought to tell the Lore Dragon what happened to the Avatars or the Savior egg?), but that's just the fault of the non-chronological release order I guess. It's a shame, because I really like Uaanta and Notha and want to see more of them.
I also feel like the Avatars were strictly detrimental to this storyline, as their actions and supposed purpose in this saga directly retcon/contradict literally every other action they have (or haven't) taken over the course of the game, as well as what they've done in this very storyline. If they're meant to babysit the twins, why don't they do anything to stop Sepulchure from stealing the egg at the beginning of the game - especially when they try to stop Voyna from doing the same thing? If they're meant to maintain The Balance(tm), why don't they care when literally four (arguably five, since not all of the Gorgok retcon stuff was removed) great dragons have died over the course of the game? Or about Akriloth and the Fire War? Or about the Final 13th? Or about Caitiff corrupting Draco? Or about, like, half of Book 1? If they want the Maleurous dead, why did they imprison them in the first place instead of just killing them? Why did they allow a bumbler like Valtrith to just steal the vessel they were imprisoned in? Why didn't they do anythign about Valtrith once he had stolen it?
All in all, this saga was a mixed bag. While the individual bubble episodes were excellent - the Nameless and Voyna wars are some of the best content in the game, IMO, and I still have really fond memories of what an event Archives was - I think the overall storyline was pretty weak and disconnected. As evidenced by how there isn't much of a handle on Notha in her first appearence, I think the culprit here is the pacing and content distribution - some stuff got way more attention than it was deserved and was great as a result, while some stuff got less development than it needed and felt really rushed as a result.
I remember voicing these concerns about these unplugged holes and disjointed overarching plot back when the Voyna war ended (and was assured they'd be addressed by the end), and several other people I've talked to share my opinions, so I thought they were worth sharing. Or maybe I just like to blather.
TL;DR: The bubble episodes were overdeveloped but awesome. The central plot was underdeveloped and pretty disjointed. IMO Notha would have been better if she was built up throughout the entirety of the saga instead of shoehorned in at the last second. I don't think the random lore dripfeeds should have been included in a storyline they were completely irrelevant to. I really, really want to know what Aequilibria tastes like; Kathool has the right idea.
Mildly disappointed by the weapons - because they're missing That One Stat Point, they're strictly worse than other options and therefore totally useless. Which sucks, because they look really really cool and use the Fear element, and I therefore really really want to use them. I don't think giving them +1 All would make them BiS in any situation, as there are no realistic scenarios where you'd use them over a weapon that also has -20 Health and/or a significantly better element (even on classes that don't use HoTs and can just swap to Sea Chicken's Conquest on a healing turn, enabling a use case for weapons without -20 Health, they'd still be slotting VIK/BoD/healing wep), but it would make it possible to squeeze them into my build without being at a notable disadvantage. Which, again, I want to do because they're cool. It's not like there's an issue with story weapons having +10 All either, given Glory/Doombacon/UOK/Soulforged exist - and half of those don't even require saga completion! I'll still be using the spear for fashion, of course, but I really wish I could be putting the Fear element to use too.
The inventory space change is the biggest improvement the game has had in years. I'd really like to be more excited and post more about it, but staff leaked the specifics weeks ago and I've kind of already deflated on it lol. This is a hugely beneficial change and I think I speak for every player when I say I'm really glad it's been added.
< Message edited by TFS -- 6/11/2022 15:40:54 >
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