Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds Review

[@oooSKYLIGHTooo]

Agreed in all counts, they definitely have a track record of starting strong (to super strong) and then it falling apart. This is the happy honeymoon period, especially lowland shores (which is a stunningly beautiful map). I didn't buy it for housing tbh, but have heard some dissatisfaction with missing nodes from existing home instance not coming over and the node positions being fixed and badly placed. Again some spears are awesome, some really not at all. They just need tuning. The second map feels empty by comparison and two of the three hearts are painful to progress, so I would expect/hope for this to be developed in coming story (e.g. the sulphur area in the NW). I legit love what they did with the Warclaw/Journeykin though. Would still recommend. Maybe an 7.5 or 8/10 for what I wanted?

[@threeofswordsgaming]

Agree 100% on your rating. 7/10 or 8/10 is completely fair, IMO.

[@MisterNo1111]

You have right for sceptisizm concernig last expansion. Start wos aswell really impresive in its own way, so...yea.Hopefully devs anderstud critics about last part of expansion and dont do it agein. I am working on see sommer season since mid April and didnot play , just woching news and my favorit streamers from time to time. I am really looking forward for end of month and starting my jurney, tis new peace of world looks stuninglly beautiful. I have big hopes, i am enjoyer of basic game, 2 years i played and enjoyed core Tyria so that is my bar that i mesure... Thanx for video

[@threeofswordsgaming]

They seem to have learned a few things from SotO. I think GW2 players have reason for optimism. I hope so! I agree, the new maps are amazing in their appearance.

[@nielsjensen4185]

When comparing SotO to JW you have to take in consideration all the elements that were missing from SotO that are present in JW. When you compare the maps the SotO maps are all utilitarian to lead the player from Point A to Point B. There are none of the fractal islands that feel like anyone actually lives there, they just exist there. If anyone actually lived there the islands would be full of useless stuff that only existed for the sake of existing since it made sense to the people living there. If you clear a refugee camp there'll be detritus left behind that showed that someone lived there. If you did the same with the SotO maps they would just be empty set pieces. While this is fair for Amnytas since it serves a utilitarian purpose, Skywatch and Nayos should be full of things that serve no purpose other than making life easier for those who live there. Nayos in particular is horrid with this. An entire civilisation lives there and if you removed every mob from the game it would just be a landscape. There's nothing there that would make it feel empty. Lowlands Shore has this in spades with several things that serve no purpose for the player and if you removed every mob from Lowlands Shore it would just feel eerily empty because there are things there that show that someone lives there. Another important difference between SotO and JW is that the stories in SotO were two different ones with a strong initial story that had a beginning, middle, and end whereas the JW even though there's an end continues into the next release with Greer and Decima escaping up a mountain with the help of Ura, which nicely sets up the raid wherethe bosses will 100% be Greer, Decima, and Ura, and from there the JW story has natural segway into exploring who created them and how since their creation implies they have access to The Forge of Failed Creations.

[@threeofswordsgaming]

I agree, mostly. I suspect the raid bosses will not be the titans we have already seen, though it would make sense from an efficiency standpoint. I don't enjoy raids, so it is largely immaterial to me, but relevant to the conversation. I certainly agree that Inner Nayos communicated almost nothing as a map. I am willing to give Skywatch a pass since it had quite a few positive characteristics. I think it is likely JW is probably better than SotO. However, the fact remains that SotO was received well at launch and really crashed. I will retain concerns about JW until Arenanet can demonstrate the ability to see this through from beginning to end. Keep in mind, the same thing happened with Icebrood Saga, albeit for different reasons. I am not trashing JW. I like it thus far. I am practicing expectation management. Thanks for the feedback!

[@nielsjensen4185]

@@threeofswordsgaming For the onlookers crashes happen without reason or cause as they only see the moment and once a deeper investigation is made into the crash it was always caused by something and I can see none of the causal issues in JW that were there in SotO. The two separate stories were taken as a concept from LW s4 because it worked in 4. Except it only really worked in s4 because Tropes did a lot of the heavy lifting to make it memorable. The story of Joko alone should have been longer than three chapters. There was nothing about how he was an efficient ruler despite his utter narcissism and tyranny since even if you're immortal you can never keep a kingdom functional for 250 years with just that. The story in JW segways naturally into the raid which would segway naturally into the second half of the story which would be the mystery of who made these Titans and how. Do they have access to the Forge of Failed Creations? Is this an entirely new method? If so, how did they manage it? These are questions that would flow naturally from the story as it was told up until now as opposed to SotO which really should have been two expansions with one focusing on the Astral Ward and the other on Nayos.

[@threeofswordsgaming]

Ahhh...I think you hit the nail on the head with Joko. That entire season should have been Joko, and the way his arc ended demonstrated catastrophically poor writing. It was a complete cop out. They do that sometimes. I really do agree with 99% of what you are saying. JW shows the potential to be great. But until it is, I won't say it is. That's all. I do appreciate your perspective though. I think it is accurate and well thought out.

[@australienski6687]

Laziest expansion ever. Story was just never ending unskippable talking, 2 maps full of copy paste events, it gets seriously repetitive very fast. Having to grind these maps for xp feels so grindy.