Dr. Graves hurts my brain...

My attention was focused elsewhere so I still have not played these arcs beyond the initial few missions.

I will say that one touch I liked was when you first go to the local Arbiter and pretend that you've been mind-wiped he says "Mindwiped? I'm unaware of any local individual who has been authorized use of those powers, let alone deign to use them on you."

The implication is that Arachnos actually does have some kind of investment in my villain and in helping him achieve his potential; that he's special in some fashion.

Sure, he gets testy right after, but it's basically a for laughs deal at that point. Honestly - I like it better than having Ms. Liberty send me to Blue Steel just so that I can learn how to use the tram (and send a few Skulls to the hospital, as it turns out).

I guess I don't understand the hate...

Aren't all the stories in this game "railroading" you (everyone) into a set path?

Funny how these things work. Currently, Dr. Graves is LITERALLY hurting my brain. I have a mental time bomb! Hurry, my head could explode! I'm a useless idiot!

Oh, good god... They turned my character into Tidus from Final Fantasy X. Why do I bother trying to make cool, sinister villains when the game turns around and makes them into whiny, spineless, all bark and no bite SISSIES!?!

Whoever you were who told me that these arcs get better after the first, YOU LIED TO ME!

"Phew! Thanks! I might actually live another day!" Who writes this stuff? Honestly - who wrote this? Because resisting my urge to demonise you, sir or madam, is proving very difficult right at this moment.

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It's amazing to me that I can pine for a meme, but this arc is making me find brand new appreciation for "hoorb." Dillo, I'm sorry I ever spoke against you! You were annoying, but at least you were funny! You were entertaining and clever! You didn't make me feel like a ten-thumbed cripple! Dillo, please! Come back to me! I'll never complain about memes again!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Pants-on-head retarded.

Would like to comment on this, but can't as I am unable to do the arc for some reason?

I have gone to Ourobouras and can see the arc sit's at the top of the list, but it won't allow me to click on it to start?

Ah, good, so my decision after playing one mission in Beta to never even start the arc again was well founded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

During beta I referred to both arcs as Twenty Missions With Jerks, even though it's more like fifteen.

Aside from the litany of sins in the writing, there's the fact that both sets of arcs utterly fail at their intended purpose of instructing new players. Everything they teach comes too late. Nowhere is this made more evident than when both arcs tell the player to go learn about trainers, when you must have trained at least four times to get the arc. The hell? This is so stupid it should never have gotten into closed beta, never mind to live. And yet, someone actually wrote them and numerous people must have signed off on them for us to have this conversation. It would be, dare I say it, inconceivable if it were not for the fact that it has actually happened.

I agree that both arcs need page-one rewrites. Even better, forget the whole idea and write an updated PDF manual. Let people RTFM instead.

Yes, that should have been "both sets of arcs". Both hero and villain.

I did say, many times, "The tutorial needs to actually teach you important stuff!"

I got shouted down with "Oh, but the new tutorial arcs do that!" and "NO! SHINY! LOVE THE SHINY!!!"

Nice to be vindicated once in a while...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

If it hasn't been said before: it's color, armor, and demoniZe.

Wow.

Just wow.

Really now? We're going to have people (or just Sam) posting 3 page long rants about spelling or syntax errors, some of which were probably intentional to set characters up?

I ran both arcs with my badger character and enjoyed myself. I'm sorry, Venture and company, but not every. single. arc. in this game needs to be a matter of life or death, especially a how-to arc at the beginning of the game.

The villain arc did something that City of Villains never was able to do before: it made me feel like the Arachnos/Chosen One stuff mattered but that doesn't mean I get to be a Mary Sue right out of the box. These are villain characters. Them calling me a n00b or an idiot or trying to set me up the bomb is to be expected. Yes, the twist at the end was telegraphed almost from the first mission, but that doesn't mean it's not miles above what we did have before: aimless missions that randomly sent you to fight Snakes one second, Infected the next, then Arachnos.

I rolled fresh toons on Exalted for the express purpose of running all the new content...

So, I did the Twin-Shot arcs and the Dr. Graves arcs.

Each one has 3 sets of missions and each one is supposed to give you important information about the mechanics of the game.

Hard for me to say if they succeeded, seeing as how I've played this game for years.

But, Twin-Shot railroaded a lot less than Graves did. The only thing that really and truly annoyed me on the hero side was Grym telling me he smelled my fear... I call BS on that one, since I was beating up stuff that dropped all the others. Even Twin Shot calling me "kiddo" all the time wasn't too bad.

Now, for the first 2 sets of missions for Dr. Graves, I admit, I was thoroughly disappointed. Every hack plot device, every M.Night Shamalamadingdong "with a tweest!" twist, and every tired and weary (and very 'not me') dialogue tree I trudged through just because I wanted to get it over with.

Then, along comes the 3rd and final story arc.

Admittedly, I saw this coming a mile away. However, I enjoyed the 3rd one much more. Also, Crosscut actually backing you up during one fight when you're not sure who is going to attack you next was kinda cool. Crosscut is the saving grace of this set of arcs. He is twisted, demented, freakish, and as we used to say back home, "10 pounds of wrong in a 5 pound bucket."

Nevertheless, I am glad the arc is over. I may play it again for a badger, but I doubt it. I will play the Twin Shot arc again though.

Crosscut just might be my new favorite character in the game.

His speech patterns and mannerisms are not unlike the wrestler Goldust. I'd imagine this would be what Goldust would have been like if he was still in the WWE around the time of Saw and Hostel.

But I also liked Zeph as he seemed to be written from Daniel Way's "How to write Deadpool Dialogue" manual. The fact that this game is actually making "blow" jokes to me is a nice change of pace, since for years this game has been less risky with its T-rating than iCarly is on Nickelodeon.