Seriously, was I22 written specifically with me in mind?

Seriously. I don't think I could be happier with this. Spoilers below, if you haven't completed the new DA stuff, but I am in love with the new content. Let me count the ways...




My main is a gravity controller (one), who is driven to heroism by a guilty conscience and the fear of death (two) and has been with the Midnight Squad for seventy years (three) - long enough that his idol, when he started this whole hero gig, was the Dream Doctor (four), who by the way I called out as the Letter Writer way back in ISSUE 19 (five, six, seven, eight, and so on). BOOM! FRIKKIN NAILED IT! HAHAHAHAHA, AND YOU ALL SAID I WAS CRAZY.

Best feeling in the WORLD.


Okay, I had to get that off my chest. Carry on.

Well, the Dream Doctor was either at the top of the letter writer guessing list, or pretty close to it - from the moment clues were given in I12

Because GG wants to rob you of your victory, that's all!

[EDIT] High Five!

Just finished the finale to Dark Astoria today. While my character doesn't have the amazing connections that yours does, I could hardly think of a more suitable series of arcs - I credit the writers for some amazing work. After First Ward I was a little hesitant to try out the Dark Astoria line, but after I began I was hooked - played through it all over two days (home from work with a bad cold) and only paused at the grand finale in order to savor it. There's nothing like a dark god of death and despair for a paladin to face off against.

Were you thrilled by the Magical Burst temporary power reward for your Midnighter sorcerer, Flash? If it didn't have the 5 day real time limit, those 10 charges coupled with the two rune powers can really add flair for magical characters.

I was grinning pretty big over the DA arcs, too...

My red-side main, Grey Kestrel, has always been played and written as being very devoted to Scirocco. She considers him a friend, and she and her partner Cardinal have remained in the Rogue Isles pretty much entirely because they refuse to abandon him in hostile territory. In spite of the business with Daos and the ritual, the thing with Recluse and his helmet, and becoming a full-on Incarnate along the way, Kes still grins and calls the guy "boss". (If you asked her, she'd deny working for Arachnos itself anymore, though. She does what she does for Scir personally, not for Recluse and the rest.)

All that said, those DA arcs are the first time the game's actually allowed Kestrel to do the kinds of things in-game that I think of her as doing in-character. She had her friend's back when he needed her to. And she got to tear around a few missions with him as an ally instead of a target, which was a huge amount of fun. (In particular, I got a real kick out of seeing what happened when Kestrel and Cardinal, and Scir and Mistral all slammed into a big group of goons together. It was messy. And gloriously so. )

So, yeah. Like I said over in the beta feedback thread on the arcs, I owe somebody in the dev crew thanks for those missions on Kestrel's behalf. They made that stabby rogue's day. And mine.

My main's character concept ended up being used for the Reviler npc from the Talons of Vengence Faction.

I was not amused.

I had a lot of the same thoughts when I played through these arcs. There are a lot of questions that I've posed over the past couple years that finally got answered in these arcs. For instance, what is with Reichsman being so powerful "out of the box" and where was Requiem in all of that mess? The answer? Reichsman was in "limbo" in the box, thus maintaining his power. Requiem was apparently surprised at Reichsman's audacity and bided his time until the M. Bison expy was appropriately weakened to make his move. Is it a cheesy, throwaway answer? Yes. Do I care? Hell no. It's an answer. It could have been done better, but who cares. The Council/Fifth Column stuff needs to get a move on, and it needs to start picking up speed. Glossing over that detail is fine if they can start pushing the story from here on out.

And that's what a lot of the arcs in the New DA do, they set the stage for the future. They answer previously unanswered questions and show that the groups aren't entirely down and out (well, except the Knives of Artemis, I almost feel sorry for those caltrop-spamming girls now).

As for the story, and the way the villains are constantly talking to You, well...

The character who has become my Main Hero does have a brush with death as part of his backstory (Scrapper Invulnerability used to be a JOKE), so there were elements that hit close to home in that regard. Then came the missions where the contact would say "Would you like some help?"

By that point, I could practically hear my character barking "Hell no, I don't need help! I'm about to go punch out a GOD! Stand back and watch this!"

Despite the "famous last words," my character was able to make himself a nice leather suit out of all those dead minotaurs and later got himself a freaky head to throw on the wall. Awesomesauce. Rarely have I encountered content that made me FEEL the super of my superhero.

Actually, I think they specifically wrote it for my character, Zombie Hustler. He's a zombie, and thus straddles the worlds of life and unlife, and is thus perfectly suited to be the foil for the God of Death, who resents the lack of power he wields over Zombie Hustler.