Night Ward thoughts *spoilers maybe*

A lil late in the running I know, but what the hell.

Just finished the main story arc in Night Ward.

My first thought is... is that it? >> It had some great steam going then you hit the 'big twist' in Bedwr's arc and everything seems to just shoot by in a flash, the Magician's arc was just a flash in the pan.

Was it bad? Not necessarily. Just.. short. Like it felt like there should've been one more contact in between somewhere to set up the Black Knights, the Eternal Prison, the Black Queen, etc a bit better. I rather enjoyed the story up through Ward just because it gave a pretty decent set up of.. 'what is this place and what is happening'. But then it tries to turn things up to 10 with this end of the world business and shoves in a bunch of new characters and.. I dunno. I really enjoyed the finale but it seemed too quick and easy a conclusion with not nearly enough build up. Especially the whole Black Queen/Selene thing. I'm guessing Selene was possessing her? It's never made entirely clear.

Like, Shadow Hunter was just wedged in there. Is he dead? Alive? What was the deal with him? He's in one mission and you just sic him on the goddess and that.. takes care of her for a bit? I don't know if that mission even needed to be in there except to give him a token cameo as set up for his return later on in the Magisterium trial (and mention thereof in the belladonna arc). Felt pretty rushed honestly.

So, yeah. Bedwr's arc felt like kind of a mess. It was going okayish but then things just.. try to become 'omg epic' waaaay too fast. I'm not sure if I'd have put another contact before or after him but his whole segment just needed some better set up or explanation.

I really did enjoy the finale though. With Ward and Percy and Katie and the like. In fact the Eternal prison was pretty fantastic too, though I didn't understand why they gave us a cut scene to set things up and then did not for the goddess summoning, given there's a Talons Elite Boss beating on you the whole time I had to scroll back and read all the dialogue from the chat box to understand what the hell all I'd missed once the mission was finished, I didn't even SEE Lamashtu until the finale. Just entirely too much going on that I'm expected to pay attention to while I'm also trying not to get killed.

Actually speaking of Elite Bosses.. what is the deal with throwing so many out? I understand they warn you but you know throwing more than 1 at you at once is kind of overkill (when you're solo. I think had I teamed, more than one wouldn't have been as big a pain. maybe.). Ward's finale was fantastic up until that point and the two talon EBs just -wasted- me, even pulling them up toward Ward (who likewise was subsequently wasted). I think even Dark Astoria doesn't do that more than once (the Romulus mission, I think, and they give you all those helper NPCs). And that's incarnate level, so that should be that hard.

I dunno maybe it's just me. I always find it grating when they lob one EB after another at you (Looking at YOU villain SSAs) But more than one at once while you're solo on basic settings...? Ehhh. Challenge is fine but there is a point where it can be just a brick wall ;P

I am curious what's going to happen with the crew of characters. We know some show up in the Belladonna arc and the like, but it doesn't feel quite like we reached a conclusion for several of them, like Katie (at least she's not on a cliffhanger note this time) or the Midnight Masters. I just can't see them going "Welp! Saved the world. Time to hit the recliner and pop a beer" and not being heard from again. Then again, this feels like sort of a conclusion for the 'Wards' but not exactly for Praetoria. I mean obviously Praetoria's main story is going to wrap up in the trials but it does feel like there should just be one more zone or the like to 'cap' it off before the whole place is shelved to make room for the Battalion coming in as the big bads. Though frankly given the choice I'd be happy with 2-3 more praetorian zones if they're like the Wards, Night Ward really feels like it's own story going on instead of an integral part of the Praetorian story. More like a tangent that connects in.

The other contacts in the zone are pretty nice too. I enjoyed Fireball, but I can't help but wonder if instead of a random 'task pool' he wouldn't have operated better as just a plain old standard linear mission arc? I get he's intended to flesh out the Animus Arcana as a group (Which it did well) but some missions just shouldn't come before other missions when you're trying to explain their life cycle and the like.

Trilogy.. I'm still just touching on. It's cuteish so far, but probably won't be run on more than one character for a while.

The repeatables have some nice missions. I liked Sir Lionel, and Atherton Cromwell is okay but I -really- get the nagging feeling these guys should've been split up along alignment lines. Sir Lionel really feels like a hero contact and Atherton a villain contact.

Also kind of sad that the Resistance/Loyalist angle played no part whatsoever where at least in First Ward they got some token goodies for themselves. It just adds to the feeling that Night Ward is more of a Praetorian Tangent.

The villain groups in Night Ward are all pretty decent. I actually liked the new Talons, the banshees and their ilk were kind of interesting and the musical sonic attacks are an awesome touch I hope we get ahold of sometime. I'm still not a big fan of them in terms of story though, they're just generic baddies.

The animus arcana are neat, albeit a smidge annoying with their ice patch and some other attacks, but they were fleshed out well in the Fireball and Ward storylines so I really appreciate them from a flavor aspect. I like their looks a lot too.

The drudges were neat too, I love the freaky but professional look their lack of facial features and business suits give off. They did seem kind of pushed to the side and forgotten in the grand scheme of their arc though. They get an okayish explanation but it did seem like there should have been more about them given. I dunno.

The black knights definitely look cool and present some interesting experiences with their taunt heavy eternal guard. I really don't have that much to say though, I wish Sir Bedwr's arc had set them up and explained them a little better. Wouldn't mind getting their armor as a costume set sometime either.

The Spirit Stalkers... are pretty much like their leader Shadow Hunter. They don't do anything of merit and they're just kind of there. They don't seem to have any particular gimmick except they're the first enemy group to use the 4 legged rig but outside of that they don't seem to be anything special.

So, how does it rate? Honestly, I love the flavor of the zone, it has an excellent otherworldly feel that's different from First Ward but at the same time it just does come off as lacking and unfinished. Like things just feel sort of rushed in regards to its implementation. I appreciate there's more to do in the zone with the 2 repeatables and the 2 task pool contacts, but they still come up short when you figure how small the story arc chain is (and.. First Ward had -5- repeatables to choose from). I'm also not sure if Fireball and Trilogy being open from 30-50 is a good thing or not yet.

Thinking on it now, it really doesn't feel like it's a second zone so much as just the last 1/3 (I hesitate to say 1/2 because of the length) of First Ward with it's own world ending climax shoe horned in. It does everything First Ward does with introducing the place, introducing a problem then suddenly jumping to a tangential problem that becomes the OMGBIGPROBLEM and then rushes to the finish. The ending felt a bit more wrapped up than First Ward's at least, but it does just seem to have the same problems First Ward did.

I think if I'd give an arbitrary grade, First Ward would probably be a relatively solid B, Night Ward would have to be a B-. Like I'd at least like to see something take advantage of that 30-39 level range, maybe a second chain of arcs in the zone eventually that aren't necessarily related to the first. Really I think both zones have some room to expand in the future, I'd really like to see a new Task Force spring up in one of them.