Patron Saint of Snark

if you're someone who likes short ratings, then i liked it. i'd even probably still give this update like 4 out of 5 stars.

not because it was the most technically impressive. (we'll talk about the on rails space combat section, lol) not because it was the most cinematically impressive imo (showdown and ruhnuk and the last story update still hold some of my favorite cinematic set pieces). not because i would single this particular story update out as uniquely impressive among its peers?

but because i think it suits what broadsword needed to do to move past the 7.0 saga, and set up something interesting for 8.0. and because i am impressed with how many threads they managed to bring back together here. and some of them that i... wasn't holding my breath on getting touched on again, much less closure to.

also, my seemingly unpopular opinion is that i think the cliff hanger was actually an excellent tool. i think they had enough going on in this update that trying to stumble along and put any more definitive an epilogue on it right now, this exact instant, would have felt... clunky, noisy, it wouldn't have given them the breathing room to say everything i think they've left themselves open to handling in 8.0.

and honestly, the longer i sat with this update, the more impressed with it i get. for those not as familiar, i have an imperial agent as a main - who is now - finally - exposed as a saboteur, which i... god i mean i hoped desperately they had to do SOMETHING with. they still HAVE to address it being on the table now. and that is better for whatever comes next. there were a lot of immediate threats going on that we needed to attend to in 7.9.

and then i have a trooper as my pubside who is technically an au of my agent but shhhhh. that's not really important for this time because it gives them practically polar opposite impressions of what's going on.

i mention them here because last update felt a little... uneven footing, between the two of them. as far as how cohesive impside vs pubside felt. that felt like a story progression that suited impside better. this time, i think both sides played rather fluently. possibly 2nd unpopular opinion, but i don't... really think i can even blame the republic for how they acted in this update. i don't have issue with it. i thought my trooper would have a bigger one, but ultimately he really has... no better clues as to how the shitshow that unrolled could have gone better. i mean, he's still got a lifelong wound going on about havoc and his time in it and units like dagger squad on belsavis and garza's ultimate fall from grace by rishi but that's a lot of behind the scenes stuff. anyway.

the progression felt cohesive enough for them. i actually had less issues with the pacing pubside, but i don't think it's down to faction this time. this time i suspect that is down to maining an agent. who has an intimate knowledge and fear of jadus, and that made me feel like there were times where we were spending almost a moment too long discussing the disaster unfolding around us and not rushing into the fray. but i'm not really docking points for it because i think it's paced... deliberately. to try to make sure the multiple perspectives aren't adding too much confusion to the mix.

and ultimately, i could probably nail down most of my neutral to positive feelings about this update to the simple fact that i... maybe i'm giving broadsword too much grace for certain people. broadsword took on a lot of the original team, so it's... a lot of the same people that were already working on this story still doing so, but with (hopefully) a bit more freedom of resources to execute their actual vision better. i've seen a team that's been more excited for where they're going than when i started playing this game. and the fact that they're innovating on gameplay systems, trying new things - even if some of those (space combat section) are clunkier than others (dynamic encounters going fucking swell, imo).

i think i understand why i would... suspect they put the space combat sector on rails rather than playing closer to the systems already in game, where you have free use of ship direction as well as managing the ship's "abilities"/resources. i suspect this was to try to keep the segment as simple to pick up as they could for it being in story content for players who do not do space combat at all, who'd find it overwhelming to juggle trying to steer the ship and manage the resources all at once when they've never done that before in 80 levels of story content. and this i do not begrudge as a design choice. is the segment a little boring? yeah. slightly less so on my 2nd run because i got a little better at getting targeting done quicker and already had an idea of what kind of damage the basic bolts versus the missiles were capable of. the motion sickness warning i think is still warranted bc the camera lock on the back of the ship makes the turnbacks and whatnot a little. jarring. its not the smoothest transitions. but they tried it. it's interesting. i might skip it with future characters now that i've played it once on either side, because i enjoyed hearing the voice lines from the characters during play.

the basilisk droid segment was similarly. it's a little clunky. much less so the second time through because i had a good handle on the abilities by then. frankly most of it can have that said of it. again, i'm glad to see them try something new. that signals something healthy to me about their ideas of longevity of investment. didn't dread having to play it again as much as i suspected the first time. the boss fight with the sith creature thing is perhaps the most ~frustrating because the movement options don't always. i don't have my orientation figured completely for that and i don't think they always worked in the way i was anticipating them to so i ended up just taking most of the hits to the face which was fine because i had more than enough health to do so. interesting of them to do a boss encounter in the droids like that. again, lots of new technical stuff attempted. and most of it went... pretty well, actually. in running it twice, i did not hit any technical bugs.

malgus had my favorite move set of the npcs. it felt the most intuitive and rewarding to play. lana's was second to me once i picked up that tagging was pretty mandatory. overall this... admittedly went better and smoother than i expected given the game's technical history. and it was a really cool tool to use for the narrative. i'm glad we got this.

now. elephant in the room. especially as tech class havers goerge. the force sensitivty and nul's machine.

if you'd have asked me about this last update, i was... going to be fairly convinced they'd upset me with this.

but this is part of why i think the cliff hanger was actually well-placed. and i'm holding out my judgement for this for how they treat the pc's reaction in 8.0 and onward.

because right now, it's... given me some chewy things to ponder about my characters. and for that, if they let me role play some of that out, i'm willing to follow along with, because i'm curious. but i want the ability to have the pc react like this is an invasion. for it to be taken well, or to be treated a little like a body horror thing. if they give that choice to it, i think i'll be pretty cool with them experimenting with this.

i have my suspicions that this isn't... all to do with valkorian's previous influence. i wouldn't be surprised if that's a part of it. but if you roll back a few minutes earlier in the update to the reaction to jadus's illusion sphere, if you will, and what they implied after the visions experienced last update... and the fact that jadus escaped?

i would not be surprised if his influence was a part of it. to what end? still remains to be seen. i doubt he's going to be gone for long, however.

anyway. i'm actually... against my expectations of this particular turn of story, i'm... curious. cautiously. and admittedly i just think a blaster pistol and lightsaber combining combat style would be really epic and this will work wonderfully for a single character i have that's not even through his class story i desperately hope it comes with a combat style i can add later please please please let him have both he deserves it but i digress.

anyway. i liked it. i think this... is more or less the kind of stake they needed to put in the ground to get us back to meaningful progress after a lot of lots felt... like we were spinning wheels not going much of anywhere. i'm really excited for the 8.0 livestream. terrified of what the forums might look like rn so... broadsword team if you live under a rock somewhere on here, i'm gonna trust your vision. i'm invested in wherever this is gonna go.

uhm. miscellaneous other things i really enjoyed... rass is rightfully getting high point awards from what i can see and his va did a fantastic fucking job. and narratively, i am so fucking glad rass got to... feel all of that. express all of it. and nobody in that moment tried to 'silence' that with the idea that he was wrong. the voice acting was handled wonderfully. rass was allowed to be upset, and feel betrayed, and angry and... no, shae didn't apologize. i wouldn't really expect her to.

i have some characters that were really frustrated with her for the consequences of what happened. i'm really not at all upset with... how they handled this. it felt true to shae. it felt true to everyone else in the room. i might rib shae a little for the dramatic death speeches dragging on a little after taking an ancient sith blade through the everywhere but i suppose to be fair she's in the room with the fuckass who walked that off once upon a time (love you commander /lh).

it was actually kind of really cool to see them bring malgus's past into the game as well. the commander got a moment of this last update, so i don't really have any problem with... we weren't the only one there, and i didn't find this update unduly sidelined the pc, to me at least. what i think is particularly cool about them doing this with malgus is that its bringing some of that context out of just supplemental material. to explain the weight of that would probably be to rehash some conversations i've really only had in dms with a friend, but it's... it's nice to have it be in the story as its happening because its relevant, than for it to be... 'you Have To have read and watched and played x y and z to get wtf is going on rn.' they managed to that in a way where my barebones ass knowledge of it from what i've osmosised from the community was enough, and i think even without it, it was interesting to see. it's grounding some of the history the game we've played is built off of. that's cool.

and... yeah, admittedly. rule of cool works on me, too sometimes. like. how could i really be mad at them for the lighting and cinematic power of these shots?

malgus's speech was pretty fucking epic guys i'm ngl. it was really cool to have all the callbacks to the trailer for the expac in it. i am half hoping we'll start 8.0 in the rubble of this fortress with an echo of how he left sa'har on elom. i wouldn't even be mad if they did guys i'm not gonna lie i think it'd kinda fuck pretty hard actually.

uhm. anyway. i already have a handful of ideas ranging from semi plausible to 'i'm completely shitting myself maybe but there are visions in my mind' about why we're going to ryloth in 8.0 of all places and at all times.

it'll be really interesting to see what's on the other side. how they choose to address what they have fully faced us towards not being able to leave lie like it was before. will we finally be able to flip sides, or how do they explain why we'd stay (be allowed to stay even) otherwise for the saboteurs. is there a vaylin-shaped cat that'll finally come out of the bag.