Favorite Season 4 Episode

[XYLO.7031]

I voted episode 3 Long Live the Lich because we save Gorrik from Hoomans, and he gets us a beetle to ride after it's done. Canach and his side comments and in-episode trolling really sold it for me as well as just blowing stuff up alongside Canach (which we should get back to... work Canach into more stuff Anet, pls). I also like the fact that Aurene eats that dude to become immortal. Kek.

I really like episode 2 as well because it shows how deep the Inquest go in their 'research', and we get some insight into the Olmakhan who are unlike their Charr cousins in Tyria. (In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Okay, the Inquest have run experiments on Sylvari and Charr for sure (along with the minor, non-playable races). Will they make Hoomans and Nornies test subjects too?)

[Jimbru.6014]

Something I really wanted to see in LS4, if I could add something positive without greatly changing the story, would be a stronger Pact relief effort in Jahai and Kourna delivering supplies to all those starving people. For example, after we finish the story segment in Palawa's Benevolence (the village in Kourna), a Pact airship or a couple of Charr copters drop off a load of food and a warband to help secure the village against the loyalists. That sort of thing. It could have been worked into the events and given our characters' efforts a more heroic vibe, leaving good things in our wake.

[Lexi.1398]

1 - daybreak- my favourite of all of them, the map could use a little less vfx but otherwise my fave. while i do feel the story was lacking compared to later eps and the bullet hell phase at the end of taimi's robot fight is one of my least favourite things in the entire game, everything else was superb: music, atmosphere, lots and lots of hidden spaces in istan, and the instances that aren't that robot fight. the atmosphere in particular is built beautifully - it's an incredibly immersive map, i can kinda sense the level of dispaority and desperation amongst those against or neutral to joko and it's music goes along with it -perfectly-, the darkness that joko's undead servants bring with them is not only mental, but physical too - it's sad to see the landscape covered in tar but that's what i love about it.

 

5 - bug in the system- definitely the strongest on the story front, though i reeeeeeeally hate the majority of stealth games so the first instance is hard for me to bare these days and the last instance also falls to a fps problem, but my experience of sandswept is tainted between having a weather effect around rata primus that takes 20 fps off of my not good to begin with system + sharks making travelling very annoying, along with the majority of renown hearts on the map placing amongst my least favourite hearts in the game. i think if it weren't for the graphics being so hard to process the story alone would take it to perhaps my third favourite but as is it remains on the lower half.

 

2 - long live the lich- this is actually my favourite map of all of them, and while i hate the lazer jumping section in joko's palace the story instances themselves i find amongst the most fun to do, even the stealth section funnily enough simply because unlike in the highlands lab, i can take my time doing it. i loved the story even if it's not quite as compelling as the previous, the instances, map design, atmosphere, events and achivement hunting even I all found very fun, the only reason i like daybreak more is how deeply i dislike the trap coridoors and the PoI locked behind an event.

 

3 - a star to guide us- this was the first time i completed the episode mastery within a week of me doing the first story instance of that episode which might skew this slightly more in favour, it was very fun doing everything before guides were even formed. There is a single jump in the leaving the mists section which makes the whole thing frustrating, but aside from that i found it very enjoyable - it was certainly nice to see snaff - and the map is amazing. It didn't quite feel as impactful as Istan was, but seeing the jungle again (some of my favourite maps in the game) and the ??? area is fantastic. overall, just a a really good episode, decent story, strangely enough the mist storms cause little disurption to my fps which is a constant curse in this season which allowed me to enjoy the thing without lag or thinking about how long my cpu will last.

 

6 - all or nothing- there were parts i found VERY fun, but also parts i found VERY unfun. Namely: this entire map is the laggiest (fps wise) map of all maps in the game, even worse than sandswept, there are legitimately times i can play the other maps in the game fine but if i were to go to thunderhead my CPU temperature would rise to a point where i stop running anything taxing on it. This constitures about 50% of the reason i overall didn't enjoy this episode, the other 50% is how the story finished. I knew from the very moment we do that injured walk to aurene what was going on, and that it would immediatley be revised in the next episode (and it was ^^) which just made it very frustrating to discuss the story with people. UNTIL aurene "dies", the story and the instances are infact incredibly fun- seeing caithe's transformation is one of my favourite parts of living season 4 as a whole- it's implications for the world's lore and story and on caithe's personal journey which has been fillled with non-belonging and truama. It also took me a long while to become accustomed to the tomb puzzles, the darkness puzzle in particular between it striaght up breaking and the fact that if my vision were worse i'd likely find it impossible. in my eyes, all that redeems this episode is the story instances themselves, not the actual story (aside from caithe) nor anything on the map.

 

4 - war eternal- aside aurenes resurrection making me relive how annoyed i was with how the previous episode ended, pretty solid. the fps curse returns with kralkatorrik and it's a lightly taxing map to be on in general, but it's far better than thunderhead + sandswept was anyway. one kinda big problem with the map is that it's not very fun to get around until you unlock the skyscale and get the wall clinging mastery- there is SO MUCH you need to do to achieve this that it can make the map really annoying to navigate for a long time. the story was good, nothing special IMO - aurene's ascension was nice and all but i was left with a lot of questions about kralkatorrik and the nature of dragons, a single throwaway line really did make the whole thing a lot less special. overall positive, just nothing special i can think of that would make me give it a rating higher than my 4th favourite.