Spoilers: Path of Courage (Valhold and Beyond)

@Lum the Mad

Spoiler

I finished the Courage Path last night. Obviously there's a great deal of polish remaining for this quest line, but I wanted to provide some feedback all the same.

1. Having Mara and one of the brothers (Femig or Demig I don't remember because the names are so similar it's confusing) individually walk through the halls of Valhold is painfully unnecessary. My avatar is running while they are walking, getting caught on planks of wood, starting, stopping, moving awkwardly, the whole thing flows very poorly.

This walking from one place to another thing started with Samuel in Highvale, and my suggestion would be to remove this entirely or since it's a solo adventure restrict the avatar to be required to move at the same speed and lock in the player to walk beside them the entire way without the ability to move or break the animation. This creates a pause in the action, but it also allows you to tell your story without the distraction of the player thinking "wtf is the point of this?!" which is what I continuously thought while trying to "stay close" to the walking NPC's but not too close that I interrupted them. It was just silly.

Back to Valhold. So the point of following Mara and her brother was so they could be alone to talk to you. Couldn't these people just whisper to you? Couldn't we cut out the horrible walking animations? I mean, what is the point of those animations if all they're going to do is have people ask "what is the point of this?!" They should be removed. Reposition the NPC's to be visible but plausibly outside of anyone elses ear shot if you have to. But walking around with the NPC's is not going to make anyone happy if it's executed like it is today.

2. I'm not sure how many characters were involved in all of this and what the actual storyline was because I was bored. Again, just like the LOVE and TRUTH paths (which I completed first) this is a very linear quest. It doesn't matter what I do, there's no decisions to make. I'm just along for the boring ride.

So of course I'm just going to click through all the key words because it doesn't matter at all to me if Demig and Femig and Mara are backstabbing each other or if one brother is a racially insensitive Kobold hater. It doesn't change my success, it doesn't impact my progression, and it doesn't require my attention.

I think I still managed to get the gist of the story line, and there were some key words that caught my attention, but I didn't read it word for word. You might say that's my loss, but really it's a byproduct of the story delivery method. Linear, fraught with odd design choices (walking and teleporting NPC's), and of course bugs (which I have tried very hard to give a pass on since I know this is still in development).

3. Because I was clicking through a lot of keywords, I had to rely on the journal notes to figure out what to do next. This wasn't a problem, the notes seemed to be written well, but one note in particular stood out to me. There was a task where I was supposed to talk with Demig? (whichever brother didn't appear to be near Grannus) but the note didn't tell me he had a camp. In fact the only reason I knew where to find Femig was I noticed his camp on the overworld map on my way in.

4. Quest Items seem to be oddly named. I don't remember what all the names were now. But I constantly had to use the teal colored hints in the trade screen to figure out what an NPC wanted. Why are these not named the same thing? If someone wants a report why not ask for a report instead of a trumpet phone or whatever (I'm making that item up, but that's what a few of them felt like because they were named so differently there's just no way I would've known what the hell the NPC wanted without that teal colored hint in the trade window).

5. Getting out of Estgard was cumbersome. Once I was inside Estgard, I think the next task said to go to Valhold, but there was no indication of how to do that or where Valhold was located. I didn't talk to NPC's in the town, perhaps they would've told me? But instead having been around the block on this type of gameplay previously in the TRUTH and LOVE quest lines, I figured I had to get out of the town and travel on the overworld map. Getting out of the town was surprisingly hard though. I probably should've just walked out the way I had come? But that wasn't very intuitive, I mean why in the world would I travel there to begin with if all I was going to do was immediately leave?

In retrospect, it seems like Estgard is acting as some kind of quest line gatekeeper? But once you meet the requirements to get through it's really just another big waste of time. Even if you added side quests there, at least more of the types of scavenger hunt go fetch quests we have right now, that would just be more of a waste of time. Unless there are some type of dynamic and meaningful quests or events in that town, there should be a clearer method of getting to Valhold.

6. My journal entry said it would be easy to get to Shrekk. From a fighting challenge level, it was. I wasn't in danger of dying, if that's what that meant. But from a logistical level, finding the right path to take, locating the Cobra Commander, and understanding why I was even there was a bit harder.

While in the kobold city, I kept thinking that after many more months (read: 36 months at this rate) of polish, we might be able to fill in the many gaps of the Kobold city with interesting places to explore, mysterious items and storylines to uncover, and fun dialogue and easter eggs. The city is large and has a lot of room for "polish". But that seems unlikely to happen, and so I feel like the vastness of this area actually hurts and mocks what you're trying to do here - tell a story. (and this goes for the whole game in general)

It's like if you and LB were trying to read the Sword of Midras to a group of players. But every few pages you stop and pause for 5 to 10 minutes to simulate players walking around empty/incomplete scenes, figure out if something is a bug or not a bug, or to maneuver around the odd mechanics of Unity dialogue and NPC walking and talking. The story would be lost. The story would be very hard to stay focused on.

In order to keep that from happening, you guys need to stream line this thing. You need to cut out the parts that get in the way of the story telling. Because the story is solid, but the delivery is very poor.

7. This next feedback is my favorite because it makes me laugh. The kind of deep guttural laugh that can only occur when something hits your sense of humor at its core. Please don't be offended by the delivery of my feedback. I'm not laughing at you guys, I'm laughing at the situation, which is soooooo funny to me. Yet MUST be fixed or else it's going to end up in someone's youtube video and will come to be the defining narrative of how badly we missed the mark in attempting to tell our story.

With that, please allow me to provide you with my interpretation of my meeting with King Kobold and the conclusion of the path of Courage.

After aimlessly walking through Shrekk and speaking to a number of Kobold's that did not provide the location of the King, I had found him. Sitting at the top of a Bob Cooksey home, it was clear that the King Kobold had spent quite a bit of money on his pledge.

Surrounded by lesser kobolds, the King greeted me. Neither of us apparently sure of why we were there.

"I have this thing in my inventory that you might want, King Kobold" I imagined myself saying. And indeed he did want that thing, the same thing I thought I had previously given to someone else. Wow, I guess that thing never left my inventory!

We said words to each other, neither of us truly understanding what we were saying, and BAM! One of those Femig, Demig, Memig guys teleported behind me. What the! They're killing him? Ok. Should I be fighting? I guess not, he's dead.

"You are brave and stood your ground like a true warrior" the Kobold King said to me, as I continued to stand around wondering what the femig was going on.

You earned a ton of XP! YAY. What he hell is going on?

"Take another thing back to Grannus, or don't and tell him some more words." I couldn't really be bothered to figure out what he was talking about I was too busy looting the dead guys body so I could get 1 gold piece.

A ha! I have been rewarded and I'm teleporting back to the end of this quest line (I hope!). I will not have to walk through Shrekk ever again! YAY!

I now stand in Valhold. Mara and one of the Mig brothers is standing there. I talk to both of them, now someone is being killed! Wait, is that Femig again? Isn't he the guy that got killed by the kobold?

What the hell is going on? I have no idea it's just teleporting NPC's that kill each other. This is actually kind of entertaining in an odd way.

I think it was Mara that died? I don't know I looted the body and now I'm 1 gold richer.

I turn to face Grannus and hopefully get the hell out of this quest line. I expect some kind of animation but it never happens, he doesn't get bigger and grow young again (maybe that's my bias from following the game for so long). Ok, more XP YAY! He gives me his dread weapon, yay?

Now my watch has ended.

I look at my journal and my task list and I realize that Grannus said something about following my destiny. But I have no idea where to go next. There are no clues. There are no tasks.

I suppose it's time to visit the Oracle again? I haven't really talked to her since day one of persistence.

8. I visit the Oracle again.

She see's I have all three dread items, gives me some kind of elixir and power word instructions. I still don't know where to go or what to do. I assume based on my out of character knowledge that I need to go to the Oracle Colossus? So that's where I go. But I honestly don't know if that's correct or not. I have no tasks or journal entry that tells me what to do next. Any advice here would be appreciated.

 

Spoiler

It depends if you want to go this way or through the ruins for Path of the Oracle quest items.

Talk to the Kobald smith in Artiface to start the Path of the Oracle.

 

Spoiler

Thanks!

So I have to return to the smith in artifice? I've already been there once.

I have all three dread items. Can't I just skip ahead somehow? Was there anything that should've told me to see the smith in artifice once I had the three dread items?

 

Spoiler

The Kobald smith should tell you to go to the Brittany Oracle - ask about your destiny.

When I talked to Sequanna she said go to Boreaus, Grannus should have said that also.