Does anyone else miss the feeling of fantasy in this game?

[AlucaDragonheart]

Especially the feeling of adventure as well. I think the stuff about the Ancients ruined all fantasy elements of this game going forward, like we've seen with the Twelve, the supposed Gods of the planet, they were literally just Ancients as well, so going forward, if we see something magical or wondrous, there's just going to be that thought of "Oh this was just something from Amaurot"

[Eyrilona]

Especially the feeling of adventure as well. I think the stuff about the Ancients ruined all fantasy elements of this game going forward, like we've seen with the Twelve, the supposed Gods of the planet, they were literally just Ancients as well, so going forward, if we see something magical or wondrous, there's just going to be that thought of "Oh this was just something from Amaurot"

We have a world populated by a large variety of sentient races that resemble well known fantasy races, we have monsters, we have dragons, we have magic.. does all that stop being fantastical just because we know a lot more of the how and why behind it now?

[BabyYoda]

Wuk lamat is the only fantasy that I need

[OMGJesuis66]

Especially the feeling of adventure as well. I think the stuff about the Ancients ruined all fantasy elements of this game going forward, like we've seen with the Twelve, the supposed Gods of the planet, they were literally just Ancients as well, so going forward, if we see something magical or wondrous, there's just going to be that thought of "Oh this was just something from Amaurot"

Yes. The Ancients ruined the mysticism over many things, and reception to things not made by Ancients often is seen poorly so has little development (Like DT cultures will have from now on). Anything that happened with any race, any history we find, tracks back to the Ancients. And not only they were a dull and ignorant race, we are also one of the most important Ancients, therefore the WoL will always be correlated and if speculations are right, uncover mysteries because you are an Ancient and the thing thingmajigs of when you were and Ancient.

Understanding how the world came to be wasn't a problem, the problem was to make this race the center of everything and for e you to care and be of this race too. Mistakes of the past becoming outdated given MMO nature, that's just how it is.

[eohippus]

I think its less the ancients themselves existing (because it is in and of itself a fantasy concept to have a long-dead mystical people who wore masks and wielded insane magic) but the writers/dev team's insistence on OVER EXPLAINING everything. we didn't need to know "what the twelve really are," because they were just part of the lore and worldbuilding of the game and frankly the explanation was boring and extremely non-fantastical. likewise, I don't need an expert dungeon quest to tell me point blank "these cultures share similarities because they had an origin point in the unsundered world." thats a lot more fun of a conclusion to arrive at on my own through speculation.

there also seems to be, in DT at least, a fundamental incuriosity and lack of interest in making the world fantastical at all. weirdly uninspired expac all around that's definitely heightened the feeling that I'm barely playing a fantasy game at all anymore. really not sure how this happened...

[sylphlands]

I was also a little meh on the gods being ancients. I just wanted them to be gods, I don't think they needed to be explained and demystified the way they were in the alliance raid series. My biggest issue is how DT sapped so much fantasy and magic from the world as a whole, it felt very uninspired and honestly pretty depressing. Tural had the potential to be interesting, and then we get sucked into the cold and empty S9 and it was just...an awful experience in what should have been a fantasy game. I miss how magical things felt in SHB.

[Jojoya]

Especially the feeling of adventure as well. I think the stuff about the Ancients ruined all fantasy elements of this game going forward, like we've seen with the Twelve, the supposed Gods of the planet, they were literally just Ancients as well, so going forward, if we see something magical or wondrous, there's just going to be that thought of "Oh this was just something from Amaurot"

What do you consider fantasy? It isn't a single thing even if most associate it with sword and sorcery set in a medieval era.

The Ancients are about as fantasy as things get - capable of doing anything with their creation magic.

It sounds more like you miss the sense of mystery (how did these things even come to exist?). We got the answer now and that answer seems to apply to just about everything we encounter.

[Eyrilona]

Perhaps what is lacking is not a sense of fantasy, because all the elements of that are still present, but one of suspense and mystery, some idea that there are things afoot that we do not yet understand. In that sense, I agree we are pretty empty handed at the end of Dawntrail. It introduced so little that it didn't immediately resolve right after, and hastily concluded most interesting plot threads we still had going from previous expansions as well. There is no other shoe we are really waiting for to drop at this stage of the game.

[Connor]

I’m still not convinced Dawntrail isn’t going to fall into the standard ‘LOL ASCIANS’ bullshit they’ve done every other expansion. Where it looks like they might actually be introducing something new and different…only to find out, nope, it was ascians all along! . Living Memory? Sphene? The magic key thing? It’s 100% all going to lead to some crappy ‘Ascians STILL trying the same shit they were doing in ARR’. Which is hilarious because they claimed so hard last expansion ‘yeah guys this is TOTALLY the end of that arc we’re totally moving on!’. Until 7.1 when it’s revealed the idea for Living Memory came from…you guessed it…Ascians

[Hallarem]

The sense of mystery, the undiscovered, adventure.
The writers dont understand. We dont NEED to know everything down to an exact science. We dont NEED a glimpse beyond the veil.

Twelve RUINED
Anything godlike and mystical? Sharlayan: "lol its primals or ancients"

Any mystery left to solve? Scions or Sharlayan has an instant explanation without ZERO sense of wonder or surprise. Its really jarring.
In fact I think Yshtola had an example of that this expac. "Hiya. Exposition catto here.. its another shard.. ok bye!"

Asspull spaceship. "OH SHARLAYAN HAS A PROBE IN THE AFTERLIFE" sigh, why even bother adventuring. When Sharlayan knows everything and can asspull a solution to everything. Thancred cant teleport? Oh lol nvm! WE JUST HAPPENED TO INVENT A TELEPORTER THAT DOESNT NEED YOUR EFFORT. this games writing physically hurts me