I am so freaking bored of Shadowbringer's story

[Valira]

I've been reading how amazing it was and how it rivals single player RPGs... and here I am, bored out of my mind, just skipping through textbox after textbox. And it doesn't even feel like I'm missing anything. It's just that boring and pointless.

The first few hours were amazing. I liked everything until the Greatwood. And since then it went downhill so hard that I can barely bring myself to continue. The entire Greatwood felt like filler to me - from start to finish. The only relevant parts were the very beginning and the very end. Everything in between had so much padding and felt like dozens of sidequests rather than the main story. And then I got to the desert... and it's the same thing again.

I'm about to start the golem duty, and everything that happened in this zone so far felt like 100% filler. I don't even understand how you can write a 'story' filled with so much trivial, menial and pointless crap. It honestly feels like they are trying to pad the hell out of this zone, as nobody can tell me that getting this golem was the best way to reach that area I'm supposed to go to. Every explanation for why I can't just go the simple route is idiotic and unsatisfactory to me. I just destroyed an entire army of sin eaters. Just let me go to my destination directly and find a more interesting way to extend game time, please.

I can honestly say that I'm just completely disappointed with the story so far. The main beats are there, and they are better than anything before, but the everything in between is so utterly pointless that I can't wait to get to the end of it. And I can say with 100% certainty that I could've skipped every single cutscene from the Greatwood until now and I wouldn't have missed anything substantial. I have absolutely no idea what you guys are seeing here, but to me this has the exact same problems every other expansion had as well.

[Ketsufuma]

sad for you. you missed some good stuff

[Dualblade]

Clearly someone doesn't deserve the greatness that is the trolley.

[Shurrikhan]

Clearly someone doesn't deserve the greatness that is the trolley.

Tbf, I still don't get why the trolley was made a huge deal of. We used it for all of, what, 30 meters, at roughly walking speed, and then just walked from there?

Feels more like we needed a magic rock to depress a floor-switch than an actual trolley.

[Hezzlocks]

Tbf, I still don't get why the trolley was made a huge deal of. We used it for all of, what, 30 meters, at roughly walking speed, and then just walked from there?

Feels more like we needed a magic rock to depress a floor-switch than an actual trolley.

But *the trolley!* You can't have a track without a trolley! That'd be like having a shopping centre without a trolley! How can you not have a trolley? Madness! Sheer madness! The trolley is what holds it all together! Trolley!

On a more serious note, of course the people of that community values a trolley. They're a mining community. Having a giant lug of a golem pushing around a trolley full of ore is a HUGE thing for them.

[Dualblade]

But *the trolley!* You can't have a track without a trolley! That'd be like having a shopping centre without a trolley! How can you not have a trolley? Madness! Sheer madness! The trolley is what holds it all together! Trolley!

On a more serious note, of course the people of that community values a trolley. They're a mining community. Having a giant lug of a golem pushing around a trolley full of ore is a HUGE thing for them.

While I was making some light fun of it when I made my comment starting this little part off I felt like the trolley part really worked well because of the dissonance when we first learn about it and Magnus a little later on. Character-wise it was a pretty powerful part IMO.

If the Scions hadn't been able to get the Talos and the trolley to move they probably would have found another solution, but getting it to work did much more than just get them where they needed. It rekindled hope for an entire community.

[Berethos]

Tbf, I still don't get why the trolley was made a huge deal of. We used it for all of, what, 30 meters, at roughly walking speed, and then just walked from there?

Feels more like we needed a magic rock to depress a floor-switch than an actual trolley.

That is basically what we needed...but the purpose of that section was to give room for specific character development as a lead-up to the major events that happen after getting past the gate.

The reason for our delay in that area realistically could have been anything, so long as it served to set the stage for what came next.

Just about everything in Il Mheg and the western part of Amh Araeng falls into this. Please enlighten me how the Nu Mou are important to the story.

There are quite a large amount of busywork quests all throughout. In every zone you get to you have to go do tedious, meaningless tasks. The kobolds. Finding the "keys" to Titania. The magic trolley that allows us to get through a gate that we could have just jumped over.

Without those interactions, you'd have a straight shot to whatever big problem/antagonist you're facing in every area you go to...and that's boring. A "story" where you just go straight to the big boss is no story at all.

Like this game has been doing since it started, it takes the time to show your interactions with various groups in the world the writers have created, allowing for character growth and character moments along the way - the kinds of things that end up making stories special to read, watch, or experience.

Also, in this particular expansion, a major part of the story is how you've managed to bring so many groups of people together to work toward a common goal to save their world...and that story beat falls completely flat if you don't actually go and do things that inspire the people. Kind of important that all that happens, and it's not going to happen because you waltzed through and jumped over a gate.

Arguments like yours remind me of those complaints about movies where people say "Well why didn't the characters just do this other thing that would have solved their problem/not caused an issue?" and the answer, obviously, is that if they did that then there would be no story.

[MomomiMomi]

Without those interactions, you'd have a straight shot to whatever big problem/antagonist you're facing in every area you go to...and that's boring. A "story" where you just go straight to the big boss is no story at all.

Like this game has been doing since it started, it takes the time to show your interactions with various groups in the world the writers have created, allowing for character growth and character moments along the way - the kinds of things that end up making stories special to read, watch, or experience.

Arguments like yours remind me of those complaints about movies where people say "Well why didn't the characters just do this other thing that would have solved their problem/not caused an issue?" and the answer, obviously, is that if they did that then there would be no story.

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

Churning Mists (Moogles) and Hinterlands (Idylshire and doing some chores for Matoya) say hi. Vundu in the Sea of Clouds. Tailfeather and the dragons in Forelands. The formula was exactly the same back then. Why does it get a pass?

Hint: they're pink and you wear them on your face.

[Rivxkobe]

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

Lol ok.

You keep believing that. /pets

Also just because you didn't find something "interesting" doesn't mean it wasn't.