I don't get why people like the Arcadion's story (Spoilers)

[SnowVix]

the moment eutrope used her youngest sister as bait and at the same time baited her, a small child, to such a dangerous place just doesnt feel right though.

and then she's also attacking yaana, her other sister, the moment yaana steps between eutrope and the wol. and eutrope didnt even hesitate when yaana transformed despite knowing what that can do to people... nice big sister, really

it makes sense to me. dying people, and especially dying people who are trying to save not just themselves but also other people, do things they never thought they would.

[Catwho]

I'd really like an explanation on why Alisaie's porxie method isn't an option though, or why the WoL isn't getting in touch with the Scions to look into it in general, especially since Neyuni even got in contact with Oblivion. I'm at least glad they actually went there for the paralyzed in the MSQ but really disappointed it didn't cross the WoL's mind when we were first introduced to the problem. Dawntrail's WoL suffers from having some serious dissonance with the player.

Alisae's porxie method wouldn't have helped the WoL's soul when it was cracked to breaking in ShB either. All porxies do is re-align corporal aether to the correct elemental balance. The issue with psychonecrosis is stuffing the wrong kind of soul into the human soul bag, so to speak, and causing stress fractures. The WoL's soul was already x7 rejoined and so has seven times the natural capacity of a soul from Solution 9s shard. Adding Ardbert patched the cracks and we're now x8 rejoined - eight times denser. But a porxie isn't soul glue the way Ardbert was. Apparently this Drop of Life stuff will act as soul glue?

[Loggos]

It is not the peakest story to ever peak but I think it's a story that works as a raid tier story and for the constraints it has it's fleshed out well enough to be really enjoyable for me.

The scope is much smaller but given the short quests themselves and the overall limited quest line (3x 4 battles to tell a story) you have to create a narrative that you can actually resolve within that short span.

You also just don't have enough room to explore characters in the most intricate way and yet they are more sympathetic to me than many MSQ characters despite the MSQ actually having the time to flesh them out. (I care more about Yaana, Eutrope, Retsarra, Honey and the Brute Bomber than I care about Wuk, Bakool Jaja, Zoraal Ja, Erenville's mum, and even Koana (sorry Koana).)

Could you spend more time to really depict the inner struggles of the fighters having to come to terms with giving up what might be their biggest purpose in life? Sure! But their base motivations were believable. (Unlike the base motivations of many MSQ characters like Wuk or Zoraal Ja. I just never bought their fundamental premises, no matter how much you tried to flesh them out. "Evil just because, oh wait, suddenly it's because my dad didn't love me, forgot to mention that in the 40 hours before that" and "I love PEACE. So I'm the bestest candidate because PEACE is so great. I really want to be a ruler. Really. PEACE."))

I thought it was rather realistic that somebody like Brute Bomber who is very young and completely defines himself via fighting would not just believe it, when two of his adversaries came to him to tell him his entire life's purpose is a lie and also he's probably about to die. Of course you want to listen to the authority figure that feeds your denial and tells you everything is ok, especially when you are faced with the prospect of literal death (in fact I thought his reaction was the most believable out of the bunch). The idea that the person who saved you actually cares so little about you that they'd willingly and knowingly let you get a lethal sickness for their own profit? Having to accept that would shatter most people's worlds. So of course, somebody might become so desparate that they cling to anything that tells them everything is ok.

As for the president I wouldn't say our goals necessarily align. I think there is more to this. This person never cared about people dying from psychonecrosis even though he knew where to find the cure. So to me asking us to finish the tournament is a set-up. Either because he doesn't actually believe we can do it (so his end goal is that everything goes on as usual: we lose, we disappear, the audience never knows what's going on behind the scene, the arcadion continues to operate as it always has) and/or because he has greater plans for us. He was talking about a "script" after all that our current actions were interfering with. For example, he wants to see if we can truly win to test the strength of our soul because he himself wants to harvest it for his own power fantasy.

In terms of his identity I believe it could either be Metem (the "friendly" face whom we seem to trust but who is actually spying on and backstabbing us), the cartoonist (because he just feels a bit too random to me, which makes me suspicious) or - and I really hope this is not gonna be it - this shard's version of Zenos because they just can't resist to bring him back and it would fit his theme to be the overlord of a competition based on the premise that your entire reason to be is to fight.

So all in all, I think it's a story that given its limitations does the things it wants to do really well, focuses on characters in a way that I think is good enough to connect with them and generally has a likeable cast.

[Tatiana]

tbh i hate it, and i hate half the boss encounters too. this is probably my least favorite raid series ever by a long, long way.

[All_Nonsense]

Enlighten me.

It's ridiculous and eccentric and absolutely preposterous, overblown, excessive - and deliberately so. Because it's basically WWE, which is all of the above. It's just non-stop "oh my god give me a break" which if you just embrace its eccentric nature turns into "lmfaooo this is kickass" and you suspend all your disbelief and just kinda enjoy the fastfood production.

Now, in WWE, Vince McMan play(ed)(s) the "villain" a lot because literally everything was scripted, even how he ran the business and everything outside "the ring." It even resulted in him taking the ring or having these acts play out where he was "thwarted" or even how he "won" sometimes. It was all in this big airtight bubble for the "narrative." And it spanned literal decades. But as it turns out irl Vince was a piece of shit unironically and a lot of people were exploited, preyed upon, and some even died or were discarded with permanent disabilities. The reality was very unpleasant. How did this happen? Well think about how everything was scripted. It gets to a point as an "actor" where you either can't tell fiction from reality anymore, you believe everything "Vince" or management says, or you literally have no where else to go from this and just keep going hoping for a good end. And that's the real life those actors (wrestlers) have lived in WWE, and that's the story we're getting now (as a parallel tbh. A lot of 1-1 is missing obv).

Anyway yeah, the story doesn't come off as something that's trying to be good imo, and I like it for that reason. It's dumb and ridiculous. I can appreciate that. Time will tell if they keep it up in 7.4 or if they try to make it serious or some bs. Knowing SE's writing capabilities at this time it's safe to assume it's gonna be terrible

[Ajisaii]

"You're not showing any symptoms yet but if you use your feral soul you will get sick"
*goes super saiyan to defend the character from someone we've already beat*
"you're sick now"

10/10 writing guys keep it up, at least the msq was okay this patch.

[CVXIV]

"You're not showing any symptoms yet but if you use your feral soul you will get sick"
*goes super saiyan to defend the character from someone we've already beat*
"you're sick now"

10/10 writing guys keep it up, at least the msq was okay this patch.

It was explained she was using feral souls to train, which the fighters are not supposed to do and that made her closer to developing the symptoms so it's no surprise that using it again would push her over the edge

We also defeated the person who attacked us with the help of a group, though you can chastise her and say you could defend yourself, which she does concede to that in that person's weakened state you might have been able to take her

[Ajisaii]

It was explained she was using feral souls to train, which the fighters are not supposed to do and that made her closer to developing the symptoms so it's no surprise that using it again would push her over the edge

We also defeated the person who attacked us with the help of a group, you might have been able to take her

None of that matters when it came to doing what she did, also might? there's nothing that can defeat us anymore, we got blasted with electricity that powered an entire city and walked it off. Eutrope never stood a chance even at full strength. The writers just wanted an excuse to make her sick and chose to do the dumbest thing imaginable.

[Themarvin]

I like the new raid story it is actually good for once... also the addition to the MSQ is getting good too.

[CVXIV]

None of that matters when it came to doing what she did, also might? there's nothing that can defeat us anymore, we got blasted with electricity that powered an entire city and walked it off. Eutrope never stood a chance even at full strength. The writers just wanted an excuse to make her sick and chose to do the dumbest thing imaginable.

That's fair, I mostly meant that as for why black cat rushed to our defense as she did
She didn't need to, and we could tell her that, but I think that's more of a character flaw than anything

I fully believe we could've taken Eutrope ourselves, even if she wasn't said to be in a weakened state
When you fight and defeat the embodiment of despair itself, it's hard to really top that

and it's pretty disappointing honestly
They've written themselves into a corner I'd say