The Tyrian Chronicle: Seeds of Irritation in Guild Wars 2 .

Arenanet did something this episode that I absolutely hate. It’s something that I think eventually every studio does when they run out of ways to make the stakes higher or they’re trying desperately not to expand on characters. What is it that has offended me so? They put me in another character’s boots. Now, in this episode I won’t be giving away any major plot points but to be able to properly talk about my complaint there are a few important things I’ll have to explain. I will talk about some of the fights, and whose boots you the player step into. If you don’t want that spoiled for you I totally understand and recommend you come back after you’ve played through everything. For anyone that’s still here my thoughts on Seeds of Truth begin now.

For practically all of the episode, especially the combat bits you do not get to play your character, you get to play as Caithe, a young Caithe who is of course a Thief. I have a few problems with this. One, I’ve never really been into thieves to begin with. Two, I logged in to play Cabhsadan, an Elementalist. And three, not only did we have to learn how to play this new character at level 80, we also had to navigate all new game mechanics that were in some cases just downright annoying.

Was Seeds of Truth hard? In some places, I would say yes. Though the fights themselves weren’t hard it was the mechanics we faced that were frustrating and irritating beyond belief. The first annoying fight was against an Asura. I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a fight, but this was all about timing and being fast enough to complete the task. For someone who doesn’t have amazing reflexes this was incredibly difficult. Thankfully this had nothing to do with playing as Caithe. Instead it had everything to do with the sneaking mechanic and timing. I can see the appeal of the idea of having to stay in the shadows, stay unseen. I can see why people would like it, but I personally didn’t.

The fight that really got to me though was against the centaur. It was the very last fight and incredibly frustrating. Not only was I at that point still not comfortable with my abilities I also had a ridiculous amount of obstacles to keep track of. The only way I got through it was making sure to hit one of the abilities that moved me around or actively dodge anytime I was able to. Even then though I ended up with absolutely no armor, I died that many times.

I took to the Guild Wars 2 forums to see how people there felt and it seems to be pretty fairly mixed. Some people enjoyed it, some people didn’t. Others pointed out that it was only for one episode. And I agree, it was only for one episode and that episode is now behind me. But the important thing to know is that if you don’t tell people you’re unhappy with something they’ll assume it went over well, which means that this wouldn’t be just a one time thing. There was also someone who pointed out that the fights wouldn’t have been nearly as annoying and there wouldn’t have been an issue if you could play with your own abilities. Of course that wouldn’t make much sense for Caithe though. Caithe isn’t suddenly going to become a Necromancer. Which brings me to another fantastic solution I saw on the forums. The idea was to have the Caithe story played out in cut scenes then have players reacting to things that Caithe did in the past. Maybe confronting the Asura about what he did in the past, or putting the ghosts of the Centaurs to rest. There were different ways this story could have been approached.

But, speaking of the story, I thought it was fantastic. The Sylvari have always been on of my favorite races and getting to see them at such an early, formative time is really exciting for me as a Sylvari player. It was fun seeing all the familiar faces and going “Aaah, one of these days you’ll go on an insane rampage across the continent.” At the end, partly because I was already annoyed from that last fight I was really bothered by the cliffhanger. It felt like they were just trying to stretch things out, like turning The Hobbit into three films. But that was just a small irritation in an otherwise very good story. Despite all my irritation with this episode I am still very much looking forward to the next episode.

This is the part of the article where I jump into wild speculation on the next episode which I don’t think we will actually see until after New Years because we’re getting so close to the winter holiday season now. I’m predicting Caithe has run into the arms of her one true love, Faolain. This could either see Caithe falling to the dark side, a path she’s already going down or it could redeem the Nightmare Court and make them all one big happy Sylvari family again. And it is the power of love that saves the mother tree. (Insert Back to the Future soundtrack here.) So that once again it can be the Sylvari who turn the tide of the battle against the big bad dragon and save the day. Of course this is but one prediction. There are any number of things that could happen. Up to and including the egg being destroyed. But! I’d love to hear what you think is coming up. Do you have any wild predictions for how this will all turn out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Don’t forget to vote for Guild Wars 2 in the end of the MMOGames Reader Polls. The game is up for both Best MMO and Best PvP. Voting ends New Years Eve!