I wish I could recommend this game but it is difficult for me to do so after having to get through nearly 100 hours of slog that is the base title, but in a vacuum this is still great.
None of the characters made that lasting of an impression on me, unfortunately, though regardless the emotional moments were very well written and engaging. Also, traveling in this game was quite annoying to me, as many areas you weren't allowed to use your mount, and others you were slowed and couldn't increase your speed until you took on multiple side quests to collect aether currents.
All those gripes aside though, this game is exemplary in its execution. This expansion has beautiful world design, accompanied with a stellar soundtrack that really adds to the atmosphere of wherever you go (which almost makes up for the slow mount speed). The story is great, too, bringing it back to a more classical RPG with dragons and honestly who couldn't love that? I also think that the pacing is incredible. There are definitely a number of fetch quests here and there that can get tiresome (did we really need 3 separate quests in a row of just delivering beer to people??), but overall the MSQ is layered with a number of very entertaining and unique instances, trials and dungeons that have become some of my favorites from this franchise yet. Every boss fight and dungeon trek has been a joy to go through.
So, despite some grievances I have with this expansion, and the fact that you need to essentially sell your soul playing the base game to actually get to the good stuff, there's so much to love here that I have unfortunately become another slave to this MMO.
None of the characters made that lasting of an impression on me, unfortunately, though regardless the emotional moments were very well written and engaging. Also, traveling in this game was quite annoying to me, as many areas you weren't allowed to use your mount, and others you were slowed and couldn't increase your speed until you took on multiple side quests to collect aether currents.
All those gripes aside though, this game is exemplary in its execution. This expansion has beautiful world design, accompanied with a stellar soundtrack that really adds to the atmosphere of wherever you go (which almost makes up for the slow mount speed). The story is great, too, bringing it back to a more classical RPG with dragons and honestly who couldn't love that? I also think that the pacing is incredible. There are definitely a number of fetch quests here and there that can get tiresome (did we really need 3 separate quests in a row of just delivering beer to people??), but overall the MSQ is layered with a number of very entertaining and unique instances, trials and dungeons that have become some of my favorites from this franchise yet. Every boss fight and dungeon trek has been a joy to go through.
So, despite some grievances I have with this expansion, and the fact that you need to essentially sell your soul playing the base game to actually get to the good stuff, there's so much to love here that I have unfortunately become another slave to this MMO.