FTUE Hurt Me...

[AstralFrost]

I know I'm like a year (maybe more) late to when KI updated the entire quest-line of Wizard city. But, I just ran through the quest-line today and man do I miss the old one!

I'm trying to make this post not sound like some veteran player flapping his gums in annoyance because of his nostalgia, but it's probably gonna come off that way so readers beware.

The update to Unicorn Way was alright, I understand that it sets up a new player a little bit better than the old Unicorn Way quest. However, was changing the ENTIRE quest-line necessary? I literally am struggling to come up with anything nice to say about the new quests. In all, they feel like babyish, cheaper versions of the original quests.

Here are just a few bullets of things I took note of while I was questing:

* The Ravenwood tour where you meet the professors. It used to be so much fun for a new player walking around Ravenwood and meeting each one of the professors. They would same some witty line and you would get to walk to the next classroom. Now, they just stand in a line and each one says a few words. What a downgrade!

*Ambrose isn't supposed to give the Pixie spell, Lady Oriel is! It was always cool when Lady Oriel gave Pixie because it felt like she was rewarding you for cleaning up her street.

*What was the point of switching Susie and Artur Griffinbane? Pretty self explanatory.

*Why are the students trapped in the Dark Cave and not General Akilies' tower? What was the point of this?

*The "Great One" bunny thing in Cyclops Lane is so random and makes no sense. Why would you mention Darkmoor this early in the game?

*Lizzo in Firecat Alley and "well thats the human in me" Ugh, this pop culture reference was unimpressive and seemed unesseary.

The number one thing I came out of from the entire experience was that the new voice acting for the characters is horrendous (with a few exceptions)! This is easily the biggest way KingsIsle crushed nostalgia for so many longtime players. The new voices for the NPCs are so obnoxious. Many of them have this really bad fake British accent that comes off incredibly cringy. Then, some of the other characters have an American accent. The old voices were iconic, Ceren Nightchant's "Greetings!" and Nolan Stormgate's pompous tone were so evident it made the experience of questing so much fun. I wasn't able to find a single voiceover that was better than the original. They were all lame. The new voices just seem like a hollow shell of what used to be.

So yeah, you can probably tell I hate the new quest-line in Wizard city. To think that the dev team spent months recreating the quests for wizard city for no reason when the old ones were 100% sufficient and appreciated by the old players (except maybe unicorn way as I mentioned already) just makes me annoyed.

I'm sorry to make such a negative post but I could not go through the first world of the game like this as a veteran player and not talk about it.

Its like they took a chainsaw to Bartleby's roots and still expect him to grow...

Hopefully some other folks who have done the new quest-line will chime in and give their opinions, I would love to hear them!

-AF

[Torpzun26]

That's sad to hear. I actually loved the new questline so much I wrote my own thread about it. There's a lot more worldbuilding, especially by giving General Akilles an actual reason to side with Malistaire rather than saying "Oh, he just decided to be evil because Cyrus didn't care enough I guess" like in the original. There's a lot more focus on the side characters and it makes me really want to see more of our classmates as we continue to go on our quest to save the Spiral fifty bajillion times. Though I definitely agree on switching Artur and Susie around, that was completely unnecessary and feels a bit more gross than the original. The evil bunny is weird, but then again we also had Gobblers in Colossus Boulevard, and those are really weird too.

[RookieRecurve]

I am pretty nostalgic in nature, so I struggle to think that I will find it appealing. I think it would be hard for me to run a character through WC now. There are some things that do not need 'upgrades'. I think the thing you said that bother me the most is the exclusion of Lady Oriel giving the spell. I remember the thrill of that neat little area with all the fairies flying around. Some things should just be left alone.

[Jonathan Greenflame]

I've just created a new wizard recently and I'm sorry you didn't care for all the new changes. Personally I really liked them, I thought they did a good job.

[Willowdreamer]

While I agree that much of the revamping of Wizard City was kind of unnecessary and over the top - (Why so dang many flowers everywhere now? Why are there pink and blue unicorn statues all over?) for the most part, I am okay with the changes to the questing. Either good voice actors got more expensive, or the budget shrunk. The worst are the ones for the Firekitty NPCs, I think.

I have done these new quests on each and every school because I love making new wizards more than I enjoy progressing additional wizards through the higher level worlds. I was curious about the new pets received by each school from the new quests, but a severe lack of pet snacks in Wizard City makes training a new pet on a new wizard nigh on impossible. There is so much else to spend gold on that buying snacks makes no sense either.

You make valid points, though. Younger players were clamoring for updated graphics, and new people on the design teams had all of these new ideas. "Be careful how you wish, for wishes can come true." I think I'd have been happy if they'd done about half of what they did, but it is what it is now.

[Phenoixblizzard]

I admit that I prefer the old Wizard City questlines over the new ones. I ran one wizard through the FTUE and disliked it. Now I just take my max wizards and run the new wizard through them as fast as possible.

[LaughingTomb]

I really hated the cyclops alley and firecat alley changes, yeah. The Fairy thing was weird too, but I didn't mind the slight changing around in Triton Avenue and the teacher stuff was quite a chore to run around every time you were creating an alt character. On the contrary, even, the unique dialogue for the teacher you chose added a lot to that quest.

It also goes without saying, of course, that the original music is much more simple and pleasing to the ears, I wish there was an option to swap to JUST the old music and to keep the new graphics on, as I don't really dislike the new visuals, I just think the music is overbearing at times.

.... but yeah, that bunny thing though. Sheesh. Talk about trying too hard to be funny.

[WarWeaver]

Sorry to hear it. I for one have been loving the FTUE updates.

I like that there is a lot more explained in the new quest lines. There are still a few hiccups here and there, but I find it to be a real improvement over the old one. I also like that they gave a bit more love to some of the other characters. I didn't care too much for someone like Private Sweeny, but after reading the dialogue for his quest he turned out to be a pretty awesome dude.


If there is something I wish they hadn't changed, it's that scrapbook quest given by Gloria. I really liked reading her reminiscing on the moments she shared with the departed Sylvia upon looking at the scrapbook they made together again. It almost put a smile on my face because of how sweet it was. Now some rando Npc asks you to go get it

[numbly1980]

Sorry to hear it. I for one have been loving the FTUE updates. I like that there is a lot more explained in the new quest lines. There are still a few hiccups here and there, but I find it to be a real improvement over the old one. I also like that they gave a bit more love to some of the other characters. I didn't care too much for someone like Private Sweeny, but after reading the dialogue for his quest he turned out to be a pretty awesome dude. If there is something I wish they hadn't changed, it's that scrapbook quest given by Gloria. I really liked reading her reminiscing on the moments she shared with the departed Sylvia upon looking at the scrapbook they made together again. It almost put a smile on my face because of how sweet it was. Now some rando Npc asks you to go get it

yeah but he sells simple vials which normally have to go to krokotopia or other high level world vendor that sells it

[WarWeaver]

yeah but he sells simple vials which normally have to go to krokotopia or other high level world vendor that sells it

Good to know, but we already have a reagent vendor in Olde Town they could have added those vials to. Making a new NPC for that is just unnecessary.