Masteria Through Time - Blockbuster impressions

[SaptaZapta]

Gameplay

Clunky: I really don't like how we're constantly switching between cutscene/zoomed-in cutscene/normal play - and every such switch is accompanied by a second or two of black screen. Very jarring, and really interferes with immersion. Cutscenes drag out and dialog takes forever to move (and this is on a pretty powerful computer).
On the other hand, the text shown in yellow from the side, which just appears and disappears on its own and can't be paused or reviewed...

I know all "blockbusters" are like that. And I don't like it in them, either. I think it would have been better to just have this content as a normal quest line, especially since it's not nearly as grand as the Black Heaven blockbuster. It's more on the scale of Athanaeum stories.

Boring: All there is is dialog, "clear the map" kill quests, and "kill for 3 minutes" quests. No puzzles, no jumping, no evasion, not even fetch quests.

Story

Even if we ignore all existing lore, it's still full of holes. I mean, you go into Lukan's memories (similar to going into Orchid's, in Black Heaven), and the first scene you observe is something he was not witness to. What?

Minor nitpick: all maps are labeled "Phantom Forest", even when they're clearly Crimsonwood Mountain.
This makes even less sense in the past, because the "Phantom"ness of the forest didn't come to be until after Masteria's fall (per the Raven Ninja Clan's explanation of Phantom Trees).

And then there are the contradictions with existing content. I don't care so much about changes to what we thought we knew of the past, since our sources were NPCs who might have been mistaken or had fuzzy memories. But contradictions with "modern day NLC"?

Spoiler

Where are the Barricade brothers, and why are things they know - and were confirmed by Lukan and CWKPQ - suddenly mere "fairytales" to Dr. Jang's team?
If young Lukan was transported to the present day directly from the past, who is the old Lukan standing at Phantom Road?
If Dr. Foxwit is a time traveler and is working for Mayor Icebyrd Slimm, why does the mayor have to fund Dr. Jang's research, when he could just tell Foxwit to look at the past and see what Masteria used to be?
Dr. Jang's evil genius rivals even Gelimer's. I mean, empty-handed 1000 years before she was born, she's able to manufacture endless animal-control devices and special mutagenic substances? And yet, she'd rather go looking for a long-gone demon of unknown powers, rather than ally herself with the Black Mage directly?

Bottom line, though: not too bad. Depending on how tedious acts 3 and 4 are, I might do the whole thing on multiple chars for the "Future Warrior" medal (15 allstat, 8 att/m.att).

[maplefreak26]

On the other hand, the text shown in yellow from the side, which just appears and disappears on its own and can't be paused or reviewed...

I wouldn't mind them as much if it had actually functioned like it would normally have in other Blockbusters.
The Masteria blockbuster locks out your UI and then shows the yellow text and then unlocks it. While in Black Heaven, the yellow text can be shown at times without locking up the UI, so you can move while it pops up. The Masteria one also takes a while in between pop ups too.

[SaptaZapta]

I wouldn't mind them as much if it had actually functioned like it would normally have in other Blockbusters.
The Masteria blockbuster locks out your UI and then shows the yellow text and then unlocks it. While in Black Heaven, the yellow text can be shown at times without locking up the UI, so you can move while it pops up. The Masteria one also takes a while in between pop ups too.

I didn't like them in Black Heaven, either. The bird-knights would jabber at me while I was trying to fight or dodge or jump or outrun or do anything at all that requires attention elsewhere on the screen. Maybe I just suck at splitting attention.

[Blake]

I did not enjoy it. I could barely move without getting thrown into a cut scene. It really is unfortunate that they turned this into a blockbuster.

[SwordStaker]

I liked it a lot actually. It wasn't spectacular by any means but I did enjoy it. I'm reserving full judgement until Act 3 and 4 are released. I think everyone should too. I think it's fair to judge a story based on it's whole rather than just it's parts.

Example, I don't judge each individual part of Lord of the Rings. I take the story as a whole and may be like "oh well this part is kinda clunky."

Overall I thought it was fine. I thought it was realtivly well tied in to the rest of the lore that was pre-established. Few things changed. Nothing that upset me. Everyone's complaining about dalogue and stuff. Was it forgotten or just forgiven that pretty much all of Masteria's lore was given through literal books of text. Seriously it would take me 10 minutes just to read through one quest. The only difference here is it's cutscenes but it's pretty much the same thing.

Spoiler

Where are the Barricade brothers, and why are things they know - and were confirmed by Lukan and CWKPQ - suddenly mere "fairytales" to Dr. Jang's team?
If young Lukan was transported to the present day directly from the past, who is the old Lukan standing at Phantom Road?
If Dr. Foxwit is a time traveler and is working for Mayor Icebyrd Slimm, why does the mayor have to fund Dr. Jang's research, when he could just tell Foxwit to look at the past and see what Masteria used to be?
Dr. Jang's evil genius rivals even Gelimer's. I mean, empty-handed 1000 years before she was born, she's able to manufacture endless animal-control devices and special mutagenic substances? And yet, she'd rather go looking for a long-gone demon of unknown powers, rather than ally herself with the Black Mage directly?

.

Responses

1. I think it would be safe to assume this is all happening very soon after the Mayor calls you to NLC. Therefor the Barricade brothers haven't fully reveled their findings yet, or they haven't reached her. It's also possible that they just simply don't believe it
2. Time paradox? It's an alternate version. Two people in one place at one time. Also he is now a hooded NPC with the name Mysterious Warrior or something
3. Can't answer that one. But isn't it also possible since Foxwit has mentioned Dr. Krakia before that he does know? There was no mention that Dr. Krakia was present, just, they might still be alive hidden in the Krakian jungle, SOMEWHERE.
4. From what was explained Narcian with the Antellion would be as powerful if not more powerful than the Black Mage.

[Tash]

Spoiler

Dr. Jang's evil genius rivals even Gelimer's. I mean, empty-handed 1000 years before she was born, she's able to manufacture endless animal-control devices and special mutagenic substances? And yet, she'd rather go looking for a long-gone demon of unknown powers, rather than ally herself with the Black Mage directly?

Spoiler

Because she's not inherently evil. The initial implication was that she was searching for the Antellion because its power could be used to fight the Black Mage. Once things went south for her, she stopped caring about that and just wanted to prove she was right. Even after that, she still made Narcian promise to keep the Antellion in Versial, because she didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands in the maple world.

Narcian is presenting himself as the victim in the conflict, so she sees Subami as the villain (she's also obviously got the hots for Narcian, which is factoring into this). The lengths she's going through to help him are more than a bit morally bankrupt, but she's not someone who would ally with the Black Mage.

[SaptaZapta]

Spoiler

Because she's not inherently evil. The initial implication was that she was searching for the Antellion because its power could be used to fight the Black Mage. Once things went south for her, she stopped caring about that and just wanted to prove she was right. Even after that, she still made Narcian promise to keep the Antellion in Versial, because she didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands in the maple world.

Narcian is presenting himself as the victim in the conflict, so she sees Subami as the villain (she's also obviously got the hots for Narcian, which is factoring into this). The lengths she's going through to help him are more than a bit morally bankrupt, but she's not someone who would ally with the Black Mage.

Spoiler

If she's not evil, she should have been looking for Subani to find hints for fighting the Black Mage, rather than for Naricain who was the defeated villain (she knew he was, she said something about needing to research his fall to know how to defeat the Black Mage).
After she meets Naricain he sweet-talks her, or thinks he does. But I'm talking about what made him seek him out in the first place.

[PirateIzzy]

To be honest, I'm disappointed. It reminds me of the Star Wars prequels in terms of contradictions and writing issues.

[Justin]

In case it wasn't clear, they didn't much care for the source material. I'd think of this as fanfiction more than anything else.

[PirateIzzy]

In case it wasn't clear, they didn't much care for the source material. I'd think of this as fanfiction more than anything else.

Yup, pretty much just like everything else released for Masteria after CWKPQ.

[Dark Zero]

In case it wasn't clear, they didn't much care for the source material. I'd think of this as fanfiction more than anything else.

Agreed. It ruined totally the charm of Crimsomwood Keep.
Better to Nexon fix the storyline and the quests and add more BGM's since it sounded... recycled.

EDIT: At least chapter 2 has more coherency storywise, however.... the BGM are... recycled and badly placed!

[Tay]

Are there any recordings of all this stuff? I'm interested in seeing what happened without having to actually play the game.

[maplefreak26]

Are there any recordings of all this stuff? I'm interested in seeing what happened without having to actually play the game.

Act 1

Act 2

[HighOnMushrooms]

Wow some of the transitions are super janky and the reused assets are sort of funny, like Arkarium's screen crack still being too small for the screen lol. The gameplay looks really boring, they didn't add in any minigames or minibosses or anything so it's just kill kill kill... and all of the animations without SFX just makes it look lame. In terms of story, I only know the general idea of Masteria so this seems pretty interesting to me, but I guess other people who were more invested might see all the plot holes and stuff. But I agree, it doesn't suit the cinematic format of the blockbusters at all, they're not making good use of it. Maybe the next couple of Acts will be better.

Also, Naricain, Naricane, or Naricaine? Pick one!

[Pikamemnon]

I should really stop trying to shield this game from itself and just be happy to let whatever happens to Maplestory happen but before that, I still want to say something about the Masteria blockbuster.

Spoiler

(sigh)
It makes me sad that Nexon put so much great effort into crafting an engaging quest line but the boat that they put it on simply has too many other problems. I am not claiming that resetting the game to an earlier time would fix everything but I am saying that the boat has severe structural concerns (in the here and now) and I know that turning a blind eye to holes that could flood the ship will not get them fixed.

To rephrase that, I am a big fan of Masteria lore and the spelling derps do not bother me. The content looks nice but I prefer having quest chains like this in small pieces and in separate quests. Since it was done in theme dungeon style, the replayabillity factor gets hit hard, like there is none (at least for me) and this is one of my favorite regions! So instead of an entire area that can be re used for different characters in multiple ways, the blockbuster does not give us that. I will not even touch how other parts of the game indirectly lower the value of some of the rewards down to almost nothing.

I can start to imagine how the poor fellow that helped make the Titanic (in the film) was feeling when things started to go wrong. The situation is just so bad and only a few people seem to realize the horror of what might happen. I don't want to be "that guy" but I had to say something.

Ok, I got it out of my system. I mean its still a good update on its own, on the surface. Most players probably will not be concerned about deeper worries anyhow. This particular type of boat may not finish sinking anytime soon but If you will excuse me, I need to go and find the nearest life preserver.

[¬Rob]

I should really stop trying to shield this game

Have you ever done that? I mostly lurk nowadays, but every post I've ever seen by you is crying about how the game's gotten sh'itty since BB or whatever.
Normally I'd ignore your posts because I'm over with maple, but I had to point this out. <_<

@ Topic: I was going to re-install just to wander around the new Masteria content, but was too lazy. Then I read some comments about it here, and am feeling relieved I didn't.

[Pikamemnon]

Have you ever done that? I mostly lurk nowadays, but every post I've ever seen by you is crying about how the game's gotten sh'itty since BB or whatever.
Normally I'd ignore your posts because I'm over with maple, but I had to point this out. <_<

@ Topic: I was going to re-install just to wander around the new Masteria content, but was too lazy. Then I read some comments about it here, and am feeling relieved I didn't.

"shield this game from itself"
You dislike people talking bad about the game and yet you agree with the information? Typical Maplestory player. (in the past/present)

Que sera sera

[Invulgo]

My first impression was

Spoiler

how little I was invested in the characters, mainly because they are mostly all new. It was the same old good against evil, must stop bad people from doing bad things. But who is really the bad one, is it x or x? However I know they will grow on me. Large parts of the story didn't make much sense at all, but maybe it will :3

Gameplay

Clunky: I really don't like how we're constantly switching between cutscene/zoomed-in cutscene/normal play - and every such switch is accompanied by a second or two of black screen. Very jarring, and really interferes with immersion. Cutscenes drag out and dialog takes forever to move (and this is on a pretty powerful computer).
On the other hand, the text shown in yellow from the side, which just appears and disappears on its own and can't be paused or reviewed...

Yeeeeeah that was pretty annoying, it felt chunky and badly timed. Didn't really know when to move at times, sometimes tried to move but was still frozen.

The positive impressions so far, well the designs and graphics are simply stunning, and the music is even more stunning. All over I really enjoyed it, not as much as Black Heaven or Athanaeum stories, but still soild. Looking forward to act III.

[¬Rob]

"shield this game from itself"
You dislike people talking bad about the game and yet you agree with the information? Typical Maplestory player. (in the past/present)

Que sera sera

Assumptions must be fun, where did I say that I disliked badmouthing the game?
I agree that Nexon's run this game into a hole, my comment was to you saying that you've shielded it; you haven't ever done so from what I've seen. Most all you post about is your lame demands for a pre-BB server or just complaining it's gotten oh so bad since BB(which I don't disagree with). Even when you attempt at posting a thread on how 'good' the game is/how to improve its state, it always devolves into you b'itching. (That's why the 'Pikamemnon thread' meme exists here, it's borderline impossible to take what you spout seriously.)

But yeah, I must just be a typical Maplestory player for pointing that out, whatever helps you sleep at night.

Time to go back to lurking, I've nothing to add to the thread.

[Pikamemnon]

Assumptions must be fun, where did I say that I disliked badmouthing the game?
I agree that Nexon's run this game into a hole, my comment was to you saying that you've shielded it; you haven't ever done so from what I've seen.

Of course not, it is not possible to protect something from itself. That does not mean we cant suggest alternative courses of action though. I tried to (unsuccessfully) shield Maplestory from its own terrible choices but it is not needed since I do not work for Nexon. They direct the game, therefore its well being falls to them.

I may not control it but I still want to see what happens to Maplestory in the future.