Yeesh, I hope they retcon that whole book. Start anew. Any story they make that isn't rushed would be far better than that.

Bakugan2556 on Feb 25, 2021 wrote:

Considering we now know that the game is going to get regular updates again(hopefully soon) I'm curious about how the team is going to handle the stain on the game that is Valencia Part 2.

An extremely rushed and unpolished second part to the game(to the point that there are still typos to this day, 6 years after the fact) that ends anti-climaticly as you soar into the Machine and single handedly take down Kane. By yourself. With just your crew supporting you. (Remember, Kane is supposed to be smarter, faster, and stronger than any human)

For what it was supposed to do, I guess it did the job well enough, but I really wish we could play through what the original script entailed(building another clockwork to help you fight Kane, while also at the end going on a race to El Dorado) but it's understandable if the team doesn't want to remove an entire section of the game, never to be seen again. I can already see all the logistic issues piling up as I type this.

Nar, why waste time going over the same ground? We need to continue the story. Don't look back, go forward and do a better job next time.

Cashbear on Apr 3, 2021 wrote:

I would say story isn't as big a deal in a game where things like pvp are really relevant and end game, but that's not p101. This game is in a state that revolves around the story, and after levelling this account actually playing through it without the time gap like on my main, it's a noticeable and severe drop in quality for writing. But I do understand the circumstances that lead to this as well. But ideally, those circumstances have changed, and I think it would be fair for some things to be tweaked.

I don't think the whole thing needs retconned, but there's some things that could be rewritten and polished. The biggest thing that irks me is that we spend this entire chapter worrying over Gaz just to know him for 5 minutes and then immediately he's gone and no one even comments on it after the fact; it's like no one even cared. We had more reaction to Wan Mo in Mooshu than we did Gaz.

Honestly I think they should cut out the Kane battle and go with the idea of us rescuing Gaz and going somewhere safe and then using that to go forward. Kane loot can be reworked into other battles or heck, just give us a small encounter instead of the Machine encounter. There's unused islands. Hande even drops some of the gear as well.

I don't think book 16 is something they can just gloss over and it not feel weird going forward, but I also don't think it's a total loss either. And they've done quest changes before, look at Skull Island. So it is possible, it's just up to new management to decide if this is something they want to pursue before going forward.

(Sorry to be late to the party on this one)

very well said -- i fully agree with what you expressed! as much as i would love for VA2 to get completely redone the way it was meant to be, i don't think the team is in a position where they can invest that time and effort to do it. so a good compromise would indeed be to rework just the final quests, probably from meeting gazpaccio onward. i personally believe VA2's story works fine right up to that point -- then it just nosedives into a completely rushed disaster, ruining any chance of properly continuing the incredible storyline the entire game prior set up.

i sometimes feel like the story would be in a much better position now if, instead of rushing to finish arc 1 with kane's impromptu defeat, KI stuck with VA2's original plan of smuggling gazpaccio out to a secret workshop in skull island, and then left that as a sort of "cliffhanger," where gazpaccio expresses needing time to implement his plans. it still would've felt horrible to get no story after that, but at least the original vision could be easily picked back up once we got to this point.

of course, its too late for that now but like you said, VA2's ending could be reworked to make the original storyline possible. i hope its alright if i spitball some vague ideas:

as was first planned, we resolve, at gazpaccio's behest, to smuggle him out of VA2 with the Heart. but maybe gazpaccio wants to sneak into somewhere before leaving VA, for something like blueprints, his tools, or other information? instead of going to the machine, perhaps we go to one of the unused islands like valencia city? this would provide an opportunity to add more quests (main and side) to the story before the world's finale, if KI chooses. then for the finale, perhaps we're intercepted by kane as we're trying to sneak back out to leave VA, and he sends someone to attack us -- maybe the queen, as a way to "formally introduce her" to us? whatever the case, the fight goes in our favor, with the queen forced to back down (so we don't actually defeat her). kane has to let us escape, though not without a warning. we return to skull island, set gazpaccio up in his workshop, and the story can continue from there. VA2's current final gear drops could be like you said, either spread out across existing VA bosses or made part of its new finale.

not perfect, of course, but something like that could be done -- they did it once with skull island, as you noted. and i think many players will agree that it would be the best way to reset the story to a point that allows arc 1 to continue at the quality level it was intended to be at. i just hope KI decides its worth the effort.

nonetheless, whatever they do, i still look forward to the story continuing. as for whether they consider our thoughts on VA2 or not though, we'll just have to wait and see