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extrapenguinI finished up chapter 2 of the Smuggler story! I have finally discovered where the story gets funny: it's Hoth. Guss Tuno is great. (Screencap album.)
The chapter 2 plot continues the trend of shark-jumping. This time, Misrata's a privateer for the Republic, doing illicit things the Republic doesn't want on its hands. We stole some prototype stuff on Balmorra I think, saved some Republic ships on Quesh by taking down sensors, and then changed some pirate leadership on Hoth. The Quesh stuff felt super unnecessary and half like it was only an opportunity for male smugglers to flirt with a recurring female NPC – the Quesh bit was much more integrated into the plot for the other classes I've done – but the rest was nice enough. The Hoth stuff was actually sort of interesting with Guss's waffly betrayals and getting to kill the worst boyfriend ever.
Balmorra, the Forge.
Also there was a heist at the end of the chapter! I approve.
On the general story front, I think a large part of my antipathy towards the story is that they wanted a funny caper story! ...and then populated it with a load of secondary characters whose issues and premises are more suited to a serious-ish drama, and "solved" that by restricting the emotional depth and breadth of the companions to funny caper story levels rather than actually adjusting the characters to fit. There are four straight men to one hilarious Mon Cala, and honestly, that ratio is really bad. Risha's plot-relevant enough that tuning her would be hard, but would it truly have been that hard to, say, make Akaavi a firecracker whose humor had an edge, instead of her current straightforward vengeful blood knight stuff.(Or replace her with Kaliyo.) Or make Bowdaar not a former slave but someone voluntarily in the Hutt's service for the honor of battle who then joins us instead.
The combat's still a bit excruciable due to lack of AOE, but switching the companions to tank mode helps. I'm not getting hit, so I don't die, but the companions are still doing damage rather than sitting there throwing kolto packs at me. I'm still only at level rather than overleveled while doing the class quests with the occasional sidequest when I feel underleveled. Being at-level means I can't just breeze past/oneshot stuff, too, so it takes a long while.
All five companions acquired! Let me share my thoughts on Akaavi Spar and Guss Tuno.
Akaavi: Zabrak Mandalorian whose clan was captured and executed while she was boning some dude. Now she's out for revenge! She is kind of straightforward and I suppose she thematically fills the same sort of niche as Scourge does for the Jedi Knight – honorable opponent and all that – but wow does she not fit in with the Smuggler's crew as is. I sort of want to punt her over to another gnere of story. I brought her around with me on Quesh and she didn't reveal hidden depths there, either.
Guss: Mon Cala Jedi washout! I knew he was a Jedi dropout going in, but the bit where he's in the underworld and working for Rogan trying to get us killed was a nice surprise! His waffly "please don't kill me!" plus frantic backpedaling was hilarious. I've been running around with my Wookiee so far, but now I'mma bribe Guss up with some gifts and take him with me for all of Chapter 3. I'm sure he'll have funny commentary when Misrata starts boning some rando!
The chapter 2 plot continues the trend of shark-jumping. This time, Misrata's a privateer for the Republic, doing illicit things the Republic doesn't want on its hands. We stole some prototype stuff on Balmorra I think, saved some Republic ships on Quesh by taking down sensors, and then changed some pirate leadership on Hoth. The Quesh stuff felt super unnecessary and half like it was only an opportunity for male smugglers to flirt with a recurring female NPC – the Quesh bit was much more integrated into the plot for the other classes I've done – but the rest was nice enough. The Hoth stuff was actually sort of interesting with Guss's waffly betrayals and getting to kill the worst boyfriend ever.
Balmorra, the Forge.
Also there was a heist at the end of the chapter! I approve.
On the general story front, I think a large part of my antipathy towards the story is that they wanted a funny caper story! ...and then populated it with a load of secondary characters whose issues and premises are more suited to a serious-ish drama, and "solved" that by restricting the emotional depth and breadth of the companions to funny caper story levels rather than actually adjusting the characters to fit. There are four straight men to one hilarious Mon Cala, and honestly, that ratio is really bad. Risha's plot-relevant enough that tuning her would be hard, but would it truly have been that hard to, say, make Akaavi a firecracker whose humor had an edge, instead of her current straightforward vengeful blood knight stuff.
The combat's still a bit excruciable due to lack of AOE, but switching the companions to tank mode helps. I'm not getting hit, so I don't die, but the companions are still doing damage rather than sitting there throwing kolto packs at me. I'm still only at level rather than overleveled while doing the class quests with the occasional sidequest when I feel underleveled. Being at-level means I can't just breeze past/oneshot stuff, too, so it takes a long while.
All five companions acquired! Let me share my thoughts on Akaavi Spar and Guss Tuno.
Akaavi: Zabrak Mandalorian whose clan was captured and executed while she was boning some dude. Now she's out for revenge! She is kind of straightforward and I suppose she thematically fills the same sort of niche as Scourge does for the Jedi Knight – honorable opponent and all that – but wow does she not fit in with the Smuggler's crew as is. I sort of want to punt her over to another gnere of story. I brought her around with me on Quesh and she didn't reveal hidden depths there, either.
Guss: Mon Cala Jedi washout! I knew he was a Jedi dropout going in, but the bit where he's in the underworld and working for Rogan trying to get us killed was a nice surprise! His waffly "please don't kill me!" plus frantic backpedaling was hilarious. I've been running around with my Wookiee so far, but now I'mma bribe Guss up with some gifts and take him with me for all of Chapter 3. I'm sure he'll have funny commentary when Misrata starts boning some rando!