*SPOILERS* Anti-climax.

If it were up to me I would have stayed to the end in Ascalon fighting to protect it from the Charr. I did not agree with the prince's "Ascalon is a goner, let's skip town" mentality.

I just beat the game for the 2nd time and yes the story is very subpar. The only impressionable thing that happened was the death of Prince Rurik. I imagine seeing him at the end boss would have been climactic as well but unfortunately I had that spoiled by some a-hole shouting how you got the Hundred Blades elite. Thanks again, di-ckhead.

I have several specific problems with the story:

Ascension granted you nothing. I ascended with my first character before the 50,000 xp and I literally got nothing for all that grind and work. No new powers, no new armor, no shining sword, nothing. It should feel like you're more powerful after Ascension in SOME WAY, but it most definitely does not.

Saving Ascalon was the centerpiece of the story and soon just drops off the face of the Earth. What's the point of going through the trouble of saving the Chosen when the poor Ascalonians back home are still getting slaughtered by the Charr, lol.

The two Shining Blade amazon leaders were most definitely lesbians. Maybe some animated muff-diving might have saved the story. Rofl.

I seriously hope they find a new writer for the expansion.

White Mantles weren't crippled by you, they chased your sorry butt from Lion's Arch to Sanctum Cay and wiped Henge of Denravi. You are the one who is running away from the "wrath" of White Mantles and escape to Crystal Desert. Recall the conversation between you and Vizier on your way to Anmoon Oasis.

Ive gone through the game with 4 characters, and still dont know whats really going on. At most im more confused each time. Whats a rpg without a story? Oh... yeah.. my life.

lol, Read the book that came with the game, the story is in there and makes alot of points not explained in the game make sense

lol, perhaps the person who wrote the "story" should have read the same book. Afterall, isn't the "story" a critical part of an RPG?

Ascalon is done for after the searing, King Adelbern does not realize they cannot hold the Charr and Prince Rurik wanted cut the losses, some people gone with Prince Rurik but others stay behind with King Adelbern.

You dont save Ascalon, at the end of the Ascalon missions you stop the Charr conquest of Rin but thats a long way from removing the Charr from Ascalon.

The dwarves are the same race (were you got they were diferent races?), Deldrimor is the name of the nation of Shiverpeaks and the Stone Summit is a splinter group that is lead by no other that King Jalis Ironhammer cousin, Dagnar Stonesplinter.

And the White Mantle is pretty done for, we eliminated their leadership and exposed what they were doing with the Kyrta chosen ... also we put back into the throne the pricess (if you done the quest in Fisherman's Heaven).

Another thing the Mursaat were seen by the founder of the White Mantle (the book descrives then).

Also if you read the book then you sould know that Orr was "situated on a peninsula south of Ascalon and west of the Crystal Desert" and that is were the guildhall islands are now located (I think even the game says that the guildhalls were ruins of Orr), I dont know were people get the idea orr was located in the Ring of Fire since the book says its were the gods dropped the Bloodstones before leaving Tyria.

There are things that are not explained ... the Mursaat objectives (after all what they did was keeping the seals), what are the Seer race and their objectives (if it turns out the Mursaat are good and they were simply trying to keep the Titans away), what the Flameseeker prophecies really are (that I take being the chosen open the gate looking at the Lich dialogue as a part of) but those are not plot holes, also we will get expansions were perhaps we see the results of what we did in the game (perhaps pushing the Charr away from Ascalon with new missions) and see more of the story, this is simply Chapter 1.

Also, there's some kind of tie between the Charr and the Titans, because if you step outside of the keep in the Nolani Academy mission, the Charr have erected a huge, smouldering statue of a Titan there...in retrospect it's actually closer to life-size ;p

lol dude the Vizier is the Lich. sheesh. you must have skipped some cutscences. lol anyway, as far as beating the game. NO one has done this. Chapter 1 is not even finished yet. so its not possible to have Beaten the game. the end has not been written yet. all you did was go as far as you could with the existing missions.

that is why there are loose ends with some of the races in the game. And I would expect all of them to re-appear to some extent in the upcoming chapters.

""How deep is the river if you can not see the bottom?"

you forget that the charr also have one other flaming effigy found all over in the lowlands- mursaat looking ones they have a connection to the charr as well.

Good point, Jwh, and to answer Ingram's question... "Too deep" :P

That was pointed before but I really cannot see it and I dont think it makes much sense ... I can see the Charr worship the titans on a basic level but mursaat ... no, read the book and realize Charr simply cannot worship then, there is nothing that supports it and we can only think of the Charr worship the Titans because the Titans do fire damage and live in lava.

I thought Orr was the part of penisula to the west of the Amnoon... at least I got that from reading the book... but I just sorta skimmed it

I figured Orr was the Peninsula west of the Crystal Desert and East of the Ring of Fire. You know, the one that look like some one put a giant flaming fist through it?

Orr sunk, dont bother looking for it on the map because its no longer there.

hey, if you guys actually read the stuff the npc's said.. when you talk to them with the green chat bubble options..then you would understand the entire story

no one ready all that crap that they were saying

Did anyone notice the White Mantle turn out to be the good guys, and the Flameseeker Prophecies are bad?

The White Mantle spend their lives protecting the rest of the world from the Titans, and thats all. They made quite the living doing it too, nice cities, nice armor, had the monsters under control, protected the Sceptre of Orr, etc.

and what happened to the sceptre at the end?

Oh and I agree that the Charr worship the Titans. There is a carving of a Titan in Presearing if you do the north of the wall quest.

that's just ONE thing they worship, what about the angel/humanlike burning things with 6+ black spokes sticking out like wings?
THOSE are supposed to represent the mursaat

Maybe the game will evolve like the Star Wars Trilogydid .

Maybe were playing part 3 and we will go backwards and forwards in the story.

Vizier Khilbron shaped his plan through the Flameseeker prophecies, of which he and you were also a part of...

Self-fulfilling prophecies always reek of plotholes.

The Mursaat wouldn't have been killing chosen had the prophecy not existed, because then they wouldn't fear them.
Vizier Khilbron would not likely have access to the Titans or the Sceptre of Orr.
You wouldn't have gotten into a fit of righteous ire and set out to destroy the Mursaat had they not been killing people.

Until the Mursaat's motivations for infiltrating the world and the exact prophecy in its entirety are revealed, there's not a lot to go off of.

Perhaps it was the path of least bloodshed, that ended with the best possible ending, but whatever the case, I find that most of the trouble stems from the prophecy itself.

Perhaps Glint is not quite so benevolent, sowing such dischord through a prophecy such as that...

Guess we'll have to find out, but I can't say I think it'll be worth the wait. The entire story just screams slapped together.