Previously on Granado Espada...
By ValorianEndymion 0 Comments
Previously on Granado Espada...
When I start to write about Granado Espada, I did it like "to put a ghost to rest”, but now I find myself with almost 500 hours, mostly of them not really playing, because of the AFK mode, and almost no real sense of closure but just only with strange feelings of missing some vital piece of the puzzle.
That said, but just a few days, a new patch was announced (http://www.granadoespada.com/page/newsview.php?n=362) which do something that mentioned before: readjust some old game content, to make it easier and clear. So I have to see how thing unfold, I guess I am not free of this game yet.
As an example, remember I said a quest in the Errac, the “Favor of the Chieftain” required one High Quality Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire, which for new players, without access to the market or knowledge of which individual raid quest might give them as reward, might have trouble? Well, the quest now have an option of instead giving 4 Silver Bar, which are way easier to get.
The list of changes is pretty big (http://www.granadoespada.com/page/newsview.php?n=362) and in the next days I will see how easier or not think will be.
So far however, I was able to get past where I was and moved a bit on the Tears of a Doll quest line (the main quest), I did hit a small block in a step where I need to defeat a Queen of the Valkyries, where again, GE lack of feedback made it really difficult to know what was the problem, but after a couple of tries I managed to do it and advance a bit more.
From there I was able to also finish the Prophet of the Forest quest line, Nena recruitment quest, and now I am moving toward finishing the whole Leader of the New Era.
Things are progressing somewhat smother… the problem I am running now is how absurdly long some game quest lines can get… When you look at the ingame database, it can be deceptive, since it only show the major steps of a quest, but inside each step there is often more steps and things can get off control really fast.
Just the Leader of the New Era quest line have around 24 Major Steps, each step can have between 4 and 10 Minor steps (in this case many major steps appear to have around 7–9 minor steps).
To make things worst, often during the quest line you have to visit Lucifer Castle, which is a major annoyance, due cannot set a warp to quick return and instead need to travel two maps to reach the place where the npcs are often avoiding monsters and the Montoro Curse debuff which grow stronger or weaker depending on the day of the week, meaning that just running to talk the npcs can get deadly. This become a particular problem, because right now I need to bring certain character to talk to Leona, one of them happens to be a RNPC which I haven´t leveled up, which can be a problem...
Anyway, sometimes you need to reach a spot to trigger a dialogue, but the monster around might be too powerful and can interrupt the dialogue, and you likely cannot defeat them…
Another side effect is that the overly long quest line make the quest story weak due either being stretched out or sudden stops which, trying to keep track of the quest and story, feel unwieldy, and you can sort stop paying attention.
The way which the game tries to make it cutscenes don't work really well, it limited both what poses the NPCs can do and the limited camera angles plus the dialogue is often hard to read because of the small speech balloons (and the text on the UI is also not easy to read), but more than this, the cutscenes often feel too long, and you cannot skip them.
Still, despite all I am making to the last part of the Leader of the New World arc, from there I canenter the next arc which like take me other places.
But there is something else I wish to talk about, the game events!
About Events:
Granado Espada events, at least the more recent one which I could experience in the SEA server happen around between each week or two and last around the same time. Most of them are often centered around new RNPCs, but a few is around some holidays, the structure is very similar: you often do missions to this new RNPCs, in form of daily mission, which give you points, which you then use buying something for a list.
Here is a quick description of some recent events, going from the newest to oldest:
Bristia and Vespanolan Special Supply (6/9 to 6/23):
This is the most recent event, unlike other isn´t centered around a new RNPC and appear, so far, easy to do and the rewards appear to be very good.
The first week of the even is all about going in map, defeat monster to collect some stuff to bring to the npc, which give you points that you can spend in a shop, where among other thing you can get even stuff such as give a Valeron weapon (late game stuff), Armonia and Strata Devil
The amount of things you can buy from the shop is limited, like you can only buy to boxes which give a Valeron Weapon (each box have a single weapon that you can choose).
On the second week of the event, thing change, you now need to do some Individual Raids, where you get collect some stuff, if you get 20 you can reward for the day, and looking at the table, where even a level 1 Individual Raids give you 4 of the said material, does not look hard. Also, it appear that there will be a special quest.
Issac Episode Event (5/26 to 6/9):
This, at first glance, looked doable… the first phase (days 1 to 8) you either get one of three options, either going in a map and collect some items by defeating certain enemies, doing a mission where you need to evade some enemies or just give the RNPC some stuff. The second part appeared to be similar (day 8 to 14), however, one the daily quest was borderline incomprehensible, in the surface is a mission where you need to defeat 30 Vanguard enemies, while the npc helps you… However, when you try to play you quickly realize that the npc just keep running around appearing to do nothing, while you characters simple don't and can't attack enemies.
After several tries, I need to ask in the faction chat for help, where it was pointed to me that what was going on: The deal is that the enemies you can attack are random… or what I think is going on is that the npc while running bump in the enemies you can attack, however, the period you can attack is very short and the npc moves really fast, meaning it is very hard to attack them at all and the time is very short… so after few more tries I throw my hands and give up.
Lore of the Star Keeper (5/12 to 5/26):
The base of the event is that you have a list of character (teachers), which have a relationship with other characters (students), like Leona, if you have Lynn (or her Silver Flash Lynn variation) and perform the individual raids with Lynn in the party, you gain points to spend.
This event feel really pointless, like first you need to have recruited any of the said students, otherwise, no points. Something which the ingame dialogue does not really explain, in fact when I did the event, someone PMed asking what is going on, and I had to point them to the game website.
Also, the list is a bit strange, some teacher might require rare RNPC (which can't be recruited), like if you choose Moon, you better had Hermes or Tom, otherwise… to be fair, at least Fritz has a wide range of students, which all are early character. But still, you might don't have any of them, something which the person that asked for my help pointed.
To make thing worst, the amount of points you gain is very small, at least for a level 2 to 3 level raid (the best I could do) I could only gain around 15, and a single pet food, require 100, while some of the best rewards go around 1200 points.
Let me remind, you can't really do raid after raid, you have an activity bar, which depletes as you do raids, and higher level raids require more energy, so you can see where this is going.
Detective T´s Proposal for a Joint Investigation (4/10 to 4/24):
This one was quite good and cleaver. First you talk to Detective T, his daily is simple enough, collect 15 mysterious trace and bring to him. Once done he gives you a code word, which you need to interpret by clicking in some objects, if you do correctly you gain some rewards.
Now the reward part was the cleaver part, you gain an item which can give you a random RNPC even rare ones, and you could use spare cards (or card which you have but never planned to use) to exchange points for even more item which give you a random RNPC plus some bonus on the side.
If you did the whole event and collected the Mysterious collection card, you did gain the new Rare RNPC Chloe.
Kane Episode Event (03/10 to 04/07):
Fairly good event, by talking to Kane, you have to go through several rooms, doing minor stuff, such as finding a spot in the ground, dodging rotator blades and so to find a document, you gain rewards the more you do the event, while also winning Kane´s Ticket which you can exchange for some stuff. Sorry but appear that I forget to take screenshots of this one.
Bianca Episode Event (04/21 to 05/05):
Oh god, this event, it looks easy, like it give control of this new RNPC and the daily mission is about defeating Taikbin, however, it requires you to use her skills in a very precise order, with no room for error, enemies will do lots of damage and Taikbin might one hit kill you, while you also have very few time to even understand what is going on. You can redo this quest, but it is so annoying that after some tries I sort give up the whole thing.
Sherry Episode Event (2/24 to 03/10):
... This one was not good, it starts fairly easier, with just go in some map and collect a few stuff, but the daily mission, the “Passionete Dance Practice” is a nightmare, not that is hard…
The deal is that you control the new RNPC and have to fight some NPC, it looks easier, but in reality is a QTE where it expects you to do is use her skills in the absolute correct order as the RNPC tell you, it looks easier, but either due input delay, the skill own delay and timing, plus how knows? Maybe lag, is very hard, like most time you press a skill when she says, but it take a while, so she is already asking something else, but you can't do anything. To make things worst, there is almost no room for error, even in the easy difficult.
So, that is it for now. I likely keep playing seeing how far I can push and hopefully I can end this writing about the game plot and story.
Links to all posts:
Granado Espada - Overview (Part I)
Granado Espada - Visuals and Early Game (Part II)
Granado Espada - Issues and Bits of Progress (Part III)