This video is a bit different from your usual videos, not only aesthetically but also in terms of its intent and your calm voice with an inspiring message. My favourite video of all, so far. Also, that collage of editing where the Warclaw is jumping matching the tempo of the music, is superb!
In my opinion this is the best expansion so far! I play Guild Wars 2 since launch and also still play the original Guild Wars. This expansion is so beautiful and the story is amazing! Can't wait for what is yet still there to come! And as always beautiful video Sir!
I’m a huge fan of IOJ right now. I no longer feel like the main character I feel like the map and the characters in the world are finally getting a chance to shine.
This expansion seems to have brought back the same fascination I had when I first saw the ruins of Ascalon, which is the scale of the place with the fascination of "what happened here?". (I didn't play the first GW). As you said, the level design is very "different" from the other expansions but there is also an improvement in the character writing, spear is the first melee weapon that really became my main (I've been playing since launch) and the story itself has the exact amount of suspense. I think this new model they adopted brought a more fluid feeling of continuity to the world and they learned a lot in a very short time.
Your most def right about the landscape I took a year off and came back to check things out I didn’t buy Soto and got janthir because of the spear and i started janthir and just started exploring and absolutely love it
it feels like so much quality has been crammped in just the first update and release of JTW alone. i hope this is prommissing for the future where both parties ( Gw2 and its Customers) dont have to lose out on anything.
Lowland Shore in particular is absolutely stunning and filled with stuff to do. If it wasn't for the story being literally 80% listening to dialogue without doing anything I'd agree that this is the best expac yet. Really wonder if they can deliver with the raid though, the instanced content they've released recently is kind of hit and miss.
One of the things people mentioned was that the maps felt like they were there for the player's sake. These maps feel like the player is just visiting.
Not for me though, SotO does have an exciting start, but the first 2 maps themselves are kinda boring (too many reused assets and flight sections) and the soundtrack is forgettable. Also don't forget about the poor performance and slow loading time, which is still present to this day.
I share that love for this expention. it makes me forget about my daily routines, because i just want to be on one of these maps, listen to that awesome soundtrack and just have a good time with my new kodan friends 🤩
You know what? It would be awesome if Anet reached out to an artist like NerdForge, to make a diorama of Lowland Shore. I think with with the mountainous landscape and the waterfalls sloping down to the shoreline, it would make for a fantastic diorama.
Idk but soto fellt okay but soulless, seeing this wants me to come back as it feels like base game maps. Instead of flashing colors and insane tactics to get anywhere
All that what you said plus for me i feel like im jumping from event to event, like im constantly doing something. Both the game desing and game play are so rich.
call me insane but the one thing I liked about wow's bfa was Kul Tiras. I loved the map, stunning. that being said Janthir so far is FANTASTIC and is better
I said the same about SOTO when it launched, and once I played the final instances of "The Midnight King" it was the first time ever that I skipped the credits, and just logged off. SOTO's story was getting progressively worse, which was such a shame, because I felt very engaged in it at the beginning, and the music and atmosphere were superb. SOTO left us with a very bitter after-taste. Hopefully JW will get a proper, epic conclusion with some beautiful twists and turns, instead of a boring, uninspired conclusion so predictable and lame, that it felt like I wasn't playing GW2 anymore. It has always been filled with impactful cutscenes and cinematics, meaningful dialogues, various personalities, which made the story interesting, even if it hasn't been perfect. In one year I will give my once cent of a feedback about the expansion set in Janthir and quite possibly in the "Realm of Torment" too. For now I am looking forward to seeing how the Lowland Kodan evolve and maybe open up to other cultures too (I hope Poky and Paw will play a major role in the story) and also I would love to see Waiting Sorrow much more in the future - a very interesting character that deserves the spotlight. I'm curious about the Tyrian Alliance too and if their decision about using the Scepter would backfire and not work on the evolved Titans, who are much more cunning and basically immortal - especially I'm interested in Ura.
It... doesn't stand out in a good way. But it also kinda does. Anet is incredibly good at environmental design they just forget about it quite often. it's sad that the standard now is one map but hey, if they do what they do best, maybe that's all I need.
It definitely has beautiful maps...but actual, physical content is pretty scarce. You end up doing the same, singular events over and over...and a few collections and boom....waiting season till November
How? Inner Nayos just feels like a place for the player to be in while both Lowlands Shore and Janthir Sentri feel like places you're just visiting. While the Nayos map does stand out for looking so different outside of a few structures the Kryptis seems to be slumming it. It's so empty. There's nothing in that indicates that anyone actually lives there as much as are placed there for us to encounter. If you emptied out a refugee camp you'd still find detritus that showed that someone lived there. If you emptied out Nayos it would just be a field with topography and interesting-looking features. If you emptied out Lowland Shore or Janthir Sentti they'd still feel like haunting places.
@@nielsjensen4185 you failed to realize it was an alien landscape, surreal if not metaphysical - the structure of map, the "sky", the colors and the features all come together to make it very unique. I've seen this criticism time and again, people uncomfortable about how "weird" and nonsensical it looks and feels... that was the idea.
@@Perisemiotics How do "alien" and "meta-physical" apply to anything I said? I said that the environment is essentially empty and there's nothing that shows that anyone lives there. You get the feeling they just exist there for the player to experience when they pass through. If you removed all the mobs from the Inner Nayos map it would never really seem out of place since the environment is mostly empty anyway. If you removed all the mobs from Lowlands Shore the map would feel eerie and empty because someone lived there once and now they're all gone.
@@nielsjensen4185 Would an alien environment be as recognizable as Janthir Kodan villages or any other sites or sightings you can relate to? The Burrows in Inner Nayos, for instance, is a well-portrayed section of the "land" (calling it "land" already goes against the concept of the map, but let's move along for the sake of feasibility...) where you could say there is occupation by living beings beyond the beings themselves being on the map - were they removed completely, you could still look at The Burrows, and quite a few other areas indeed, and say someone or something lives or lived there. Then again, even if we assume your premise to be correct, what would the "problem" with that be? We are talking about an alien landscape, and that in my view means first and foremost... it should _feel_ alien. Those majestic buildings in Nayos that are empty (Eventide) coupled with some sort of ancestral, metamorphic, intangible structures (Tree of Many Faces) are screaming to our faces that that is no ordinary "land" - it is a realm of existence where the most basic notions are to be challenged. The very fact we are debating its nature and meaning is already a testament to the merits in concept and design of the map.
That vid isn't very objective. While HoT introduced a new mechanic for each 4 maps+adding verticality due to gliders, PoF managed to release 5 maps day 1+ mounts. Each expansion brought 1 guild hall and raids (hot had 2 guild halls). With the arrival of HoT, we had a lot of entirely new enemies with NEW and ORIGINAL rigs and animation, example for HoT: Vinetooth, mushrooms, big chaks, wiverns... for PoF: forged surfer, djinns, hydras... And we also got new specs with both HoT and Pof, that are still the most played weapon combos to this day. EoD also wasn't that bad, but the story felt poor, the enemies weak and pointless and a lot of recycling too. The specs are getting played much more. Soto was a big disappointment. Started well but ended badly. LWS3 and LWs4 were better. Honestly i didn't play much of the new expac yet, but from community feedback it lacks content. One thing they did good is the art, the maps are beautiful but again, nothing special, we already had Drizzlewood Coast in the same league. And i like that they went back to renown hearts, it has always worked well.
deff better than soto. maybe better than cantha. but not remotely as good as hot and pof. Far too much dialogues. like way too much. Compare it to POF and HOT where the npcs usually talked as we were going somewhere or fighting enemies. I used to enjoy GW2's story, but I lost interest after Cantha and the forced agendas so I just wish Anet let us skip those damn dialogues. I get it, there are people who enjoy them, and the voice actors did a great job, but don't force people who are mostly interested in the gameplay to listen to a 25mins dialogues, followed by a 10 mins dialogues every 30mins of gameplay. Overall, Id rate the expansion 6/10. I believe that most people who keep saying this expansion is ''the best'' are people who were so disappointed with SOTO to the point where they had very low expectations.
For the moment the story of Janthir is not finished. You can compare it with HoT or PoF when it is finished. Also, on those expansions you mentioned there was The Pact, and the urgency to take out Mordremoth after the destruction the armada, Balthazar, and Kralkatorik before they destroy all, and the incoming Promordious. Of course it was different. But here you are exploring new lands, no one has been here since Muursats and White Mantle, hundreds of years ago, but no Tyrians. Is misterious, it is new, and here you are a honored visitor, not the Commander of the Pact saving the World, and this is good.
So true, I would love a skip button for the dialogs. I know it might be controversial, but the story in MMOs (and video games in general, tend to be sub par. Of course there are exceptions but if I want a good story I would read a book or watch a movie. Please give us a skip button
First map is pretty decent, has a lot going for itself, second one, not nearly as. A large portion of the events don't feel particularly engaging. There is a lot of "Hunt some rare beast" events. but all of them feel lackluster in terms of design and pretty boring, they are mostly using the same mechanics aswell so it doesn't feel very different, then there is a bunch of "go kill some mobs in this area" and the mobs are mostly just punching bags to me, some of them aren'teven new obs just old elementals that feel like core enemies. There is a few more challenging group events occasionally, but I can't say they are amazing. The world building is pretty nice in the first map, lots of lore and tidbits that are pretty nice, but the copy paste events are a pretty big flop to me. Lack of enaging combat enemies are the major flaw to me though, and the dynamic events beeing copy pasted and bland.
Great scenery, love the forests and white cliffs, immersion breaking writing, fails to sell actual feel of the native tribe of kodan by using too much modern terms and language, and what ticks me off to hell and back is the god damn piss poor, fanfic level Yoda impressionist. Honestly still reeks of DEI involvement. Gw2 became cesspool of lgbtq content in the most unbearable way possible. I cracked way back while doing elegy collection when stumbled upon pack of agresively lesbian female sunspears talking about wives. It's really starting to make me dislike gw2 as it becomes more and more a messenger of propaganda
This video is a bit different from your usual videos, not only aesthetically but also in terms of its intent and your calm voice with an inspiring message. My favourite video of all, so far. Also, that collage of editing where the Warclaw is jumping matching the tempo of the music, is superb!
babe wake up, new Evan4K video just dropped!
The Maps are beautiful you right!!!
In my opinion this is the best expansion so far! I play Guild Wars 2 since launch and also still play the original Guild Wars. This expansion is so beautiful and the story is amazing! Can't wait for what is yet still there to come! And as always beautiful video Sir!
I’m a huge fan of IOJ right now. I no longer feel like the main character I feel like the map and the characters in the world are finally getting a chance to shine.
I absolutely adore the kind of twilight in Janthir Syntri. It's so beautiful, yet so haunting. Especially when you dive into the lore of Gavril.
Well said!! I took my time to enjoy the landscapes every expa, they outdid themself in this one!
Great video, Evan. There are plenty of beautiful spots in the other expansions but they have really hit the mark with Janthir.
This expansion seems to have brought back the same fascination I had when I first saw the ruins of Ascalon, which is the scale of the place with the fascination of "what happened here?". (I didn't play the first GW). As you said, the level design is very "different" from the other expansions but there is also an improvement in the character writing, spear is the first melee weapon that really became my main (I've been playing since launch) and the story itself has the exact amount of suspense.
I think this new model they adopted brought a more fluid feeling of continuity to the world and they learned a lot in a very short time.
PoF is the best xpac, but janthir is a very close second
Evan, you damn near brought a tear to my eye there. Well done sir. Well done
Your most def right about the landscape I took a year off and came back to check things out I didn’t buy Soto and got janthir because of the spear and i started janthir and just started exploring and absolutely love it
it feels like so much quality has been crammped in just the first update and release of JTW alone. i hope this is prommissing for the future where both parties ( Gw2 and its Customers) dont have to lose out on anything.
My favorite thing about Janthir is that it's the (literal) Grizzly Hills expansion that WOW is too big of COWARDS to give us :P
Lowland Shore in particular is absolutely stunning and filled with stuff to do. If it wasn't for the story being literally 80% listening to dialogue without doing anything I'd agree that this is the best expac yet. Really wonder if they can deliver with the raid though, the instanced content they've released recently is kind of hit and miss.
Yes.. you are so right.. I stepped into Janthir and fell in love instantly.
i thought i was the only one, but seems the hype for those maps is real
Anyone remember when SOTO's launch also got a ton of praise?
One of the things people mentioned was that the maps felt like they were there for the player's sake. These maps feel like the player is just visiting.
Not for me though, SotO does have an exciting start, but the first 2 maps themselves are kinda boring (too many reused assets and flight sections) and the soundtrack is forgettable.
Also don't forget about the poor performance and slow loading time, which is still present to this day.
So basically to summarise a 7 min video of why you think this is the best expansion :
There is a new map
I share that love for this expention. it makes me forget about my daily routines, because i just want to be on one of these maps, listen to that awesome soundtrack and just have a good time with my new kodan friends 🤩
You know what?
It would be awesome if Anet reached out to an artist like NerdForge, to make a diorama of Lowland Shore.
I think with with the mountainous landscape and the waterfalls sloping down to the shoreline, it would make for a fantastic diorama.
I still stand by LWS4 having the best writing so far, but Janthir Wilds has just been so *fun*!!!
great vid Evan
BEAUTIFUL🥰 AND AWESOME😎EXPANSION…Can’t get enough of it 👍🏻👍🏻
It looks a lot like Pre-Searing Ascalon from Guild wars One...and that is no bad thing
Totally, i am enjoying so much just from woching you playing.
Looking forward for fall and playing it my self. Cheers🐲🐣🐲
Idk but soto fellt okay but soulless, seeing this wants me to come back as it feels like base game maps. Instead of flashing colors and insane tactics to get anywhere
Janthir looks alot like Skyrim.
It’s looks so good like something out of a movie.
All that what you said plus for me i feel like im jumping from event to event, like im constantly doing something. Both the game desing and game play are so rich.
Time to sell my 3 confetti infusions buy my first legendary and have a come back
I love your GW content
call me insane but the one thing I liked about wow's bfa was Kul Tiras. I loved the map, stunning. that being said Janthir so far is FANTASTIC and is better
I feel like janthir still is missing the condensed feeling of structures that core tyria had. no cave systems, which is a bummer.
I said the same about SOTO when it launched, and once I played the final instances of "The Midnight King" it was the first time ever that I skipped the credits, and just logged off. SOTO's story was getting progressively worse, which was such a shame, because I felt very engaged in it at the beginning, and the music and atmosphere were superb. SOTO left us with a very bitter after-taste. Hopefully JW will get a proper, epic conclusion with some beautiful twists and turns, instead of a boring, uninspired conclusion so predictable and lame, that it felt like I wasn't playing GW2 anymore. It has always been filled with impactful cutscenes and cinematics, meaningful dialogues, various personalities, which made the story interesting, even if it hasn't been perfect.
In one year I will give my once cent of a feedback about the expansion set in Janthir and quite possibly in the "Realm of Torment" too. For now I am looking forward to seeing how the Lowland Kodan evolve and maybe open up to other cultures too (I hope Poky and Paw will play a major role in the story) and also I would love to see Waiting Sorrow much more in the future - a very interesting character that deserves the spotlight. I'm curious about the Tyrian Alliance too and if their decision about using the Scepter would backfire and not work on the evolved Titans, who are much more cunning and basically immortal - especially I'm interested in Ura.
It... doesn't stand out in a good way. But it also kinda does. Anet is incredibly good at environmental design they just forget about it quite often.
it's sad that the standard now is one map but hey, if they do what they do best, maybe that's all I need.
Sorry, does not hold a candle to Pof or Season 4. But it is very good indeed, very excited for the next content patches!
It definitely has beautiful maps...but actual, physical content is pretty scarce. You end up doing the same, singular events over and over...and a few collections and boom....waiting season till November
I dont know if anyone has ever told you but you look a lot like Winona Ryder. Stupid remark aside, excellent video!
janthir est trés beau
Its the smallest expansion too.
But navigating it is awful without flying mount
your criteria also apply to Inner Nayos - which gives me the same vibes as Janthir
How? Inner Nayos just feels like a place for the player to be in while both Lowlands Shore and Janthir Sentri feel like places you're just visiting.
While the Nayos map does stand out for looking so different outside of a few structures the Kryptis seems to be slumming it. It's so empty. There's nothing in that indicates that anyone actually lives there as much as are placed there for us to encounter. If you emptied out a refugee camp you'd still find detritus that showed that someone lived there. If you emptied out Nayos it would just be a field with topography and interesting-looking features.
If you emptied out Lowland Shore or Janthir Sentti they'd still feel like haunting places.
@@nielsjensen4185 you failed to realize it was an alien landscape, surreal if not metaphysical - the structure of map, the "sky", the colors and the features all come together to make it very unique.
I've seen this criticism time and again, people uncomfortable about how "weird" and nonsensical it looks and feels... that was the idea.
@@Perisemiotics How do "alien" and "meta-physical" apply to anything I said? I said that the environment is essentially empty and there's nothing that shows that anyone lives there. You get the feeling they just exist there for the player to experience when they pass through.
If you removed all the mobs from the Inner Nayos map it would never really seem out of place since the environment is mostly empty anyway.
If you removed all the mobs from Lowlands Shore the map would feel eerie and empty because someone lived there once and now they're all gone.
@@nielsjensen4185 Would an alien environment be as recognizable as Janthir Kodan villages or any other sites or sightings you can relate to? The Burrows in Inner Nayos, for instance, is a well-portrayed section of the "land" (calling it "land" already goes against the concept of the map, but let's move along for the sake of feasibility...) where you could say there is occupation by living beings beyond the beings themselves being on the map - were they removed completely, you could still look at The Burrows, and quite a few other areas indeed, and say someone or something lives or lived there.
Then again, even if we assume your premise to be correct, what would the "problem" with that be? We are talking about an alien landscape, and that in my view means first and foremost... it should _feel_ alien. Those majestic buildings in Nayos that are empty (Eventide) coupled with some sort of ancestral, metamorphic, intangible structures (Tree of Many Faces) are screaming to our faces that that is no ordinary "land" - it is a realm of existence where the most basic notions are to be challenged.
The very fact we are debating its nature and meaning is already a testament to the merits in concept and design of the map.
liked you POV , 👍
That vid isn't very objective. While HoT introduced a new mechanic for each 4 maps+adding verticality due to gliders, PoF managed to release 5 maps day 1+ mounts. Each expansion brought 1 guild hall and raids (hot had 2 guild halls). With the arrival of HoT, we had a lot of entirely new enemies with NEW and ORIGINAL rigs and animation, example for HoT: Vinetooth, mushrooms, big chaks, wiverns... for PoF: forged surfer, djinns, hydras... And we also got new specs with both HoT and Pof, that are still the most played weapon combos to this day. EoD also wasn't that bad, but the story felt poor, the enemies weak and pointless and a lot of recycling too. The specs are getting played much more. Soto was a big disappointment. Started well but ended badly. LWS3 and LWs4 were better. Honestly i didn't play much of the new expac yet, but from community feedback it lacks content. One thing they did good is the art, the maps are beautiful but again, nothing special, we already had Drizzlewood Coast in the same league. And i like that they went back to renown hearts, it has always worked well.
its not even an expansion ? its good but its not an actual xpac its a smaller dlc release that isnt even fully done ?
deff better than soto. maybe better than cantha. but not remotely as good as hot and pof.
Far too much dialogues. like way too much. Compare it to POF and HOT where the npcs usually talked as we were going somewhere or fighting enemies.
I used to enjoy GW2's story, but I lost interest after Cantha and the forced agendas so I just wish Anet let us skip those damn dialogues. I get it, there are people who enjoy them, and the voice actors did a great job, but don't force people who are mostly interested in the gameplay to listen to a 25mins dialogues, followed by a 10 mins dialogues every 30mins of gameplay.
Overall, Id rate the expansion 6/10.
I believe that most people who keep saying this expansion is ''the best'' are people who were so disappointed with SOTO to the point where they had very low expectations.
For the moment the story of Janthir is not finished. You can compare it with HoT or PoF when it is finished.
Also, on those expansions you mentioned there was The Pact, and the urgency to take out Mordremoth after the destruction the armada, Balthazar, and Kralkatorik before they destroy all, and the incoming Promordious. Of course it was different. But here you are exploring new lands, no one has been here since Muursats and White Mantle, hundreds of years ago, but no Tyrians. Is misterious, it is new, and here you are a honored visitor, not the Commander of the Pact saving the World, and this is good.
So true, I would love a skip button for the dialogs. I know it might be controversial, but the story in MMOs (and video games in general, tend to be sub par. Of course there are exceptions but if I want a good story I would read a book or watch a movie. Please give us a skip button
meh for me edo is visually better
First map is pretty decent, has a lot going for itself, second one, not nearly as. A large portion of the events don't feel particularly engaging. There is a lot of "Hunt some rare beast" events. but all of them feel lackluster in terms of design and pretty boring, they are mostly using the same mechanics aswell so it doesn't feel very different, then there is a bunch of "go kill some mobs in this area" and the mobs are mostly just punching bags to me, some of them aren'teven new obs just old elementals that feel like core enemies. There is a few more challenging group events occasionally, but I can't say they are amazing. The world building is pretty nice in the first map, lots of lore and tidbits that are pretty nice, but the copy paste events are a pretty big flop to me. Lack of enaging combat enemies are the major flaw to me though, and the dynamic events beeing copy pasted and bland.
best exp? no. jw is soto living story
Great scenery, love the forests and white cliffs, immersion breaking writing, fails to sell actual feel of the native tribe of kodan by using too much modern terms and language, and what ticks me off to hell and back is the god damn piss poor, fanfic level Yoda impressionist. Honestly still reeks of DEI involvement. Gw2 became cesspool of lgbtq content in the most unbearable way possible. I cracked way back while doing elegy collection when stumbled upon pack of agresively lesbian female sunspears talking about wives. It's really starting to make me dislike gw2 as it becomes more and more a messenger of propaganda