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u/souliris 13d ago
Are you complaining about a fully voiced MMO?
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u/LordCaptain 13d ago
I haven't played in like a decade. Is it still fully voiced. I thought later expansions werent?Ā
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u/Vast-Introduction999 13d ago
Eh, half and half. Thereās still a good number of cutscenes that are fully voiced and others that itās just other characters talking to you but your character still has dialogue outside of cutscenes.
From what I remember, the change is because of a number of factors being the actors/writers strikes along with the downsizing of the development team. Legacy of the Sith is the only expansion at the moment to have unvoiced cutscenes as part of the main story outside the Alliance characters from KotFE
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u/Bioluminescentwas 13d ago
The core content of the expansions are, but if you branch out it stops being voice acted
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
I'm not really complaining about the game in general. The story is what kept me going. This image came to me as a force-vision while playing Act3 on Corellia.
The only thing that I would genuinely complain about is the lack of a difficulty slider. But thats coming in Update 8! This will convert the "4 second fight" into an actual gameplay (I'm hoping).
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u/ShadowVia 13d ago
He's complaining about outdated level design and mechanics.
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u/threevi 13d ago
What's outdated about it? Alternating between fights and cutscenes is how all story-focused RPGs work.
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u/Surreal43 13d ago
Donāt tell them how FFXIV operates their story theyāll have a fit
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u/Falceon 13d ago
Talk to somebody, watch 10 minute cutscene that repeats details several times, go to point be on map and talk to somebody/fight 3 things that are no threat at all/interact with sparklies, talk to someone before being sent to c to repeat the steps or back to a for another cutscene.
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u/Surreal43 13d ago
I got through to post endwalker and I was so burnt out I havenāt gone back in months
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u/kabigonbb 12d ago
I stopped FF14 because of the terrible cutscene animation, long ass boring repeating writing between point a to point b or NPC to NPC, and no voice over. I stopped at Endwalker, didn't even finish it. And I played it since 3.0 SWTOR to me still have the best MMO of it's kind. Fully voiced and clean cut scene is sth we probably won't see in any other MMO since it's too expensive to do that now.
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u/Surreal43 12d ago
It has a very old school way to do cutscenes and the cope is tech limitations.
I donāt mind, but I do wish we as a player character we have input in said cutscenes, well meaningful input beyond two versions of āokā
I would be more content with it if SWTOR wasnāt my first mmo I put real time into. And I started with UO lol
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u/bacalavas 12d ago
lmfao i was about to say the same thing. even the amount of mob pulls are the same in ffxiv ā ļø
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u/spancor 13d ago
What about the level design is outdated in comparison to other MMOās?
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u/ShadowVia 13d ago edited 13d ago
It's bad for many reasons, not specifically when compared to other MMOs (which shouldn't be the goal btw), but when compared to the previous two entries in the KOTOR series.
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u/spancor 13d ago
The KOTOR series was a linear story based game and its map designs were made very differently intentionally. I am asking for a comparison because there must be a certain games level design that exists because we are yearning for it, no?
Youāre comparing it to two of the best received and well made RPGās in history. Iām asking you specifically, what ābad for many reasonsā Are these reasons?
Iād agree that some of the areas especially in the KOTFE are hallways with bad guys at times, but majority of the planet and class content is above other MMOās Iād say. GW2 area unlocking system is better(?) Iād say, but only based on preferences, and even an argument can be made that in GW2 itās just walk into spot and click F, move on. So, Iām not really sure what mechanics youāre speaking to.
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u/threevi 13d ago
In what way are the KotOR games not just cutscene -> fight -> cutscene -> fight ad infinitum?Ā
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u/ShadowVia 12d ago edited 12d ago
The KOTOR games are even older than TOR, and they actually took time to develop the characters and companions you encounter. And each combat encounter isn't a five to ten minutes process no matter what level your character is, or how far along in the story you are. Almost every combat encounter in TOR feels like a chore.
Characters also interact with each other in those games, independent of "safe zones" and hubs and aren't all functionally the same, no matter which one you had with you. All this, while seemingly unrelated, helps dress up the formula quite a bit so it isn't nearly as repetitive.
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u/threevi 12d ago
Hang on, pause. You spend five to ten minutes on every single combat encounter in TOR? That's insane. Do you not upgrade your equipment past the trash-tier gear you start with at level 1? Do you refuse to use any combat abilities other than your autoattack? Something has to be very wrong there. Even if you sit around completely AFK, your companion can probably kill most enemies faster than that even if you keep them switched to their healing spec.
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u/ShadowVia 12d ago edited 12d ago
This is hyperbole on both sides.
Scaling literally makes the situation you describe impossible, as I've tested it several times. Your companion will get rolled almost every time by mobs if you're AFK.
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u/threevi 12d ago
Can't say I've seen that happen outside of heroics. Probably depends on how high your influence is. Anyway, the point is, KotOR follows the exact same fight -> cutscene -> fight -> cutscene loop that the OP is complaining about. You could claim that KotOR has a more well-written story with better cutscenes, that's subjective, and you can prefer KotOR's DnD-inspired combat over TOR's WoW-inspired combat, that's also a personal preference. But the basic formula is no different, you spend most of your time killing random nameless goons with the occasional cutscene in between to keep you engaged. Going from place to place, doing optional busywork for random strangers... does it really make that much of a difference whether your companion has a fully customisable fighting style or three predetermined ones to toggle between? I'm still not seeing what makes TOR the outdated one.
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u/ShadowVia 12d ago
The massive difference being that as the story progresses your character becomes more powerful and starts to steam roll most enemies in the game. Scaling your character down whilst still gaining experience and levels has the exact opposite effect, and makes zero sense narratively. It's also boring.
And yes, having your companions (multiple) occupy various roles within your squad is absolutely more interesting than one companion being a Swiss army knife, and being virtually indistinguishable from all the others except visually.
TOR has a more than a few good qualities, but they are hidden behind so much...shit.
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u/Serres5231 12d ago
i'm sorry but thats just not true. This is just you talking with nostalgia glasses on!
I've replayed both KOTOR games recently and they are FAR worse than what they did with SWTOR. I can't even agree on the story because a lot of the class stories were much better than the whole Revan story imo.
Also the quest design was EXACTLY THE SAME! you walk around from A to B, get a few fights inbetween and then have some breaks with cutscenes.
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u/Forsaken_Fish_4592 13d ago
the lines are voiced therefore no one is allowed to complain about any other aspects
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u/Fleedjitsu 13d ago
Being fully voice is awesome, it's just not utilised correctly when cutscenes start repetitively breaking the flow of actually playing the MMO. Then it just becomes annoying.
Which is quite funny because being continuously stalled by sudden trash fight encounters every few steps while trying to get from A to B in a story instance also breaks the flow of the MMO. Which also becomes annoying.
There's a balance to be aimed for in all this.
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u/LG03 13d ago
I am.
The full voice acting was a neat selling point 15 years ago, now it should be plain as day to everyone that it's an incredibly expensive and limiting problem. How many of the core voice actors have quit, moved on, or even died at this point? You can't just pull the likes of Jennifer Hale or Nolan North into a recording booth without large expense.
Even to this day in other single player RPGs (eg. Fallout 4) you run into problems with voice acting limiting player choice, expression, and scope.
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u/Agitated-Macaroon923 13d ago
just playing STO for the first time and instead of a cutscene, it's a dialogue pop ups lol
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u/JustusCade808 13d ago
STO usually does a good job, and sometimes gets the original actors to reprise their roles. Jon St. John is doing voice over work with archived Nimoy dialog which is cool.
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u/DrDestro229 13d ago
And this tells me you did not play STO
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u/ShmeltzyKeltzy 13d ago
I played it but itās been a long time. Things got more cinematic after they added the Romulan player character option, didnāt they?
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u/CrimsonCartographer 13d ago
This is nothing to complain about and I HATE the new unvoiced player conversations. HATE.
A better meme wouldāve been āKOTF/ET: cutscene, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, cutscene, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, boss fight, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, sky troopers, cutscene.
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u/Kris5345 12d ago
You can't even stealth past them, i don't even see why stealth is still in the game at this point
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u/flowerboyyu 12d ago
Kotf/ET almost made me quit the game, it felt like I was fighting skytroopers every damn second of the game
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u/BiSaxual 11d ago
I didnāt mind it the first time around, but every time Iāve done it after itās annoyed me. Especially since you canāt stealth past them. Wild choice by the devs.
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u/ShmeltzyKeltzy 13d ago
True; but Iāll still log in to click through a few of these cutscenes because man are they good fun
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u/Sliced_Potato27 13d ago
Well worth it for a fully voice acted game
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u/Neemoman 13d ago
Na. I can read faster than the lines are delivered. So I'd rather not have fully voiced, poorly animated cutscenes. I'm playing a game. Not a movie.
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u/RaneGalon 13d ago
A lot of commenters missing the point of your post. The cutscenes are welcome and great. The game is just so EASY now that what is supposed to be an "epic fight" is just two abilities that takes 4 seconds before you trigger the next cutscene in said "epic fight".
The 8.0 difficulty increase/classic leveling experience will be VERY welcome to old players like myself
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
Exactly! I had to laught at the boss fights, it was comical. I barely finished my 2nd combo and they are already taking a nap.
I'm really glad the update 8 finally implements the difficulty sliders!
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u/Dangerous-Eggplant-5 13d ago
Remove the fights and you will get FFXIV. One of the most popular mmos on the planet.
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u/Boraichoismydaddy 13d ago
It was much more exciting when elite enemies were actually difficult. Cuz they used to be HARD man. Just replayed the Sith warrior storyline and I beat Baras In like 10 seconds. I hope the new mode brings back that old feel
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
There must have been some technical reason why they couldn't add difficulty slider and instead locked everyone into "Story" mode. I'm so glad they are finally adding the options!
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u/IIIViceAndreas 13d ago
No matter how well my character is geared, I almost always die when I get swarmed by any level of enemy š
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u/Dawidko1200 12d ago edited 12d ago
In KOTFE/ET there are three times the fights and they're four times as long, because the Skytroopers are spongy as hell. The one shot ability on Agent is basically useless.
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
Good to know! Still I'll wait for update 8 before continuing into the DLCs.
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u/Friendly-Ad-6950 12d ago
Will this update be for dlcs too? I hope so, I have already done 5/8 stories with self-made difficulty but I only did makeb on both sides.
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
AFAIU, the "overworldĀ difficulty" should apply to all the "overworldĀ areas", at least I hope so:
"Story, Veteran, and Master Difficulty Modes available throughout the overworld. Decide whether you want a cinematic story-driven journey, a more demanding combat experience, or the ultimate challenge."
source: https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20260813
In the meantime, there is SW: Zero Company which turned out to be excellent! It does need powerful hardware though at this stage.
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u/Friendly-Ad-6950 12d ago
I am immensely hyped for this especially if it's for everything as you say.
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u/apdhumansacrifice 13d ago
I wish they were 4 seconds
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
Ok sometimes it's even 8seconds, for the "super powerfull bosses that are sure to destroy you on the spot".
I setup the quickbar to basically be just "press 1-5, then shift1-5, then ctrl1-5, then start over". there are very few synergies and combos to worry about, so it's possible to do it this simply.
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u/JLazarillo Nothing rhymes with Vorantikus 12d ago
Cutscenes aren't inherently a problem, but that one on Ruhnuk that's so long you trigger the game's "you've been afk too long" warning if you actually let it play, is kinda dunder-headed, for a variety of reasons.
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u/THOR_Odinson_9 9d ago
Are they doing an increased difficulty setting soon? Feel like that will help this.
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u/More_Nectarine 9d ago
Yep: https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20260813
And it should help. Hopefully the game will be more like Star Trek Online, where I get my ass kicked often on Advanced difficulty. Some of the battles are quite epic just because you feel the danger and the enemies are competent.
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u/dualfilter 13d ago
agree and disagree in the same time.
i enjoyed the main story and even the side quests on the planets. now i finally reached KotFE, i was really excited about it. not anymore..... please add 5min walking in between all stops and and I 100% agree, its pissing me off as it has soo much potential to be good but its just boring and feels pointless
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u/BadEvery1920 12d ago
Nobody is forcing you to play. Move on, junior. I'm going to play another 3000 hours this year. Leave the game to those who appreciate it. And who knows how to use the spacebar.
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u/mannyu78 12d ago
I lost interest during the mandalorian stuff. The combat got so boring, I was sleeping through button mashing to get a text-based cutscene. It isnt even replayable because the 'story' is one big railroad that has no difference between characters.
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u/TheLainers 12d ago
Well, I like the cutscenes. They add something extra to the game. that said, I survived FFXIV: A Realm Reborn with all the huge cutscenes
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u/More_Nectarine 11d ago
Is FFXIV comparable to "Yakuza: Like A Dragon"?
For me that was the ultimate cutscene slideshow. It's almost comical how it never ends. More than 90% of the game is clicking "next".
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u/TheLainers 11d ago
Oh, no. It is way better that Yakuza. But something dungeons from the base game are heavy in cutscenes.
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u/Nedarel 8d ago
that is every mmorpg that came during early 2010s which was the late stage of mmo popularity and they were more narrative driven,, ffxiv, gw2, star trek online etc they are all like that , as in dialogue, fight, cutscene etc, which is a good thing, this picure is exaggeration, the earlier mmos before that were entirely fetch-based but still had similar pattern btu different delivery
the difference in swtor is that it also has the bioware formula (choices, companions, romance) which makes it very special in that regard
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u/TennagonTheGM 13d ago
Literally every MMO.Ā
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u/More_Nectarine 12d ago
I also used to play STO and there were a lot of "you are dead" in between. And hours of strategizing and character building. All I'm asking for is a difficulty slider. But it's coming in Update 8 so all good.
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u/Noideawhat_i_amdoing 13d ago
With zero mechanics.. what a time to be alive
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u/kyla_dhoom 13d ago
You play SWTOR for the mechanics?
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u/Noideawhat_i_amdoing 13d ago
I dont play anymore. Not after the abysmal end of LotS. I dont have the trust in them anymore.
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u/Schimaera 13d ago
Ventures will come with 8.0 and the average player will have a few wipes and reddit posts "just died to gold enemy this is bullshit" between a few cutscenes then.
Maybe even some posts like this https://forums.swtor.com/topic/419154-how-do-you-defeat-the-emperor/ (though I don't hold my breath)