#because yes i do have a fontaine bias so i am interested to talk with someone with a natlan bias

[lyss-sketchbox]

I'm so glad to see more people that weren't hyped by natlan, archon quest included, after seeing so many 'this is even better than Fontaine' in the tag. I felt like I was going insane.

Sorry excuse me WHAT

I get that fontaine has its flaws but to say its better than natlan is uh. I need someone to fight me over this because i cannot see it.

Let me use the 'and then' and 'because' rule

Fontaine

Fontaine feels like a more natural progression of the plot and characters as the story goes by. We meet lyney and lynette who shows us fontaine, and then lyney was convicted. We help with lyneys trial because furina wanted to duel us in court and this gives her that chance, because of that we discovered how reckless furina is and uncovered the primordial sea water, because of that navia asked us to continue the investigation, therefore it revealed to us more about the oceanid people, about callas, and about neuvillettes stance on justice. And because of her previous fack up furina prepared better for this 2nd trial which tells us more about her character.

At the end of it all we understand the characters, how they are not what we think they are. We view them differently before and after the acts. The reveal of each clue did not feel like an info dump. We were investigating and we slowly take in these information like an investigation would. It was a slog, but it forced us to be involved, forced us to personally look at these facts because WE are suppossed to be the investigators. So it sticks with us better.

Natlan

Natlan feels more stagnant. We meet Kachina because she was being ditched by her teammates. Because of that, while we cant join her team, she offered to show us natlan much like lyney and lynette in the beginning. And then we meet Mualani and Kinich in the stadium and then they explain to us more about the pilgrimage. And then mualani and kachina went to train for the pilgrimage. And then we watch kachina win and be send off to the Night Kingdom. And then we meet Mualani and Kinich again and be offered to tour their tribes while we wait for kachina to return. Because of that we learn that the tribes often get attacked by abyssal monsters. And then kachina died. Because of that we went to meet with the archon and join the team to rescue her. And then capitano vs mavuika happened. And then she explains that the contending fire is dying therefore she must use her power to keep it alive. And then we failed to make it out of the Night Kingdom but we lived because Mavuika had reserve powers to save us.

There is no change between how i view these characters before and after the act that wants me to speculate if they will change in further acts or not. We stay a tourist throughout Natlan, we stand there and things happen around us and characters around us explain to us what those things mean.

Could lyney and navias trial ended the way it did without us? No. Could kachina's pilgrimage win and subsequent rescue happen without us? Id argue yes. That is infact an issue.