#fwspoilers

[misstalwyn]

FORBIDDEN WEST THOUGHTS 2, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

I’m literally on the dot at 50.2 percent completion so I figure it’s a good time bc idk what plot could follow what I know now, so

SPOILERS AGAIN

Ok, listen, y’all know Avad’s #1 in my heart but HOLY FUCK does Kotallo make a challenge for the throne!!

I don’t know how they keep making all the different varieties of ideal™️ men but goddamnit does Aloy keep finding them! Don’t be selfish girl leave some for the rest of us!! 🥺

he does such a quick heel turn from “ugh the chief is making me help an outlander” to “hello commander reporting for duty” AND I! JUST!!

KOTALLO!!!

love me a man that will wrestle a machine with chainsaws for teeth and also demand chocolate frosting as a ration

“That was an unkind comparison” YOUR HONOR, I LOVE HIM

it was a really great tone/motivation to have that whole plot just be “let’s go take this asshole down a peg”

and WHERE is aloy learning to curse so much now?? i’m not crazy, right? she’s telling people off left and right! i love it but goddamn, i think rost would be PISSED lol

can I just say, the Tenakth are a pretty fascinating group for a violent bunch. They’re just historians with a fixation on military doctrine! If they just stopped killing each other over everything, they’d really have the mettle to challenge the Carja

(But pls don’t do that Avad is really trying to keep the peace YALL 😭)

anyways I really liked how their section went, and I only did a couple side quests after the kulrut and haven’t touched the arena, so we’ll see if it impresses me even more

The Utaru I initially really liked, but then I realized that was just Zo selling them really well bc a lot of their npcs were rude and their leadership don’t seem to believe in having any agency, soooo

I can see why Zo just completely lost faith in them immediately lmao

Again tho, didn’t do any post-main story missions there yet, so we shall see!

Kue was cool, tho! I would go hang out with that settlement more if they get more quests tbh

I will say I thought Beta’s defection was pretty clever, idk how I knew the whole thing with the 237 immediately lol but I will happily take my pride on that one

I don’t feel bad but also kinda feel bad for laughing at the immortal woman with centuries of tech at her fingertips just to be stabbed to death by a tribal dude with a knife 😂

all that money and still no sense!!

but Beta’s issues, man

MAN,,,,

I’m well past her breakdown by now too and yknow her deal must be beyond complex if everyone in that base and Aloy included has been thru some kind of lasting trauma, and they’re all just throwing their hands up at her

I hate to meme about it but when i get to meet tilda i’m just gonna be like, “look at this clone you made, she’s got anxiety”

Anyways, I hope someone can get her some good help bc idk if GAIA is designed for therapy lol

(They SHOULD get her a real name, first things first!)

I’ve complained about the pacing/freedom of movement enough so far, but I’m still very confused at the why/where’s/how’s of it?

Like, the leveling up through the base felt fine, nothing was head and shoulders above me and they only threw the big bois at you w/the plot

But by the kulrut, I was starting to get side missions & errands that were 5-10 levels above me, in areas with super aggressive machines I was very unprepared for

and then the tremortusk mission felt very…. Easy? And I realized I was actually OVERLEVELED for it?? even tho everything else in the area wasn’t???

I don’t understand how the plot can be pushing me forward so much, and yet here I am at tide’s reach getting level 20 side missions at level 41, even tho I just fought a level 40 vampire bat!!

Like, what! How are you supposed to get this far and be simultaneously babied and bullied? HOW??

idk, I felt like HZD had it right just having each area set at a certain difficulty, so you could just mentally sort it out like, “okay, I can handle the maizelands at my level, and if I wanna relax I can go back to the embrace,” and so on

Everyone who said the pacing was great in reviews clearly meant the plot bc, well, no arguments there lol but oh boy does my general gameplay pacing get so thrown off when I struggle in a cauldron 5 levels above me for an hour bc GAIA HERSELF CALLED AND TOLD ME TO DO IT!

and then I walk 10 feet outside to find an NPC begging me to help them with a fetch quest literally 15 levels beneath me 😬

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE

Anyway speaking of yikes, that lady at the biotech facility just got totally gaslit into thinking BIOMASS CONVERSION (the thing that doomed the world) WAS GOOD?? JUST GOTTA KEEP OUTDOING YOUR OWN SHIT, EH TED???

Y I K E S

anyways good on that person who resigned halfway thru, I respect them and only them in that environment

Alva is cool tho! And I mean that in the nerdiest, most awkward way possible lol

I gotta be honest, when I saw people mention her I thought she was supposed to be Beta bc no one understandably mentioned Beta and I thought Alva sounded close enough to Aloy that it meant they had picked a new name for her bc Beta feels kinda insulting to keep tbh

Anyways, her people sound neat, idk how i feel about hanging out with them since they worship elisabet herself?? that twist was really well done but goddamn the LOOK in aloy’s eyes when she realized “oh, not again!” lmaooo

I have also fought the monkeys. i hate the monkeys. i thought they were weird jungle cats for a little bit too lol 

I REALLY didn't expect to be at the coast already with how much more western space i still have blank on my map? but i guess, erosion is kind of the silent machine here? neat

as a native Californian, i would guess that’s just north of the bay, but its so far north i almost wanna say Eureka?? idk, but i will say theres quite a few places north and south that have that many redwoods, so i was kinda sad there were no datapoints ID’ing it

i wanna see if i can recognize everything now lol, i don't wanna leave its so pretty!! but i did reluctantly go back just to throw demeter back into gaia and its looking like i have a big chunk of plot left, huh? jesus, i really might not finish before the 18th oop

[misstalwyn]

My most important Forbidden West thought thus far:

Who tries to decorate the base with a “live laugh love” rug/poster and who is for/against it?? 🤔

[misstalwyn]

Leaked image of Ted Faro in the depths of Thebes for a thousand years

[misstalwyn]

Okay Thebes, what the FUCK

cut again bc I just need to vibrate on this shit

It was so much exactly like what I thought and exactly the opposite of what I wanted

I hated being right about the goddamn tomb décor but it’s nice to see that narcissism at work ig lol

Like, damn, on one hand I wanted to see Thebes, and it looked more like the Thebes I could see in my head than I thought they’d do! (I really thought he’d just jump out of a sarcophagus tbh)

On the other hand, I had two BIG wants on two conditions

If Ted is alive, we get to fight/kill him

If he’s dead, it had to have been ironic/funny and we get to spit on his grave

So you can maybe see why I’m just ticked all the way off now 😤

DO YOU KNOW HOW NEAT IT WAS FOR A SPLIT SECOND TO THINK THAT TED WENT FULL RESIDENT EVIL AND THAT WE COULD FIGHT HIM LIKE NEMESIS??

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SICK!! WHY WOULD YOU ROB US OF THAT, GUERRILLA??

It’s a little disappointing that because of the way they went about using it, Thebes & Ted feel like a footnote in this game’s narrative? And the series as a whole? Am I alone in feeling like that??

I mean, Ted is the reason all this shit even started, he was the Big Bad and they deliberately left all these threads hanging in ZD just to wrap them up way too neatly in a plot where he’s not even the antagonist anymore?? WHY

I JUST WANTED TO KICK HIS ASS, MAN

Don’t get me wrong, I think the zeniths are interesting enough as villains, but doesn’t it feel a little odd that they were more successful just by being stupidly rich people who happened to pick the venture that worked, rather than Ted, who was smart enough to have Omega Clearance done under Elisabet’s nose, become functionally immortal, and kill the alphas?

AND THE ZENITHS EVEN GOT CAUGHT. BUT THEY STILL GOT WHAT THEY WANTED? JUST BECAUSE??

I can’t believe I’m even defending Ted at all but when you spend a whole 100+ hour game’s worth of lore building this guy up and then don’t even show his gross, resident evil mutation IN THE GAME ABOUT FIGHTING GROSS, COOL MONSTERS, I’m gonna be a little disappointed, k?

I hate to think it was because they thought Ted was too easy to hate? They really thought “let’s undercut every little thing he ever did and even when we DO deliver what you’d expect, we’re gonna kill him passively so players don’t even get the satisfaction of kicking his ass”

I expected this whole scenario at the end of a trilogy, hence why I wrote that fic as vaguely as I did—bc I really didn’t think they’d just go and do it now! I thought I had to leave space for a whole ass sequel! And they just,,, went and did it,

It feels especially cowardly now bc it’s clear in all his datapoints that he never came remotely CLOSE to realizing exactly what he did/was doing. And then they just let him die with that mindset! Half the reason I wanted to confront him (and why I’m so glad I wrote the fic when I did lol) was so he could see, if not realize, how wrong he was!

Aloy just really deserved a chance to give Ted a piece of her mind tbh, and I would have LOVED to see the look on his face when he realized who/what she was. 😤

I guess the zeniths could fill in on that narrative thread, but it’s just not gonna feel as satisfying, especially bc I still don’t know who they are!!

Tilda knew Lis? Okay, that’s a total retcon, but w/e.

Erik and Peter? Whomst?!

Verbena died instantly and then I found the datapoint from her SEVENTEENTH ENGAGEMENT? DID THEY REALLY JUST LET SOME RANDOM IT GIRL ONTO THEIR ADVANCED COLONY SHIP?? OKAY LOL

I feel a wayyyy more intriguing tie to Regalla than any of those chumps, bc I love the Tenakth so much and her shit has really divided them and brought them closer together at the same time in a long, consistent manner. It’s great! I wanna fight her more!

The zeniths? Eh, I guess I just wanna break their stuff more than them rn lol

Plus, Regalla’s motivation/conflict ties into the first game and extended lore so well! Ofc it makes sense a segment of the Tenakth wouldn’t be capable of forgiving the Carja! That shit was fucked up!! No amount of smiles and gifts from Avad could ever “fix” that! (Sorry, my sun-king 😭)

All this to say you could’ve just had this game be Aloy’s long quest to repair GAIA, feat. All these new cool tribes and people. Regalla was already your shadow carja equivalent, and just finding the subfunctions while she’s running around fucking shit up would’ve been challenge enough. Didn’t need the space people at all, tbh! But, I’m not a game writer! (Yet!!)

[misstalwyn]

I’m starting to realize the only thing I like about the Zeniths is that even tho they have all this tech and money and ability,,,,, they’re still lazy af rich people who hate being told what to do and at least 2 of them have died bc they got cocky lol

tfw when you’re smart enough to know you can’t ethically keep living servants with you for 1k years but too lazy to spend that same 1k years actually learning to do anything yourself?? Guerilla really went for the full spectrum of obnoxiously rich & powerful people in the tech industry lmaooo

Idk yet bc I’m barely going to pick up POSIDEON, but much do you wanna bet Sirius wasn’t destroyed by “natural disaster” but rather their own overuse? Or it isn’t dead at all and they just wanted to come take earth back like a stolen toy??

[misstalwyn]

FORBIDDEN WEST IMPRESSIONS SO FAR,,

I just unlocked “the base” (pls god let us name it something cooler 😭) and I get the idea this is about halfway thru the game? But then I look at how much of my map is still cloudy and idk, so,,

SPOILERS BELOW

Avad, my beloved,,

Giving him a focus before they left was SO obvious and they just,, didnt,,,, 😭😭😭

I JUST WANTED TO TALK TO HIM WHILE WE GO ON OUR BIG WESTERN JOURNEY OK, GUERRILLA!!

anyways the daunt immediately blew me away, I almost didn’t wanna leave it! It’s such a perfect starter area I think it really nails everything I loved most about the first game

Shoutout to Javad, love that guy 😂

my first big issue is that there’s a LOT of stuff that’s just locked up for later. like at one point I was only finding things I COULDNT do and it was so deflating :///

Am I crazy for thinking ZD just turned you loose outside the sacred lands? That’s right, right?? I know that’s what I loved most about it, you could tackle whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted

I would’ve been okay with one or two things, like the firegleam tool I think you get soon enough after that it doesn’t bother me, but I’m just gonna be pissed until I get the tool for swimming now bc I’m going into week TWO without it with a shitton of [MISSING TOOL REQUIRED] on my map and it’s infuriating!

I spent so much time loitering around plainsong bc I thought you could get more tools there and I was so wrong, I should’ve just sprinted thru it to the base tbh

Zo is cool tho, no offense to her

Her peoples’ concept is the neatest one since the Carja tho, love my plant people that sing to robot cows, that’s sick

Shoutout to Varl for doing in 48 hours what Avad has failed to do in over 6 months lol

Varl was my first love in ZD tho, rip that early game infatuation from before I met Avad :)

lmao @ the revisionist history of the hunting grounds tho. Are they just gonna wind up saying the Carja stole their traditions from everyone around them??

Poor Avad is left behind to defend his people from THIRTEEN GENERATIONS of shitty precedent, no wonder he wants off the throne so bad 😭 let my mans be a wandering scholar already!!

when I was seeing the base the first time, I just kept thinking that he’d love that place, and it’d be PERFECT for checking up on him and every other ally that has to stay where they are

It’s also the first thing that makes me consider the next game already, like, are we gonna be anchored there now, like Meridian was last game? Or are we gonna unlock some wild form of teleportation to finally address the “world” part of “saving the world” ??

It’s the one part of all the wild sci-fi shit they’re pulling in that I can roll with rn. Really not feeling the super advanced space people rn tbh, it’s very “ohhh, we got you with this one!!” When really it’s like, no, I liked the story of the new generation of humans with advanced technology from their past

My personal theory w/far zenith was that if their exploding ship really was a fake, then they never intended to leave at all and probably bunkered down like Ted did, and maybe these new people were their crazy kids who’ve been fed an incorrect history, too??

So,,,,, I got halfway there and I’m not really with the whole ass mass effect plot we got incoming COMPLETE WITH REAPERS (??!??!) because, well,,, I just spent half of last year playing mass effect? And if I wanted more I’d just go play more of that??

I think my issue lies in that the concept of an “old” future was very novel and really played out well in ZD’s conflict but now we’re barreling past the present with brand new shit FROM SPACE?? I’m just, well, uhhhh now you’re just regular ass sci-fi again, fam :///

I didn’t want a star war, I didn’t want a halo, I wanted a horizon and now you’re giving me this?? 😣

But like I said, I’m only at the base, runnin towards AETHER next (after I waste 8 more hours just wandering lol) so I’m not totally hopeless, and I did love just about everything about finally rebooting GAIA, so I have some confidence that I won’t hate everything about the alien humans lol

for now I think no matter how they use her, I just don’t like the concept of another Sobeck clone on principle. Like, even the way GAIA tried to explain her existence sounded like a desperate attempt to patch a plot hole lmao

Anyways, SAY HI TO YOUR NEW SISTER ALOY PLEASE DONT NAME HER AFTER YOUR DEAD KINDA SORTA OLDER SISTER??

I really like the archaeological couple, they’re very camp (literally and figuratively) but I’m SO mad I can’t do their quest without whatever tf POSIDEON is gonna give me ig!!

I think, collection wise, they did one or two things too many. Like I straight up missed the daunt vista point even tho I did the ruins there right away bc there’s so much packed into that tiny area I just never noticed! And I really dislike the survey drones (I just did the one parked right on top of the thunderjaw site 😬😬😬) sooo something’s gotta give here tbh

and dont even get me started on the fucking endgame tallneck in the SECOND AREA i already wasted a couple hours on thinking i had to wait for a sandstorm to fly up there with :((((((

[misstalwyn]

Avad when he heard Aloy was staying in Meridian for that one night