Dungeons and Elder Dragons: Lovecraftian Monsters of Guild Wars 2
There is something about the combination of high fantasy and Lovecraftian themes that just works. It’s a strange mishmash of themes, after all. Many of Lovecraft’s terrible elder beings were more interdimensional aliens than distinctly magical. Yet, something about it clicks. Perhaps high fantasy is a genre that works best with big, reality ending stakes. The trope of an ancient evil faced down by a party of adventures is inherently silly, yes. Regardless, sword and sorcery go hand in hand with risen eldritch beings of immeasurable power.
Such is the case, too, with Guild Wars 2, the MMORPG by ArenaNet. The game is currently free to play.
The Crapsack World
Guild Wars 2 is easily a post-apocalyptic story. It embodies that trope of the Crapsack World. Things in the world of Tyria are so bad at this point that the end of the world is a very real threat to the present collections of races across the land. One could argue that this may be a welcome reprieve for them. How so?
To begin, after the defeat of the first of several Elder Dragons, the Great Destroyer, five other Elder Dragons awaken 250 years later and besiege Tyria. Your player story begins in this period where, essentially, five Elder Gods are exerting their will on Tyria. Their corruption bleeds into every story you experience in the game.
For example, the Human race, typically the lynchpin of high fantasy narratives, is in rapid decline. There is only one human kingdom remaining. Elder Dragon disasters have wiped out a large portion of humanity’s cities and settlements. Compounding this is a long and bitter feud with the Charr.
The Charr, a brutal and warlike race, have reclaimed their own original lands after a long struggle against the Humans. Yet, their lands, battle-scarred by the machine of war, are also haunted by the ghosts of humans who died in this struggle. Though humans are Charr are not in an active war, the uneasy truce between humans and Charr is constantly at risk. Any semblance of peace is far from lasting.
The Norn, a massive offshoot of humanity, have been pushed out of their own frozen homelands by the Elder Dragon Jormag. Another race, the Asura, fled to the surface of Tyria, chased out by the Elder Dragon Primordus. These small inventors have access to incredible energy magics and golemancy and have injected dangerous technology into an incredibly unstable society.
Most curious of all is the arrival of another race to Tyria, the Sylvari. This plant people are only about 25 years old since their first arrival and come from a collective dream. Even stranger, they may have some connection to the Elder Dragons.
Here there be Elder Dragons
The main Lovecraftian appeal here is the Elder Dragons. These are beings of unimaginable power. The official wiki for Guild Wars 2 describes them as primordial beings who engage in cyclical destructive periods followed by slumbers. This period of awakening is referred to as a “Dragonrise.” Here players must contend with being so ancient and otherworldly that their patterns of behavior revolve around millennia and who seem to have a synergistic connection to the magic of the land. Tyria has its own share of spellcasters, but that is nothing on the grand scale of power these dragons represent.
These dragons are the greatest consumers of energy in Tyria, but also the greatest providers. To challenge these dragons is to challenge reality itself. They are so influential that even constellations in the sky seem to be altered by their awakening. The sense of scale in influence and even mass itself is disproportionate and fitting of a title such as Elder Dragon.
Guild Wars 2 has six Elder Dragons. Zhaitan, representing death and shadow drives the primary actions of the base game. Primordius waits in the depths of Tyria controlling fire and conflagration. Jormag forced the Norns from their icy homeland and controls ice. The crystal dragon Kralkatorrik controls a large desert territory. Lastly, Modremoth, a plant dragon, is the creator of the Sylvari.
What is worse is what we don’t know…
Only the names of five of these Elder Dragons have been revealed in the game thus far. There seems to be a sixth cosmic horror slumbering beneath the waves of the Unending Ocean. Some claim to know of its approximate location, and some refer to it as the deep sea dragon, but any documentation of it is lacking. An in-game scroll, damaged, only reveals that the Elder Dragon’s name begins with an “S.”
Signs of this sixth dragon are everywhere in the game and they are disconcerting at best, terrifying at worst. There is something primal and vastly unknowable about the ocean, and the dragon who makes its home beneath the seas must be horrific indeed. So horrific that aquatic races such as the gentle Quaggan have fled their ancestral lands, which were destroyed by creatures on the influence of this great and terrible dragon.
Based on just how terrible it must be to live on Tyria, the presence of this sixth dragon is a potentially thrilling addition to an already strongly Lovecraftian video game.
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Next in my journey of all the cool games I saw at PAX, Quest Master! Quest Master is a love letter to retro dungeon crawlers and level designers. Taking inspiration from both Mario Maker and the Legend of Zelda franchise, Quest Master promises the ability to play and design dungeons with a variety of enemies, traps, and puzzles.
Check out the Quest Master game announcement here:
I was given a private 30-minute demo, where I got to try out some of the core features in a pre-beta version of Quest Master. This demo was led by one of the developers, Julian Creutz who shared some insight into the game design and user experience. My interview with Julian about Quest Master can be found here.
Quest Master has two main modes, playing dungeons and building them. I got to try out both, though I had a more comprehensive experience playing dungeons. While playing dungeons, the game mechanics were intuitive and simple. However, I was continuously surprised by the complexities offered by the puzzle and logic systems. For example, you can collect a boomerang which is incredibly easy to use. To solve one of the puzzles, I had to throw the boomerang through a torch (which I thought was just decorative) to catch the boomerang on fire and enable it to activate a gem. While the individual mechanics were basic, they combined into a sophisticated puzzle-solving experience.
Immediately, I was eager to look under the hood and see how the dungeon building mode enables the puzzle solving as previously described. Once again, I was impressed with the sophistication of a system with such simple mechanics. The controls for building weren’t intuitive for me, though I also don’t use a controller for much of my gaming (like I was during the demo). Additionally, I could see how it would be really easy to get accustomed to as you build.
As it was a short demo, I wasn’t able to try any of the multiplayer features (i.e. co-op, online map sharing) so I can’t speak to the success of their implementation. As this is supposed to be a large part of the game, I’m wary of wholeheartedly suggesting Quest Master for those interested in the multiplayer experience. However, I was impressed with Quest Master’s modern take on retro dungeon crawlers like the Legend of Zelda games. The graphics and controls feel like much needed quality of life updates for a system taking inspiration from older classics.
I recommend wishlisting Quest Master if you are a fan of old Legend of Zelda games or are looking for a fresh take on the dungeon builder genre. If Quest Master interests you, don’t forget to check out my conversation with Julian too!
(4.5 / 5)
Check out my other PAX posts here!
This past week I had the opportunity to go to my very first PAX East convention! For those who are unfamiliar, PAX East is a large gaming convention in Boston. This year marked its 20th anniversary, which meant an extra layer of celebration and festivities! Courtesy of a HauntedMTL Media Badge, I got to play tons of new games and meet even more interesting people. One of the games I was able to demo was LONESTAR by developer Math Tide.
LONESTAR is a roguelike spaceship building game reminiscent of FTL and Dicey Dungeons. It was released for early access on Steam in January and has gotten largely positive feedback. In the game, you play as a bounty hunter traveling through various sectors to defeat your bounties. Along the way you can visit a shop, take a breather, or experience other various events.
I was able to play the early access build for thirty minutes on the showroom floor, and I was pretty instantly hooked. I love roguelike deckbuilders, with Slay the Spire (especially the Downfall fan expansion) being a strong favorite. LONESTAR nails what I love from the genre, with an aesthetic smoothly integrated in its form and function and novel gameplay mechanics.
LONESTAR’s ‘deckbuilding’ element takes the form of ship systems. You can collect, buy, and upgrade them as you progress through a run. However, your ship only has so much space on board. As a player, you have to prioritize weapons and utility systems while also ensuring you diversify your damage output/defense across all three sections of your ship. At the beginning of each round, you are randomly given number values that can be input into your ship systems to achieve varied effects. The enemy responds in kind, meaning whoever can get the highest damage output is who overwhelms the other in the round.
I loved the possibilities for synergy and strategy as your pilot explored more dangerous sectors. It was incredibly rewarding to turn a couple of crap numbers into a super powerful attack. I also enjoyed the various options for “vacation” time in between battles, which kept everything feeling fresh. Of note, I only played for thirty minutes. While they were a rewarding thirty minutes, the game was not incredibly difficult. I cannot speak on the general replayability, though I would have been happy to continue playing for at least another hour. My only critique from the whole experience was that some of the vocabulary was unclear. However, that could have been due to starting mid-run during my demo.
If you enjoy deckbuilders and are interested in a spaceship game a bit easier than FTL, I think LONESTAR is a great choice. It is still in early access, however, I feel confident that the game is plenty of fun already. It is also only $10, so definitely worth taking a chance on. I’ll continue to watch the development of LONESTAR with great excitement!
(4.8 / 5)
