Masked Memories - Hero Beta Update 2.2 (First Look and Review)

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NOTE: I KNOW SOME OF THE IMAGES ARE MISSING. CHECK THE QNA AFTER READING THIS TO KNOW MORE.​

Masked Memories
A Semi-High Effort Fruma Review

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Start
WOW that sure was a surprise, wasn't it?

Okay so ever since the Hero Beta came out yesterday I've just been wilding on the new Fruma province

Bro I am so excited this release was like a legit jumpscare for me I am SO glad I wasn't sleeping when this happened, the moment I heard the news I immediately just booked it to beta and tore open the damn content book

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The server is going through a temporary maintenance/ downtime rn so you probably won't see it open if you check the multiplayer menu (I think it's a hotfix, the new raid seemed a bit buggy from the few runs I managed to do on it) but I managed to achieve a lot!

So far I've done most of the Fruma quests and explored about like half the other content (a few caves, like 2 world events). Haven't done secret discoveries yet since idk where they are so I'll just wait until other people figure it out before me. I would have done more stuff but like I said, server went down like 10-20 minutes ago from me typing this sentence so here I am

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I did take some really quick screenshots and also recorded like 2-3 clips of when I thought really important events were going to happen. The 3rd person stuff were of me looking over the Replay Mod footage so just take note of that as well

P.S. if you're wondering why this is in a similar format to my suggestions, I didn't want the review to be just paragraphs of plain text but I didn't want to spend that much time prettying up the post as well so I just copied the format from my previous posts.

ANYWAYS enough about that I'm going to type out all of this to pass the time and then hope that the hero beta comes back up within like 24 hours from now

Here's my (admittedly not that detailed, I don't want to spend too much time here) review of what I've done so far in the new Fruma province!!!

(Massive spoilers for the Hero beta, obviously)

Spoiler: The Empire's New Lie Part 1

Sorry I had to split them up into spoilers I just have a lot to say

Anyways first quest

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Literally just The Envoy 2.0
Okay maybe I shouldn't have trashed on The Empire's New Lie it's really different from the Corkus intro questline but you gotta admit the similarities in outer structure

I think most people expected this one but Tasim was obviously going to be involved in Fruma somehow. I won't elaborate on most of the dialogue (you can play the quests yourself lol) but since I'm here to do a quick review of the Fruma content that also includes stuff like the storytelling and characterization of the NPCs involved. While I'm still at this part of the post I just want to say that the CT have really stepped up their game when it comes to the new endgame content! Before going into the actual Fruma stuff I just want to say good job on that part

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Anyways back to Tasim, I'd say his justification pretty much checks out, we've already known a little bit of his thoughts regarding the whole thing via Recover the Past and I think one of the Detlas Festivals. Although I do have some issues with his plan on heading to the gate first though. Like, the plan is to board the Seaskipper (Seaskipper Captain cameo btw instantly 10/10 quest) and just sail to the gate? Did he even ask the Seaskipper Captain if he can go there lol

Then again maybe he didn't take it much idk how often non-players ride the boat. But yeah I immediately just knew "oh lmao he's going to get a rude awakening"

(P.S. I really appreciate that the quest doesn't take place off-map, I like that we're walking into the physical gate area it's a lot more immersive that way. Since the spot Seaskipper parked some distance away from the Fruma Gate on the map I guess it's an actual fast-travel option now? I haven't left Fruma to check the Seaskipper menu since entering so I can't say. Maybe one of you can let me know)

New Fruma Gate
Anyways first impressions, we already saw the gate in like 1 image but oh my god this is already the Llevigar of the Gavel Update

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The new 2.2 designs for the guards were quite good, I didn't actually expect them to re-alter their models from the sneak peek video just recently but it is a welcome change.

(Replay mod screenshot btw)

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The manner of speech the front guard speaks in has been changed slightly from the weird French thing they used to do (I think that was also changed months back actually, I haven't been here for more than a year or two) but I can already tell that the dialogue is a lot more polished than previous updates. Not that it used any extravagant vocab or anything but I can sort of instinctually tell that it's a higher quality. I guess my only criticism here is that we don't get a combat section between us and the Fruma guards to sort of showcase their power but I guess technically that would set off several alarm bells within the province itself of some demigod-like entity (us) infiltrating their land

Verdana's pretty cool, although asides from getting us to leave they don't really stick around for long. I assumed that them and the other five Sovereigns are going to show up more in the future though, cool cameo for Fruma Royalty.

(Also look at that white ponytail that's a pretty cool humanoid model)

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EDIT: On closer inspection that looks more like a hairbun than anything else

That being said, I also kinda was predicting the whole "sneak in from Fruma via Ragni Outskirts" thing since it was kinda poetic to go back the way we came from where the tutorial is. Tasim was pretty smart with that one. The whole "sneaking" minigame across the Ragni Outskirts (or like, the region behind the first gate that we don't actually get to see in King's Recruit) could be a bit more entertaining and less drawn-out, but otherwise isn't too bad (Hell, the guards aren't tunnel-visioned this time!!!)

Anyways quick suggestion would be to lower the timing between when the blocked areas are accessible again (via the falling boulders or the patrolling Fruma guards) and then this'll be a solid quest stage

Once that's done though we finally enter the damn province

Auburn Woodlands
I plan to post some cinematic shots from the sky in a separate thread that you can take a look after reading through this (I'll post more wide shots of the Fruma regions there once I get Bobby mod working on the hero beta) but yeah the province is just beautiful. Even the region the player is walking through (Which is like a small section of the auburn forest area) already looks like it's filled with so much life despite us being around the more quiet spots. Anyways Espren was, predictably, the first Fruma town that the player is introduced to. We've already seen it in the trailers and that one cutscene in Recover the Past but the actual thing feels so much more open

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(I'll post more images of Espren once I get back on beta but in the meantime here's stuff I came across that I just had to screenshot while playing)

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Anyways one thing I actually didn't expect is that the Fruma guards actually had an IQ of more than 1, they legit expected us to sneak in after our funny argument at the Fruma gate so they intercepted us at Espren I was actually baffled lmao

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This fight is also I assume most players' first taste of the new Amnesia mechanic. I'll talk about it in the next section after this quest.

That being said, when the player sort of blacks out suddenly after the combat sequence and then comes back to reality when they're already being escorted to the city I thought it was a classic "Wynncraft NPC knocks us out in 1 hit" again which I kinda hate because a bunch of old quests kinda insult our ability to wear really powerful protective headgear BUT NO OH MY GOD THIS WAS FORESHADOWING THEY TEMPORARILY REMOVED OUR MEMORY THAT'S WHY WE CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST FEW MINUTES

This is actually genius writing that I only really realized after a CT on Discord told me about it as I was writing this post I really wished I caught that the moment I saw the Inquisitor

The Queen
Anyways the whole escort thing was kinda uneventful but to those who have done the quest the guards do give some pretty useful exposition about Fruma themselves. I think everyone kinda already knew the deal with the Sovereigns (like the main leaders or whatever I can't remember) but they also do a really good job in playing up how scary and dangerous the Queen is, and since we've already known vaguely how the Queen is like in previous updates (not a lot of info, but still) this only adds to the average player's nervousness, I expect

But then all hell just broke loose for me

Okay I'm going to just deviate from the whole formal review thing just this once because this is like Gerald Robotnik's appearance in Sonic Movie 3, the moment I saw this I knew that the Wynncraft community is going to explode

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS

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???????

WELP that explains the quest's Qira Hive requirement

I eagerly await the controversies that are going to be leaking into every corner of Wynncraft's social sites. I do love fireworks

Anyways back to the actual review, I'll try to be more coherent and professional from here on out (and also explain the events of the quests a lot less, this is a review, not a retelling of the plot)

The whole idea of the Queen actually being not evil probably wasn't something that the Wynncraft community is ever expecting in the slightest, but I must admit that it's a pretty good subversion of expectations. Talking to Qira it's pretty clear that she isn't this maniacal authoritarian overlord hellbent on control or subjugation or whatever. That being said, while this part of the quest does make the player heavily question why the Queen (someone presumably in the ultimate position of power) completely contradicts everything that we have assumed or heard about her, the game does actually a really good job at balancing between the player's emotions/ thoughts of "this feels really unrealistic, this writing is weird as hell" and "this is actually really intriguing, I want to see further and figure out why she is so different from what we've heard from her"

Not to mention that Qira's already an established character that we already know a bunch about, I was really eager to learn more about her backstory and how she even ended up as the Fruma Queen in the first place.

If anything, the level of absurdity that this reveal gives almost makes the entire thing feel like it's a fanmade recreation of the Fruma Province itself. Even I struggled to believe it!

Anyways the next few stages of the quest were a little bit boring, admittedly, it just has Qira give us some exposition (disguised as a series of events of her giving us and Tasim special access to stay in Yinnouan for awhile, would be smart if I didn't catch it immediately) (speaking of Tasim, the fact that he doesn't recognize her in the slightest implies that he never did the Hive Challenge lmao what a noob amiright). Anyways the whole thing of being escorted to temp living spaces within the Yinnouan palace took a little bit too much screentime but I guess the size of the actual palace can't really be changed that much beyond just a tp cutscene.

Tasim saying something about taking this "unexpected freedom to explore the province a bit more" (or smth like that can't remember the exact phrase) was a little bit of a cop-out on his part but I guess that means we won't be seeing him for the remainder of this quest

I would've been a little mad during this whole playthrough if I didn't find out later that he actually re-appears in a later Fruma quest

Although when I was wondering if the player's going to solo the questline for the rest of the way I immediately got excited when I realized that the new companion NPC for The Empire's New Lie is probably going to be Qira herself. Never expected the Queen of Fruma to be an ally but what the hell I'm not complaining

Anyways when she requests for us to join her in the main hall/ court thing that's when things start to get good

The Royal Court
First off, the introduction of the Inquisitor was actually unexpected, I completely forgot about him after Recover the Past but his return was very much a welcome addition

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His character outright already gives "potential antagonist" vibes, but in a way that limits him from doing anything since he begrudgingly answers to the queen. The updated skin was also really jarring since he used to wear a sort of a blue yinyang pill mask but I got used to this one real quick. That being said this guy has a damn good memory, he immediately recognizes who we are despite the armor and over a hundred and six (4 technically, given the quest req) levels of experience.

Anyways the whole court thing I'll gloss over, you already know the resolution we get legal immunity from the guy that clearly wants us gone lol

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But I must say, this whole sequence really gives us a great introduction to all the Fruma Sovereigns even if none of them have anything beyond 2-4 lines of dialogue. It's sort of a teaser for the player for what's to come since the game does its best to make sure that their personalities are prominent enough to not be passed off as minor/ one-off characters. I'll talk a little about how I felt about some of the more major ones (or rather, my first impressions pre-their major roles) here but I'll go more in-depth with then in the respective quests that they star in.

The Sovereigns
Calibri (2nd Sovereign) is probably the only one here who is actually pretty friendly towards the player without any feeling that they're doing this for some greater motive or out of obligation or like, a sense of looking down on or talking-down to like a certain other spawn of the devil, and ironically enough is actually a really welcome individual to encounter asides from Qira herself. Ironically enough I can't actually remember what exactly she's the Sovereign of (they all deal with different aspects of Fruma's political ecosystem or smth like that) but she does govern over the Espren/ Saffiureua region which is some cool info I guess. Also Calibri has some motherly vibes which is really sweet hope people don't make this weird haha ;-;

Ebrima and Tahoma (3rd and 5th) have the least relevance when it comes to the overall story, but I think someone on Discord said that the both of them have a somewhat prominent appearance in that Journey to the Sun quest I haven't got around to doing yet so maybe that's just my skewed perspective talking. From what I've seen they're pretty neutral I guess? They don't feel evil or anything but they sort of have this really subtle tension between each other since they're constantly disagreeing with each other on stuff the other one said. (Also they have mild sibling energy. Are they supposed to be siblings???)

Candara (4th) oh for gods' sake someone please kill her

Verdana (6th) we already met, (they aren't here as seen in the image, it's sort of explained later) but from what Qira said about them I think they sort of cover the military side of things. Explains a lot, they're the only Sovereign I've seen in the entire game that actually wears heavy armor. I fully expected to fight a large chunk of Fruma's army in this update but given the Queen's alignment compared to what we expected I don't think I'll be getting that anytime soon (sad). Regardless, they do actually appear in the phantom quest alongside Qira for a little bit so I'll talk about them in that section

EDIT: Okay so I was informed that Verdana goes by they/ them. I'll correct all of it whoops lmao

Writing all this now is also the exact moment in time that I just realized the five lowest-rank Sovereigns are supposed to vaguely represent the Wynncraft elements. Cool.

Anyways the Inquisitor is apparently the first Sovereign (and also somehow second in power just below the Queen of Fruma. How the hell?????). It's clear that while Qira's the ruler, the Inquisitor is the one who acts as the main advisor for the entire province and does actually heavily influence a lot of the things that Qira eventually passes through/ gives the order of. The game doesn't really outright tell this to the player but the interactions between Qira and the Inquisitor makes this apparent (to anyone with a remotely moderate level of media literacy) and is also really cool to watch, I really like this dynamic that's established and it's pretty good setup for the second half of the story.

That being said he does NOT like us lol

We do talk to the guy outside Yinnouan's Palace after the whole thing's over and I must say, he does serve as a really good alternative antagonist since the Queen isn't one. When I was playing this quest I can already see where this whole thing was going.

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Also I really did like the whole idea of an endgame (or near-endgame, in any case) main antagonist being one who doesn't really have any combat skill but is really gifted in amnesia magic (did I mention he's the one responsible for the amnesia spell? I know some of you are reading this without paying attention to the quests yourselves so I just want to say that bro legit casted the province-wide amnesia spell around the entire perimeter of Fruma's borders. Obviously Qira had to greenlight this first I assume but dude's actually just cracked)

(Btw me and probably many other people didn't realize this but the helmet is apparently a mask, you can actually see the guy's (shockingly white) hair at the back)

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Tail End
(Anyways more exposition when she invites us to the gardens after we return for a little bit, not much else to say about this asides from cool minor foreshadowing)

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Outside of that the rest of the quest kinda has the game give information to the player and provides some proper worldbuilding for the general state of the province itself. Ignoring some questionable sections where the worldbuilding attempts accidentally gave way to a little bit too much drawn-out exposition, what we were given was still something that was interesting enough to me for me to want to see what happens next.

The whole court quest stage is a really good natural way to organically introduce the different Sovereigns without it being too overbearing or obvious, and the fact that they're clearly going to be recurring characters with how they're set up gives me a really strong pull to do the other quests. That, and it's clear that Qira is slightly frightened about something that she's unable to detect in her midst for once and that enticed me when it comes to a story perspective.

Although a massive issue I have here is that there is a chunk of players who don't play quests for the lore, and so I can probably foresee this one in particular being semi-unpopular mostly due to the complete lack of combat (there's no combat in The Empire's New Lie Part I asides from the Espren guards battle, I hope you guys that did this quest realized that) but at the end of the day I can see why there isn't really any good place to put combat in, the next closest is the stealth section but revealing ourselves pretty much takes away from the point of that quest stage.

Anyways lore-wise it's not too bad, I like it

Pretty decent first intro quest to Fruma, I immediately wanted to see how this all progresses and wanted to level up to 105 as fast as possible to unlock the next part of the questline (before I remembered that I was already level 107 lol).

Spoiler: The Amnesia Mechanic

Okay so before I go on to the Part II I just really want to talk about this new mechanic that update 2.2 added that I think some people were kinda hating on in the Discord server (I haven't checked Reddit but they're probably kinda conflicted as well)

It's that whole Amnesia mechanic that was introduced with the Fruma update

Aesthetic-wise it makes sense, the funny I Forgor magic does fit Fruma (and I would assume used in some small parts of the game outside of Fruma as well) but the numbers of the debuff itself might have to be toned down a little. I'll explain more below

For those not aware, Amnesia is a new debuff type that enemies can inflict on the player, and from what little I've seen a whole lot of mobs and World Events give this to the player. Looking at the debuffs I've gotten so far it seems to be like a... opposite of Aspects? Or like supposed to mirror Aspect stats but like, the reverse of it. Creative idea but who the hell greenlit these numbers

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(I'm a Shadestepper I got this one from Discord)

I mean, I GUESS it made sense that Fruma will be more difficult than Silent Expanse and I GUESS that this is a pretty smart way to beef up the difficulty without adding artificial health and damage scaling to the Fruma mobs, but like, dude

LOOK AT THIS

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Okay for quick context, the two Amnesias I showed above are applied by certain mobs, and even then they're only applied via really hyper-specific custom moves that you can reasonably avoid. The whole memory-eraser guys' normal attacks (I think they're called Adjustors I'll check when I see my screenshots of TENL Part II later) do give a minor Amnesia that serves as a slight annoyance but some of the bigger Amnesia debuffs have some gimmick behind how they're dealt to you (There's a special attack that I didn't film that was like a small location-esque puzzle you needed to complete mid-combat otherwise you get smacked with an Amnesia? Not sure what it was but CT can help verify it's the one with the 3-5 pastel diamond floor things)

There's also more minor Amnesias that are forced-applied to the player at the start of certain boss fights or World Event stages that last throughout the entire thing but those are more there for the battle to be designed around which I suppose is pretty neat

Anyways from what little I've played it seems that what Amnesia is given to you is determined by these things:

• The mobs, attacks and forced infliction have a set list of what they'll give you. There's clearly a lot of Amnesias in the game as of implementation so they only give you really specific ones that are played around dealing with classes or playstyles that can easily dispatch the enemies (e.g. one of the World Events heavily nerfs Black Hole and Violent Vortex's range because it's really crowd-focused)
• Amnesias are class-specific. I haven't actually seen any other Amnesias asides from exclusively Shadestepper ones which leads me to believe that a single Amnesia infliction has like at least five different Amnesias listed, one for each class (I wanted to play Fruma with Shadestepper because I thought I would be able to use Vanish to get a good shot of some enemies. I kinda forgot to do that halfway through but I'll come back to it on 2.2's full release)
• Amnesias are ability-specific, as in they only apply if you have that ability chosen. This one's kinda obvious already but just thought I should note it down here as an observation

Overall from what I can tell, pretty well thought out. There's one really devious Cave Boss Battle near the Raid location (I think the cave is called like Amnesiac Dive or smth like that) where this massive runic stone is a big stationary mob, but since certain playstyles basically just stomp on this the room ended up giving me this the moment I entered. Which, uh, well that sucks I guess

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(Oh right and this one for the crowd of mobs in the previous room lmao)

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EDIT: Got sent another one via Discord, this time it's Warrior

(Tbh doesn't seem so bad)

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Overall pretty cool mechanic to 2.2 but I can tell that it'll be controversial to a bunch of people, at least until they fix the numbers. I'm not good with Wynncraft numbers myself so I can't make an entirely accurate judgement on how overtuned these things are but it does make some fights a tad bit unbearable if you aren't doing perfect play. I'll talk more about the Amnesias later because some important bosses do give really powerful ones

EDIT: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS

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By the way just as a short interlude before I talk about the next quest

I kinda got bored typing everything out so I decided to map out the entire province via funny finger sketch (because, hey, guess what, the website map ISN'T UPDATED YET)

Jk I'll cut them a little bit of slack lol it's only been a day or two since beta release, I'll wait a little more for the online map

But in the meantime I took the 2D Wynntils version and decided to just draw it from memory, I did it with CoTL in the past so this one was pretty okay. Take a look:

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(Forgot to label Torann lol)

(The text was added after because I really didn't feel like working on the review when I finished with the coloring)

Admittedly the Sunscorched Valley doesn't really have a definite shape in the drawing since I haven't been there yet but from what I've seen from the High Peaks edge it's kinda curvy and wind-y and slopes upwards a little and eventually leads to the Teitull village at the 80%-ish mark (which, like I said, haven't been there yet) so those parts are really high up the map

I only got the names of those two from the content book and other people talking about it but I can't wait to actually go there (I'll try to remember to update this thread with more details once I've done those quests lol)

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEXT SECTION

 

this actually looks pretty cool

 

fruma... is... REAL...
can't wait to explore the rest of it :3

 

This is really not cool man. We specifically asked people not to post images from the beta after we accidentally opened it early. You should take this thread down before you get banned.

 

LETS GOOOO sO Epic

 

OMG fruma before riftwalker rework or prof and foraging update!

 

Happy April Fruma Day!

 

Bait used to be believable

and by used to I mean 2 minutes ago

 

Bro this is fire

 

This is so ridiculously high effort for an April fools review. Like, I've done some pretty high effort ones in my life, but this puts them to absolute shame. 10/10.

 

Okay, I honestly think this is kinda a cool idea.
That being debuffs of this sort, not specifically how you describe them working.
(Although bosses applying these at the start of a fight isn't terrible)

 

lets go YEA

 

This was truly, a Fruma

 

You'd think that for something as significant as Fruma they'd do a full beta like with 2.0. Alas, the CT are greedy moneysuckers and are locking premium content and limited-time jokes behind ranks. This is a EULA violation and I will be taking it to court.

 

Okay cool here's the second section (there's like 3 more after this post)

Spoiler: The Empire's New Lie Part 2

Okay I promise not to talk that much about the events of the quests in these later parts of the post I was filling up the max character limit fast

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I Only Just Realized the Questline's Name is a Reference
Unlike what I initially expected, the way the quest starts was actually spontaneous like the Star Thief one. While I usually dislike these kinds of semi-uncontrollable methods of quest starts since you can easily walk into the trigger and begin a quest you don't want this one was kinda well done with the main trigger being semi-out of the way which was kinda swell

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The chase sequence on the rooftops was actually surprisingly fun, they got rid of your spells but they still let you keep your walkspeed which was already pretty good. I guess this part was supposed to parallel Part 1's sneaking minigame but this was infinitely more enjoyable than the former. (Only criticism I had was that I was kinda sad that I couldn't redo the chase scene across Yinnouan on the same class, the CT really needs to add that to more quest content man)

Anyways the funny Fruma people once again demonstrate their >1 IQ and actually lead us into a trap where they amnesia-fied us once again (because it turns out those funny cult people were Fruman Guards that answer to the Inquisitor. Corruption moment (and not the magic kind))

Speaking of the Inquisitor, oh boy does this quest serve to expand the hell out of him even more. The guy's already made to be an antagonist, that part was obvious and I feel like the game knows that it was obvious. But Part 2 of the questline basically elaborates beyond the player thinking that the guy just hates us and wants us gone after he removed our memories of this place and explains his actual motives

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(Bro spent several years rising up the ranks and carefully chipping away Qira's mental defences without her notice, what I really want to know is how this guy fooled the most powerful individual on the planet)

(Btw they actually readded the flame circle and placed a spinning lantern this time that's kinda cool)

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(Not sure if Recover the Past has also been updated to fit this but I'll check later once beta comes on)

That being said it has just occurred to me while typing this out that the Inquisitor might actually have gotten his position illegitimately via years of mind-tampering the right people. The game doesn't tell us this but it's sort of implied which if this is actually true that's huge

What the Hell
Anyways the sequence of events that happen after are actually pretty good execution. Arguably a massive improvement and modernization over the Corkus Quest whose name I forgot (The one where we drink the funny rage juice and go unga unga cowabunga on several innocent lives), the Inquisitor does the fire circle thing again like he did in the Recover the Past quest except this time bro actually puts all his power into controlling our minds

The game does a really creative way of portraying this by having our movement actions be forced and have all our dialogue be actually just the same option. (while at the same time not in cutscene mode, it's more like you can attempt to struggle by moving in certain directions if you choose but the game's going to pull you to places anyways (So basically the Parasite takeover but better)) Overall, a really, really original method of making us mind-controlled without everything just skipping like the Corkus version. Pretty cool stuff.

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We eventually get caught by Qira and her sick ass purple dark eldritch magic (You can't see it from your own POV but look at that cool braid animation behind her). Your dialogue is, once again, forced. This section where you lack complete control and just have to see yourself mess up everything is kinda frustrating in a good way.

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(Btw it's not clear in this but the dialogue literally force-progresses if you don't choose after like a good ten seconds or so. Actually diabolical)

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Oh hey this place looks familiar

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...but then (and I'm going to have to commend the writers for this one here) Qira actually does the smart thing and deduces what the hell is going on with us. Because Qira knows us enough to trust that we're being out-of-character. Oh my god. This is the character writing I want to see.

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Okay I'll stop posting mass amounts of screenshots now sorry

But yeah after she sneakily gets us out (She doesn't trust her own guard anymore I think, once again another big brain move) here's where the whole 'investigation' stage starts. I really like this section of the quest mostly because it's just the two of us trying to figure out what's all going on via some small minigame in this random room

It's a really fun minigame if you're someone like me but it's still admittedly a little bit boring to talk about in text (and also I'm not going to go into detail on all the cool examination and puzzle piece parts just do the damn quest lol) so I'll skip to the part where she actually knows what the Inquisitor is trying to do (namely execute us. I feel like that part was obvious)

Mindbreaker
Ok so uh

I'm not too sure why the amnesia worm (it's not a literal worm but you get what I mean) that the Inquisitor planted in Qira is something we can physically enter her brain and kill but I guess it makes for a cool sequence (+ the bossfight at the end where we have to kill the Mindbreaker, I'll talk about this boss in a separate forums post)

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At first I thought this was going to be a copy of the Monolith sections but no we actually go through Qira's mind

Let me repeat this

WE ACTUALLY GO THROUGH QIRA'S MIND

This entire section is actually a work of art, I am not spoiling a single damn thing

I haven't experienced this much emotion for a work of media since the finale to The Owl House

Please go experience it for yourself it's like, peak fiction

Palace Break-in

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Anyways the next few parts of the quest I don't have much to say about, it's just Qira wrecking shop while we engage in minor combat across the palace. I've pretty much already given my thoughts on the Amnesia mechanic in the previous section so I won't go too much into it here. (Also we don't get to engage in combat much in these two quests so this and the Mindbreaker boss also serves as a way to stretch our combat muscles again before the upcoming fight which I appreciate)

Speaking of which, the Inquisitor fight is probably one of the best-designed bosses I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand. Not my absolute favorite, but still.

Inquisitor Boss Fight

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Oh boy, what a fight

Okay so I'm always kinda miffed when a character who is otherwise kinda comparatively weak to us in-universe suddenly has their stats scaled up to our level to accommodate gameplay. It doesn't happen much in Wynncraft, but the Inquisitor has been explicitly stated and demonstrated to possess absolutely 0 combat prowess and magic of similar caliber. His mind powers are probably the only thing he has going for him.

...and that's exactly what he exploits. Dear God.

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Okay so this guy's walkspeed is terrible for a level 105 boss but his amnesia attacks are probably the strongest out of every other enemy that inflicts it in the game, not to mention how gimmicky his versions of amnesia-infliction are (barring the Peak of Amnesia raid boss but we'll get to that later)

For one, he does use his magic to summon these weird runic effigy things that do various stuff (very Shaman-esque btw I appreciate the slight nod to the item model he usually carries (That and I suppose he does have Shaman energy guess that's semi-confirmed now))

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(Btw minor detail but I really love how his item is different from what he was holding before the Fruma update, the Adjustors hold that model now so something more aesthetically fitting works for him (Not to mention now it actually looks like a weapon, which is pretty swell).

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It's the Dernic Relik model but I was told by a CT that it was a placeholder so I guess I'll wait for the next wave of NPC gear skins in the next Festival or smth)

Stats-wise, he has terrible walkspeed and lack of any actual movement spells or damage spells outside of this weird magic swipe that I think is supposed to be like Shaman's main attack. I haven't gotten hit by them but I assume they're just the Inquisitor's main attack

​

EDIT: I replayed the fight, he does the same animation for both but it's a wide magic sweep (like Half-Moon Swipe but bigger) if you're near him and the projectiles if you're at like medium-ish distance (Like, 3-7 blocks estimate?).

EDIT 2: THE MELEE INFLICTS THE -20 DEGREE BACKSTAB AMNESIA AND THE PROJECTILES GIVE THIS I am actually done

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Anyways what the Inquisitor lacks in movement and defensive capabilities he makes up for all the Adjustor minions that constantly spawn (Which I should mention also inflict some minor short-lasting Amnesias of their own via some small custom spells). The minions do relatively standard damage to the player for their level as far as I can see but with all the forced and non-forced Amnesia constantly being applied onto you they pretty much serve their roles as the main damage-dealer of the boss fight

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There's also these large runic cube things that the player needs to destroy, there's the blue ones like the one shown in the image below that apparently explode and cast some pretty deadly Amnesias (Fabled ones if I'm not wrong) onto the player regardless of their location in the arena, and there's the red ones who have far more health and constantly apply a minor permanent Amnesia to nearby players as long as the thing is alive (the Amnesia given is usually one that sort of counters abilities that excel at still targets, very evil)

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And then there's the diabolical purple one (I don't have a screenshot of it) that spawns rarely (and during the second half of the battle seems like) that is basically the first two combined. This damn thing exploded once for me and gave me the Mythic Shadestepper Amnesia. Guess how I died on that run lol

He has a few more tricks up his sleeve like other custom spells that give various other Amnesias but all I don't really have the energy nor motivation to list all of them out here

Here's some cool ones I bothered to make gifs of though

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I'll talk about the boss fight in isolation in a separate forums post, but all I'll say here for now is that it's a pretty comprehensive one that's surprisingly well-balanced for how awful the given Amnesias are. There's still the whole issue with the Amnesia numbers but I managed to defeat the boss after like 4-5 attempts (and it took like ten minutes because of how careful I was being). Whenever the Amnesia debuffs are more fine-tuned it'll make the boss way more enjoyable but the fact that it already is is sort of a testament to how good the battle currently stands.

(P.S. If you're reading this CT pls nerf the purple rune cube timer or health thx)

Inquisitor Defeat
Okay so I thought the face behind the mask was going to reveal some gamechanging information but no he's just some guy with really pale skin and shocking white hair

Literally Adam from Hazbin Hotel-type situation, he's just some dude

I guess the thing I didn't expect was that his lavender eyes were actually his eye color, that's kinda cool I guess

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(Dude, chill tf out)

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But yeah him crawling towards us as he's dying is kinda cinematic

I know this is Minecraft but I'm not sure how graphic the oddly detailed imagery of a rejuvenated Qira smashing the Inquisitor's skull open with a spell is here so I'm probably not going to post that one until I get approval from the mods (Then again it's in the game so what the hell do I know)

Anyways boom he ded

Wow nice quest reward
Probably
Idk I dunno my stat balancing

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Overall, the Inquisitor was a really good character for how little screentime he was given in these two quests, and the impact of his power and influence was felt really vaguely throughout the entire game (from both a literal and narrative perspective), and even after his defeat when the consequences of his ruling are still prevalent and have to be dealt with

Speaking of which, those things are what happens after this (Which is really exciting stuff, I was glad his story didn't end with his death).

Okay hi so I've finished writing about the two main quests at this point (it's been like three or so hours since I started) and uh

The beta isn't back up yet

Dammit

Guess I'll work on the others until the server comes back on lol

If you're seeing this forum post on the 2nd day of beta release it literally means that I had enough server downtime to type out everything lmao

Spoiler: Insert Raid Name Here (Fruma Raid)

(The Spoiler Title is intentional)



Mortal God-Dang-What-The-Everloving-Hell Mountain
Haha bet you didn't see this coming

Yeah neither did I

​

Sure caused me to suffer from severe flashbacks, as I'm sure did everyone else that was remotely in Wynncraft during the Gavel days

Anyways I feel like nobody would actually understand why it uses this name (Asides from for old time's sake and all) but if I were to guess it's probably meant to be used as a metaphor for how even the boss (which looks like a mountain) will also inevitably crumble under our power, hence marking it as mortal.

Then again I could be completely wrong in my interpretation so ask whoever made this raid or smth idk lmao

EDIT: I am an idiot Qira literally told us in straight text that the mountain will collapse and explode into a province-wide Amnesia wave if we don't destroy it ourselves. I guess it amnesia-fied my memory of that (I've added the context in the "Beginning" section below)

Anyways I did the raid a couple of times to get about 5 of the 6 rooms (if there is even a 6th) along with attempting the boss enough times to write something concrete about it. Spoiler alert, this thing's brutal as hell.

Beginning
Unlike other raids this one does have a cool little cutscene that plays when you go near it for the first time, with Qira and some mages outside doing some weird laser shield thing (I didn't snap a picture of this happening, she led me in really quickly) and with her telling me about the whole chain reaction thing

While it would've been kinda cool to have this whole contingency plan the Inquisitor has at the time he died apparently the spell just broke and went haywire the moment he got iced

I guess moral of the story is don't anchor every long-lasting spell you've ever casted onto a single damn person (all the amnesia spells across Fruma (and I assume the other provinces) are gone btw. So uh, get ready for a bunch of confused Wynn Recruits that literally just recalled everything)

​

Anyways I'm actually not going to fully review the raid rooms themselves (I am way too lazy to go through every single room I'll let someone else do the honors) so after this I'm skipping straight to the boss itself

If I were to give a quick summary I would say that while not as brutal as the boss itself, it's still way more difficult compared to something like TNA, which is a crazy thing to say. I guess it's because players aren't really that used to the whole Amnesia mechanic yet (that and the debuffs are way too overtuned) so I'll see what comes of them in the full release

That and they did a really good job separating the aesthetic of this raid from TCC given that they're both mountain-themed and involve scaling upwards. I guess the whole Asian-feel of the builds and the wide-open cloudy regions in the rooms (they're not even considered rooms we're like, high up in the clouds) does help deviate from this.

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I mean look at these cloud builds

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Anyways boss time

Peak of Amnesia
Okay uh

???????

I can't really tell if this boss is supposed to be well-designed or not

But this thing might currently be the most difficult boss in the entire game

I am not joking

I'll need some time beyond a day of fighting PoA (Or I guess MM if you want to use the raid name) so I will come back to this post in the future to talk about all the mechanics

But for now I just want to say that this thing is the biggest Amnesia-giver in the whole game

Which really says a lot

What is this Madness

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Otherwise buncha cool mechanics and whatnot

P.S. Please for the love of god nerf its health I get that it's a mountain but the fight takes like way too long

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EDIT: I hate this raid

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(Btw the grammar on these two are off CT might want to fix that)

Will post the next section whenever I'm able (might take awhile tbh)

(I'll also move the QnA and credits further down after)

Spoiler: QNA

QNA
Q: ...What?
A: Happy April Fools. Not that... anyone would be fooled after doing a quick check to see if there is even a single announcement of this.

Q: How long did you spend on this?
A: I started this project more than a month ago. My procrastinating ass rushed through 90% of it the last month.

Q: Some of the images are missing.
A: I miscalculated the time it would take to finish this project. Expect sets of images to be added in the empty spots in the coming weeks.

Q: Are you actually going to continue adding to this thread
A: If the suspiciously-detailed Sohso NPC in the banner isn't already an indication YES. OH MY GOD I HORRIBLY MISJUDGED HOW MUCH TIME I NEEDED FOR THIS. I'LL POST THE OTHERS AS I FINISH TOUCHING THEM UP I WISH I HAD LIKE 1 MORE MONTH TO WORK ON THE THREAD.

I am legit not joking I have written full reviews and have assets prepared for the other five-six quests they're just way too incomplete to immediately post within like, 5-7 days. I hate all of this.

Q: Won't the mods move this thread to Your Work after April 1st
A: An unfortunate necessity. I'll try to keep it in this category as soon as possible otherwise. (If you're reading this and it's already moved there then rip)

Q: Can I contribute to the bit by also pretending I have played the beta?
A: DM me on Discord stating what part you want me to recreate and send to you in the form of images or gifs. If the inventory, level, guild bar and any other part of UI is visible (basically a non-cropped screenshot), then describe what you want me to put in them in full detail (or screenshot your own in-game UI if you want me to recreate it.)

ONLY post the images in this thread. If you want to post it anywhere outside of this post, you need to clearly specify that the creation is a fanmade one and not official.

If you need me to create any new assets/ models or want a gif, you're going to have to pay me. Include your LE offer and I'll consider.

Q: Will you ever join CT?
A: No.

Q: What's your gender? Are you not actually a guy?
A:

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Q: What is The Hidden Side?
A: Oh yeah that thing

Oh, yeah, a bunch of people were also involved in the making of this forum post, so I'll be sure to credit every single one of them down here! I need to make sure that not a single person isn't acknowledged! It's not like I made everything, after all.

(That and I also took a whole lot of Planet Minecraft skins, so)

(DM me if one of the skins are yours and you want it removed lol)

Spoiler: Credits

Sepuram (The Forums Post Banner): By @Someone_WC

Spoiler: The Empire's New Lie Part I

Detlas: By Wynncraft
Fruma Gate/ Torann: By Wynncraft (Rebuilt by @Someone_WC)
Espren: By Wynncraft
Yinnouan: Jinxiàn - [Full Interior] by Nikooo- https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/jinxi-n-interior/

Imperial Guard (Head): Dark Souls - Elite Knight set by XSSheep https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/dark-souls---elite-knight/
Imperial Guard (Armor): Homeless Guard by Wynncraft (Tempo Town)
Imperial Overseer: Samurai Oni by CherryRero https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/samurai-oni/
Fruma Gatekeeper: Lunar Parhelion by -Lunatique https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/lunar-parhelion/

Yinnouan Citizen: Onnanokode Ao by Moonish Imp https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/onnanokode-ao-x/
Yinnouan Citizen: Girl in Red by Moonish Imp https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/girl-in-red-x/
Yinnouan Citizen: Sakura Kimono by Hibiki Ekko https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/sakura-kimono-6228570/
Yinnouan Citizen: Lavender Sakura Kimono by Hibiki Ekko https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/lavender-sakura-kimono/

Imperial Captain: “Kryptonians give me headaches.” by Edicine https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/kryptonians-give-me-headaches/
Kai Shi, Kai Duan: Samurai Warrior | Japan by FennecFox https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/c-samurai-warrior-japan/
Kai Tou: Kamen Rider Regad by SeanW https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/kamen-rider-regad-6154045/
Kai Gong: Kamen Rider Regad by SeanW https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/kamen-rider-regad-omega/

Qira: Qira by Wynncraft
Qira (Inner Clothing): Divine Red by Summer__ https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/divine-red/
Qira (Outer CLothing): Empress (Lunar New Year) by Scoobert_2000 https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/empress-lunar-new-year-skin/

Imperial Inquisitor (Clothing): Hallow Samurai by iqoz https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/samurai-4711432/
Imperial Inquisitor (Mask Inner): Predator by Kefka https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/predator-2053522/
Imperial Inquisitor (Head): Demon Slayer - Shizanugawa Sanemi by Doums_ https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/demon-slayer-shizanugawa-sanemi-wind-pillar/
Imperial Inquisitor (Mask Outer): samurai by HROSA https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/samurai-5215713/

Calibri, The Second Sovereign: MassiveLooks | Come Rain or Shine by WildRoze https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/massivelooks-come-rain-or-shine/
Calibri, The Second Sovereign (Royal Clothing): MassiveLooks | Green Ripple Ivy by candlemouse https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/massivelooks-green-ripple-ivy/
Ebrima, The Third Sovereign: Autumn is Fast Approaching by cheyko https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/autumn-is-fast-approaching/
Ebrima, The Third Sovereign (Royal Clothing): Suvial Mage by KitchenRefugee https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/suvial-mage-free-to-use-massivelooks/
Candara, The Fourth Sovereign: Unnamed by Yeowun (original by Cigarist) https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/gt-5377396/
Candara, The Fourth Sovereign (Royal Clothing): Sakura Dress | FTU by SearchSolace https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/sakura-dress-ftu/
Tahoma, The Fifth Sovereign: My OC’s hair base (Genya) by valskyrie https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/my-oc-s-hair-base-genya-5887370/
Tahoma, The Fifth Sovereign (Royal Clothing): Starlight Dress by KitchenRefugee https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/starlight-dress-free-to-use-massivelooks/

Court Official: Yukata by Angel https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/yukata-4252804/
Court Official: Purple Kimono by ElliaUna https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/purple-kimono-5993571/
Court Official: Red Kimono by ElliaUna https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/red-kimono-5632758/
Court Official: Kimono by ElliaUna https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/kimono-5632755/
Court Official: Soft Pink Kimono ElliaUna https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/soft-pink-kimono/
Court Official: Samurai Champloo by TokiDokiTenshi https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/-fuu---samurai-champloo-for-the-feudal-japan-skin-contest/
Court Official: Okita Souji by Reimuu https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/okita-souji-sakura-saber-fate-grand-order-anime-game-4489128/

Spoiler: The Empire's New Lie Part II

The Mortal Mountain (Entrance): Asian style pagoda EP2 by NagiFX https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/asian-style-pagoda-ep2-download/[/URL]

Adjustor: Not a Samurai by Edicine https://www.planetminecraft.com/ski...www.planetminecraft.com/skin/samurai-5215713/

Inquisitor Lantern: Lamp by kingshephard https://minecraft-heads.com/custom-heads/head/49378-lamp
(I technically stole it from one of the trees in Espren but I found the MCHeads Page)

Prisoner: Prisoner by Teddy https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/prisoner-2949724/

All Gear Skins and models not made by me: By Wynncraft

(Will update the credits list as I expand this forum post)

 

Just become a dev at this point, ur to good

 

Oh ma gawd Qira is out!!! I mean Fruma

 

Fruma before GTA 6? WHAT

 

Omg this is peak