Azteca's Ending: Too Dark?
Warning - if you're not one for spoilers, it's time to keep scrolling to the next post! I'd like to visit a topic today that is quite revealing - the end of Azteca! You see, it's not another Morganthe-escapes-and-all-is-well-in-a-world-you-just-saved sort of deal. Quite the opposite in at least one of those cases. However, the end of Azteca has been widely debated, and I'm here to share my opinion.
For those of you who don't know, you meet Morganthe and The Undying Malistaire on the comet in the sky above Azteca as the final instance. Morganthe has slowed you to the point that you cannot stop, redirect, or destroy the comet, and that Azteca will come to an end.
For those of you who don't know, you meet Morganthe and The Undying Malistaire on the comet in the sky above Azteca as the final instance. Morganthe has slowed you to the point that you cannot stop, redirect, or destroy the comet, and that Azteca will come to an end.
After no more than a partial Malistaire defeat, Morganthe escapes... but not without doing damage. You can probably tell by the pictures that Azteca is one its way to extinction. Besides the obvious real-life reference to the idea that dinosaurs were all destroyed by a massive comet, this change of pace offers a new perspective on the whole situation.
When asked why Azteca ended the way it did, J. Todd Coleman himself responded, saying:
We thought it would be a good change of pace, and add tension and drama to the story. I look at the end of the Morganthe arc as a new chapter for players; the stakes are higher, as the player is transitioning from "student" to "master."
Wow! I'll spit it right out - I love this whole idea. In fact, I'm going to call it a post-completion environment change. This occurs when the area itself is changed after completing an area. There are already instances which have post-completion NPC changes, where an enemy becomes an unrepeatable ally.
Besides, is it just me, or are we all a little sick of happily ever after? While some people would like the option to turn the falling and shattering meteors off, I think they ought to keep them for effect. It really does create a sense of urgency - and we know that the end of the arc is near. Merle is summoning the forces of light for what is likely to be an epic showdown!
I'd love to see more of this - didn't you find it odd when you went to great lengths to bring down Lord Nightshade, only to find that his undead still roamed the streets? Or how about the boss that you defeated over and over, and they just never seemed to go away.
As for Azteca, lets be honest here, blue skies are nice, but aren't the comets fun as it is? What's your personal preference?
As a side note, I'm semi-back! While I'm due for another operation in a matter of weeks, I'll be at least keeping up with my weekly posts.
Thanks for reading, and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Thanks to Cret92 for taking the comet photos for this post specifically!
I think the meteors look kinda cool, something for a change.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope everything will go well with your operation. :)
so just to clear things out you can go back to azteca any time?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, you can visit the world any time, you simply can't see the clear skies that you were able to before.
DeleteSwordroll do you think Ambrose may actually be evil. I mean its possible
DeleteSwordroll I think Ambrose is actually evil. I mean its possible but it will take four people to bring him down even a little
DeleteThat'd certainly be a great twist in the storyline, and I'd love for one of our close allies to actually be evil, however, I just don't think Ambrose will make the "evil" cut. Anything is possible, though.
DeleteMerle is to scatterbrained to be evil, for example, in one of the first quests, he loses Penny Dreadful's registration. And he can't have a lot of time due to running a school full of rowdy witches and wizards.
DeleteI don't think that any of the worlds we visited had a ''happily ever after''.
ReplyDeleteIn Malistaire's and Morganthe's storyline, just after finishing each world, we found out that he/she is somewhere else causing chaos and we go after him/her without really solving the world's troubles and neither the spiral threat.
We deafeated Malistaire in Dragonspyre,but the world still have it's troubles,everybody is dead and it is still in ashes.
Celestia is still underwater, Zafaria lost it's artifacts and gave Morganthe the deck of shadows, King Artorius still does not have the control over his city...
And now this, Morganthe destroyed Azteca and bringed Malistaire back too (we don't really know if he survived after what happened to him, but he was still another trouble).
All of the world's still have their troubles, I don't see any ''happily ever after'' anywhere,but that's how life is, yin and yang.
The only thing I would want to fix about this ending would be something like Ambrose giving us a crystal, like the ones of DS, to go to the past and revisit Azteca (I know you are able to go back at any time, but it should not stand forever; the comets falling are ok, nevertheless).
Now let's start thinking which world's next, I hope it is Darkmoore...
Now wait there have been some "happily ever after" ending worlds:
DeleteWizard City: stopped undead so they're not a major threat, put King Thermadore back in power and allowed the Gobblers to stay on Colossus Boulavard.
Krokotopia: Unenslaved the Manders so they may live in peace in life and death
Marleybone: Stopped a whole gang so the crime rate is at an all time low and placed Meowiarty back in prison.
Mooshu: Healed the Emporer and created balance in the imperial court(a Pirate apparently settles somethings on the outer parts of Mooshu. Who knew? lol ;)
Dragonspyre had already destroyed itself, as you know, prior to our arrival. Everyone was already dead and in ashes anyway. We really just wanted to beat Malistaire for dragging us in this mess and to stop all the undead everywhere. It wouldnt really need the theme it has if we tried to revive every thing. (As Ambrose would say "There is no magic strong enough to undo death") But you do put a lot of things at ease.
Now Celestia was supposed to be an underwater themed world and your goal wasnt to lift it from the seas(that's a lot of magic to do so) but to stop Morganthe from learning the Astral magics(which we failed at. Boo!) So it'd defeat the purpose to lift it from its place.
Zafaria's lose of its relics is a tragedy but it's not the end of the world. We did stop their fueding (we more or less with the Gorrillas) and we could assume that they've made up and are traders or "friends" again.
In Avalon, we can speculate that Artorius took power again over a period of time we just did not see this. Most likely he pushed the creatures of Weirwood back to their holes. Another thing could be a Pirate helped out down the line.
I mean KI can always add ways and quests to show that they have a happy ending (I seen a lot of free/empty spaces that would make awesome area spaces).
A ton of people believe Darkmoor will be the next world when I feel that Empyrea is gonna be next. Heres why:
-The picture of Darkmoor has a more Pirate101 look to it.
-Morganthe mention about constructing a Celestial Choir which makes me think of Angels or Angelic Cult. Empyrea in my mind is based off of like angels, heavenly bodies or the sky itself.
-Empyrea has been mentioned quite a few times.
-Ambrose says to rally a force of Light. Obiviously the COuncil of Light cannot do it alone so either a.) all the people we helped will come together for an army or b.) we'll seek aid from the snobbish, think-they're-better-than-everyone Empyreans lol.
As of Empyrea itself, I picture blues, gold, and white. Clouds and blue skys. Similar to Azteca and Pirate101 worlds, it would be broken up into many many smaller islands and most likely wouldn't have a full world map. Inhabitants would be Seraphs, Angels, and/or some kind of bird people.
METEORS!!!!!
ReplyDeleteyeah meteors, lol, that sums up the ending of azteca. enourmous balls of fire raining from the sky
Deletewell, as we all know the Aztecs died and so did the dinosaurs. But I was one of the many people who liked Azteca. Why cant the put a world in its place? Like grizzleheim ):P . Though i personaly hated this ending. Don't get me wrong. Must they let this beautiful world die? i hope your wizard finds a way to save them in the ending (HINT HINT that song of recreation? mailistare's handbook?)
ReplyDeleteidk, i kinda liked the ending of azteca. though i agree that they shouldnt have let the entire world die, it kinda makes sense doesnt it? people say that dinosaurs were killed by a meteor, and azteca has alot of dinosaur related areas. like the dead turtle things. so yeah, maybe its better that azteca died off ( even though you can go back at anytime) cause it adds urgency and suspense to the whole plot of the game :)
ReplyDelete