Curse

GranDeWun · May 24, 2006, 07:44 PM // 19:44

This debate foolish, of course, in the sense that most people posting here not only bought both, but will most likely buy Ch's 3, 4, etc.
If you were totally new to GW, and only going to buy 1 of the 2, I would agree that GW:P is probably the way to go. But think of this:
Would anyone who already had GW:P have wanted Factions to be another Prophecies? With 1/2 the game aimed at under level 20? With laborious Ascension quests? I kind of doubt that.

Priest Of Sin · May 25, 2006, 03:27 AM // 03:27

Factions, but just because the starting island is FREAKING beautiful and fun to be in, unlike the post-searing ascalon.

Jamison0071 · May 25, 2006, 03:41 AM // 03:41

I prefer Factions, I like to lvl quickly and have all my attributes and I also like to buy all the skills I want so I can get my build working. I didnt like how long Chapter One took to get some decent skills. Also PVE in chapter 2 is so much more fun and challenging.

Ubernoob · May 25, 2006, 03:56 AM // 03:56

Id have to say Prophacies for the actual content BUT Factions wins for UBER COOL LOOKING AMOUR AND WEAPONS (Because thats what really counts :P )

Maria The Princess · May 25, 2006, 04:15 AM // 04:15

propecies

factions seems kinda underworked to me. they spend more efforts on graphics then on the actual game :/

Lady Lozza · May 25, 2006, 04:32 AM // 04:32

Factions, without a doubt.
It was a much more mature game both in terms of content and the ideas that it dealt with. I loved the cityscape and honestly found it one of the most enjoyable sections of the game.
The quantity does not both me, IMHO the quality of the story in Factions was so much better.

Kook~NBK~ · May 25, 2006, 05:17 AM // 05:17

Prophecies! No Question. All of the landscapes are well done, and have interesting features, such as the faces built into the Ring of Fire Islands, the Flora of Kryta & the Wilds, etc. The Story line is better, relatively speaking of course. And it's not overly complicated.

In Cantha, you have that ugly, really, really ugly, city. But I do like the Island area - nice touch with the water buffaloes! You also have pop-up dialog boxes popping up right in the middle of the screen - ANNOYING! especially when in the middle of a battle!

I absolutely hate the "alliance" thing. It gives a HUGE advantage to larger guilds over smaller ones. Why should a guild be penalized because it only has 10-20 members who prefer a close-knit group of friends or a multi-gaming group who have been around the gaming world for years, over a group of 70+ Guild with members that don't know jack about each other.

I also don't like the "rush-rush" of trying to get the top bonus for a mission - I play the game for relaxation, I've got enough stress IRL! The side quests for bonuses in Prophecies added to the flavor of the mission & the storyline -A MUCH BETTER SYSTEM!

generik · May 25, 2006, 06:40 AM // 06:40

Prophecies. Just take the example of the 15 attribute quests.

In GW:P the desert actually feels like part of a spiritual passing, even with the unique music to boot. In GW:F it is just "here, take your 15 points and go!"

Sagius Truthbarron · May 25, 2006, 07:47 AM // 07:47

Chapter 1 had more content. Factions has better gameplay. The storyline for both games insults one's intelligence.

I think they are both in a balance. Factions has what most people who play this game want, rare item skins, expensive armor in various forms. Prophecies has more depth of character and feel.

Miakoda · May 25, 2006, 12:18 PM // 12:18

When a LARGE portion of Prophesies playerbase skips to Drokners Forge in order to be kitted out, then there is something wrong, Factions addressed that and decided to place the best armour right at the start taking away the need to skip/run.

Prophesies had a larger area of unused/superfluos land that made quite a few of the missions longer than they needed to be, even areas between missions/towns.. again Factions addressed this.

Prophesies was slower to accumilate wealth/cash at the start and skill quests felt more like a chore than actual fun sub quests, again Factions addressed this by enabling a decent cash flow throughout by quests giving cash and good xp and with material drops, Skills were easily bought and negated the
need to stay in an explorable zone for another hour in order to get a skill.

Once you go play through the Prophesies campaign there is a general feeling that you don't want to go through it all over again.. especially after the second time, Factions challenge missions adds good replay value for guilds and players that like to tweak builds all day long.

Personally I like to explore my first play through of any game, taking my time to do all the sub quests and main quests and uncover every inch of the map at the same time then look towards pvp, now I can replay challenges when pvp gets a bit old and vice versa.

My opinion is that Factions is a much better incarnation for the explorer and thourough type player who likes to do everything pve and pvp, Prophesies tends to make me want to skip through were as Factions I could see myself rolling up another pve character without needing to skip.

Anet may find it hard to try and give a different take/feel for each incarnation of GW, so far we have had the journey (prophesies) and the battle (Factions) perhaps the next addition is the quiet before the storm..

I say Journey as Prophesies feels a bit lengthy and epic in places, while Factions is tightly packed and the numerous enemies seem relentless in places which gives the feel of a Battle/Purpose.

wolfe2dale · May 25, 2006, 12:24 PM // 12:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miakoda

When a LARGE portion of Prophesies playerbase skips to Drokners Forge in order to be kitted out, then there is something wrong, Factions addressed that and decided to place the best armour right at the start taking away the need to skip/run.

Prophesies had a larger area of unused/superfluos land that made quite a few of the missions longer than they needed to be, even areas between missions/towns.. again Factions addressed this.

Prophesies was slower to accumilate wealth/cash at the start and skill quests felt more like a chore than actual fun sub quests, again Factions addressed this by enabling a decent cash flow throughout by quests giving cash and good xp and with material drops, Skills were easily bought and negated the
need to stay in an explorable zone for another hour in order to get a skill.

Once you go play through the Prophesies campaign there is a general feeling that you don't want to go through it all over again.. especially after the second time, Factions challenge missions adds good replay value for guilds and players that like to tweak builds all day long.

Personally I like to explore my first play through of any game, taking my time to do all the sub quests and main quests and uncover every inch of the map at the same time then look towards pvp, now I can replay challenges when pvp gets a bit old and vice versa.

My opinion is that Factions is a much better incarnation for the explorer and thourough type player who likes to do everything pve and pvp, Prophesies tends to make me want to skip through were as Factions I could see myself rolling up another pve character without needing to skip.

Anet may find it hard to try and give a different take/feel for each incarnation of GW, so far we have had the journey (prophesies) and the battle (Factions) perhaps the next addition is the quiet before the storm..

I say Journey as Prophesies feels a bit lengthy and epic in places, while Factions is tightly packed and the numerous enemies seem relentless in places which gives the feel of a Battle/Purpose.

What he said..

WasAGuest · May 25, 2006, 02:19 PM // 14:19

Prophesies all the way. I enjoyed taking 5 characters through Tyria (deleted my ele) doing all the missions and quests along the way. Felt the game was well made and thought out. It felt developed and fun (though the story was a little thin - heh).

A break down in my opinion:

Prophesies:
Good
Great co-op missions and enough to keep me playing for weeks with each character.
SF was and still is fun to go through (not to farm, but to play). Leeeroy!
Presearing Catacombs is still one of my favorite areas in terms of atmosphere.
Quests were plentiful and enough to keep me entertained in each area till I wanted to move on.
Farming and Grinding wasn't needed to gain or progress through the game.
Bad
Favor needed to access FoW/UW; thus PvE is reliant on PvP. Bad game design.
Going from Presearing to Post had forced PvP (meant a coffee break for me - not a big deal).

Factions:
Good
I love the boss mobs and how hard they hit. Some real challenge. Awesome.
Armor looks wonderful. I'm a huge fan of native America (north and south) and it's art, the Luxon armor reminds me of it. Beautiful. Not saying that's what it's based off of, it just reminds me of it.
Weapons are pretty cool looking too.
Enviroments are great to look at as well. I used to hate the city as well, too brown. But as I wander around in it, I find there are some neat looking areas. Waterfalls falling around and off of people homes in the background... Could have been more colorful, but it's alright.
Bad
Challenge Missions - who thought these would be fun for more than four times through? /bonk
Jade/Aspenwood - These might be fun, but the amount of leechers and afkers kill the randomness of it. Maybe if we are able to make groups and go with friends? Cause right now it's like 1 person and 3 leechers vs 1 and 3 leechers with the AI. /ponder
Grind and Farming is needed to progress through the game. work around: get 10k faction with your first character through, then work at getting each following character to the "befriend" quests. Do quest turn in; less grind needed that way.
VSquare - awesome idea but instantly failing due to poor Assassins having to hench it cause they can't get a group and Togo dieing, not fair to the rest of the players. Shouldn't auto fail.
Faction vs Faction? Where is it? All I've seen is Alliance vs Alliance as we bicker over Elite Mission access.
Elite Mission access requires farming; supreme amount of farming. Bad design.
Time over skill - see above.

The good side is that almost everyone of my complaints on Factions can be fixed via patch. Some complaints I had have already been fixed; Duel quest farming for example. I love the challenge it now presents if played with a normal group. Here's hoping for the rest.

relaxed · May 25, 2006, 02:43 PM // 14:43

If it's a question of value, I'd have to say that Prophecies was well worth the fifty bucks, while Factions quite simply wasn't.

Don't get me wrong, I think there are very good things with Factions, but while Prophecies kept me entertained for nearly a year, I don't see going back to Factions in 6 months when chapter 3 comes out - if i stay engaged for that long...

Energizer Deth Buni · May 25, 2006, 08:14 PM // 20:14

I love it how people want a beautiful landscape to spread the blood of critters on.... Sorry we dont wanna kill things in a dreadful place like this. :-)

I still have to vote Prophecies. The one main thing I ve noticed is the lack of unity in the Factions commmunity. People are way to spread out...

Nevin · May 25, 2006, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Prophecies.. Much more epic.

Dove_Song · May 26, 2006, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Phrophecies is a big smoking turd next to factions in EVERY WAY.

Andy_M · May 26, 2006, 07:12 AM // 07:12

2 words for people who prefer exploring Cantha - locked gates.

And I think the poster above me should at least attempt to justify that statement (which I won't bother repeating).

Ardrid · May 26, 2006, 08:22 AM // 08:22

I'm going to have to give the nod to Prophecies as well. Don't get me wrong, I love Factions and am enjoying working though it with my Rt and Ele, but Prophecies just seems more...grandiose in terms of immersion. A lot of ppl complain about the city, but I compare it to post-Searing Ascalon. Both are very drab and produce a feeling of depression. Granted, Ascalon is nowhere near as confusing as the city can be, but I feel they both serve the same purpose. I will say that once you get out of the city, much like when you finally leave Ascalon, there are some amazing environments and I have to say the art team deserves a lot of credit.

On the whole, Prophecies just has a lot more to do, whether we're talking about when it was first launched or now, when compared to Factions. I still find myself playing Prophecies even though Factions is the newer game. There's UW, FoW, Tombs, SF, and just a lot of other places to explore. I will say, however, that the Elite Missions are amazing in Factions. If you can get a ferry to one (or if you happen to be in the controlling alliance), you owe it yourself to check them out. I've only had the opportunity to do Urgoz's Warren, but if you've got a good grp it is one hell of a good time.

In the end, each game has it's own benefits and faults, but the nod goes to Prophecies for being a better game overall.

jules · May 26, 2006, 04:23 PM // 16:23

**Spoiler alert**

Prophecies for me. It had a better storyline (!); Factions' storyline is just horrible. I enjoyed the missions and level progression a lot more in Prophecies too. Shiro's got to be the easiest final boss in the history of gaming.

BrutusV · May 26, 2006, 05:32 PM // 17:32

When looking at Factions vs. Prophecies:

Good:
- Faster levelling and skill points even though I enjoyed the character development part in Prophecies
- Faster paced missions, although focusing too much of the killing variety
- Cooperative missions like Vizunah Square. Larger battles are awesome
- Alliance battles. IMO the final release of 3 x 4 is worse than the 12 person format used in FPE
- New professions that's balanced
- Cool pets, items and balancing the economy

Bad:
- Story is meh
- Levelling is too fast leading to new players not learning team dynamics as much before getting off the island
- Elite missions limited to top alliances
- Locked gates everywhere = no exploration and can't play the game how we want to
- Insane bosses (all very well and good if you've got rebirth, but what if I want to play my Prophecies E/Me?)
- Mobs too closely spaced
- Not fixing things that don't make sense. For example, how can street thugs like some Jade Brotherhood guy drop green items whereas the much more interesting and worthy opponents like the Mursaat in Prophecies aren't dropping green items. I want to see what Coventina the Matron has as weapon and offhand!!

Bad outnumbers good - Prophecies win.