Development Stories: Path of Exile 2 Narrative Design Philosophies

i like the early charchters and lore of Dominos, Grevicus and Izaro. i really like izaro's designe
we all know lore beats gameplay, so work at it !
(not trolling guys, an arpg without a lore is kakashka!)

Not sure if this was mentioned before, as I dont have the time to read through 20 pages of comments, I have to farm currency for my build :D.

But I'd really like to see Grigor again or at least be able to learn what happened to him, where he went and maybe what he does now. That would be awesome!

I really feel sorry for Grigor and what happened to him. Every new league I play to avenge him! Remember Grigor.

My favorite part of Path of Exile is secretly the stories. I have been rather disappointed lately in that certain areas of the game have experienced major neglect in this area for years now. When I see a Statue, Book, or Poem... I really enjoy and have come to expect that I can click on it and "take the story with me" as I progress through the area. Otherwise I would have no clue what is going on. I have learned so much through the storytelling that I can tell the people I play with, who have played far longer than I, what is up with each character and their journeys and arcs. "You wear their armor and weapons, but I know their stories."

I'd really like to see some attention diverted into making the poems and readings from certain Acts and Maps complete. Some of them don't even have voice acting, and the worst is when you must step away due to the encroaching monsters and miss out on the story entirely - or feel like you are forced to stand still to read it thus taking time away from progression in the game. The stories you can click and "take with you" really make this game shine. Do them the justice they deserve.

I've been meaning to bring this up for a few leagues now, and hoping that the dialogue would get better as each new league comes out. I really enjoy the Envoy and can tell a lot of work was put into that writing and voicing of the character, however, the recent leagues have lacked the depth of story that I had began to expect from GGG. The storytelling of the characters' transformations in Betrayal and the unique relationships that the NPCs have with each other was great. Heist introduced a whole new set of very chatty characters that really gave a sense of getting to know them and where they came from. In Ritual, I was just left wondering. In Ultimatum, Doryani's character (???) is vague at best and I am struggling to understand how he got that way. The new persona, "The Taskmaster", has really boring repetitive lines that I find incredibly disappointing. More disappointing than 1 round challenger could ever be. What a lackluster character with lazy boring writing. The arc from Doryani to turning into this "taskmaster" is unexplained as far as I can tell. If you hid the tidbit in an text-only poem somewhere, perhaps that is why.

I turn my dialogue volume up and suffer the "when I'm ready, not before" over and over and over again because the Envoy's voicelines are so well done that I don't want to play the game without hearing them on my approach. But then the Taskmaster appears on my screen and is a severe let down every time and beyond annoying, perhaps even Beyond Boss Annoying. Really rushed.

I truly hope that you put more into the writing and voice acting as you had in the past because without it the game lacks a story and purpose. Interesting topics like how certain characters had their own personal transformations used to matter to you guys, and I'd like to see that return to the game.

One of my favorite elements in Path of Exile is the idea of "taking the story with me", those stories you can click on and have read to you as you decimate the dungeon - learning about what evils lurk within as you destroy them at the same time. This made PoE stand out to me and I really hope to see more of it.

Signed,
Ms. I Keep Dialogue At Maximum Volume

I feel like Zana will have a massive overturn to us exiles. As what Al-Hezmin is thinking, Zana holds secrets no one knows. She might turn against us just like Catarina did and the rest of the Immortal syndicate. Of course, I might be wrong but who knows what lies with POE2.

My Grigor

For PoE 2, I think I'd like to know what Became of all the settlements. With the area cleared around them, did lioneye's watch finally become an actual town? Did they migrate to another place and why? With Sarn's water being polluted, did they solve it or did they also choose to go somewhere else? Maybe they even managed to get control of a bigger part of the city. Stuff like that.

Also, Baran mentioned some allies in his notes. I'd also like to know who some of them were or what happened to them. Like what Landren is up to.

Axiom Prison

" From their perspective, you’re a crazed antisocial barbarian who charged through their town, killed a bunch of monsters, then randomly brought them a highly personal item like a cat dropping off a dead bird. But thanks, I suppose?
"
hahahahahahahha this better be a fucking quest somewhere LOL <3 <3

One of my favorite things about PoE is that you can pick up a journal and it starts reading it aloud while i go Cyclone through the map. recently we had "The Envoy" which is probably one of the coolest, most enigmatic and interesting characters ever to grace PoE, and every word he says in that monotone yet gentle voice is absolutely entrancing. leveling through the campaign was very refreshing for all i wanted to do was get to the next envoy, and listen to the next tidbid, currently his much rarer and ive listened to much of what he has to say, none the less the execution of this NPC and the culmination of the Maven boss fight was what really made ritual stand out in terms of a league. Something which is deeply missed from ultimatum, at least in the opinion of this PoE lorelover <3 <3

cant wait for PoE 2

P.S. "From their perspective, you’re a crazed antisocial barbarian who charged through their town, killed a bunch of monsters, then randomly brought them a highly personal item like a cat dropping off a dead bird. But thanks, I suppose?"
this better be a quest somewhere