Horizon II Forbidden West

Fangu

Fangu

Great Old One
I've been thinking about this game. A lot. And I had this thought today that I personally haven't seen anyone mention.

How I see it, the first game was Aloy's journey from outcast to the Saviour of Meridian, of taking up the mantle and learning about the truth of her birth, finding strength in her own resolve. The second has been about Aloy realising she's not alone, how what really matters is the people in her life and how she finds strength in them, not just her own journey. So there's been speculation that the third game might involve romance, which I'd welcome because, while people really like aro/ace Aloy (and I kind of like her too), it's a thing where lead women in popular culture need to stay virginal as not to scare off the male spectator or some bullshit. Which is why I wouldn't mind a canon romance story, canon because I'd like to see Guerilla finish Aloy's story the way they want to tell it, even if it includes a risk of alienating a lot of players, seeing how spread the player base in who they ship Aloy with (no one, Talanah, Erend, Avad, Petra, Nil, Kotallo... speaking of the latter did you notice how he was eyeing Zo at the final group scene? My bets is next game he's with her in Plainsong raising her and Varl's child. You heard it here first!)

Which brings me to - Beta. I just had this feeling that the third instalment might be Aloy's last adventure, letting her retire after all her hard work. And who's there to pick up the mantle, someone with a lot of potential character development/ growth, who's already a recognisable face to the audience? Yup. Plus she's 17.2 years in HFW, so there's a lot of room of telling the story of her growing up and into her own character. Aloy, while not the lead protagonist, could aid her through focus, like Sylens did for Aloy a lot in HZD. I can totally see it.

I'm certain Beta was created to first and foremost give Aloy a sister/ family (and I love that whole arch, best part in the game imo), but is there also a chance she was created partly for the possibility of commercial use?

idk when I had this idea I felt it really fit. I'd LOVE Beta as the protagonist! And I wish they never change her name because I feel like it really fits in their world, somehow?
 
Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
I got my PS4 version near the end of February, and have been isolating myself from HFW threads to keep as spoiler-free as possible. I just finished the main quest on Friday. I'd been putting off the final mission just to farm stuff on a week-long upgrading spree. In the end, I'd upgraded all of my pouches and some of my most used weapons. I think it made my fights against the final bosses a bit more manageable. Honestly, I had more trouble dealing with wild Stormbirds and Slitherfangs than I did against the bosses.

Haven't platinumed the game yet. I did most of the side quests, but barely touched the training grounds, pit masters, and arena fights. I'm kind bummed that I missed out on one machine
-- the Corruptor... which apparently is only possible to get in Thebes?--
to complete my machine catalogue. Oh, well. Maybe I'll find another one out in the wilds or wait for the NG+.

I ran into some bugs throughout my playthrough, most commonly the one where machines would clip into the terrain and get stuck. This was funny when it involved random machines, and irritating when it involved quest-specific ones. For example, I had to reload my save several times because a quest required me to kill a couple of clamberjaws but one of them kept sinking into the ground like a lobster whereupon none of my attacks would affect it. Another bug was at the Grove where the game wouldn't give me the prompt to speak to the Chaplain there even though the quest marker was shown above her. All in all, though, bugs were manageable and I only needed to reload to the most recent save to get around them.

I really liked that the more powerful gear were rewards for doing sidequests. It was a nice incentive and made obtaining legendary gear feel more satisfying than if I were to just buy them from the stores. Upgrading at workbenches was functional. At least, gathering crafting resources seemed a lot less troublesome compared to the previous game.

I loved the bonds that Aloy formed with the secondary characters here. In HZD, she was mostly aloof even when she was making new friends, so it was really good to see her slowly opening up and allowing others to come close in HFW. Character development <3 I appreciated seeing Erend and Varl both call her out on her distant attitude at the start of the game. I am disappointed that Talanah wasn't one the regular team members, but at least her farewell conversation with Aloy was really good. I hope she shows up in Horizon 3 as a permanent party member.

Varl was a real pleasure to watch in the game. Always steadfast, compassionate, forward looking, and strong. He and Zo were really cute together, and listening to them banter with Erend was always fun.
I admit, I spent a while after the Gemini cauldron mission hoping that Varl had not died, but... :( I do feel bad now thinking about Sona; she's now lost both of her children and Zo's baby might be all she'll have left of her family. I wonder if we get to see Zo meeting Sona in the future. I can almost see Sona leaving the Sacred Lands to stay close to her grandchild.

Aloy's relationship with
Beta was also a great to watch. In the beginning, when Beta first got to the base, there was a real sense of frustration in Aloy as she tried to wrap her mind around dealing with someone who was her but also not her. Almost all of their early conversations had me muttering at her to not just angrily stalk away from Beta even as I was musing that both of Elisabet's clones were so damaged and emotionally stunted due to their upbringings. Thankfully, they finally managed to reach an understanding. I look forward to seeing how their relationship will evolve in the future DLCs and sequels.
I'm glad to see hints that they're both are using their unique relationship to grow out of their loner tendencies.

Regalla was a character that was both interesting and a little disappointing. I'd expected more involvement with her based on early trailers (and who wouldn't want to interact more with someone played by Angela Bassett?), but she was a pretty distant antagonist throughout the game. So I liked her in concept but she wasn't in as much as I'd like; even Helis seemed to have more presence in HZD and he also had limited screentime.

Tilda was a nice addition, even though she, too, was really in there for a short time. I had suspected that she may have been the one to have
provided the genetic sources to create Beta. She would've been the only Zenith who had close, intimate contact with Elisabet, after all.
Near the end of the main quest and the reveal of how obsessed she was about her past with
Elisabet, I wondered if her motivations for sharing the data channel with Beta had been as a soft attempt at regaining some semblance of their relationship, except that perhaps one of the reasons why she stopped was that she realised that Beta's behaviour and demeanour were very unlike Elisabet's.

I did feel that the third act of the game was a bit rushed in some places. I can't really recall a specific point where it felt that way, but it just seemed like the pacing in the third act was more... compacted compared to the rest of the game. Some of it was because interactions with NPCs like Regalla, Sylens, and Tilda felt short, like there could have been more. I don't know if this may have been due to covid-era limitations and lockdowns, since I recall a youtube video about the cast members where Ashly Burch mentioned having to record some of her dialogue at her home using assembled booths sent by Guerilla.

So, to conclude, some bumps here and there, but I loved this game. Characters and their developments were great and I want more. The leap in character animations between HZD and HFW was phenomenal, and the great voice acting really helped in making the people in the game world feel substantial and real. The story feels a bit different from HZD, I think, but they're both great (post-)post-apocalyptic sci-fi stories to sink my teeth into. I'm still ruminating about the plot and lore reveals. The revelations at the end of the game has my curiosity piqued about where the Horizon 3 is going villain-wise. Before that, I guess there'll be story-driven DLC chapters, perhaps to deal with
recapturing HEPHAESTUS,
maybe something about how the knowledge that the team have gathered are being spread to the greater population, and maybe also something about what they're going to do with the newfangled
spacetech that the Zeniths had brought to back to Earth.

I will try to slowly platinum this game over the next couple of weeks (or as close to plat as I can, since I'm still missing one machine scan), but at least I don't have to worry about spoilers anymore :)
 
LNK

LNK

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Nate
Fangu said:
I read that for patch 1.09 they nerfed the Legendary weapons. I'm not too bothered because I got my first Legendary today, still using Purple gear, it's working fine imo
Click to expand...

Shit, I play on easy/normal. Even purple weapons are good for me. I did get Rost's bow and the legendary sling shot though. Rost and Kotallo were the reasons for those. Not because they were powerful

Predictions for part 3
Sylens gains control of the Horus machines, becoming the final boss. Grotesque monster Ted Faro is also an endgame fight
 
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Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
New video out on Guerilla's channel about their collaboration with the Rijkmuseum and the art pieces featured in one part of the game:

(I love the music in this game so much.)
 
Fangu

Fangu

Great Old One
The legendary weapons nerf was apparently unintentional. Fixed in 1.10/ 1.11 which is out now.

I'm really impressed with their patch regime, including their release notes.

Also re: music - YES! I love so many of them but Built to kill is my favourite. So good. Also I love how that title is kinda ambiguous?

Also I started a Hard run waiting for NG+ to drop maybe before summer? Going to be playing this game for the rest of 2022...
 
Lestat

Lestat

He/him
AKA
Ergo, V
I downloaded this yesterday and already wanna make an educated guess around where the copy of Gaia is
it's around her fucking neck inside the globe ain't it?

That said the game is gorgeous and I'm loving the subtle changes although for some reason I'm noticing a massive issue where I jump to specific yellow platform instances and when the last one is a flat surface she won't walk off it and instead I end up having to do a weird jump and move command to get her to start moving again.
 
Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
While looking through some HFW content on youtube, I came across this video that shows the differences in the interactions between Aloy and Beta for before and after their pivotal conversation in the second half of the game:

(The 'bond' mentioned here referring to the conversation where Aloy talks about Rost to Beta.)

As someone who made it a point to speak to Beta everytime I went to the base, I only saw the pre-bonding scenes. So I was really surprised to see those same conversations in the post-bonding context. There's such a big change in Beta's tone of voice; she sounds softer and more hopeful. Even her body language is more open and relaxed. And Aloy, of course, is less abrupt and sharp with her, more considerate with how she words her responses in consideration of Beta's feelings.

I have seen some mentions online from players who thought that Aloy's declaration that she and Beta are sisters seemed to have come out of the blue, and as someone who had experienced all the conversations before they bonded, I kinda understand where that criticism would have come from. I guess, maybe it would be better to space out their conversations and only talk more after they've bonded as a way to better communicate the their developing sisterly ties.

All this, of course, just makes me curious if the game has any other differences that can be seen before and after major milestones and plot points.

Also, Ashly Burch really showed her voice acting chops here. It's so great to hear the different tones and mannerisms that she put into for all of her roles in HFW.
 
Fangu

Fangu

Great Old One
Ah, that's a great find! Will definitely check out later!

(Also a little annoying because it's missable in a way)

Edit: Watched it, loved it! Thanks for sharing!
 
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Lestat

Lestat

He/him
AKA
Ergo, V
Finally finished the game.
Glad to eat my words about the Gaia kernel XD

I love this franchise and everything about the combat, something just being armed with a bow and arrow is just so damn good XD

That said I tried to run the arena on the harder difficulty settings and FML did I regret every choice I ever made in life.

My one and only gripe
I really don't like the space/eternal human plotline and especially don't like the prelude to the next big bad that's coming. I think they had more than enough of a world setting that they could have had a more intune big bad with the overall plot of the series.

I mean I didn't mind having beta there as it made sense there would be more than one version of her in the event that shit went wrong but the rest of the space plotline I didn't feel necessary. Even the advanced mechs didn't feel as tricky to deal with comparatively to a thunderjaw etc.
 
LNK

LNK

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Nate
Lestat said:
Finally finished the game.
Glad to eat my words about the Gaia kernel XD

I love this franchise and everything about the combat, something just being armed with a bow and arrow is just so damn good XD

That said I tried to run the arena on the harder difficulty settings and FML did I regret every choice I ever made in life.

My one and only gripe
I really don't like the space/eternal human plotline and especially don't like the prelude to the next big bad that's coming. I think they had more than enough of a world setting that they could have had a more intune big bad with the overall plot of the series.

I mean I didn't mind having beta there as it made sense there would be more than one version of her in the event that shit went wrong but the rest of the space plotline I didn't feel necessary. Even the advanced mechs didn't feel as tricky to deal with comparatively to a thunderjaw etc.
Click to expand...

i agree about the space/eternal stuff. I thought sylens being the end boss w/the huge horus machines wouldve been perfect
 
Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
I found this really informative video on the GDC's channel by one of the designers in Guerilla about how the Death's Door bunker was made from start to finish:

 
Fangu

Fangu

Great Old One
Yeah watched it the other day, loved it. It was surprisingly inspirational re: software production with the art direction interference and especially with the external user testing - I'm working on something atm where super user input is approaching and this video made me excited about the "I hate it!" phase xD
 
Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
Most of this was fairly new to me, and it was interesting to see the process of designing just a small section of the game. I had some idea of the type of work required, but this talk really laid it out very well. I have to say that I'm relieved that didn't go through with some of the iterations of the boss battle :)
 
Shadowfox

Shadowfox

You look like you need a monkey
I wonder what it's going to be about. Pre-apocalypse, like during the clawback era or Enduring Victory? Or closer to the games' timeline, like Rost's time as a death seeker?
 
LNK

LNK

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Nate
My hope is it's not a tv version of the game's events. Hopefully it'll follow someone else. Sort of like Kingsglaive.
 
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