Act 2 ending?

[Anstane]

First of all, I would like to preface this with two things. First of all, I am not going to bother with spoilering story moments or anything, so proceed at your own risk. Furthermore, it has been a bit of a while since I last played the game proper, so I might misremember or forget a few details.

 

So, from what I could gather from previous conversations/gatherings, Rejuvenation's plot has been aimed to have a three-act structure, each one having a main unifying link connecting it. The first act's main act has been, from my understanding, Team Xen and their hunt for Melia. Sure, there were other storylines and plotlines that happen during this time, but the main one has basically been Team Xen and Melia. The climax and the end of Act 1 is pretty noticeable and clear: The final battle vs Zetta and Geara at Valor Mountain ends with a total defeat of Team Xen, with Zetta permanently eliminated from the team and Geara getting stuck in teleport hell, requiring a very long reconstruction process. The moment is sufficiently dramatic and, more importantly, it actually takes Team Xen out of the focus of the story. Oh sure, they are still there, just mostly relegated to sidequests, especially in the restored East Gearen.

 

After that we have a brief interlude while we go and battle Amber. I consider this moment as not part of act 1, but also not part of act 2, as it has little bearing on the overall story and is just a moment for the player and PC character to essentially unwind from everything that just happened. In fact, I am willing to go as far as to say that Act 2 doesn't actually start until we re-enter Valor Mountain with Venam in search of Melia.

 

Act 2, to the best of my knowledge, seems to have the theme of, essentially, "Past and Present", the relation of the region before and after the cataclysmic Storm-9, emphasized with the numerous journeys to the past that we have. We even get a chance to see how screwed up the present day could have been had events in the past gone differently. But that's neither here nor there. This, for me brings up my main point of concern: When does Act 2 actually end? Has it actually ended? Because, I will be honest, I am having a bit of a hard time determining the exact moment that Act 2 ends.

 

To that end, I thought about it and, if it did happen, there are two moments in the story that stand out to me as points where Act 2 could have ended, naturally at mutual exclusivity: The defeat of the Angel of Death and the battle at the top of Eclysia Pyramid against Madame X and the two hoverboarders. The first moment stands out to me because it marks the point where we finish time traveling, as the moment comes at the end of our (so far) final journey to the past. Furthermore, the Angel of Death has been, for all intents and purposes, the main antagonist of Act 2. Sure, we have Flora and Bladestar, but they don't really come into play all that much until Chapter 12 which is also their final chapter. So, defeating the Angel of Death not only gives us tangible effects by essentially landing a major blow against Theolia, but it also (Again, for now) marks the end of the traveling. However, it still feels like a bit of a clunky moment for the act to end: First of all, assuming that is the ending, then we have a fairly long transitionary period from Act 2 to Act 3 and what is the moment that can be counted as the start of Act 3 then? Most likely the destruction of the Grand Dream Tower by Bladestar.

 

The second moment that, to me, stands out as a potential ending to Act 2 is, of course, the battle at the top of Eclysia Pyramid. It has the climactic feeling (Action-packed sequences, comes right after a battle against a major character, though I don't really consider said character(s) as particularly major in the overall nature of Act 2, even the setting is similar, being at the top of a mountain/pyramid structure at the very top of their part of the region and us being there to save other characters from death. The parallels are more than obvious.). Furthermore, it then has a much more defined and obvious transition/intermission: The raid on Isha's lab. However, for me, the main reason why I hesitate to just outright recognize this as the end of Act 2 is twofold: First, what exactly ends in this battle? By this point, we have already crossed the final remnants of the past that we visited earlier (Xen HQ not counted) and Eclysia felt more an ending for Bladestar and Alice/Allen than for the Past and Present. The second thing is, well, what exactly do we end up finishing at the top of Eclysia, Bladestar excluded? I don't feel like we reach any sort of real finality on the Past and Present theme up on the pyramid, in fact as far as I can see in that regard, the battle vs Lorna would fit that theme more accurately. I guess it would have had more of an impact if there was more to the hoverboarders' prior presence to the story and if we managed to actually deal lasting damage.

 

Of course, there is also the third possibility that we are still in Act 2. However, I find this to be hard to believe because that would mean Act 3 would have to be either really condensed or the chapters that follow will have to be really stretched out in length, given we are starting to approach the endgame and we are running out of areas to visit in the game.

 

TL;DR: When does Act 2 actually end?

[Liroy]

I think Act 2 ended with Vivian's death, after we saw the alternate future and "died" with that death laser.

Then we have the GDC part of the game and that's the start of Act 3 with the bladestar plotline that ends in the pyramid battle.

The next release should be the start of Act 4 with the information that will be provided by Cassandra and those black "buildings" in the desert.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Liroy
typo

[TripleHHH]

According to Zumi on the dev team Q&A the end of Act 2 will be on the V14, so we are still in Act 2.

 

[cybershell12]

6 hours ago, Anstane said:

we are running out of areas to visit in the game.

I wouldn't be so sure. Aevium has a lot of hidden and uncharted areas not on the map. for example, that whole garufa temple under carotos mountain xen base, or the Sheridan Wetlands. We also have the entirety of Neverwinter island left to explore, we don't knwo how big it is because it isn't on the town map yet. We also don't know how much of Past Aevium we still have to explore, or if we will explore more eras via time stone. Or even GDC for that matter, we still have an entire university to explore, and most of the underground is currently blocked off by team bladestar. HM waterfall will open up more areas (many areas have waterfalls you can reach by surfing, but you can't go up because you need Waterfall.) Remember how many not-only-unseen-but-not-even-alluded-to areas HM Dive opened up? I'm pretty sure there a LOT left to explore, despite the map seemingly being almost filled.

[Anstane]

3 hours ago, TripleHHH said:

According to Zumi on the dev team Q&A the end of Act 2 will be on the V14, so we are still in Act 2.

 

Okay, I admit I was not expecting that. So either Act 3 will be really short, or v15 and v16 will be very lengthy in order to stretch out the content to a reasonable length. Guess we'll see. Either way, thanks for finding and showing me the official answer to this.