I’ve said it before, but Arcane Odyssey is my favorite ROBLOX game on the roster right now… And as much as I hate to say it, it’s slowly losing its hold on that title.

It’s never fun to admit that you’re losing your love for a game, especially one you’ve been following the development of for so long, but with everything that’s been happening over the course of the last year, I’m feeling more and more prepared to call it quits and just give Block Tales the title of “Kittcat’s Favorite ROBLOX Game”.

A lot has led me to this mindset - Let’s talk about it.

A FEW GENTLE REMINDERS:

• Most of this essay/rant is based on my own experiences and observations. If there is any additional context you feel I should know of, please feel free to share it.
• I’m going to assume that you’re familiar with at least a few of the changes and issues discussed here.
• In this essay/rant, I will be both critical and fair, which means I will be as respectful as I can when I speak ill of someone or some aspect of the game/community.
• DO NOT HARASS ANYONE MENTIONED HERE. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF POSEIDON. Tensions around the community are certainly high at the moment and I have plenty of critiques of Vetex and his team, but THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO HARASS OR THREATEN ANYONE. PLEASE BEHAVE YOURSELVES.

I think that’s enough setup. Let’s just get to the point already.

PART 1: THE GAMES DEVELOPMENT & FUTURE

One might reasonably assume that I, an agility main, am only here to complain about a completely unnecessary and frankly bewildering stat removal, and certainly that’s a huge part of it, but I don’t really know what I could say about that frustrating removal that hasn’t been said already. Besides, I think I already covered most of what I wanted to say about the removal in the megathread, so here’s my comment on that if you want to go read it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcaneOdyssey/comments/1i5ppo4/comment/m87n2ri/

But the point is that I have other problems with the game’s development beyond that. First, let’s talk about some of the other changes, such as the changes to the Vitality/Spirit stat. 

Vitality/Spirit Changes

The name change, including the change from Warden to Oracle, is a change I have no strong opinions on, I think it does make sense in the context of the world, but I get why people who are used to saying “Vitality” and “Warden” would be a bit apprehensive, though the name change is the least important thing to talk about.

Part of the appeal of Vitality/Spirit classes was the increased Max HP at the cost of slight damage reduction, and removing that additional HP negates half of the reason to play the classes in the first place, especially since a Spirit Weapon with only one measly skill was taking up a whole weapon slot.

I myself have very mixed feelings on this change. On one hand, I don’t play Vitality/Spirit classes very often, so these changes don’t affect or anger me too much, but I completely get why others would. Some players design entire builds with that additional HP in mind, and having that change would require changing the build completely, which is really frustrating and I think players have every right to be frustrated about it. On the other hand though, It’s my personal opinion that Vitality/Spirit classes are a bit unbalanced. I never felt like the damage output was ever reduced enough to make that much of a difference, and when you have higher Max HP without having to invest in as much defense as you normally would, then being able to invest in much more power with less consequence leaves me thinking that the class has a bit too much of an advantage over others, so I’m not completely sore about the changes to the stat. (Although I do think the way Max HP is handled in general is a little stupid, but it’s not a big deal compared to everything else.)

Again, I’m not too experienced with Vitality/Spirit classes, and I completely understand why people are angry over this, especially when the changes leave the class feeling like, as I’ve seen some put it: “Just another version of Mage”. I’m willing to forgive it just a little bit since the Spirit Rites at least look really cool and actually stand out from other classes, but it really does make you wonder why the stat exists in the first place. I’ve kept saying that Vitality/Spirit classes would work beautifully as support classes, especially with how PvP-focused the game has become, but PvP is a massive issue that I’ll come back to later.

The Story

Some of you may know me as that guy who made an entire in-depth essay about my problems with Arcane Odyssey’s story, so you’ll know that the story is my primary motivation for continuing to play the game, as I’m sure it is for many others. You can read that essay of mine here if you’re interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArcaneOdyssey/comments/1go3yyx/spoilers_my_grievances_with_arcane_odysseys_story/

(You can also think of this segment as sort of an extension of that essay, if you’d like.)

However, in that essay, I was mostly critical of the story as it currently was/is, not what I expect it to look like in the future. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I have high hopes, given how often Vetex seems to change up the lore. (I’ve not really read into this since I care more about the immediate story and less about the lore that all led up to it, but I digress).

I’m just speculating here, I can’t speak for the entirety of AO’s playerbase, but I’m guessing the amount of people who play AO purely for the story is a lot larger than Vetex thinks, and constantly changing the lore may very well severely hurt that story in the long run. I’ve already expressed my problems with Vetex’s writing style in the past, but from what I can tell, it seems very much like Vetex and his team did not have the story fully figured out by the time the Bronze Sea chapter was complete. This is not inherently a problem, mind you, some people figure out major future story details as they’re writing, some people have their entire story planned out from the moment they start writing. They’re both valid writing methods in my mind.

In this context, however, I think the “Planner” style of writing is kind of required for a story as long as and with as much lore as Arcane Odyssey. I won’t say it’s necessarily impossible for the story to work when you’re writing it as you go, but I’m also not saying it’s viable either, and I do think that Vetex’s writing style will likely hurt the game in the long run. 

Despite everything, I’m still going to play through the next two chapters of the Nimbus Sea when the Full Release update comes, so I would love to be proven wrong. I’m still excited to see what happens next, even if I have to do it while moving agonizingly slowly, but whatever, I’ll see how long I can put up with it for.

Balancing Changes

It’s no secret that the balancing in Arcane Odyssey is… Questionable, at best. Now, I want to clarify that most of what I’m about to say is from a PvE perspective, since I’m mostly a PvE player as I’m sure much of the playerbase is as well. Don't worry, we’ll come back to PvP later.

But yes, these balancing changes do have a significant effect on casual players too. Some of them are frustrating but understandable, but others are just plain frustrating for the sake of… Making the game harder? As if King Calvus and Captain Maria aren’t absurdly difficult boss fights already? As if the Fort Castrum raid isn’t already really difficult, not to mention how agonizingly long it takes.

My main argument is the Healing Potions. I get why Healing Potions are tricky to get ahold of, if they were easy to obtain then everybody would be abusing them nonstop like they’re in a JRPG. (This is coming from somebody who likes to make turn-based RPGs mind you, the irony is not lost on me)

However, on top of being rather difficult to obtain, the healing effects just aren’t worth it unless you’re willing to invest a lot of time into it, and even then, the best and most reliable recovery option in the game, that being Healing Essence & Aura potions, gets nerfed to hell and back. Yeah, you can still just make regular potions with those reagents, but they still recover so little health, even with ten Saint Lily’s Flowers, that you find yourself wondering if how long that extra 500 or so health will last you, especially when almost every enemy you fight around the time you can reliably obtain that many flowers can deal almost double that in the time it takes for the consumption animation to play!

Okay, okay, I get why these were nerfed, but I still think it’s a bit too much of a nerf considering just how much effort you have to go through to get them. This rings true with almost every potion effect, but it is especially true with Healing Potions.

I never want to be completely down on the game’s balancing, because there are a lot of things balanced pretty well, the build customization being the big one.

I remember when the Mountainbreaker set didn’t give any Piercing, and was functionally just a worse Titanium set since you couldn’t find any naturally-occuring modifiers on them. Beyond that one instance, the way armor and accessories are balanced is done pretty well, there’s basically an endless number of ways you can customize your build to fit your playstyle. I’m not even terribly angry that nearly zero items give both agility and defense without the use of jewels or scrolls, since tanking and dodging are two inherently different playstyles, and having them together would be way too overpowered. (Although I guess it doesn’t matter now since agility will no longer exist in the Full Release update, but I’m really not in the mood to start that discussion here.)

Besides, most of the balance changes are in the skills anyway, and the powerful Healing Essence/Auras were best used by PvE players anyway, based on my own experiences and observations.

However, none of that matters when literally none of the balancing changes are made to compliment PvE and/or “Casual” players, which leads very nicely into my main reason for growing tired of Arcane Odyssey.

PART 2: THE PVP CROWD

I started writing this essay/rant knowing the likelihood of getting harassed and/or threatened over it, despite my pleas not to harass anyone at the beginning.

But I’m just gonna say it: Arcane Odyssey has one of, if not THE most toxic playerbase I’ve ever had the displeasure of being part of.

For anyone else, this would be a very high bar to clear, knowing what the general gaming landscape is like. I, however, don’t indulge in massively-multiplayer games that often, ROBLOX games are really the only ones I ever really get into. Either way, this community, specifically the PvP side, is absolutely horrendous.

Obviously I’m not speaking for or against literally everyone here. I acknowledge that there are PvP mains who are genuinely cool, calm & collected fellows. I’m also not denying that there might be some casual players who are utter assholes. What I’m trying to say is that overall, the PvP side is toxic beyond salvation.

Now, since I’m a PvE main, or a “Casual” as some may put it, I go out of my way to avoid this crowd, and my fellow casuals most likely know why. Here’s the silver lining: PvP would be perfectly fine if it wasn’t forced upon every player. It’s an overused complaint that the game really needs a PvP toggle option, but it’s overused for a damn good reason, it’s because the game would massively benefit from it.

I understand that PvP functionality is necessary to keep a game like this alive. I am against completely removing PvP from the game, since I do occasionally like to indulge in a friendly PvP duel every now and again. (Even knowing that I’ll never win) I like that Vetex is finally adding a “Duel” feature, that kind of addition is perfect for a game like Arcane Odyssey, but even then, a lot of us, if you can believe it, don’t like being ganked when we’re just trying to mind our own f___ing business.

Imagine a new player, playing through AO for the very first time, not knowing anything about the game prior, finally reaches level 50, and immediately starts getting ambushed by level 140 Iron Leg players with 100+ power and 250+ attack size with zero capabilities of fighting back. Imagine that happening to them multiple times, all the while being told to just “Get good”, while having no way to do so since these high power/high size builds are f___ing them up every time they do so much as take a step forward? That doesn’t sound like a very fun gameplay experience, does it? That doesn’t seem like an incentive for a new player to try and keep playing, does it?

Now obviously that example I just gave was an exaggeration. (I hope) But you get my point, right? I don’t doubt that there have been players who have lost all motivation to ever play the game again because of the toxic PvPers. Hell, my brother bailed out on the game for this very reason. (And partially because he started to lose interest in the story, but I’ll come back to that in a little bit)

I only stayed for this long because I care about the story, and I want to see how the adventure continues, and to see new locations and new kingdoms. Not everyone is as much of a sucker for storytelling as I am, and so I imagine that many casual players are probably not going to stick around to see the story continue if it means they have to deal with toxic PvPers constantly getting in their way. I’m willing to bet that these PvPers don’t even care about the story either, only the new toys they get to bully others with.

Something else I feel is important to touch on is that Vetex has openly stated to despise the toxic PvP side of the community… Yet he and his team constantly cater to their every desire. (Cough Cough agility Cough Cough) Before you say anything else, I don’t know exactly how much control Vetex gives his team. I mainly blame the balance team for this, since based on what I’ve seen, they seem to be the ones enabling toxic PvP behavior, but I’m only speculating here. (Another reminder to NOT HARASS ANYONE MENTIONED. PLEASE.)

You know, every time I try to check in on the PvP scene from afar, I just end up giving up because of how angry it makes me and how horrible people are to each other. It’s completely fine to enjoy PvP as long as you’re not an insufferable asshole about it. Though, the lack of a PvP toggle really is the one thing fueling all of this. The fact that anyone can be suddenly attacked at any moment makes the game so much less fun to play in my opinion, since all of a sudden you have to constantly be worrying if somebody who walks/sails by you will try to ruin your day. I deal with enough anxiety as it is, I do not need that added paranoia to get in the way of my gameplay experience, nobody should have to put up with that if they don’t want to.

“But the game was designed FOR PvP! To have a PvP toggle would erase the point of it being a PvP game!” Okay, fair point. You could also just erase the entire story from the game and for the toxic PvP crowd it would be the exact same game. Not everyone plays the game for the exact same reason. Some play for the story, some play for the PvP, some play for both story AND PvP, some play just to see Iris. Something that should be obvious at this point is that making a story-focused AND PvP-focused game at the same time is a very difficult task. As someone who only has experience making single-player games, I can’t imagine how hard it is to balance the two, but even still, you may as well just choose one over the other at this point.

I would much prefer it if Vetex focused on the story more often than PvP. I’m not suggesting putting PvP to the sidelines completely until the story is finished, that would kill the game way faster. I’m suggesting that Vetex focus on the casual players first and spend time appeasing the PvP crowd later. I get why some people might disagree with that idea, since it would undoubtedly lead to more balancing issues, but I for one am here for the story and the world first. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but either way it feels like a pointless discussion since it’s likely that nothing is going to change with this community, and knowing that is enough to completely kill my motivation to keep playing, or even keep caring at all.

CONCLUSION: HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

I can’t help but feel an unusual sadness writing this, because this is not where I wanted my opinion on Arcane Odyssey to end up. I want to keep playing this game, I want to keep caring about it, I want to keep talking about it. It’s just that all the changes that have been happening around the game are making it very hard to keep me motivated.

But the more I think about it, the more I start to believe that this game may very well be beyond saving, at least as long as it continues on its current course. How many players are going to stick around, constantly having to navigate a toxic environment full of players that try to stop them at every step, when the story isn’t even engaging enough for them to make the effort worth it? How long will it be before the casual playerbase gets worn out completely and just gives up? How long will it be until the toxic PvP completely implodes on itself to the point where there’s almost no one left to bully?

Even ignoring the toxic PvPers for a moment, based on some of the comments I’ve read in my story essay, the narrative, for many people, is simply not engaging enough to continue playing. This is one of the reasons my brother quit playing, the story, for many, just doesn’t do enough, despite the fact that it could be doing so much more based on scenes like the confrontation with Argos or the interrogation in the Forest of Masts. Does any of this really matter at all when you take into account the players who just mash through the dialogue without a second thought? If players are mashing through dialogue, that should be a sign that your story is just not interesting or engaging, especially not when some players have to endure a lot of player toxicity just to progress in that story.

Yes, admittedly I’m exaggerating a bit here. You absolutely can get through the entire story without any PvP interference, but I imagine that will only become harder as the story progresses further and gets longer. Doubly so if the PvP playerbase eventually begins to outweigh the casual playerbase.

Now I find myself wondering how long I can last here.

I’ve mentioned before that I’d love to be able to make a fully single player fan-recreation of Arcane Odyssey, one that could solve all of these issues. Of course I would never do this without Vetex’s permission, but even if I did get his permission, wouldn’t such a fan project be a massive slap in the face to him, his team, and all the incredibly hard work he’s poured into what someday could be considered his magnum opus? Yes, it’d be a more pleasant experience for some, but if you found out that a fan recreation of your game, one that you explicitly gave that fan permission to make, ended up becoming more beloved than the work it was based on, how would you feel about that? Confused? Insulted? Jealous? I can’t imagine any positive emotion coming from that kind of situation. It would feel absolutely soul-crushing, wouldn’t it?

I strongly respect Vetex as a developer, even if I am very critical of him and his team. All of the work they’ve been doing is far from insignificant, and I really don’t want all that hard work tied to a game that’s only known for how toxic its playerbase is. I really don’t want them to lose sight of why they began working on the project in the first place, and I don’t want players to have to call it quits because of the way the game’s heading.

At the end of my previous essay I mentioned that despite it all I was going to try and keep playing AO ‘till the very end, but I’m really not sure if I’ll be able to do that anymore, I’m almost completely burned out. The absurd & questionable changes/removals, the toxic playerbase, and everything in between leads me more and more to just give up and say “I QUIT”, even though I truly don’t want it to come to that.

Even if I end up calling it quits, I could never say that I got nothing out of the game. My main file, Rico Corvus, has kind of evolved beyond just a custom character for a ROBLOX game, and has more so become a full OC, one that I absolutely think could exist in another project of mine in the future. I don’t doubt that somebody else could get something similar out of this game. And despite everything, I wouldn’t trade the memories of playing and enjoying the game for the first time for anything else.

I’ll be sticking around for a while longer, at least until the Full Release update. If things don’t start to improve after that, then I guess it’s time to say sayonara to the original Rico Corvus for the foreseeable future.

And despite everything… At least AO’s story is better than World of Magic’s.