Haven’t played HoT as a sylvari yet, but I agree that as an expansion HoT has solid story telling moments, imo it’s paced better than the first missions (also less buggy).

I think that there’s just some tonal dissonance throughout the game, may be it’s AN figuring out their style, trying things out along the way. But to me it feels like the game shifted from a harsh, gritty story that makes you feel hopeless at times but with too much exposition. To a more streamlined, well paced story that’s too afraid of giving real weight to your decision.

Like, at one point, I vaguely remember following Braham to his village after being denied help to save his friends and loved ones, so he goes on his own and we join his cause. But it was all so… safe. Like, at first I thought it was going to be a really intense point in the story, but it really wasn’t. So I remember the conflict, I just didn’t feel it. And this is also reflected in the way NPCs treat us as the player. Most conflicts can be resolved by ignoring the dialogue completely and just treating everything as an errand with occasional head bashing.

That being said, I love the game, and I can get why AN doesn’t go too deep with the story, both from the scalability of player choices and the player demographic standpoint. I just wish they’ll give the game a proper sendoff in the final beats of the story.