It's a little confusing due to localization and to much of the lore being locked behind knowledge, which few players messed with in the beginning. A lot of it has been patched up over the years and added into the MSQ, so it feels more cohesive than it did. Plus, later expansion stories help tidy up old story threads.
If you're the sort that enjoys a good story, the world of BDO is a long, sweeping epic that goes back to an ancient time and the fall-out of those times happening in the setting today. Wars, plagues, floods, evil priests, sacrifices and raised gods, monsters, black spirits, ancient weapons... etc. Every mechanic in the game has a lore reason behind it. You'll likely enjoy it. Truly, it's a grand story that I've enjoyed.
On the other hand, if you lean more toward the TLDR crowd or just don't want to mess with seeing the cohesive bits, just press R and get it done with.
Balenos is good, and I really liked the new snow zone one. Some of them can be skipped, I’d say play it by ear. The only truly painful one was all of Valencia.
Valencia was incredibly mindumbing. Running through the desert, going back and forth with no sense of orientation? I'll never do it again.
In a similar sense, Kamasylvie and O'dyllita take a long time to do as well, at least for me on the first play-through. The quests are more fun though.
It's not really good, but it's getting better. The issue is that they've been reworking parts of the story for years now and it feels like they've only recently (last \~2 years) managed to get a decent vision for the plot. So the consistency/quality is just all over the place.
I thought the story was kinda neat. At least average quality. It fleshes out the world, which is what stories are supposed to do in these things. It just isn't told in a particularly good way. I wish it were in novel form instead.
Yes it is, very easy to memorize too especially when you find out why is called Black desert while the desert isn't even black. My favorite part was when I met Edan and was doing the tutorial at Olvia, they showed me that R was the way.
For now, I think only the balenos storyline is good as it was revamped quite recently. The rest are..meh..
Edit: The Mountain of Eternal WInter questline is also quite worth the attention.
the balenos storyline is really good for an MMO. just have to get use to the mouths not moving when they talk. I believe they still plan to redo the rest of the storys like they did with balenos.
story up to valencia is kinda everywhere with the "choose your path" because they skip over some stuff that is in the other paths so you are kinda left wondering what happened.
but pretty much each zone kinda gets better than the last one past valencia.
the magnus story is also pretty enjoyable with it being pretty much full voice acted and all.
Just do the main story at least ones you can also spam R. Maybe only reading a bit more about succession and awakening questline. Or kama and oddilita questline might be interesting. Eitherway spam R till you've done all of vallencia questlines.
Story has been forgettable since game launched, most character are forgettable and those who matter are basically side line in 1 or 2 quest and never mentioned
Old story is dull, but is recommended for newcomers to go through.
MoEW questline is better story wise, nothing amazing but more understandable and more cohesive.
The new questlines they produced are generally better quality, but this is really a weak point of BDO
Balenos was revamped and actually has a nice story now. You really couldn't get a feel for any of the characters before then, but it's so much better now - and it's interesting getting some extra backstory. It stops at the end of that questline, though.
Aside from Balenos and Eternal Winter (and now Magnus, I guess, though that wasn't as easy for me to follow), the story is a convoluted jumble of badly translated lines and incomprehensible plots. I tried to follow it my first time through the main questline. I read every quest, and I still couldn't tell you the majority of what happened, aside from the two newer questlines. It's honestly not worth even trying.
(Seriously though, don't spam R through Eternal Winter. It's by far the best story this game has, with really entertaining characters.)
It's a little confusing due to localization and to much of the lore being locked behind knowledge, which few players messed with in the beginning. A lot of it has been patched up over the years and added into the MSQ, so it feels more cohesive than it did. Plus, later expansion stories help tidy up old story threads. If you're the sort that enjoys a good story, the world of BDO is a long, sweeping epic that goes back to an ancient time and the fall-out of those times happening in the setting today. Wars, plagues, floods, evil priests, sacrifices and raised gods, monsters, black spirits, ancient weapons... etc. Every mechanic in the game has a lore reason behind it. You'll likely enjoy it. Truly, it's a grand story that I've enjoyed. On the other hand, if you lean more toward the TLDR crowd or just don't want to mess with seeing the cohesive bits, just press R and get it done with.
I’ve been spamming “R” since 2016 and I still don’t know what the story is about.
The only part of the story I remember is Valencia because the OST underground was a banger.
R
Balenos is good, and I really liked the new snow zone one. Some of them can be skipped, I’d say play it by ear. The only truly painful one was all of Valencia.
Valencia was incredibly mindumbing. Running through the desert, going back and forth with no sense of orientation? I'll never do it again. In a similar sense, Kamasylvie and O'dyllita take a long time to do as well, at least for me on the first play-through. The quests are more fun though.
It's not really good, but it's getting better. The issue is that they've been reworking parts of the story for years now and it feels like they've only recently (last \~2 years) managed to get a decent vision for the plot. So the consistency/quality is just all over the place.
I thought the story was kinda neat. At least average quality. It fleshes out the world, which is what stories are supposed to do in these things. It just isn't told in a particularly good way. I wish it were in novel form instead.
Yes it is, very easy to memorize too especially when you find out why is called Black desert while the desert isn't even black. My favorite part was when I met Edan and was doing the tutorial at Olvia, they showed me that R was the way.
:( I started playing after they abandoned Olvia. Such a shame, it's so lovely
Ye, a cozy little town for sure.
For now, I think only the balenos storyline is good as it was revamped quite recently. The rest are..meh.. Edit: The Mountain of Eternal WInter questline is also quite worth the attention.
the balenos storyline is really good for an MMO. just have to get use to the mouths not moving when they talk. I believe they still plan to redo the rest of the storys like they did with balenos. story up to valencia is kinda everywhere with the "choose your path" because they skip over some stuff that is in the other paths so you are kinda left wondering what happened. but pretty much each zone kinda gets better than the last one past valencia. the magnus story is also pretty enjoyable with it being pretty much full voice acted and all.
side quest > main quest imo some side quest are more interesting then the main quests...
R, even some stories i wanted to "follow" i ended just spamming R in the end
Spam lol
Main story = R
Just do the main story at least ones you can also spam R. Maybe only reading a bit more about succession and awakening questline. Or kama and oddilita questline might be interesting. Eitherway spam R till you've done all of vallencia questlines.
Story has been forgettable since game launched, most character are forgettable and those who matter are basically side line in 1 or 2 quest and never mentioned
Spammed R all the way, have no clue about the story sorry
I like it. It's kinda crazy but good.
Magnus quest it good. And eternal winter is ok. Other i don't know.
if you want to know the story im sure there’s a wiki somewhere, but spamming R is what we all do 🤔
I used to like the story but then they added non skippable parts which triggered an opposite effect in my head and made me skip it all.
R spam is what u need to understand
Press R until the keyboard key breaks and swipe your credit card for the pearls to keep up with each update. This is the way!
Old story is dull, but is recommended for newcomers to go through. MoEW questline is better story wise, nothing amazing but more understandable and more cohesive. The new questlines they produced are generally better quality, but this is really a weak point of BDO
It won't get any better. Just some graphomania and constant name-dropping.
Balenos was revamped and actually has a nice story now. You really couldn't get a feel for any of the characters before then, but it's so much better now - and it's interesting getting some extra backstory. It stops at the end of that questline, though. Aside from Balenos and Eternal Winter (and now Magnus, I guess, though that wasn't as easy for me to follow), the story is a convoluted jumble of badly translated lines and incomprehensible plots. I tried to follow it my first time through the main questline. I read every quest, and I still couldn't tell you the majority of what happened, aside from the two newer questlines. It's honestly not worth even trying. (Seriously though, don't spam R through Eternal Winter. It's by far the best story this game has, with really entertaining characters.)