With the brand new Feast of Prosperity event entering its final week, I thought I should share a short review while the event is still active for once. Like SWTOR’s other seasonal events, the Feast is less about rushing around fighting stuff (although there is some of that), and more about simple and hopefully fun gameplay. And I reckon it succeeds on that count.
Given how this year has gone, I think we could all use a fun distraction or two, and that’s what this event has been for this weary SWTOR player. The Feast of Prosperity consists of a one time story quest chain and repeatable dailies involving gathering exotic ingredients, cooking food and serving meals. None of this is extremely difficult. One of the daily ingredient quests calls for defeating world bosses around the galaxy, but with the respawn timers on those bosses drastically reduced and groups constantly forming to fight them, that quest is remarkably easy to complete.
The toughest quest isn’t mechanically difficult, but the Hard version of the Cantina Rush daily, which has the player take control of a serving droid delivering meals to a busy banquet hall, can get a little tense as you crisscross around the room trying to serve everyone their dinners before the timers runs out. During the seven or eight minutes it takes to complete that quest, I’m paying attention to nothing else!
One of the most interesting and neat things about the Feast has been seeing the crowds on Nar Shaddaa and teaming up to take on the various world bosses at all hours of the night and day. It’s nice to see the event give some love the second M in MMO.
The story is amusing as well and focuses on the two rival Hutts who have spearheaded the event. The choices players make while navigating the story lead to different results and rewards, and the finale felt satisfying to me. In addition, it was also a pleasant surprise to hear that the update includes some new music, specific to the tone of the Feast. Once you factor in the numerous new environmental assets, the Feast of Prosperity does feel like a stand out among SWTOR‘s events.
This is usually the part where I complain about the rewards, but not this time! The team did a great job including a wide variety of unique and fun items, emotes, decorations, pets, titles and achievements for players to earn. It’s all silly and I approve. I think it’s fair to complain about the armor set not being Legacy bound like most other event armors, but I confess I’ve been highly motivated to earn a Food Launcher on as many of my characters as possible.
Make no mistake, the Feast of Prosperity is hardly essential, nor is it meant to be. If you choose to skip it entirely, I doubt you’ll feel like you’ve missed out. However, if you want to earn some quick rewards, you can spacebar your way through the story and still come out with enough event tokens to treat yourself. Toss in a few of the trivial dailies, and you’ll be launching tomatoes at friends and enemies in no time!
Meet Jekiah Ordo
The last game update also included some actual story! Similar to the Task at Hand from earlier this year, it’s just a quick check in with Shae Vizla and an introduction to a new Mandalorian named Jekiah Ordo. This interlude is surely meant to set up the upcoming Mandalorian themed flashpoint. On the one hand, it is brief, but on the other I cannot deny it felt great to hear my characters talking again for the first time in many months. I’m eagerly awaiting the next story update. As I write this, it has not been official announced but hopefully we’ll be back in the thick of things before the year is out.
I admit I’m a little baffled by the Jekiah Ordo conversation. It seemed weird to hear Shae refer to Ordo as “a family of Mandalorians” when clan Ordo has played an important role in Mandalorian history (heck, Canderous even was Mandalore). Overall I didn’t really get a Mando vibe from this conversation at all, but maybe that’s just me 🙂
That said, I agree that the Feast event has been pretty fun so far!
I was going to touch on this since I’m also not sure what to make of Jekiah. It’s hard to tell if Shae considers him a rival or ally. I suppose as a fellow Mando he’s a little of both, maybe? His relation or at least clan connection to Canderous Ordo makes me wonder if he has designs for the position of Mandalore. Is he a quest giver or flashpoint boss? Will we be able to choose a new Mandalore next month? I don’t know, but I’m curious to find out.
Those are some very interesting questions, I hadn’t considered the “rival” option. Shae seems to trust him, although it strikes me as odd that Mandalore the Avenger would rely on a bodyguard to keep knives out of her gut, as she said. You’d think that if she can’t keep her position through her own strength, she deserves to lose it, but I’m not sufficiently well-versed in Mando lore to be sure of that. In any case, it’s an interesting point to speculate on. Getting to choose a new Mandalore would be pretty neat!