Didn't like it

[dangerdragon117]

8 hours ago, ChangelingRain said:

Yeah, this was... a miss in perhaps every possible way. I was excited for Jade in concept but I'm not really sure now that I've played the quest and there's the unremovable pregnancy orb. It's so disappointingly heterosexual, especially for all the buildup they did - heavy spoiler warnings, all the 'Jade is a reflection of the Stalker' stuff, the trailer/promo images with Jade walking into the Stalker's landing craft(which doesn't even happen! she's dying and then dead the entire time!), and what do we get? Sad bad man is a father now.

There isn't even anything on like, the 'Stalker is secretly a tenno and sad about it' side - no transference into Jade, no nothing.
'Was I one of these wretched things?' my ass - apparently he wasn't at all!

DE has a habit of throwing images for things that don't exist in game, for instance the new war promo teaser on the game itself showed a landing craft shooting sentients on the plains of eidolon. many times DE has advertised something completely different to drum up hype and then the product is nothing like what they advertise. if they advertised it as what it was that would be cool, but it was advertised as something else.

Edited June 19 by dangerdragon117

[0bsi]

36 minutes ago, Shyyma said:

On the bad side of the quest is ending and stalker's behavior. His beloved wife "dies" and he the vengeance incarnate that he is, goes soft and just walks away without going super crazy angry and stuff, I mean yeah hate is empowered but by green symbolic jade I am sure, not stalker, and he is sort of feels desperate... Why? There is not reason to lose powers or be on the last stand, silly.

And the corpus commander lady act is just goofy, a Warframe that infiltrated your base that killed many many people, stolen your stuff, then you chase him down to his lair where he kills a lot more of your people, and by the end you got him """pinned down""" you see that the he somehow have a child which is a miracle one of a kind thing, and you LET HIM GO?! Corpus worships money for god sake its may be the most pricey thing in a universe and Parvos might bless you or something I dunno, there is no reason at all to let him go other then she is a woman and a kind person and understands, but it's corpus, hello, they SUPPOSED TO BE VILLIANS!

Other then that it is fine, I love Warframe, and it was fun after all. 

Yeah, for all their hype of it being a Stalker quest, he has very little of anything really in terms of emotion to her death and just takes the baby and wanders off... to where?  to go be dad?  I get that he's all broody and mysterious.... but if they want me to have the feels over him discovering he's got a child and that he needs to protect it -- then I need more to show he actually cares.

(And did he just discover her pregnancy? how did he not know for the howevermany years they have been hanging out down there with Hunhow?  And if she was sick and dying all this time, why take so long to try and heal her?  -- so many questions!!)

 

And the thing is with the Corpus....  all they needed to do was give her an additional line or two where she says something about the fact she cannot harm a child.... give her some REASON to do the illogical step of letting them go, and it would have been more believable (and thus more impactful)

[Shinoyami65]

9 hours ago, matt11mz said:

I feel like a lot of this aligns with a lot of lore, to the point that you need to be all caught up to fully appreciate it. I think it was well written, but I like to nerd out on the lore. Here's my understanding of the story of Jade and Sorren:

Sorren, as a Low Guardian, was forbidden to have a relationship with Jade. Whether this is a "you must be celibate" rule or a "we mustn't mix the classes" rule, in the end, they were discovered. Whether being warframes was a punishment, or the reason for their discovery, Jade's punishment was that the baby would become a parasitic warframe inside her, but not without grace and dignity, perhaps as a twist of the knife for Stalker, letting her come to terms in her own way, while in a form incapable of expressing this to him. Jade likely has a lot of time to be a strong frame, but as time passes, she slowly degrades. It is unclear if she surpassed the collapse of the orokin, but eventually she fell too ill to do anything.

I think the quest should have addressed this from Jade's perspective. Like, maybe give us an Umbra-style flashback to Jade's conversion where Ballas makes it clearer what happened to the baby (was it an intentional part of her design to mock her/Stalker? An unintentional flaw? A parasite as a result of the Infestation interacting with the fetus?). We don't even really know if Sorren and Jade were Guardians before they became Warframes or if that rank was given to Stalker afterwards (what makes a Guardian different from a Dax?). 

The general story that you describe is fairly straightforward, but the worldbuilding and the fact that we never get to see things from Jade's perspective outside of flashbacks felt lacking to me. They even had a chance for the Operator to look into Jade's mind Umbra-style when we Transfer into her, but ultimately she doesn't get much of a voice or personality beyond wanting to have the baby. Previous Warframe quests weren't super descriptive either, but most of them at least gave you an idea of the focus Warframe's personality or character (Limbo being a mathematician and a daredevil, Dante's bond with Leverian, Mirage's whimsical riddles contrasted with her brutality on the battlefield, Inaros's significance to the sand-people, Gara sacrificing herself for the Unum, Revenant being the warden of the Plains of Eidolon, Yareli fighting slavers, Octavia being the one who signalled the attack on the Orokin, etc.)

Edited June 19 by Shinoyami65

[ChangelingRain]

51 minutes ago, dangerdragon117 said:

DE has a habit of throwing images for things that don't exist in game, for instance the new war promo teaser on the game itself showed a landing craft shooting sentients on the plains of eidolon. many times DE has advertised something completely different to drum up hype and then the product is nothing like what they advertise. if they advertised it as what it was that would be cool, but it was advertised as something else.

I mean, yeah, but I don't think that's a good thing. The New War got away with its bait and switch because what it did deliver instead of war was incredible emotional stakes that still fit the hype, but it didn't really work here - Jade Shadows was hyped up too much and kept too under wraps for any reasonable expectation to be had.

[Shyyma]

1 hour ago, 0bsi said:

Yeah, for all their hype of it being a Stalker quest, he has very little of anything really in terms of emotion to her death and just takes the baby and wanders off... to where?  to go be dad?  I get that he's all broody and mysterious.... but if they want me to have the feels over him discovering he's got a child and that he needs to protect it -- then I need more to show he actually cares.

(And did he just discover her pregnancy? how did he not know for the howevermany years they have been hanging out down there with Hunhow?  And if she was sick and dying all this time, why take so long to try and heal her?  -- so many questions!!)

 

And the thing is with the Corpus....  all they needed to do was give her an additional line or two where she says something about the fact she cannot harm a child.... give her some REASON to do the illogical step of letting them go, and it would have been more believable (and thus more impactful)

Yeah, I agree with most of it, if anything that hurt the narrative part of the quest the most, that it's it length. I am not against character making the decision that they make but the complete 180 with no reason to back that up is a bit painful =D

But then again, DE is always trying to jump over their heads that's why I like them, I bet some of the devs pushed the idea of the quest and story instead of making her farmable in some new game mode or something. 

[Stafelund]

12 hours ago, OchreYonah said:

^good for you if you enjoyed it but this thread is already getting people strawmanning what I said and completely ignoring my points to go on unrelated rants. There's more productive ways to have your voice be heard than hijacking feedback from someone you disagree with

This is a public forum or discussion, and as long as the matter is relevant to the subject (and the posts you are complaining about is relevant to the thread topic). What you are looking for is a circle-jerk, and if that's the case as someone said you need to get a grip on reality or move to a different platform, maybe.

[Larrell]

3 hours ago, Shinoyami65 said:

I think the quest should have addressed this from Jade's perspective. Like, maybe give us an Umbra-style flashback to Jade's conversion where Ballas makes it clearer what happened to the baby (was it an intentional part of her design to mock her/Stalker? An unintentional flaw? A parasite as a result of the Infestation interacting with the fetus?). We don't even really know if Sorren and Jade were Guardians before they became Warframes or if that rank was given to Stalker afterwards (what makes a Guardian different from a Dax?). 

The general story that you describe is fairly straightforward, but the worldbuilding and the fact that we never get to see things from Jade's perspective outside of flashbacks felt lacking to me. They even had a chance for the Operator to look into Jade's mind Umbra-style when we Transfer into her, but ultimately she doesn't get much of a voice or personality beyond wanting to have the baby. Previous Warframe quests weren't super descriptive either, but most of them at least gave you an idea of the focus Warframe's personality or character (Limbo being a mathematician and a daredevil, Dante's bond with Leverian, Mirage's whimsical riddles contrasted with her brutality on the battlefield, Inaros's significance to the sand-people, Gara sacrificing herself for the Unum, Revenant being the warden of the Plains of Eidolon, Yareli fighting slavers, Octavia being the one who signalled the attack on the Orokin, etc.)

I'd argue this is Stalker's quest so it being from his point of view exclusively makes sense to me. I readily admit this is inferred, however the fact Jade is so... 'out of reach' to stalker in the quest and almost ethereal was perhaps a design decision to reinforce the gap between them and her angelic (divine, beyond a mortal motif) aspect.
I know you didn't mention it, but the lazy and reductive "Jade's trait is she's pregnant" trait is not fair, as it ignores the angelic qualities that have been mentioned, the sacrifice, the love, the care, tragedy and yes romance which all contrast to Stalker's hate and vengeance. It's like saying Umbra's quest and trait is 'father' when that's almost superfluous, it's about his rage, guilt and grief.

[Shinoyami65]

2 minutes ago, Larrell said:

I'd argue this is Stalker's quest so it being from his point of view exclusively makes sense to me. I readily admit this is inferred, however the fact Jade is so... 'out of reach' to stalker in the quest and almost ethereal was perhaps a design decision to reinforce the gap between them and her angelic (divine, beyond a mortal motif) aspect.
I know you didn't mention it, but the lazy and reductive "Jade's trait is she's pregnant" trait is not fair, as it ignores the angelic qualities that have been mentioned, the sacrifice, the love, the care, tragedy and yes romance which all contrast to Stalker's hate and vengeance. It's like saying Umbra's quest and trait is 'father' when that's almost superfluous, it's about his rage, guilt and grief.

I don't think the angelic theme was conveyed particularly well TBH. For most of the quest Jade is actually physically present in Stalker's lair, just in a coma, which places her in a much more vulnerable, mortal state as opposed to an ethereal one. She is quite literally brought down to earth rather than soaring through the heavens as her abilities suggest. This is why seeing more events from her perspective or seeing what she was like before she was incapacitated could have helped to explore that theme and imagery.

I think it would have been better if the quest had been about Jade AND Stalker. They both share half of the name of the quest (Jade and her Shadow), Jade prominently featured in the marketing material, she's extremely significant to Stalker and tied to the Orokin lore through the Jade Light. In The Sacrifce we get to see Umbra's rage, guilt and grief because we literally get to go inside his head and explore his past. Jade doesn't get anywhere near that level of development. 

[Larrell]

Yeah, part of the problem with my argument is that Jade isn't really developed for the angelic aspect beyond a weakened 'fallen angel' that needs caring for. I don't pretend my interpretation is the answer for one moment.

[0bsi]

2 hours ago, Larrell said:

I'd argue this is Stalker's quest

I agree, it is Stalker's quest... so then why is it called "Jade Shadows" and we get the Jade warframe from it....  It just feels kinda odd that a quest about her has her as largely just laying there dying.

I really wish it had been longer - started with a flashback of them together before they became warframes, then showed what happened when they were made into them.  A playable part where she saved Stalker (where you could play as her)... then the part of the quest we got....  Would have made more sense and given her an opportunity to actually be more a part of a quest that's named for her.

I'm also surprised people haven't complained about the unnecessary birthing minigame....

[Snowbluff]

5 minutes ago, 0bsi said:

I'm also surprised people haven't complained about the unnecessary birthing minigame....

Press F to pay respects has become press space to give birth.

[DraculaOnABudget]

Oof, alright. 

This is my first time on the forum because I thought the whole Jade mission was a wild fever dream ending up in me going "What the actual f was all this?", which prompted me to look online if anyone else had similar feelings to mine.

I genuinely agree with the consensus here that Jade's story was incredibly shallow and devoid of characterization for her, outside of the dying pregnant mom trope. While I always try to keep in mind that "hey, it's just a video game, can't be that deep." this is a video game that offers lore and kind of takes pride in the fascinating world their writers came up with, I thinks it's fair to critique it while consuming it.

This whole story was pretty lame, ngl, and as a lesbian, once I showed my wife the whole story mission, we were both left befuddled and conflicted at hoe Jade was handled and used to fuel Stalker's swaggery new dad walk down the corpus line.  And despite some others taking offense in queer people wrinkling their nose at the release of this straight birthing story I'm going to agree with my community that this whole thing feels in bad taste. Especially at a time where the image of a pregnant woman and maternal mortality + her silent husband elicits a very particular erm-- flavor of crowd in the current world climate. I am not saying this was DE's intention, but it feels weird and most queer people I know found this whole theme odious. This is the first experience in Warframe that really left me bummed out and scratching my head uncomfortably so I guess you can't winn'em all. 

And to the folks saying they feel weird about seeing Jade rubbing her belly in idle animations, I get what you mean, it feels weird watching that and hearing Parvos continually blabber about her being just a vessel  /body/ tool . 

 

[Andromedusolo]

1 hour ago, DraculaOnABudget said:

This whole story was pretty lame, ngl, and as a lesbian, once I showed my wife the whole story mission, we were both left befuddled and conflicted at hoe Jade was handled and used to fuel Stalker's swaggery new dad walk down the corpus line.  And despite some others taking offense in queer people wrinkling their nose at the release of this straight birthing story I'm going to agree with my community that this whole thing feels in bad taste. Especially at a time where the image of a pregnant woman and maternal mortality + her silent husband elicits a very particular erm-- flavor of crowd in the current world climate. I am not saying this was DE's intention, but it feels weird and most queer people I know found this whole theme odious. This is the first experience in Warframe that really left me bummed out and scratching my head uncomfortably so I guess you can't winn'em all.

hi hello i'm a fellow lesbian with a really similar experience with this quest. it felt like a missed opportunity. and then it missed so hard, it reverted into a painfully old-fashioned heteronormative story about sad single dad and Dead Pregnant Partner Who Wanted A Family. the fact she was pregnant wasn't my issue, it's just that... that's all there was to her presented in this quest. the handling of jade's character feels stunningly regressive and i don't understand how we went from more empowering stories like the new war to the likes of jade shadows, and didn't take those narrative writing lessons forward into the narrative of this quest.

[Tr0yMC]

The quest was boring and short, there were much better ones. Thought at the content warning that there are several parts that take about 30-40 minutes. I'm a bit disappointed.

[M1nerva]

Agree with most of the comments here, the handling of Jade's character does feel stunningly regressive.

This is the first quest in Warframe that left me feeling actively gross when it was over.

It's 2024! I wish we could be done with this woman as incubator with no personality besides "mother" trope - almost as much as I wish we could be done with this kill the woman off to push the man's story forward trope. These things can be done well, with care, but that care was not taken here. It feels bad.