Borderlands 3

It didn't feel like he had really MANY traits to speak of period. Like, one of his early lines is "My ship's right there. State-of-the-art Altas cloaking, baby!". I feel like Troy probably would have given it Rhys' edge of a little sleazy and trying to boost his own ego, which then shifts to his perpetual butt monkey status when it gets blown up. I'd actually say his scream as the ship blows up is probably the most true-to-Rhys line read I've seen. Or, when talking to Katagawa right after, I would expect more of an Insult-Backfire of Rhys than a simple 'Screw You'. Or the line about 'This merger will happen over my cold dead body' should be followed up with a 'ohpleasegodidon'twanttodie' kind of line. At the very least, 'Which is... probably the point' should sound more deadpan. The calm and matter of fact reading like that's some smart point just sounds... dumb? He doesn't geek out over Zer 0 either which seems really strange to me.

Here's the video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RlQOHOl4eo SPOILER Warning Though.

I think I can sum it up this way; Rhys' lines aren't really funny or read in a comedic manner despite being a primarily comedic character in his original game and in a comedic series. It's very obvious that he is neither being voiced nor written by the same people as before and, had I been given this audio and not told it was Rhys, I would never have guessed this was that character at all.

Edited by InkDagger on Sep 15th 2019 at 6:28:29 AM

Yeah, wow, that is... not good. It's okay that you can tell it's not Troy Baker, because... it's not, but it's lacking almost all the depth Rhys used to have. I mean, sure, I know one of Rhys's big things is that he gets carried away easily and can be kind of smug, but this delivery just feels like Babby's First Corporate Douchebag.

I still find Claptrap weird.

You can tell it's someone making an impression of Claptrap... coz it's exactly what it is.

It almost sounds like a Borderlands fandub or video.

Lets all agree that whatever problems we have with the game, its all Randy's fault.

........ I'm not sure whether this is a jest or not.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 15th 2019 at 9:37:29 AM

Well, he may have had a hand in the writing direction and he's the one who alienated voice actors.

So yeah, blaming the problems with the game's story and voices on him seems pretty fair.

Five things:

1. Aside from the portrait on Rhys's desk, there is an ECHO Log that implies Sasha mysteriously disappeared in the seven years between 2 and 3. Rhys is heartbroken and sad.

2. On a lighter note, Axton appears to have taken up male modeling◊.

3. For Krieg, there is an ECHO going around that has him bidding farewell to Maya before she leaves, while Maya implies that she's aware of his feelings for her and confirms that she does appreciate his presence, and three others regarding him slowly regaining his sanity, it seems, although he is still going to be a Psycho.

4. I dunno, I liked Rhys in 3. The important thing for me is that he remains a walking disaster twink as usual. For starters, his favorite frozen yogurt flavor is Chocolate Dill Pickle.

5. So you want to know what happened to Timothy, well...

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Sep 15th 2019 at 11:34:10 AM

I can sympathize with people who feel that their favorite characters were shafted, but I also feel very strongly that mindlessly throwing in every character that has ever existed in the series would also be extremely bad writing. The game has enough trouble using all its characters anyway, any more would just be showing up to say hi and then leaving immediately.

I think it's all because of fan expectations.

I mean, when BL2 came, the playable Vault Hunters of BL1 became plot-relevant NPCs teaming up with the new hunters, all 4 of them. And it was also nice to see Roland, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai as a Mission Control or even fighting in the battlefield with you.

So, many Borderlands fans such as myself expected Zer0, Maya, Axton, Salvador, Gaige and Krieg to be plot-important in the third game as well, all of them. Besides, the ending of the Tiny Tina DLC shows all six of them in one nice group shot near a certain Vault Hunter's statue.

It could flesh out their characters more, and if Gearbox did it with the first batch of Vault Hunters, then why not do it for the second batch? Gaige and Krieg had interesting personalities as well, despite being DLC characters.

It appears as though they are making Lilith the most important Vault Hunter (she appeared in 4 Borderlands games), next is Zer0 (now 3 appearances).

I mained Zer0 in the second game, so I'm glad he's getting more screentime. But to those who loved and mained Axton, Salvador, Gaige and Krieg in the seven-year gap between BL2 and BL3? You can feel that their disappointment is justified because their favorite characters got shafted out from the sequel's base story.

Edited by DanteVin on Sep 16th 2019 at 4:14:04 PM

Oh wow I got lucky then cause Zer 0 is my main too.

Jesus the odds, its like Russian Character Roulette.

Though hmmmh thankfully this is most likely Lilith's last role in the franchise.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 16th 2019 at 1:14:14 AM

Never really played TOTB - so not too fussed about Rhys, though I do need to either watch a youtube playthrough to understand that bit. Glad they included them.

Playing as FL 4 K and they are a beast damage wise if you spec well... Still working my way through the Green Tree primarily, dipping into the Orange one for Ambush Predator.

Pet wise, the Skag is good for a damage boost and the Jabber is... well he can shoot stuff at least. part of me wishes he had an ultimate skill to get them all out in the field at once. Weapon wise, I find I'm favouring shotguns more despite FL 4 K being clearly designed for Snipers.

From what i've seen, Jabber becomes insane with the gun Jabber upgrade, where he whips out a rocket launcher and fires three shots with it.

I'd also note that Pre-Sequel's major Sequel Hook is how they'll need "Every Vault Hunter we can get" up to Axton and Gaige being sent to collect Aurellia.

A massive team up of Vault Hunters wasn't expected. It was built up to and stated rather explicitly.

I'd write a lot of these problems off on how they got the first game's writer back. The game in the franchise that isn't particularly known for good writing or being funny... and quickly became the Early Installment Wierdness marker.

Moze is one of my favorites, but I have been putting in plenty of spec-ing to be more of a combat engineer with the use of both bottomless mags and demolition woman, and having some of the survivability traits invested in such as an Iron Bear bubble shield and damage resistance.

I do wish I had more skill points to worth with, but I can respec at any time thankfully to reach my preferred build.

Yep, Axton has definitely gotten into modeling, aside from the in-game magazine cover◊.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Sep 16th 2019 at 3:20:46 AM

Is this game's writing funny, at least?

Still think the Merc Harem idea would have been a funny evolution for him.

With the news of Lilith sacrificing herself to save the world, who will be the next leader of the Crimson Raiders? And will they perish in Borderlands 4?

@Yinyang: From what I've heard (and admittedly I don't have the game), there's a lot of... weirdly toilet-based humor in the game? General consensus appears to be that the overall feel of the writing hasn't exactly moved on from where BL2 was in 2012. And as has been said in here, they got back the writer responsible for the "wait, Borderlands had writers?" phase of the franchise, so...

Decided to kind of spoil myself since it'll basically be impossible to avoid spoilers in the six months until the game comes out on PC. So... what was the point to keeping Aurelia Hammerlock alive between games? And what the hell happened to the watcher? Yeah, the Pre-Sequel Sequel Hook sounds like it was left hanging by the new writing team who decided to take a different direction.

Wait, ho up, Tannis becomes a fucking Siren??? Wtf? How? Why? Why? Did we really just un-special the Sirens?

There is a long sidequest chain that has Tannis really getting into Angel's backstory and stuff, and eventually she receives Angel's Technopath powers. This was teased back in Commander Lily. Also, it's revealed that Siren powers are apparently passed down.

Seems like... a really strange direction for her character? I'm only just now playing the Commander Lillith DLC right now with my BF since we've been doing a full series replay to get ready for BL 3 in March.

There are some extremely funny moments, imo. There's a sort of low background level of humor floating around at all times that may not entertain you, but there are more than a few good lines or quest chains.

Edited by Clarste on Sep 16th 2019 at 9:55:25 AM

Remember, we never really do have any idea about what Tannis is up to outside of her missions and story involvement. She is largely free to do as she pleases.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Sep 16th 2019 at 11:23:21 AM

Yes and no? Like, it's still a story. We need to be let in on certain information every once in awhile. Otherwise stuff tends to come out of nowhere.

Idk. I've been watching a number of scenes and I just feel like... it takes itself a tad too seriously? In a really strange tonal problem? Maybe I'll feel different if/when I play the game, but I think BL 2/Tales just struck a better balance between the insane absurdity of the setting and some of the more genuine character moments. I've been watching a bunch of cutscenes and... there just aren't any jokes? It's not funny. And, not in the 'trying to be funny but missing the mark' way, but in the 'the tone is set to serious' way. Which just feels strange because even Tales took itself seriously for the most part yet still has some of the best jokes and drama in the franchise.

I think that's an effect of only watching cutscenes. Most people who've played seem to complain about the opposite: that the game doesn't take itself seriously enough for any of the dramatic moments to land.

I assume you're missing out on all the dialog that happens when you're walking around.

Edited by Clarste on Sep 17th 2019 at 12:07:06 PM