Was thinking back to how excited I was for Shengui Guo month, I love the idea of spirits and was keen to seen an expansion of the content for the newest land to be released since.. maybe Port Plunder. And in combination with Morostide, I was hoping there'd be some kind of return of Kiyo or at least a mention of her. However throughout the month I was eagerly awaiting some interesting new content, but we were essentially drip fed some item releases (like once a week) which wasn't really exciting.. until these past few days when (finally) some new shops opened.

Anyway, let's look back at the Shengui Guo related releases this month.

I'm not hating on staff for the lack lustre theme month, on the contrary overall I think it's fine. The infusion of asian themed items is giving a great new theme to food, minions and clothing, and the floating market is definitely working as an sP sink, I've dropped quite a lot of money into it.

However, I think the releases could have been timed better. Perhaps the stores could have opened at the start of the month, and in addition to all the item releases we got throughout the month, sets of clothing could have been added to the shop every few days/weeks. I think it would have made the presence of "Shengui Guo" month better felt throughout the month. Also this month could have been last month, soon after the plot when hype was at it's peak, I understand if things weren't ready for release earlier, but in that case then maybe the plot could have been timed better so that everything was ready, ie. wait for all items to be ready and then time the plot, announcements and releases so it happens all quite close to eachother over a period of months.

I understand staff is doing the best they can, and I actually think this year is one of the better years for Subeta as far as content goes. Can't wait to see what monthly themes are left and I actually hope these monthly themes keep going for next year. 👌👌👌👌

Hmm, I dunno I think it was alright timing-wise. Keep in mind that this month is also a major Subeta holiday month (Morostide), and the last two months of the year are holiday months as well (Fireside and Luminaire).

With so much going on, it's going to be understandably difficult to balance everything. I have liked the themed months this year and think it was a great idea for ensuring there was plenty of new content in the less eventful months. But now that we've entered holiday season, I'm okay with putting more emphasis on the holiday content while still keeping the presence of the themed month but not letting it overtake.

Just my opinion, but either way I do agree that the quality of the content released this year has been pretty spectacular. Well done artists and content team! :)

Yeah, I also love Morostide, but what I meant with the timing was that instead of Shengui Guo month this month, last month could have been Shengui Guo and this month could have been stuff. I know Shengui Guo is more related to Morostide than "stuff", but instead of Morostide and Shengui Gui "competing" we would have had adequate time to appreciate both.

Just hope that staff become more aware with their timings of releases I guess. The themes are a great way to keep us happy between big events and plots, so monthly themes that aren't as "big" could occur during busy event months and vice versa. :)

Any month with a holiday and an unrelated monthly theme will end up conflicting. One will overshadow the other no matter what.

If only a good amount of shengui stuff was released: "Where's my morostide stuff!?!?"

If only a good amount of morostide stuff was released: "What happened to the monthly theme?!?!?"

If both had a lot released: "Omg so much released at once slow down!11!1"

There's no winning.

Grouping it at the beginning may not have been possible if the art was not finished by then, and then it would have felt like two segregated themes, shengui (why is shengui in my suggestions when I typo...) themed half month, moros themed half month.

Really I don't see any good way to do it, no matter what course someone is going to be unhappy with certain aspects of it.

Those were for Quentin's quest shop and they're more Morostide/Shadowglen themed. So really that's one less Shengui Guo release.

I think the biggest problem was with the pacing, like you said. We got barely anything until the last week. It doesn't help that we're now something like two full months from the release of Shengui Guo? A lot of us were already frustrated with the wait for new content, and then we had to wait until the very end of Shengui Guo month to get the shops.

Don't get me wrong, the releases have been fantastic. I've been really impressed with the quality of the art and the variety. It's just that for me, the hype kind of died off after the first two weeks of September when we still had little more than a pretty new map to look at.

Slight tangent: I've been feeling the same way about pet releases recently, too. I seem to remember that in the past, they'd be sprinkled throughout the weeks leading up to a holiday? But recently they've been saved up for a mega release the day of. I'd love it if we got a new nightmare or graveyard pet once a week throughout October instead of having to wait until October 31st.

I love seeing new pets. Don't keep them from us. :(

Let's not forget we also had Alegarten right at the beginning of the month. People probably would have been overwhelmed (read: whining about the cost) to get two more sP shops, one of which is rather expensive compared to other shops in general, in the middle of an already costly holiday. We got more Shengui Guo stuff still during the month of October but after most of the draw of Morostide has worn off, since most people are probably finished with their Morostide goodies (or close). It gives us something to focus on going into the next month, before the holidays pick back up again.

tl;dr I think it was fine, personally.

I think one big issue is that most pet species already come in Bloodred, Graveyard, Nightmare and the like so there's just not enough to choose from. Then it appears that certain species don't even seem to have an artist right now (hello, Celinox) so revamps of these are highly unlikey to happen, too.

A couple of new species would be helpful and the promised new color of course but then again...where do we get all the lovely shoes, skirts and butt bows in 13566687658 different colors from then? Decisions, decisons...

We've got a lot of content coming already for the holidays as it is; this time of the year has always been like that, and won't stop til mid-January. Throw in a unique monthly theme not related to said holidays, and that just adds more stress in balancing things out.

And, well, things gets delayed. That's just how it is. xD

I know you don't have any malice intention, OP. But perhaps the userbase as a whole needs to become more realistic, recognize the time of the year we're in now, and not always assume something big is going to happen every month. Setting high expectations leads to expected disappointment.

I think the pacing was off. The first half of the month could have taken care of one of the shops, and then the second near the ending. Other than that, I think the amount was good.

I won't lie, though, I am sad Kiyo hasn't made a comeback. Although if they are bringing her back soon, anywhere from the 31st to the 2nd is fitting since it's when the bridge between our world and the spirit world are at its weakest... Unless they are waiting for summer again. Which would kinda suck.

Yeah, no malice intended. I think others have put it better than I have, I have no issue with the amount of releases, this is a suggestion to be more aware of release pacing. :)

Hmm, true, good point!

Yeah, Shengui Guo's been plagued with bad timing from the start. First there was the oddly-paced plot (lots of time for the puzzle/game segments, and then when it came time to battle if you didn't/couldn't be online for the last day-ish you were SoL), that didn't do much to introduce us to the new land and instead was just revisiting old NPCs. Then when the map is released it's just a map with one shop on it for the first, what, month? Maybe longer? And now the new land has been out for a little while and we've gotten three small shops from it and that's it. No games, no pets, no pet color, nada.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care b/c I was never interested in Shengui Guo in the first place. But I can def see how it would be frustrating/disappointing for those users who were super excited about all the cool shit that could have been revealed. (I know I've been a bit disappointed that the only wears to come out were basically the asian equivalent of frilly ballgowns. I was at least hoping for some hakama or plain yukata or armor or something.)

I do like that the shops aren't just the standard type and that Subeta has been branching out a bit in how it's getting items out to players. And the artwork for the plot and the themed releases has been stellar. It just would have been nice to get more of it, and more quickly, so that Shengui Guo didn't feel like yet another thing Coming Soon(tm).

Every time I go to Shengui Guo and I see those lights lit around Kiyo the legacia, I get very sad. All that empty space. Coming Soonâ„¢