The next in the RuneScape 20th Anniversary quest miniseries came out this week, where we are chasing down Sliske… ‘s assistant, who is super envious of us being the hero and is doing everything she can to either sabotage it or make it into her own reality. In the previous quest, she fooled us into switching identities with her, making us appear as her and her appear as us. Which she in retrospect, she could’ve done so much more with then she actually did. She never touched my kingdom at Miscellania, my bank account remained intact, and I still have my Player Owned House dragon army. Instead, she saw fit to just hang out at the Blue Moon Inn the entire time and brag with poorly recalled stories of our past quest deeds and bask in false glory.

… so you can tell that she’s really going to screw us over if we leave her to her devices.

The way the quests are structured, it feels like they are trying to bring back memories of old quests and their characters. We got to see and interact with some old favorites like Elvarg, Count Draynor, and Delrith from the times of RuneScape Classic, which also still exist as beginner quests to this day. To players who have been around for a long period of time, it feels like a pretty epic callback to the roots of their questing story, and to newer ones… well, maybe just a little reminder that there are two sides to every story. Elvarg has feelings too. Even if he ended an entire island community.

Now, we’ve got the second in the series called Flashback. Rather than steal your identity, Relomia has… technically… stolen the identities of a few other characters on Gielinor. Folks you are quite affiliated with, by the sounds of it. This was getting me a bit excited; would I get to see Hazelmere again? Maybe Zanik? How about Hannibus? Nah, I’m thinking too recent; it’s gotta be characters like Hans, Bob the Axe Seller… maybe even some characters I barely interacted with that definitely need some extra dialog, like Ernest or Morgan le Feye.

… nah, we get Ozan, Merlin, and Ava. Did a couple quests with them. Good fun.

I mean, while I’ll admit I was a little disappointed at this selection, I cannot fault the folks at Jagex. They did star in some pretty good quests, and I get what they were kinda going for. Merlin’s Crystal was a classic in the days of RuneScape Classic, Ava’s Accumulator quest was pretty memorable for its sheer absurdity in the RuneScape 2 days when we had to contend with the hardships, and Ozan’s Quest really defined the break into NXT and 3D with its incredible parkour section.

It had something for everyone. Even if it was spread pretty thin.

The quest sees us replaying short, but pivotal moments in the quests themselves. The Assassin’s Creed callback in Ozan’s, the shattering of Merlin’s crystal, and our… um… delivery of an undead chicken to Ava. I mean, that wouldn’t have been my first pick for an RuneScape 2 quest; Rune Mysteries could’ve been a viable contender because of it redefining how magic, a core combat skill, worked in RuneScape.

For a quest itself, it’s incredibly straightforward. There are no new assets; we do a little running around and confrontations, then the flashbacks in slightly tweaked areas with minimal extra graphical assets. Probably was made in a week due to how simply it played out.

And that’s good. A quick little update to breathe in some life and get a story progressing. That’s vital for RuneScape as a game because of how heavily story-oriented it is. We continue to play it because it’s constantly updating with new content and new stories to justify said content. That keeps it so interesting. Even having to wait a month to hear Vicendithas offers that drive to want to know what happens next. A book whose pages turn when it wants to, but you know that eventually they will in the near future.

This questline is a celebration for RuneScape’s 20th birthday party, and despite being a little bit on the weak side quest-wise, it’s still a fantastic idea, and I’m looking very forward to seeing how the series concludes. I just hope that, at some point, the Champion’s Guild gets involved, because all those ages ago, it was “the” guild to be in at one point.

Until next time,

Cheers, cannoneers!