This post contains spoilers

The new main quest line starts off very well. It is entertaining and humorous.  The voice acting is done well and the charcter backgrounds and much needed depth to Jarette, Rundi, and Jordine.  I laughed pretty hard at "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" whoever had that idea is on point.  The cutscenes and art was good and clearly explained the story which was a huge improvement over what it used to be.  Serendia I was great!

But then it got bad.  Calpheon and Serendia II were absolutely tedious and boring. The cut scenes were repetitive and the issue where you still go back to npcs who repeat thier lines was awful.  They streamlined the main quest but I don't feel like they made it shorter, just... worse.  The focus on Calpheonian politcs was boing and honestly kind of dumb. The entire precedent of "Lets save the Calphonians from their leadership who is to corrupt and arrogant to recognize the very obvious threat that they are all totally aware of" is bad. The trial of Isobelle is ridiculous, way too long, and boring.  I felt like the actions that the Hero took in the origial Main Story were more meaningful and interesting even if they were pooly explained.  To make things worse, its clear that the original main story is still happening in the background of the new main story, but that it's eluded to in poorly explained ways.  As examples: Orwen's sickness was a cool and dramatic momen in the original MSQ but in the new one its just... so lame.  Also they cut the entire part about how she is desired for her uniqueness from what happened in the original story after the Saunil fight.  The entire importance of finding and assembling the origin of light, what it is, why its imporant is baked into the new main story as a side comment that would be actually more confusing if you hadnt done the previous version.  Even the cutscenes were terrible, referring back over and over to the art that was presenting the Serendia I questline.  Like... couldnt you get the artist to draw at least a few more new panels for the new story arc?!  In all fairness the battle in Calpheon was pretty cool, but totally didn't make sense, why are we fighting all the monsters we already banished again? How can Jordine ressurect them with a snap of his fingers? We don't know. Do we get to fight the dragon? Nope. Was the fight with Jordine better... well ok, yes. 

Serendia II was the worst of all. Tedious quest actions, awful voice acting, unlikeable characters, no decent character development, and a generally terribly written storyline that seems ridiculous and illogical.  It actually felt like someone told the dev team "hey, we need to bang this out in a week, we know it isn't even written yet, but you can make it happen.... right?"  Listen guys and galls, we love you and we love the work you do for the game, but dont give us rushed garbage.  We've waited 10 years, we would rather you take the time and just do it better.

In summary: Serendia I was a great change to the main story line.  The rest of the changes felt like they were produced with a rushed production and low quality.  Serendia I was fun, the rest WAS NOT FUN.

Also the complete exclusion of areas that were part of the story both based on and regardless of the old path taken.  Khurutos, Keplan is a footnote with no story exploration option, Lake Kaia, Manshas, Rhutums, Treants, Hexe Sanctuary, Etc.  Basically everything in southern Calpheon ignored and forgotten.

Also a matter of personal taste, but the teleporting everywhere kills the feeling of a large open world and I'm really not a fan at all of losing 3/4 of the UI and having a path of limited travel between lightbeam checkpoints.  Locked into the railroad steps and unable to stop/start those quests steps at will.

Disclaimer: I've only replayed it on existing characters, saving a new character run for Dosa release, but It felt like I'd have more fun playing through the old "nuts to Jordine and Isobella, take the middle road" crossroads choice that's now gone.  The new "crossroads" choices seemed like they'd change nothing more than some small dialogue bits.

The voicework was well done and the story did seem generally more coherent in most parts, but the gameplay and wasted areas/content is what took a turn for the worse for me.

question is, who the hell asked for the remake? LMAO

They keep remaking the storylines every few years and it's annoying af. Make up you rmind what the story is.

Here's a secret PA: 95% of players dgaf about the story anyway.

Like for the first few years id read dalogues and watch cutscenes and all and then i realised like probably two to three weeks after id done the quests, i didnt remember at all what the story was anyway. So i think starting with... maybe oddraxxia i think, i just pressed enter non stop and skipped the cutscenes.  It's even worse that generally new zones comtinue the same story cause like, even if id read and watched the cutscene, by the time a new zone is out  a year later, there's no way im gonna remember 90% of what happened or who these characters are  But I guess it works for new players.

So the conclusion is most players don't care about these storylines. Writing is usually bad like always. The quests are mostly boring activities like always. But then we have to wait 3-6 months for the localization of the new content gg xD

I thought the whole point of the Jordine Saga was to bring attention to the story important details - hence why certain things are left out. I haven't checked it out yet though... BDO's writing is just lacking. It takes too long to deliver important story lore and tends to like to dribble on about the unimportant information that also fails at world building.

Everything OP said is spot-on.  I just finished the new questline, and man, even though the original story was janky, poorly written and connected, we could still determine our course of action, and everything had much more meaning.  Voice acting was better in the original, especially the Heidal investigator looking at the Fogan.  I at first thought Edan was going to torture the frog now, but the other guy basically sounds like him now.

PA: The story really needed work, and it makes a little more sense now, and we really know who Joe, Jeri, and Al are.  But that is all.  You did try, and kudos to you.  But Calpheon is a mess.  The storty is so convoluted in your attempt to marry three distinct questline paths together.  And you failed.  As usual.

Please, hire real story writers and take this seriously.  Good lore and storytelling brings the world to life like nothing else.  Half the people play this game for grinding, true.  The rest of us want to feel like our actions matter in a living world.  And the world is shaped by its history.

Tell it better next time.  The coolest places in Calpheon will never be explored by anyone playing the main story now, especially the Calpehon Shire, where we are supposed to first meet Kzarka.  It's so sad how careless you are with such great pieces of art.  Oh well.  At least you didn't ruin my favorite grinding spot of all time, execpt for the lousy countryside music that plays instead of the Shire theme, which is one of the coolest songs ever.

Keep trying, PA.  One of these days, you might get it.

I've been wanting a good story ever since I killed Belmorn in early 2020, and I was like: wait....... was that it?......

Yep, same. It's fine if they re-do the stories so they make more sense, in some ways this is an improvement (it gave us more background on Jordine, Al Rhundi, and Jarette). I also liked the Calpheon battle/showdown with Balmorn (as the old version was a bit anti-climatic in my opinion). But, they miss the mark in other ways (completely cutting out zones, crossroad quests change nothing now, making certain quests even more tedious than before, ect). I was excited to re-do the questline on my Nova as I picked the wrong crossroad before and I wanted to experience the Nova centric Serendia/Keplan storyline and was dissapointed to find it had been cut. I love stories in games (if they're done properly). I just wish it was better implemented and more clear. The lore/story is a mess and it's hard to follow. Some of the problem might be translation issues. I wish they'd hire people that could write a clear and coherent story and allow us to make choices that make an impact on the world/story/characters (although that might be hard to accomplish). Just tell a good story and tell it well. I think it'd help with immersion (which is sorely needed) and help people connect with their character(s). It might also get people to play the game longer. I feel less people would spam 'R' if the writing was better and engaging as well as impactful along with our choices. Maybe there could also be an option in the game menu like 'story mode' and 'freeplay' or something (maybe a 'story mode' on/off toggle) so people can have the option to skip ALL story content if they want (rather than just spam the 'R' button). That way both types of players (ones that enjoy stories and ones that don't) are happy.