I like how Lotus Eaters did a lot of work fixing the distinction issue the Drifter has. The Drifter is basically the "clean up crew" of Warframe now. A being detached for the origin system in a way very few can relate to, existing outside one reality's infinite coil means they're allowed in territory the Operator could only dream of
One thing i find interesting about a part of the community is that the 1999 demo had them praise the fact that they took it slower, used cover instead of bulletjumping all over the place, spamming powers, etc. But these same people were the ones complaining about those same things when it came to Drifter's stealth gameplay during The New War, it's just interesting to me.
@@MuchVery Honestly bro, i'd be glad if they just fix Drifter's movement so that he moves at his own speed. Cause rn, whenever they walk, they look like they're being pulled back. i know why that is, i just don't like it. Only cause we can't make Drifter move faster than Operator. Idk why they don't make Drifter move at the same pace the warframes walk. Also with Drifter's kit, they could easily reintroduce it as a "new" focus school, and expand on it. Something like "Old School" or Hex, if they wanna stick with the whole 1999 theme. Idk, but i can see how the people in 1999 could teach Drifter some stuff about surviving without all those DBZ abilities. Either that or Drifter should find a kinship with these people considering they're from a time before all this space magic.
@@Re-Equalizer Yeah, the Drifter walks all stiff like that because they're being forced to walk at the Operator's pace. You see the same stiff walk with the Warframes if you're loading in the Sanctum elevator. Focus school or not, I just want them to return to a 'scavenged tech' set of abilities rather than just being a second Operator. 1999 and Lotus Eaters are making some distinction between the Operator and the Drifter, so for there to be nothing beyond the romance stuff would be a bit of a letdown.
Honestly loved playing as the drifter and fighting the enemies while being more grounded and normal. No super speed magic instant death stuff, just skill.
For the record: I agree with you! The Drifter was such a well-written character in "The New War." Knowing what we know now about what happened in Duviri, the Drifter has the potential to be a very layered character. I don't know if you watch DE's Devstreams, but they've addressed the topic of the Drifter's gameplay once. Not sure which number, but it was at the beginning of 2022. DE explained that slowing the gameplay down has its benefits and showed why they chose this approach. They even created a survey after "The New War" to analyze the impact of that update. Nonetheless, apparently, the survey showed that many players really disliked the Drifter segments. Essentially, they'll move the Drifter's gameplay into Warframe's sister project: Soulframe. As a kind of veteran of this game, I think Digital Extremes has written themselves into corners. Let me explain: The mod system used by skilled players turns Warframes into MCU characters who can negate gameplay. DE doesn't want to punish their audience for finding new meta, so they introduce new characters like Kahl, Veso, Teshin, the Drifter, the Stalker, etc. To me, "Whispers in the Wall" just continued this trend of moving the focus from the Operator. I believe Warframe 1999 will not be different in that regard.
I suppose it does make sense why many didnt like it, after so long with such freedoms of mobility and strength, being put at lower speeds and defenses doesnt feel good to them, even if it could help some of the balancing issues the game faces nowadays
yeah i felt that exact thing in the whispers of zariman quest. the boss fight with the void angel i insta killed it with my mesa prime. u just cant have any real encounter or threat with good modded warframes
Yep, basically why I don't like the new quest from The New War up until now. I still like the game, but god damn I hate these new quests. More and more the operator gets replaced by the drifter and we play less as our warframe
It's kinda funny that the gameplay we have as the Drifter is actually more akin to the original idea for Dark Sector. They were aiming for cover-based gunplay and stealthy, tactical mission types. Warframe itself used to be a bit more like this back when it launched, but it has been tweeked so much at this point that people seem to have forgotten it wasn't always a Superpowered neon rave-battle 😅
That in part has been because of how slow the game used to be in... pretty much every way. Getting mods was painful, there was a stamina bar, you moved so slow that people used the Glaive bug to make traversal faster and the community had to hide farm spots from DE or they patched them and made them unusable, that bad was the grinding.
The reason drifter wasn’t allowed off the zarimann was because of how the void works, while he made the deal, the man in the wall said he would save THEM, he is the original, but because of the void a copy was made of him and that copy was brought with the rest of the tenno. Damning him while a doppelgänger lives the life he could have lived.
To be fair, both of their lives aren’t the greatest to live. In fact, the drifter quoted “not sure who had it worse”. I would NOT want to live as a child soldier especially for those dammed Orokin. Have you seen the unspeakable acts they have committed!? This can also be applied to the Drifter, I don’t think I WANT to live my life as if it were a play, if you make a mistake, you restart, again and again. Death is not even an escape. Either way, I’d shoot myself in the foot before even thinking about it.
@@FujiMezu both lives are shit but I do think having cool void magic powers is cooler than dying repeatedly ngl. Also yeah the orokin are sacks of shit
@@Oracle1126 there ‘ s a show called re zero that perfectly encapsulates “ dying repeatedly “ each time worse than last . Yea , drifter went through that same thing .
Slowed down gameplay as an alternative to our walking genocide machines is a brilliant idea, imo. I hope they expand on this aspect of the game. It truly shows you how powerful warframes are actually are.
Exactly. Especially considering that, for years, Warframe has been in its 'clear rooms at light speed' meta for years. A change of pace would be really nice, and we had that.
Which is weird, WF has a variety of gameplay elements from skateboarding to open world souls-like/rogue-lite to space combat I think Drifter should have been used for something like Kahl’s missions
For better or worse the Drifter and the Operator are no longer separate characters. The implication is that all versions of the PC merged into one consciousness during the New War. The bright side is 1) 1999 seems to lean more into the Drifter because I doubt DE is going to have a young Operator romance grown adult protoframes, and 2) Duviri/New War were essentially the last efforts of the "old guard". That sort of storytelling and gameplay is essentially the entire makeup of Soulframe.
I dont think it would make sense for the drifter to revert to a state with no powers, as their aquisition if those powers were foreshadowed through their whole story. If the drifter still played how they did in New War, for every quest, they would essentially have to design 2 quests. One balanced around the slow and stealthy combat of the drifter, and one balanced around the fast-paced and extremely powerful tenno and their Warframes. I do agree that the Drifter could use more differentiation, though. Maybe additional or unique abilities when playing as the drifter instead of the operator, though it would need to be balanced so one is not just straight up better than the other, which would be the case if the drifter retained their New War gameplay. The drifter/operator arc is, in a way, complete. I don't expect that the choice between them will be more than flavor and dialogue differences in future quests, similar to Angels of The Zariman. And while this is a bit disappointing, it is understandable because designing different gameplay, visuals, voices, dialogue, etc, would not be viable for creating new quests at their current pace. I think there is still room for more gameplay in the style of the Drifter from New War, but I don't think it needs to come from the drifter we have now.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a swap between the Warframe / Operator and Drifter, but rather segments specifically designed for each. That way, both characters play as they normally do, and there's no need to double-up on writing scenes and creating Quest missions. Side by side, rather than on top of each other.
@MuchVery I think they could and should do gameplay like that in more quests, and I suspect they will, but it is a bit too late to have the Drifter take that role with how the story has progressed. Unless they come up with some way to take away our powers, which is a possibility.
I agree that i would like to see more differenciation between drifter and operator. But its very obvious that drifter was made to function identically to operator for standard gameplay reasons. I think theres a way to work around the issue though. Press 5 for operator. Standard operator gameplay. Hold 5 for drifter. Give drifter duviri melee gameplay. Maybe the drifter abilities would have to change (maybe something like what teshin does?), and melee back to warframe would have to change, but i think its doable. Why have one or the other when you can have both?
@@TheAssassin409 Exactly. I don't like the idea that only one can have any sort of significant impact on the story or even standard gameplay, especially outside of the New War.
I can see a third and fourth ability slot being used to differentiate the two in the normal game. What? No idea, and all my theorycrafting proved significantly worse than what DE is capable of over the course of Warframe's development.
After the New War, I am now constantly in Drifter mode as it represents me more as an adult person. In general, I agree with the author's opinion. And I’m glad that the author not only criticizes, but also suggests. This is very reasonable. DE is known for listening to its community. So we have a good chance that they will give at least a little more love to Drifter in the future than they do now. But it all depends on how clearly we convey this idea to them.
100% agree with all your points, especially about how neglected Drifter has been post-New War. I did like that their lines and delivery were different compared to the Operator's during Angels of the Zariman, but it was very jarring for both of them to suddenly become mute in Whispers of the Wall, I'm wondering if it was a scheduling issue for the voice actors? It's also really weird how we can't use any of the weapons we earned in Duviri. Not just Teshin's blades, but the Sampotes, Edun, etc. Nataruk too, now that I think about it. We could literally wield it during New War lol, it was our signature weapon in taking down the archons. But suddenly it's not available to them. The Drifter is underrated as hell for how much they were able to accomplish without warframes and void powers. Really embodies the indominable human spirit. I did hear that only the Drifter will go to 1999, so I'm hoping that means they get more moments to shine as their own unique character this time around.
Fantastic analysis. I really felt it when we played the weak drifter, it held so much more weight to save the universe as a dude with a gun, with real mortality, fighting against literal gods
I 100% stuck with the drifter during the decision back on the zariman, she looks sick, is written in an incredible manner, and the backstory goes NUTS Plus, gun.
It's already been confirmed in The Lotus Eaters that the Drifter will be going into 1999 alone, without the operator. How that is going to alter standard operator gameplay, we don't know yet. But due to our operator's deal with wally, we cannot "answer the call" but the drifter can, so the drifter is going alone. I hope that means we see more unique drifter gameplay similar to The New War in this winter's update.
I was in love with drifter after duviri I didn't even hesitate when I had to pick between him and my operator. And normally I find not playing as my warframe boring but I was hyped during new war to play as drifter.
I remember reading an interview that DE regrets giving 4 voices to your operator, because it meant they had to record their lines four times for each quest. Now with Drifter, it became EIGHT TIMES. If you're wondering why our operifter doesn't speak as much, that's why.
i’m watching this after jade shadows and one thing i think you might like that i noticed that is that during the quest, even tho i had always been using my drifter, my operator was the one talkin and doing everything (considering cuz they’re the ones w the relationship to da stalker) so it doesn’t seem like DE ahead completely neglected abt the difference of the drifter and operator
@@davdoesnotexist Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s reassuring to see that only the Operator was given the role in Jade. It could imply that the two are finally being treated as separate characters. Keep in mind that I made this before Jade Shadows.
@@MuchVeryfortunately does seem like their plan is branching the two out more in little ways, depending on if Lotus Eaters quest is foreshadowing the drifter going back to 1999 while operator stays in origin system, but, that also depends on if they’ll be differentiated in gameplay again, or just to have operator mode during it
DE definitely played it too safe with the Drifter, the Drifter is essentially just the Operator but older, and only really stands out in Duviri where it just gets repetitive fast; I was genuinely disappointed that the Drifter can't use guns like the teaser trailer showed, and can only use melee in Duviri but not in other missions...
I feel bad for DE cause they try new things and actually talk to us about their ideas then see the feedback and will change their minds people need to remember this was a dream game they made it’s made with love and hope but having half the people u want to make happy complain if u do give them what they want still have the other half that complains cause they don’t like it 😢
While that's certainly the case sometimes, I don't think it is here. It just seems like DE doesn't consider the Drifter's character worth expanding upon independently, regardless of what players have had to say.
Before the account fusion i plaued on switch before Duviri came out. When it came out I restarted on PC so when I first played Duviri I tried to remake them after my Tenno from Switch version. Once they let me fuse account and I played further and realized they're Same/Different I remade them both. Tenno a child with amazing powers and Drifter an older, jaded warrior. Now they both look great and unique of eachother but not so far they're different people.
Huh. You touched on a point I never really had found ihn my mind, that binds a lot of things I feel and do in WF together. I really find the Drifter a great and much more interesting character than most. The fed-up, broken and cynical outward presentation, while still having a sense of right and wrong and the willpower to push on towards those goals despite the apathy, jadedness and existential tiredness, really struck home. To stay true to your values, despite how hopeless the situation gets, and remembering to focus on them through all the human struggles in such a traumatic backdrop. And I can really see how the idea of the Drifter and the Operator complementing each other would really be able to give a lot. I mostly play alone in WF, and often go just plain old stealth despite nothing forcing me to. Hanging on the walls above doors, using silenced weapons/bows and thrown weapons, mainly trying to stealth kill my way through. Or I might just leave the warframe at the door and just go the whole mission without it. But yeah, I miss the gear from the New War Drifter, and that the Drifter as a character would get a resurgeance and care they need. DE goes so much all over the place with what WF has, that I don't feel it would be that out of place to add something like that. But I also understand the business and developmental sides and the amount of work and resources for something not that many (referring to the results of the questionnaire @slygamer6035 wrote about) would enjoy and return on the investment and thus I don't think it will ever be. Would be awesome if I'm wrong.
An idea for 1999: Since we are travelling to 1999, let Drifter go there without Void powers while Operator stayed behind to protect the Origin System. Now they will be present in the narrative at the same time besides inside Zariman, and minor retcon the not being able to be present at the same time to not being able to access Void powers at the same time. Drifter who has been surviving without powers longer than Operator will give them full time to Operator while he stick to modern gadgetry in 1999, and in the origin system afterwards.
Well, at very least,east, it seems like partially going to happen, with bit of latest mini story quest having drifter somehow temporarily going all way back, but, we just have to wait and see if they’ll be using Tenno abilities once there, since thus quest was purely setup
I like the Drifter but still wish they just aged up the og Tenno kid we play as. The Drifter is not the Tenno and the Tenno is not the Drifter. The Drifter was not a Tenno during the Orokin War, the Drifter did not grow up with the Lotus and the other Tenno developing this sort of Tenno "culture" (I dunno if that's the proper word for it), etc. I still play the kid cuz of that. It just feels more appropriate to me despite prefering to play as an adult character. For example, I find it a bit hard to imagine the Difter deal with Stalker in the Jade Quest when the Tenno has past history with Stalker.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I switched to the drifter after The New War and it was exactly the same, I was very disappointed. I prefer my operator in quests and general gameplay, but the drifter was an extremely good character that deserves better. I really want to see the drifter see a shift in how their gameplay works. With the ending of Whispers in the Walls, we could see the drifter lose their void powers, or they could deny them. The drifter needs to be the guardian between void and matter, so, we have an entire mode possible, completely dedicated to the drifter. Then, the drifter and operator modes could actually mean something. I’m still not sure if the switch should be in the orbiter only in that case, or be possible mid mission. I have so many ideas that I can think through, but I won’t have much ability to put them to use unless I can work for DE. I hope they see this video, maybe this comment as well.
I really wish DE did more with Drifter, or at the very least acknowledge them. Since they arrived (iirc), they had their own animations and voice lines for the Angels Of The Zariman cutscenes, could briefly appear instead of Operator in Whispers In The Walls, and then you cant use them at all in Jade Shadows. Id love if you could use their weapons and bow in operator mode, instead of the amp
Sadly, I believe this is just a symptom of WarFrame development in general. It is spread *wide*, but *thin*. It's always "Oh we got this great idea for new stuff" but the previous ones are left to the dust. Most of the new game modes that have been added into the years have no more depth than the one instance they are relevant, you play them a couple hours and then you forget them and go to the next.
@@orokins1768 That’s unfortunately quite true. So much content is pushed to the wayside once it’s initial relevancy wears off. I’ll be discussing this more in a future video.
I'd be happy if they replaced void dash with something similar to teshins grapple hook mechanic on the Drifter. And instead of going invisible, you could use smokebombs instead. Basically make the Drifter a cooler and more tactical choice instead of just a skin. And I think the Drifter should have a separate "Focus School" that feels more human, maybe just making their gadgets more powerful, enhanced by the void or somethin. Maybe let the Drifter use your primary weapon as well, that would be seriously enjoyable.
My first impression while going through the new war was being able to do star map missions as the drifter. I would've really liked to have more stuff to do as a drifter in the star map aside from the campaign and duviri.
I just played the New War and you needed to see my reaction when I saw the Drifter. I was so happy, so stunned so elated, couldn't believe my eyes. That was epic
for me, the drifter and operator should have been the same person. in the new war, when impaled the operator should have been awaken in duviri, and do the duviri quest there, and after that escape back to earth and continue the drifter part of the new war. during that mission the operator should grow up to adult size, and you could use void magic to turn back time and become a child again for estetic purpouse for those who want that fashion. i for once only play as the drifter after new war, dont realy wanna go back to operator ever.
I know lots of folks prefer one over the other, but I agree that having the operator and drifter as two seperate characters works best. I like them both for different reasons and would love to see original drifter gameplay brought back for Narmer content with Kahl. I think that's a great fit and doesn't seem like it would be a huge leap. Great video!
I LOVE Whispers. I cannot shut up about it and tell everyone I meet about it. But yes I fully agree with this. There being no difference between the Drifter and Operator and there being no dialog whatsoever was a massive disappointment. Overall after completing the New War, I was quite disappointed that the Drifter was just the Operator but adult and nothing more. But I held hopes that maybe they'll add more in the future. But after we've had several post New War updates that didn't do that, I started being a bit more skeptical. Overall I fully agree with you and don't have anything to ad oitside of personal emotions. Which is a bit of a rarity. But I'm just leaving a comment for the algorithm!
Oh same, I think Whispers is one of the best Quests to date. But yeah, the lack of a role our Tenno was pretty disappointing. I don't even think they made a Drifter version of Wally for the players using the Drifter during the Quest, which kind of goes against Wally's character design. All we can do now is wait and see. At the very least, Warframe: 1999 SEEMS to have a healthy amount of dialogue. Thanks for the comment!
@@MuchVery Things I’ve noticed: Operator talks during quest, drifter is quiet Operator is cannon mc/fmc (Mission belly of the beast for example) I was surprised my operator was the person in the cutscene for jade.
When operator were added to the game a lot of players(me included) wanted to play an older version or have agong system in a story. But devs came up with interesting and creative way to have adult operator, but still have an option at any time to use a younger one❤
I kinda hope they will add drifter as there own combat gameplay in normal mode cus I wanna see my frame take on an army obliterating them sending out operator to remove void shields of a target and the drifter appearing to block an attack ment for the tenno.
Some things I wish were different I wish steel path had been held off on until the new war, and then the steel path was just the narmer starchart. I also wish they would add more duviri weapons, both melee and ranged for the drifter
So I started Warframe a few weeks ago and im doing quest trying out new Warframes I click this Duvari quest to start that and BOOM my head explodes a whole new angle to this epic game. Im so hooked I can't wait to see what else is coming.
he has void powers but they're dormant since he wasn't trained by margulis after allthe orokin nvr found his version of zarimon so he drifted in the void with it this version of yu somehow materialized in our time line due to lil ballas opening that void portal that he did but the questline is a good one
I like the idea of outgrowing the warframes. And the drifter was a good start. Should have added a 3 and 4 based more on gagets like smoke gernades or maybe advanced techniques like void blades and possessing enemy troops.
I once suggested a “drifter path” working like a focus school but instead it gives access to a smoke grenade and a healing ability for its specials; opens up the 3rd and 4th ability slot and gives access to melee and executions alongside the Nataruk
I'm still praying for Veso's Veilbreaker quest because I LOVE combat puzzles and want to see better set pieces to strategically conquer! Also Veso-R is the GOAT. For Profit.
unfortunately their wholesale abandonment of Khal missions has effectively doomed that.... which is dumb.... yes DE, don't expand on the gameplay, just make us do repeats of the Murex then say "oh it's a failure"... you tried so little... no wonder we didn't get Veso; that'd require puzzle design and a basic understanding of the Clank sections in R&C games.
Maybe going foward the drifter could become a more permanent character losing their connection to he void but keeping the warframes via some other device that could mimic transference to a certain degree. Though given how long the frames have been in existence I’m sure some opposing factions could develop some tech to counter act the frames forcing the drifter to take a more hands on approach. So like certain areas of a planet could be protected by this tech so the drifter has to infiltrate themselves. This device that could allow the drifter to have transference could be some sentient type tech (I’m just spitting out ideas though I’m sure non of this could work or make sense but it sounded interesting in my head it would allow vet players to keep their fast and destructive frames but also keep the ones who enjoy the drifter gameplay happy too)
from the standpoint I am allowed to be now at, we know almost certainly that 1999 WILL be drifter only. So the focus will return to him. Its uncertain though with what gear and powers he will arrive though.
With the introduction of the upcoming "Gemini System" where certain frames can swap with their "Proto" versions (e.g. Arthur and Excalibur), I'm hoping a similar system works with the Operator and Drifter. They're functionally brothers, so I am also hoping for some banter between them., The Operator is more fantastical, using void powers and possessing not only warframes but whatever else they can (the void worms, that thing in the sanctum, ect). The operator can't, as of now, use weaponry of any sort because they're a kid with an atrophied body. The Drifter is more grounded, relying on trickery and stealth. With Duviri, they've also gained some combat prowess. They are, for all intents and purposes, a "space ninja" in the closest form we'll get. They lack, or SHOULD, lack void powers and make up for it with grit. I'm hoping that, as you've said, we get the ability to swap between them with a noted change in gameplay as well as strengths and weaknesses. A Soul(Operator) and Body(Drifter), to give an example of what I'm thinking. Two halves of one person, but distinct and separate. The soul has access to all that "void devilry", that gives the Tenno the mystical qualities. Ballas and Helminth calling them Demons is apt. Their gameplay should be the bombastic mage that we're used to. The Body has access to "human ingenuity", scavenging and making things work where they shouldn't by virtue of problem solving. their gameplay should focus on avoidance and exploiting weaknesses, similar to how they played in their debut, with the duviri combat being something they fall back on when the former fails. I feel like I'm repeating myself a bit, but I hope you get what I'm saying and this isn't just some horrible-sounding word salad.
I was hopping that u can play as the drifter in origin system like in the new war or the duviri and fight along side your warframe/operator instead of a stand in
Yeah I'd like it if the Drifter was made a more fleshed out entity in the game and not just an cosmetic for the tenno. Unfortunately it's looks like they are going to be a tenno stand in from now on. They are going to play a largepart in 1999 so hopefully that means we get some actual drifter gameplay.
I am kinda new 600 days tomorrow, my favorite part of the game is Duviri. Using the drifter to fight ride the Kaithe play komi solve puzzles save sick animals and fly around flying as a bird is almost never boring. I run Durivi SP arcane portals solo most of the time. So for me the game is still about 50% using the drifter. Unfortunately fighting is usually bugged and shooting results in melee and melee is just walking into enemy attacks but if you hit and hold aim melee and shoot your drifter unleashes hell on everything ( and random teammates think you are cheating). I do hope a drifter story line is developed but will it be needed? Prototype warframes that ride motorcycles and hopefully a lot of other cool stuff are being introduced to the game. I really enjoy the drifter but am really looking forward to the new characters and story lines in 1999.
Duviri is certainly fun in its own right. An expanded Drifter story arc isn't needed, but definitely wanted. But yeah, it seems they're making way for the likes of Albrecht Entrati and the Protoframes to be our next cast of characters steering the narrative.
A way they can fix this is de comes out and explicitly says that the drifter you use with void powers is just a skin and not canon. While doing quests like whispers in the wall it should force your tenno to be the operator rather than the drifter allowing more stories driven by these specific characters with dialogue.
I understand where you're coming from with compromising the drifter, but 1. This video came out before lotus eaters so I won't say you're wrong here, but at least the next major quest will be drifter focused, which makes sense both from the lore perspective I won't cover here, but also in that it'd be a little weird to be doing dating sim bits as the operator. Additionally, in Jade Shadows, which was also released after this video, operator is involved instead of drifter (again not discussing why for spoilers), even if you'd stuck with drifter at the end of new war, which means that they aren't completely interchangable even if there is understandably some feeling of that from drifter getting the void powers. 2. While I agree that it would've been nice to have more nodes where we got to play with the drifter's og kit, I do think that the drifter getting access to the void powers is a logical choice both from the gameplay aspect and the lore aspect. From the gameplay aspect, there's simply going to be people who prefer playing as an adult, and taking away that character they crafted in new war after the return to normal would feel like a punishment more than anything else. From the lore aspect, even if drifter is one of the most tenacious people out there, they're still just a human, and quite frankly in Sol, there are too many hazards/problems that cannot just be solved with stealth. Realistically even if they wanted to go with a different solution to make drifter hardier, even for DE it was probably too much to add yet another gameplay mode. All that being said I definitely found this video interesting and I would be curious to know if your thoughts change at all following 1999
Not gonna lie, after playing The New War, I was hoping for the Drifter to possibly go the Batman route of replacing the Operator's magical powers with heavy gadget use like in TNW. Different Drifter-exclusive weapons that served similar purposes to but were noticeably distinct from their Operator equivalents. Maybe stuff like the Zenurik Drifter having the ability to drop battery stations that would occasionally pop out energy orbs, like Protea's Dispensary but without the health or ammo, and the Unairu Drifter putting on more physical armor and carrying around shield packs and stuff. Drifter guns that had Amps attached to them via adapters and had to be reloaded via swapping out the spent battery packs that recharged when attached to a charging backpack or something. Each Focus school having the ability to throw grenades that had different effects, like Madurai Drifter's grenade releasing a smoke cloud that invigorates any allies within its radius, raising ability strength and adding heat procs to their attacks instead of turning the Drifter invisible, things like that. As is... I agree, having them be effectively reskinned Operators is a hell of a disappointment. Hopefully we get a Drifter rework in the future that actually gives them back their unique identity.
"Drifter should have his own set of abilities" Yeah, he would be totally useless on Steel Path without modding and why you would ran around with Drifter someone with any mid-modded frame would already clear entire map
Bit late, but given the romance options, it's now been extremely heavily implied though not confirmed that the Drifter will be the main player character in 1999.
@@MuchVery You mean very much looking forward to it? :p But I doubt Lotus Eaters will have have any relevance to my point. I do hope that even though the Drifter now has Tenno powers they still remain a somewhat distinct character narratively. I got an adult operator cosmetically with the Drifter, but the fact that they didn't age up the Operator and instead gave us a separate character with their own unique and extremely interesting story makes me want to see more of both. Like, the Operator is much more connected to the Orokin, the Tenno cause, and the Warframes, having experiences all that first hand. The Drifter didn't see what they did to Margulis, or get revenge for it, but they're still the kind of person who could learn to see inside an ugly, broken thing, and take away its pain.
Over the years, I've grown very attached to my Operator character, but after the Drifter came along, I've come to really love both of them. I find myself viewing the Operator as a younger sibling and honestly crushing on the Drifter.
I wish drifter could actually get more access to more outfits The vent kids armor being one of them because no hood has a bandana on operator and I wanna have bandana on drifter so I can become boss from MGS I even have eye patch too 😔
Tryharding spy missions and the New War drifter content showed that DE could make an awesome slow stealth game, and they have, but made it one of the least meaningful and necessary ways to play in WF. The New War was so good that all the quests ive unlocked to do since have felt worse in comparisson, even tho I really liked the theming for Whispers and Angels. And WF1999 went super hard, despite essentially being darkSector/Excalibur gameplay
I equally agree and disagree. I do think that the drifter is the best character in Warframe. There is an appeal to The drifter because they're not some powerful void touch being. In a sense they're just some regular degular human being... Kinda. Since we've been introduced to The drifter, we've known they have some kind of connection to either the operator or the void. Also felt it was alluded to, that when the drifter in the operator sat down and met each other, that this awakened the drifters potential for void powers. This is just my opinion, but I always felt since meeting The drifter that they had some kind of cosmic force/plot armor magic watching their back. I actually liked Duvari gameplay quite a bit. While it was still hacking slash, combat was taken slower and more methodically. It really reinforced the feeling of combat in this universe without your Warframe. However, I hated combat in New War. Hours of forced combat in a looter... Not for me. I already can't stand doing spy missions. New War had me raging, not from failing stealth, raging from just wanting it to end. There are plenty of ways to bring out the weight and consequences of non-warframe combat, b2b stealth missions are not it. IMO: The Drifter is great. Duvari was great. The Drifter is really just a regular human. Forced stealth in small doses.
My problem with the Drifter and operator are the same. The general concept of it, the Tenno controlling warframes is great, however each time i witness my operator in a quest... I lose my connection to them. They say things i dislike, act like they have backstory i had no introduction to, and this is the drifter´s biggest problem. He got no development but Duviri, a 1 hour quest with way too much action and bad Pacing (imo). The operator had a great reveal, you could relate to them knowing so little about themselves, the drifter got introduced with a gameplay mechanic that has been removed, yet the story tells it like it´s obvious what´s the problem, the stories are told, yet feel so disconnected, the lack of interaction between the drifter and the main cast of Duviri´s characters just doesn´t give me enough to *get it*. I played new war b4 duviri came out, i was intruiged by the Drifter, at the end, but he just felt mysterious, like a tease for the paradox. Then the paradox was nothing i imagined, and just thrown in into the Drifter´s Emotional struggle. The void powers really do not make a difference. It´s gameplay only. A cool thing would be a seperate Arsenal loadout with the drifter, but really eh.
I think the Lotus Eaters Prologue showed that they were solely going to involve the Drifter for story elements that we will find out (also prolly cause a dating sim with the Operator is just a disaster waiting to happen). Hopefully this lets us see the Drifter character get more fleshed out as they interact with actual adults. I do agree that them receiving the void powers affects the original theme of the character that drew us in to appreciate them, but I also think this doesn’t stop DE from writing a compelling story of how they’re coping with it as they seem to have to use transference on a living person in 1999. I know a lot of people here say that DE has written themselves into many corners with warframe but I disagree. The very basics of Warframe allows them to write in whatever they want with the flexibility that showrunners would fight for. I believe they have a lot of space to improv and can only hope that they showcase a brilliant story for the Drifter with some inclusions of interactions between them and the other humans in 1999, or even with the Operator (considering how the Operator has had to transfer into living warframes in the past, it would be cool to see the Drifter ask the Operator how they cope with having to take over another persons mind)
Seeing Loid's confirmation that we're going to Transfer into Protoframes, alongside actual Warframes being present at 1999 (shown at TennoCon) has honestly made me a little bit unsure of how exactly things will play out for the protagonists. Still, I'm super excited to see how each of their stories unfold in 1999.
Considering the fact that they couldnt even be bothered to change all the clothes of the operator for the drifter and the amps(i hate looking at the Sirroco ever time i switch my amps), i doubt they will ever make the Drifter anything but "Operator but older". Also such a shame they didnt Update the Naramon focus tree to fit the Drifters melee combat from duviri. Afterall the Naramon focus tree its melee focused. They can keep Drifters void powers but they can also make her more distinct than the operator hell it dosent even have voicelines like the operator when you are playing the game normaly. Also i really wanted to see Wally reaction to the Drifter in Whispers in the Wall but dam the Operator in general in that quest its just mute lol. Also where was the Lotus during that entire quest???? The overall story of Whispers its cool but it feel too detached....
I think the Lotus is less present because her role in the main narrative was concluded with The New War. We've moved onto the next chapter of Warframe story with a fresh cast of characters. And yeah, the lack of the Tenno's role in the Quest concerned me. Perhaps they'll have more dialogue and impact later on, but we can only hope.
@@MuchVery I dont mind her getting a back seat role. But the lack of involvement especially when it comes to the tenno being in real danger its very concerning. Its not about her being less present shes not there at all! I mean we see her trying her best to keep the man in the wall at bay at the end of the New War, and now she dosent even show the slightest bit of concern for the tenno. Its like 11 years of character development its gone. This is what i HATE about DE's writeing inconsistent, nonsensical when it comes to character development/involvment. Idk who the writer/writers are but dayum they are incapable of writeing a connected and coherent story. Warframe should really stop delevoping their stories like this. Remember Umbra? Yup outside of The Sacrifice he dosent exist. Not even mentioned if for example you use Umbra on New War. Small conections like this would really help the story feel more connected.
@@valerianos8635 other examples include: 1. the Veil and Meridian still being friends... guess they kinda forgot about the slaughtered ships... and the continuous kidnap attempts upon inductees. 2. Teshin trying to solo a ship while we have a Necramech that bypasses the Orphix, it does so in that very quest. 3. Ergo Glast losing his colony, then winning his daughter back.... where did he send her? the colony he lost... 4. we straight-up release the infested from the labs and blame the grineer for our oopsie; now, i get in lore we'd allow the lie to persist but why on the wiki is Tengus blamed? back when we were just space mercenaries with very questionable ethics. Im sure ill remember others in a bit but those ones stick in the mind; especially the Glast one because wow... he's supposed to not have a crater for a head.
@@valerianos8635she probably thinks that we can handle ourselves more now. we’ve come a long way from dreaming we were warframes and just getting our true forms back.
@@thestarryeyedobserver Nah that seems like a shity justification to me. Its a natural progression for her to get a backseat role but to not be involved at all seems stupid.
Alternative title: Glazing the drifter for 18 mins. Jk man, Its a pretty well made video and I agree that the drifter has been forgotten pretty quickly after it was just introduced. It's a ༼ ಠل͟ಠ༽ˢʰᵃᵐᵉ cause the characters could've been used alot better then just it being operator's stand in as you've said or should I sah the glorified operator skin.
It's a pity that Drifter didn't get Teshin's melee moveset. I was hoping that instead of having the Tenno's default Void powers, Teshin's swords instead manifest the Void as elemental powered melee skills.
@@thestarryeyedobserver as a Devil May Cry veteran, I would do an annual replay of New War just to do the Teshin segments. That's how badly I wanted Teshin's gameplay to be added.
I think i need drifter/operator combat like a void infused knife and we can actually use drifter/operator more (I’m a newbie and i have no experience using drifter/operator)
I don’t agree with all points on this video (I like the cosmetic use of the drifter over a kid and I don’t play warframe for stealth so I wasn’t a fan of the sneaky quests) but this video rules and thank you so much for the breakdown on what duviri is and when the timeline split. I jump in the game for a couple month every couple years so keeping up with the story line gets weird and I had no idea where duviri fit in or what the hell was going on. I just slogged through it and kinda just shoved it in the back of my brain to forget about.
yeah the drifter does deserve more roles but you also got characters like umbra who they just forgot about sure in new war it makes sense why they did not do much cuz it would be tricky but they could at least have ordis say something about putting him in stasis to make sure he does not get himself killed it would make it make sense why he did not go off on his own to beat the crap out of ballas
EDIT: I feel I went a bit off-track with my post but to awnser as to why DE doesn't do anything trully interesting with the Drifter, much less Khal, is three-fold: -Lack of proper management -Not enough incentive since Drifter's and Khal's gameplay are essencially warframe back in beta, they've moved from that more tactical and slow gameplay for -The part I've mentioned below DE seems to be in a constant struggle between giving us new content and making us spend money on their stuff. It must be frustrating for them as it is for us to see so much potential avaible in the game but most of it being wasted because they have to make end's meet (assuming). I haven't set foot in Duviri, Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna in a long while, it sucks because they have alot to offer, but they simply lack the investment from the devs to be worth coming back to. Don't even get me started with Archwing and Railjack..such a dam shame.
Apparently not ;:) In my defense though, the points are still valid with most post-New War content. It's only really been with The Lotus Eaters that they kind of set things straight. And even then, we're still not sure. The Drifter may be their own character once more, and that's bloody fantastic. But, if they're still going to be portrayed as a taller Operator (they still have Void powers) then the video stands, and what makes the Drifter such a good character is being pushed to the wayside.
This was the only way they could have the tenno be a adult the size change is drastic and that why we are able to wear armor on the drifter but not the tenno. It's a scale issue. I always wanted the story to have my character grow up so a new player is a small child still since they are fresh out of dream.and we have been awake for awhile now
I didn't really make any theories. If anything, Lotus Eaters gave me exactly what I wanted for the Drifter. A character separate and distinct from the Operator.
I have to disagree here, part of the plot of the new war is that the drifter and the operator are the same person. Its not "due to eternalism" that they cant exist around eachother. Its that they are two parts of one whole hence the scene at the end where the drifter and the operator are phasing in and out as they talk to the lotus, yet they dont miss a beat because they share a mind and share and existence the drifter explains DURING the new war that the zariman is the only place they can chat like that because its also a paradox, stuck between the real and the void. it makes perfect sense that in the drifter would no longer be an independent character and an "operator skin" as you put it because they are literally the same so the combined tenno really is able to change between child and adult like changing clothes. If anything even easier.
it’d still be cool to be able to use weaponry along with the drifter’s void powers, though. there was once a bug in the undercroft that caused the drifter to be playable. if you had enough decrees, the gameplay would be very risky, but rewarding. you’d have to kill enemies before they kill you, so that you could take advantage of the decrees you have in order to survive. it was actually really fun and really put into perspective what it’s like to fight those armies as a (decree-buffed) human. no bullet jumping, no space demi-god powers, just you. so when i finally DID transform back into a warframe during all that it was CATHARTIC. it’s like when you use that one special transformation in every video game that makes you essentially unkillable or SIGNIFICANTLY stronger. (like super sonic, devil trigger, ripper mode, etc.) what i’m trying to say is that it made me realize how numb i was to the warframe power fantasy after always being unkillable every single game. when you actually have to try to stay alive prior to becoming a warframe, though? IT HITS _DIFFERENT._ the drifter’s gameplay could definitely still incorporate void powers, i think in a manner different from the operator since they didn’t have focus schools growing up. either that, or he’d have an extra 3rd and 4th ability. they could even make it so that holding 5 allows the Drifter to use the melee weapons from Duviri (transforms the operator if using them), like someone else had suggested!
12:36 I feel you're wring about this off the simple fact in the new war you choose which version of yourself would continue your story and save the lotus...that being said I feel in that moment both respective realities were merged, with your choice taking them helm so it makes sense as to why the drifter would develop void abilities...I feel the only true disservice is not being able to use the drifters train combat ability(the use of the weapons in divuri) along side the void abilities...I feel when using the drifter we should have access to those weapons with maybe a debuff to Amp ability, seeing how the drifter isn't as accustomed to said abilities but also retaining their martial weapon skills
I can see your point, however, the Drifter's reason for existing is because some players complained that their stand in character was a child so DE had to make up an excuse to have both without compromising those who use the Operator. I like how just "a guy™" has been able to become such a legend in both Duviri and the Origin System, but you'd also have to make up an excuse for why the Drifter loses their Void connection, especially when there are players who use this version (not that I do, I like them more in Duviri because I'm already used to how my Operator moves), it's a state of affairs when you cannot retcon what was already added, which is why Void BS justifies why both the Operator and Drifter can exist one at a time. And with the current arc we have, that being Wally, there needs to be space made for both somehow, but there's bias towards the Operator considering they got 2 focused storylines after New War (Angels of the Zariman and Jade Shadows), the Drifter seems to be the one getting 1999, and Whispers in the Walls only has Wally's mirror version of the Operator speaking (because obviously). Warframe is a live service game, and DE knows their audience wants to feel like an unkillable demigod who does red crits consistently (not me because I suck), and the Drifter also allows them to have an adult Operator without axing the current one. Though I can only wish the Drifter goes out his way to use pre Orokin weaponry while the protoframes assist in battle, maybe make up an excuse for why the Drifter is locked out of Void powers, an example being that, because it's a time period where our Tenno wasn't born yet, they have to conceptually exist in order to access them, after all, they're a paradox, they only benefit from Wally's deal since they never made it.
To be honest , I like both the Operator's and Drifter's story arcs but how you said about the "Whispers in the wall" quest, its just soo strange that both Operator and Drifter don't talk . To be sincer , i like to play the Operator more but even him I don't play that much ussually because I don't really need the buffs he really gives , maybe only in close death encounters. I felt like they were left out a lot in that quest . I played that quest 2 times because i skipped a cutscene by accident in the first run and I wanted to see it , but I felt kinda bored doing that quest , nothing that interesting ,the only thing that felt interesting to me was th bit of the story about 1999.
Upon replaying it, yes, Whispers is a very slow and KIND OF uneventful Quest. But I think it's purpose is simply to introduce you to Loid, the Cavia, Albrecht, 1999 and the growing threat of The Indifference.
To be honest, I'm not really sure I liked playing as The Drifter in The New War. I tend to hate stealth. And the veil-placing surveillance thingies just made my aversion to stealth even worse. I however like how they tried to make the gameplay more grounded and I believe this can be handled in a better way. Since I have a soft spot for "souls-like melee", I think it can be leveraged to make the character's gameplay a viable alternative to the Operator-Warframe duo, although I feel like the "main game" isn't tailored for such an experience. I am also disappointed in the way the character works in the Star Chart and such after the quest (I expected at least different void abilities), but I think DE's choice is kinda understandable. Anyway, I still have hope, especially now that Warframe 1999 is giving The Drifter some spotlight (apparently).
I abandoned the operator so fast once I unlocked the drifter
Ikr
Tbh I hope we can eventually get a truely adult version of our Tenno
@@akumaofthereddeathwdym?
SAME
@@akumaofthereddeath That's literally the drifter though? What do you mean?
I like how Lotus Eaters did a lot of work fixing the distinction issue the Drifter has. The Drifter is basically the "clean up crew" of Warframe now. A being detached for the origin system in a way very few can relate to, existing outside one reality's infinite coil means they're allowed in territory the Operator could only dream of
I was very happy with how they were shown in Lotus Eaters. You should watch the video I made on it!
One thing i find interesting about a part of the community is that the 1999 demo had them praise the fact that they took it slower, used cover instead of bulletjumping all over the place, spamming powers, etc.
But these same people were the ones complaining about those same things when it came to Drifter's stealth gameplay during The New War, it's just interesting to me.
@@Re-Equalizer Dude, Höllvania would be the perfect context to reintroduce the OG Drifter kit, I am PRAYING that they do in some way.
@@MuchVery Honestly bro, i'd be glad if they just fix Drifter's movement so that he moves at his own speed.
Cause rn, whenever they walk, they look like they're being pulled back. i know why that is, i just don't like it.
Only cause we can't make Drifter move faster than Operator. Idk why they don't make Drifter move at the same pace the warframes walk.
Also with Drifter's kit, they could easily reintroduce it as a "new" focus school, and expand on it. Something like "Old School" or Hex, if they wanna stick with the whole 1999 theme. Idk, but i can see how the people in 1999 could teach Drifter some stuff about surviving without all those DBZ abilities. Either that or Drifter should find a kinship with these people considering they're from a time before all this space magic.
@@Re-Equalizer Yeah, the Drifter walks all stiff like that because they're being forced to walk at the Operator's pace. You see the same stiff walk with the Warframes if you're loading in the Sanctum elevator.
Focus school or not, I just want them to return to a 'scavenged tech' set of abilities rather than just being a second Operator. 1999 and Lotus Eaters are making some distinction between the Operator and the Drifter, so for there to be nothing beyond the romance stuff would be a bit of a letdown.
Honestly loved playing as the drifter and fighting the enemies while being more grounded and normal. No super speed magic instant death stuff, just skill.
For the record: I agree with you! The Drifter was such a well-written character in "The New War." Knowing what we know now about what happened in Duviri, the Drifter has the potential to be a very layered character.
I don't know if you watch DE's Devstreams, but they've addressed the topic of the Drifter's gameplay once. Not sure which number, but it was at the beginning of 2022. DE explained that slowing the gameplay down has its benefits and showed why they chose this approach. They even created a survey after "The New War" to analyze the impact of that update. Nonetheless, apparently, the survey showed that many players really disliked the Drifter segments. Essentially, they'll move the Drifter's gameplay into Warframe's sister project: Soulframe.
As a kind of veteran of this game, I think Digital Extremes has written themselves into corners. Let me explain: The mod system used by skilled players turns Warframes into MCU characters who can negate gameplay. DE doesn't want to punish their audience for finding new meta, so they introduce new characters like Kahl, Veso, Teshin, the Drifter, the Stalker, etc. To me, "Whispers in the Wall" just continued this trend of moving the focus from the Operator. I believe Warframe 1999 will not be different in that regard.
Explain please I don't understand
I suppose it does make sense why many didnt like it, after so long with such freedoms of mobility and strength, being put at lower speeds and defenses doesnt feel good to them, even if it could help some of the balancing issues the game faces nowadays
yeah i felt that exact thing in the whispers of zariman quest. the boss fight with the void angel i insta killed it with my mesa prime. u just cant have any real encounter or threat with good modded warframes
Agree too
Yep, basically why I don't like the new quest from The New War up until now. I still like the game, but god damn I hate these new quests. More and more the operator gets replaced by the drifter and we play less as our warframe
It's kinda funny that the gameplay we have as the Drifter is actually more akin to the original idea for Dark Sector. They were aiming for cover-based gunplay and stealthy, tactical mission types.
Warframe itself used to be a bit more like this back when it launched, but it has been tweeked so much at this point that people seem to have forgotten it wasn't always a Superpowered neon rave-battle 😅
That in part has been because of how slow the game used to be in... pretty much every way. Getting mods was painful, there was a stamina bar, you moved so slow that people used the Glaive bug to make traversal faster and the community had to hide farm spots from DE or they patched them and made them unusable, that bad was the grinding.
The reason drifter wasn’t allowed off the zarimann was because of how the void works, while he made the deal, the man in the wall said he would save THEM, he is the original, but because of the void a copy was made of him and that copy was brought with the rest of the tenno. Damning him while a doppelgänger lives the life he could have lived.
To be fair, both of their lives aren’t the greatest to live. In fact, the drifter quoted “not sure who had it worse”. I would NOT want to live as a child soldier especially for those dammed Orokin. Have you seen the unspeakable acts they have committed!?
This can also be applied to the Drifter, I don’t think I WANT to live my life as if it were a play, if you make a mistake, you restart, again and again. Death is not even an escape.
Either way, I’d shoot myself in the foot before even thinking about it.
@@FujiMezu both lives are shit but I do think having cool void magic powers is cooler than dying repeatedly ngl. Also yeah the orokin are sacks of shit
@@Oracle1126 there ‘ s a show called re zero that perfectly encapsulates “ dying repeatedly “ each time worse than last .
Yea , drifter went through that same thing .
@@mr.w1709I should watch that
@@Oracle1126 absolutely . It ‘ s a pretty darn good anime as far as isekai anime go .
Slowed down gameplay as an alternative to our walking genocide machines is a brilliant idea, imo. I hope they expand on this aspect of the game. It truly shows you how powerful warframes are actually are.
the nuking of entire rooms doesn't already show how powerful they are?
Some of us don't fallout 4 every room we walk in
@@arceusdominus2612Right; it's either Fallout 4 or A-Training a whole room.
Listen, no matter how you slice it, Warframes are busted.
Perhaps the devs just think its too much of a contrast to the rest of the game. Even though variety is the spice of life.
Exactly. Especially considering that, for years, Warframe has been in its 'clear rooms at light speed' meta for years. A change of pace would be really nice, and we had that.
Which is weird, WF has a variety of gameplay elements from skateboarding to open world souls-like/rogue-lite to space combat
I think Drifter should have been used for something like Kahl’s missions
For better or worse the Drifter and the Operator are no longer separate characters. The implication is that all versions of the PC merged into one consciousness during the New War. The bright side is 1) 1999 seems to lean more into the Drifter because I doubt DE is going to have a young Operator romance grown adult protoframes, and 2) Duviri/New War were essentially the last efforts of the "old guard". That sort of storytelling and gameplay is essentially the entire makeup of Soulframe.
I dont think it would make sense for the drifter to revert to a state with no powers, as their aquisition if those powers were foreshadowed through their whole story. If the drifter still played how they did in New War, for every quest, they would essentially have to design 2 quests. One balanced around the slow and stealthy combat of the drifter, and one balanced around the fast-paced and extremely powerful tenno and their Warframes.
I do agree that the Drifter could use more differentiation, though. Maybe additional or unique abilities when playing as the drifter instead of the operator, though it would need to be balanced so one is not just straight up better than the other, which would be the case if the drifter retained their New War gameplay.
The drifter/operator arc is, in a way, complete. I don't expect that the choice between them will be more than flavor and dialogue differences in future quests, similar to Angels of The Zariman. And while this is a bit disappointing, it is understandable because designing different gameplay, visuals, voices, dialogue, etc, would not be viable for creating new quests at their current pace.
I think there is still room for more gameplay in the style of the Drifter from New War, but I don't think it needs to come from the drifter we have now.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a swap between the Warframe / Operator and Drifter, but rather segments specifically designed for each. That way, both characters play as they normally do, and there's no need to double-up on writing scenes and creating Quest missions. Side by side, rather than on top of each other.
@MuchVery I think they could and should do gameplay like that in more quests, and I suspect they will, but it is a bit too late to have the Drifter take that role with how the story has progressed. Unless they come up with some way to take away our powers, which is a possibility.
I agree that i would like to see more differenciation between drifter and operator. But its very obvious that drifter was made to function identically to operator for standard gameplay reasons. I think theres a way to work around the issue though.
Press 5 for operator. Standard operator gameplay.
Hold 5 for drifter. Give drifter duviri melee gameplay. Maybe the drifter abilities would have to change (maybe something like what teshin does?), and melee back to warframe would have to change, but i think its doable.
Why have one or the other when you can have both?
@@TheAssassin409 Exactly. I don't like the idea that only one can have any sort of significant impact on the story or even standard gameplay, especially outside of the New War.
I can see a third and fourth ability slot being used to differentiate the two in the normal game. What? No idea, and all my theorycrafting proved significantly worse than what DE is capable of over the course of Warframe's development.
After the New War, I am now constantly in Drifter mode as it represents me more as an adult person.
In general, I agree with the author's opinion. And I’m glad that the author not only criticizes, but also suggests. This is very reasonable. DE is known for listening to its community. So we have a good chance that they will give at least a little more love to Drifter in the future than they do now. But it all depends on how clearly we convey this idea to them.
100% agree with all your points, especially about how neglected Drifter has been post-New War. I did like that their lines and delivery were different compared to the Operator's during Angels of the Zariman, but it was very jarring for both of them to suddenly become mute in Whispers of the Wall, I'm wondering if it was a scheduling issue for the voice actors?
It's also really weird how we can't use any of the weapons we earned in Duviri. Not just Teshin's blades, but the Sampotes, Edun, etc. Nataruk too, now that I think about it. We could literally wield it during New War lol, it was our signature weapon in taking down the archons. But suddenly it's not available to them.
The Drifter is underrated as hell for how much they were able to accomplish without warframes and void powers. Really embodies the indominable human spirit. I did hear that only the Drifter will go to 1999, so I'm hoping that means they get more moments to shine as their own unique character this time around.
Fantastic analysis. I really felt it when we played the weak drifter, it held so much more weight to save the universe as a dude with a gun, with real mortality, fighting against literal gods
the funny thing... Is you were correct about the drifter is silent so could make sense that the next big quest the drifter is involved
I 100% stuck with the drifter during the decision back on the zariman, she looks sick, is written in an incredible manner, and the backstory goes NUTS
Plus, gun.
It's already been confirmed in The Lotus Eaters that the Drifter will be going into 1999 alone, without the operator.
How that is going to alter standard operator gameplay, we don't know yet. But due to our operator's deal with wally, we cannot "answer the call" but the drifter can, so the drifter is going alone.
I hope that means we see more unique drifter gameplay similar to The New War in this winter's update.
I was in love with drifter after duviri I didn't even hesitate when I had to pick between him and my operator. And normally I find not playing as my warframe boring but I was hyped during new war to play as drifter.
In conclusion, the drifters got that DAWG in em
I remember reading an interview that DE regrets giving 4 voices to your operator, because it meant they had to record their lines four times for each quest. Now with Drifter, it became EIGHT TIMES. If you're wondering why our operifter doesn't speak as much, that's why.
i’m watching this after jade shadows and one thing i think you might like that i noticed that is that during the quest, even tho i had always been using my drifter, my operator was the one talkin and doing everything (considering cuz they’re the ones w the relationship to da stalker) so it doesn’t seem like DE ahead completely neglected abt the difference of the drifter and operator
@@davdoesnotexist Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s reassuring to see that only the Operator was given the role in Jade. It could imply that the two are finally being treated as separate characters.
Keep in mind that I made this before Jade Shadows.
@@MuchVeryfortunately does seem like their plan is branching the two out more in little ways, depending on if Lotus Eaters quest is foreshadowing the drifter going back to 1999 while operator stays in origin system, but, that also depends on if they’ll be differentiated in gameplay again, or just to have operator mode during it
Warframe lore videos are always welcomed on my feed
DE definitely played it too safe with the Drifter, the Drifter is essentially just the Operator but older, and only really stands out in Duviri where it just gets repetitive fast; I was genuinely disappointed that the Drifter can't use guns like the teaser trailer showed, and can only use melee in Duviri but not in other missions...
I agree the drifter should have access to their durvri weapons if we take the time to bring them to the orgin system
I feel bad for DE cause they try new things and actually talk to us about their ideas then see the feedback and will change their minds people need to remember this was a dream game they made it’s made with love and hope but having half the people u want to make happy complain if u do give them what they want still have the other half that complains cause they don’t like it 😢
While that's certainly the case sometimes, I don't think it is here. It just seems like DE doesn't consider the Drifter's character worth expanding upon independently, regardless of what players have had to say.
@@MuchVery I have faith their going too it just takes time my friend
Before the account fusion i plaued on switch before Duviri came out. When it came out I restarted on PC so when I first played Duviri I tried to remake them after my Tenno from Switch version. Once they let me fuse account and I played further and realized they're Same/Different I remade them both. Tenno a child with amazing powers and Drifter an older, jaded warrior. Now they both look great and unique of eachother but not so far they're different people.
Huh. You touched on a point I never really had found ihn my mind, that binds a lot of things I feel and do in WF together. I really find the Drifter a great and much more interesting character than most. The fed-up, broken and cynical outward presentation, while still having a sense of right and wrong and the willpower to push on towards those goals despite the apathy, jadedness and existential tiredness, really struck home. To stay true to your values, despite how hopeless the situation gets, and remembering to focus on them through all the human struggles in such a traumatic backdrop. And I can really see how the idea of the Drifter and the Operator complementing each other would really be able to give a lot.
I mostly play alone in WF, and often go just plain old stealth despite nothing forcing me to. Hanging on the walls above doors, using silenced weapons/bows and thrown weapons, mainly trying to stealth kill my way through. Or I might just leave the warframe at the door and just go the whole mission without it. But yeah, I miss the gear from the New War Drifter, and that the Drifter as a character would get a resurgeance and care they need. DE goes so much all over the place with what WF has, that I don't feel it would be that out of place to add something like that. But I also understand the business and developmental sides and the amount of work and resources for something not that many (referring to the results of the questionnaire @slygamer6035 wrote about) would enjoy and return on the investment and thus I don't think it will ever be.
Would be awesome if I'm wrong.
An idea for 1999: Since we are travelling to 1999, let Drifter go there without Void powers while Operator stayed behind to protect the Origin System. Now they will be present in the narrative at the same time besides inside Zariman, and minor retcon the not being able to be present at the same time to not being able to access Void powers at the same time. Drifter who has been surviving without powers longer than Operator will give them full time to Operator while he stick to modern gadgetry in 1999, and in the origin system afterwards.
Well, at very least,east, it seems like partially going to happen, with bit of latest mini story quest having drifter somehow temporarily going all way back, but, we just have to wait and see if they’ll be using Tenno abilities once there, since thus quest was purely setup
I like the Drifter but still wish they just aged up the og Tenno kid we play as. The Drifter is not the Tenno and the Tenno is not the Drifter. The Drifter was not a Tenno during the Orokin War, the Drifter did not grow up with the Lotus and the other Tenno developing this sort of Tenno "culture" (I dunno if that's the proper word for it), etc.
I still play the kid cuz of that. It just feels more appropriate to me despite prefering to play as an adult character. For example, I find it a bit hard to imagine the Difter deal with Stalker in the Jade Quest when the Tenno has past history with Stalker.
Agreed. Sometimes using the Drifter feels like they're not in the right place.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I switched to the drifter after The New War and it was exactly the same, I was very disappointed. I prefer my operator in quests and general gameplay, but the drifter was an extremely good character that deserves better. I really want to see the drifter see a shift in how their gameplay works. With the ending of Whispers in the Walls, we could see the drifter lose their void powers, or they could deny them. The drifter needs to be the guardian between void and matter, so, we have an entire mode possible, completely dedicated to the drifter. Then, the drifter and operator modes could actually mean something. I’m still not sure if the switch should be in the orbiter only in that case, or be possible mid mission. I have so many ideas that I can think through, but I won’t have much ability to put them to use unless I can work for DE. I hope they see this video, maybe this comment as well.
Agreed, there are so many possibilities to better employ the character both in story and gameplay.
I really wish DE did more with Drifter, or at the very least acknowledge them.
Since they arrived (iirc), they had their own animations and voice lines for the Angels Of The Zariman cutscenes, could briefly appear instead of Operator in Whispers In The Walls, and then you cant use them at all in Jade Shadows.
Id love if you could use their weapons and bow in operator mode, instead of the amp
You can’t
I did that with Operator but does useing Drifter still give you operator in cutscenes?
Sadly, I believe this is just a symptom of WarFrame development in general. It is spread *wide*, but *thin*. It's always "Oh we got this great idea for new stuff" but the previous ones are left to the dust. Most of the new game modes that have been added into the years have no more depth than the one instance they are relevant, you play them a couple hours and then you forget them and go to the next.
@@orokins1768 That’s unfortunately quite true. So much content is pushed to the wayside once it’s initial relevancy wears off. I’ll be discussing this more in a future video.
I'd be happy if they replaced void dash with something similar to teshins grapple hook mechanic on the Drifter. And instead of going invisible, you could use smokebombs instead. Basically make the Drifter a cooler and more tactical choice instead of just a skin. And I think the Drifter should have a separate "Focus School" that feels more human, maybe just making their gadgets more powerful, enhanced by the void or somethin. Maybe let the Drifter use your primary weapon as well, that would be seriously enjoyable.
crazy video, was very interesting!
My first impression while going through the new war was being able to do star map missions as the drifter. I would've really liked to have more stuff to do as a drifter in the star map aside from the campaign and duviri.
I just played the New War and you needed to see my reaction when I saw the Drifter. I was so happy, so stunned so elated, couldn't believe my eyes. That was epic
for me, the drifter and operator should have been the same person.
in the new war, when impaled the operator should have been awaken in duviri, and do the duviri quest there, and after that escape back to earth and continue the drifter part of the new war.
during that mission the operator should grow up to adult size, and you could use void magic to turn back time and become a child again for estetic purpouse for those who want that fashion.
i for once only play as the drifter after new war, dont realy wanna go back to operator ever.
I know lots of folks prefer one over the other, but I agree that having the operator and drifter as two seperate characters works best. I like them both for different reasons and would love to see original drifter gameplay brought back for Narmer content with Kahl. I think that's a great fit and doesn't seem like it would be a huge leap. Great video!
I LOVE Whispers. I cannot shut up about it and tell everyone I meet about it. But yes I fully agree with this. There being no difference between the Drifter and Operator and there being no dialog whatsoever was a massive disappointment.
Overall after completing the New War, I was quite disappointed that the Drifter was just the Operator but adult and nothing more. But I held hopes that maybe they'll add more in the future. But after we've had several post New War updates that didn't do that, I started being a bit more skeptical.
Overall I fully agree with you and don't have anything to ad oitside of personal emotions. Which is a bit of a rarity. But I'm just leaving a comment for the algorithm!
Oh same, I think Whispers is one of the best Quests to date. But yeah, the lack of a role our Tenno was pretty disappointing.
I don't even think they made a Drifter version of Wally for the players using the Drifter during the Quest, which kind of goes against Wally's character design.
All we can do now is wait and see. At the very least, Warframe: 1999 SEEMS to have a healthy amount of dialogue.
Thanks for the comment!
@@MuchVery
Things I’ve noticed:
Operator talks during quest, drifter is quiet
Operator is cannon mc/fmc
(Mission belly of the beast for example)
I was surprised my operator was the person in the cutscene for jade.
11:00 Calm down... the Drifter still doesn't have the void powers in Duviri. hahaha
When operator were added to the game a lot of players(me included) wanted to play an older version or have agong system in a story. But devs came up with interesting and creative way to have adult operator, but still have an option at any time to use a younger one❤
This reminds me alot of umbra who has been completely neglected and left in the dust i really wish he and the drifter get more fleshed out
I kinda hope they will add drifter as there own combat gameplay in normal mode cus I wanna see my frame take on an army obliterating them sending out operator to remove void shields of a target and the drifter appearing to block an attack ment for the tenno.
Some things I wish were different
I wish steel path had been held off on until the new war, and then the steel path was just the narmer starchart. I also wish they would add more duviri weapons, both melee and ranged for the drifter
I was elated to play the drifter in the new war.😮 i really hope they use that again
So I started Warframe a few weeks ago and im doing quest trying out new Warframes I click this Duvari quest to start that and BOOM my head explodes a whole new angle to this epic game. Im so hooked I can't wait to see what else is coming.
he has void powers but they're dormant since he wasn't trained by margulis after allthe orokin nvr found his version of zarimon so he drifted in the void with it
this version of yu somehow materialized in our time line due to lil ballas opening that void portal that he did but the questline is a good one
I like the idea of outgrowing the warframes. And the drifter was a good start. Should have added a 3 and 4 based more on gagets like smoke gernades or maybe advanced techniques like void blades and possessing enemy troops.
I once suggested a “drifter path” working like a focus school but instead it gives access to a smoke grenade and a healing ability for its specials; opens up the 3rd and 4th ability slot and gives access to melee and executions alongside the Nataruk
I'm still praying for Veso's Veilbreaker quest because I LOVE combat puzzles and want to see better set pieces to strategically conquer! Also Veso-R is the GOAT. For Profit.
unfortunately their wholesale abandonment of Khal missions has effectively doomed that....
which is dumb....
yes DE, don't expand on the gameplay, just make us do repeats of the Murex then say "oh it's a failure"... you tried so little...
no wonder we didn't get Veso; that'd require puzzle design and a basic understanding of the Clank sections in R&C games.
Maybe going foward the drifter could become a more permanent character losing their connection to he void but keeping the warframes via some other device that could mimic transference to a certain degree. Though given how long the frames have been in existence I’m sure some opposing factions could develop some tech to counter act the frames forcing the drifter to take a more hands on approach. So like certain areas of a planet could be protected by this tech so the drifter has to infiltrate themselves. This device that could allow the drifter to have transference could be some sentient type tech (I’m just spitting out ideas though I’m sure non of this could work or make sense but it sounded interesting in my head it would allow vet players to keep their fast and destructive frames but also keep the ones who enjoy the drifter gameplay happy too)
from the standpoint I am allowed to be now at, we know almost certainly that 1999 WILL be drifter only. So the focus will return to him. Its uncertain though with what gear and powers he will arrive though.
With the introduction of the upcoming "Gemini System" where certain frames can swap with their "Proto" versions (e.g. Arthur and Excalibur), I'm hoping a similar system works with the Operator and Drifter. They're functionally brothers, so I am also hoping for some banter between them.,
The Operator is more fantastical, using void powers and possessing not only warframes but whatever else they can (the void worms, that thing in the sanctum, ect). The operator can't, as of now, use weaponry of any sort because they're a kid with an atrophied body.
The Drifter is more grounded, relying on trickery and stealth. With Duviri, they've also gained some combat prowess. They are, for all intents and purposes, a "space ninja" in the closest form we'll get. They lack, or SHOULD, lack void powers and make up for it with grit.
I'm hoping that, as you've said, we get the ability to swap between them with a noted change in gameplay as well as strengths and weaknesses. A Soul(Operator) and Body(Drifter), to give an example of what I'm thinking. Two halves of one person, but distinct and separate.
The soul has access to all that "void devilry", that gives the Tenno the mystical qualities. Ballas and Helminth calling them Demons is apt. Their gameplay should be the bombastic mage that we're used to.
The Body has access to "human ingenuity", scavenging and making things work where they shouldn't by virtue of problem solving. their gameplay should focus on avoidance and exploiting weaknesses, similar to how they played in their debut, with the duviri combat being something they fall back on when the former fails.
I feel like I'm repeating myself a bit, but I hope you get what I'm saying and this isn't just some horrible-sounding word salad.
Exactly my thoughts. There is 100% the opportunity for the Drifter and Operator to work as a team, as two sides of the same coin.
I was hopping that u can play as the drifter in origin system like in the new war or the duviri and fight along side your warframe/operator instead of a stand in
I really want to hear you take on the leaked romance plot involving the drifter.
@@josephghodsee1710 You’ll hear about it in my next video coming soon!
yoo what
Bet it's drifter X stalker.
In TNW I loved Kahl but damn! Those missions should have been given to the pre-powers Drifter
I wonder if it's worth noting that jade shadows locks you to the operator specifically.
Hopefully whispers in the wall will give them characterization
I mention that about Jade Shadows in my most recent video!
Yeah I'd like it if the Drifter was made a more fleshed out entity in the game and not just an cosmetic for the tenno. Unfortunately it's looks like they are going to be a tenno stand in from now on. They are going to play a largepart in 1999 so hopefully that means we get some actual drifter gameplay.
@@bengale9977 Fingers crossed! We’ll have to see in 1999.
I am kinda new 600 days tomorrow, my favorite part of the game is Duviri. Using the drifter to fight ride the Kaithe play komi solve puzzles save sick animals and fly around flying as a bird is almost never boring. I run Durivi SP arcane portals solo most of the time. So for me the game is still about 50% using the drifter. Unfortunately fighting is usually bugged and shooting results in melee and melee is just walking into enemy attacks but if you hit and hold aim melee and shoot your drifter unleashes hell on everything ( and random teammates think you are cheating). I do hope a drifter story line is developed but will it be needed? Prototype warframes that ride motorcycles and hopefully a lot of other cool stuff are being introduced to the game. I really enjoy the drifter but am really looking forward to the new characters and story lines in 1999.
Duviri is certainly fun in its own right. An expanded Drifter story arc isn't needed, but definitely wanted. But yeah, it seems they're making way for the likes of Albrecht Entrati and the Protoframes to be our next cast of characters steering the narrative.
It’s literally ghost of Tsushima but a lil bit more fantasy and space magic
I love it tho
A way they can fix this is de comes out and explicitly says that the drifter you use with void powers is just a skin and not canon. While doing quests like whispers in the wall it should force your tenno to be the operator rather than the drifter allowing more stories driven by these specific characters with dialogue.
I understand where you're coming from with compromising the drifter, but 1. This video came out before lotus eaters so I won't say you're wrong here, but at least the next major quest will be drifter focused, which makes sense both from the lore perspective I won't cover here, but also in that it'd be a little weird to be doing dating sim bits as the operator.
Additionally, in Jade Shadows, which was also released after this video, operator is involved instead of drifter (again not discussing why for spoilers), even if you'd stuck with drifter at the end of new war, which means that they aren't completely interchangable even if there is understandably some feeling of that from drifter getting the void powers.
2. While I agree that it would've been nice to have more nodes where we got to play with the drifter's og kit, I do think that the drifter getting access to the void powers is a logical choice both from the gameplay aspect and the lore aspect. From the gameplay aspect, there's simply going to be people who prefer playing as an adult, and taking away that character they crafted in new war after the return to normal would feel like a punishment more than anything else.
From the lore aspect, even if drifter is one of the most tenacious people out there, they're still just a human, and quite frankly in Sol, there are too many hazards/problems that cannot just be solved with stealth. Realistically even if they wanted to go with a different solution to make drifter hardier, even for DE it was probably too much to add yet another gameplay mode.
All that being said I definitely found this video interesting and I would be curious to know if your thoughts change at all following 1999
oh also I do think it would be cool if we could play as drifter in some missions like spy where their gameplay may flourish
@@dummy_vicc2976 If Drifters have any meaningful presence in 1999 aside from just the romance feature, I will make a video about it.
Not gonna lie, after playing The New War, I was hoping for the Drifter to possibly go the Batman route of replacing the Operator's magical powers with heavy gadget use like in TNW. Different Drifter-exclusive weapons that served similar purposes to but were noticeably distinct from their Operator equivalents. Maybe stuff like the Zenurik Drifter having the ability to drop battery stations that would occasionally pop out energy orbs, like Protea's Dispensary but without the health or ammo, and the Unairu Drifter putting on more physical armor and carrying around shield packs and stuff. Drifter guns that had Amps attached to them via adapters and had to be reloaded via swapping out the spent battery packs that recharged when attached to a charging backpack or something. Each Focus school having the ability to throw grenades that had different effects, like Madurai Drifter's grenade releasing a smoke cloud that invigorates any allies within its radius, raising ability strength and adding heat procs to their attacks instead of turning the Drifter invisible, things like that. As is... I agree, having them be effectively reskinned Operators is a hell of a disappointment. Hopefully we get a Drifter rework in the future that actually gives them back their unique identity.
"Drifter should have his own set of abilities"
Yeah, he would be totally useless on Steel Path without modding and why you would ran around with Drifter someone with any mid-modded frame would already clear entire map
Bit late, but given the romance options, it's now been extremely heavily implied though not confirmed that the Drifter will be the main player character in 1999.
If it is the case, I'm really looking forward to it. I guess we'll find out in 24 hours with The Lotus Eaters!
@@MuchVery You mean very much looking forward to it? :p But I doubt Lotus Eaters will have have any relevance to my point. I do hope that even though the Drifter now has Tenno powers they still remain a somewhat distinct character narratively. I got an adult operator cosmetically with the Drifter, but the fact that they didn't age up the Operator and instead gave us a separate character with their own unique and extremely interesting story makes me want to see more of both. Like, the Operator is much more connected to the Orokin, the Tenno cause, and the Warframes, having experiences all that first hand. The Drifter didn't see what they did to Margulis, or get revenge for it, but they're still the kind of person who could learn to see inside an ugly, broken thing, and take away its pain.
Over the years, I've grown very attached to my Operator character, but after the Drifter came along, I've come to really love both of them. I find myself viewing the Operator as a younger sibling and honestly crushing on the Drifter.
I wish drifter could actually get more access to more outfits
The vent kids armor being one of them because no hood has a bandana on operator and I wanna have bandana on drifter so I can become boss from MGS
I even have eye patch too 😔
More outfits are being ported to the Drifter over time, so it may come eventually.
Tryharding spy missions and the New War drifter content showed that DE could make an awesome slow stealth game, and they have, but made it one of the least meaningful and necessary ways to play in WF. The New War was so good that all the quests ive unlocked to do since have felt worse in comparisson, even tho I really liked the theming for Whispers and Angels. And WF1999 went super hard, despite essentially being darkSector/Excalibur gameplay
I equally agree and disagree. I do think that the drifter is the best character in Warframe. There is an appeal to The drifter because they're not some powerful void touch being. In a sense they're just some regular degular human being... Kinda. Since we've been introduced to The drifter, we've known they have some kind of connection to either the operator or the void. Also felt it was alluded to, that when the drifter in the operator sat down and met each other, that this awakened the drifters potential for void powers. This is just my opinion, but I always felt since meeting The drifter that they had some kind of cosmic force/plot armor magic watching their back.
I actually liked Duvari gameplay quite a bit. While it was still hacking slash, combat was taken slower and more methodically. It really reinforced the feeling of combat in this universe without your Warframe. However, I hated combat in New War. Hours of forced combat in a looter... Not for me. I already can't stand doing spy missions. New War had me raging, not from failing stealth, raging from just wanting it to end. There are plenty of ways to bring out the weight and consequences of non-warframe combat, b2b stealth missions are not it.
IMO: The Drifter is great. Duvari was great. The Drifter is really just a regular human. Forced stealth in small doses.
My problem with the Drifter and operator are the same.
The general concept of it, the Tenno controlling warframes is great, however each time i witness my operator in a quest... I lose my connection to them.
They say things i dislike, act like they have backstory i had no introduction to, and this is the drifter´s biggest problem.
He got no development but Duviri, a 1 hour quest with way too much action and bad Pacing (imo).
The operator had a great reveal, you could relate to them knowing so little about themselves, the drifter got introduced with a gameplay mechanic that has been removed, yet the story tells it like it´s obvious what´s the problem, the stories are told, yet feel so disconnected, the lack of interaction between the drifter and the main cast of Duviri´s characters just doesn´t give me enough to *get it*.
I played new war b4 duviri came out, i was intruiged by the Drifter, at the end, but he just felt mysterious, like a tease for the paradox.
Then the paradox was nothing i imagined, and just thrown in into the Drifter´s Emotional struggle.
The void powers really do not make a difference. It´s gameplay only.
A cool thing would be a seperate Arsenal loadout with the drifter, but really eh.
I think the Lotus Eaters Prologue showed that they were solely going to involve the Drifter for story elements that we will find out (also prolly cause a dating sim with the Operator is just a disaster waiting to happen). Hopefully this lets us see the Drifter character get more fleshed out as they interact with actual adults. I do agree that them receiving the void powers affects the original theme of the character that drew us in to appreciate them, but I also think this doesn’t stop DE from writing a compelling story of how they’re coping with it as they seem to have to use transference on a living person in 1999. I know a lot of people here say that DE has written themselves into many corners with warframe but I disagree. The very basics of Warframe allows them to write in whatever they want with the flexibility that showrunners would fight for. I believe they have a lot of space to improv and can only hope that they showcase a brilliant story for the Drifter with some inclusions of interactions between them and the other humans in 1999, or even with the Operator (considering how the Operator has had to transfer into living warframes in the past, it would be cool to see the Drifter ask the Operator how they cope with having to take over another persons mind)
Seeing Loid's confirmation that we're going to Transfer into Protoframes, alongside actual Warframes being present at 1999 (shown at TennoCon) has honestly made me a little bit unsure of how exactly things will play out for the protagonists. Still, I'm super excited to see how each of their stories unfold in 1999.
Considering the fact that they couldnt even be bothered to change all the clothes of the operator for the drifter and the amps(i hate looking at the Sirroco ever time i switch my amps), i doubt they will ever make the Drifter anything but "Operator but older". Also such a shame they didnt Update the Naramon focus tree to fit the Drifters melee combat from duviri. Afterall the Naramon focus tree its melee focused.
They can keep Drifters void powers but they can also make her more distinct than the operator hell it dosent even have voicelines like the operator when you are playing the game normaly. Also i really wanted to see Wally reaction to the Drifter in Whispers in the Wall but dam the Operator in general in that quest its just mute lol.
Also where was the Lotus during that entire quest????
The overall story of Whispers its cool but it feel too detached....
I think the Lotus is less present because her role in the main narrative was concluded with The New War. We've moved onto the next chapter of Warframe story with a fresh cast of characters.
And yeah, the lack of the Tenno's role in the Quest concerned me. Perhaps they'll have more dialogue and impact later on, but we can only hope.
@@MuchVery I dont mind her getting a back seat role. But the lack of involvement especially when it comes to the tenno being in real danger its very concerning. Its not about her being less present shes not there at all!
I mean we see her trying her best to keep the man in the wall at bay at the end of the New War, and now she dosent even show the slightest bit of concern for the tenno. Its like 11 years of character development its gone.
This is what i HATE about DE's writeing inconsistent, nonsensical when it comes to character development/involvment. Idk who the writer/writers are but dayum they are incapable of writeing a connected and coherent story.
Warframe should really stop delevoping their stories like this. Remember Umbra? Yup outside of The Sacrifice he dosent exist. Not even mentioned if for example you use Umbra on New War. Small conections like this would really help the story feel more connected.
@@valerianos8635 other examples include:
1. the Veil and Meridian still being friends... guess they kinda forgot about the slaughtered ships... and the continuous kidnap attempts upon inductees.
2. Teshin trying to solo a ship while we have a Necramech that bypasses the Orphix, it does so in that very quest.
3. Ergo Glast losing his colony, then winning his daughter back.... where did he send her? the colony he lost...
4. we straight-up release the infested from the labs and blame the grineer for our oopsie; now, i get in lore we'd allow the lie to persist but why on the wiki is Tengus blamed? back when we were just space mercenaries with very questionable ethics.
Im sure ill remember others in a bit but those ones stick in the mind; especially the Glast one because wow... he's supposed to not have a crater for a head.
@@valerianos8635she probably thinks that we can handle ourselves more now. we’ve come a long way from dreaming we were warframes and just getting our true forms back.
@@thestarryeyedobserver Nah that seems like a shity justification to me. Its a natural progression for her to get a backseat role but to not be involved at all seems stupid.
They really need to bring a Corpus gameplay as with Veso-R
Alternative title: Glazing the drifter for 18 mins.
Jk man, Its a pretty well made video and I agree that the drifter has been forgotten pretty quickly after it was just introduced.
It's a ༼ ಠل͟ಠ༽ˢʰᵃᵐᵉ cause the characters could've been used alot better then just it being operator's stand in as you've said or should I sah the glorified operator skin.
its interesting how everyone with a female tenno always picks the same hair and face combination
The customisation tends to be pretty limiting when you want to make a good-looking Tenno.
i could only find one face for males that didnt look like some meat abomination so i figured its the same with females.
Yo anyone else notice that the drifter is huge. Like, its taller than the warframes 😅
@@purdo84 From what I’ve seen. they are ABOUT the same height as the Warframes.
It's a pity that Drifter didn't get Teshin's melee moveset. I was hoping that instead of having the Tenno's default Void powers, Teshin's swords instead manifest the Void as elemental powered melee skills.
THIS WOULD’VE BEEN SO _COOL_ 😭😭😭
@@thestarryeyedobserver as a Devil May Cry veteran, I would do an annual replay of New War just to do the Teshin segments. That's how badly I wanted Teshin's gameplay to be added.
which face blend do you use for your operator?
My Operator is Primary 7, Secondary 8, with 0.5 Face Blend.
My Drifter is Primary 2, Secondary 7, with 0.5 Face Blend.
The drifter feels like he has more of a personality than the operator. But the operator has gotten dialogue in the Jade shadows quest.
@@alanabyss9246 Perhaps this means that the two characters are finally starting to have two distinct, separate roles in the story.
I think i need drifter/operator combat like a void infused knife and we can actually use drifter/operator more (I’m a newbie and i have no experience using drifter/operator)
Just make the knife out of void or use the parzon.
🙂🙂🙂
I don’t agree with all points on this video (I like the cosmetic use of the drifter over a kid and I don’t play warframe for stealth so I wasn’t a fan of the sneaky quests) but this video rules and thank you so much for the breakdown on what duviri is and when the timeline split.
I jump in the game for a couple month every couple years so keeping up with the story line gets weird and I had no idea where duviri fit in or what the hell was going on. I just slogged through it and kinda just shoved it in the back of my brain to forget about.
(The Lotus Eaters comes out)
Well this video aged well lol
Now we wait and see what happens in 1999.
Good.
Drifter? I thought his name was Bombastine!
yeah the drifter does deserve more roles but you also got characters like umbra who they just forgot about sure in new war it makes sense why they did not do much cuz it would be tricky but they could at least have ordis say something about putting him in stasis to make sure he does not get himself killed it would make it make sense why he did not go off on his own to beat the crap out of ballas
Ngl I thought bro was byf for a solid second
Subbing for more analysis content like this.
EDIT: I feel I went a bit off-track with my post but to awnser as to why DE doesn't do anything trully interesting with the Drifter, much less Khal, is three-fold:
-Lack of proper management
-Not enough incentive since Drifter's and Khal's gameplay are essencially warframe back in beta, they've moved from that more tactical and slow gameplay for
-The part I've mentioned below
DE seems to be in a constant struggle between giving us new content and making us spend money on their stuff.
It must be frustrating for them as it is for us to see so much potential avaible in the game but most of it being wasted because they have to make end's meet (assuming). I haven't set foot in Duviri, Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna in a long while, it sucks because they have alot to offer, but they simply lack the investment from the devs to be worth coming back to.
Don't even get me started with Archwing and Railjack..such a dam shame.
My new main:
You didn't give them time to cook😭
Apparently not ;:)
In my defense though, the points are still valid with most post-New War content. It's only really been with The Lotus Eaters that they kind of set things straight. And even then, we're still not sure. The Drifter may be their own character once more, and that's bloody fantastic. But, if they're still going to be portrayed as a taller Operator (they still have Void powers) then the video stands, and what makes the Drifter such a good character is being pushed to the wayside.
I hope drifter gets used to their fullest potential in 99
Love how my drifter looks like, tbh i don’t like how the original operator looks like
Incorrect, Volt is Warframe greatest character
Am i the only destiny player here confused as to why ana bray is in the thumbnail with drifter in the title
This was the only way they could have the tenno be a adult the size change is drastic and that why we are able to wear armor on the drifter but not the tenno. It's a scale issue. I always wanted the story to have my character grow up so a new player is a small child still since they are fresh out of dream.and we have been awake for awhile now
I need your drifter face setup now. Mine looks like depressed middle aged women
Primary Visage 2, Secondary Visage 7. Face Blend is 0.5.
enter the lotus eaters quest that shows both the operator AND the drifter. RIP to the theories in this video.
I didn't really make any theories. If anything, Lotus Eaters gave me exactly what I wanted for the Drifter. A character separate and distinct from the Operator.
@@MuchVery the ability to chose different dialogue options for both characters was exciting.
I hope the 1999 romance system means they get more stuff, i probably just huffing copium 😮💨
I have to disagree here, part of the plot of the new war is that the drifter and the operator are the same person. Its not "due to eternalism" that they cant exist around eachother. Its that they are two parts of one whole hence the scene at the end where the drifter and the operator are phasing in and out as they talk to the lotus, yet they dont miss a beat because they share a mind and share and existence the drifter explains DURING the new war that the zariman is the only place they can chat like that because its also a paradox, stuck between the real and the void. it makes perfect sense that in the drifter would no longer be an independent character and an "operator skin" as you put it because they are literally the same so the combined tenno really is able to change between child and adult like changing clothes. If anything even easier.
it’d still be cool to be able to use weaponry along with the drifter’s void powers, though.
there was once a bug in the undercroft that caused the drifter to be playable. if you had enough decrees, the gameplay would be very risky, but rewarding. you’d have to kill enemies before they kill you, so that you could take advantage of the decrees you have in order to survive. it was actually really fun and really put into perspective what it’s like to fight those armies as a (decree-buffed) human. no bullet jumping, no space demi-god powers, just you.
so when i finally DID transform back into a warframe during all that it was CATHARTIC. it’s like when you use that one special transformation in every video game that makes you essentially unkillable or SIGNIFICANTLY stronger. (like super sonic, devil trigger, ripper mode, etc.)
what i’m trying to say is that it made me realize how numb i was to the warframe power fantasy after always being unkillable every single game.
when you actually have to try to stay alive prior to becoming a warframe, though? IT HITS _DIFFERENT._
the drifter’s gameplay could definitely still incorporate void powers, i think in a manner different from the operator since they didn’t have focus schools growing up. either that, or he’d have an extra 3rd and 4th ability.
they could even make it so that holding 5 allows the Drifter to use the melee weapons from Duviri (transforms the operator if using them), like someone else had suggested!
12:36 I feel you're wring about this off the simple fact in the new war you choose which version of yourself would continue your story and save the lotus...that being said I feel in that moment both respective realities were merged, with your choice taking them helm so it makes sense as to why the drifter would develop void abilities...I feel the only true disservice is not being able to use the drifters train combat ability(the use of the weapons in divuri) along side the void abilities...I feel when using the drifter we should have access to those weapons with maybe a debuff to Amp ability, seeing how the drifter isn't as accustomed to said abilities but also retaining their martial weapon skills
I can see your point, however, the Drifter's reason for existing is because some players complained that their stand in character was a child so DE had to make up an excuse to have both without compromising those who use the Operator. I like how just "a guy™" has been able to become such a legend in both Duviri and the Origin System, but you'd also have to make up an excuse for why the Drifter loses their Void connection, especially when there are players who use this version (not that I do, I like them more in Duviri because I'm already used to how my Operator moves), it's a state of affairs when you cannot retcon what was already added, which is why Void BS justifies why both the Operator and Drifter can exist one at a time. And with the current arc we have, that being Wally, there needs to be space made for both somehow, but there's bias towards the Operator considering they got 2 focused storylines after New War (Angels of the Zariman and Jade Shadows), the Drifter seems to be the one getting 1999, and Whispers in the Walls only has Wally's mirror version of the Operator speaking (because obviously).
Warframe is a live service game, and DE knows their audience wants to feel like an unkillable demigod who does red crits consistently (not me because I suck), and the Drifter also allows them to have an adult Operator without axing the current one. Though I can only wish the Drifter goes out his way to use pre Orokin weaponry while the protoframes assist in battle, maybe make up an excuse for why the Drifter is locked out of Void powers, an example being that, because it's a time period where our Tenno wasn't born yet, they have to conceptually exist in order to access them, after all, they're a paradox, they only benefit from Wally's deal since they never made it.
To be honest , I like both the Operator's and Drifter's story arcs but how you said about the "Whispers in the wall" quest, its just soo strange that both Operator and Drifter don't talk . To be sincer , i like to play the Operator more but even him I don't play that much ussually because I don't really need the buffs he really gives , maybe only in close death encounters. I felt like they were left out a lot in that quest . I played that quest 2 times because i skipped a cutscene by accident in the first run and I wanted to see it , but I felt kinda bored doing that quest , nothing that interesting ,the only thing that felt interesting to me was th bit of the story about 1999.
Upon replaying it, yes, Whispers is a very slow and KIND OF uneventful Quest. But I think it's purpose is simply to introduce you to Loid, the Cavia, Albrecht, 1999 and the growing threat of The Indifference.
To be honest, I'm not really sure I liked playing as The Drifter in The New War. I tend to hate stealth. And the veil-placing surveillance thingies just made my aversion to stealth even worse. I however like how they tried to make the gameplay more grounded and I believe this can be handled in a better way. Since I have a soft spot for "souls-like melee", I think it can be leveraged to make the character's gameplay a viable alternative to the Operator-Warframe duo, although I feel like the "main game" isn't tailored for such an experience. I am also disappointed in the way the character works in the Star Chart and such after the quest (I expected at least different void abilities), but I think DE's choice is kinda understandable. Anyway, I still have hope, especially now that Warframe 1999 is giving The Drifter some spotlight (apparently).