You and me both.
Or, y’know, maybe one of these days an edition of D&D will make the first 1-3 levels not utterly suck.
orald
3244
I picked this up during the Steam winter sale and I am enjoying it very much.
One thing I really like is the option to not say anything as a dialogue choice. I don’t play a lot of RPGs so I don’t know if that is a common dialogue choice, but it fits with how I am in the world, especially if I happen into a conversation the last thing I tend to do is barge in. Choosing to say nothing doesn’t seem to be a bad option in the game. And I like that in some encounters dialogue choices have severe consequences.
I also like that not choosing a violent option is possible and that killing stuff is not how one gains xp for the most part.
One question for those that remember, is there a reason to reach out for souls beyond lore/world building? Like if you reach for a certain number of souls you receive a boon? The ability to reach someone’s soul and watch a memory strikes me as voyeuristic and I have been avoiding it.
If you’re talking about the backer written ones, they’re just generally bad.
orald
3246
I hadn’t differentiated between backer written or otherwise. Initially I tried to talk to any character with a name and most are the reach for their soul type. So I wonder if I’ve been making a mistake by skipping reaching for their souls. Sounds like this was a gimmick for backers to insert stories?
Yep. The gold (or whatever) nameplates are backer NPCs and very much skippable. Same with gravestones and steles.
They also really aren’t lore or worldbuilding - Obsidian did get to edit or reject anything wildly inappropriate, but they’re written by people who aren’t part of the writing team and really don’t have any special world knowledge or insight.
I actually remember thinking @Desslock did a fine job on writing his, iirc.
Yes, his is one of the few that doesn’t suck.
(On the second floor of the inn in Gilded Vale, if anyone’s interested.)
orald
3253
I misunderstood the White March. Thinking it is like the Siege Cragholdt area which still kicks my butt, I thought TWM was an area that I needed to be high level to explore so I waited till my crew was level 12. When I eventually get there the game says, whoa buster you are kind of high level now, do you want me to adjust the difficulty level or do you want to steamroll this area? Which I think is a wonderful way to encourage a player to explore the world as they see fit.
Maybe this is common to other RPGs but like I said I don’t play many of these types of games, FWIW. But I would if more of them were like PoE.
It’s a good point. Difficulty adjustment is an underrated aspect of customizing the gaming experience, provided it doesn’t otherwise break the intended gameplay. It’s one of the features I research before buying a game; if difficulty isn’t customizable, it’s a negative hit on whether I pick it up. The PoE method of scaling, but giving the player the option to choose scalability for the expansions, is just another great example, and is one of the notches on why PoE is one of my favorite games of all time.
Every time someone posts, I’m reminded I still need to go back to this, shit. Despite kickstarting both.
Anyway, on that point, I think it’s partially because of the circumstances of being DLC content that fits in the middle of the story and could lead to exactly that confusion for anyone not reading dev diaries. But, yes, it’s a thing that is nice to have, even if you don’t want to, as the saying goes, do the designer’s job for them.
I think I liked White March 1 & 2 more than the base game. I love small towns that change overtime. I played both upscaling the difficulty each time and it seemed just about right on Normal difficulty. (Max level party when I started as I loaded my save before entering the final dungeon)
Only complaints is the way you unlock the Monk NPCs side quest is kind of bad / easy to miss, because it is totally worth doing. And there are a few quests you should actually avoid doing until you hit max level after White March 2 (but they are introduced in White March 1)
Lantz
3257
Started playing this on the Switch when I saw that they changed course and patched up some issues that they previously said that they wouldn’t.
I’m lukewarm on it so far but it’s early so not surprising. I do have a question, does gear get interesting? The early weapons seem to be basically the same things. The story companions start with unique gear that is better than anything that has dropped yet.
It does yeah. The sequel is better in this (and most) regard but like most rpgs you have to get past the early game to get more than low level drek.
I don’t really recall the gear but if you are playing Pillars for the phat loot you might be playing the wrong game.
The biggest problem with both Pillars is the load times. Also Pillars II is like 90% side-quests, 10% main quest. It is also too easy on normal difficulty but I think the difficulty options they added might make some areas stupid hard.
Malkael
3260
Itemization definitely gets more interesting later on into the game. The White March introduced Soulbound items (weapons, armour, etc) which further addressed some complaints people had about the loot in the base game.
It’s a bit of a slow burn at the beginning but eventually you will find items you can develop whole character builds around.
Bateau
3261
And just like it does in pretty much every RPG with similar tier of loot, it made all the other loot for the same slot obsolete.
For good RPG itemization we have to go all the way back to Baldur’s Gate 2.
Lantz
3262
I adore the gear in Divine Divinity 2: Original Sin. I almost just played that again.
You consistently find gear that lets you try different builds and strategy, not just 10% damage increases.
I agree that this isn’t Diablo or whatever, just curious where it goes.
