• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pillars of Eternity |OT| You must gather your party before venturing forth.

Galileo

Neo Member
@ A-V-B
Yeah, the music in the keep reminds me of "Concerning Hobbits" from lotr
Anyway, since you're the first in here to beat the game, care to share your impression on the whole game? (no spoilers please)
 

A-V-B

Member
@ A-V-B
Yeah, the music in the keep reminds me of "Concerning Hobbits" from lotr
Anyway, since you're the first in here to beat the game, care to share your impression on the whole game? (no spoilers please)

It's too late to write a full thing right now -- it's 5:30 in the morning.

But... AND THERE ARE SPOILERS COMING SOON--- quick version:

First half of the game, awesome. Second half, either ran out of time or money -- the conflicts fell apart was the main problem (but still liked the game a lot, 9/10 woed kickstaert agaen)

and now spoilers

Thaos turned out to be not be as interesting and thought-provoking as I hoped, because there was just no time to build him up personally; trying to make him and your mentor/girlfriend develop through past life flashbacks didn't pan out, made me feel distant -- but still pretty good all things considered. Wish I knew more about him. Loved talking to the gods and finding out what made them tick, but choosing one basically had no consequences, and the whole relationship between the pantheon and their balance of power should've been used for something more developed and important. Even if they were artificial gods. I'm not entirely sure why they existed except as outlets to reveal the different endgame solutions. The plot twist didn't shock me. Happened too late to mean much. Even after they were revealed to be fake, however you define that, the game still treated them, mechanically, as if they were real, with no explanation as to what science was behind their creation. It didn't explore the consequences of the reveal -- again, because they put it in the last 2 percent of the game. And plot-wise, it served as a weird analogy if Obsidian was trying to make one.

Ending isn't terribly special. Like any traditional WRPG, you get your ending in slides, and then cut to credits. It's executed as-expected in this genre. I didn't get much of an emotional release seeing all the things that happened.

Defiance Bay was fantastic, and the absolute best part of the game where everything clicked, section to section, mission to mission, faction to faction, etc... until Thaos fucked up the animancy trial. Then there was basically nothing to do and Defiance Bay ceased to matter. I think that was a bit of a narrative misstep. Maybe killing the duc right at the climax of a super important trial was something Thaos would do, but there's a good solid center in having the heart of the game being in Defiance Bay, one way or another, and animancy being at the core, because it's a cool conflict that deserved even MORE time than it got. And Lady Webb was a likeable female Dumbledore who needed way more screentime than she did. Soon as she's dead and Defiance Bay is fucked, the game starts to decline a bit and never really re-peaks, but it never becomes bad. Just becomes a middling Obsidian game, though it doesn't negate anything accomplished in half 1. But they didn't have the world's largest budget, of course. I give them a really healthy pass. They did a lot of what they set out to do, and I thought it was quite enjoyable. And inspiring to see a real, old school WRPG today. Can't wait for what they do next, and if they return to Kickstarter, so will I.

As for gameplay, combat was decent, but I learned I could absolutely wreck the game later on if I just filled it almost entirely with magic users :p But I'm not a min-max kinda guy, I kinda just go with the flow. Guess I built my main for roleplay. High intelligence, resolve, perception.
 

Shepard

Member
I really like how you have different quicskave and autosave slots for each character. Also, I think I'll wait for the patch before continuing with my Paladin, because of the double click bug... :\
 

Faabulous

Member
What is this
Raedric fight
everyone keeps talking about? I just got to Defiance city without ever triggering that quest. Something I missed?
 

A-V-B

Member
What is this
Raedric fight
everyone keeps talking about? I just got to Defiance city without ever triggering that quest. Something I missed?

Well you have to go and kill Raedric in his keep earlier on. Gotta pursue him, heading east from the village until you get there.

The actual fight people probably mean is this one below

Then after you kill Raedric for the first time, later in the game he comes back to life as a vengeful fleshy wraith who wants to have a Highlander duel with you (and the rest of your team, what an idiot!) and it's really tough. It was actually tougher than the final fight, and I enjoyed figuring out how to beat him. It made me a stronger combat player for it.
 

Ushay

Member
This game just proves the tragedy of Obsidian, they had that genius in them all this time but they were wasted as hired guns on rushed projects and compromised vision.
After this game, I swear that if they have another Kickstarter I'm doubling what I pledged for PoE.

The only thing Obsidian is lacking is the resources to make a truly excellent game. Their writing is consistently magnitudes better than any other developer out there yet the bugs in their games just says it all. They are pure genius with untapped potential.

Makes me hope they get a good partnership with a big publisher that can both fund them and give them the freedom to develop the way that they want.
 

Faabulous

Member
Well you have to go and kill Raedric in his keep earlier on. Gotta pursue him, heading east from the village until you get there.

The actual fight people probably mean is this one below

Then after you kill Raedric for the first time, later in the game he comes back to life as a vengeful fleshy wraith who wants to have a Highlander duel with you (and the rest of your team, what an idiot!) and it's really tough. It was actually tougher than the final fight, and I enjoyed figuring out how to beat him. It made me a stronger combat player for it.

Well
how early on is that? I just went to Caed Nua, pursuing Raedric never came up.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
The only thing Obsidian is lacking is the resources to make a truly excellent game. Their writing is consistently magnitudes better than any other developer out there yet the bugs in their games just says it all. They are pure genius with untapped potential.

Makes me hope they get a good partnership with a big publisher that can both fund them and give them the freedom to develop the way that they want.

Dont agree, even in RPGs.
 

A-V-B

Member
Well
how early on is that? I just went to Caed Nua, pursuing Raedric never came up.

Yeah, Caed Nua's different. It's actually south from Raedric's castle. I think the steps from Caed Nua to there are... west, north, east, in that order? Just going on memory here.
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
I've actually managed to avoid double clicking on any equipment 16 hours in. :D My passives are still active.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Steam says:
-21,654 playing now
-37,847 today's peak
-37,847 all-time peak

That (obviously) doesn't count the GOG version, so it's more than 40k people that played the game today.

I hope Obsidian/Paradox can give us some official numbers in a month. I just hope this game remains on the higher parts of the charts for a long time.

i hope we get numbers. To give some perspective Divinity Original Sins all-time peak for Steam was 21,953. i have a feeling Pillars is selling extremely well.
 

dude

dude
The only thing Obsidian is lacking is the resources to make a truly excellent game. Their writing is consistently magnitudes better than any other developer out there yet the bugs in their games just says it all. They are pure genius with untapped potential.

Makes me hope they get a good partnership with a big publisher that can both fund them and give them the freedom to develop the way that they want.

Did you just imply PoE isn't a "truly excellent game"? I feel like most of the bugs so far are much less severe than what we're seeing even with big budget big-publisher released games.

What if its a kickstarter for a Pathfinder game?

Pathfinder is a pretty awesome system and their lore is pretty cool, so yeah I'll back it ;)
 

A-V-B

Member
i hope we get numbers. To give some perspective Divinity Original Sins all-time peak for Steam was 21,953. i have a feeling Pillars is selling extremely well.

77,000 backers... subtract that... Obsidian should be doing pretty decently! Hopefully enough to pursue this series, develop it further.

Did you just imply PoE isn't a "truly excellent game"? I feel like most of the bugs so far are much less severe than what we're seeing even with big budget big-publisher released games.

This game is almost bug-free by Obsidian standards. It's actually impressive. Well done, Obsidian QA.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Did you just imply PoE isn't a "truly excellent game"? I feel like most of the bugs so far are much less severe than what we're seeing even with big budget big-publisher released games.



Pathfinder is a pretty awesome system and their lore is pretty cool, so yeah I'll back it ;)

Well until you finish the game how will you know if its truly excellent? WRPGs often have problems wrapping thing up and ending well. Just a word of caution =3
 
LOL I just died on Path of the Damned + Trial of Iron + Expert mode, Only a few hours in though so it's not too bad, RIP Bethe.

It's not too bad because I have that double-click bug.
 

Onyar

Member
I'm at the first dungeon, the temple of Eothas and for me there is no way to defeat the
Skuldr King
.
Edit: lol I do it, close combat.

By the way, I found that clicking the mouse wheel you can also move the screen, this was a life-saver.
 

Menome

Member
About exploration, how is everyone doing it? I'm going obsessive all the way on this one, fully exploring every new map with scouting on, and depending on how dense it is I use fast mode.

For open maps, my pattern generally ends up looking somewhat like this:
exphir4x.png

Mine's fairly similar:

 

dude

dude
Well until you finish the game how will you know if its truly excellent? WRPGs often have problems wrapping thing up and ending well. Just a word of caution =3

Any game that gives me 16 hours of the joy I'm feeling right now is truly excellent :)

Anyway, endings are usually problematic but I don't see this game suddenly plummeting...
 

A-V-B

Member
Any game that gives me 16 hours of the joy I'm feeling right now is truly excellent :)

Anyway, endings are usually problematic but I don't see this game suddenly plummeting...

It doesn't plummet. It just can't maintain its peak is all. And its peak is WRPG heaven.
 

Chaos17

Member
Really not feeling the rogue I have as my pc. I expect rogues to be sneaky backstab high damage dual dagger types. Instead I'm finding she has to be crossbow from the back most the time (else she gets slaughtered or spotted) in which case why am I bothering, I could have literally any character do that. It's like a mage with one spell - "shoot crossbow".

Seeing a few similar comments from others on their chosen class - I wonder if the one criticism of this otherwise wonderful game is that certain classes just don't feel special / unique enough?

Or am I just rogueing wrong?

Well, I'm with you on this.
Imagine Illidan or Zeratum in Heroes of the Storm without being able to hide (solo) in the shadow and come back stab you. The character and class will totally losing their flavor as assassins.
So minus one on this.
 

A-V-B

Member
How about general thoughts on the companions? No spoilers.

It's getting super late now so I'll have some problems remember every single name, but I'll try. And a couple spoilers but nothing game ruining. I'll keep them in tags.

Eder: Alright.

Aloth: Pretty cool. Liked his dual nature, wanted to see more of it.
Thought he was going to be played up as a romanceable character (my main was a woman) but he was just a neat dude with problems, and that was oddly refreshing.
A total glass cannon in battle.

Durance: Really liked this guy. He was edgy and unpredictable in a very Chris Avellone sort of way, and it was cool to see him constantly reject me. Pre-Modern Scientist + Homeless Priest. Neato. So many cool supporting spells.

Kana: Enjoyed his excitement for scholarly pursuits. But the endless paths were a no go for me, so he had to wallow in his shame, haha. In the end,
he figured out his main pursuit was bullshit anyway, so phew! Maybe I dodged a bullet!

Grieving Mother: Interesting. A bit one note, but I wanted to see more, even after I finished her mission. Sign of a decent character, I guess.

Sagani: Wish I could say -- I believe a problem with reputation in Defiance Bay meant I couldn't even get her mission started. Same with Eder. Wanted to like her, though. Cool background.

Wild Squirrelly Druid Nature Man: This guy was fun. And INSANELY useful in combat. You could just blast the shit out of anyone with him. Wanted more from his mission, though. I felt like I skipped it, but I ran all around
Twin Elms and I couldn't find if I needed to do something about him, or if he just hanged out and made comments and that was enough.

Threatening Shipping Lady from Ondra's Gift: I never even found out how to get her on my team! If I ever replay, I'll figure this one out for sure.
 

rakhir

Member
Sagani: Wish I could say -- I believe a problem with reputation in Defiance Bay meant I couldn't even get her mission started. Same with Eder. Wanted to like her, though. Cool background.
So, that reputation matters with her quest? I would be glad i you could spoil which one can lock you out of it.
 

Aaron D.

Member
Possible bug question.

I've noticed that I got the Level Up little plus symbol on the character portraits of my first two party members (third doesn't have one). But when I go into each Character Stats screen, I don't see an option to level them up.

Am I missing something or is this a known bug? Both of these characters seem to have Exp. over the next-level number (eg. 4126/3000, etc.). Also, both of these characters are currently Level 2. Is there another menu I'm supposed to be in to level up my characters?

Thanks.
 

rakhir

Member
Possible bug question.

I've noticed that I got the Level Up little plus symbol on the character portraits of my first two party members (third doesn't have one). But when I go into each Character Stats screen, I don't see an option to level them up.

Am I missing something or is this a known bug? Both of these characters seem to have Exp. over the next-level number (eg. 4126/3000, etc.). Also, both of these characters are currently Level 2. Is there another menu I'm supposed to be in to level up my characters?

Thanks.
That small plus sign is the only button to level up your characters, there's no button on your character sheet for that. Just press the plus and voila.
 
Possible bug question.

I've noticed that I got the Level Up little plus symbol on the character portraits of my first two party members (third doesn't have one). But when I go into each Character Stats screen, I don't see an option to level them up.

Am I missing something or is this a known bug? Both of these characters seem to have Exp. over the next-level number (eg. 4126/3000, etc.). Also, both of these characters are currently Level 2. Is there another menu I'm supposed to be in to level up my characters?

Thanks.

Click on the cross icon on the portrait to go to the level up screen. I did the same thing when I was playing the backer's beta.
 

Durante

Member
So, did anyone else try to get to the other side of Madhmr bridge from Copperlane? From the 2 days estimate I guess that won't work :p
 
Edér comments on how insensitive you are



I won't say normal has been a big challenge so far but it definitely requires you to position your units smartly and use your skills right in most encounters, it's far from just dragging a box and right clicking enemies.

Thanks
 
I really like it that the game does not show the stat that is being tested near the dialog options(and success\failure later). It makes the conversations more interesting.

Well until you finish the game how will you know if its truly excellent? WRPGs often have problems wrapping thing up and ending well. Just a word of caution =3

I've played dozens of WRPGs and I have no idea what you are talking about.
 

Grazzt

Member
i dont know what class to play guys
I'm playing a cipher, and he is so powerful.
Without my cipher and Eder, I can't imagine how to beat
Raedric in his keep. I sent Eder to start the conversation and everyone else waited in the small room. After triggering the combat sent Eder back to the door of the room, then use cipher's whisper of treason to charm Raedric... Poor thing died by his own champion's hand.
 

Barbarian

Member
Not gonna spend too much time in this thread for fear of spoilers, but just wanted to say:

This game is amazing--exactly what I was hoping for when I backed the kickstarter. Even better, actually, because I didn't imagine they would stick this close to the Infinity Engine look and feel. I'm loving it so far (only a few hours in)!

Divinity Original Sin was good but never quite clicked with me like it did with other fans, and I was starting to worry that maybe I just wasn't into the old school CRPG mechanics anymore. I'm so thrilled to discover that I was wrong. Pillars of Eternity is bringing me back to my younger years, but it's not just nostalgia. It's a joy to play in its own right.

Obsidian if you are reading this: Great job and please make more!
 
You have to go back to Gilded Vale in order to trigger that quest. A man named Kolsc should appear there in a cutscene.
He can also appear outside of town. He approached me in the forest west of Raedric's hold. I think he just appears when you reach a certain town rep threshold.
 

ElyrionX

Member
The loot system is not random right? For the people further along, does the loot get as good as that seen in BG2, ie. things like Staff of the Magi and Carsomyr?
 
Top Bottom