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Risen | Official Thread (PC/PC/PC/360) -- RPG from Gothic creators

Beat the game last week.

Final thoughts, really solid game all in all. Combat could use some tweaking and the last few hours dragged on because I found
collecting the Titan Armor
tedious, but all in all was great fun.
 
Just got to Chapter 2 on this and I'm having a really hard time heading into the eastern side of the island where a ton of quest stuff is - particularly
up north to find Cyrus and the Gryger
. I have to go through some mountain full of skeletons and ghouls, the Skeletons I can manage by picking them off, but the ghouls absolutely rape me. Should I be doing something else to prepare before heading to this side of the map?

I'm with the Don and have the Hunters clothes and a shield from the Harbor Town guard, but that's it (and some rings that raise my HP and strength). Maybe I've just spent too many learning point doing thieving stuff instead of raising my strength and various weapon skills enough (concentrating on swords, so using blunt weapons on the skeletons is a chore).

Any advice? The jump in difficulty is getting on my nerves at this point.
 
teiresias said:
Just got to Chapter 2 on this and I'm having a really hard time heading into the eastern side of the island where a ton of quest stuff is - particularly
up north to find Cyrus and the Gryger
. I have to go through some mountain full of skeletons and ghouls, the Skeletons I can manage by picking them off, but the ghouls absolutely rape me. Should I be doing something else to prepare before heading to this side of the map?

I'm with the Don and have the Hunters clothes and a shield from the Harbor Town guard, but that's it (and some rings that raise my HP and strength). Maybe I've just spent too many learning point doing thieving stuff instead of raising my strength and various weapon skills enough (concentrating on swords, so using blunt weapons on the skeletons is a chore).

Any advice? The jump in difficulty is getting on my nerves at this point.
Click to expand...

Stock up on Summon Skeleton Scrolls. Having Fred around makes combat ten times easier.
 
I need to either do some levelling or figure out this battle system because there are some moths early in the game that are kicking the crap out of me.

And the boars...THE BOARS...
 
Monroeski said:
I need to either do some levelling or figure out this battle system because there are some moths early in the game that are kicking the crap out of me.

And the boars...THE BOARS...
Click to expand...

Gotta learn to dodge, don't lean on blocking too much as it isn't overly effective.
 
Sinatar said:
Gotta learn to dodge, don't lean on blocking too much as it isn't overly effective.
Click to expand...
They still just seem to take so many hits to kill, and can wipe me out with just two hits. I'm at town now, though, so I'll be able to power up a bit.

How much does performing the quests for one faction affect your ability to work with another? I'm wondering because I think I'm going to go with Warrior of the Order as my class, but 1. their quests against the Don's men seem kind of lame (
such as when you get a fun quest from The Don's men, like breaking into a mansion to steal something, the Order quest is pretty much to just tattle on them
), and 2. I've heard that doing the Don's quests can
get you a free way in and out of the city.
.
 
Monroeski said:
They still just seem to take so many hits to kill, and can wipe me out with just two hits. I'm at town now, though, so I'll be able to power up a bit.

How much does performing the quests for one faction affect your ability to work with another? I'm wondering because I think I'm going to go with Warrior of the Order as my class, but 1. their quests against the Don's men seem kind of lame (
such as when you get a fun quest from The Don's men, like breaking into a mansion to steal something, the Order quest is pretty much to just tattle on them
), and 2. I've heard that doing the Don's quests can
get you a free way in and out of the city.
.
Click to expand...

When you do a faction specific quest you should see a counter pop up (like Don 1/4). As long as you don't hit 4/4 of a certain faction you won't get locked into anything. You get a free way in and out of the city regardless of who you side with.
 
Definitely need to up my combat skills, but since I want to go axe and you can't use a shield with those until level 6 I've been scared to. May just go ahead and bite the bullet at this point. Probably won't hurt to learn to fight better with dodges and such.

Haven't trained swords OR axes yet at all since I've been so overly indecisive on class. Now that I know I want to go Warrior of the Order that helps narrow it down.
 
teiresias said:
Just got to Chapter 2 on this and I'm having a really hard time heading into the eastern side of the island where a ton of quest stuff is - particularly
up north to find Cyrus and the Gryger
. I have to go through some mountain full of skeletons and ghouls, the Skeletons I can manage by picking them off, but the ghouls absolutely rape me. Should I be doing something else to prepare before heading to this side of the map?

I'm with the Don and have the Hunters clothes and a shield from the Harbor Town guard, but that's it (and some rings that raise my HP and strength). Maybe I've just spent too many learning point doing thieving stuff instead of raising my strength and various weapon skills enough (concentrating on swords, so using blunt weapons on the skeletons is a chore).

Any advice? The jump in difficulty is getting on my nerves at this point.
Click to expand...
i just bunny-hopped past the ghouls there. it worked.
 
I really, really don't like the combat in this game.

There is no reason why I should succesfully parry an attack by an f'ing gnome but still have it be able to attack me before I attack it. This has happened more than once.
 
This may be a dumb question, but I've noticed sometimes when I complete a quest that in addition to the 'quest completed, +150 EXP' message, I'll get another on-screen message in green saying something like '+20 AP'. What are AP? I don't see them referenced in the manual or anywhere else.
 
Lucky Forward said:
This may be a dumb question, but I've noticed sometimes when I complete a quest that in addition to the 'quest completed, +150 EXP' message, I'll get another on-screen message in green saying something like '+20 AP'. What are AP? I don't see them referenced in the manual or anywhere else.
Click to expand...

Achievement points. If you play on PC, the game's achievement system is worthless since it doesn't provide anything.
 
Just started playing this. :)

No doubt I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm just starting, but so far it feels like a survival game as much as an Exploration RPG, but that's a combination that I like. One complaint, though. It looks and controls like I'm playing a Bethesda game in third person. The jumping animation is ridiculous. I kinda wish I could just press F1 and go into first person, but whatever, I'll get used to that.

Alright, back to trying to not get killed by the porcupines or whatever the fuck they are.

oh god a giant moth, how did they know about my nightmares~~~~
 
Snuggler said:
Just started playing this. :)

No doubt I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm just starting, but so far it feels like a survival game as much as an Exploration RPG, but that's a combination that I like. One complaint, though. It looks and controls like I'm playing a Bethesda game in third person. The jumping animation is ridiculous. I kinda wish I could just press F1 and go into first person, but whatever, I'll get used to that.

Alright, back to trying to not get killed by the porcupines or whatever the fuck they are.

oh god a giant moth, how did they know about my nightmares~~~~
Click to expand...
Haha I remember how terrifying some of those low level creatures are at the beginning of the game. The best part is when you've leveled up and you run into one again later on, and you just crush it.
 
Made some more progress last night. On one hand, I like a game that just tosses me into the shit and lets me figure it out for myself, but there are several things I'm still confused about. Are the 'tremors' intentional? Every now and then my screen will start to shake like there is an earthquake happening and it's kinda nauseating. How do I drop an item? I haven't figured that out so I have to wait until I find a merchant to ditch unwanted items. Also, is leveling up handled automatically? I get the LVL up message but there is nothing for me to do with it.

It's a lot of fun though. You guys weren't lying about it being pretty brutal in some areas. I wandered off from the bandit camp and came across a pack of tough wolves so I ran from them only to end up running into a couple skeleton guards. I ran from them too, only to end up at the edge of a cliff with them closing in on me. I had no choice, so I denied them the satisfaction of killing me and just jumped.

Anyways, I left off at the monastery. Despite the warnings from the bandits, I decided to intentionally let one of their dudes KO me and take me in so I could be trained by them. Seems like an interesting place so far, I like sassing 'master' Aric.


oh yeah and I like the massive, Cheech & Chong sized doobies that some of the NPC's smoke
 
when you level up you get a few 'training points' or something like that. you can then spend those training points (along with gold) at a trainer on stats and skills
 
Cool, that makes sense.

I'm trying to decide on what I want to specialize in, so far I've kind of just spent my gold/points on random stuff but I'm thinking mage. I want something that'll be good for long range fighting since I tend to lean towards bitch-style tactics.
 
Seriously what's up with some enemies(gnomes, etc) killing me in one hit?
I'm built like a brick shithouse and all of a sudden all of my HP is gone and I'm DEAD.

360 version and 20 or so hours in btw.
 
Snuggler said:
]Are the 'tremors' intentional? Every now and then my screen will start to shake like there is an earthquake happening and it's kinda nauseating. How do I drop an item? I haven't figured that out so I have to wait until I find a merchant to ditch unwanted items. Also, is leveling up handled automatically? I get the LVL up message but there is nothing for me to do with it.
Click to expand...

The tremors are intentional and I'm assuming they occur due to the volcano on the island.

With regards to leveling up, you earn learning points (LP) with each level gained. You then can use LP to rank up individual skills from a trainer. How how much LP and gold it costs to train depends on the skill and what rank you're on. Trainers can be found in the city and with each of the factions and they should be listed in your journal after you meet them.

As for ditching items, I'm pretty sure you have unlimited inventory space so there is no need to get rid of stuff unless you want to. Don't remember how to do so but you could always try dragging / dropping out of your inventory.

Anyway, good luck!

EDIT: If you're not a fan of the close combat, definitely go mage. Make sure to only level up one of the three magic crystals (ice / fire / bullet) and abuse the hell out of summon skeleton. Fred is a life saver.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Seriously what's up with some enemies(gnomes, etc) killing me in one hit?
I'm built like a brick shithouse and all of a sudden all of my HP is gone and I'm DEAD.

360 version and 20 or so hours in btw.
Click to expand...


That is because of the little delay in every swing you do before it lands,sometimes,during that delay,the ennemy sneaks a critical in,it happens mostly with said gnomes hehe...it`s just like that little 360 degree pivot your guy does sometimes on the 360...weird stuff.
 
So I'm pretty early in the game, in the Don's camp trying to help everyone out.

One of the workers, I'm having trouble with:

Enrico needs something to protect him from spirits. I SWEAR I saw a "useless amulet" somewhere, but I don't seem to have it in my inventory, which means I must have looted it, then died, and not relooted it after loading. Anyone know where to find it?
 
platypotamus said:
So I'm pretty early in the game, in the Don's camp trying to help everyone out.

One of the workers, I'm having trouble with:

Enrico needs something to protect him from spirits. I SWEAR I saw a "useless amulet" somewhere, but I don't seem to have it in my inventory, which means I must have looted it, then died, and not relooted it after loading. Anyone know where to find it?
Click to expand...
i think it's in the inventory of someone in the camp, either pickpocket it or just tell them about enrico's paranoia and they'll give it to you
 
Jeeze, I was hitting a bit of a wall with the Don's camp, so I decided to have Jan lead me elsewhere. The farm was way easier than anything I did in the swamp. Now I'm in the city, loaded with cash (even after bribing my way in). Hopefully I'm more of an ass kicker by the time I get back to the swamp.
 
platypotamus said:
Jeeze, I was hitting a bit of a wall with the Don's camp, so I decided to have Jan lead me elsewhere. The farm was way easier than anything I did in the swamp. Now I'm in the city, loaded with cash (even after bribing my way in). Hopefully I'm more of an ass kicker by the time I get back to the swamp.
Click to expand...
Upgrade your strength and sword skill, outfit yourself with better weapons. If you help all the bandits in town, you should get plenty of stuff and xp from that.
 
platypotamus said:
Jeeze, I was hitting a bit of a wall with the Don's camp, so I decided to have Jan lead me elsewhere. The farm was way easier than anything I did in the swamp. Now I'm in the city, loaded with cash (even after bribing my way in). Hopefully I'm more of an ass kicker by the time I get back to the swamp.
Click to expand...
Oh you will be. You'll level up real nicely in that town.
 
I have a question about Chapter 3:
I went inside the mountain with the Inquisitor, then made my way back outside to track the lizard hunting party and get the map. Then I went back into the mountain and freed the ogre, Drok and he thanks me and say he'll fight at my side...but he won't leave his cell. He would sure come in handy because there's a bunch more lizards waiting for me further inside, but even after reloading and replaying opening his cell, he still won't come out. When I talk to him, he just says 'good luck' or something. I even found a warthog thing in a nearby area and led it back to Drok's cell and he killed it, but he still won't follow me. Is there any way to get him to come with me?
Bonus Chapter 3 question:
While I was back outside defeating the lizards at the home of that hunter girl, her wolf Rufo and her human companion were slain during the fight--is that avoidable or is it a scripted event?
 
I just started this game and oh boy there is NO hand holding in this game. After much feeding to the mouth from current gen games, i was pleasantly surprised. The combat is kinda wonky but rewarding. When you sidestep/dodge, do you have to be not blocking? Also those hedgehog things cant be blocked. :/
Also does it ever get lighter in the swamps or is it raining all the time? Its soooo dark.
Any other tips to survive in this game?
Definitely hooked so far. :D
 
Progress in this game, be it skill development or even simply gaining gear, is incredibly glacial. I'm nearly five hours in and still walking around in the rags I washed to shore with, everything can kill me in one or two hits, I'm not too sure of what I think of leveling up but not being able to assign my skill points unless I visit a trainer and pay exorbitant sums of gold. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not making any genuine progress running these mindless errands and solving problems for a bunch of unlikeable shits. I've simply given up on the bandit camp and have made my way to Harbour Town.
 
You'll likely be in those rags for most of the game. Eventually you'll get slightly better gear. I didn't get good armor until very close to the end of the game, which was silly because I had explored the entire island at that point and never got to put my armor to good use.

The game is slow paced and there are MANY little quests in all of the 'towns.' I'd recommend doing all the bandit camp quests if only to get the experience points. Plus you get a sword that's pretty good for the beginning of the game. My only real tip is to pick up everything. You have an unlimited inventory and you can make a lot of gold selling random stuff. Plus some things(like plants) become valuable once you learn how to make potions or do other things.
 
jaundicejuice said:
Progress in this game, be it skill development or even simply gaining gear, is incredibly glacial. I'm nearly five hours in and still walking around in the rags I washed to shore with, everything can kill me in one or two hits, I'm not too sure of what I think of leveling up but not being able to assign my skill points unless I visit a trainer and pay exorbitant sums of gold. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not making any genuine progress running these mindless errands and solving problems for a bunch of unlikeable shits. I've simply given up on the bandit camp and have made my way to Harbour Town.
Click to expand...

All of this is a big reason I quit playing the game. I understand the difference between hand holding and ridiculous but this game doesn't. I had the hardest time killing 1 freakin animal at the start of the game let alone the groups of 3 or 4 I'd consistently come across, even when switched to "easy" mode. I guess it wouldn't be as bad if the combat wasn't so janky.
 
The environments are gorgeous but the sense of progression and reward in this game is terrible, there's so little of it. I can barely survive a fight with an overgrown porcupine and often suffer an ignominious death if I take one wrong step out of the camp and walk into a pack of boars, wolves or giant turkeys. I can't progress any further in the quests in the camp, in order to do so I need better gear (500 gold for workers clothes, do they even provide a decent stat boost?) and skills, in order to gain betters skills and gear I need to fight critters for loot drops and I need to dirt farm resources, none of which net me any serious reward. It's like an escher drawing where each staircase leads me to sadness.

I grinded to learn how to skin animals to increase loot drops and then grinded hunting animals just to purchase skinning/carving tools so I could hopefully gain even more drops from carving, no dice. And the one increased item drop I gain from carving some animals is of little to no reward. Go hunting for half an hour and walk away with 35 gold. So I'll only have to hunt for roughly five hours to gain the next level of sword mastery. Awesome.

I grind so I can learn how to pick locks. The few chests I've picked yield items of little to no value. I haven't even gained back the money I spent learning the skill.

I've been playing for six hours and the best gear I have is a wooden shield that covers me 3+ points of various melee damage and a sword that inflict 15 damage per slash. I've got a few basic stats for strength and sword fighting and an abundance of skill points I can't use because trainers are prohibitively expensive to learn from and money is so hard to come by. Which makes the fact that everything is a damage sponge all the more frustrating. Parrying and dodging seem to be dreadfully important but then the combat system isn't exactly polished, it's kind of laggy. I've given up on fighting mobs in the wilderness. I just agro the mob, lead it back to the bandit camp, let the bandits do most of the damage, try to land the last hit so I net the experience points and loot whatever corpses there are. Playing the pied piper is time consuming, and nets little reward, but I at least survive, generally unscathed.

Never thought I would be playing an rpg and pining for the opportunity to buy some basic leathers or rusty chainmail. Something, anything so I don't look like the medieval equivalent of hobo with a shotgun.

I think I'm going to shelve this for the time being. Maybe I'll dust it off and give it another go a few months down the road, or perhaps it will languish and molder in my Steam backlog. Either way buying Darkspore this Tuesday just got a whole lot easier.
 
Six hours, lol.

I take it you haven't been taken in by the monastery? It brings on some long quests but you come out much stronger. I'm 20 hours in and some enemies still kick my ass, but that's the point, you can't steamroll over everything. But still, I can come back with my staff and my spells and beat the shit out of the enemies that terrorized me early in the game. That's just it, it's a harsh and sometimes unforgiving game, until your a way high level there will always be enemies that terrorize you but making progress is very satisfying when you get there.

it's all about taking baby steps and proceeding with caution
 
The game isn't easy by any means - abuse that quicksave in combat if you are truly stuck and want to complete quests beyond your level.
 
Well, yeah, definitely. The time requirement just to get up to a competent level is much higher than the average RPG, and it doesn't help that it's an open world game full of dangers.

Like I said before, I'm about 20 hours in and there are still enemies that wreck me. But I've found that they can be avoided, and that there are other places I can go to make progress with my character instead of being beaten down by a ghoul. I feel like it's a game that has a lot to offer but you have to bust some ass to appreciate it.
 
jaundicejuice said:
Generally speaking, that's more of a time investment than I usually put into a game I'm not enjoying. If an rpg doesn't grab you, on some level, 5 hours in, it likely never will.
Click to expand...

The game is a slow burn - I'll give you that. It's at its best when it gives you freedom to explore the island and solve quests. There are quite a few entertaining and witty quests to be found if one can get over the initial rocky bits.

It's not that the game is lousy at the beginning - it's just unforgiving, with a lot less handholding than is found in other RPGs going around. It's similar to the Piranha Bytes' Gothic series in that regard, and so I went in knowing that the game would take some time to get truly interesting.
 
Lucky Forward said:
I have a question about Chapter 3:
I went inside the mountain with the Inquisitor, then made my way back outside to track the lizard hunting party and get the map. Then I went back into the mountain and freed the ogre, Drok and he thanks me and say he'll fight at my side...but he won't leave his cell.
Bonus Chapter 3 question:
While I was back outside defeating the lizards at the home of that hunter girl, her wolf Rufo and her human companion were slain during the fight--is that avoidable or is it a scripted event?
Click to expand...

1. Can you initiate dialogue with him and ask him to follow you? That might do the trick.
2. The hunter girl and her dog survived for me iirc. Don't think it's scripted either way.
 
Van Buren said:
The game is a slow burn - I'll give you that. It's at its best when it gives you freedom to explore the island and solve quests. There are quite a few entertaining and witty quests to be found if one can get over the initial rocky bits.

It's not that the game is lousy at the beginning - it's just unforgiving, with a lot less handholding than is found in other RPGs going around. It's similar to the Piranha Bytes' Gothic series in that regard, and so I went in knowing that the game would take some time to get truly interesting.
Click to expand...

To me it seemed more like an adventure game with RPG elements where the focus was on puzzle solving and exploring more than character building. I love RPGs that start out difficult, i.e. Etrian Odyssey, but the problem with this game for me was that making levels didn't seem to do much for you. In good character driven RPGs you can feel the difference a level makes, not so much here imo.
 
Van Buren said:
The game isn't easy by any means - abuse that quicksave in combat if you are truly stuck and want to complete quests beyond your level.
Click to expand...
oh man, i abused quicksave like crazy during the area battles at the don's camp. every hit -> F5
 
I've been using and abusing the quick save and unlimited inventory space. The quick save has allowed me to be a little more fearless in where I venture and what I fight. For example, I just depopulated some decrepit villa I stumbled across of over half of its undead guards and I walk away richer in experience and loot. Those things could kill me three or four hits but with the quick save feature before and after combat, even mid-fight with some of the more difficult ones, I was able to whittle away at them one by one. I find the combat is a little easier if you manage to escape a mob and isolate one opponent. I haven't dared to try parrying with what I'm fighting but I have been coming to grips with the dodge mechanic. I spend most fights circle strafing hiding behind my shield waiting for my opponent to slip up before I dare to attack. The circle strafe doesn't throw as much distance between you and your opponent as a full dodge does, but every now and then they'll miss as they would with a dodge. The fighting gets really intense, some duels just go on and on.
 
Funny that I saw this thread bumped. I just got myself a laptop that can run it maxed at 1080p, which is what I've been dreaming of, so I decided to reinstall the game and jump back into it.

I really appreciate how they set they tone right from the moment you wake up, where you're handed a wooden club, but a few minutes of exploration on the shoreline net you a decent sword and a shield.

I really love this game.
 
For some reason I didn't even hear about this game until today and the thread magically got bumped. I really wish my desktop was working so I could try out the demo. It sounds great :(
 
larvi said:
In good character driven RPGs you can feel the difference a level makes, not so much here imo.
Click to expand...

The difference lies not purely in leveling up your character but in learning abilities and enhancing specific stats with mentors. The difference a few points in your strength or improving your weapon proficiency can be pretty staggering. I went from barely being able to damage this skeleton lord to being able to hold my ground and deal some decent damage.

I'm also wrapping my head around the combat a bit more. You can't just mash your way through combat, it seems as though each click gets queued, so if you see an incoming strike you may not be able to defend in time if you've got another melee strike loaded. The game punishes you if you're impatient or too greedy, you've got to wait for openings to attack, dodge or parry.
 
larvi said:
To me it seemed more like an adventure game with RPG elements where the focus was on puzzle solving and exploring more than character building. I love RPGs that start out difficult, i.e. Etrian Odyssey, but the problem with this game for me was that making levels didn't seem to do much for you. In good character driven RPGs you can feel the difference a level makes, not so much here imo.
Click to expand...
The levels are just an indicator that it's time to go spend some more skill points. You will stay weak until you spend those. For instance at first I decided I wanted to be a mage, so I was hoarding skill points for my magic. The quests became near impossible until I dumped those points into a weapon since I had yet to acquire my magic. As soon as I leveled up a weapon all of those past levels felt like they had an instant effect.
 
Funny to see this popping up. I just bought this game, but I'm not sure if I want to open it.

I really like WRPGs, mainly because of the dialogue and personality shaping aspects. Can you go through parts of the game choosing not to fight, and talk your way out of it (ala Fallout 3)?
 
canadian crowe said:
Funny to see this popping up. I just bought this game, but I'm not sure if I want to open it.

I really like WRPGs, mainly because of the dialogue and personality shaping aspects. Can you go through parts of the game choosing not to fight, and talk your way out of it (ala Fallout 3)?
Click to expand...

No this isn't that kind of game at all.
 
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