Pillars of Eternity Retrospective 

Its 4.30 am..... i am NOT having the same experience)

@@WasteOPaint sucks to suck

His critic is only partially valid. 12:01 " Hard to work out what choices are actually bad" This not valid criticism it is a good game design. The game is bad when choices are obvious and if they are hard then the game is actually good. Obvious choices are in fact a recipe for a bad game. 18:29 Does he really want that the game plays by itself?

12:35 That is something that should be in games!! Tough decisions! If the decision is not obvious for the player, then the game is well designed. There are no useless skills. 18:10 Babysitting? Do you want the game that plays by itself? 4:36 Sorry but this is still very easy to workout! 5:58 That was not the plan, to begin with.

@Tevyn Monismith Pillars of Eternity is my all-time favorite CPRG I love the world of Eora.

Same here. Never played a crpg before and pillars is now one of my favorite games

Ok now is time to move to the gods icewind and baldurs

Try out Divinity Original Sin 2.

you absolutely need to play Baldur's gate then ! don't worry, you'll get used to the graphics....Baldur's gate was not built on a kickstarter budget ! it is so massive in every aspect ! this game is just awsome. And i just started Baldur's gate 2 a couple of months ago, i'm not nostalgic or anything, it's just amazing.

@@jessyruel3006 add Icewind Dale, Baldurs 2, Arcanum and Temple of elemental evil and you got the holy saints of CRPG

this is a perfect description. well said.

Can't wait to see what Obisidan are doing with "Avowed!" (a first-person RPG they're developing, set in the POE world of "Eora")

And the worst bit is all the cringily named backer NPCs that ruin immersion.

@@Jajalaatmaar Which you can fully ignore and wont even see their names unless you specifically want to.

@@TaigaGaoo Nobody told me that at the start.

Ice

Yeah man. Whoever wrote the lore knows his occultism/history. Eothas is Mithras and Woedica is Boudicca for example.

@@Obese_Pterodactyl I believe that would be chris avellone, who also did Icewindale

Played tides of numanera first. Now that was text heavy... Like too text heavy. PoE on the other hand feels alright, but im still in the beginning so it might change 😅 but it doesnt seem as much as ToN.

This dude is complaining about monologues in a dnd like game lol

Well said

@@TheVerinen2 Mediocrity is doing something half way out of fear or convenience. What you are describing is a marketing strategy. Good or bad... Time will tell, but mediocre projects look veeery different.

I’ve been playing CRPGs for over 20 years and I love this game

I just started replayin this again in preparation for bg3 and to quell my dota adiction.

Yep they did so damn good. I played the first two baulders gates when I was too young so didn't get far, getting to play this is like my first play through of baldurs gate for someone older. Also if you look closely the story and setting is much like baldurs gate, defiance bay is baldurs gate, white march is icewind Dale etc etc

⁠@@rojo40- Heh! Nice job calling it out. Venality robs all genius from human endeavor; nowhere more than art. As much as I hate Ayn Rand’s philosophy she was correct in this regard. That which is created to appeal to the greatest number, created with profit as the inspiration, created by consensus, created to meet the prevailing popular sentiment of the day, will forever be mediocre. It is the empty Middle Way of a philosophy promoted by corporations wherein the desire for enlightenment has been replaced by greed, and temperance by maximized returns. The influence of players like EA and Ubisoft, and the potential for unreasonable wealth for a few, have left a stamp on the gaming industry. Building marketing strategy into the creation of a game is playing a different game than marketing a game that was created for people to play.

Yeah, but what does he know! :D

I hate his videos! 12:35 That is something that should be in games!! Tough decisions! If the decision is not obvious for the player, then the game is well designed. There are no useless skills. 18:10 Babysitting? Do you want the game that plays by itself? 4:36 Sorry but this is still very easy to workout! 5:58 That was not the plan, to begin with

I think there's two key things that I myself experienced and a lot of other people did. 1) The world is amazing once you get into it, but it does a poor job of introducing itself. Dyrwood feels quite generic, while at the same time, stuff like the Biawac and Watchers and Souls and Animancy and the Leaden Key can be a bit jarring when it's all thrown at you so fast. One could summarize the story of POE as "You get caught in a storm, start having weird visions, and chase after a person you see in these visions." That is NOT very compelling. If you go deeper, it's a huge exploration of the idea of dieties and society ... which is not exactly the sort of story everyone wants to get into. I know I didn't. The Gods have always been the LEAST interesting part of the world of Pillars to me. But Obsidian chose to make them the central crux of the story in BOTH games. 2) There's something about the combat design of these games, and I don't know if it's the genre or just Obsidian themselves, but it balances on a razor's edge. Without changing the difficulty setting at all, you can have encounters that are so easy they're tedious, and also have encounters that are so hard they are infuriating. And it really only seems to be those two things, never a happy medium. Meanwhile you have experienced vets who go around beating the game as a solo character, on the hardest difficulty, claiming it's too easy. It is utterly bizarre. But the end result is, a huge chunk of the players just end up not enjoying the game, because combat is a HUGE part of the game, and it's not well balanced.

I really enjoy it to and i dont think the setting is generic, i think its just the right amount of familiar to still be relatable even if it has magic and gods.

The only thing I didn't like was the way we earn XP, other than that the game was awesome.

You're not alone man, I just finished another playthrough last week of the first one, starting poe2 this week.

You guys should try Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the (utterly amazing) turn-based combat mod. Many people agree that the game is actually much more fun with the mod. That game is the closest thing to older DnD/tabletop feel in a nice, polished AA (or "AAa") crpg.

Doorways are the best tanks in the game. They block spells, enemy flankers, provide cover for units to dip out of sight to heal, help cluster enemies up, have no limit to how many enemies they can bind. They clearly need a nerf!

Strategy is overpowered.

the doorway is the 7th party member

Doorways have always been a CRPG veteran’s greatest alley. Dragon Age origins had a lot of indoor encounters with small rooms filled with enemies. I have many blissful memories of casting a repulsion glyph (that knocks enemies back when they try to come near it) and then casting a firestorm in the room, laughing maniacally as they get flung back into the inferno every time they try to run for their life. Dread the doorway, for it is a pathway to many dark powers.

Yes, I think Dragon Age Origins was when old style CRPG reached their higher point. After that the genre got much more simplified for the sake of appealing to the masses instead of showing the people what made this games so great in the first place. After that it came a wave of bringing back the old school but without the awareness to realize which mechanics and styles were left in the past for good.

@delosombres That's actually what I'm asking for, some innovation in the battle mechanics that generally make it better.

It's a good game,i play it.only one thing,where's the random acounter enemy.🤷

I think Tyranny was a massive step forward in story telling and pacing. Tyranny kept me engaged in not only the main plot, but with what was going on around me at any given location. Step back was the balancing and uniqueness of builds. You either invested heavily in lore and spellcraft, or you were objectively inferior. Poe 2 was almost entirely a step backward from Poe 1. The multiclassing and ability to make limited changes to your companion class was a massive step forward, everything else was vastly inferior to Poe 1. The most notable backslide was in the characters and their interactions. The lack of Chris Avellone was noticeable, even returning companions became more one-note, and with Pallegina, half a damn note. The seriousness of the story and world from Poe 1 was left behind, and they brought in a flood of bathos to undercut nearly everything.

@@FunkStyles I agree with pretty much everything you said. There was only one thing I kind of disliked about tyranny, and that was the decision to have the main factions souncompromisingly thematic, even to the point of colour schemes. It just felt a little cartoonish and I was often tempted to choose gear that better resembled my favoured factions overall aesthetic. I liked the factions though, and I think their kind of simplistic designs may have been due to time/money constraints.

@@FunkStyles Let me correct you there: Tyranny *could've been* a massive step forward in story telling and pacing, but falls flat on its nose pretty quickly after the first chapter. This is sad because the world of Tyranny is light years above PoE in every single regard.

If you take away the disappointing main story, I think Pillars 2 was excellent. The side quests, party building, and combat were a big step in the right direction.

@@Wft-bu5zc I thought the main story was a breath of fresh air. There are no other games or movies where you do the thing they did there, won't spoil.

Pillars of Eternity was a fun game for sure, but if you liked this one, you will LOVE Pathfinder Kingmaker Having played both extensively, Pathfinder Kingmaker feels like the developers took the strengths and concepts of Pillars of Eternity, and improved upon the significantly. Encounters are still a little samey at times, but the curveballs that do get tossed at you are always very exciting. If you get the game, I would recommend getting the "Beneath the Stolen Lands" DLC alongside it.

@@perryborn2777 It does look like what I like, Id probably give it a try if they finish a switch port as I dont like to game on my computer

@@jimhultqvist2539 I believe Owlcat games(the makers of Pathfinder Kingmaker) said that they will not be porting the game to the Switch anymore😞

@@andrewvincent7299 Too bad, guess Ill give it a miss then 'til they changes their minds :)

Yeah I'm going to try it out soon

At this point these essays feel like freshmen college presentations. Full of holes and minor errors but still professional.

It was same with DA retrospective, dunno how you can ignore one of the fundamentals of atmosphere in any medium.

Well, you've been listening to it throughout this 35 minutes long video, does that count as a mention? 😅

Soundtrack is freaking a game in itself here, grandeur, epic and mysterious. I absolutely love it.

Because it doesn't factor into any of the design issues he's talking about. It would just be, "oh and another thing, the soundtrack's nice."

Jagged Alliance 2 with the 1.13 patch has the best tactical combat of any rpg. Period.

individual bullet sprites were already a feature of the first game (1994!!) as well as a bunch of others, merc personalites/relationships, even if less complex, were already present as well, I think, also crouching, stamina, cover... JA2 refined all of that, but JA came up with most of them. In 19-90-4!

Tried to get into this game twice because it has some phenomenal audio. But its so hard for me, I'm so bad at this game. I believe you wholeheartedly when you say this game is great or the greatest!

I feel like PoE2 fixed that issue.

the writting is excatly what kept me playing PoE the combat on the other side... I really do not like “pause/upause” mechanics, think that's way too complex and require way too much time to finish a fight. Played PoE2 anyway, Now they released the turn-based combat system, and god, replaying it is just another experience.

@@heitorcruz7895 Just... What? Why? What kind of Stockholm Syndrome nonsense (hyperbole, joking) is this?! You need to read through like 10,000 words of lore to understand what the fuck is going on with Eder, and there's no hook connecting him to the protagonist other than "I happened to be standing there when you started your quest." Just... Yeah. We disagree on that. :P

100% agree. Overindulgent is the word that kept coming to mind when I played this game. Whoever wrote it thought that they were writing the best thing ever. Even if it had been voiced it would have still been too much. A lot of people aren't bothered by endless exposition; however, I am. I can't stand it in any medium that I am consuming.

​@@darrell9616 Sounds like you came down even stronger than I did. :P I have no problem with a deep backstory. Delving into a deep backstory can be a lot of fun. Brandon Sanderson is a favourite author of mine, and I _enjoy_ reading the Coppermind wiki to pick up all the little tidbits of lore and backstory I may have missed in the books themselves. *But* that's because Brandon (with varying degrees of success) gives me a hook for his characters so I care about them, then I care about the world, then he gives me action so it's exciting. Once excitement and a reason to care are established, delving into the backstory, world and lore is fun. Failure to do that - as PoE failed to do it - makes reading the backstory work, a chore you have to do to excavate a reason to care. It's exactly backwards for what storytelling should be.

I don’t know why but I hated the second game. For me it seems that what happened in the first game didn’t have an impact and was abandoned.

Same

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy my videos and think so highly of them.

I meant to say also "accurate" review.

What 10 are better then?

@@BudMasta baldurs gate 2, fallout, fallout 2, diablo 2, neverwinter nights, kotor, planescape torment, dragon age origins, vampire the masquerade: bloodlines, shadowrun: dragonfall. Easily arguable? Pathfinder: kingmaker, wasteland 2, shadowrun: hong kong, disco elysium, pretty much any ultima.

@@IAmAnEvilTaco fallout is turn based, so is fallout 2, Diablo is an arpg, never winter nights was an mmo.

Bud Masta neverwinter nights was a crpg. Neverwinter is an mmo. And it wasn’t specified as real time with pause. Even then, neverwinter nights 1 and 2, for sure. 2 was the first obsidian game worth mentioning.

@@IAmAnEvilTaco "2 was the first obsidian game worth mentioning." The Sith Lords would like to know your location.

I dont like show and tell i like tell and shoe

They wanted to appeal to the fans that funded this game, Baldurs gate didn't have "show and tell" in 1998. Derp.

@@BudMasta While that makes sense, I think it had more to do with the limitations of the engine and how expensive cutscenes are

Sorry but the guy suck! 12:35 That is something that should be in games!! Tough decisions! If the decision is not obvious for the player, then the game is well designed. There are no useless skills. 18:10 Babysitting? Do you want the game that plays by itself? 4:36 Sorry but this is still very easy to workout! 5:58 That was not the plan, to begin with.

I think part of the problem with exposition dumps is mainly the type of game it is and mimics. Sure Baldur's gate for example did the "show don't tell" in a good but it can still feel very exposition heavy at times. The thing is, P&P games are exposition heavy, be it with descriptions of places for the players or narrating the combat. That's one of the trappings of this genre, trying to mimic P&P games for a videogame. For example Kotor 1 & 2 don't feel as expositiony, why... first the style, you are right in the action, you see what's happening, how the characters move and feel (this one with their voice tone for example). Here you can't really see what's happening, you need the exposition to tell you accurately how the things are going. Same goes for the storyline, you need to describe in detail what the character during a cutscene is doing because you can't really see what the character is doing. I like CRPGs, Baldur's gate is one of my favorite games of all time, I like Fallout 1 when I played it a few years ago, Disco Elysium was one of the best RPGs I've ever played... And all of them are exposition heavy because that's how this kind of genre is. Because of it's origin in P&P games and how it's not going to detract from it, it's bound to happen. Sure show don't can still be done in text form, books do it all the time, but what we see as "show don't tell" in fantasy novels, is exposition in a visual medium.

Yes please!

I have Witcher 3 installed with all DLC's, but not even through the tutorial yet. Guess I have something to look forward to.

@Zach cash Being in the same situation, I enjoyed Pillars a bit more. I just keep dropping out of Playing Divinity. It's great, but the way they make their worlds I guess just doesn't mesh well with my play/exploration style. The story just loses a lot of its context when done out of order by accident. Some of the big fights didn't feel that climatic (Especially remember how brokenly hard the first major boss fight of 1 was...) and the character stories seemed bland due to being a bit too streamlined I think.

I never played Baldurs gate and Neverwinter nights and the like either but, I did play PoE, PoE2 and Tyranny and completed all of them multiple times. Personal favorite was Tyranny for sure, even though it was sadly not as successful financially :(

@Zach cash Played them both, I personally enjoy POE's world a bit more. Original Sin 1 and 2 are great games, but I'm just not a fan of the art design. Still a hell of a game though.

@@guyincognito566 I don't have problems with art, it's fine but probably not their main focus. Larian games tend to be laid back and focused on fun rather than worldbuilding, storytelling or some kind of message, the weight is mostly on the gameplay part and it works quite well but might not provide much in terms of a lasting experience.

And yet modern games don’t offer rich level of interaction that older titles two. Witcher3 is a great story driven action game. I might belong to a nieche audience, but recent revival of deep, top down RPGs is a godsend to me, in a barren wasteland of current game market.

I agree, slaying the Shaper for the first time on Hardcore makes your blood rush. And mapping is sooo addicting

@@OmnifyMyAss not this poe and shaper is ez

Where were those statistics from? Regardless, Outer Worlds came fresh off the fallout 76 dumpster fire so it had pretty good chances, but 2.5 mil sounds like a lot despite also being around the same time that the Epic Exclusivity deals were at its peak hate

Uhhh no shit? OW plays much better

I have over 200 hours in it but i havent beaten it yet because i always find myself wanting to try new character builds

I actually was not a fan of the whole soul thing and the contrived deep philosophical topics they tried touch upon in the game. It just wasn't that interesting. Yes, it's not something that was done in other rpgs but that doesn't make it good. It was boring. Plus, the colonial setting in my opinion was boring. Not because it was a colonial time period but because the world building was done so poorly and made everything so uninteresting. I honesty would have just preferred some classic high fantasy over what Obsidian tried to do which was bland and contrived. That's why I like POE's expansion The White March the best out of everything. It had an interesting story, great lore, a lot of mystery, it was high stakes, and genuinely fun. That type of story is what Obsidian should have went for instead of some boring "edgy" and contrived story that didn't know if it wanted to be Planescape or Baldur's Gate 1.

I don't recall any of the mentions of souls and the like as being obvious attempts to be deep or edgy, and I don't feel the game ever got as philosophical as they claimed it would in the Kickstarter. I'm afraid that this might be a an unreconcilable difference of tastes. How could something that is imitating classic high fantasy not be bland and contrived on its own?

Fereldan from Dragon Age: Origins had a little bit of a colonial feel. It was controlled by Orlais at one time and only recently got its independence. So I can't say it's a completely original theme. That said, I was happy enough with the setting of Dyrewood. I would have liked to have seen more political aspect of the game, rather than spiritual, but that's just my personal preference. I liked the political stuff of DA: Origins and Witcher 2 and 3.

I kind of wish they'd go back and add turn-based combat to the original like they did to PoE2.

Spencer Smith wwwwww

@@Wlerin7 you do know how advanced the pause mechanic settings are in pillars right? You can basicly switch it to turnbased if you feel for it. Just activate pause whenever one of your characters complete an action and there you go turnbased...and it is just one of 20 diffrent options to tweak in how the game pause alternativly fast/slow speed activation. Long story short you can turn the combat pace into whatever you want....THAT is the main strength of real time with pause. It allows a game to speed past "auto attacks" or allready won fights while still allowing you to take your time for each action for when you need it.

@@Solus749 That was written before I actually tried turn-based combat in PoE2. Definitely prefer the RTwP.

@@Wlerin7 I think alot of the turn based are "better" comes from original sin 1-2 and how they handled combat. Divinity's combat however wasn't close to the same mechanically, stun, blind,prone etc are far less common and while physical/macigal armour is active a character or more or less immune to these kind of effects ( depending on what is used ofc ). The various saves used in pen and paper and pillars appear "strange" unless you have experienced it earlier....especially to new audiences. Real time with pause have similar issues I think....it is a fine system once you get it but it can scare some people away.

Funny enough, I have never played the older rpgs. Pillars was my first and I absolutely love both this and pillars 2.

I enjoyed Baulders Gate back in the day but they don't hold up as much as people pretend. PoE is better than BG1 but not as good as 2

To Hit Armor Class 0. How hard is that? While a very good system, it was not intuitive at all.

Your tolerance for bad writing is commendable. "The godlike (no capitalization?) are children of the kith ("civilized" races) who have been blessed with physical aspects associated with the gods (though some do not consider it a blessing)(?). These aspects may take many forms and often come with mystical powers(?). Aberrant head shapes are typical(?), and godlike(?) are unable to wear protective headgear as it is near-impossible to find anything that fits(?). Because(?) of their unusual nature and their inability to reproduce, godlike are often viewed with fear and wonder(How the fuck are the two related?)." This type of writing is juvenile, illiterate, and bewilderingly bad... Terry Pratchett this is not... this is 11 year old territory. Then there is the dumpster fire of mechanics. PoE is the reason why board games and tabletop are better than video games. Also why editors are a good thing. Pillars is proof that late-stage capitalism celebrates only mediocrity. It's never clever, it's never well written, its mechanics are childish, awful, and do not give players true tactical depth of character design.

@@adelahogarth2761 I tend to have a relatively high tolerance for what I'm willing to let go. It varies from subject to subject, but overall I'm forgiving for the most part, unless mortally offended by an act most grievous. However, I must admit, I actually prefer the writing in the sequel, Deadfire has more engaging and colourful writing, it flows better like a merry jig but retains the sense of reverence. The lore, for instance like what simultaneous "fear" and "wonder" of Godlikes refers to, certain cultures fear certain types of Godlikes; Death Godlikes are almost universally reviled and feared for their association with mortality and Berath in particular, whereas Moon Godlikes are hailed with wonder by many in the Deadfire as they are seen as a sign from the sea Goddess, Ondra. Little things like that are why I'm actually glad I played Deadfire first then the first game, I ended up really appreciating Deadfire more as an improvement over the first game. Much of the lore, especially in regards to the various cultures, ideas like Animancy and the races of the world, get healthy attention in the sequel. I did read your full comment as by the way, and I found much frustration and anger. But I'd definitely say it may be down to personal taste and one's tolerance for "bad writing", as it's something so personal to every person that finding a truly objective definition almost seems unfair to me. It's like a person's handwriting, a genuine part of their own self-expression which is why I find it so hard to throw writing under the bus as it were. Unless, as I mentioned previously, it is utterly grievous and incomprehensible. I don't think Pillars is incomprehensible as such, it's very dense, but as a result the little details often go overlooked, seemingly by the writer's own hubris; often demanding further clarification from the reader's own ability to "read between the lines" and detect what is inferred. One aspect of your comment that I may need clarification for, what "late-stage capitalism" are you referring to? This just struck me as an odd aspect of your analysis that juxtaposed against the rest of it. P. S. My to-read list is nothing but Terry Pratchett, I've heard he has a wonderful talent for sentence structure.

@@Nikelaos_Khristianos No, it's not 'dense'. It's broken. That description simply does not work. It's a small paragraph in a book, and in the same number of words Terry Pratchett could explain the basics of Discworld's 'Headology'. It's not just broken syntax, it's juvenile writing. If I read something like a script of Pillars I would have thought they were about 9-10 years old. The fact that it's a video game that likely cost millions of dollars to make and people *praise them for it* as opposed to pointing out the notable mockery of wasted time and money that could have been better spent funding thousands of evidently better writers and young filmmakers, is so *demoralizing* to me. I'm not querying 'fear and wonder' ... it's a hackneyed device, but whatever. Why, exactly, would being infertile generate such a response? Does the person who wrote it just *naturally* respond that way to infertile people? Do old women apparently not exist in Pillars? I mean I'm hurtling towards my 40s... apparently I hadn't noticed all the 'awe'. Keeping in mind this is before you even start the game. These descriptions are a jumbled mishmash of barely legible ideas. The description of player races in a cRPG is meant to inform the player about what constitutes a facet of the avatar's mechanics. In terms of basic syntax, it's broken. In terms of informing the player what they're actually playing, it's patently fucked up. If this was the only example even before the game began that didn't immediately deflate my expectations, there's this winner. "The mighty Aumaua are the largest of the kith races and are commonly found in or near oceans. Though not truly aquatic, they have an affinity for water and many of their civilizations, such as Rauatai, are based on naval dominance. They are known for their unparalleled strength. " This is fucking stupid. That's the only valid critique. It's dumb. It's not dense, it's dumb. It's only one or two shades better than 'His power is Maximum'-meme. It's actually the opposite of dense... it's patently juvenile, shallow, and pointless drivel. A normal person, who actually understands how you put words together, might say: "The Aumaua are a tall and vigourous people that commonly inhabit islands and coastal regions. Gifted seafarers and ferrymen, they dominate the local waterways of their homes. Their unmatched physical prowess is of credit to their success on the high seas." Clear, direct, succinct, informative. Like all good descriptions are. As a gamer I might have forgiven it if the mechanics were at least decent. They weren't. They were awful and led to bland character builds. Which isn't exactly in line with my memories of cRPGs. As for 'late-stage capitalism' -- before becoming a researcher I was a science teacher. If a student of mine wrote prose like that, teenagers no less, I would have had to in good conscience write to the parents and inform them of immediate failures in basic syntax. That unless corrected through intense tutoring, I would have little hopes of them being taken seriously in modern society much less get a passing grade in their Y-10 or 12 finals. They would certainly not pass my class. In good sense that education is meant to be a progressive realization of the capacity to understand, and be understood. The transformation of data into information for oneself and others. In my students' possible defence, this could simply be a report or essay they threw together a few hours before even going to school that morning. They could have been tired during a test. Any number of reasons. This was considered 'suitable' for a final product. Possibly the first thing your consumers will be reading. Something for the masses to consume. That people would pay money for. To consume in bulk. And apparently I'm the only one batting a fucking eye. And as a former teacher, do you know how fucking frightening that is? So apparently I was wrong. Pillars sold gangbusters, praised for its 'writing' specifically, and yet it's a fucking dumpster fire. It's trash. People who apparently have never picked up a novel in their lives fawning over its 'writing', and yet it is categorically trash. It's nothing in comparison to Obsidian's *earlier* works in the same genre.

@@adelahogarth2761 no offense, but I don't particularly want to continue this discussion if you're going to be so hostile and uncouth about the subject, and to a degree just attack my points or ignore them altogether. I can understand being angry and slighted, I hope I haven't done anything to provoke such a reaction twas not my intent, but there are more effective ways of delivering your perspective. I don't find "fuck" to be a suitable adjective, regardless of the current emotional instability of the writer it seems. I don't believe people are praising the writing for the descriptions of the races of the Dyrwood, and seeing as though these are your only examples I'm starting to wonder if you even gave Obsidian a chance and actually PLAYED this video game instead of trying to "read this game" like a book, I'm sorry but that is simply an irrefutably irresponsible thing to do if your judgement is this harsh. People are praising it for how it breathes a scene to life and paints a picture so vivid that it feels as though YOU, the player, are trudging through the Dyrwood in pursuit of the Leaden Key, not the Watcher. It's a celebration of all that's so clever about writing in CRPG's, they don't have to voice every line and because the environment descriptions are in text as well, they're able to craft worlds and characters much more lavish than other games; these are incredibly talented writers, Chris Avellone was the lead writer for Obsidian, and even when most of the studio worked at Black Isle, during the development of every Obsidian game since Planescape Torment when most of the team were under Black Isle, they know how to make CRPG's, they made some of the best RPG's the world has ever known, they're industry leaders in RPG's for a reason! Mentioned only in the same breath as CD Projekt Red. Furthermore, the writing and voice acting for Aloth in particular is so gosh darn charming and is bearer of a large majority of the laugh out loud moments, Matthew Mercer did a wonderful job representing his split personality. On a separate note, by "dense" I'll have you know I was specifically referring to actual in-game written text, there is quite alot of it, enough to fill several books ironically! And I only refer to the lore as dense because it can get a bit lost in its' own mythos and jargon at times, making it harder for the player to keep up at times, but that can be forgiven because they're not just writing a book, they're making a game. Something much, much larger. In reference to Never's video though, I actually whole-heartedly agree that this game does try to be that "Obsidian's Greatest Hits Collection" but doesn't quite hit the same magnitude of their previous works; I myself, am extremely partial to KOTOR 2 in particular for its' complex deconstruction and subversion of popular writing tropes in Star Wars. Pillars of Eternity though, built as a Kickstarter funded by fans and enthusiasts of RPG's of all kinds can only be ecstatic that a game like this can actually exist. There's no greedy publisher standing behind them rubbing their maniacal hands together in anticipation of this game's success. Just a studio grateful that they were able to keep their doors open... I'm not exaggerating, if Pillars didn't succeed Obsidian likely would've closed, hence why they've joined Microsoft's Private Division for their latest project, building games exclusively from Kickstarter is a particularly harrowing endeavour.

@@Nikelaos_Khristianos That's not an argument. You provided no evidence whatsoever. So no, I categorically disagree. You're wrong. The description of the races is rather indicative of how the rest of the game is handled. Tragically, bewilderingly, impenetrably bad. I spent 10 hours with this trash before deciding to ditch it because it was just one insult to one's intelligence too many. And according to statistics on GOG with the achievements tracker, so did 95% of people. The plot is nonsense. The writing itself drivel. The characters impenetrable. What is Eothas doing again? Why is he doing it? How? Why should I fucking care? I could care less about the voice acting. Voice acting is a fragment compared to the reams of nonsense I was being told to swallow. Basics of storytelling... no flowery prose. Get to the point. Show, don't tell. Clear, direct descriptions. Murder your darlings. The game does none of these things. And while this can be somewhat forgiven in an RPG where you might do quests out of order, the problem is the game seems to take pleasure in self-aware awfulness. There was one bit in the game where it purposefully made it difficult for me to skip the dialogue because it was with a relatively pointless NPC, and all it as was annoying, overbloated bullshit. As if the game makers themselves punishing the player simply because their writing is not fun to read. I had no such problems in actually *good* cRPGs of the past... It also doesn't seem to matter just how cliched the story is. There's a D&D 3E adventure arc just like it, albeit infinitely better, ending with module *The Bastion of Broken Souls* ... about a legendary red dragon in history basically fighting off mindless undeath by basically colonising the place where all living beings and their souls are made in the multiverse on the Positive Energy Plane. Which I have the sneaking suspicion given their background in making D&D games, that they pilfered and re-purposed. This leads to a calamity where people and beasts are born soulless as time goes on. Wracking every society in the Multiverse until your band of heroic adventurers put a final end to the legendary Ashardalon. The arc of modules has so many awesome twists and turns with multifaceted interested parties across the planes. From gods, to demon princes, to everything in between. What it does do? Not populate the world with over-bloated nonsense. One of the things that really draws my ire about this game? It's precisely for the reasons you list... this game had pedigree makers behind it who have crafted excellent stories in cRPGs. This is not one of them. And they seemingly learnt nothing tackling other game worlds. Almost as if when they didn't feel the need to recreate a game's world from scratch, and actually concentrate on making interesting stories (which is what you should do regardless of whether a world is there or not) they shine.

No thanks, I hate the CCP

@@MaQuGo119 was Epic games bought by Tencent or something?

Here's to the "or so" :/

At least u can read. He prob can’t even scratch his arse

@@j0nnyism nah, hes pretty smart actually

Yeah I think i'm happy with how it turned out. That first video was very rushed, so with this one i was able to think through what I wanted to say, and make something that explores the game a lot deeper. And I like to think my videos have got better over time and will continue to do so in the future as i keep learning things. The only problem is a 30min video takes me longer now than it did when i was first starting out, but i think the extra time is worth it. I remember your name from several other comments btw, and its nice to know some people are still around who found my channel when it was still tiny, so thanks for the continued support and comments.

I don’t think the argument is that the game is overcomplicated, but rather that the game doesn’t do enough to help new players understand those complexities - either by introducing them gradually or by building a feedback loop that gives players a sense of reward for mastery while also teaching them to hone their weak points.

It’s better than the older games because it has an easy mode and it’s not frustrating

Smart guy that Einstein

Couldn't agree more- was majorly let down by POE2.

The loading problems is still or at least was very noticeable on PC. The only solution I remember being to delete all of your older saves that are still around and just keep playing. I think that cut my loading time 4 times at least.

Honestly, I've always loved universes where Magic requires training of the body as well as the mind. Mages are essentially channels for universal energies, their body is part of that catalyst too so it only makes sense that it should also be taken care of in tandem

Damoinw same lol

@@codyvandal2860 Is it bad that I think Pillars has a great story, and choice narrative?

@@wrathofthewitchqueen of course not. It's a good game. It's not perfect nor is it the best game out there but there's a lot to like about pillars despite the flaws it has.

Pillars of Eternity to me is just balanced, I found Divinity (Original Sin) hard to grasp, yet alone enjoy - been playing it since its release years ago, haven't finished it, and getting to complete POE1 one day.

Pillars 2 is a little better I feel. Not quite so stringent in its restrictions. Though the main story in POE 1 is better.