The Story Without A Plot 

Your gameplay complaints are strange. PoE on hard is about the same as BGII on D&D rules. As far as comboing abilities, the option is absolutely there in PoE, so I don't know what you're on about. Arguably you have more latitude for strategizing in PoE because all the martial classes have active abilities, whereas in BG most of them could only attack. Personally, PoE's DLC had more difficult fights than anything I encountered in BGII.

PoE has terrible gameplay, there's absolutely no comparison to BG2. I'll give you an objective reason. In BG2 you could solo a ..Dragon with a 13 lvl mage in the hardest difficulty and win every time - provided you did everything right. In PoE there isn't - at least before the DLC's - any defense that doesn't rely upon chance. So while in BG2 you shielded a character from fire to 100% immunity, in PoE you just bolster their reflex.. That's just stupid. Good gameplay is about forcing the player to discover what works. PoE was so obsessed with balancing - like it's a freaking mmo - that everything is equally weak. The story is good though and Durance is arguable on par with the best of them.

Absolutely *not* true. There are *several* videos online of people soloing the hardest encounters of both the base game *and* the (harder) DLC on solo characters on the *hardest* difficulty plus "Trial of Iron" - which means you only get 1 save file and if your character dies once at any point, the save file gets deleated. And those videos definitely don't look like the players cheated their way around that restriction.

It's called save-scumming. And even if someone managed to do it, what of it? How does it make my statement false? I never said you couldn't beat the game. What I said is that since all your defenses rely on luck it can't really be compared to BG2 which was for all intents and purposes like chess. Thx for the *bold* however. Oh, I'm gonna abuse the living h..

Well, there are dozens of videos out there of people doing this, I highly doubt that all of them save-scummed. The combat in Pillars is *highly* tactically on higher difficulties, there is no real way to deny that fact. I never said that Pillars was *the* most tactical RPG ever or even that it was more tactical than BG or BG2, but your arguments about it somehow not being tactical are highly flawed. You're basically arguing that the second fastest man alive "isn't actually fast at all because Usain Bolt was faster at the Olympics" - this is called "moving the goalposts" and is a common debating technique that almost always leads to skewed perspectives and faulty arguments.

Hah. Nice Narcissus reference and I think that is a common issue with writers. I call it, up their own ass syndrome.

I take pleasure in experiencing the beauty of artistic writing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@@cata112233 9 times out of 10 its more like autistic writing. if you want good writing. go read a book.

@@anonymouseovermouse1960 games are a visual media. its not about the writing. its about telling you a story through visuals and gameplay mechanics. dialogue and eloquent writing might be nice in some niche story based games but its not to be expected. also the fuck is that scroll you wrote in reply to me? learn to paragraph. shorten that shit or give me a TLDR cuz no one in their right mind would sit down and read that.

@@anonymouseovermouse1960 i cant be assed to read those shity scrolls man. learn to hit the enter key while you write or knock like half of that shit off.

pillars is not different from most RPGs or video games in that sense tho, even in bg 1 and 2 the narrative flows because, as you said, "you are important because the narrative makes you important".

I thought Tyranny had a good premise but nowhere near enough stuff to fill out the world and insane railroading once you've picked your path. Honestly, once I'd finished the prologue, it was never as interesting again.

@@Robert399 Well it was a lower budget title and was priced accordingly. It was a risky title for the studio to begin with and the games final sales were reported to be somewhat limited. So the developers weren't really going for a massive epic open world. But I thought the world building and story masterfully showcased the corner of the world the character had been sent in to gain control of.

@@Robert399 I picked go against everyone path and it was great, because I wasn't railroaded, I had the option of choosing several times if I want to join the rebels.

@@Malisa1990 Really? I thought the only chances to join the rebels were in the prologue. I intended to play a well-meaning Kyros loyalist who gradually changed allegiances but I wasn't able to. Once I picked Disfavored in the prologue (because the Chorus are lunatics), my only options were them or anarchist (which is dumb because you still have to fight all the factions you want to help).

Lol, man I tried :)

Dragonfall is easily my favourite isometric RPG. I like it even more than the BG series.

And it's really sad that we probably won't see much more of these characters. It was definitely the strongest of the shadow run trilogy

Balduran You can pick your berries, I have to track down thr guys who betrayed by team of highly trained criminals

Then more power to you, chummer.

Well said. I really enjoyed both but Pillars is much more memorable for me.

@Nick Carbaugh So ignorant.. can you be any more of a follower? You guys honestly bother the shit out of me with how closed-minded you are. Just go play your 1 game and never look out to all the cool different games the rest of us enjoy. Dumbasses.

Except that there's nothing of Dune in Pillars. Within the 1st 100pages of Dune, we knew House Atreides was obliged to take a 'promotion' that was clearly a political trap. That Paul was an heir of more than the House. That Jessica had betrayed her order for love, & they were at best bemused. We learned in the first half of the first act of Pillars that we had memories of past lives & that the offer of land wasn't as golden as promised. Nothing in that justifies us sticking around, mind you. There's no personal stake beyond the cultists. And did they intentionally threaten the PC? Nope. A curiosity. But not compelling. And this is the problem with Pillars in general. Obsidian loves deconstruction so much that they've turned it into their own trope. It ceased being intriguing with Mask of the Betrayer. Now it's simply recycled sop to look literary. Plot matters.

It's very memorable, like a virtual dungeon master in the vein of Fallout 1/2's little description text box.

DocDelray in my opinion Dragonfall is even better and Hongkong is pretty good as well

I've been playing Dragonfall now that I'm done with Returns. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of butt hurt. I love the story and I love that I have progressive characters that grow with me as I play the game and play with them. Eiger by the way is my least favorite, every time she opens her mouth I can't not roll my eyes. It's at the point where I sometimes take whatever options story wise that make her mad. Where I think it falls short compared to the other one is in the shear mass of enemies and the RNG. After you slog through wave after wave of 6-7 dudes I get so tired of whatever map I'm on and I just want the mission to end. The RNG of the game also feels like it's stacked super hard against you. Even when the hit should be pretty much guaranteed you miss. I missed twice in a row on a 99% hit. The game is fun though and I'm gonna keep playing, I just get frustrated is all.

Shadowfall is superior in every way, if you like Returns, you should love Dragonfall. I just recently purchased Hong Kong, so I cannot speak on its quality, however, it's rated quite highly.

I’m glad you enjoyed the games. As a backer of those games I’m glad other people enjoyed them

@@oliviawilliams6204 hells ever since that post I've played through all three a couple times with various builds and even a couple of the community made campaigns. What I'm really stoked about though is that since then, my friends and I have been playing the table top game whenever we get the chance. We're currently trying to infiltrate a go gang that's been blowing up on the scene practically over night. So far so good, but I got a feeling we're going to be getting our hands real dirty pretty soon.

Alice Alysia I hope you enjoyed the game

Jackman LeBlanc While it really seemed like human noble was meant to be the “default” questline (and I did enjoy it a lot) I also really enjoyed dwarven noble origin. Thought it really fleshed out that entire section of the game later. Also you get the backstory on the “direct from Orzammar” guy and what’s not to like about that lol

Most of the origins are pretty good, the only ones i didn't liked much were the dalish elf and mage origins.

@@zzxp1 i really enjoyed the mage origin rip

@@senilevideoenjoyer I mean it is not bad. But it is just that the noble human, noble dwarf and city elf have more sweet drama.

I love city elf. Roaring rampage of revenge

The problem I have with Pillars of Eternity is that the setting pretends to be alien and interesting, but it actually isn't. There's humans and elves and dwarves, but they work differently to those in other settings... but they're still humans and elves and dwarves. They're familiar but work in unfamiliar ways. Why not inventing your own races that aren't elves and dwarves then? If you put in elves and dwarves but make them work differently from how they usually work, it just confuses players without actually adding anything to the game. Elder Scrolls has the Khajiit and Argonians. Wizardry had the Wookie-like Mooks. The recently released Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar has a race that has a giant eyeball for a head. How cool is that! Pillars has... elves and dwarves and hobbits with different names and slightly different stats than they'd have in other games. Not very fascinating, is it? It forces the player to learn new rules, but it doesn't give them the wow-effect of encountering something they've never seen before. They might be called Orlons and they don't have hairy feet, but they're essentially still hobbits, and hobbits are familiar. But since they're slightly different from hobbits in LotR and D&D, the player has to forget the things he knows about hobbits and learn the specific rules of that race applying to this particular game. It's MORE effort than learning the rules of a new race from scratch, like weird eyeball-headed things with a talent for psionics, or four-armed insects who can quadruple-wield weapons, because it requires you to throw your existing image overboard and replace it with something new, while the unusual races I just mentioned are easier to learn because you discover them for the first time and they will seem special to you. Hobbits with a different name and slightly different characteristics won't feel special. They're just the same old familiar high fantasy race that you've seen a dozen times before, the differences aren't significant enough to make them inherently interesting. Everything about Pillars is like that. It doesn't use the common fantasy trope names, but it sure uses the tropes. There are no kobolds or goblins, but some of the first enemies you encounter are pretty much just a reskin of the generic kobold or goblin. They have a different name, but there's nothing about them that sets them apart from generic kobolds or goblins, not visually, not from a gameplay perspective (they're small weak hostile creatures that tend to attack in groups... just like kobolds and goblins!), and not from a lore perspective either. Using different names for generic fantasy races *that work just the same way as the generic race they were inspired by* adds additional required effort for the player with zero payoff for that effort. The player has to learn that Blahblahs are this world's equivalent of goblins, and when NPCs mention Blahblahs in a dialogue he has to remember: "What were those things supposed to be? Oh, right, they're those goblin-like creatures!" What does this simple renaming of a tropey creature add to the game? Nothing at all. It's still as generic as it gets for high fantasy. And despite all its claims of being original and avoiding fantasy tropes, everything I encountered in Pillars felt like pure tropey high fantasy cliches to me. There wasn't anything truly interesting, truly fresh, truly alien. I played a lot of RPGs in my time, and Pillars felt just as generic to me as Baldur's Gate 1 did, just typical generic Forgotten Realms high fantasy. Arcanum, a game that takes a generic elves-and-dwarves fantasy setting and pushes it into the industrial revolution, felt way fresher and more interesting than Pillars despite using generic and familiar races that work as expected, because it actually does some interesting non-generic things with its setting. It had steam engines and large Victorian cities with railway lines and newspaper offices, and mages are prohibited from riding the train because in this world, magic interferes with technology and causes it to malfunction. Wow, how cool is that? Morrowind throws us into an alien, unfamiliar world with a dormant volcano at its center and most of its landmass covered in ash and the predominant vegetation being giant tree-sized mushrooms, and there are weapons made of glass and armors made of the chitin shells of giant insects... what a world to explore! Planescape Torment uses classic D&D rules and everyone knows what the stats and skills do, no weird stuff like "Might" being important for wizards, and while the systems are generic and familiar, nothing about the content is. You're a dreadlocked dude with amnesia who happens to be immortal, the first companion you get is a floating skull, and you'll be confronted by concepts like truth being shaped by what people believe, portals potentially appearing everywhere, and the "rule of three" while you explore the weird setting of Planescape. Each of those games uses familiar concepts to get the player started. The stats and skills work just the way we're used to: if you're familiar with RPGs, you can create a character without having to read a manual first to make sure which stats do what. Strength is for fighters. Willpower is for wizards. It works like we expect it to work. No surprises there. But once your character is created and the game starts, you're in for some amazing discoveries as you are confronted with more and more unfamiliar and unexpected things. Pillars is the exact opposite of that: its system switches up the way stats work and makes the player, even if he is familiar with RPGs, scratch his head while he reads the tooltips and tries to figure out what all those stats actually do. It re-names familiar fantasy races and makes the player scratch his head even more as he tries to figure out what all these races with the strange names are like. But then, this unfamiliarity wears off as the player progresses in the game. He realizes that all these differently-named things are just equivalents of generic fantasy races and concepts. Visually, the environments and items and creatures look so familiar, it might be set right at the Sword Coast. No steam trains, mushroom trees or floating skulls to be found here! Pillars pretends not to be generic, but ends up being so anyway. Except that the player has to familiarize himself with unfamiliar names and words, only to realize that the actual essence of all these strangely named things is exactly the same as it is with the old familiar concepts of high fantasy. The world of Pillars is just Forgotten Realms with different words for things.

I can't give two shits about a unique setting if the story doesn't draw me in. Even with your dissertation here I'm left thinking. "Ok, so Pillars of Eternity just...is." That is, it exists, it is its own thing, but it doesn't involve me. I don't care that it defies tropes, subverts my expectations. It isn't giving me any reason to *care.*

I agree with the previous responses. While the game does get better after setting aside all the irritating little things they put in there that add nothing, I didn't finish it. It got boring and the story wasn't compelling enough to keep going with it. I liked the addition of a keep, that was novel.

what?

*"The writing in the first part is exposition heavy to give you something to ground yourself on"* It is still exposition. The excuse could be 100% valid, with citations and a hundred scientists backing it up... but the writing sin will still be a writing sin

Yeah, but there are opportunities for your character to say that their motivation for being in the area in the first place is to hide and/or live in seclusion. Combined with how preachy we are with that insane Watcher, that life choice doesn't sound like one that our condition would interfere with much. Also, there's no indication given (up to that point, at least; I don't know about later) as to when the Saint's War (six months ago? fifteen years ago?) was or if absolutely every child since has been born without a soul. If they're hanging everyone who's birthed a soulless child, there are married folks and pregnant women still living there, and there was genuine hope that the local lord's baby would be born with a soul, then it's a low enough probability that - combined with the influx of outside settlers - it's not a long-term problem. I really want to like PoE, but instead of feeling any personal connection or sense of urgency, my character just seems like a passive... watcher.

Why should you have to work to get interested?

It depends on whether you are imagining how this generic PC character would react if it were you, or if it hasn't hooked you yet, just that character himself. I think of it as, - Given this watcher power by simply being in the wrong place/wrong time. Coincidence. In the same note, going insane is just part that same bad luck, will pursuing the bad guy fix me? no? why pursue him then. - Children being born with souls, interesting, bad guy involved, cool. Who is my character again? Does he care? Is he a good guy? Just a nosy guy who got involved by sheer accident? At this point of revelation I'm still wondering who my PC is, none of the dialogue choices convey any sort of personality. - Despite not giving the PC any personality, the game insists on telling and not showing... I can see the fancy rocks, I don't need them described in detail. I can see the caravan master and can infer or imagine how he feels based on his dialogue, I don't need a description of his clothes or face, I can see him on the screen. If he makes an unexpected face or gesture, yea that is valid, but all the game does is describe and tell, EVEN things I can see on the screen. But hey, I'm a guy who goes to a sightseeing place and goes, oh... that's nice/beautiful/interesting view, whats the point now? Rather than someone who goes to those places and has an "experience" where the camera pans and spins around you while you open your arms, take in a deep breath and absorb the atmosphere and spirit etc etc.

Uhhhhhh more like they go insane due to being awoken to their past lives.

Can you expand on what you disagree on?

I find the the stats very well designed. The story is good not great but enjoyable. The third act is a bit of a drag. And hey I love shadowrun series it's just that i think that pillars is the better game here.

Admittedly I haven't played enough of Pillars to get a good feel for the story. I played through Rodricks castle, got to the catacombs and triggered the next story event with the masked dudes down there, but I find myself still without motivation to play, which is a shame because the game play is actually really good once you get into some of the more structured battles. I'm thinking I might try Tyranny before Torment: Tides of Numenera releases.

Maybe do a let's play kind of thing with tyranny, where you can comment on the game while playing ;)

So, I just started playing Tyranny, and whole-lee-shit. This is a fantastic game.

Thanks for the compliment. I love the thought of this channel getting big. Working on an animated video that is based on a short story I wrote. Hope that is as well received as these other videos.

i dont wana be that guy but, your channel wont get big. it will linger on for a little bit but many people will realize your criticism's are obviously biased and are nothing more than subjective judgements. also if you think shadowrun was not a brainless or easy game then you are a blind fanboy of the series as you seem to be.

@@ninvusoogoar6098 he went big lmao

@@jetaddict420 100K ish subs is not big you know....

The point was, pillars gave a lot of useless info in a garbage way, so him getting info wrong is kinda on the game's writing there. The spite and condescesing tone does come from somewhere my dude, it's not like you want to hate the game you bought in a genre you like...

@@adrianmynarczyk4560 To be honest dude you're commenting on a 3 year old comment. I have no idea the context for any of this anymore and I don't really have an interest in said context at this point anyways so I'll just take your word for it.

@@FearTheLivingDFG he was wrong anyway, the "I misunderstood basic situation stuff" is definitely not on the game. The intro shit about the storms and the reason the caravan stopped wasn't hard to figure out, your original post was completely accurate.

Well from some of his comments, it's clear that he has played more than an hour (a messurement of time). But I can agree that it's also clear he never got far into it, and was generally bad at the game, seemingly never giving it a second try.

Think you hinted at one of the main problems a lot of players have with PoE and D&D rules in general: "...a well timed magic missile can interrupt..." the key word there is "CAN" when many of us think it should be "WILL" Think backgammon vs. chess. Both are fine games. But most prefer chess.

I have to agree with strat in the boring part, the gameplay was fine,actually very good but kind of slow,but daaaam the story was boring. Tyranny is a masterpiece compared to pillars.

@@diegomaynez1425 Of course I'd note more generally that.. I haven't played pillars but it seems that it never really gave him the motivation to keep going. Though it does seem ironic that the man who talked so much about people not giving games a second chance over slow introductions, he then ended up not being able to find the motivation to keep going after a slow, boring, generic introduction. However, I WOULD say that it's still a good example of the fact that you really need to tell players what about your game is interesting if you want them to play it. Defending PoE whilst bashing shadowrun a bit myself though. The second I heard the sniper ask who's second in command and putting the PC in charge I thought "Oh she's gonna die"

Boy, you didn't pay attention to a single thing the entire game did you? Did you even read the dialogue or just aggressively tapped space bar?

Watch Lorerunner's "Ruminations" on Pillars for a strong counter to your input.

@Nikeimizhong Game's not for everyone...You have to be literate to actually enjoy it :^)

It's an alias for a Shadowrunner. It's not what I'd choose but it's not out of place for the setting.

@@Robert399 Hm. Good to know. Thank you.

Fuck off

Yup. Initial motivation is the strongest motivator pushing a player forward. You have to remember that you are asking a person to give up over 20 hours of their life on something. Show them why they would do that early on, and you have a better chance keeping them throughout.

The entire analysis of PoE is completely wrong.

do either of you care to clarify on that statement or are you just going to say hes wrong and leave without backing it up

@@jimmy-breeze I'd like to say I agree, if you're going to try ot say something like "It's blatantly wrong" you should try to go into more detail.

I would like to point out that he set the difficulty of PoE to easy, and then complained that it was too easy. You might not like the style of Real Time with Pause, but the game when played on Normal, and especially after the tutorial, are much harder than he made them out to be.

Yes it can. It should be disabled by default.

I rained plenty of fire as a mage in Dragonfall, especially after bumping up willpower/spellcasting to highest levels. At the end I was throwing 50+dmg flamethrower crits like candy and well placed fireballs on conveniently clustered enemy groups felt immensely satisfying. Those along with CC spells like Petrify, Blind etc. made me feel like a GOD during endgame. A mean, vengeful God with 10armor and a fire fetish. Just have Dietrich act as your personal leyliner-buffbot and go crazy. Better yet, find a large leyline and go even more crazy. Shamans felt a bit mild, tho. Sure.

Other than SMGs, there aren't really any weak ranged weapons in the SR sequels; all of them scale, as the story progresses, and they cost less to upgrade than the spells do. Sure, without crits an assault rifle with Full Auto does the best single-target damage, but shotguns stun-lock and pistols do more damage per AP. If your Dragonfall street sammy sacrifices enough stats for a neat trick, you can even use that dinky starter pistol to disarm a certain minigun-toting orc in the Dragonfall's tutorial level. Still, it's a moot point... shuriken are the best weapon in Dragonfall and Hong Kong.

@No Lümpen FTL: Faster Than Light is RTwP and it's an amazing game.

Thanks for the compliment. Working on a new short story that I may be commissioning art for to make an animatic for it. Make sure you sub so you can see the new videos I have planned.

Also good luck with the pathfinder campaign. Writing your own campaign is an excellent intro to game design :)

Strat-Edgy Productions I've already subscribed, mate. And yeah, planning the campaign makes me hunger for better tools to craft my world with. Games would be a superb medium for it.

It is. And for the "successor to Baulders Gate" it is odd that the game has absolutely no sense of humor.

Agreed.

I actually prefer a different Monika, she's also German suprisingly.

Your opinion is biased. You've not even played the game he's comparing, so your response is in fact meaningless and carries zero weight.

thats all his videos are. a idiot who cannot understand the difference between subjective judgements and actual criticism's

Critism is subjective only to the extent that it's impossible to be wholy objective about the value of a piece of artwork. But is possible to be objectively fair - hence "fair critisism" - and it is possible to be objectively informative about the work. The main purpose of critisism is informing people of the merits or otherwise of a piece of the work, enabling the reader/viewer to understand if they would or would not enjoy the work. It is not the purpose of critisism to state what the critic liked or disliked about the work themselves. So for example, I can't stand reading Charles Dickens becasue I just can't read his prose style for more than five minutes vebore tossing the book away, I hate it. Love Shakespear, hate Dickens. But that does not mean I try to say his books are badly written or that they are bad books a whole. Thay are the opposite of that. I just don't personally like reading them. In the context of PoE's slow burner narrative opening you can say "The story starts very slowly, and some people might find it tedious", which is fair critisism. You can say "The story starts very slowly which I found tedious" which fair statement of personal opinion. What you can't say is "The story starts very slowly and is tedious" both becasue it is objectively incorrect (not everyone by any means finds it tedious) and becasue it is an attempt to pass off personal opinion as fair critisism.

says the idiot trying to troll bait, try subtlety when baiting. kids these days.

I like both. That's why I like Shadowrun's setting. The story on the other hand is just much better paced than PoE's.

The comparison is between opening scenes, not the game as a whole.

"The comparison is between opening scenes, not the game as a whole" - and is that a fair comparison? Especially considering any given story is going to have it's own unique pacing and tempo?

Yes, it is a fair comparison, I haven't beaten Dragon Age Inquisition and don't plan to because it is just not an interesting story and the pacing is horrendous, a games opening setting is extremely important

Boring fucking story. Tyranny lasted longer and was more interesting. The soundtrack tries really hard to be Baldur's Gate.

Luvbacon man just stfu PoE really bad cos every choice you make - doesn't change endings - also choices not changing gameplay too

"Opted out at the first battle comparisons. You compared a fight against a wolf with a couple of lvl 1 characters to a fight against a presumably high level mage." I actually compared the way the game opens. Just because the game opens with a lame battle doesn't mean the comparison isn't fair. It's literally the entire point. I am comparing the way two games handle their opening moments. "No mention of the way background choices for your character open different dialogue angles later on in the game." This was a comparison video about the way the game opens... Not the way the game is 5 hours into it. "And the cheapest way of comparing two things - being all suave and romantic in one segment, while describing the other with blunt condescending remarks​, throwing in an occasional "whatever"." If the PoE game did anything in the first hour or even the first two or so hours to impress me, I would have been all over it. Hence my absolute fanboy-esque love for Tyranny which I did a whole video on. I'm not biased. I literally cannot force my way through PoE due to their inability to hook me in with any of the gameplay, or story elements on display.

Strat-Edgy Productions man, I get the point - you're not in the thick of it from the start in PoE, or at any point for that matter. But you are talking about things that have nothing to do with narrative structure. Like saying it took too long to figure out a new stat system as compared to the system of your childhood favourite. Or saying that the battle system lacks strategy and doesn't require proper positioning or timing your actions - all using an example of a training fight. Or saying optimising your characteristics (which you aren't obligated to do) is somehow detrimental to the experience.

Look, you said you opted out after the first battle comparisons, and from what you are saying here, it is obvious you are assuming I haven't addressed your concerns in the rest of the video. I can't really defend something you haven't watched, but as always, you are entitled to your opinion.

Strat-Edgy Productions dude, gimme a break, I was at the 20 minute mark of a 30 minute long video. And you haven't addressee any of my points in the remaining video - just finished it. The most disappointing thing for me, coming from your manipulative game design video, is how you find no problem clearly leading your audience with the tonal shifts.

Read my comment again, and I think I made it sound way too adversarial and accusatory - my bad. I'll just reiterate that I think that some of the points about PoE that didn't pertain to the obviously extremely loose narrative incentives felt a bit ill informed.

Neverwinter Nights was my jam. I was able to build all those fantasy worlds I had been dreaming up, and scripting was intuitive. I miss that game. Even bought it a few years back, only to be disappointed that the servers shut down. :(

Nope. You are pulling that out of your ass.

i honestly dont get why people are bitching about might effecting magic. might isnt just a physical trait. its same with strength. physical strength \ mental strength are both viable description for strength. same with might. you can have arcane might. if anything might allows for more role playing then "im a mage so i must be smart". you can play as an idiot magician. or you can clame your a fighter that might not be really physically strong but just knows how to swing well and isnt a "i am physically strong because im a fighter"

It's just, too tiresome I guess.... I want to enjoy the game but there's just sooooo much reading

It's not that I dislike reading, I do like reading when it's interesting. It's more that the dialogue and the content was uninteresting and forgettable. I absolutely did not feel immersed in the world and didn't care for the writing style either

aboomination the game starts slow, but it have some amazing twists and story. Still remember the first first time you talk to your sister, mind blowing

The most frustrating thing about PoE to me is the story. It's just another generic "ancient evil cult up to no good" story like you see in every D&D campaign.

It was really interesting figuring out why that cult was doing what it was doing, along with how it was operating. I really really enjoyed Pillars tbh

" It's just another generic "ancient evil cult up to no good" " Watch Lorerunner's "Ruminations" on Pillars if you're interested in hearing why you may be wrong about that. Granted it's over an hour long video, but the truth is that while initially it may appear to be the case it's actually much more ambiguous as is standard for Obsidian.

If I have to watch a video on RU-vid to grasp the ambiguity of the story, how ambiguous is it really?

The gameplay of the Shadowrun games is weaker. It's basically a dumbed down RPG in terms of mechanics and the tactical combat was as standard as they come. The Matrix is also pretty shit.

Agreed.

Having everyone die around me due to some dark magic was a bit of a big bang though.

Yeah. I don't understand the lack of wonder to explore the world for itself instead of being thrown into an epic journey from the bat.

Thanks a lot. Always room for improvement in my videos.

You're most certainly welcome. I'm glad I could put my two cents in :3

Glad someone mentioned it months before I could x3

Thomas Sinclair happy you like it

Sadly that’s my experience too

That's why most wizards in Fairy Tail are buff in one way or another. :'D

I wouldn't want the signposting off entirely, I just wouldn't want to be shown what the 'roll' would be for a stat since as he says, the highest number is then obviously the correct answer. I really don't know why you would bother putting the numbers there in the first place, especially since if there's multiple options for the same stat you're never realistically going to pick the lowest number on purpose. Being told the stat being checked however isn't a bad thing. The difference between actual pen and paper RPG's and games taking influence from them is that in D&D, I can tell the DM that I'm doing something and if it's not clear to one of us we can come to an agreement on what kind of stat check it would be. In a video game I've basically got to hope that the developer was thinking the same thing I am at that point in the game, I can't change the games mind as to why that option looks like a 'strength' check to me, it's just clearer to tell me it's a 'strength check' in brackets than make me feel cheated afterwards when it turned out to be intellect.

You missed the entire point, the length is not the point but delivery and order of important of things. It's like you completely forgot about the order of importance of story telling. If I wanted an info dump on pointless information I can't use or need yet I'd go back to school. You should grow to know deeper things and inquire as you progress. Not the other way around when you really don't have a need or reason to know it nor did you ask about it. Also its hilarious how you use Fallout 2's beginning as an example when it is universally agreed to be the WORST part of the game and has no real choice other than whether to fight the guy at the end or not.

@@ilovecody7514 Dude, did you even read my comment? "...(anyone remember this awefull starting dungeon in Fallout 2,..." And one can have both, a developing character and in-depth character creation which enables the player to craft a more unique character.

@@MrPobanz Never said we couldn't have both, BUT my point was as was the whole argument of most of the video is the order in which information is available and given to us matters. The character creation part was more of a minor gripe. The role play elements should contribute to the story and allow things to move along while establishing how things work rather than grinding things to a halt. I will concede I misread that fallout 2 comment, but a rpg should be able to balance being dense while keeping the pace. Planescape torment is an amazing example as you are just thrown in and uncover things at your own pace.

John Sourvelis Hes comparing how they handled opening scenes, pay attention

i payed attention, no need to be rude, i still think its unfair and a matter of perspective, pillars of eternity got me hooked from the very first moment where i got bored instantly with shadowrun

It's like a feature of the channel now. What is ironic is that when I don't mispronounce words, I still catch shit for mispronouncing them. You can't win.

@@StratEdgyProductions While amusing, it does sometimes detract from the serious points you're making i have to say. "Dasein" is another word you used in another video. But, it's just a nitpick and something that jumped out at me while watching :)

You missed the entire point of the video

i see no point of the video, more like it, but at least i explained why i see things this way. youre just blurting out w/e.

Tamás Jenővári Ok, why dont you tell me in your own words, why physical strength affects magical ability. Lets start there

sigh... first of all, "might" doesnt translate to physical strength, but general power in many ways, check out the definition on any site and you'll see. btw this u would have done so if u didnt just blurt ur nonsense uncontrollobly. second, the devs said many times in update videos and q&a-s that while designing the system realism was secondrated in order to achieve a fun satisfying customizability. the goal was to make it fun and different than everything else we've seen before. now, this approach might divide players, but thats okhay. some dont like it and some do. shadowrun on the other hand has been around for years with detailed and worked out rule books, so comparin the two games is utterly idiotic in my opinion. in the end, it all comes out to personal preference like with anything, but thats beside the point. i was criticizing the video itself, because it clearly havent done the research, nor had the perspective pillars was aiming for. all im seeing is some guy blurting out his first impression for half an hour without depth and reasoning or understanding. thats why i said that its unprofessional. btw i dont wanna follow this thread anymore, just told my mind. thanks

+Tamás Jenővári Agreed.

Probably has something to do with the type of person you are. Do you like doing or experiencing? Most mainstream game reviewers and journalists are left leaning empathetic experiencers, hence PoE's accolades. But most regular gamers lean towards doers. I say lean because most everyone likes experiencing, but ONLY experiencing and being told things doesn't make a game. Doer's want to be an active in the experience, to work towards fixing or solving the Player Character's (PC's) problems. But PoE's PC display's no motivations no drives, he was just in the vicinity of the strong magic that made him a watcher. Even after that you arrive at the village and still no personality. Even the people/ghosts around you are mostly apathetic and only describe depravity they live in. The only person who thinks or imprints any motivation on the PC with "New place, Weird tree with dead bodies, let's get my bearings and explore to find out what is happening" is YOU the player. If the Player Character I'm roleplaying is completely apathetic to the whole situation, with no feelings... Why do I care? He's just a walking describe-my-surroundings-and-Physically-Feels-bot.

"Planescape" Planescape was morally gray??? I didnt finish that game but from what I played There were options to play as a classic action hero, or to sell your companions into slavery. not What I would call gray.

In Planescape, TNO _is_ gray, from head to toe. (Also, there are five shades of neutral alignments and many ways to handle the final boss on your terms.)

He didn't get far enough to encounter more difficult parts of the game as well.

pythonxz I love his videos, and everyone makes mistakes, but that just seemed so silly to me