Zwiebelchen

Leipzig hier. The amount of Sauerkraut in this thread is disturbing. ;P Currently dying at 40 degrees in the office...

You beat the game in about 50 hours? I took in the range of 100 hours minimum, playing on PotD on a completionist playthrough. So 20 hours per part seems realistic to me. The main game was incredibly long for a game released in 2015.

And you're still an ****, even if you didn't like them.

No. But keep trying!

I never said DLC are bad, but I prefer one uninterrupted game experience. I also play Telltale games when all episodes are out, binge watch TV shows and read shorter novels in one sitting. Episodic content keeps you interested in the franchise for longer than if you had full releases, hence why so many companies do that nowadays. It's basicly the old "a candle that burns twice as bright lasts half as long" principle. On topic: I'm fine with having two episodes for the expansion, as long as there is a clear destinct cut between the episodes so that it feels like it's making sense. So, for example, if the expansion is split into a optional TotSC-like side-content episode, and an afterstory episode that extends the content after beating the big bad of the main game, then this is fine to me, because then, there is a clear disconnect between the two parts. What I wouldn't want is to see a "to be continued" screen after beating the first episode.

The Devil isn't artificial in the way that the gods are though. Her body is a construct, her soul used to belong to a woman of flesh and blood... unless there is a twist somewhere. Heh; twist: her body is actually flesh-and-blood with metallic body-painting applied, but her soul comes from a cheeseburger. Sect ideas he said... Someone give this guy a stage, please! This stand-up comedy must prevail!

Actually, I think that PoE hit the sweet spot between dungeoning and exploration. Most complaints weren't about the one-sidedness in design here, but about the overall quality of the content: Most wilderness areas had very little to discover actually, especially since they mostly contained copy & paste encounters. Most dungeons lacked a destinct design idea, be it story elements or puzzles. I am actually in the crowd that considers PoE as being too long. I always felt like the developers should have cut the content by at least one third and instead concentrate the resources on improving the remaining content. Let's take some BG2 examples here, as I felt this game did this best. - Irenicus dungeon was littered with non-intrusive story exposition; it had a clear purpose of combining a tutorial area with getting to know the characters, while still providing some optional content for exploration; you fight mephits, dwarves, goblins, golems, a cambion, etc. ... all in the tutorial area! And it does all that with a surprisingly low amount of text (compared to PoE that is)! - The Unseeing Eye quest: you fight spiders, shadows, salamanders, beholders, undead, solve riddles, have an epic optional battle (lich), multiple optional battles that provide awesome loot and strong visual variation in area design - and a couple of optional sidequests in the sewer part. - Planar sphere: you fight golems, incredibly strong demons, dwarves, strong halfling parties, elemental-themed rooms, powerful mages and a beholder, you solve many puzzles, find unique treasure and on top of that, have another zone with very destinct visual variation - Shadowlord dungeon: mostly fighting shadows and undead, but again multiple puzzles to solve and possibly the most famous floor-tile puzzle of gaming history. And a mother****ing dragon (that is actually super-powerful in a non-cheating way). You also find a companion here, have some traceback missions like Yoshimo's redemption and a "think outside the box"-encounter (using the mirror to kill the shadows at the entrance) and the most satisfying dungeon reward ever: liberating a zone from it's eternal darkness, which ultimately makes you smile when a grimdark zone turns into a beautiful peaceful forest due to your actions. I can go on and on about how BG2 and even ToB had a phenomenal area and dungeon design. Compared to that, PoE feels like bland repetition of a mathematic formulaes. Endless filler-content, multiple samey-looking dungeon levels and no memorable quests and optional content inside these dungeons. Basicly, to sum up the popular complaint about PoE - which is definitely not that the game is too explore-y or dungeon-y - it has too much content. It mistakes quantity for quality. Don't get me wrong, PoE nails several aspects of a good RPG experience, like transparency of combat mechanics or meaningful multiple-choice with reactivity options, but it still has a long way to go in terms of dungeon, quest and encounter design.

Actually, the games aren't so different at all. Granted, I consider PoE more of a hybrid between RTS and RPG, not a "true" RPG. Combat is just way too important in this game to consider PoE a full-fledged RPG. So the comparison to SC2 is not that far-fetched. And let's be perfectly honest: If there is one thing Blizzard is masterclass at, then it is polishing games. Everything, from the 1-second-menu-sounds to the animations of each single unit in any of Blizzard games is thought-through ad absurdity. The consistency of art-style in WoW over the life-span of almost a decade is unparalleled in game history. There is a lot and I really mean a ****ing huge lot to learn from blizzard games in terms of look & feel. And if we get back to the SC2 example, then the most obvious things we can learn from this game are: - intuitive and "responsive" UI - pathing algorithms (like ... literally. SC2 has the smoothest pathing algorithm I have ever seen. And that with several hundreds of units at the same time!) - consistency of art style - modularity and modding support (actually, they went a little bit too far here, overwhelming the players with possibilities and flexibility that is impossible to handle for inexperienced users) - optimized session length (most games are over in 20 minutes, which is kind of the magic number) - fantastic animations that provide clear visual feedback on what is happening in just the blink of an eye.

Wait ... what if ... the PC isn't actually a watcher that can read souls, but just high on Svef and the companions aren't companions but trip-sitters? MIND BLOWN!

Ah, come on, give me a break ...

Yes, thank you! I'm not that good with words, so I had trouble putting my thoughts in one statement. But this sums it up pretty good. ... But I got to admit I really liked Deekin. I wouldn't mind a cameo. Maybe because I'm reading too much "Order of the Stick" lately... On the other hand, I never liked any of the construct companions in all other games I played. Except for Legion in Mass Effect.

How dare they. So you dislike them because their entire stories and personal quests aren't intricately tied to the main character's main story and quest? Does every companion have to be intricately tied to the main plot? It's not possible to encounter other people in the setting who have their own goals and affairs, but who team up with you because traveling together would be mutually beneficial and/or it would help further each other's goal even if you and they don't have the same common goal? It's "personally tied to the main quest" or bust? First, I think that would be a bit contrived. Second, from what I've read from Obsidian staff regarding the Pillars of Eternity game (and BioWare for the Dragon Age franchise), companions are a good way to showcase different in-universe races, cultures, classes, and factions. Each companion "represents" their respective people. For example, Aloth represents the Aedyr culture and high-class upbringing (especially given various Dyrwoodans' reactions to him), as well as the wizard class's intellectual bend. Pallegina represents the Valian Republic since that's her culture, and she shows a bit of what it's like being a paladin (how one's duty can conflict with one's convictions), and shows a glimpse of what some godlike go through in their day-to-day lives (like getting into a male organization by being an infertile godlike and thus "not legally a woman," and often getting cheeky remarks for her godlike features). Sagani "represents" the boreal dwarf culture and the ranger's (in-universe) bond with their animal companion (due to her bond with Itumaak). Hiravias "represents" the Glanfathan and druid culture, as well as the orlans and the discrimination they go through. I personally see all of the characters as "representatives" of different races, cultures, classes, and factions within the game. Sure, we get text descriptions of each one and encounter NPCs that give their sob stories, but companions we spend a lot of time traveling with, getting to know, possibly forming deeper bonds with, and learning about their backgrounds and upbringings and feelings about their culture/people. We get much more detail than we could just talking to an unnamed villager who basically goes "Help me with X!" "Here you go!" "Oh, thank you! *rewards with gold/gift/xp*" So, I don't think being disconnected from the story is a bad thing. I think it adds a touch of realism (since I still think it would be a bit contrived if all our companions came with us only because they all had personal business with the main plot, begging the question of "Isn't there anyone who wants to tag along just because we happen to be going the same direction?" as is the case with most RPGs), and they can still enrich the lore and setting of the game in other ways without being personally tied to the main story. I actually think that the whole "ambassador" idea of the PoE companions was one of the weakest features of the game. Companions felt extremely lore-dumpy because of this. It always felt like "look, this is my god, this is my country, this is my class ... eat it!". I guess the reason why so many people like Grieving Mother is because she had the lowest amount of lore-dump to deliver. And all her lore pieces are basicly tied to the main story and the central goal (curing the Hollowborn crisis). And the lore dump itself isn't even the main problem here. It's how it is presented: mostly through plain walls of text. I accept that PoE is a text-heavy game I really do, but that doesn't mean that all narrative has to be delivered by text. Why not have a cutscene in game-graphics that shows some of the critical moments of a character's background as a flashback? Why not use visual elements to deliver narrative, like the scripted intermissions? PoE had so much opportunity to deliver narrative through the intermission thing, but instead dumped every element into the dialogue box. Why? Especially since the PC basicly has soul-reading super-powers, this solution was served on the silver platter!

Wait... if god exists and trolls don't exist, how can we be sure this guy is a troll? He could also just be an idiot. Or a troll pretending to be an idiot. Or an idiot pretending to be a troll. But if science can not prove if he is a troll or not, doesn't that prove that god exists? And if god exists and thus, trolls don't exist, wouldn't the question if he is a troll be answered, which ultimately provides proof that god can not exist, which again throws up the question again if he is a troll? We are running in circles...

You know; there are some other numbers between 1 and 100. It's perfectly possible to not deliver a fantasy stereotype while still having an interesting character that is not a super-special unique snowflake in every way imaginable. I mean, come on, why does it have to be a bald male monk? Couldn't it have been like a non-bald male monk? Or a female monk? It's like they didn't even try. GM and Durance are perfect examples of how you can have a weird character without giving him a super-gimmicky premise like being a construct. The female dwarf hunter was also a nice change to the male melee dwarf cliché without going completely over the top in design. Why not more of this? Why go into extremes now all of a sudden when we managed to walk the fine line of "middleground between cliché and ape**** crazy" so well?

I'm just saying that the premise of a construct and bald monk are just so ... unoriginal these days. Name just one RPG release in the last 5 years that didn't have a gimmicky robot/construct/droid/mechanical sidekick and I can name you at least 5 that had for every single one you mention. And only very few of them so far had been interesting. One of many is about the only one that was well done ... if you actually consider him a construct. For "real" robots, I can only remember one that was interesting. The Geth companion in ME.