SkySlam

Very insightful poll! I'll keep the tradition of being the first to answer. My favorite class is the Chanter, and I chose the Lore/Background/RP option, and I would add the "Customizability", since it's possible (and very easy even for a non-tech-savvy like me) to swap in your personal favorite tunes and make him/her sing them all game long. What a cool feature, it really changed the game for me and I strongly hope it stays for PoE2! Apart from this, I find chanters extremely well crafted in many aspects, I especially like the names of their phrases and invocations: I find them poetic and charming. They really got that extra magic for me. My least favorite class is the Rogue, and I've chosen Mechanics/Gameplay. I find it especially aggravating to play a (melee) rogue with efficiency. In particular, I see the Rogue as a melee-only character. I'm not claiming this is correct or universally reasonable, it's just my personal view of the class, and since I can't make the melee variant work AT ALL, I tend to never include them in my party composition, much to my regret.

Priests probably won't work the same way in the sequel, so I don't think we need to worry about this. Yeah I heard Sawyer talk about that. Glad he's rethinking Priests. I've missed this, how is he rethinking Priests? I am totally fine with Priests 2.0 because in their current form, after a couple of runs, they become quite boring to play with the same exact repertoire of spells every time. Also, I hope we'll get more god-specific spells/talents. There is really too little difference at the moment between a Priest of Eothas and a Skaen's one. Teachings so far apart should lead to very different playstyles, not just one talent and one spell.

Spot on! I just got this AND the infamous quest scroll that never disappears in the same minute! http://i.imgur.com/Oxa5WRg.jpg

Of course each player has a different opinion on the game, based on their personal gaming history, desires, nostalgia etc. (for me PoE is a 9/10). Still, there are some points that are objective. To say that PoE is restrictive in terms of classes is just plain false, sorry. You can do A LOT of things, from muscle wizards and clever barbarians to ranged fighters and melee chanters. Maybe you have in mind some FALSELY class-based games, like for example Dìvinity: Original Sin, which presents you a lot of classes when you build your characters, but it's just an illusion of choice, because their system actually DOES NOT have classes, and your choice is completely meaningless, since from level 2 onward your character can learn whatever they want to and master ALL the magic elemental schools even when you started as a Soldier or a Rogue. About companions, I find them to be quite interesting, with evolving personalities and interesting moral dilemmas. More adult and mature, in a sense. What is your idea of good, interesting companions? Don't mention some of the over-the-top, one-dimentional BG characters, please. Anyway, I agree with you that they need to expand on friendships and personal motives in PoE2, hopefully without cringeworthy romances! I also agree on the story, while I wouldn't call it "weak" per se, it sure has some issues in how the plot unfolds and how quickly it gets weaved and then resolved in the final act.

We really have different points of view on this matter. Personally, I think that it feels much more natural and "realistic" that my companions start discussing without always having to report their feelings to the MC only. Why do five people in my party never argue, discuss or have some kind of longer, deeper conversation among them? They could even discuss MC decisions, disapproving or praising them. Instead, they limit 95% of their banter to short sentences, mostly jokes or witty comments, often unrelated to what is going on in the world. When they want to have some personal, interesting conversation, they talk to the MC alone! THIS is a true example of a world starting to move only with the protagonist around, in my eyes. I'll give another example avoiding spoilers. During the WM, when a lot of crazy things start unfolding, I would expect my companions to have some kind of discussion about all of that, maybe a meeting, maybe some clash of opinions, MC included or not. Instead, Maneha start talking to the Devil about her ex-girlfriend. I think party banter should also be timed better in PoE2. ^^ Finally, no one said that the MC couldn't take part to companions discussions or quarrels! For example, the MC could also say something, he/she could sedate a fight among NPCs, or could even choose to side with one of them. That way, it would make more sense to "force" the banter to the forefront.

Why? Personally, I don't want the game to come to a screeching halt whenever party members want to have a chat amongst themselves (walk and talk people, it's not that hard). That doesn't mean I don't want well-defined party members, suggesting that I should just go with hirelings because I don't share your exact preference in this regard is completely nonsensical. I didn't want to sound rude or dismissive, I'm sorry. I find that "walk and talk" is ok, it can stay for me, but I wish sometimes my companions could have some more meaningful and longer conversations, not just a couple of sentences and/or funny jokes unrelated to what's happening in the game. Maybe after a campfire? That way, it wouldn't break immersion and it would not interrupt the gameplay in the middle of anything. Otherwise, waking up after a night at the inn could be an even more fitting time to discuss things among party members. And what would you think about the option of the bubbles? They could appear on the companions that wants to discuss something and you could choose when and if to trigger their conversation without interrupting your plans; just like it happens now individually.

Personally I liked party banter quite a lot in PoE, but I'm all for expanding it, infact it is my biggest wish for PoE2! I totally agree with you about the disappearing text over my companions while I'm moving: that kind of conversation is terrible, superficial, and I often miss part of it! I would rather sit down and listen to a longer, deeper party banter à la BG2. Many players disagree with this tho, because they say the current way doesn't interrupt gameplay. Maybe in PoE2 they could use the system that you have to click on the cartoon bubble to make the party banter start. I don't know... people that consider party banter an hindrance to their game, should just avoid story companions and get a custom party of adventurers. I want to spend time knowing my companions for real, and I love listening to them discussing or arguing over something! Interjections are just witty comments by our companions, clearly disconnected from the actual conversation, I think they are cool just to add a bit of flavour, but of course they would be 100 times cooler if our companions actually had a full, real conversation with some NPCs during the game. I can't think of any, excluding those related to personal quests. Definitely more, better, deeper party banter! More more more! Which is honestly my philosophy about the sequel: please don't change the formula, just improve and expand it.... PoE2 will be a masterpiece! Edit: I really like your example of "illusion of reaction" with Jaheira and the dryads, I strongly hope they'll add this in PoE2. Should not be too hard to implement, just a more clever use of interjections.

I've just achieved Triple Crown: it was my first time using Expert Mode (won on PotD and ToI before), and I must say it adds a nice layer of difficulty/extra decisions to the gameplay. At first it feels stupidly punishing, but then you get used to it and at the moment I can't even remember how it was playing with all those luxuries enabled (show defenses, show AoE, maim, stash etc)! If you already know the game, and you are playing it with a sound strategy (from quests order to actual encounters), then I think you deserve to win, even on PotD. If you want some extra challenge, try the Triple Crown, and pick story companions. It was a blast for me. Very stressing too, next time I'm going with Story Time!

I'm surprised Kana is currently the least liked companion, but I can understand why. Surely his repeated chants, his appearance and the ugly portrait with sharky teeth didn't favor him. Also, I find his voice pretty annoying, but that's just me maybe. Still, he has grown a lot on me, I consider him pretty interesting to carry around, even after his quest and during the WM, and he has some of the best banter with other companions. I remeber in particular the hilarious ones with Aloth pre-quest! Of course the sample is extremely small (not even 400 voters) to the point of being not representative of the huge playerbase. Of course#2 Edèr is the less likely to become the most hated... when you have the humor, the strength and the looks, what's more to ask for? Not that I'm complaining, Edèr and Aloth were my favorite vanilla companions (Matt Mercer's magic?) and I'm eager to meet them again in PoE2!!

I'm in my early 30s, but I know at least two players 60+ who absolutely love Pillars and will never write here on the forum: one of them is my aunt! I'd love to say she's a powergamer but in all honesty... I guess she is one of the reasons why Story Mode exists!

My favorite class in the game is still the first I picked for my MC on day one: Chanter! I adore the innovative - if a bit flawed - system of the class. The phrases and the invocations are FULL of flavor and they have some of the best skills in the game. Also, it's fantastic that the game lets me change the .ogg audio files freely, so I can make my characters sing whatever I want them to! That's an awesome feature that I never had the chance to experience before and for sure made Chanters special in my heart. Some of the names+artworks of their skills are among my favorite in the whole game, especially At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Still, The Lover Cried Out To The Beloved: "I am Yours!". You should hear them cast with my custom sounds! I can never play without a Chanter in my team, from the first time up to my POTD run. I'll soon be doing Triple Crown, with a Chanter of course! Ah, I could talk about them for hours, sorry if I'm being verbose! My least favorite class is Rogue, sadly. I like the concept of the class, so it's probably my fault, because I'm a total inept at playing Rogue, and I've always felt that the melee assassin was somewhat lacking, especially in higher difficulties. It probably depends on the fact that I like to play them as glass cannons... frustrating experience! I read that the class got a recent buff, I might give them another try.

Zahua and Sagani's quests were the ones that stood out the most for me. They felt like real sub-adventures, rewaring in exploration and learning. Can't say the same about many others: Pallegina was especially poor, almost felt rushed. It is fine to have different kind of quests (exploration, investigation, talking, assasination...), but there should be some consistency in overall quality, and I fear this was not the case for some "underdeveloped" companions.

My three points wishlist: Isometric 6 characters party Companions' banter and interactions (the more, the better!)

Any news on PoE 2 development or release date? How much time are we talking about? Can we expect PoE one year from now or is it too soon? I know Tyranny bosses the show lately, but I'd love to hear something about our beloved series. Just starting my n-th playthrough of PoE and I realized that nothing has even come closer in the last decade of videogames. I agree on the art direction being outstanding and the engine not needing any kind of upgrade. I've read some disturbing ideas like "turning PoE into a Skyrym clone" or other aberration! Please keep PoE like the first title: isometric, serious but with humor, atmospheric, 6-party-based with banter. In one word, a masterpiece!

One-dimensional, forced silliness would be hard to bear after the first playthrough, but I'm sure they can make interesting, deep characters even hidden under a silly facade, so I'm not worried about our future companions. I especially loved party banter in PoE, I think most of it was perfect, in the sense that it had a good balance of serious/fun/philosophical/joke elements and it was also plausible: that's how I really expected my companions to talk, and it made them feel alive to me. I only hope they'll drop those flying, disappearing text and adopt a system closer to the IE games, where I could actually STOP and READ the banter. I don't know how many times I had to reload to read it (and of course a different one triggered!). I'm sucker for party banter! The only thing I'm not going to negotiate is the party size. Four people (including the MC) is way too low, limiting in every aspect; I wonder how Josh came out with that strange idea that reducing the party could possibly be good for the series!?

Fantastic news indeed, thanks for sharing!! I already know the wait is going to kill me!

Thank you Obsidian from me as well, count me among your future backers! PoE entertained me greatly during this difficult year, and it has been my favorite rpg of the last decade. All my love!

That is completely untrue. There is no proof in the existence of a deity that has ever been formally presented nor acknowledged. In fact, the entire concept of "faith" entails maintaining a belief despite the complete lack of proof. Disagreed....... Damn. Demolished that argument. What did you expect? This kind of conversation reminds me: The story of Poe, in my opinion, is far from an atheist clichè, and much more than the single line "gods are fake". I find that the religious theme is very elaborate in the game, and you get to see both sides of the coin: the fanatism and the treachery, but also the faith and the genuine hope of the people. It's actually interesting and it makes you think, just like a good RPG should do!

I've read somewhere that they were working on a different project, but ALSO on Pillars 2, which will take place in different regions of Eora. I also remember speculating with some of you about where the sequel might take us (Readceras, Vailian Republics etc.). Was it just a dream?

Game of the year?? Pillars is the Game of the Decade for me! I don't even understand how any RPG fan could say otherwise, and honestly I couldn't care less about convincing others (especially some so-called "experts" or obtuse "purists") about how good and fun Pillars can actually be. I really can't wait to play PoE2, especially if it's going to be on the same level of the White March expansions. I haven't been this excited about a videogame series in ages, after the murder of the once-great Heroes of Might and Magic saga (thanks Ubi).

It surprises me to read these comments, because I think PoE voice acting is stellar. It is one of those things that I thought "no one could ever say..."! To each his own, I guess. Honestly, some voices from BG were over the top and cartoony, and the setting was different. I am happy Obsidian chose a more serious approach. That doesn't mean that the voices lack character! I find them all extremely fitting, infact right now, if I look at a pic of Edèr, Durance or Pallegina, I can clearly imagine their distinct voices. Sagani's voice reflects her personality extremely well. I suppose that if you dislike her "vanilla" tone, it probably depends on the fact that you dislike her as a whole, not just the voice. One thing they could improve in PoE2 is to give the companions more meaningful responses, instead of those generic "Eh?" "Hey?" "Ah?". I think that peculiar/clever/ironic/trademark phrases would help the characterization a lot. That said, the voice acting is fantastic, and to think that Edèr and Aloth are voiced by the same actor gives an idea of the amazing level of the people behind that part of the game.

I have only recruited the Grieving Mother during my very first playthrough (almost a year ago!), and she felt really interesting. Still, the absence of party banter is a huge let-down for me, and considering the nature of her personal quest, I don't plan on recruiting her anymore. Since in this thread there are many GM-experts, I'd like to ask if there is a reason I should consider her in one of my next plays? Did she get new personal lines or even some party banters during the White March? The other ten companions are fun to experience twice or more times, because you always find new things they say/comment about. Aloth in particular is my favorite: I really enjoy his personality(ies), he talks a lot and some of his banters with Eder or Kana are memorable for me. Uh, sorry I'm derailing... what I meant is: I don't see any reason to play with the GM more than once. I welcome counterarguments!

D:OS is a funny, light-hearted game, and the graphics reflect that aspect. Personally, I strongly prefer PoE visuals and I hope that in the next chapter they will keep the same engine, art direction, and the beautiful isometric view.

Any news about this? Were you able to reproduce the issue? Bugs like this one keeps me from activating Trial of Iron! :<

It would be nice to continue the story of the watcher, or even to play with someone else, but starting from an higher level (like 7, for example). Being a "serial restarter", I've had enough of level 1 characters! I'd love to meet my old companions in PoE2 and see how they are doing now, after our adventure together. I'd also love to meet the gods, in some form. I'm tired of hearing their voices, I want to really meet (and sometimes fight?) Ondra, Wael, Skaen and the true Pallid Knight, not his zombie champions Also, if PoE was a spiritual successor to BG1, we already know what will come after...