algroth

I mean, some tentacle play would surely attract the weeb market, right?

Wait, what do you mean by this?

S8 was the best GoT season

Congrats, Numbers!

Of course other opinions are available. I know others here have really enjoyed it, just not myself. I'd suggest listening to what they have to say too, to make a decision! And it's not like you can't ever change your mind on it anyways.

I wasn't a fan, and it's a massive time-sink, probably twice as long as Deadfire overall and largely because of a lot of trash encounters, artificial timers surrounding the kingdom management system, and a much more extensive main story opposite to optional sidequesting and the likes. However, I would recommend giving it a try at least. It has its worthwhile elements and others have loved it so, who knows? As to how it compares specifically with Deadfire, well... I think it doesn't. I started a second playthrough of Deadfire as soon as I was done with Kingmaker and the more I played, the more the problems in Kingmaker became extremely apparent. Kingmaker is a pulpy high fantasy power trip, your goal is essentially to rise from novice adventurer to king of an entire new nation, and amidst it all there's numerous threats to your realm and pretenders to your throne, plenty of big epic stakes and enemies, but it's all very surface-level, it's all there for spectacle and entertainment's sake. Nothing wrong with that of course, it knows what it is. But Deadfire, as most Obsidian games, thrives a lot more on a solid thematic foundation, and even at its pulpiest there's still a sense of purpose to much of the content therein, if only to describe another facet of this world that is so deeply tied with the undelying discourse the game presents. And whereas the writing in Kingmaker frequently comes across as crude or generic, there's a life and character to the particular cadence of the Huana or the Valians that is unique, lively and very underrated when in contrast to the former. From a sidequest or side content perspective, there's no doubt in my mind that Deadfire's the better game - most of the side content in Kingmaker is lacking, the sidequests tend to be very straight-forward and not plentiful, whilst 80% of what is there to discover in the world map amounts to endlessly rehashed small areas that act as little more than "arenas" to trash encounters. And whilst the game does react to the choices you make, these are almost exclusively dialogue or build-based, and often dialogue options are gutted outright by arbitrary barriers like alignment - in comparison the roleplay in Deadfire seems much freer and more plentiful, as quests and area design allow for a player to resolve the same in multiple ways just by choosing to *play* the sequence differently instead of merely choosing a different dialogue branch. The freedom of exploration and liveliness of the world stand out a lot more in Deadfire when directly compared to Kingmaker, which on the other hand feels generic to a fault, if no doubt appealing on a sheer comfort-food level. All this without touching the worst aspect, which to me is the combat. Kingmaker's combat is absolutely woeful, ubiquitous and inescapable. If the first Pillars had a trash encounter problem, this one has it three times over. And all this without taking into account that the game does everything in its power to worsen and exacerbate every flaw in the IE games' combat system as well. This is the kind of game that follows the same balancing principles as a regular combat/strategy mod for Baldur's Gate II in that even in normal difficulties it requires you to have the prescience of knowing what you'll face when and what scrolls and characters to bring alongside you for which area; and since the game is on a timer all throughout, backtreading to acquire X or Y supply or companion is *very* costly. This is essentially a game where prebuffing isn't just a clever and accidental workaround to combat the way it proved to be in the IE games, it becomes a mandatory element through which all encounters are balanced around - and if you happen to forget to prebuff your party for a single trash mob of spiders (which can also occur as a random encounter on the road), then good luck because you'll likely end with two or three characters sporting a massive -8 STR, DEX and CON permanent debuff at the end of it. If you think this is just a single type of creature, or just a couple who can do this, think again, because basically *everything* here is capable of dealing attribute damage or permanent afflictions (see blindness too) to your party - and that's not even touching on several other baffling enemy designs like the AoE paralize auras on the Wild Hunt which themselves become your usual dungeon filler during the end of the game. Other irritating features, as with the IE games, include crowd control conditions and DoT AoE spells alla Wall of Blades, Web or Cloudkill enduring for minutes after combat ends*, rest interrupts and random road encounters consisting of trash mobs are plentiful to the point you could well have four or five of the former and two or three of the latter occur before you finish either action, enemies having a tendency to be dumb and heavy on spamming single moves or attacks (case in point: alchemist enemies tend to bombard you with a seemingly endless and constant barrage of fireball, regardless of whether it's effective against your party or not (say that we've cast communal protection against fire on ourselves for example), despite also wielding a crossbow for example), and these shortcomings in AI tend to be 'balanced' through inflating base stats and abilities to absurd degrees, to the point that even a regular boar in act 1 can have an STR score of 32. It's compared to games like this that you realize just how much great work has gone into redesigning and improving combat in the Pillars series. All of which also leads me to the bottom line which is... Kingmaker is very likely a game served best by playing with cheats and cheat mods on. Movespeed cheats, difficulty down to a bare minimum, even the removal of random road encounters, anything to not have to deal with the relentless, tedious combat in this game and nevertheless allowing you to experience the story and several companions and companion arcs which are all very decent - I'd likely have enjoyed the game way more had I played it this way and not tried foolhardily to beat the game at the difficulty I did. Anyhow, these are my thoughts on the matter, hope they're worth something. *: On the matter of endless Wall of Blades, I watched a stream on Kingmaker by Lorerunner a month or so ago where upon defeating the final villain and casting three Wall of Blades to do so, the prologue proceeded to play on top of the battlefield with the Wall of Blades still active. All across the prologue you could hear the grinding sound of the blades and see their animation blurred out in the back, absolutely non-stop. It was rather hilarious. Here's the video, jump to 3:20:00:

I would agree here. There's a bit of a conflict of build-up and payoff in the game as it exists now, in that a lot is invested throughout the playthrough to the mystery and wonder of Ukaizo, the notion that all major quests and all paths lead to clues of this mythical city and so on, and that when we get there we hardly get a chance to explore and witness this wonder ourselves. An out-of-focus parallax view of the city is the ultimate example of one of the few shortcomings in the game in neglecting the impact of actually *seeing* these lost wonders and ruins with our own eyes opposite to being told of or suggested as much (see several other dungeons across the game that would immediately teleport you inside, never allowing one to get a good view of what they were actually exploring). On a replay I appreciate the attempt to illustrate the same through a scripted introduction to each area, but I don't think a pen and ink illustration has quite the effect a fully-rendered isometric exterior does at the end of the day. Oddly enough, the comparison that keeps coming to mind regarding Ukaizo is actually Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky, whereby the film also follows a race to the mythical storm-ridden city of Laputa. The film does a wonderful job building up the expectation for the same, and then delivering it in the last act. The last act isn't a mere confrontation of forces at the footsteps of the city, we are literally taken for a tour from top to bottom of the same, the city and its 'secret' and history gradually revealed in the same. The fact that in it we learn more about the fate of its inhabitants, that in it we come to learn why the city died out and why it was as important and dangerous as it was, and coveted by the film's villain and so on, are all layers that add to its effect and enduring presence in our mind and so on. Ukaizo had components of the same, but felt almost like a sparknotes version, whereby the only elements keeping us from rushing from point A to B to C were a fight or two and not that, for example, we'd have to find our way and in the process learn more about Ukaizo itself. Every small area was a mere platform for a few scenes to occur in whereas the actual exploration of the city seemed to practically happen off-screen. Much more could have been done here, much more could have been learned, all of which would have led to a more satisfying final act. On the topic of Athkatla and Neketaka, I'll touch on the comparison soon if I can.

Franco Zeffirelli

As a native Spanish speaker, can confirm a lot of these occured to me when speaking in English.

I'd never seen this before. It's rather brilliant.

I'll offer a counterpoint to your argument above: to me Athkatla was basically the finest city hub we'd seen in an RPG... Up until Neketaka. To me Neketaka isn't a problem in the game, if anything it is its biggest virtue; yet I see your post is less about an Athkatla/Neketaka comparison so I'll leave that for another topic, as there's much to discuss here already. Anyways, I feel that you are ignoring a lot of the aspects that grouping the warring factions in a single city add to the overall conflict and depiction of themes and so on. The conflicts surrounding Neketaka isn't just one of interest, it is likewise a cultural clash, and whilst we see plenty of it all across the Deadfire it is never clearer than in that single place where all cultures are constantly interacting with one another and melding, not just at an interpersonal level but right down to the fusion in architecture, aesthetics and the likes. There is a tension to the design of Neketaka that is not merely apparent in the dialogue and interactions, but in the city's construction, layout and aesthetic itself, which would never have had the same effect were we to split the influence of every faction evenly across the different smaller towns. For that specifically we already have a representative settlement for each, in the shape of Port Maje, Sayuka, Dunnage and Tikawara - what tensions and conflicts there are to explore in each I feel are handled solidly too, from the Huana camps in Sayuka to the history of conflicts with slavers and isolationist tendencies in Tikawara, and so on; and much as you propose in your alternative, I feel these already showcase perfectly the philosophies and worldview each faction holds. There was also a practical reason behind the presence of one big city opposite to multiple, from a production standpoint, which the devs spoke of a fair bit during production. As you probably are aware of, the first Pillars had two big city hubs opposite to a single one, in both Defiance Bay and Twin Elms. The response to this was... Somewhat mixed, from both the devs and players alike: the players felt Defiance Bay never felt as lively as an Athkatla, and that Twin Elms felt a little scarce in content, and the devs agreed on both cases and likewise felt like their time to come up with in-depth content and proper detail to render such areas was cut short by this division, forcing them to rush the two somewhat. Whilst having four city hubs with an adequate density of content and attention to detail would sound like a dream come true for many, the kind of work required for that would be exorbitant and the likely effect would be one where all four cities underwhelm instead (and as a small gameplay-related quibble here, if many of the quests across these cities would involve doing stuff in other cities, this would also add a lot of backtreading which is usually best avoided in any game, let alone RPGs which tend to be especially notorious for this). In theory one could split a city as dense in content as Athkatla or Neketaka into four smaller cities without losing on the amount of content present in the game, but in practice, psychologically at least the effect seems a lot less appealing. There's also the matter of what having four big cities means from a setting perspective too - the Deadfire isn't meant to be a place that's very securely settled and has had all these cultures inhabiting it and building settlements on it for centuries, they're literally new to the region, much of which is yet "undiscovered". The settlements are precisely that: settlements. You can see how the majority of Port Maje and Dunnage's buildings seem haphazard and not made with longevity in mind - in the former's case you can even see the state of the wooden planks comprising the walls of the Kraken's Eye for example already rotting away and losing their blue coat of painting. These settlements are *meant* to be small, they're there as an enterprise that even when we arrive to the place the mayor himself is unsure of its present or long-term success. Sayuka is very much a straight military camp. Tikawara has literally built huts out of ship hulls to try and show they're an actual village to those who come and visit them. To make any of these a city would be to dilute the point that all of this conquest, all of this expedition and process of colonization is at a very early stage and happening in the *now*, not decades or even centuries ago. That Neketaka's a massive city as it is has its reasons, but most of all it is because it's the centre of the Deadfire in terms geographical and power-based, it's the capital of the Huana as a culture and the one city presumably preceeding the colonist expeditions and so on. It is, strategically, the only place you'd want to set your base for your expedition (relating somewhat to theories of spatial competition and so on). And, to tie back to what we spoke of before, it also makes for an ideal case study and representation of the cultural clash between all of these factions. From a narrative perspective the "race to Ukaizo" I believe already does a fair bit of what you propose. Disregarding the incentives from our personal questline, each faction is already given a pretty clear and singular reason to why they want to make it to Ukaizo themselves: the Vailians are interested in what they can learn of animancy in what was once a major Engwithan landmark, the RDC's interested in learning more about the storms to see what can be done about the same in Rauatai, the Huana need it because the history of their people and culture is there, the pirates see it as a place with lots of potential booty and a good alternative to settle in and operate with relative impunity and so on. How we reach there also differs greatly given the choices we make and the faction and subfaction we ally ourselves with: eventually we are made to take part in some kind of move against one of the others and, again, we can see the eventual race pan out in several different ways depending on who we sided with and who we struck against in the process. To remove our attention from Ukaizo would be something that if anything would muddle up the narrative and reduce the stakes making our way there and to confronting Eothas and so on. If anything an issue the game had in its pre-5.0 iteration is that the faction conflict and the threat of Eothas didn't feel connected enough, and that's precisely something this last patch was attempting to address with its narrative additions and so on; so to create an ending that tends further away from the game's climax and thematic crux which is the whole event at the Wheel, I feel would only widen this divide instead. Here's the other thing too: I don't think it's an option to *not* finish at Ukaizo either; the narrative of the entire franchise so far has been built around the conflict of power between gods and kith, and the cultural shift from theocentric to anthropocentric instead. A Rauataian invasion to Neketaka or a Principi attack to Port Maje or Sayuka as expansions or replacements to the current final race to Ukaizo would be fun to play most likely, but would ultimately be rather meaningless spectacle, all in a saga that stands out for being motivated by themes and ideas first and foremost. Anyhow, some thoughts on my part.

A Spiritualized track with Mac on the keys:

The tribute for Dr. John yesterday was a thing of wonder. He'll be missed.

All of this only further convinces me that the world is better off without Star Wars.

R.I.P. Dr. John

Some random thoughts on the trailer: Body horror-themed main story with a full ceromorphosis sequence and hive mind menaces and Lovecraftian interdimensional threats? Sign me up, that does seem very interesting, if not necessarily Baldur's Gate-esque. I wonder how much this new invasion will lean on the illithid content in Baldur's Gate II and so on. Will we see a connection to the Hidden? That sort of thing. On the topic of classic "chosen one" narratives and so on that these games tend to love (the Bhaalspawn being one of them far as I see it), I wonder if we'll see the protagonist in this story assume a sort of Adversary role and the likes. I would expect to see as much from an NPC at least. The game's set a hundred years after the events of Baldur's Gate II which then more than likely means NO MINSC AND BOO. A travesty, this is! Minsc will live, these temporal bonds will not hold his wrath! Boo is outraged! See his fury! It's small, so look close. Trust me, it's there. We will slay those that need slaying! Butts will be liberally kicked in good measure! And if they are indeed dead, then we won't cry for the dead! We won't! Well, maybe a little... but we will staunch the tears with righteous fury!

A E S T H E T I C As a friend of mine put it, this straight-up looks like a Contrapoints thumbnail.

This is one crazy good wig out.

Roky Erickson

I'm okay with it. I think that on the other hand "all of these decisions" would have been obvious PR talk, because let's be honest, no author or artist likes their work being screwed with. There's a classic phrase in narrative mediums that goes "kill your darlings", and especially when it comes to film and TV adaptations of novels and book series it's an absolute must: not everything works well when translated absolutely literally from the page to the screen, not everything *can* be translated either; and so between the changes and concessions that must be made to make the best use of the new medium or otherwise, no doubt things the author or fans loved of the source material must be transformed or cut out. This is especially true when an adaptation plays looser with the source material to make something completely new and telling something the filmmaker specifically wants to tell, opposite to merely translating and retelling whatever was there in the source material - Kubrick and Hitch**** are immediate examples of filmmakers who tended to do as much, leading to works that matched or even surpassed the source material they based themselves off of.

I quite like the director too. Berberian Sound Studio was excellent, for one. But back to In Fabric, this is an awesome poster too: