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marimo
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Posts posted by marimo
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Well I never played the White March expansions so I'm not sure how it compares there but I think I spent about 50 hours in PoE1 and 70 in PoE2. I always do every sidequest I come across and listen to all the VO lines, but I'm not 100% completionist in any game so there'll be some small stuff left over.
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It's not just you, apparently the companion stuff is expensive. But it's also something a lot of players care about. I definitely would've liked to see more.
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*whine* guys! share picturesssss.,....
Some of us always play a nauseating goody goodie
so we never gonna see this stuff! 
Well that's what save scumming is for!
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I fed the crew stuff that gives negative morale until I ran out, then just fed them nothing. I went to the edge of the map and just set my ship to go back and forth in straight lines until morale dipped low enough to trigger a mutiny, then I picked the attack option.
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Love: Eder, Aloth, Tekehu, Serafen, Rekke
Eder and Aloth were favorites in the first game and I still feel pretty much the same about them although both were bugged for me. Tekehu and Serafen are very amusing and have some interesting stuff going on underneath their facades that keeps them from being one-note, and I loved their voices. Rekke...I was really not expecting to love any sidekick character, but here we are. There's still not a lot of content to him, but it's more than the others and what is there is fascinating. He also seems very charming and his voice and portrait are fantastic.
Like: Pallegina, Maia, Xoti, Mirke, Ydwin
Pallegina I picked up pretty late in the game and Maia's classes overlapped with my Watcher's so I never got their rep above 0 and hardly used them. I might feel differently about them in another playthrough. I liked Xoti more than I thought I would, but she wasn't one of my favorites. Mirke's amusing and Ydwin's situation is interesting and I like both of their portraits a lot aesthetically.
Neutral: Konstanten
Couldn't stop thinking of him as like having Stanley from The Office in the party, which is kind of amusing but I still didn't feel much about him one way or the other.
Dislike: Fassina
There just wasn't much to her other than seeming like she hates everything.
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Maybe it's just me but Rekke reminds me of The Little Mermaid.
- You fish him out of the sea
- There's a language barrier
- He's all alone in a strange land, the only one of his kind
- The hair, obviously
Dammit, now I can't unhear "Part Of Your World" in his voice/accent...
I've been picturing this sort of thing in my head since I pulled him out of the water:
I'd make a fanart if my art skills weren't atrophied to nothing, lol
This seems like a nice first post in this forum for me-
Yesssss quality first post!
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I am INCREDIBLY MAD ONLINE that I couldn't have carnal relations with the Eothas statue.
What do you mean? I'm pretty sure you're inside him for most of the game.
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Maybe it's just me but Rekke reminds me of The Little Mermaid.
- You fish him out of the sea
- There's a language barrier
- He's all alone in a strange land, the only one of his kind
- The hair, obviously
Dammit, now I can't unhear "Part Of Your World" in his voice/accent...
I've been picturing this sort of thing in my head since I pulled him out of the water:
I'd make a fanart if my art skills weren't atrophied to nothing, lol
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It gets lonely and boring on the high seas and you're traveling around with a group of exceptionally attractive and powerful people.
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Beyond the obvious: Magran=Fire, Ondra=Marine and Moon, Galawain=Nature, Hylea=Avian and Berath=death, we do have some hints at the other gods.
Here is some incredibly early concept art for PoE 1. The godlike on the left doesn't really map to anything- the middle is clearly fire, the one on the right could be an early attempt at Marine godlike... but I'm going to guess that if Eothas has godlike, they look like the one on the left.
I believe the Pillars of Eternity 2 guidebook mentions Skaen and Rymyrgand godlike: the Skaen Godlike, as others have said, resembles the effigy with black gems for eyes, no nose or lips and scarred or rotted skin. Rymyrgand's godlike, at least those born to Huana, are said to be unusually short (IIRC the godlike in question, a Saint whose name escapes me, was only 4 feet tall compared to the 8+ feet aumaua), hunched and albino, who caused things to die in their presence. I'd honestly rather they have more cold or ice powers associated with them, but maybe there's separate "ice godlike" just as there are both moon and marine godlike.
That leaves Woedica, Abydon and Wael out. Abydon's probably the easiest to figure out; his godlike would look like cyborgs, or perhaps D&D Warforged. Wael could go a few ways; they could have two giant eyes, one giant eye like a cyclops, eyes all over their bodies in odd places, or maybe they would just be weird creepy shapeshifters whose bodies were always changing. I could see trans, genderqueer or nonbinary godlikes of wael being very common: a man one day, a woman the next, maybe something in between the day after. Woedica is the hardest for me to figure out, because all of her portfolio has to do with immaterial concepts relating to governance, politics and interpersonal relationships. It's much easier to have a guy's head be on fire than to have a guy's head be a physical manifestation of law. I do like others' suggestions of crown-like growths being on a godlike's head, maybe burned skin, but I could also see them as having skin like paper with laws written on it.
That does look like an Eothas godlike, interesting!
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Maybe it's just me but Rekke reminds me of The Little Mermaid.
- You fish him out of the sea
- There's a language barrier
- He's all alone in a strange land, the only one of his kind
- The hair, obviously
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I just wish my pal, Gina, could be romanced. Bird people are cool. That’s all. It’s fine that she’s not, I still like her character.
Is there anybody you’d like to see a possible romance with? Please state below in a civil manner, friends.
The god-like can't bear children, so perhaps their libido is diminished?
Counterpoint: Tekehu. lol
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Why are Skaen godlike deformed at birth but Pallegina apparently didn't start to change until puberty?
I think the changes she was referring to when talking about her teen years were the usual puberty ones. She was born looking like an avian godlike, and then she got the standard girl stuff on top of that while surrounded exclusively by men, and that was too much for her to handle.
Are there godlike who never develop physical changes at all? I have so many questions.
There aren't if guidebook vol. 1 is to be believed. They always have obviously deformed heads and hands at the very least.
The weirdest part of the whole chimes business to me was that if the Watcher is a Death godlike they already have Berath's chime in them. Why would she need to put an additional one in? I realise that gameplay-wise we don't choose our race until that scene is finished, but story-wise it felt off. And then Eothas goes all generous on you and says "Hey I've just removed your chime, you are no longer tied to Berath! Rejoice!". Right, yaaay. How about that one chime that I had in me since birth though?
I went back and watched the conversation again just now (starts at 10:15). Seems like she's talking about both the usual puberty changes and godlike related changes and she finds both distressing, but severing the chime reversed some of the godlike changes and that was enough to keep her from killing herself. Though it also sounds like she's been obviously godlike her whole life so maybe godlike are born with some of their physical characteristics but those become more pronounced at puberty?
That's a good point about death godlike Watchers that I never thought of. That would be kinda weird.
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I'm assuming when he took over Waidwen that it looked similar to when he took over the statue: the glowing eyes and stars and flames on his head. That's a neat fanart, though I wonder if Eothas will just look like the statue going forward because well, the design already exists and it's pretty cool.
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Haha his hairstyle is identical to that picture too
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I'm very curious as to what an Eothasian godlike would look like, and also what Eothas himself looks like in god form. I don't think we've seen anything besides the giant statue form, and the statue was fashioned to look like Maros Nua after all, not Eothas.
I'm also curious about chimes, since it seems like that's what causes the physical changes to godlike. Why are Skaen godlike deformed at birth but Pallegina apparently didn't start to change until puberty? Would the Watcher have started to turn into a death godlike if Eothas hadn't removed Berath's chime? Are there godlike who never develop physical changes at all? I have so many questions.
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You still seem to be confusing and conflating two completely seperate things that I was saying. (Progressive lean versus my idea of going gritty, which is entirely seperate and unrelated)
Perhaps a story can be gritty with magic or gods, but it's harder. If you can resurrect people, it tends to lower the stakes. This is why gritty stories tend to take place in low magic, or harder sci-fi environments - the idea is with a gritty story is that it's relatively easy to die, and at least almost impossible to undo.
A good example might be game of thrones. They have gods, the gods do things. They have magic. But its rare, comes with a price and the will of the gods is impossible to predict. So people have been resurrected, but you could never do so reliably.
I completely agree that progressive storylines can be gritty or dark. The AO has some, it's also supernatural and its very dark.
Magic and resurrection in GoT is really not all that rare in the story itself. It's established that it's rare in the world as a whole and that the characters are important people and therefore outliers, but really there's a lot of magic going on there.
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Pallegina's kinda like Cassandra without a soft side I guess? They are both dissatisfied by the things they are born into and want to distance themselves from (being godlike/a noble), and they are both very dutiful and characterized by an absolutely unshakeable faith.
I don't really think the DA characters are that similar to the PoE ones, but it's fun to come up with commonalities.
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I don't think I was making an argument, just sharing my thoughts.
With the backer thing, I was just saying that "trying to please everyone" might be a tendancy that direct engagement and dependence on crowdfunding could produce, whereas in a conventional art as commerce company, you would look to your major demographics rather than trying to please everyone at once. IDK, if this is true or not. But it seems like a reasonable, logical possibility. Much like direct engagement and dependence on your consumers as a salesperson would give you a less detached view than being a CEO (as well as a more detailed picture)
My comment on "more adult" was really just a seperate opinion. The first game kind of broke ground by having a fair bit of swearing etc, and not being mainstream or under the control of a distribution company seems like an ideal time to go full game of thrones - and have gore, sex, swearing, drug use as central elements in the main story. Whilst there are things like slavery in the game, and caste systems, it's not super punchy. Some of it is. I did like the sense of desperation in that poor distrinct. That seemed colourful, and compelling. The miai quest had some punch too.
Perhaps you are right though in your statement about optimism - there are plenty of darker themes in the game, and some of them are quite compelling. And it is probably safer using species as a metaphor for race than actually using race (not safer as in bad, safer as in a smarter commercial choice, less divisive way to handle the same topics). There is certainly some optimism in the plot though, it's not really dark or optimistic. Sort of a mixture. Some of the gods rants are a tad bleak.
When it comes to adult, IDK, I look at something like "black sails". for comparison here on the pirate setting. The social taboo in that plotline (outside of the pirate community) for the main characters gay relationship was very compelling. The grit of the violence and betrayal, the greed. I guess this is not typically, what crpgs do, this whole prestige TV style grit, but it would IMO, be fun to see. To be visceral, such a story would need to be more than words on a screen though - it would need to be imagery at least, something with a more visual/sonic punch. Emotive.
Fantasy is a traditionally more optimistic and family friendly genre. Game of thrones/fire and ice has shown us, that it doesn't have to be. I just wonder what a story of betrayal, scheming, affairs, war would look like in a crpg.
I guess such a game would be slightly less divine/magic oriented, and probably need to be more action/difficulty oriented. Not exactly the same kind of game, but a story rich arpg with adult themes, meaningful choices and a sprinkle of moral greyness, could really push an envelope in gaming. Put in some saucey storylines and place some battles in the centre of an epic battlefield. It would be very interesting to see conflict of that scale in this unique setting too. But as I say, maybe that would be a different game altogether.
It seems like you are operating under certain assumptions that I don't agree with. I don't agree that gods or magic make a story less dark or gritty. Less grounded, sure, but you can have dark or light, mature or immature, stories with magic. I also don't think that so-called "adult" content e.g. sex, cursing, violence, drug use is diametrically opposed to progressive values. It's about how those things are presented within the story. You can write a progressive story that takes place in a very bigoted world, it depends on whether that content is presented critically or uncritically, and whether it is gratuitous or purposeful, and if it is purposeful, then what message it's conveying.
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Also, question:
Do you get the telepathic mind communications from the Queen if you don't play a cipher? Because I can tell you, she is *far* from haughty, patronizing, or condescending. She's terrified for her people, stretched to the breaking point with stress, and trapped in a role that she has to play.
Yes. I played a Ranger/Rogue and I still got them.
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Aim'Spirente, but they're all very good. The shanties were one of my favorite things in the game.
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After finishing the review there are some valid points. I admit I didn't notice a lot of the SJW present in the game. But when you point it out it clearly is there. But I suppose that's the times we live in. We may never see another Oghren in a game again. Long live Oghren. I'll miss the days when men could be beer drinking, womanizing dirtbags, but still have some endearing qualities. The days when men could be men.
I'm not sure how you missed it but Oghren's thing is that he's like your stereotypical drunken fantasy dwarf but the reason he drinks so much is because he is an utterly broken man. Not sure you want that as a shining example of men being men. Also Oghren was written by a woman.
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Women who aren't socially conditioned to coddle men? Men unafraid of straight male rejection? The absolute horror. Congrats on the pearl-clutchingest critique of a game I've ever read.
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Xoti is a bit of an exception, because she's warm. I think she might be the only warm or vulnerable female NPC I encountered in the game. For whatever reason though, she's very flirty but I was never able to produce a full romantic relationship with her. Might be a bug, IDK, or perhaps you need 5 reputation or something or maybe that's how they intended it. But warm and or vulnerable is a big no no in feminist inspired writing, so it's not _entirely_ progressive.
There is nothing anti-feminist or unprogressive about warmth or vulnerability as character traits for characters of any gender.
Also, reputation levels max out at +2/-2 and Xoti has a full romance. You can look it up on YouTube.
Is it a bug then that it never happened for me? I did all the character quest, all the dialogue options, and had a decent reputation and it never became a courting, let alone a relationship. Perhaps I should report this somehow if that's the case.
I agree, although I am not a feminist. I mean really anything can be considered 'feminist" or not depending on how you spin it.
But because under intersectionality characters become considered avatars for their demographic by the audience, writers tend to stray away from giving their characters any weakness and therefor depth or room to grow. If a character is too stereotypically feminine, as xoti's traits might be classed, then that can be seen as "disempowering". I mean that's not my perspective, I've just seen this sort of commentary plenty of times, that the preference is for "strong characters".
Although I am sure this is also just related to the public hunger for wish forfillment, of which straight men certainly had their fill in the 80s.
It very well could be a bug? I don't know. Either that or you expected more romance content than is in the game.
That isn't a definition of intersectionality that I'm familiar with. It just means that women's experiences with oppression are not uniform and are inextricably linked to other aspects of who they are like social class, ethnic background, nationality, disability, etc. A "strong character" is too nebulously defined to really be a worthwhile category. Maybe if you gave specific examples of writers, media or commentary you are referring to?
so we never gonna see this stuff! 
Are the Companions Really THAT Bland?
in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
I didn't find them bland but I don't know what "bland" means to others. I don't think every character needs to be a high concept wall o'text to be interesting, even though I did enjoy Durance and GM in the first game.