Sherab

Then I have to ask, why do you think "in-between" is so terrible? Boring, may be, and there is no reincarnation (probably) awaiting for you, but not exactly a "faith you would not impose on your worst enemy". Speaking or reincarnation... If you remember the quest with Pale Elves from PoE1, they were begging to stop the circle of reincarnation. And since Eothas (as all other gods) did not existed before the Wheel was created, he naturally does not know what was before or how to fix things - he did not created the Wheel, kith did. He simply destroys what he sees as an evil mechanism, with a reasonable assumption that kith would be able to come up with something better. Yes - I suppose that even without far-east religious background (however reincarnation by itself has strong far-east connotations) one can see that reincarnation can be see as something bad. And It seems this concept was understood at least by some writers of the first PoE, as Pale Elves' quest showed us. I also don't remember any line that was claiming that In-between is such horrible place to be. It is rather empty - only other souls, Adra veins, and occasional Watchers - and beside of this - nothing. But I don't recall it as a "hellish" kind of a place - but obviously I haven't read all of the aviable texts. Still, I think that in Deadfire writers assumed that destruction of the Wheel and stucking of souls in the In-between is something "bad", and that players generaly will see it like that too. Some of the players can be convinced byt Eothas' agenda, but the fact itself seems to be "wrong", so to speak. Well, I admitt, I wasn't so shocked by Eothas plan, but again - perhaps this is because of my real life's religion. And for some reason it seems to be seen as "bad thing" also by all of the factions. Absolutely no one, aside of the Watcher (possibly), do not see Eothas' idea as something positive. Everyone immediately decide that the god should be stopped somehow. Actualy, as far as I'm aware, we don't know what was first - the gods, or the Wheel. Still, same way as I do know some things about ancient Greece (to give any example), Eothas can know something about "pre-Wheel" Eora, even if he was "created" after the Wheel itself. And propably he do know quite a lot, but those lines were cut-off from the game. And I wouldn't call Eothas' assumption "reasonable". For example, even after revealing the god's plans to them, all the factions agree that he should be stopped, but... at the same time, just after that, they start to argue who have the right to step on the shores of Ukaizo, and who's not. The Kith are far from unity, and there is every reason to doubt that even destruction of the Wheel will unite them, what other gods reasonably points-out. There is to many "maybe" and "perhaps" in Eothas' plan to call it reasonable, from my perspective. Not to mention all beings killed on his way to Ukaizo. "Children" as plural? Or do you mean only Tekehu? Because in Pallergina quest we see Ondra children without any support from her. Considering godlikes are walking batteries for "gods" I'd say Tekehu is nothing more but a favorite cow for a farmer. He likes her and name her, but she will be eaten at the end nevertheless. Can you, friends, give me some reference on this? Because I remember only this carreless speech of Magrana. From who in the game I can learn more? Are those info a part of Pallegina's quest?

Oh, I didn't mind they are specifficaly hostile to the Kith. I rather meant they are mostly thinking about their own fate. Fate of the mortals is at best secondary. This was my impression at least. And I don't blame them that much - they propably behave same way as most people would do. This propably only prove that they are not really as "divine" in their characteristics, as they were and are portraited by religion systems of Eora. From other hand, this is not that unique when we will look at real-life's examples of western or Near-East religious systems. If we inspect Greek or Roman Pantheons, or even Jahwe, we will find out that care for mortals might be part of their "job", but aside of this, they have all possible flaws of the mortals. Yes - they posses divine powers (and in case of Jahwe - he is also considered a "demiurge"), but they are usualy especially arrogant, jelaous and have a tendency for "absolute monarchy", so to speak. And I think, while artificially created by Engwithans, Eora's gods fits this scheme quite nicely. Hence, they are not "evil" per se, but when it comes to personal characteristics, they do not differ so much from common mortal with have been given an extreme power - with makes them dangerous. And same as mortals, aside of bad characteristics, they are of course capable of good ones too. Like Abydon protecting Engwithan legacy by the cost of his life. But, in case of Deadfire's main plot, I had impression, they are mostly concerned about possiblity of revealance of their true nature, hence the lost of believers, and in further consequence - due to destruction of the Wheel - they may lost their lifes. And as I said, i don't blame them, from one hand. From other... Well, maybe this is because my far-eastern religious background, but I would expect more from beings aspiring for titles of true gods. I would expect them to be at least Bodhisattwas*. Personally I don't mind. I think we have already exploited the original topic. However, I have never dwelled deeper in this new one. Is there anything about aside of carreless notion by Magrana? *Bodhisattwa - "the hero of enlightened attitude" - in Mahajana Buddhism a being with is not fully enlightened yet (is not a Buddha), but it has already disolved the illusion of "ego". Hence, it can make mistakes on the way, but it is always acting out from compassion and for the sake of all sentient beings. Often the name is also attached to people/beings with are only aspiring to such a state of mind, but they are not really Bodhisattwas yet - in the meaning described above.

Yes, I think that too. However, this is not only possible ending of the story. In general, Eothas assumes too much. Everything can go totaly oposite to what he intended. But still, he is ready to kill haundreds, or maybe thousends of the Kith, just to reach Ukaizo. Not to mention, that he possibly can inprison all souls in the in-between for ever. And to kill all of the gods btw. He is a fanatic type of character, who way to easily sacrifice lives of others for his ultimate goal. I must say, that nonetheless I like him, somehow. I tend to be a dreamer and idealist myself. But I definitely do not appreciate his methods.

Hmmm.... My first playthrough was also pro-Huana, a little bit by accident - my diplomatic (Shieldberer of St. Eclga, from Aedyr ) hero tends to help mostly the "small-ones". And he thought that helping really local ruler, may be the right way to do so. Later on my hero (and I) have learned somewhat more about the castes system and some other... hmmm... things - to not spoil to much.... Anyway, I think that in general interactions with Her Majesty Onekaza are quite rewarding. She may be (I can't be sure, since I haven't tried other factions, or even so many side-quests) one of the best written characters. And in general, this is obviously personal opinion, but from my standpoint it is always the best to really role-play our character - shouldn't this be a characteristic of RPG? And while one can criticize writers of Deadfire, I would say that by the most part, both PoE are largely allowing players to be true to their characters. Is this rewarding? This depends what do you mean by this. Does it suppose to make things easier, harder, or what? I would say that in general, main-story is rather short, so don't be "hasty" I think (again, personal opinion) the game is mostly about exploration and side-questing, and the main-story is there just to be... I would also say, that there is that mix of polynesian, colonial, and piracy theme highly present in the game, hence heros with fits this backround are propably more rewarding. But this dosn't mean of course, that "knigths on white horses" do not fits there totaly. It is hard for me to give any other clue... I hope you will keep to have fun. EDIT: As I said, main story felt short for me. I also had impression that it was even more weird than in the first game. But honestly, I wouldn't call it very deep, even if tries to be .

Yes, I was wondering about this too. It seems to be clear that part of the task of the Wheel is to "steal" portions of essence to sustain life of the gods. So they are cleary depended on it. But since the job of stopping Eothas is given to a mortal - the Watcher, then Berath may be more than eager to exaggerate consequances for mortals' realm to encourage us to prevent destruction of the Wheel. Still, while Eothas obviously do not depict destruction of the Wheel as terrifing as Berath do, he do not try to hide that this will be at least a big problem for the Kith too. Hence, I'm not really sure Berath was lying. So I assume, that destruction of the Wheel is indeed a real problem for the Kith, with will not solve by itself.

To Eora itself, probably not. Remember though, that a big red flag is that without the wheel (or something like it), all those souls get stuck in limbo/ a very real state of hell. Sure, eventually they might wither away and reform into something else, but in the mean time you have a few million possible years of torment. That primordial chaos possibly existed before, but that doesn't mean its a state anyone should be in any hurry to get back to. Regarding the degradation of the soul; my guess would be that while an individual eventually fades, their essence, such as it is, falls off and reforms into other states. Key point here is that the soul is treated as energy, which cannot be "destroyed", just changed. Also, its possible that while souls erode, they can also be added to. We already see precedents of beings 'absorbing' other souls, so its likely that the process goes both ways regarding decay. I mostly agree with your explanation, Daggerknight. I would add, that we know from the dead-dwarf animancer (one hanging on the tree in Gilded Vale in PoE 1) that souls in general tends to get apart. So theorethicaly one "stronger" soul can be a source of essence for couple of "lower" beings. Elementals and wisps seems to be an example of such a lower beings. And finally, there are also pieces so tiny, that they are all around in the world, and serve as a source of energy for wizards' spells, for example. But occasionaly, they can merge in somewhat "more", creating a little bit "stronger" soul - but according to the dwarf-woman, this is rather rare compared to usual falling apart of souls. However, I will agree with Mirandel to some point, due to above mentioned "entropy". If souls in general tend to rather fall apart - and we should not forget that the essence is also partialy stolen by the gods, to sustain their existance - hence they get "smaller" and "smaller", and only occasionaly "pieces" of them merge into somewhat "more" than they were before, than this propably would mean indeed, that number of intelligent races - the Kith mostly - would be not only not grow in time, but perhaps even constantly droping. And I think, that this problem was simply overlooked by writers Still, even if we assume that there is some source of new-souls, filling the gap created by the "entropy" of Rymrgand, as Mirandel propose, it seems, that this is not resolving the problem of stucking of souls in the In-between. So it seems that destruction of the Wheel is disturbing a "flow" of all souls, even of those theorethicaly new, as Daggerknight have explained.

Oh, I was thinking mostly about how the gods were depicted in the Dedfire. In first PoE? I would say they were more interesting in general, because they were not stripped totaly from mistery and divinity. Even after the great revealance (with wasn't really that "great" for me, honestly) of their true nature by Iovara, they stayed somewhat elusive. When earlier our hero was interacting with them, there was (at least for me) that feeling, that those are indeed some "higher" beings. While there were holes in storytelling in first PoE, and in general one can claim, that writing was of lower sort (but even so, it was good enough to keep me interested), it was propably better than in Deadfire - at least if we speak about main plot. Anyway, in Deadfire, all of the gods, even if they do not speak about it in "open-text", seems to worry mostly about two things: - it may happen, that they won't be worshipped any longer, - and they will die from "soul-starvation". And while (depending of our choosen dialoge options) Berath can be gentle, even nice sometimes, at the same time he/she is blackmailing the Watcher constantly, and he/she is eager to remind about this to us if we will show any sign of dissobeyance. As I wrote before, only Hylea seems to be not worried so much about Eothas' actions - perhaps this is to be in line with first PoE. From conversations with Durance we know, that she was "allied" to Eothas, and she helped eothasian refuges after the Saint's War.

I see your point. Ehhh... this is why I feel sorry that those dialoges with Eothas that were explaining all story were cutt-off. As for the corruption of the gods - I think, that big message here is that they have all the flaws of their creators. But, from other hand, my understanding is that their main "domain" was created together with them. So I can understand concept behind Woedica, for example. Outh binder, protector of justice. Ok, ultimetly, she is very corrupted indeed, but I can understand concept behind her. But it is hard for me to see any really good motivation behind Skaen, simply. He seems to be corrupted by design. And it is funny, that besides Eothas, almost all gods seems to be selfish tyrrans. Only Hylea behave a little bit different. And to be honest, I see that most of us tend to see Eothas in good light. However, one can poin-out that while he may speak noble things, and have noble couse, the method he choosed is rather disputable. He could at least not to destroy my castle!

Heh! :D As I said, much depends of expectations. I definitely want to have a good, well balanced, challenging, and interesting combat system in any RPG game. But simply combat is not my focal point, so to speak. When it comes to PotD: In first Pillars, in long term, this was only difficulty level with was making combat somewhat challenging - at least in case of vanilla game. White March is a little bit different story, but still, PotD was propably the way to go for most. But what I did not, and I don't like so much about PotD in first PoE, and I don't like it here, is the way it increase challenge. I belong to those who really would like to see challenge coming from interesting ressitances and unique skills/abilities of enemies, plus very clever AI. "Artificially" increasing enemies stats, and making them more numerous, is not exactly my favorite way of increasing challenge. Especially in case of PoE 1, there was plenty of "trash mobs", and yeah, PotD was making those fights more difficult, but at the same time, they were not really that interesting - very repetitive, but due tue PotD, lasted for longer. So there were moments, that they were simply irritating me. From other hand, anything lower than PotD was simply too easy, and boring. And I'm aware, that creating good AI is not that easy at all. So not without complains, but I accept PotD as a solution. Encounters in Deadfire seems to have a little bit more sense - feels less "trashy". Hence fights may be felt somewhat more unique. Enemies more often have real (full) ressitances too. Still, when it comes to combat system itself, I've somewhat preffered old one. There was also that pleasent feeling of immersion, and accomplishement, when I've managed to win just in last moment, while my party was bearly having any health still. Thinking forward. Not wasting best spells on trash mobs, etc. I don't want to say, that it is same like, but new system feels a little bit like Diablo 3 for me - Something what can be fun in Hack'n'Slash game, ro so called action RPG, but not something I expect from proper, more classic RPG.

Interesting theory. Actualy, I'm a buddhist IRL. This is propably why I don't see the destruction of the Wheel as such a big drama. Perhaps even quite contrary. Anyway, what you are describing fits some Hinduistic believes, I suppose. In "traditional" Buddhism, so to speak, gods are just another form of sentient beings - they are not considered creators, or "demiurgs". And, keeping things simple, with good enough karma, anyone can become a god. But while they live for eons, gods are mortal too, and after all, they do experience of suffering, hence becoming a god is not seen as something ultimate. Only true Enlightment - recognition of minds nature can free one from suffering. And this have nothing to do with godhood. To be clear - this is just to give some other example of far-eastern approach to divines. Anyway... While your theory is very interesting, the game's lore give us no single clue about this. Quite contrary - it rather suggest, that there never was any real god or gods. But Engwithans, insteed of seeing a freedom in this, they rather became terrified. I would say, they were "limited", because they assumed that the Kith are capable only of chaos, mischief and destruction when left without divine leadership. Hence, in no presence of real ones, they've created their own gods. By the way, I don't know why they've created also such entities as Skaen, but... whatever....

Hmm... yes. As usualy, one discover more and more, the more one plays the game. And to be honest, alongside my second playthrough now (on PotD, but we the same, main character ported from first PoE) I start to see more and more flaws, I had to admitt. Don't take me wrong not to the point of not enjoying the game as such. But definitely making this experience somewhat less pleasant, assuring me in my opinion, that regardless of their obvious (or less obvious) flaws, first part of the game was better (not neccessery in any objective terms - purely personaly, I mean). "Eckera, too much money sunken in fully voiced dialoges, and beauty graphics, and to less into writing and designing of the quests, I say" Even followers' quests felt to have somehwat more depth in the first game. And I too don't think, that almost fully stripping the gods from the shroud of mistery was indeed a good idea. Ok, as the Watcher from the first game, we know they are not as omni-potent powers, as most people assume. But stil, the impression left by hearing all those debates of them is... "so, so", at best. And by the way - those in-dream travels to the Berath's realm are highly overdone. While the main plot, and sidequests in the first game were not without flaws either, and there were some "holes" in them, I also feel Deadfire to be somewhat more shallow. I see some positives too. Factions seems to be more... hmm... believable, more involved in local affairs. Well, my current hero tries to avoid siding too much with any of main powers (he rather tends to help "small-ones"). So I can't say too much about this. But in the first playthrough I was working a little bit for Her Majesty, queen Onekaza. And I'd like to say, that I really liked how she have been depicted. Deadfire seems also be more open to... open-world concept. Hence, for exploaration and adventuring, with is fine by it's own rights. Still, I would appreciate it more if also main quest would be written in such a way, that would encourage a lot of sidequesting and exploration. Meanwhile, while it do not give us as much feel of "urgency" as in some other titles (Oblivion, Skyrim, to give some examples), it still tends to push our hero in one direction, not leaving too much room for anythhing else - at least this is my impression (however this was even more the case in the firs Pliiars too). Followers dispossition system is a nice idea, but I think it is poorly implemented - at least compared to my experiences with Dragon Age - Origins. And I would say, that followers are in general too eager to get involved in a romantic relationship with our hero, even with relatively low disposition, and regardless of their and hero's gender. As I wrote before, ship's management system is a little bit annoying if one don't enjoy this aspect of the game. And in contrary to the Stronghold from the first PoE, it is obligatory to some point - after all we need that ship to travel between the islands, so we don't want a mutiny on board, propably. As for now, in second playthrough on PotD (but I barely arrived to Neketaka so far), fighting feels to be positvely challenging. However, I can still complain on lack of neccessity of managing our "resources" in long term - between the fights. I know that for many players per-rest abilities/spells/powers, and not self-replenishing health were a kind of annoyance in the first game, but not for me. While we now have limited resources within the fight, there is really no reason to not use everything that we have in every fight - and we propably want to - at least on this low levels. I've read somewhere, that after about level 7 most fights starts to be relatively easy even on PotD (aside of some speciffic fights that are somewhat harder also on Veteran setting) - I don't know, I haven't experienced yet. I start to familiarise with new affliction system, but again - it feels "un-clear" to me, and not very intuitve. Said all this, I generaly enjoy the game. But I afraid, that our developers went the way of "modernisation" - and what I mean by this, is changing for the sake of more "main-stream" gamers of now-days. So the game looks better, sounds better, have more "funcy" features, and less complicated mechanics (or maybe not less), but at the cost of the "things" I personally appreciate the most, like good written storry, deep and involving lore, and creation of immersive, believable (in it's own terms, after all this is a fantasy setting) world and characters.

I find some problems with those concepts. If souls were "born" out of nothing, spontaneously, before the invention of the Wheel, this still do not explain, then, why destruction of the Wheel will cause slow, but ultimatly total day-out of Eora's life (if Kith won't find solution to the problem). And this is what the gods claim - at least Berath seems to claim so, and Eothas do not negates this in anyway. I don't mean that it couldn't be this way. But we still lacking explanation why this "natural" process have been destroyed in one way or another along the creation of the Wheel. And again, I don't think we need here some straight-forward asnwer - it can be a little misterious subject, but problem is that game's plot, or it's lore give no single clue to assume, that prior to the Wheel world functioned in anyway different than it does now. Ok, we do assume, that world was functioning somehow different, because we know from first PoE (and from some notions in Deadfire too), that the gods were actualy created by ancient Engwithans, same as the Wheel. Hence, this had to happened to at some "point" in hisory. But following the main plot of Deadfire, I had impression (but maybe this is only me) like there was not any "before", like the Wheel was always there, and now suddenly it will become destroyed. And yes, from perspective of commonfolk it is like that, propably, but our hero, the Watcher, knows about true nature of the Gods, and the Wheel. I'm not sure do you really understand my concern (and I don't blaim you )? Eothas informs us he is going to stop a cycle of reincarnation, and he is going to do so by destruction of ancient Engwithan machine, with is actualy responsible for creation and sustainance of the Wheel. So my impression was - "Oh! Ok... So reincarnation is artificial, same as the gods are... But wait! Doesn't this mean that reincarnation had to start at some point in history? So how this was working before this point? After all, Engwithans were living beings. And they were living among many other cultures. All those Kith, but also animals, monsters, etc., had to have souls - because, as we know from the lore, without souls there is no consciousness at all. So there had to be some other, natural mechanism of infusing bodies with souls." Ok, so far so good. But... the las thing is only a reasonable assumption - educated guess. In the game we have no option even to ask such questions, not to say about reciving even some vauge answers. And when we go further with the main plot, we find out that after destruction of the Wheel, the souls will simply stuck in the "In-between" - not able to move-on into the Beyond (sorry if I use wrong terms - I play localised version of the game) nor into mortal plane. Then I thought: "But, but... but why?!" "There had to be that natural process predating the Wheel, right? What happened to it? Why souls will stuck in the In-between (and why this is so big drama, actualy - like the mortals' life was really so pleasant )?" And to be honest, this is not even that much about the lack of answers. My feel of incosesuqancy is more due to the fact, that all involved - the Watcher, Eothas, or other gods, seems to not see the problem at all. They behave like unaware mortals - like the Wheel was always there.

To be honest, I don't even think that reviewer was really discriminating anyone. Personally, I have nothing against sexual minorities, but for me the fact that every of my followers seems to be if not homo- than at least bi-sexual was also quite irritating. Not to mention, that they are ready to start a romance very early, even with still rather low disposition. So indeed, I think that this part of the game was made badly, compared to Dragon Age - Origins, for example. There followers had their own sexual orientation (some were bisexual, some hetero) and one had to work a little bit on relations to be able to start the romance. And some characters were more reluctant to do so, than others. Generaly I think this very honest, and good review - "from certain point of view", as Obi-Wan would say. I mean, this review is propably very accurate from standpoint of someone who played all those Infinity Engine games. Personally, my first RPG was TES III: Morrowind. And while dialoges were definitely bad there, I really liked how main story was treated there. And I really felt in love with Morrowind. Despite poore dialoge writings, it was quite immersive, and main story was quite interesting for me. And what I find the best about Morrowind is the plentiful of the Lore to explore. After that, I was quite dissapointed by Oblivion - but mostly due to poorly introduced level scaling. But Skyrim, for me, was total dissaster as a RPG game. Meanwhile I've played also Dragon Age - Origins, and have short "romance" with MMOs like WoW and TESO. So, with such a basis, PoE 1 was really good RPG from my standpoint, despite of the flaws punctated by the reviewer. It is not like that I don't see them, but I simply consider PoE a good game, despite of them. And to be honest, after all patches, and both DLCs, I consider it better than Deadrife.

Morning Star

Thank you for your comments, guys. I really do appreciate them. I can't say, and I don't know what was the intention of the writers. I only say that from my personal perspective, while playing the game, I haven't found much of a focus on animancy, aside maybe of Eothas' notion, that maybe animancers will find solution for the problem of ceasation of reincarnation. I think I understand now, however, what you mean in reliance to PoE 1. If we treat creation of the gods as a big act of animancy, and similary we treat that way what Ledden Key was doing with Engwithans machines in Dyrwood, than yes - main plot of PoE 1 was indeed largely connected to animancy. Hence I need to clarify, that when I was writing about animancy, I was rather thinking about "modern" science, and not about ancient Engwithans' animancy. And what is funny, while we do recive (in PoE 1) some info about good things, that animancy can do - mainly from dialoges, at the same time during gameplay we rather see only negative examples (animancers shown as selfish necromancers, mostly) - and this is a little bit dissapointing. But I diverge from the topic As I said, I have nothing against a little bit of mistery. More often, than not, such misteries makes lore more interesting and involving. But in this particular case, having whole knowledge from the first part of the game, I had that feeling of incosistency and inconsequancy I mentiones before. Hence I really would appreciate if Eothas would be talking for 10 minutes about Eora from 2000 years ago. But maybe this is just me. Again, best wishes, and thanks for discussion!

I bought firts PoE after most patches and DLCs were already reliesed. So I avoided some "extreme" mechanics' changes in the middle of the game, about with I was reading in the forums. And I simply loved it. There was some minor issues I had with the main plot, like [spolier] the fact that our character seems to treat Ledden Key as enemies from the start, even if he/she wants only answers at this point of the game - I think this could be improved just by addition of few lines in interaction with the enigmatic lady beneeth Woodika temple. And I was propably a little dissapointed about the "big secret" [/spolier] . But in general, I loved the story, I loved the setting. I still would like to know more of the Lore etc. Now, when it comes to Deadfire, I have to agree with OP in some areas. For some reason, while I like the main plot, I had not as much fun from playing the game, as I did with PoE 1. And main story felt somewhat short to me. And leveling somewhat to fast. At least in my first playthrough at high difficulty level (no level scaling; oh, and I haven't bought DLC yet) I had such impression. Now I started my secound playthrough at PotD difficulty level (but still no lvl scaling - not big fun of it in games like PoE), so maybe this time this will take longer. Now, I would like to comment on pros and cons mentioned by OP. Pros: I preffer mechanics of first PoE. Perhaps simply because I've used to them, and I had already several playthroughs with the game - and even now I play it alongside with Deadfire. Especially I don't like new affliction system - it is not very clear for me, and not very intuitive. In first PoE when someone was puting fear effect on me, I knew I need to use a spell/power with counteracts fear. Simple like that. Now I have to remember, or check everytime, to with class affliction belongs, and what "antidote" I should use. I also liked the separate stamina (? - sorry, I play localised version of both games, don't remember well original, english terms) and health pools. Per rest and per combat abilities, and so on. I'm not saying, that new system is not fun. It is more "tactician", so to speak. We have limited "resources", and we need to think about how to use them to best result. This is nice. But from other hand, mistakes in the battle seems to be less punnishing in longer term, since we simply regenerate all health after the combat. So it feels somewhat less involving, and less imersive for me. But yes - I generaly like the fact, that firearms seems to have greater potential in Deadfire, than they had in first PoE. However I think, that in "right" hands (proper build) they were quite useful also in first PoE. I also do enjoy new graphics, but to be honest, first PoE were good enough for me. Even if we have most of the things depicted on the screen, I still like to use my imagination to high extend, like in table-top, classic RPG. I the same way I don't mind reading a lot, and the fact of lack of full voiced conversations in PoE 1 wasn't for me that big issue as for some others. Cons: 2. Well, this propably depends of one's expectations towards a RPG game. For me, while I like when combat represent some challenge, and requires thinking and good tactics, I don't neccessery want to fight constantly, so to speak. For me most important in RPG game is a freedom of roleplaying my character. The feel of immersion in the world, making choices, and so on. For example, my main hero I've "imported" from first PoE always tends to find diplomatic solutions and avoid combat if only possible. And I enjoy him, even if I fight less. To sum-up, I like when combat system is done well, and it is important part of the game, but for me personally, not as important like good story, good lore, and freedom of developing of my character (his/her personality, choices he/she makes, etc.). So I certainly can live without final battle. 3. Well, our ship fills that role, isn't it. And for the most part I don't see that big difference. 4. Well.... game's setting somewhat forces this. How would you like to travel on island's archipelago? By airplane? I understand your concern, but this is more about game's setting, than anything else. If someone don't like tropical islands, archipelago setting, piracy, etc. - then yes, one will be dissapointed at least a little bit. I admitt - I don't love those kind of settings very much too. Maybe this is the reason I haven't enjoy the game as much as the PoE 1. Stil, it is hard to complain on sea traveling for me, knowing where the game is set. 5. Again - depends of expectations from RPG game. For example, there is a lot of exploration in TES V: Skyrim - but I consider this game to be more like FPS with some mechanical elements of RPG, than true, proper RPG. From other hand, while much more "linear" (and quite heavy combat-oriented), first Dragon Age was brilliant from my standpoint. 7. Look at 4. Well, through my first playthrough my hero, and I, was treating sea travel just like this - as a mean of transportation. I wasn't engaging in sea-combat too much, and I don't feel this was limiting my role-play in anyway. Yeah, my hero is in Dedfire now - but he still is the Watcher from Caed Nua. He didn't and he won't transform into a pirate just because he arrived into Deadfire. Only thing I don't like, is how resource consuming the ship and it's crew is. the Stronghold in the first PoE were felt as something additional, and one could ignore it completely. Ships in Dedfire feels to be much more obligatory. PS. Sorry for bad English - I try my best.

Hmmm... I agree that the essence, souls and souls' energy, are core, basic "units" in PoE's universum. But I treat animancy rather as a sign of times, so to speak - first try to understand "phenomenom" in "scientiffic" way. And while the fate of animancy was an important part of the first PoE's plot, I've never consideret it to be the core of PoE 1, or Deadfire's story as such - even if indeed intended by writers. Anyway, I don't mind some misteries and the fact that not everything is explained to us. But in this case I simply have an impression of inconsistency and inconsequancy. And this is why I think the situation before creation of the Wheel should be explained in main plot of Deadfire. Perhaps I simply belong to minority of those who have that feeling "Ok, something is wrong here..." Best whishes!

Interesting comparison to "internet" Yeah, I'm preety sure, that there should be some natural system predating Engwithans' "improvement". There had to be. My problem is, that this is not explained in anyway in the lore. But if we can make safe assumption, that there was indeed natural proccess of reincarnation, or any other mechanism with have been "infusing" bodies with souls, then what happened to this mechanism? Why destruction of the Wheel seems to stop reincarnation completely? Of course we could left this in the area of mistery, as a kind of a puzzle to be solved in the future by the Kith. But taking into account, that in-game enviroenement we have access to direct sources (the gods), this approach is hard to justify from my standpoint. Ok - most of the gods are more than ready to lie about many things, but propably Eothas can be trusted in this matter. And it seems, Eothas indeed would be able to give us those info, but those sequences were cut-off, as Josh Sawyer explained in the link posted by Katarack21. Best wishes!

Well, yes, I tought about this. But this is only guessing. And if so, why then Engwithans needed to create the Wheel? Ok, here answer is propably simple - they wanted to regulate the process, to be able to "steal" portions of souls to sustain existance of the gods. But point is, why then destruction of the Wheel brings up so devastating consequances (well, is it really devastating it is propably a matter of perspective, but I assume you know what I mean )? If the Ukaizo was used only to control and direct otherwise natural process, there wouldn't be much of problem, right? Ok, there would be, but just for the gods. But if Berath speaks true, destruction of the Wheel will stop reincarnation all together. Hence, there was no natural reincarnation process before, or it was destroyed prior or by creation of the Wheel. But we do not recive any info about this from the game. And since our hero is about to decide about the Wheel's fate, I think this shouldn't stay a mistery for the player.

Well, I have to admit that I disagree with Josh Sawyer on this. Simply because without those explanations, people like me starts to wonder. I base my observations on my in-game character's findings of course. And I've asked Berath about consequances, and he/she (I prefer she, somehow, even if the dwarf seems to be nicer ) gave me description I wrote in the original post. Of course she could lie - this wouldn't be anything new from the gods. But accepting those explenations, question "so how life could function before invention of the Wheel?" arose automathicaly in my mind. People had to be born and dieing before, obviously. So for me this creates big inconsistency.

Wow! It seems this highly depends of personal taste, I guess. Ok, I haven't felt so much of "urgency" in main questline of PoE 1, neither in the PoE 2, as in some other productions. But still, this was troubling for me to justify doing sidequests, while I have so important things to do due to main story. I wrote before, that Bethesda generaly write their games badly. But I have to admitt, that I really like what they did with main storyline of the Morrowind. There was the point, near the begining, where our hero was told that he/she should first gain some more experience, do some jobs for other factions, or as a freelancer, and then to get back. By this single thing, whole island was opened to our exploration. There was no that feel of urgency. Only when you were getting deeper and deeper into the main story, it was starting to get a pace. And I think this was good! :D In PoE 1 main story "feels" relatively slow paced more less until the meating with Maerwald. From this point onward, our hero is in of desperate chace for it's sanity. In PoE 2, well... there should be no spoilers here, but I would agree, that the pace is slower, and some events evem made my character to consider intentional delaying of finding Eothas. But still, again we fight for our life and our soul, and we are being blackmailed by the gods. But I think, that PoE 2 main plot is indeed less "urgent" And I like it. From other hand, it felt a little bit short, compared to PoE 1. But aside of this, and some other concerns I mentioned earlier, I realy love both stories.

1. Graphics - I think they are at the level better than in the first game, but at the same time, just good enough - I do not expect anything more fancy from this type of game. 2. Exploration. 3. Broad role-playing possibilities - as in the first game, there is plenty of choices and ways to portrait our hero. 4. Unique equipment indeed feels unique - in the first game quite often "enchantig" of "normal" equipment was way to go, while "unique" equimpent, maybe with some exceptions, was not really better or really unique. Now unique items seems to be mostly superior to normal stuff. 5. penetration system - actually, I thing that constant DR from first part was more reallistic, but from gameplay perspective it has also it's main flaws (making armor almost useless in later part of the game, due to massive damage our hero and his/her companions could recive in combat). I generaly don't like percentage damage mittigation, as less reallistic and less immersive. But I admitt, that from gameplay perspective, it propably works better, and coupled with this penetration system, it actually makes sense. But. I would like to mention some cons too (from personal perspective): 1. Affliction system - I preffered the old one - maybe just because I've used to it. But I find new one not very intuitive and clear. I'm confused by it. It is hard for me to find out with affliction actualy do what, and especially, what kind of "antidote" I should use against it. 2. "Simplified" combat system - again, I preffered the old one. Ok, new one can be interested in a way - it is more tactician, than strategic, so to speak. But I find somehow old one more interesting and involving.

Ok, I haven't read all posts in this thread. I just want to give my opinion. And btw. it is hard to do here without spoilers, but I'll try. For me, when it comes PoE 1, the general idea was quite nice. I had, and I have only two problems with main story. First - how suddenly our hero and main "villains" of the game become enemies. After all, at the begining we are simply a lost guy/lass with is looking for answers, right? But at the same time, from the start, game's puts us in a role of hero with want to stop "bad guys". There was really lack of "transition" between "I want my answers" and "ok, we need to stop those bad guys". Yes, theorethicaly we can continue to pursue main antagonist just to solve personal issues. But still, we don't really have an option, to actally agree with what "bad guys are doing", so to speak. And that's fine, but our hero should propably have a good reason to make them (badgays) his/her enemy. And from my standpoint, there was a lack of such type of progression. There was that quick switch - "I wan't my answers", and then suddenly "I'm fighting the people I wanted to ask my questions". And second thing, and this is quite common this days for many productions, how much main story "force" us to haste. Ok, this is not a bad thing by it's own. This feel of "oh, It is very bad with me, and I have to do something before it will be to late" - this is ok by it's own. But we have also broad world to explore, there's plenty of sidequests to do. Now, we are constantly loosing our sanity and we are of desperate need to find main antagonist. How in the world we have time to deal some errands, reopening some ancient fortress in the mountains, or whatever? Do you see my point? Situation of our hero is presented in main story in such a way, that this gives a feel of such an urgency, that doing something else than following main story line feels to be out of place. And I ususally want to roleplay my characters, hence this is a little bit a problem for me - how to justife, that my hero is involved in some completely different tasks, often in completely different part of the world (the White March, for example, however here is given some justiffication - "budgays" have their agenda there too), while I should search main antagonist? But as I said, this is something I largely experience in most titles. And I guess, this is a problem with is hard to avoid, if the story is supposed to be interesting and catching, so to speak. But there is somethin else, out of main story, that was bothering me a little bit. It was how the world - the Eora, and it's lore was presented to a player. Someone in previous posts mentioned Bethesda and how bad they are with writing their games. And this is absolutely true. Skyrim is one the worst games I've played when it comes to actual role-playing. It is more like a FPS with some mechanical elements of RPG, than really a proper RPG. But! But the way Bethesda presents Tamriel to a player is really great! There is plenty of lore to discover. There is a lot history to read. In other words, there is plenty of ways to learn why the world look like it looks - learning of the Lore is often more interesting than actualy playing the game . And this is something that was lacking in PoE 1 from my standpoint. And some other elements of the Lore were a little bit vauge to me too. To this day, I don't really know how to imagine Rautai, for example. Where to put it on map in relation to already known land masses, and known countries. I know only, that their main "force" is located in some gulf in the north. And it seems that "colonies" on some "shoreline" are relatively new (shorelines of what? Is this on the same continents that "the Gulf" is, or somewhere completely else?). This do not sattisfy me. I want to know more! Especially, that I generaly like the setting - rennaissance inspired. Essence, or souls energy as a base of magic and myscticism. Reincarnation. Presence of gunpowder and firearms. I love it. But I would like to have more ways to learn the lore, and to actually understood the world around me. And most I've wrote about PoE 1 cab be transferred to PoE 2. So I won't repeat this. Best wishes! Ps. Sorry for bad English.

Ok, we know from PoE 1, that the Gods were actauly "created" by Ancient Engwitans. Now, in PoE 2 we discover that the Wheel itself (the cycle of reincarnation) was also invented by the Engwitans, and it works thanks to ancient machine located on the Ukaizo. We find out, that if Eothas will be allowed to destroy machine, souls (after vessels' death) will stuck in in-between, hence if Kith won't find a way to start the cycle by them own (or via any other game ending), there will less, and less of iving beings in the world, and Eora may finally dayout totally. My question is: So if Engwitans have invented the Wheel, then how souls were "infusing" newborn bodies before that happened? Was this problem overlook by our Devs, or this is a mistery, that maybe we will solve in PoE 3? Ps. Sorry for bad English.

Welcome to the wonderful world of gaming. That's just the way it is. If you don't want to be disappointed you shouldn't preorder or buy games on release. That's absurd. Why should I expect a game to be broken on release? Buggy is one thing, but I can't play at all. Yeah, it's kind of bad. I can play, but there's always something... have to alt tab constantly to fix FPS bug, my custom character wastes 2 points every power level increase, etc... Almost reminds me of Kingdom Come Deliverance, sigh. I had to almost wait a month (and like 6 patches) before I could play it, and even then a third of the quests still bugged out uncompleted for me lol. I'm sure it'll get better with time but it's painfully obvious this game needed another three months in the oven at the very least. And I feel this is rather common situation for most developers out there - not only for the Obsidian. They all are so eager to release a product, despite not being realy finished yet. Of course some minor bugs are always possible to occur even with best prepared release. But it seems, we have pleanty of issues here, and some of them are not so minor too. Good thing I bought recently both DLCs for PoE1, so I have pleanty of hours to play in the firs part of the game still . I guess I'll wait with Deadfire till it will become patched enough to run smooth and stable. Don't take me wrong. I love PoE1, and I suppose I will at least like Deadfire too. And I do appreciate Obsidian's work. I just want to wait with my proper gameplay till most of the current issues will be fixed.