FecklessFool

I prefer Rekke over Ydwin because I'm bored with soul stuff. Heck, I hope Rekke is one of the bad guys in a third game if ever that happens. Sent by the one true non Engwithan god to subsume the Engwithan gods and bring them all under the one true god's heel.

I had more fun with the rest of the game that is not involved with the main quest. So like 95% of the game. The main quest storyline is lame and feels tacked on. Now that I've picked up Rekke (missed him in my first playthrough), I'm convinced that this game would be better if they dropped the Watcher and had Rekke (well your version of) as the main character. You get to join the missionary ships, you're not a priest or anything unless you roll a priest, and you end up getting shipwrecked and picked up by maybe pirates or slavers, and from there your story starts and you claw your way up to number one capitan of the Deadfire. Which is funny because after beating POE, I thought Durance had a more interesting story than the Watcher and wished that POE was about your version of Durance being betrayed by your god instead. The Watcher is a lamer. I don't even get why everyone knows the Watcher. Who broadcasted your exploits? What do the general populace of the Deadfire think you've done? Because there wasn't any way to back up your claims of being the one who ended the Hollowborn Crisis, and if you did manage to back it up, then you'd also be able to convince people about the truth of the gods wouldn't you? The Watcher of Caed Nua should have been allowed to retire in peace, which is what they did after POE. They didn't think they'd need to correct anything about the "fake" gods as evidenced by them chilling in their keep for 5 years. And they had 0 impact on the main story that we got in Deadfire. It didn't matter if they died permanently at the start of the game. Events would just have sorted themselves out. Better to have your version of Rekke as the main character instead and make the main story something else. Something fun and meaningful. Don't have the factions all go 'oooooo you can do all the stuff for us because you are the Watcher and we trust you.' How about they tie your working with the factions to progressing the main quest? Like you get to try out some factions for a bit then you decide on joining one organically, not unlike the main quest that we got where you walk in on Eothas and suddenly everyone wants you to be on their team. Do it the other way around, you find some faction you like, you sign up (or go at it yourself and become the Pirate King of the Deadfire), and that moves the main story along. Make it so Eothas already broke the Wheel while you were chained to the oars in a slaver ship for a couple of months (enough to learn the language as Rekke has shown), and Eothas breaking the Wheel is what lets you flee. Factions are now trying to see what has happened, maybe try to find a fix, and that's where your climbing the ranks leads you to looking for clues on how to fix things and along the way learn things like the origins of the retconned Wheel. Then maybe you and your faction fix things, or find an alternate solution, or you reveal that you are descended from the main Engwithans of yesteryears, the ones who didn't move across the Storms and set up their own reality distortion field in the area and made gods or whatever (because apparently the gods don't have much influence from where Rekke comes from). The story could go anywhere and it would be more interesting than listening to gods chat to no consequence, and then watch Eothas do his thing to no consequence. Heck, if people really want POE to have a Watcher, then your character can be a Watcher as well. It's not like being a Watcher is that special. The only reason the Watcher of Caed Nua was special in the first game was because of his ties to Thaos (pretty lame ties though, his soul was suffering all that time because he couldn't get a straight answer from Thaos leading his soul to go hunt Thaos so that they could give them a definite yes/no answer).

Ditch either Xoti or Eder, though I prefer Xoti as I wanted Eder to get to meet his god without dying, get rid of all sidekicks, make Rekke a full companion. Now on my 2nd playthrough, and I'm having more fun with Rekke in the party. Now I kinda wish he was the main character. Replace the Watcher with someone from Rekke's land, and the game is about sailing back home after you've left your mark on the Deadfire as the number one captain. Because on my 2nd playthrough, I am having fun with everything that is not main quest related. The main quest is boring and dumb, the rest of the game is fun. Down with the Watcher. Also add in more Modwyr stuff / interactions. Or add in more talking weapons.

So you don't understand why pirates wouldn't attack merchant ships, or slavers wouldn't attack whoever? Cool. Glad we're on the same boat. And yeah, the flags, and triumphs don't mean much apart from making you look cool, but what does it matter when there is no one on the high seas to see your collection since you've already sunk all named ships and it's just boring unaffiliated merchants sailing.

The thing about that is why can't the gods or Rekke's god influence things beyond the storms? Surely the Engwithian gods could assert their power in Rekke's land. Does the Wheel not work there? Don't mistake me though, I would love it if your theory became canon. POE 3 would have us playing the Fatebinder, now the Overlord, as they take down the gods of Eora while implementing Edicts to save souls. That would be much more interesting than the lackluster and lame Watcher who would probably just do more meaningless, useless stuff to 'fix' things (probably won't fix anything, maybe the writers are trying to make a philosophical point) and would have even less Watchery things to do.

Josh Sawyer said that this was originally in one of the conversations with Eothas, but it was removed because it disrupted the flow of the conversation. https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/174058952291/so-is-the-idea-that-before-the-wheel And how long / detailed was this conversation? How many responses does the Watcher get in? Because if it's very long, then I guess they could cut vital information, but if the Watcher only got around 3 or so responses in, well that seems a bit strange to cut vital information out.

My main issue with the factions are how shallow they are. In terms of gameplay, there is no real difference between any of them because outside of quests there is no conflict between factions. Pirates are the worst at it since they don't actually engage in any piracy because they have some strange fixation with only going after the Watcher's ship. How will they make booty like that? There should be actual sea battles between factions, and actual repercussions if your ship has been sinking tons of VTC ships, not just some guy telling you how much of a meanie you are and now they won't sell you stuff.

The gods convos were just a cheap way to shove "the gods are children" down the player's throat. We're pulling you in here so you can see us bicker Watcher. Do you see it? Do you see how we, those who you call gods, can't get along or decide on anything? Do you see how ineffective we are? I feel that they are setting it up so the Watcher will finally decide to pull some servers in the next game, but the way they went about it was poorly written and cheap. Taking you out of what you're doing so you can get front row seats to them showing how lame they are is just bad. They should have instead had the gods argue in the form of Saint bodies and this argument would lead to massive death and destruction so the Watcher takes it upon himself to shut down some servers, or become system admin. Gods abandoning their human forms for reasons is a poor choice, but it makes a convenient excuse I guess. Seems a waste though.

Yeah, I feel like Josh's comment about cutting vital content just feels like an excuse to cover the inconsistency introduced by Deadfire. It's very weird to cut that considering reading about stuff and the lore of the world is what makes the game fun. It's not like the main story has a ton of content anyway. If that content does exist, then they should just patch that into the game right now. I won't mind if it's not voiced, as long as it clarifies things.

I'd like to point out this little nugget. I so badly wanted the option to pull Xoti aside and tell her about that. She's so wrapped up in her faith that I don't know if it would have made a difference, but I would have liked the option to do so. You and me both. That was the only reason I kept her in the party. After seeing that little cutscene at the digsite where you comment on the shells no longer having any souls when Xoti tries to harvest them, I was giddy with anticipation of being able to go, "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW XOTI?!" But strangely enough, it never came up. Same with Eder. I had him along because I thought we'd get some meaningful scenes when confronting Eothas but nope. His companion quest is just weird as well. I mean, the decision to have that as his quest is weird. You have Eothas back from the dead, and Eder's companion quest is basically finding some old flame and dealing with a kid. Loads of anticipation that just left me disappointed.

Of course not everything will be everyone cup of tea. It's a different type of writing. PoE 1 focus more on you learning about your past and dealing with Thaos. PoE 2 is about the world, the faction and how your factions affect all of them in a rather grand scale compared to PoE 1. It's basically Defiance Bay but an entire archipelago instead. No, POE2 is about chasing a god because he has your soul and is killing thousands in his wake, with Berath coercing you to check up on what Eothas is doing. The rest of the content clashes with the main plot. As I've said here and on Reddit, the main plot should have been centered around the player being a privateer captain making a name for himself and shaping the Deadfire because that is what 95% of the game is about.

Pretty much all rpg are like that. 80% of the contents are side quest. The main quest is always short. It just so happens that the ending can be affected by the side quests giving it the illusion of length. Yeah but the main quest in this game was 5% of the overall content.

Just bring that content back in a patch. I wouldn't mind reading tons of dialog in the main quest. It would help the main quest I think.

Nothing wrong with the story itself in the first game, but the pacing / presentation made it fall flat on its face.

An unreliable narrator works in a book or a movie because the unreliability is made known in the same movie or book and it helps you think, and it makes itself known early on as it affects the plot. If it were applied to a game then the unreliability should factor into the over all plot in that one game. Don't make it pop up in a sequel. Make the players question the narrator early on so they know that the game has one, but this is not what they did with POE. You're only thinking it's an unreliable narrator due to the 2nd game, and that's just terrible on the writer's part. What they did with POE was to establish the world, establish the lore. Having an unreliable narrator in a game like that would ruin the integrity of the things they established. That means there was no point in the big twist, maybe that was also a lie. A double bluff to protect the true and still secret nature of the gods as being actual gods that the Engwithians discovered and they made a deal where they would take them to Paradise if they gave Eora to the gods.

With you there. On occasion she has talks with party members, but I'd have preferred it if you got more of a parent-child relationship with her, otherwise it seems like a cheap nod at a decision made in the first game. A decision that is pretty much a huge responsibility mind you.

Think of this game as more of an open world adventure as that's what it is. Put off the main story and stay clear of the northern lava / rocky islands. Yes the main story has this sense of urgency but it doesn't really factor into the rest of the game. The story is just 5-10% of the content, so just put it off because it will force some world changes too soon if you follow it. From Neketaka do what you want and live the privateer life.

I would be fine with less voice acting if it meant a better budget for gameplay content to be honest. This was also the problem with Yakuza 6. There was way less content than the standard Yakuza game because they chose to voice every dialog when the games were always just fine with the minimal voice acting outside of cutscenes. Others might prefer it, but I never listen to someone talking from start to finish because I've already read their lines before they even voice half of it lol.

To me, Od Nua just wanted Maros to not be less than he was, as in intact with all his memories up to that point I suppose. Just like that Animancer hanging from the Gilded Vale tree said, sometimes souls come back strong / undiminished, but that's rare and what usually happens is they come back less. Or something like that, it's been a while.

Yes. This is why I think the game would have been better if you weren't the Watcher. The Watcher can show up, wearing a hooded mask or whatever, and maybe you get to accompany him on quests to find Eothas. I would rather he not though, and this could just be about you, the privateer captain, making a name for yourself in the Deadfire. Flesh out factions, flesh out sea battles, make ships attack each other and not just you, have fleets, essentially make a Sid Meier's Pirates! RPG.

Might be a bug for that one. Who did you confront? I did that first before going to Tinakaua or whatever it's called and ended up talking to the priestess who I killed after she asked for it back because what she did was a **** move. Though I agree that the writing is quite weak in certain areas.

A lot of us feel t he same way to that extent. The main issue for me with the main story is that it is only 10% of the game, and there's a huge disjoint between it and the rest of the game. The story should have been shaped more towards you working for the factions in order to gain access to areas Eothas has been to, and they shouldn't have made Eothas a giant colossus at the start of the game as that kinda added to the sense of urgency. They could have just made it so Eothas sainted Eder or something and that's what brings you to the Deadfire trying to find him. Doesn't even have to be Eder because he could be dead, but say someone else close to you, or maybe you have dreams of Eothas coming back as a Saint and that's who you have to find, with him only going colossus mode 3/4ths into the game.

Yeah, I wouldn't love character continuation if the game really made it matter, but in this case, you could swap out the Watcher with anyone and it would work fine.

I think the Watcher's story arc ended in POE1. Eder has more validity for being in Deadfire than the Watcher IMO. That's why I think this game would have been better if they just had a new protagonist, the privateer captain, because that's what 90% of the game is about. It's about exploring the Deadfire Archipelago. There's a huge disconnect between that and the main quest. Trying to shoehorn the Watcher in the game just because he was the protagonist in the first game feels like a disservice to the rich world and lore that they have created. It's not like the Watcher's soul talking powers factored in much in this game, and I don't recall it being mentioned in the first game that only a Watcher can interact with the gods. They'd have to be pretty weak gods if they couldn't make themselves known to mortals. I mean how did Magran get 12 people to build the godhammer? Were they Watchers? And it's not like having a new protagonist doesn't mean you can't import a save as that could be the basis for the world state. If it's about how being a Watcher opens doors, well with how you are treated in this game, I think a privateer captain would work just as well. Gain prestige with a faction in order to open those doors and that can be tied up to progressing the story.

Piracy is a way to make money. Go after unaffiliated merchants and other weak ships. No one will mind if the Watcher turns to piracy. Party members who can be classified as good won't mind you killing innocent merchants for loot, and factions won't mind that you've sunk their ships outside of flavor text when talking to important faction people telling you what a meany you are. Notice how pirate ships, well actually all ships, don't attack any one else but you? That's right matey. You are the only true pirate in the Deadfire archipelago.The rest are poseurs. I wonder how these so called pirates put food on the table when everyone of them is fixated on getting the Watcher's ship. Surely they would prefer an easy target like an unaffiliated merchant ship, but no.