Starwars

Yeah, it would be nice to have some more "evil" companions to be sure.

So I was doing the quest for Serfan where you go to the settlement sorta northwest of Neketaka. Sayonga? Sayongo? Something like that. The Rauataian population wants me to wipe out some druids living in the swamp. I go there, and you can talk to the druids. They give me a counteroffer which to kill the harbormaster in the town instead, as a Ranger (well, Ghostheart) and follower of Galawain, my character accepts. Maia Rua asks "you're not actually thinking of doing this right captain?" Go back to town, confront the harbormaster and say I'm going to kill her. And Maia goes "sorry captain, I'm siding with the Rauatains on this one". And so it goes. Now, this all makes sense of course but a lot of games would've let that slide so you could keep your precious companion. I'm guessing maybe you could save the situation by just not having Maia along but it was just great little thing to see.

The import bugs are unfortunate but I'm pretty surprised at how non-buggy it seems to be given the size and complexity of the game.

I can like both just fine I think. For what Deadfire does and the themes it has, I think the overland map works beautifully. The ship management isn't complex or anything but I love that it gives time some meaning. With the removal of per rest stuff, I am glad to see another "long-term" strategy mechanic. It's not something that impacts the game a whole lot but I think it does wonders in that it's a mechanic that exists outside the encounters and works on a level that is separate from the encounters. It makes the world feel slightly more alive and slightly less than a "walk from encounter to encounter" simulator.. But yeah, I had similar concerns that we would be getting a bunch of small, kinda empty-feeling map but it's really not been my experience so far. There is a *lot* of content to be had in this game. Neketaka for sure has a much higher content density than I thought it would and I *love* that.

After spending 17 hours in the game (according to STEAM) I must say that I am extremely impressed. Now, some of the changes to combat that I dislike makes the dungeon delving and combat encounters not as enjoyable as I would like, but wow... what a grand adventure this is turning out to be. I think I've spent most of the 17 hours running around Neketaka and I still have on district I haven't visited and a slew of quests open. Just now starting to sail around a bit in my ship (aside from the bits in the beginning of the game). Very impressed at the moment with the scale of things, and yet there is a great density and attention to detail.

For some reason, the one accent I've gotten really tired of in media is not American, but the one Serafen adopts (well, the VA tries his best at least). Seems to be very popular with pirates in various media and for some reason I just can't stand it anymore. It feels like such a cliché for the carefree, slightly rude characters. Makes me not want to take him with me in my party. Xoti was a huge surprise for me when I first heard her, didn't expect that at all. But it has grown on me and I kinda enjoy it now to be honest. I mean, there are all sorts of accents in this game that are pretty... badly done, lol. I mean, you can wave it away saying "it's fantasy so it's not *really* an Italian accent" but still... it's obvious that that's what they're going for. But what I think Deadfire has done well (and definitely a welcome change from PoE1 and Tyranny) is that there seems to be a bigger effort from the actors to... act, to get into another voice, to really go for it, to bring real character. That helps a *ton* and makes the whole thing much better to listen to than those two games.

Playing Deadfire. It's gewd.

The smallest thing that I nagged Justin about on twitter... they removed that sweet "inn music playing faintly in the background while you stand outside the establishment"! That's like the best little thing... hope they can get that into the game at some point. The soundtrack is a bit and miss for me so far. I *love* the tavern music and the variety, and some of the new combat music is way better than what we got in the first game. Some of the "story moments" music was also quite good. Not a fan of what I've heard of the Neketaka music so far though. Sound effects are great I think, especially how they're used in the scripted interactions. Really makes them come alive. I would definitely welcome more sliders though and I would definitely like it if ambient sound was louder in general.

I'm one of the people who prefers the start of PoE1. I liked the mysterious, low-key opening for that a lot more. I was not a huge fan of the first area of Deadfire, the beginning island so to speak. But I must say, I am *really* enjoying myself now that I've reached Neketaka. It is what I hoped for, a great RPG city filled with content and interesting sites to explore. They've done a great job with it, it feels vibrant, alive and fun to explore. A lot of the mechanical changes are... well, not to my taste but I knew that since the beta so nothing new there. So yeah, was slighty disappointed right off the bat but it's really growing on me right now, highly enjoying it.

I think he was alright. Nothing special or memorable but much better than the Deadfire one.

For me, I guess I'm not against the narration for the more important bits of story. I just don't think this particular narrator is good... at all. I don't think she has the... I don't know, poise, to pull it off well. I mean, I loved the narrator in Mask of the Betrayer, who basically worked in the same way in that he only showed up for the important story bits (though he was an actual character in the game, revealed near the end). I think he had the right dramatic tension to sell it.

This happens to me as well. I get a very slight "chop" at regular intervals

So far the voiceacting has been a bit better than I expected but I definitely agree that the narrator is pretty bad. Luckily it seems to be only for bigger scenes otherwise I would have to turn the VA off.

The first Pillars is an excellent game and there is all the reason in the world to play it. And by doing that, Deadfire will have gotten its batch of patches and fixes so it will likely be a more polished game when you come around to it.

Ugh, this sounds rather disappointing. Haven't watched the streams but being able to play a game just fine on the highest difficulty level without understanding the mechanics and using them in your gameplay doesn't sound promising. I think that should be the case even on Normal, and certainly on Hard, but...

I think PoE and Tyranny were quite lacking when it came to voiceovers so I hope Deadfire is better, no idea how many of those actors are involved in Critical Role. Mercer definitely did a good job though in Pillars though, Edér was one of the better voiceacted characters for sure.

Been on a break from work for about a month now (not vacation, just... not working), and have been mostly being lazy all the time. Well, I've worked on my photography quite a lot. Living on saved up money, it's so freaking nice. Many people have trouble not going to work each day and having those routines but man, I *loooooooove* waking up and just having a free day ahead of me where I can do whatever the hell I want. Living on my own, obviously wouldn't be able to do that with kids for example. But yeah, it's so nice and just a great thing to do recharge the batteries. Being out in nature, taking in the springtime. Anyways, just finished smoking a cigar on the balcony. Do that about once a week and it's just a great little zen moment. Thinking about getting a pipe and trying that, have never actually tried that.

That is definitely not my experience, I've always found it pretty mediocre all in all.

Haven't played Persona but The Voices of Nerat was one of the worst performances in Tyranny I think. And a good example of what I feel a a bad performance/badly direceted performance can do, actually undermine what is otherwise a cool character.

The price point for all of them combined definitely makes it feel like these will be quick adventures rather than something to really dig your teeth into. Guess we'll have to see what they cook up but if it turns out to be bite sized experiences then I'll be disappointed.

Exploration is actually my biggest one I think. Exploring a big and beautiful world, complete with fun stuff like the scripted interactions, ship exploration, Neketaka (which looks really nice)... really looking forward to that aspect of it. Also looking forward to the factions and how they will work within the game. I was extremely hyped about PoE1, and love that game dearly, but my expectations are a bit different for this one. There are design decisions which are holding back my hype quite a lot. So I just want to try it out and see what it may bring. Looking forward to just soaking it in.

A beer, a glass of wine, or a bit of whisky/rum/cognac is a wonderful addition to any gaming session. I don't smoke weed though. I would definitely smoke a cigar but I don't smoke that indoors so, nah.

Same here. Though I will say that I think Vault 11 was very nicely done.

At its core, the decision is obviously made to attract as many people as possible. There are infinitely more people who would prefer full VA than those who would prefer partial or not voiceacting at all. And expanding your audience is all well and good. But I think many of the older RPG players may feel a certain dread as to what the future might hold for the Pillars franchise. It was made as a more or less "hardcore" game (and if memory serves, I'm pretty sure that Josh or someone else from Obsidian even praised the fact that it was not fully voiceacted in one of the interviews leading up to the release, don't quote me on that though) and gaming history has a lot of examples of games and franchises moving away from their hardcore roots to something more mainstream in order to get a bigger audience. I think stuff like this kinda rings those warning bells a bit for some of us. And before anyone says it, of course it's a premature concern. But again, I've had those premature concerns many times before throughout my gaming history and quite often they turned out to be true in the end.

Do you really think the White March VO added a lot? I'm just curious. I just played through the first part (can't remember the VO in the second part right now be honest) and I'd say the only voices in it that I think actually *adds* something is 1) Zahua. Nice voice, pleasant to listen to, nice delivery and seems to have an understanding of the character and 2) Galvino which seems to bring some character to the... character. The Devil and Maneha are both... not good to terrible. The rest of it (for NPCs and sidecharacters) is extremely average if you ask me. And characters like the three dwarf ghosts in Durgan's Battery are not only average but also instantly recognizeable as other characters in the game.