Selky

I hope not, Pillars and Tyranny are my only experiences with Paradox and I've already had enough of them.

I'd love this too, I'd rather have the portrait now (or before release) so I can use it from the start of PoE1.

Reactivity to your Watcher's background/race/class add a lot to the experience, even if you only play through once. It makes my day when an [Artist] choice pops up!

I'm all for deeper companion relationships, but I'm very concerned about the developers mentioning that there will be a reputation/approval system. In almost every game I've played that has one it has been a serious annoyance and I feel encouraged to metagame or cheat in order to not miss out on content. I think the idea has potential but I've yet to see any game do it without it being more trouble than it's worth. DAI (yes, really) has probably come the closest to doing it well. Some issues I have with the system are: I love you! I hate you! A serious issue in Tyranny, within a few lines Barik can go from telling me how much I disgust him to telling me that he respects me greatly. Well, which is it? This is clearly not how a rational person like Barik would act and was caused by the separate Loyalty/Fear system that were treated as separate to each other instead of being taken into consideration together. Solution: Every line of companion dialogue with an approval check should check all relevant meters instead of just one e.g. Barik should recognize that you're a mixed bag instead of flipflopping between praising and trashtalking you. You didn't bring me to these approval opportunities, so I hate you! Okay, this one can be justified if the event is clearly important to a companion, like bringing Gann with you to the hags in MotB. Other times it can be very arbitrary and punishing to the player for no real reason - Obsidian's older games like Kotor 2 and NWN 2 were awful when it came to this but even Tyranny suffered from this. Didn't bring Neeshka to the Jerro's dungeon? Didn't bring G0-T0 to Onderon? Didn't bring Boone to five seemingly random locations? Sucks to be you! Solution: Spread approval opportunities throughout the whole game as much as possible, instead of focusing them in specific places where the player has no reason to believe they should bring them. Alternatively, give substantial approval gains/drops in personal quests or approval opportunities where an attentive player will know that they should bring them. We agree and disagree on too many things! Aka the approval meter tug of war where you end up in the middle, but your companion relationships will only progress when you hit a specific approval or disapproval level. The game treats you as if you haven't spoken to the companion at all! Very disappointing when the game forces you to give up on a companion. Solution: Approval or disapproval shouldn't be on the same meter and should be counted separately. If they have to be on the same meter then approval opportunities should be designed in a way where players will always land on either side instead of the middle, or companion relationships should always progress but with your approval level changing the flavor of the dialogue. I hate you so you are literally Hitler! Being mean to a companion can understandably make them upset with you and want to leave, but sometimes they throw accusations at you that are completely untrue. Even worse, you can't defend yourself because all their accusations are general in nature! This is more of an issue in Bioware games but I can count a few instances where Obsidian have done it e.g. Madison in Alpha Protocol. Good examples of what not to do are DAO disapproval conversations like Alistair or Leliana, where you are accused of everything that's wrong in the world because they personally don't like you. Solution: Disapproval conversations should focus on what you have done and not what you might have done. If a companion is the type to get angry over things you've done to others then the game should track this and the companion should point these out specifically when confronting the player character. Obviously Eder isn't going to be happy about that time I threw a cat into the river, so it's fair and expected of him to bring it up again when he's had enough. If I'm a nice guy who only ever wrongs Eder then his disapproval conversation should focus on the way I treat him and not others. Are there any other issues people have with companion approval systems?

Hopefully not, if they're annoying as he is.

I'm glad to find someone else who liked Iovara! The amount of freedom you're given to decide the PC's relationship with her was something I really appreciated, it's always interesting roleplaying it differently in a new playthrough.

I hope that elderly Watchers will be taken into consideration in this game and the sequels. I really enjoyed playing as Granny and I hope she can continue her adventures without any immersion breaking moments!

There's also this:

I'm just glad I didn't side with the Dozens after hearing their representative at the hearing, what an embarrassment.

Kana Rua, I enjoyed him more as a talking wikipedia article than as a companion.

Wael for the *mystery*

I'm worried that I'll miss out on important conversations if I don't bring certain companions to the final fight. I've heard Eder and Aloth are both worth bringing but what about the others?

I know there's plenty of male human & elf portraits already but I'm hoping they'll add more in, really don't like any of the current ones.