Karkarov

This could be true, if he ever did anything to actually hinder you. Yes, he almost kills you in the opening, but he didn't really "mean to". Later points in the plot he could easily just leave you in your situation and you would die, but instead he actively saves you. Not because he wants to kill you later, or have a haha I still win moment, but because he genuinely wanted to save your life. That isn't the behavior of an antagonist.

After playing the game, recruiting them all, getting to know them, and learning their class situation.... Yeah I vote Rekke. He has strong class options with good synergy for multiclass. He is an interesting character because unlike every other new companion he has no stake in the faction game, and he is from a unique culture. From the one conversation you get with him he seems to be an easy going sort with a good personality. Like take Eder, make him a little more morally ambiguous, and toss out all the religion hang ups. I just feel he has the most potential. Runner ups? Ydwin, because the game still needs an actual animancer companion, not to mention more than one elf. Fassina, because the game needs more than one Wizard, and she could have some very interesting insights into the whole wizards council etc etc. Also the game lacks a good salty/moody companion and she fits the bill. Losers? Mirke, we already have a blue orlan pirate. She is cool as heck, but not a deep character. Konstanten, yes, we need dwarf companion, but they need to have a personality and not be boring as heck first.

Non-linearity does not make the game bad. There's plenty of criticism to be made, but this is not one of them. You lost me at "most players". It's a crutch, and a flimsy one to boot. So? This is bad? Okay so point by point. 1: Like many on the internet you are missing the point. I am not saying the game is bad. I am not saying the factions suck. I am not saying the non linearity is bad. I AM saying you can ignore the factions entirely, and beat the game without ever interacting with them, except for one forced meeting after Magran's Teeth. I understand it sucks not being able to counter that statement, because it's a fact, but if you are going to reply you should reply to the statement made. Not a preferred alternative statement that never happened. 2: ..... Did you just say having conflict in a story is a crutch? Tell you what, write an isometric RPG about going to work for 1 month. During the month it is normal work, no terrorists show up, no shootings, no fire alarms go off, your significant other does not have a fight with you, no one in your family dies. You just do your normal every day work for one month, then the game ends. Unless your job is being a detective, or a high powered lawyer working for the mob, or a corrupt highly ranged government official, your game is probably going to be beyond boring. But conflict is a crutch right? 3: Yes, having no antagonist in your plot is bad. REALLY REALLY BAD. When a story has no conflict, and no antagonist or villain, it isn't particularly fun to play, read, or watch. Imagine if Baldur's Gate 2 didn't have Irenicus in it. What would you be doing all game? Just random dungeon spelunking to get richer than you already are? I am sure that would have been way better than the plot with a decent villain we got instead. Classical story structure exists for a reason, because it works. Meanwhile Deadfire had plenty of conflict, and even some minor antagonists, they were just both absent from the main plot which is why the main plot sort of sucks.

In which case, yes Xoti, you are kind of immature. Also has anyone actually gotten this line in the game? Just because it is in the files doesn't mean you can actually get it, and if it actually isn't in game it could be retconned/ignored on a whim.

I personally did not find the characters to be any more, or less, bland. Eder is the same guy, just a little older, even more conflicted on his god, and consumed with looking back on mistakes he made earlier in his life. Maybe the animal thing is a little more pronounced, but this is clearly because they needed stuff for the reputation system. Aloth is again, the same guy. He seems a little less whiny/indecisive (most of the time), and he can definitely be a bigger **** than he used to be, but that's called character progression. You go on a five year quest to dismantle/take over some cult of loony tunes and see how you feel afterwards. Pallegina was far more hard core for the republics, but then I encouraged her to be loyal in the first game so this felt like a natural progression to me. That said, remember, the only reason she didn't like the trade agreement originally was because she felt it was long term bad business and might lead to war with the Dyrwood. The wiki is pure nonsense, she was not rebellious, she just thought they were making a bad choice. In Deadfire she feels they are mostly doing the right things. Also... she was anti godlike/anti religious out the wazoo in Eternity 1. If you talked to her she made it clear she wishes she wasn't a godlike, and she downright hates Hylea. The rest are all new characters and I felt they were okay. Maia and Tekehu fell flat for me because Tekehu I got very late in the game, I already had one godlike didn't need two, and I don't like either of the classes he has. Maia I got earlier, but by then I had decided I was not interested in backing the RDC, and I didn't have a need for a ranger. So I didn't really use her. Serafen is probably my favorite new companion, Xoti a runner up. Also lets not forget guys, it isn't like Eternity was only great super interesting characters. Grieving Mother was boring and overwrought, Hiravias was just a dude bro, Sagani was a nice person.... but bland as a piece of un-buttered toast.

I don't want to shock you, but Xoti is 27. Yeah, I know. But that's what she says herself. As for Eder's personal quest, after hearing one of his banters with Pallegina about having children I don't really think it's about an old flame or Bearn's life and death. I think it's more about Eder desperately wishing for some sort of normal life and family and realising that time is ticking. Elafa and her son are just the people he happened to appoint his family substitute. Which is kind of sad, I suppose, but still not as sad and unhealthy as suddenly deciding that you have feelings for a woman you haven't seen in 20 years. When does she say that exactly? She looks, and acts, like someone who is maybe 22-23. Also Eder did not "just suddenly decide" anything, he realized something was missing, he thought about it, and figured out he regretted not staying by her when he was younger. That is called a realization that you made a mistake in your youth, it isn't a midlife crisis or a random event.

No clue how you managed that man. There is literally more content in Deadfire, it isn't a debate. There is more dialog, more maps, more bounties, more factions with more quests per faction, more everything except meaningless trash fights and main quest. My first pillars run was about 45 hours and I did everything except re visit undead Raedric, which takes maybe 30 minutes. My first Deadfire run where I did everything? 80. Are you like reading every book in the game and skipping the books that are repeats from Eternity or something? Someone actually looked up the numbers and there are 30+ more quests in POE (vanilla) than Deadfire. There are more bounties, but I completed most of those before ever getting the quests. The main quest is way shorter. While there might be more written words, due to the way the game is structured you don't see as large a percentage of the total words written in Deadfire compared to POE. Add in that I let the AI do all the combat, and its kinda a wonder that Deadfire lasted me as long as it did (I did a lot of pointless sailing around the map to uncover all the fog of war). Also, I didn't read every book in either game. Most of the quests in Eternity 1 were also trash quests you could complete easily. Like the merchant at Defiance Bay's broken bridge. That quest takes a whole 3-5 minutes and doesn't even require leaving the one map.

You obviously know nothing about running a business of any kind. 14 million dollars effectively managed can go a VERY long way. Meanwhile, if Obsidian's only source of income while developing Deadfire was ..... Deadfire budget, well they would be out of business right now, or have a ton less than 170 employees. Meanwhile you all do realize Eternity 1 had less than 7 million budget right? How much do you think they paid critical role exactly? Do you really think a game QA makes over 6 figures in orange county?

It is close, but it could use a little more combat. It is definitely in a better place than trash fight hell Eternity 1.

No clue how you managed that man. There is literally more content in Deadfire, it isn't a debate. There is more dialog, more maps, more bounties, more factions with more quests per faction, more everything except meaningless trash fights and main quest. My first pillars run was about 45 hours and I did everything except re visit undead Raedric, which takes maybe 30 minutes. My first Deadfire run where I did everything? 80. Are you like reading every book in the game and skipping the books that are repeats from Eternity or something?

This isn't really a question right? If you play Deadfire to anything resembling completion you will see it is much larger than the original Eternity base game. Is it larger than Eternity + White March 1 and 2? No. It probably will be once it get's it's expansions though. And now you know why polls and things on this forum don't work. Because your resident Eternity haters like Sonicmage get to take them to. Bear in mind guys, the dude posting this opinion has also not actually played Deadfire. He is omitting that fact here though. Are you sure you aren't from RPG Codex Sonic?

No it is very different. Not because of the factions, but because the factions in this game have no agency on the main plot. The "world itself" part of the game is great. The faction war is great. The "mainline quest" part of the game, is not. It is fairly strong through Port Maje, but after that? You just go to place X, deal with Eothas fallout, go to place Y, deal with more Eothas fallout, go to place W and deal with Eothas fallout once last time. That is an extremely short main quest. All that aside there are a few key major weaknesses of the main questline. Problem one, what factions? You can actually fully beat the game and only visit Neketaka one time, and you really only need to visit the palace (forced), and Queen's Berth. You never have to visit Dunnage, Fort Deadlight, Tikiwara, Sayongo, Crookspur, or even the other districts of Neketaka. The factions are completely disconnected from the main plot except for the absolute end bit, which you can ignore by simply having the right ship upgrades. That isn't really the same in Fallout New Vegas where the conflict between the factions IS the main plot. Problem two, what do you mean I need to read this book on metaphysics? The fact that there is no satisfying conflict at the end doesn't help either. Beating up a golem dragon boss isn't exciting when there is no agency to the fight. They are just a security guard doing their job and you just have to get past them. The conflict of this story is also purely theoretical, which means most players are not going to get it, or will be bored by it. Most people don't think actual philosophy and theoretical concepts of reincarnation/space time are interesting things to talk about. That is literally what the main plot is though, the theoretical conflict of what happens when you break the wheel. It is all in your head, or something academics will argue in a classroom. You don't solve it with a sword or a fireball spell, and the story isn't personal to you as a player or your character so it falls flat. Simple logic even kills it, because if the wheel did not exist until after the engwithans, than by definition the world will continue without it otherwise how did the engwithans come to be in the first place? Problem three, where's the beef? This is an RPG, where is my Irenicus, Sephiroth, Kefka, Alduin,Thaos, Sarevok, Wild Hunt, hell gimme anybody? There is no villain in this plot, because Eothas never tries to stop you, because he knows you can't stop him. That simple fact kills all conflict in the main story, especially because you know you can't stop him from pretty early on. The story of The Watchmen graphic novel works because Dr. Manhattan, the unstoppable god, is being labelled as the villain (in the movie at least), but he isn't actually the villain. Even though Veidt has won before the heroes show up, they don't know that, so there is still a sense of purpose to the final conflict. In Deadfire Dr. Manhattan is the bad guy, and you know well in advance he is going to win. It is like they wanted to do the plot of Watchmen, but just made it worse. Even Planescape: Torment (a game I loathe) that is also a purely sort of theoretical conflict at least still has a clear end game enemy you can have some kind of conflict with, even if it is just yourself. They just need to get away from the weird ass gods and soul buggery and try to tell a more traditional story that is about the actual player/normal world they live in for the next Eora game.

That is probably because the game had more hype going in this time, and everyone and their brother is focusing on idiotic user reviews and internet BS than actually playing the game. Even this forum had tons of idiotic posts in the weeks leading up to the game talking about "I will wait 3 months to buy the game because of no real good reason". I am sure the "Obsidian makes bugged games" stuff is also doing nothing to make the bugs in this game highly exaggerated. I mean I still see people daily makes posts about the import bugs..... which were fixed in a patch that came mere days after release and has been available for quite some time. Also no offense, I am sure Steam is the greatest thing ever and it determines all games success, but there are GoG copies too. Like mine for example. And it stayed top seller on GoG far longer. You really count one, and ignore the other. Actual real sales don't work that way. Until Obsidian says something every thread like this is just doom and gloom nay sayers making things up. That said, I seriously doubt this game cost 14 mil, if it did, that money was managed beyond poorly regardless of where it was made.

Pretty sure you can get to do that one if you high perception as well regardless of class.

No I think my post was fine, and that wasn't much sarcasm it was general confusion at how many people think Eder should care more about his "bro" than his god, or his possibly estranged former girlfriend, or this sort of fanatical chick who has weird views of aforementioned god etc etc. He isn't Minsc, he actually has a personality and motivations beyond "go for the eyes boo, go for the eyes". Bear in mind other often overlooked facts. Eder is one of, if not the, oldest people in the party by experience and "age". Aloth might technically be older by years, but by elf standards he is mid-late 20's tops. Of course he isn't interested in Xoti romantically, she is early 20's and he is probably mid to late 30's. She literally looks like a child to him, non-withstanding her unusual feelings about his god. Also he clearly still has unrequited feelings for the estranged former girlfriend. He felt like a Garrus to me, a trusted long term friend character, not someone you hook up with or get romantic about. Ignoring the fact that they made it possible to romance Garrus in 3 ;p. Speaking of Xoti, does no one actually help her? Every post about her arc I see implies she becomes an insane murderer, or her and Eder end up hating each other. In my ending they became great friends, she worked out her issues, and started focusing on helping the living as well as the dead. I literally do not see the Xoti/Eder relationship every account I read online sees. Yes they started rough, cause they were both misunderstanding each other, but they can work it out. I can only assume the people seeing that Xoti intentionally don't help her, or give her terrible advice.

I will just address your reply with my personal opinion point by point. 1 - You are saying combat from the first game was some great renaissance of perfect RPG combat? Yes there are challenge issues with this game (mostly if you refuse to explore side islands early on), but the combat is not worse than Eternity 1. That will all be fixed in balancing that is probably coming sooner rather than later. I expect it in the next month. 2 - The world map is fine. Did you actually expect them to do an archipelago (which by definition is 70% water) in a old style map to map travel like baldur's gate or eternity 1? That would have been incredibly boring and considerably less unique. Meanwhile the map does a lot to encourage actual exploration for the sake of exploration. Assuming you play the game for yourself and don't spoil where all the loot/important things are. Also how do you "take away the concept of exploration" when that is the entire point of the map they designed? You may as well have said, "Well if you just take all the red out of this red shirt it is a really boring color". 3 - Opinions, everyone has one. I like the ship combat, you don't. *shrug* 4 - How in the name of all that is holy do you think "leveling up" is less exciting in Deadfire than Eternity 1? First you get 20 levels of it, not 12-14. Second half your levels in Eternity 1 boiled down to.... "So my athletics is already really high, not my mechanics character..... uh guess I will just drop a point in survival?" Third you have tons more ability choices this time. Fourth, your actual skill choice only levels kinda matter now cause there are more skills and most of them are good. Fifth you have multi classing so far more unique builds. Seriously you are just wrong on this one, that isn't an opinion it's an objective fact. 5 - Items are a big meh? I fail to see how they are less exciting than Eternity 1 items, especially considering the enchanting system is better now and weapons have more interesting unique properties. The broom alone is more fun than any weapon from Eternity 1, forget about the talking sword, the horribly OP two hander you have to beat a specific event in just the right way to get, the higher variety of weapons overall, etc. They didn't knock my socks off, but they are certainly no worse than what came before. 6 - Every aspect of the world building/questing is better in Deadfire except for the main plot. To be horribly honest, the main plot of Eternity 1 wasn't doing so hot either a lot of the time so it is sad they couldn't meet a fairly low bar. But the factions, the random exploration quests, more varied npcs, no godlikes every 5 feet because of backer npcs, the world of the game is just better built.

Lol that data is horrible. I get you want it to be somewhat realistic for the setting, but seriously, by being an Island Amaua you can get double, or triple the checks, off that alone than say an Aedyr human meadowfolk fighter with explorer background has for all that combined. Hell fighers don't even get a single class convo check UNLESS you are a blackjacket.... then you get 1. So much for all character choices being balanced this time. Meanwhile Perception is the new Resolve when it comes to conversations. At least it was a little closer this time.

Really don't get why people don't like Eder in game 2, it is Eder, same dude, nothing really changed. The animal jokes are more heavy handed, and shocker, Eothas killing a crap load of people left him confused and upset. You all understand that when you believe in someone or something and then they betray that trust it makes you feel bad right? Did you expect him to not be effected at all, or just brush it off? It seems like the people who don't like Eder in Deadfire are also the people who are mad they can't romance him, and he isn't focused on the Watcher and not much else. I guess he needs to apologize for being an actual character with personal goals and growth?

Why do people insist on posting concurrent player numbers like that means anything in a single player RPG? Multiplayer focused games will always have higher numbers, even if they only do average, simply because they are multiplayer games and you have to play when other people are playing. Take Divinity Original Sin 2, it is a multiplayer focused game. So not a shocker it crushes both Eternity's. Meanwhile, try comparing it to other games that came out around the same time it did, not games that have had near a year, or years, to get the best player numbers it can. I hate to bust reality, but those saying sales won't matter to the concurrent numbers of any game are deluded. A game going on steam sale for 50% will do huge numbers for it unless the game just plain sucks or only has super tiny niche appeal. Also no, Isometric RPG's are a niche, but not a "super tiny" one.

See you just applied logic, something most people don't do these days. How dare you. @fluffle, the game is fine. User reviews have been, and always will be, 99% complete crap. You shouldn't even read them, much less consider their views. Also no, it is a much better game than Eternity 1, the main plot may be shakier, but every other aspect is better. Considering how short the main plot of the game is, I don't really consider that one thing being weaker when everything else is better a big problem.

Again you guys do know this is the non spoiler forum, so you can't even talk about eothas motivations. All I will say is that I find it really odd people claim they don't know what they were, he tells you why he is doing what he is doing? It isn't a big mystery. If you can't relate to his motivations, okay, that's one thing. Saying you don't know his motivations though? No way, unless you paid zero attention. Also... You guys noticed you weren't the "protagonist" in Eternity 1 as well right? Eternity has been from day one a game where you play a character who was simply in the wrong place at the arguably right time. You never had agency, you were forced into the path you followed in both games. In Eternity 1 it was "Go after Thaos, or slowly go insane." In Eternity 2 it is "Go after Eothas, or be returned to the afterlife by the gods." You have never had a choice in either game. I just find it ironic there are issues in this game that people are holding against it, but these same people love BG2, or played Eternity 1 and weren't on this forums calling out those issues then. This game does make a lot of story mistakes, but not any new ones, Obsidian is guilty of all these mistakes in almost every game they make actually.

"Watcher, I find your lack of creativity... unsettling." - Aloth "The... Republic... wishes you would name it something more... fitting, Watcher." - Pallegina "Well ain't that name a hoot!" - Xoti "Island Name, Watcher? I think you nailed it." - Maia "Rest assured cap'n, I ain't seen nothin' so uncreative since me time aboard the Big Boat. And, let me tell ya about it..." - Serafen "Like the ebb and flow of the ocean... that name... crashes over me..." - Tekēhu You forgot one... "Well, not much of a name, but it's still better than Gilded Vale." - Eder

I have mentioned this in other threads, but this isn't exactly a new thing. The much worshiped greatest villain of all time (some level of sarcasm is intended) Jon Irenicus is in no hurry to lay waste to his Elf City. In Eternity 1 Thaos is happy to sit down at that old Engwithan machine and think about turning it on while you go play in the snow, also doesn't your sanity have an expiration date? In Dragon Age Origins I hope you are ready to rally your men for the cause of defeating the Dark Spawn! I mean they just wiped out an army and sacked a town.... surely they will be wiping out all Ferelden sometime this year.... maybe? Meanwhile I better go put a stop to Alduin's madness and save all of Skyrim.... just as soon as I finish becoming master of the Mages College, head of the Fighters guild, speaker of some old crusty lady, put down a rebellion, pick those flowers.... what was I doing again? I think you get my point.

After recruiting them, yes. One of them has a real quest/interaction with you before recruitment, the other three are basically just.... "HEY WANNA COME ALONG LOL!" (okay technically two of them have real interactions pre recruitment now...) One of them does have some post recruiting dialog though, and interesting insights into some of your traveling buddies. So that redeems them at least. Personally (dwarf companion front please don't put a contract on me) I think Ydwin, Rekke, and Fessina seriously deserved to be real companions. All three of them are very interesting in one way or another, and seem like they could have been great adds to the game. In MANY ways I wish Pallegina had been left out as a companion and just been an NPC and Ydwin had been the VTC companion instead. It would have worked fine. Rekke and Fesssina would both be great neutral companions without any particular stake in the game. Also Mirke really would make an awesome back up Principi companion, just saying. She was a seriously missed opportunity. Konstanten though.... uh.... .... .... .... sorry Dwarf lovers, he could be completely dropped from the game and I wouldn't even notice.

Okay either fix the "least favorite" poll options to be their names, or get this moved to the spoiler forum. Either way I voted for Eder as favorite, because he still is, and Tekehu as least. Tekehu just didn't do anything personally for me, and the fact that he was the last companion I recruited probably didn't help either. Serafen was a solid runner up for favorite. All the companions this time were a lot stronger in general than Eternity 1 though. Worst thing this game did was give me a companion that was "meh", the first game gave me some I did not actually like. Apparently I am the only one who feels this way too, oh well. I guess people like Durance being a d bag for no actual good reason, Sagani's blandness, Hiravias being.... Hiravias, and Zahua's I am a monk who uses drugs and sucks at life bit. Also you should probably do sidekicks separately considering.