Saulot

In my opinion: 1) Style and artistic design are part of what makes a good RPG, or game generally. Poor stylistic choices may not make a game unplayable, but they would put a hard cap on the game's longterm enjoyability. 2) I helped fund an isometric RPG because I do care about graphics. I like the graphics used in the Infinity Engine games, and I think something will be lost when we don't see that type of graphic any more. 3) As long as the game has graphics at all, these stylistic decisions exist and are part of the game's design - hence they can be talked about as much as any part of the game's design. The only time that graphics don't matter is in a text-based game.

Eight companions does not bother me, but I would prefer nine or ten, even eleven if possible. I'm not terribly interested in seeing more than that, though. I want every companion to fleshed out and well developed, of course, and I want most of them to have something clear to contribute to the story, though if there were ten or eleven characters, I would not mind one or two being somewhat "out of the way" so to speak.

I don't think that they are setting out specifically to make an anti-Dragon Age 2, but there is a certain alignment of motives. Think about it this way: Bioware designed and marketed Dragon Age: Origins as a "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." That did not mean trying to make a game directly in the older style, but trying to create a modernized version of the same type of game. They did so to immense critical success, but for reasons I will not speculate on, decided that they need to change many aspects of that direction for Dragon Age 2. So, they moved away from that direction. On the other hand, Project Eternity is trying to invoke the feeling of the old Infinity Engine games, and probably go further in that direction than Dragon Age: Origins did. So, essentially, Obsidian is moving in the opposite to the one Bioware chose to take. Consequently, Project Eternity starts to sound like an anti-Dragon Age 2, but I doubt that Obsidian developers are reacting specifically to any one game, but rather to industry trends and their own personal preferences.

I loved Torment for a number of reasons: the strong emphasis on themes of memory and loss, the alien setting, the bizarre characters and ideas present in the world. For me, all of these elements came together in a way that I have never seen otherwise. Personally, I expect Project Eternity's world to be a more "normal" fantasy world, like the Forgotten Realms setting used in Baldur's Gate, rather than something like the Planescape setting. However, I would be happy if any of those elements from Torment could find their way into the game. I would particularly like the introspective quality to be at the forefront. I also think it is important to have interesting, intelligent, varied, and multifaceted dialogue, but I am fairly confident that we will see that regardless of other aspects of game design.

Hi everybody! I'm pretty excited about this project.