Aridea

Well, there are tons of swords in the game and not nearly enough clubs.

Eh yeah she is a bit... annoying.

Yeah she does. I kept her. But if I knew she could be released, I would have done so. She is an okay sword, but not the best.

I think some spawn random as well, but not 100% sure. Yup, there are random encounters in Neketaka, some are tied to the main quest. You can get Griffin blade in one of them. Agreed on this one.

You remember how there were dozen that used the Godhammer to blow up Waidwen? I always thought these were reflections of the gods of Eora. Thing is there are 11 gods, and dozen is 12. So either I am getting into conspiracy theory territory and overthinking it, or there is something else. Or I am just grasping at straws and the Godhammer priests have nothing to do with it.

I love the idea. Great replayability value. Plus there are already too many unique items in game. Whats the point in finding all of them in one playthrough. I was thinking it could be one of those times when you search battlefields or burials.

Yeah a bit of an odd background for someone with Barbarian/Fighter class. Idk I am suddenly afraid they will go into polytheism vs monotheism with that new god that Rekke wanted to "teach" people about. Kind of follows how history went from paganism to the present state, colonization and advancement of technology, and progress vs old ways. Had enough of gods, I'd rather it was focused more on the world trying to survive the new order of things, but I suppose you can't take religion out of it, especially where its ingrained so much into society as in Eora. Edit: actually replaying the first game, maybe the third will be set in Aedyr/Readceras, or something close? There is a lot of lore about them, and to hear Durance talk... idk.

Thats a good suggestion actually. Although I'd make it more expensive. On a side note - the blessings are painfully easy to get and stat bonuses are way OP. They should have made the cost higher. You can forgo the money because of how easy it is to earn it in game if you do all quests/bounties/tasks etc. So you are left with like 30 spare points.

Um did you finish the game? It's kinda obvious its set up at least as a trilogy with the same character. Companions are fine, their main problems are in bugs which will be fixed in time, pretty much as everything else.

I wouldn't go as far as St. Waidwen, but probably very closely associated with Berath. The chimes on her wrists and birthing bell gave her away tbh.

It looks like if you wipe out the slavers before you go to Ori o Koki, RDC moves in and you can't do anything with it. Which... doesn't really make sense unless there is a quest associated with it. Can someone confirm if there is an RDC quest? I waited and thankfully progressed that quest normally. It does feel weird when you go to the queen and the two options when she talks about the slavers are "this is not my fight, can I do something else to convince you", or attack her with "hello from Crookspur". There was no option to agree with her on wiping out slaves, but there was an option of attacking her... As for reading her soul, you can ask her about her facepaint, which then opens up an option to read her soul. Or its there after the first introduction, I don't remember. I think she has to be NOT angry with you for you to be able to read her. Really, there are no slave options? I was thinking of making a character with the slave background just to see the responses. And looks like the most important response part is actually missing.

Well, Berath just gets annoyed with the Watcher and tells everyone the same thing, that they will take time. She seems to be the final word on everything. Btw did I get the feeling right that other gods are afraid of Rymrgand? Or rather, don't want to mess with him? Are some gods more powerful than the others? Because the power struggles between them seem oddly disproportionate.

I think Furrante gives that to you after you get rid of Aeldys. He does yeah. Can confirm.

Funnily Rekke has TOO many typos in his dialogue (the Aedyran one, not... whatever he is speaking in ). Almost as if he was slapped in as an afterthought. Couldn't take him seriously after that. I was surprised I couldn't talk to Eder after his quest, ask how he felt, what he was going to do... All other companions seem to have some sort of conversation afterwards, but not him. A bug or intentional? If its intentional, it was a very strange decision...

Thats insane, I had her for the first part of the game and barely scratched the surface with her dialogue, even though she gained 2 disposition pretty fast. I wish the devs would speed the timer or something.

They wanted to make her a full companion as a stretch goal right? She would have been far more interesting than Xoti. Also, her portrait has red eyes, and the only characters with red eyes in game are Fampyrs. I always wondered why that's the case. Now it makes sense

Basically what I did was not accept any quests from both families. When I got to talk to Ezzali just ignore her proposition and go straight for the offer to mediate peace. Same with Atello. You may miss their little quests but you will broker an agreement between them if you do it immediately. If thats your goal of course. The options are hidden in conversations, you just need to look for them. Only avoid their "jobs".

Knowing Obsidian and our luck, it will be a bigger stick.

The conversation with the Queen is very strange, it feels unfinished. There are no options to agree with her with clearing out the slavers, all you can say is "its not my fight". I did get to read her soul before that. Hopefully it will be adjusted. Far into the endgame it feels like there are a lot of quests with missing/unfinished options.

Okay, on topic #AlothBestCompanion #MaiaBestGirl

Nope. I loved IWD, beautiful game, but it was too quiet. Not even recruiting sidekicks because there is nothing to them aside from unique portraits and soundsets. I do understand the companions may not be everyone's cup of tea though. Thankfully there are options for everyone. What did you do in the first game? It was kinda the same.

I think it's pretty safe to say by many real world examples that knowledge corrupts. Huana were living in their backward bubble for too long, but newcomers slowly but surely give them eyeopeners. Personally, I can't see them sustaining their sovereignty, never worked in the real world, at least not unscathed. And I just can't get the story of the Easter island out of my head when dealing with Huana. You are probably right. I just keep on thinking since this is a fantasy world then maybe, just maybe those islands can survive unscathed and keep the beauty that surrounds them, without RDC bringing their forts and cannons and Vailians mining the last bit of adra damaging the nature around them. But its idealistic wishful thinking, just the same as wishing everyone irl to try and get along with each other.

You can't judge a nation by one naive young boy. There are good and bad people there as are anywhere. Um who said I was? The fact that there are good and bad people everywhere is a given. But sometimes in games the characters/companions are created to represent a particular faction not just by being with you but also by acting in a certain way closest to the "heart" of the faction, so to speak. That is what I am trying to figure out with Tekehu. Whether he is just one naive boy trying to help others as best he can, or whether he represents the entire faction of Huana who, despite all their flaws, their castes, and other things, are actually relatively good at heart. The huana system is falling to pieces because of so much intervention from all sides - pirates, RDC, Vailians. They don't have resources to fight or help their own people, which we can see by the Gullet. Not to say they are innocent of course. There is bureaucracy everywhere, and by no means am I defending them. Communistic approach is not sustainable. I am for progress, evolution, and learning to survive, and their constant talks about their gods make me cringe. But I feel like both Valians and RDC have lost their hearts somewhere down the road. Not even mentioning pirates in this case.

Haha, I prefer to steal a Ghost Ship just because of the cool factor, and then dump the pirates to kill each other. Despite their caste system I still feel like Huana are the ones who are closer to a remotely "good" faction. Its even represented by the companions. Tekehu is arguably the most honest and kind companion out of all of them. Maia cares only about RDC representatives, Pallegina only about Vailians, everyone else is irrelevant, and Tekehu is the only one who actually wants to help others, whether those are RDC, VTC, or others. I kinda thought it was representative, but maybe I am wrong.

Technically Vailians are mining luminous adra like crazy, which arguably isn't the best idea for the world either. Uh RDC solves everything with murder and their canons, they are like that giant bully with overwhelming firepower that wants to colonize everything.