Heijoushin

Concelhaut shouldn't be a requirement. It's possible that you need to finish WM1 before this quest becomes available. Can anyone confirm this? (I finished WM1 before installing WM2 so I can't say)

Hello old chap. Of course, if you didn't like the game, that's fair enough, its a matter of personal taste. I do think a lot of your points are nit-picky / whiny though. To sum it up: a) You didn't like the class you played. b) You missed a few things, didn't get a good ending, and you're miffed about that. c) And you think Dyrwoodians are jerks. To this I say: a) Try rolling another class. Or look up some guides to improve your monk skills. There are loads of monks in WM2 BTW. Not that I think we specifically need to fill a quota for each class or anything. b) This is tricky. Yeah, a few small choices shoot you in the foot later on. But let me tell you a hard truth of game-design: They only have so much budget, and can't afford to make content that people might not even choose. Thus, in most games, you're getting the illusion of choice, not choice itself. I recommend watching this video, it explains a lot: c) I like a few evil cults in my Dyrwoodians. I think that's interesting. I think there are also lots of negative groups in real life. But then, I'm probably a pessimist.

Well, there's not that much reactivity anywhere. Priest of Eothas / Magran? Don't expect any unique dialogue. For a game that's often criticized for having too much text, it could really have used a lot lot more;)

I hear what you're saying. I realize that the top tier of armour must be rare, but I find it ridiculous that the only way to make it requires a one-of-a-kind item from the bonus boss. So there can only be one set of superb armour in the world? With the introduction of "legendary" armour in WM2, I would have reduced the requirements for superb a little.

I'm very excited for this game chaps. Since we start on the side of evil by default, I'm guessing your role-playing choices are going to vaguely be: a) Guy who fully supports evil Warlord / Guy who follows evil law to the letter and brutally punishes minor transgressions. b) World-weary guy who sort of regrets the whole situation and would like to minimize damage (a good guy doing his best in a bad situation) Alternatively, since it doesn't sound like there are any outside enemies left, I'm guessing this will ultimately be a faction vs faction storyline. If each faction has a sufficiently interesting ideological viewpoint, and plays out differently, then this could be interesting. The thing is, in a large amount of fantasy games, factions end up just being opposite but equal mirror images of each other and really boring. This needs to be avoided at all costs.

lol, "Japanese-ish", "Japan-esque"... Its a Japanese word 平常心 I don't see Zahua as particularly Japanese though. More like an 80s hippie. Yeah, I suppose the pain/suffering is about the death of physical desires. People first run from pain, then seek pleasure, so I suppose when you're in pain, pleasures are far from your mind.

My Zahua volunteered and survived. Guess it's all down to the constitution. But the Devil seems a logical choice. I mean, if you're going to sacrifice someone, the person who has already lost their body makes sense;)

So ... basically it's all Nedmar's fault? I can live with that. Although one might also fault Berath for not getting in touch with his priest and saying, "no, stop that." Gods, man. Haha, yeah. Since the player can so easily talk with the Gods in Twin Elms, one has to wonder why more people don't go get a direct opinion from the beings they worship.

Waidwen's Legacy has lasted for 15 years (stated in game) And if I understand correctly, there have been no births at all in that time. In that case, there are a few small things out of place. For example, a couple of the quests involve young children, but there shouldn't be anyone older than 15 in the Dyrwood (well, I suppose they could be foreigners who have moved there...) And people like Calisca's sister really shouldn't have any hope. I mean, if there hasn't been a healthy baby in 15 years, did she really think she was going to have a chance? Finally, the Dyrwoodian economy should be plunging due to the shrinking population, schools should be deserted, shops and temples should be desperate for young hands, young brides should be in great demand... Frankly, if there hasn't been a healthy child in 15 years, everyone should be a LOT more panicky for the future of the country. All of a sudden I can sympathize with Raedric's desperation.

I dunno, man. I can see how Magranism could work, if we had someone properly explain the faith. Durance touches a lot on it, but he never sits down and explains it to you like Zahua does. I'm imagining a lot of Lutheran "Work makes you free", some "Manifest Destiny" in regards to spreading the civilization of the forge of industry, with a dash of Spanish Inquisition-era Catholicism. And gunpowder crusades on the side. It would actually be interesting as hell to have a less crazy Magranite explain the faith to you as a character, excerpt from sermons and basic tenets. Yeah! Playing the White March 2, the Ondranite faith is also pretty interesting actually. Instead of just a vague "God of Fire", "God of Hunting", they should have an explanation of the basic tenets.

The question I'm asking is what part the priests of Berath played in this. He's obviously trying to find a solution, but he's convinced that this is all Berath's judgment. The fact that you can't delve deeper into why he'd think that makes the situation feel flat. At this point in the game, it should've been conveyed much more that this could very well have been Berath's judgement. In fact, thinking about it, "We don't know what causes it" is driven home quite often in the game. Absent is the fact that people are more likely to jump to conclusions, and we should've seen more of an effect from those conclusions. I think we only see Raedric pulling this conclusion, and it's not explained very well. Any fanatical priest will probably insist that "their God" has the solution (even if just to find favor at court) The priests of Berath are no doubt advising Raedric on some level, which makes the atrocities in Gilded Vale at least partly their fault. It seems funny that the priest you meet in the upper chambers is such a nice guy. It would make more sense for him to be a fanatical crackpot. I kind of wanted more from the political situation in Gilded Vale. After the initial encounter with the headman, we never hear anything more about the offer to new settlers. Like, we go from "The offer of land might change" to "Well, I've never met this guy, but I'd better go single-handedly say siege to his castle!"

Certainly, if you could lay out all the options for her and let her decide, that would be rational (and the appropriate action in real life). But in this case, since she's confused after being brainwashed (and because this is an RPG) we basically decide for her. Agreed about developers overlooking something. But is this really the "maximum evil" route? Surely siding with a bunch of brainwashing, revenge-obsessed cultists is more evil? Yet you can do that;)

Weeeell, Raedric did his best given what he had to work with. I mean, he had both an animancer and a priest, so he was looking into both scientific and religious solutions. In a less impossible situation, with a problem that he understood, he might have been a good king.

Hmmmm... that's only rational if you consider family honour to be your number 1 priority in life. But most people think about what is best for themselves, so the rational choice would be to run away very fast. But only if she's brainwashed. You can't cure her and then take her back.

Yeah... returning the abused to the abuser seems morally wrong;) But I think that a Goldpact Paladin who agreed to bring the girl back would honour the contract.

Wait, what? What is this Lover's Ring item? Where can I get it and what does it do?

So, this is a super minor thing but since some of the other minor quests have been discussed in depth on this forum... heck, why not? My question: Why isn't it possible to side with Lord Harond in the Blood Legacy quest? You can save the girl. You can side with the Skaen Priests (apparently, I haven't actually tried this) But you can't save the girl and return her to Lord Harond. In other words, there's absolutely no way that poor Harond gets a happy ending:( For argument's sake, if you were playing an evil aristocrat, wouldn't you want to help him? So... Is this just something the developers forgot? Or does the crime of incest fall into the "So evil we're not allowed to touch it" category? Or... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvenEvilHasStandards

Yeah... the stronghold is a lot more fun since WM2, but frankly, the attacks are still more of a nuisance than anything else. When you're in the middle of something completely different, it's annoying to have to rush back to the stronghold just to fight some trash mob. IMHO Stronghold attacks/battles should all be worked into quests/storyline somehow. Like the battle of Yenwood. That's an example of a Stronghold battle done right.

Haha, nice. I do often that (create parties based on another game or anime or something) Can't really remember Chrono Trigger well enough to comment, but what you've written seems good.

Don't these contradict one another? By what you said above, if you are appreciating suffering then you are enhancing pleasure, but then this would mean that you can't be spiritually free since you're chasing pleasure. By that token, perhaps there are no stoic Buddhist then ... or maybe Zahua is confused (could be the drugs, man). Haha, you're right actually. I've probably misinterpreted why he embraces suffering. Need to go have that conversation with him again. Hmmm.... part of the point of the scars (and smearing himself with stinky fish) is to get rid of pride. And he regularly states that suffering is beautiful and leads to enlightenment, but I'm still getting my head around some of it;)

Yeah. You can go crazy with the fine/superior stuff and the elemental damage. You'll have those components by the bucket-load by the end of the game (assuming you're a completionist). As Falchen said, you only need to save the superb/legendary components and durgan's steel for your final set of weapons and armour. If memory serves me correctly, you find a lot of components in the Endless Paths especially. Food I only really use before tough battles. Or if I'm playing ironman mode and want to be extra careful. Problem is, if you haven't cleared the game, it's hard to known where the tough battles are (you have to do a bit of meta-gaming;) Some of the high level scrolls (like resurrection and paralyze) are likewise useful for tough encounters. Don't think I ever really use potions, but I suppose they could be extra healing if you don't have a healer character.

Uh... Are you trying to build a character on this theme or something? I suppose the word "knight" gives me more of a paladin image.

My personal opinion: Priests are a lot more fun to play than paladins, simply because you'll always have lots of spells to play around with. Paladins on the other hand, mostly just lay on hands and do the flaming sword thing the whole game. But as you say, if you want to use Durance, there's hardly any point in rolling another priest of Magran. Finally, every class gets a couple of lines of unique dialogue, but they're so few and far between, I doubt you'll notice it either way.

Like, Zahua is deep man, At first, I thought they went overboard with the drugs thing, but setting that aside for a moment, a lot of his philosophies are great. I'm sure the writers drew on some real life philosophy when they wrote him. Letting go of your pleasures to be spiritually free? That's Buddhism. People are always chasing one pleasure or another. Whenever we get a pleasure, we enjoy it for a few seconds, and then start chasing another. We're never content. Only way to enlightenment is letting go of it all. Appreciating suffering? That's Stocisim. A hungry man really appreciates a simple meal. A cold man really appreciates a blanket. Any suffering that you've gone through enhances the opposite pleasure. So embrace suffering! Or at least, that's how I understand it. I mean, you meet a lot of priests and strange cultists in fantasy games. And sure, they're fun, but very seldom do you think, "This could work in the real world" (I mean, who would want to be a Magran follower? Too hot for one thing) But Zahua-ism? I'd sign up for that (ermm... assuming the self-mutilation thing isn't compulsory) 999 points to whoever wrote Zahua! He's the kind of guy I'd like to share a cup of mead with in real life.

No, it isn't. It is well known amongst those who read historical works or otherwise have an awareness of writing over history that 'conciseness', which now means 'plain simple words, short sentences, minimal poetic language', etc, etc, only became a golden rule for every kind of writing over the last century (at most). It is no coincidence that this has happened where poetry has become relatively marginalised, scholarly work has been forced to become basically a more pretentious form of journalism, and journalism itself has become so 'concise' sometimes that it is hardly worth reading. In other words, the insistence that everything is written in the same plain style has solved some inefficiencies while destroying many good kinds of diversity. There is no reason to say anything and everything should be concise as if there was one rule for writing. That said, of course there should be good reasons to not be concise. POE's issue I would suggest is less to do with individual pieces, which are often fine, but their effect as a whole, and how you come across one detailed description then immediately another. Again, POE needed better deployment of writing, not "less writing". The basic confusion over this issue is why so many movies, games, etc. today basically read/sound like trailers + TV Tropes. "We have a problem!" "The [bad guys!] They're going to regret crossing us." "My [weapon] is with you." "For [homeland name]!" I think what you're talking about at the end is "Hollywood" syndrome. Almost every line has to be catchy, and fit nicely into a movie trailer;) I personally think that's what killed Starcraft 2's writing. As someone who works in a foreign environment, I really appreciate writers (and people) who are clear and to the point (no one wants to read flowery waffle in their second language;). In modern times, people try to be brief and concise to save time and to attract a wider audience. I don't think this is a bad thing. But yes, for entertainment purposes, its great to expand our styles. In POE, sometimes the flowery works. For example, I love the text at the start/end of each chapter. It's largely waffle, but it has great mood. On the other hand, when I'm conversing with a character, like say Durance, and I'm trying to look for a point in the conversation, and he's just spiting out fire metaphors... yeah, that's kind of annoying.