Heijoushin

Dude, I think you're being a little nitpicky on these points. IMHO, yeah, saying your god is the only one that matters is kind of egotistical, traveling all over the world looking for a secret organization does make you worldly, and Maia confessing that she's a spy qualifies as skullduggery. I do think the system is a little too transparent though. It's really obvious what makes your companions tick, which makes the system seem, well, gamey.

Ah, but in the old days, there were no such things as patches, so you just lived with things See you later, Antman.

Being saying since the beta that specialist mages are lackluster and need their own spells. I don't think they'll be able to throw in Tyranny's creation system, but I'm hoping for more in the line of Form of the Fearsome Brute. Also, like with the gods, I wonder if meeting so many archmages doesn't cheapen the experience? I originally thought: archmage = once in a generation magical genius. Now? They just seem like your average bickering wizards if that makes any sense.

I think you just talk to him when the "I have something to say" icon comes up. Though at this point, like so many other quests, it may be bugged.

Listen up, you low-life gaming maggot with delusions of grandeur: When you're a creator, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they created a perfect Pillars of Eternity 2.0, they would have been slammed for not enough innovation. So, they made Deadfire, and they get called out for being selfish for changing too much. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that they're creating sequels because they still have some creative vision left, NOT because their bosses are telling them to do it for the company's bottom line. (Also, stable life because of artistic demands? What are you going on about? You know how much crunch time game designers pull?)

Just to confirm, yup, bring him to Ukaizo, and he learns it there just before you shut off the rainstorm.

I felt the god we got to know best this time round was Berath. The opening scene with the Usher, Pallid Knight and the tarot cards was really cool, even if tarot cards are a little trope-y in RPG character creation sequences. Although I do question why Naturally, Nemnok also made a big impression. His look reminded me of Exodus from Ultima 3 (the box art). Out of the others? Hmmm... I dunno, great artwork, but none of them particularly stood out in the conversations. My least favorite was Eothas, for stepping on my house, being an awful god of light and redemption, and

You guys are being too hard on Maia. She's a soldier, on loan to you from the RDC, not an old buddy like Eder. She makes that clear from the beginning. Also, = Most human reaction ever. Really, it's the watcher's fault for accepting so many people with divided loyalties. I did appreciate Tekehu's more level headed comment, though. Thought I was also going to lose him for a second there.

So, conclusions after 152 votes: Eder Teylecg is still fan favorite by far. (If you're ever running for president, be sure to pet lots of animals). Xoti and Tekehu came 2nd and 3rd but they also got lots of negative votes, so fans are more split on them. Tekehu in fact also got the most negative votes, proving that the Deadfire fanbase disapproves of vain fish. Apart from the sidekicks, Pallegina got the least votes. Ydwin and Rekke got a decent amount of up votes for mere sidekicks. In particular, Rekke has only a single negative vote. Missed opportunities both. With only a single in-game conversation, Konstanten managed to piss off 15 people. Or maybe they just don't like dwarves? Fassina won the hearts of absolutely nobody with her "I hate my boss" stories. Heh, no mind-blowing findings really.

Damn, I missed a lot just because I didn't find that sword. That's a pretty big detail. Now I'm sad again that she didn't get to be a full companion.

If stealth isn't your thing, why don't you just drop the rogue from your party and run in like a barbarian? It's not like there's a key party member that's rogue only. Personally, I love stealth, but as others have mentioned, some of the rogues abilities don't work quite as well as advertised.

4/10 Too much water. Sorry, couldn't resist

Dude, you're thinking like a marketer, not a designer. Would having the words MULTIPLAYER in big caps on the box sell more copies initially? Yeah, maybe. But is Deadfire a game that needs multiplayer? Would it work well? I doubt it. Anyway, they're still experimenting with various aspects of single player. When they have the single player down perfect, then maybe they can look into multi.

Well, we can obviously see that the trait system is reacting to traits, not gender (sometimes I think the system is a little too transparent, but anyway). But if you want to do some psychoanalysis of our boy Aloth, I'd say it all comes down to ying & yang. Masculine and feminine energy. Eder, Serafen and Teheku, despite being softies at heart, all embody very masculine traits. They're guy's guys who you'd wanna invite out for a beer. Aloth... He's more of a nerd. I think I'd invite him to my D&D group. Basically, he's got more feminine energy, so he's more comfortable with the women.

I was really happy that the game included extra unique spells. It's a great quest reward for a wizard character. I think I ended up using Ninagauth's Teachings 99% of the time though.

Really? I find the mobs just attack whoever initiates the combat. Go in with your tank first and leave your Watcher in stealth. Then once everyone is happily engaged, your watcher does his thing. Remember: Strike hard, strike first, no mercy.

I think the companions were all well written, but overall they didn't have quite the same level of impact as PoE1. I mean, it's hard to top first impressions like "you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither!" or Durance ranting about fiery whores his goddess. Some of the stuff you mentioned will certainly get better with patches, but they can't rewrite everything at this point, so they are what they are.

Eh, to be fair, lots of them were pretty light in PoE1 as well. Pallegina's "quest" was just to walk her to the trade negotiations in Twin Elms. Personally, I'm okay with lighter companion quests as long as we get good banter and dialogue.

I dunno, man. I occasionally leveled up, wanted to test out a new ability, but realized I would have to go hunt down a bounty or something because there weren't any trash mobs.

Positives: The graphics, baby! Multi-classing. Factions felt a lot more organic than in PoE1. Collecting crew felt more fun than hirelings in PoE1. Neketaka. Nemnok the Devourer. Berath was also pretty cool.

So, having less trash mobs than in PoE1 was a thing, right? And certainly, there are a lot less "random" monsters. The mega dungeon of PoE1 was also basically replaced by island exploration, which usually only involved about 1 fight per island. I dunno, I think its a step in the right direction if you're playing Deadfire for the story/roleplaying, but maybe feels a bit lonely if you're in it for the battles and tactics. What do you guys say?

First, I want to agree, it's damn hard to get them to mutiny. Like OMGFireballs, I sailed around for WEEKS with no food or water at 0 morale. Heck, we even ate a crew member, which was damn gross, and still the little ****s didn't find their spines. I think mutiny may be linked to not paying them (since the first line of the mutiny script talks about money) instead of not feeding them. Anyways, I think the correct option is something like "Okay, let's settle this (attack)", then basically you slaughter your own crew. Achievements that encourage you to play badly are pretty bad design. Most people will just purposely do them and then reload. Where are all the achievements that encourage good play like the solo run?

Did you actually drag the purchased food and water into their respective slots in the ship management screen? I forget all the time...

That sounds about right. Weak willed heroes are pretty rare. Likewise, I never want to give my main character low intelligence for RP reasons. I mean, would you want your hero to be a moron?

Resolve is like determination. It changed a couple of times over development, but now a higher resolve score = more defense. I guess that if you're more resolved/determined, you can take more punishment.