Trying to start PoE2, lol, hard.

[Jarmo]

So I started got around to it, kickstarter backed and stuff. How long ago did I finish PoE1, don't even remember.
I thought I remembered the playthrough or major plot points, not so. Don't have the old saves either, don't even have the computer.

1st try.

So go right it, play ghost thingy until the table. Then presented with "choose how the first game was" and choices like:

1. bad bad bad.

2. engmdmnmythh opiate.

3. light dime thiin.

4. something.

And I have no idea what these would entail. The choices are totally useless.
Luckily there's a tooltip or something saying I can also make my own choices from the "options menu".

... and there's no way I can see how to back out and go to options menu. Why can't I just click something and start giving the choices?
They clearly thought somebody might need that, hence the tip, but no way to back out.

Task Manager - End Task.

 

2nd try.
 

Yay! Let's start giving the input.

... aaand the choices are given with super brief questions, clearly assuming I stopped playing PoE1 about fifteen minutes ago,
or replayed it a billion times and it was the most meaningful and important story of my life.

Like:

In eargherytrhirion:

1. Maggrrtshine lived

2. Maggrrtshine died.
3, Maggrrtshine became thglkl.

 

And... was that the annoying priest that Avellone wrote? Or was he a shaman.. or druid? Or was that someone from the DLC?
Give me pictures, give me background, I can't remember these fantasy names after years pause.
I remember what happended to Eder and kind of remember what went with Aloth, and that feathery paladin, but hell if I remember the village names or the companions names.

I need to find some kind of plot summary or something. So now can I back up, go back to menu? No.

Task Manager - End Task.

Not the best start, but I'll be back.

[xzar_monty]

Yeah, you're in a bit of a bind there, if you don't have the save anymore.

[wih]

Can't you play the game anyway? Maybe pretend your character had an amnesia and roleplay accordingly Just a thought.

[Boeroer]

Just pick the first option (benevolent soul). 

[thelee]

Very few of the reactivity are meaningful in terms of gameplay or story outcomes, and most of it is just fan service and lore. It seems self-evident that you don't care too much about the latter (not intending that as an insult, just a realistic observation), so really just pick a "character concept" for yourself and pick a pre-baked background. You can go into the options to turn on PoE1 Reactivity to see what choices are being influenced by such a selection, but realistically given that you don't remember much about PoE1 it probably wouldn't matter to you either way.

You could also pick the "Everything Bad" option 

 

edit - the fact that you can't back out or set up a background once you start the game is an annoying thing that took me several run throughs to finally get used to. literally no game in modern history has ever basically required you to tinker around the options menu before starting a game, or if it does so, make it impossible to back out to do that.

Edited November 6, 2019 by thelee

[Jarmo]

5 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Just pick the first option (benevolent soul). 

Might do that instead of trying to remind myself who was who and what was that village called,
but what does that mean in terms of what companion is does what and who I get to start with? Or anything?

I did care about the companions and got to pretty good endings with many of 'em.
But that's not to say I'd remember the name of the sharp tooth fella, or the angry priest.

[thelee]

35 minutes ago, Jarmo said:

Might do that instead of trying to remind myself who was who and what was that village called,
but what does that mean in terms of what companion is does what and who I get to start with? Or anything?

I did care about the companions and got to pretty good endings with many of 'em.
But that's not to say I'd remember the name of the sharp tooth fella, or the angry priest.

There are some minor differences (I wish there was a comprehensive collection somewhere of reactivity). In terms of companions, the big changes are whether or not you got them killed or sacrficied them (to the blood pool or otherwise) because that could either completely remove a possible Deadfire companion for the picture, or determine the existence of the Devil of Caroc Breastplate in a store. There are smaller changes based on how you ended things with certain companions (Eder, Aloth, and Pallegina have slightly different starting equipment based on PoE1 decisions).

I think Benevolent Soul assumes you got the "happiest" ending with all companions - I think the descriptions might explicitly explain how you handled certain companions (like convincing Durance the truth).

Edited November 6, 2019 by thelee

[asnjas]

If they gave you context and descriptions, would you even read them? 5 bucks says you would make meaning out of the 8 or so custom choices real fast.

Finally get the game, start up a new character and in char creation youre reading a mini poe1 wiki? I doubt it.

[Jarmo]

9 minutes ago, asnjas said:

If they gave you context and descriptions, would you even read them? 5 bucks says you would make meaning out of the 8 or so custom choices real fast.

Finally get the game, start up a new character and in char creation youre reading a mini poe1 wiki? I doubt it.

Well now I've been watching youtube recap and browsing PoE wiki for character names for about an hour and I'm about 1/3 through the questionnaire.
Maybe half of the points I have no recollection of, even when reading the relevant wiki, some I maybe just missed.

[thelee]

20 minutes ago, Jarmo said:

Well now I've been watching youtube recap and browsing PoE wiki for character names for about an hour and I'm about 1/3 through the questionnaire.
Maybe half of the points I have no recollection of, even when reading the relevant wiki, some I maybe just missed.

I think @asnjas owes you five bucks

Edited November 6, 2019 by thelee

[Boeroer]

Royally

[xzar_monty]

8 hours ago, Jarmo said:

But that's not to say I'd remember the name of the sharp tooth fella, or the angry priest.

For the record, neither of these appear in the game. Both are referred to. One just once, and the other by a sibling a few times. This is generally the kind of meaning your previous choices will have -- except for the slightly more significant one that thelee outlined above.

[bugarup]

15 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Just pick the first option (benevolent soul). 

Psssssst. You might want to let Devil of Caroc die, though. 

[Jarmo]

5 hours ago, bugarup said:

Psssssst. You might want to let Devil of Caroc die, though. 

Didn't though. Why?
That's one of the few things I do remember, murdering a bunch of lumberjacks or something so he could get it's revengis. One of the not easiest choices. 

Anyway, off the beach and in the first village (already forgot it's name) promised to do stuff for the spanish mayor (who's name I can't remember).
Recruited the lantern babe, I'll try to learn her name before the game is over.

[xzar_monty]

8 minutes ago, Jarmo said:

Didn't though. Why?
That's one of the few things I do remember, murdering a bunch of lumberjacks or something so he could get it's revengis. One of the not easiest choices.

You'll get a more than decent armor. (That you can buy. For rather serious money. But it's worth it.)

Why did you murder the lumberjacks? They're lumberjacks and they're ok, they sleep all night and they work all day.

Edited November 7, 2019 by xzar_monty

[Boeroer]

6 hours ago, bugarup said:

Psssssst. You might want to let Devil of Caroc die, though. 

If you take Benevolent Soul the Breastplate will be obtainable from Mahari's Metalworks.

[wingedchocolatecake]

Yeah, Benevolent Soul just means your watcher went a Neutral Good route. I think all the choices are described somewhere?

 

[Wormerine]

If you don’t remember, that means you don’t really care about your choices importing over, and therefore pre-made save is a fine option for you. Just pick the first one, and it will be all good.
 

You are the one who will complaint about now knowing what Biwac is, aren’t you. ;-)

[thelee]

(i don't know how to delete a post)

Edited November 7, 2019 by thelee

[Jarmo]

Met with Pallegina, she was kinda not happy at the results of having gone with my advice in POE1.

That's the kind of stuff I wanted make sure I got right.

--
... and then a few hours later, I ran into Adaryc.
And I still have no recollection of who he was and what was his thing in PoE1.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Jarmo
adding

[thelee]

13 hours ago, Jarmo said:

Met with Pallegina, she was kinda not happy at the results of having gone with my advice in POE1.

That's the kind of stuff I wanted make sure I got right.

IIRC, the "good choice" in PoE1 was one that resulted in her being (dis)honorably discharged from her order in the ending slides (and ostensibly joins the shieldbearers). The outcome in Deadfire where she is pretty normalsauce upon meeting you is one where you convince her to abandon her convictions and therefore she's still with her order.

Remember this is an Obsidian game, so "morally good choices" does not necessarily mean "happy outcomes."

 

edit - and with Pallegina's case, it's kind of murky what exactly the "morally good" choice was. Good for whom?

Spoiler

It was definitely not good from the perspective of the Dyrwood being essentially betrayed/undermined by the Vailians, but Pallegina was effectively hired as a diplomat to carry out a specific choice for the benefit of the Vailians. If she "followed her heart" she'd be betraying both her job as well as--effectively--her countrymen. Is that really that good? Should an individual entasked with an important job that in real life is "push the national interest" really put their own feelings at the highest?

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by thelee

[Jarmo]

... aaand roll credits. Done. For now.

Mostly happy with the game. A bit shorter than expected, but thats no problem.
Also, there seems to be 3 DLC, if I replay (and there was bunch of stuff left undone and bunch of choices for replay value) I'll probably grab them at a discount.
Maybe turn based next time and maybe learn the nuances of combat mechanics as well.

But then, maybe I'll try DOS or DOS2 instead. (Started DOS at one point but then quit early on).

And rats, ended up screwing things up for Pallegina again.

[Boeroer]

If you think the game is short then I assume you mainly did the main quest (which is indeed very short) and not many side content (which is plenty)?

The 3 DLCs are mostly very good (if you liked the main game in the first place). Seeker, Slayer, Survivor is mostly a battle arena with heavy focus on tricky encounters (if you like that it's great, if you don't particularly like the fights in Deadfire then not). The other two I found to be very interesting and intriguing.  

[Jarmo]

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

If you think the game is short then I assume you mainly did the main quest (which is indeed very short) and not many side content (which is plenty)?

Did pretty much all the quests that popped up, except there was some "area surrounded by wrecks" that I should investigate, but by then I had the option of sailing into endgame so did that instead. Also, about quarter of the map still covered by fog, didn't do more than the first two "map the area" quests.

And I had a high diplomacy character, suprising how big chunks of combat could be avoided by just talking.

And yeah, didn't like the combat and looking at the forum and discussions of how "feature-x" actually works, it seems I'm not the only one finding the system overly complex.
"inspired", "focused", "empowered", "hardened", whatever. I just kept the difficulty on easy and mostly let the battles autoplay. Sped up things considerably.

So of the DLC's SSS is definitely not for me, of others.. kinda maybe.

 

[Boeroer]

@Jarmo: Yes, the combat mechanics are rather deep. I like that but it's not everybody's cup of tea. If you like role playing games with less focus on combat: did you try Disco Elysium?

Edited November 14, 2019 by Boeroer