Just finished MOTB

[Tigranes]

and if you've gone chaotic evil and been sucking every available spirit in the game, increasing your hunger to the max, it means you're pretty much screwed until the next [Devour Spirit] dialogue option.

 

I thought that made it even better, since if the 'mundane enemies' supplied your needs enough you could easily afford to be 'good' and skimp on eating plot-central characters, gaming the system. As it is, the experience of avoiding death and carrying a crippled character for the last 2 hours does have an impact when you're deciding whether to suck this guy's soul out in a main plot dialogue.

[Syraxis]

I play extremely slow, so any kind of a timer is a big problem for me. I actually had the Spirit Meter disabled most of the time.

 

Same, I used a script that rendered the entire mechanic useless.

[Purkake]

I wasn't a big fan of the spirit meter either, it was a cool idea, but the execution was annoying at best.

[HoonDing]

There was an easy way to cheese out of it. Suppress, travel from Mulsantir to for instance Ashenwood & rinse and repeat until both your spirit meter was full and your hunger meter empty. Drawback of this method was watching an eternity of loading screens.

[Starwars]

It's also the lame way of doing it.

 

I think in the end, the Supressing path was the least interesting one. Unfortunately it was sort of set up so that you could just treat the meter as a non-issue this way. It's probably my biggest beef with the Spirit eater mechanic, the ultra good way of doing it is just kinda boring.

 

Giving in to the hunger and becoming a devouring monster however, was a lot of fun.

[Aristes]

See, I disagree. Using surpress and refraining from eating souls gives "good guy" players a chance to experience the game in a satisfying way. Sure, the less than optimal good ending isn't terribly exciting. However, if you play your cards right, the Dudly Do-Right ending is excellent. Most folks who are dedicated to playing a good guy find rewards outside of extra gameplay bennies. By the way, a lot of folks who like to play the "bad guy" find enjoyment in acting... well... evil. It's nice that you can find rewards going to either path and, even better, those rewards are quite different.

 

Frankly, you can mix it up a bit without a lot of problem. The spirit meter is more of a nuisance than a real problem with even a little bit of planning. I could have done without the spirit meter as an in-game mechanic, but I believe the design team wanted that aspect of the story to be more visceral to the player. In that regard, they did a good job.

[flem]

See, I disagree. Using surpress and refraining from eating souls gives "good guy" players a chance to experience the game in a satisfying way.

Huh? The best and easiest good path involves no use of suppress at all.

[Aristes]

It's been quite some time since I've played the game, so I might be remembering the term incorrectly. From what I recall, surpress is when you supress your hunger. Is that not right? I used to gather a bunch of spirits next to me and use that to lower my hunger as much as possible. Anyhow, like I said, I might have things mixed up. I have, however, seen all of the game endings and the vast majority of the dialogue, most of it in game. I especially like the ability to lay souls to rest. That was pretty awesome and the in game rewards were a side benefit. The real reward for me was feeling like my character had done something good and noble. Beats the hell out of real life where a lot of the time I'm too small and petty to remain above the fray. RPGs should allow us to do things that are outside of our reach in real life, and MotB is excellent in that it really offers more to the player than a simple "dark side/light side" approach. In fact, you can really approach things in a variety of ways within the game to win.

[Humanoid]

All I can remember of MoTB is creating a remarkably ineffective Rogue/Wizard and having to rest after every fight in the opening dungeon. Had to join my queue of Stuff to Replay Eventually.

[Raithe]

I went through it with a ranger/spirit shaman/shadowdancer type...

What I liked was figuring out the little bits and pieces that actually altered the future of your companions.... even within the good/evil variety of endings there were a few different results of what happened to them..

[HoonDing]

Is there actually a good ending for Kaelyn? Even wiping out that floating skull doesn't lead to anything even remotely nice.

[213374U]

I wasn't a big fan of the spirit meter either, it was a cool idea, but the execution was annoying at best.

Short of cheating, it wasn't possible to game the system. To me, that's a successfully implemented design idea. The hunger IS the drive of the story, and a gameplay mechanic intended to put pressure on the player is tailored around that drive.

 

How is that "annoying at best"?

 

 

Is there actually a good ending for Kaelyn? Even wiping out that floating skull doesn't lead to anything even remotely nice.

The tragedy of blind idealism... I thought you guys liked "dark" stories? Edited October 27, 2009 by 213374U

[Purkake]

Is there actually a good ending for Kaelyn? Even wiping out that floating skull doesn't lead to anything even remotely nice.

 

Yup, you just have to take out the demilich first IIRC. You can check it out on youtube.

[Llyranor]

So disappointed in SoZ after playing MOTB. MOTB didn't have good gameplay, but at least it had other awesome things to compensate with. All SoZ had was cool character creation and music. I guess it was doomed to begin with, being stuck with the NWN2 engine and all.

[Wrath of Dagon]

However, if you play your cards right, the Dudly Do-Right ending is excellent.

Really? What is it? Mine was really boring.

[Purkake]

Did you get all the pieces of the mask? There are actually 4 different ending: the "all is well" one, the "I screwed up so now I'll stay here forever" one, the "selfish" one and the "I eat babies" one.

[Oner]

I selfishly eat babies because I screwed up and have to stay here but.. all is well (for me anyway).

[Gfted1]

^That sounds like poor game design. No player should ever be constrained by the choices they make.

[Magister Lajciak]

MotB was a superbly awesome CRPG. It was definitely one of the top CRPGs I have played and surely the outright best CRPG expansion I have had a chance to play.

[alanschu]

I agree with numbers man.

 

I liked the fact that the spirit meter provided an actual game mechanic that directed the player. The one thing I hate about a lot of RPGs is that the world is pretty much static outside of when the player triggers stuff. Basically, the world waits for the player. I like the idea that just sometimes, the world forces the player to do something with some sort of sense of urgency, because it makes for a more consistent and plausible game world. The best example of this I can think of off the top of my head is Fallout. While I find the water chip restriction a bit too artificial, I do like that if you take your time, the settlements of the area are eradicated by the mutant threat. No happy ending for them, because sometimes **** just happens.

[Purkake]

It would have been fine if sleeping and traveling didn't screw it up so much. Having to worry about my spirit energy every second, makes it hard to enjoy the rest of the game.

[Gfted1]

Well if it were done properly, MOTB would have given the player some mechanism to completely reset/circumvent the curse so you wouldnt get frustrated.

[Wrath of Dagon]

@Purkake Exactly.

Did you get all the pieces of the mask? There are actually 4 different ending: the "all is well" one, the "I screwed up so now I'll stay here forever" one, the "selfish" one and the "I eat babies" one.

No, I only got 2 or 3 pieces, I have no idea where the other ones were. I got to stay and guard the place forever, but it was presented as some kind of reward.

Edited October 27, 2009 by Wrath of Dagon

[Mera]

It would have been fine if sleeping and traveling didn't screw it up so much. Having to worry about my spirit energy every second, makes it hard to enjoy the rest of the game.

I enjoyed it much more because of that.

 

^That sounds like poor game design. No player should ever be constrained by the choices they make.

 

Well if it were done properly, MOTB would have given the player some mechanism to completely reset/circumvent the curse so you wouldnt get frustrated.

Except there is - Supress.

Edited October 27, 2009 by Mera

[Purkake]

It would have been fine if sleeping and traveling didn't screw it up so much. Having to worry about my spirit energy every second, makes it hard to enjoy the rest of the game.

I enjoyed it much more because of that.

Well, then you are weird.

 

I generally find timed challenges to be frustrating.