Thoughts from the End of the Game

[TheUsernamelessOne]

Alright, I didn't want to wait for them to patch the game so my Cipher worked again so I just cheated to the end of the game because I wanted to see where they were going with all this. For some reason (maybe god mode doesn't play well with heavily-scripted boss fights?) it keeps freezing during the Thaos fight, so whatever. There's things I want to talk about anyway.

 

So the world of Pillars of Eternity. Supposedly there was a civilization who became so great and wise that they decisively proved there's no such thing as god. I'm curious about that. How exactly do you prove, definitely, that there's no such thing as god? I want to know what the litmus test is for that. Did they put the universe in a big beaker and shoot a laser through it at a frequency that would highlight any gods hiding anywhere? Did they yell really loud and wait for someone to answer? Did they cast wish and ask if there's a god? I'm not saying they're wrong, just that it seems like a pretty ludicrous notion to disprove god through science!!, if you think about it. That isn't really how science works. By definition it's impossible to disprove the existence of something omnipotent and omniscient, and anything less than that isn't much of a god.

 

One of the central themes of the game appears to be futility. The worst atrocities in the story happened in the past (and you were partially responsible for a lot of them) and none of your actions during the course of the game (up to the fight against Thaos at least, which I can't complete, but I'm guessing there's a dialogue choice where you choose what to do with all those lost souls) amount to much. I mean, unless you count slaughtering about ten billion random bandits, thugs, spirits (LOTS of spirits), trolls, oozes, and whatever else made the mistake of crossing your path while surrounded by a red circle. No matter what you do, Defiance Bay burns. Even if Waidwen's Legacy ends, I don't think the Dyrwood is going to be recovering easily from all that's happened. In case all the dead babies everywhere didn't tip you off from the start, this isn't really a feel-good kind of experience, even the existentialist "yay I can finally die!" Planescape: Torment type. Thaos even mentions how the world is just a giant wheel, grinding spirits into dust; no beginning, no end, no purpose, just a long steady dissolution of purpose and existence.

 

I feel like after the ending credits, there'll be a wavy dissolve and you see Xan holding forth to the rest of your party from Baldur's Gate, saying, "... and that's my idea for a play. What do you all think?" and everyone yells at him to stop being so depressing while Imoen cries. Then it cuts to him slinking into the Obsidian offices, shaking his fist at <CHARNAME> and <HIS_HER> pals, and depositing a manuscript on that big table where they play D&D in their videos. Josh Sawyer finishes reading it, looks up wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, says, "It's beautiful. What do you call it?" and Xan says, "Pillars of Eternity." And then the musical sting from the end of Metal Gear Solid post-credits sequences plays.

 

Anyway, I've got a question for folks: Who was your favorite companion? Mine was Grieving Mother, no contest. After that is the hired adventurers, and then, I don't know. I didn't really like any of the others at all. They kept reminding me of other, better party members from other games without being anywhere near as compelling.

Full disclosure: I never found Hiravias or Pallegina, and I didn't complete anyone's companion quests or anything. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's not fair to judge them without seeing all their content, but I'm asking you who your favorite was and why.

[BrokenMask]

Wait, so you started to discuss the ending before seeing the ending choices? O-o

And Engwithans(however you spell them) didn't "prove" that gods don't exist, the thing was that even though they were super advanced civilization they were still unable to find proof of their gods' existence and so they started to despair because of that and decided to create their own gods.

 

Anyhoo, depending on your party and difficulty, there is few ways to cheese the fight(worked on normal with level 12 party barbarian, fighter, paladin, wizard, priest and druid): If you have a tank, have the tank engage Woedica's judge(the hammer one since thats one Thaos possesses first), have have ranged characters get away from the other one so that the other one targets melee characters attacking Thaos and then have everyone 'cept the tank tanking one of statue things attack Thaos. After Thaos does possessing thing, have everyone, but your tank distracting Judge attack Hangman and after hangman is finished, finish off the judge and now you can beat Thaos alone. I'm not sure what the cipher bug is you are talking about, but I'd assume it would work well enough even if cipher doesn't work as it is suppsoed to

[Lacero]

proper spoiler here, if you paralyze thaos and kill him he will not soul jump.

I did do 200 damage to him almost instantly from three lucky crits so that may have helped, but I think it was the paralyze.

[TheUsernamelessOne]

Uh, I'm not discussing the ending and I'm not asking for tips. I just said I cheated my way to the endpoint of the game and couldn't beat Thaos because the game freezes.

[BrokenMask]

So why are you speculating about the ending then? <_<

[TheUsernamelessOne]

So why are you speculating about the ending then? <_<

 

Well, I was rambling about some of the thoughts I was having, yes. Really I was asking people who their favorite companion was by the end of the game, though.

[BrokenMask]

You could have just put that question in the title though

(BTW you find Pallegrine at Ondra's gift and Hirovius at Stormwall Gorge. Yeah, I know, you didn't ask that either, but I decided to point it out since it sounds like you skipped lot of stuff)

 

Anyhoo, my favourite is actually Durance because I find his sanctimonious preacher/cranky offensive grandpa thing funny, plus he has interesting backstory and its fun to throw flaming pillars on enemies aka hes pretty useful in combat

[TheUsernamelessOne]

You could have just put that question in the title though

(BTW you find Pallegrine at Ondra's gift and Hirovius at Stormwall Gorge. Yeah, I know, you didn't ask that either, but I decided to point it out since it sounds like you skipped lot of stuff)

 

I'll play through the game properly, I just didn't feel like waiting for them to fix the game before finishing the Cipher playthrough I started.

 

 

Anyhoo, my favourite is actually Durance because I find his sanctimonious preacher/cranky offensive grandpa thing funny, plus he has interesting backstory and its fun to throw flaming pillars on enemies aka hes pretty useful in combat

 

Your thoughts on Durance being a war criminal?

[BrokenMask]

Not sure if being basically evil Oppenhaimer makes him a war criminal, I find it more interesting that he last member of chapter of Magran's church that basically believes in punishing people by lighting them on fire Basically saying, being one of twelve to create Godhammer by Magran's orders isn't really the most messed up thing about him

 

Plus his story concludes by him wanting to get revenge on the goddess, that makes him rather metal on top of his Rasputin look and burning stuff

[TheUsernamelessOne]

Not sure if being basically evil Oppenhaimer makes him a war criminal, I find it more interesting that he last member of chapter of Magran's church that basically believes in punishing people by lighting them on fire Basically saying, being one of twelve to create Godhammer by Magran's orders isn't really the most messed up thing about him

 

Plus his story concludes by him wanting to get revenge on the goddess, that makes him rather metal on top of his Rasputin look and burning stuff

 

I was talking more about his participation in the Purges.

[BrokenMask]

Yeah and he also kills hollowborns.

 

Like I said, he is offensive and has interesting backstory. His horrific beliefs stand out rather well among the companions since he is only one closest to the token evil member of the group, but hes not horrific because "lol being evil is fun", its because he actually believes himself to be righteous. He actually seems rather horrified when he starts considering the chance that maybe killing Eothas might actually have been a bad thing after learning about Woedica's plot.

[Lacero]

 

So why are you speculating about the ending then? <_<

 

Well, I was rambling about some of the thoughts I was having, yes. Really I was asking people who their favorite companion was by the end of the game, though.

 

 

Hard to answer you properly on that seeing as the ending shows what happens after.

[TheUsernamelessOne]

 

 

So why are you speculating about the ending then? <_<

 

Well, I was rambling about some of the thoughts I was having, yes. Really I was asking people who their favorite companion was by the end of the game, though.

 

 

Hard to answer you properly on that seeing as the ending shows what happens after.

 

 

Did the epilogue actually change how you felt about any of the companions?