A bit more humor and silliness

[Aleh1811]

I felt the original game was a bit too dry and took itself too seriously. Except hiravias, who was absolutely wonderful to have, most of the content and characters was composed of somewhat nuanced characters behaving relatively realistically. There was little room for playfulness, exaggeration and laughs, and combined with the fact there were often long expositions and depressing situations, it made the overall plot and dialogue seem hard to follow and monotonous.

 

Two of the characters that many loved (durance and grieving mother) were for me far too long winded and distant. I had them at my party for mechanical reasons but I hated them to death.

 

I appreciate a game developers intent of creating a game for a more mature audience but we should take in to consideration that it's a game after all. It's suppose to be fun, and humor and a bit of silliness is a part of that.

[Boeroer]

They said during several Q&A streams that Deadfire will have some more comical aspects than PoE1 had.

[Regggler]

"This isn't dead baby world anymore" was the approximate phrase used

[Heijoushin]

They were trying to do a very serious theme (soul-less babies), so they probably felt that there was a limit to the amount of humor they could put in.

 

That being said, they had the immortal "Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither" scene

Edited February 27, 2017 by Heijoushin

[Regggler]

Also Edér and Itumaak, and Edér and the space pig.

[Ineth]

Josh Sawyer also gave this answer this on the reddit AMA:

 

Q: Are you guys planning to make some more lighthearted quests/encounters for Deadfire? PoE was quite grim from the moment you enter Gilded Vale all the way to the end and was pretty depressing at times!

 

A: Yeah, we're trying to lighten the mood a little overall. That means more humor in reply lines, more humor in quest NPCs and companions, and just funnier situations along the way.

It's still not going to be a barrel of laughs, but there should be more variation.

[Katarack21]

They were trying to do a very serious theme (soul-less babies), so they probably felt that there was a limit to the amount of humor they could put in.

 

That being said, they had the immortal "Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither" scene

 

Aloth is a font of humor, in fact. Iselmyr is obscene and hilarious, but Aloth is subtle and cutting.

 

"You can't be serious." at the appropriate moment is one of the funniest lines in the game.

[Rekombo]

We will have anime companion, I think it's enough silliness.

[TheisEjsing]

I liked a the humor of PoE, and the amount of it. I recently replayed BG 1 and 2. And I understand why my 16 years old self loved the dialog so much. But 15 years later I honestly prefer the tone of PoE. 

[Heijoushin]

Hmmm... I do think a lot of the "clever" dialogue in PoE1 wasn't particularly witty. Makes it hard to play a cheeky character. I hope they'll work on that.

[Lord_Mord]

I hope that does not mean dead baby world suddenly completely changed into Baldurs-Gate-world. There has to be lots of grim, sad and creepy stuff in it (And I don't consider Necromancer-Chan creepy in any kind of way). Otherwise I'm pissed. Pillar's tone and setting was the only reason I made a higher pledge this time, than I did for Part 1. You know mad watchers, hangman trees, crazy primitive idiots killing each other.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Lord_Mord

[blotter]

I hope that does not mean dead baby world suddenly completely changed into Baldurs-Gate-world

 

The devs also stated that this didn't mean it would be turning into Baldur's Gate in terms of tone. Their emphasis on greater narrative range in Pillars 2 would seem to seem to suggest that they'll still hit the same lows at times, but there will be more highs between them for contrast.

Edited February 27, 2017 by blotter

[darqleo]

I'm all for more humor, but I hope it doesn't get into pop culture references like Wasteland/Fallout. Example: running into a pirate influenced by Jack Sparrow. I enjoyed the more Game of Thrones vibe of PoE, especially the moral grey areas in encounters/story-lines.

[Bonte]

As always, my Watcher will try to make light out of dark situations. Even though he won't have his partner-in-laughter(Hiravias) with him. Eder was my other partner, but he may be a little grumpy this time, especially if his God is marching around:P

[Enoch]

I was OK with the seriousness level of Pillars 1, in general, but the fact that they went with braindead babies in particular was somewhat triggering.  So I'll gladly take a bit more silliness if it also means avoiding that particular flavor of tragedy. 

[eselle28]

I think the deeper companion relationships will do a lot to help add some opportunities for humor without turning the world itself into something overly silly. Both black humor and silly get-your-mind-off-this-stuff jokes are pretty common among real world people whose jobs take them into awful places. I think a good bit can be added into companion dialogue without seeming out of place. Plus, people who don't care for that sort of joking can have the option to respond with something along the lines of, "Get back to work, guys." Maybe that will even influence some companions' behavior or their perception of you, with some people appreciating a serious leader and others enjoying one who gets in on the jokes.

[Varana]

Less "dead baby land" is a good direction - but please, they should keep "somewhat nuanced characters behaving relatively realistically".

Edited February 27, 2017 by Varana

[Ninjamestari]

I don't know, I wanted to kill Hiravias the moment I saw him. Something about him just rubbed me the wrong way.

[rjshae]

I don't know, I wanted to kill Hiravias the moment I saw him. Something about him just rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Hiravias was loads of fun to play. I took his acerbic remarks as a form of dry humor. He was almost like a pet ferret. Plus he could be devastating in combat.

Edited February 27, 2017 by rjshae

[mistermannindy]

Here's an interesting exchange on FIG that gives some additional perspective.

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by mistermannindy

[Leferd]

Here's an interesting exchange on FIG that gives some additional perspective.

 

http://imgur.com/a/pbdVv

Not surprising since Feargus was one of the primary culprits in establishing the over the top tone and going overboard with pop culture references in FO2. Then again, he doesn't really have that much influence for Deadfire's writing.

 

Sawyer likes to keep things grounded and he didn't appreciate some of the more whimsical characters from BG.

[Mygaffer]

I hope that does not mean dead baby world suddenly completely changed into Baldurs-Gate-world. There has to be lots of grim, sad and creepy stuff in it (And I don't consider Necromancer-Chan creepy in any kind of way). Otherwise I'm pissed. Pillar's tone and setting was the only reason I made a higher pledge this time, than I did for Part 1. You know mad watchers, hangman trees, crazy primitive idiots killing each other.

I think people are too quick to assume something is going to be horrible or totally distort the game they loved into something unrecognizable. I think this team has earned our trust.

 

To me the darker material becomes much more effective when contrasted against lighter moments. There is this idea in game design of pacing, and that encompasses a lot of things. If quest after quest is darker than the last, i.e. an animancers little wicht of a hollowborn daughter is let out of a locked trunk and tears his throat out, a women fearful of giving birth to a hollowborn baby finds out the medicine that will cure it doesn't do anything of the sort, that the local lord has murdered his wife and child, and that a dude who is a ghost of his former self decides to keep his dead lovers soul trapped in an adra necklace because he can't let go, well that drains people. You have to have some lighter stuff thrown in there to give players a little respite and variety.

 

Deadfire isn't going to all of a sudden turn into Lunar: Silver Star Story (which was still an awesome and hilarious game) because a few more humorous lines and situations are thrown into the game. If anything it will accentuate the darker and more serious tone the original set in place.

 

Giving the game some more lighthearted bits here and there was definitely a much needed thing. The real world isn't dark and grim all the time. I don't know about the rest of you but I joke and laugh just about every day. It's a normal part of life and how people interact. I'm glad we'll see a little more of that in Deadfire.

 

So don't worry about a huge tonal shift, one isn't coming. We'll just have some more moments that are lighthearted and it will actually make the darker stuff that much more effective.

 

 

Here's an interesting exchange on FIG that gives some additional perspective.

 

http://imgur.com/a/pbdVv

Not surprising since Feargus was one of the primary culprits in establishing the over the top tone and going overboard with pop culture references in FO2. Then again, he doesn't really have that much influence for Deadfire's writing.

 

Sawyer likes to keep things grounded and he didn't appreciate some of the more whimsical characters from BG.

 

Hey, I'm back.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Mygaffer

[Gromnir]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88772-josh-sawyer-regrets-hard-counters-sillier-companions-and-more/?p=1838895

 

as kinda a guide, josh hated bioware's implementation o' ad&d 2e rules in bg almost as much as he hated the silly humor in the game.  if bg levels/type o' humor were your taste, then you find no willing ally with one o' the narrative leads for poe2. 

 

entertainment with a crpg duration o' dozens of hours needs humor to be anything other than punishing oppressive. poe2 needs humor. 

 

in spite o' religious and "colonialism" themes, we won't get the mission (1986).

 

 

additional silly won't make poe 2 good or bad.  as with anything else, is gonna depend on obsidian execution and your personal taste when ultimate determination o' success o' story elements is evaluated.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[rjshae]

What rhymes with Aumaua?

[Lord_Mord]

What rhymes with Aumaua?

 

 Doorhenge?