(Spoiler) My absolute biggest gripe with PoE2: Seemingly unfocused narrative

[DehOtherGuy]

So I'm enjoying the game overall, but reading/hearing some criticisms on the game contributed to a potential realization. Now, disclaimer, I've not finished the game yet. I've done a good chunk of the side content, and finished the main story quest where you escape the volcano. And while I could most definitely be wrong about this, it's something that concerned me enough that I was posting it in a Q and A stream as often as I could (There was a 120 second timer between posts to prevent spam, so it's not like I was just destroying the chat with posts. But I apologize to the devs for continually asking this).

 

I'm getting the impression that much of the content of Deadfire has almost no relevance to the main plot. What I mean is, even though you might have to take a side at some point, that seems to be all the connection the factions have to Eothas and his goals. Not to mention that, thematically, the factions are more about colonialism, while Eothas' story is more about the nature of gods and their relationship with people.

 

Now, one might argue that the factions are relevant to Eothas in the sense that they represent the conflicts that arise as a result of the intervention, or lack thereof, of gods, thus providing an example of the sort of stuff Eothas and the gods promote or oppose. But I feel that theory is a bit too much like grasping at straws.

 

Another argument might be that, the whole point of PoE2 wasn't just about the Eothas plot, but about exploring the Deadfire and getting into unrelated adventures along the way. And while I don't think this is a totally invalid argument, as plenty of games do just fine with this mindset, I personally feel like a game like PoE, which has a heavy focus on story, should put more focus into a tight narrative. And by a tight narrative, I mean one where the characters, the setting, the side content, have something to say that is relevant to the central plot and its themes.

 

I don't know...I might be right, I might be wrong, I might just be rambling. Maybe I'm missing something. There are a lot of things I like about this game, but I just can't shake the feeling that it ought to have been more narratively...cohesive than it was.

 

Bit of a disjointed post, I know, especially since I haven't even finished the game, but feel free to give your thoughts. I'd be down to discuss.

[CAlmond]

Another argument might be that, the whole point of PoE2 wasn't just about the Eothas plot, but about exploring the Deadfire and getting into unrelated adventures along the way. And while I don't think this is a totally invalid argument, as plenty of games do just fine with this mindset, I personally feel like a game like PoE, which has a heavy focus on story, should put more focus into a tight narrative. And by a tight narrative, I mean one where the characters, the setting, the side content, have something to say that is relevant to the central plot and its themes.

 

Pretty sure this is true. At the end of the day, the mortals care more about how they will eat tomorrow and personal power rather than whether or not the world will end tomorrow. So the behaviour of the factions make sense. And I'm fairly sure they've mentioned in pre-release material that PoE2 has less main story than PoE1 but a lot more side stuff.

 

So I think the goal from the beginning was exploration of this particular area.

[FecklessFool]

I agree with you. I found that this felt more like they were trying to do a Sid Meier's Pirates! RPG (which is great, I love Pirates! Gold) and they had 90% of that done, then realized that they needed to shoehorn in the Watcher because it says Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire on the title, so they squeezed in the main plot. 

 

But there is such a huge disconnect between that and the rest of the game, and it seems like not much effort was put into writing the main plot, that I feel like I would have preferred this as a Pirates! RPG set in Eora instead. Have a different main plot that factors into the powers in the Deadfire Archipelago, flesh out the faction system, make the sea more lively, get rid of the Watcher and have a privateer captain as the main character, and just call the game Deadfire: A Pillars of Eternity game. 

They have such a well crafted world (san retcons), that it would be a waste to just have it focus on the Watcher whose story arc already ended in the first game. His reason for being here is... well not that great really but you should finish the game first.

I loved the game, would have wished more polish to the ship aspect (pirates attacking other factions and not just you, trading, working politics, maybe just make the ship battles be like regular battles except the player is a ship  with a class and skills like fire broadside/port and jibe, etc), but found the main quest to be the weakest part of the game.

[Icesong]

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else.

 

One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know.

 

But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards.

 

This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

[Hazmy]

I feel the game was more about the Deadfires and it's factions, rather than the main story. Almost felt like the main story was just an excuse. I liked the main story, despite being super short and I felt disconnected from it lots of times, but it was very short and sudden, I didn't feel tension at all, not even at the end. The final boss was not even someone you cared about, it was just a stupid stone guardian.

There was no sensible connection like in PoE1 where Waidwen's legacy was a main point throughout the game and everything just connected. The story was not evolved enough to feel myself invested in it, to care about what will happen. To feel angry at the villain or cheer for someone, it just severly lacked emotions.

My main reaction is that, because of the lots of islands every quest was just a new situation you had to solve, there were no long questlines with meaningful stories, everything was just a small task you need to solve, and that felt wrong to me, especially because the world itself was really immersive.

They created an amazing world with great factions, but forgot to fill it with life.

[Harry Easter]

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else.

 

One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know.

 

But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards.

 

This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

 

I dunno, I think they found a good compromise, with showing you right at the beginning, that you might be to weak. You have to do some quests, so you spend time with your environment and get sucked in. So the illusion of starting to live in the Archipelo is given. Not a bad solution and with Magran's Teeth we have an in-story reason, why we leave Eothas alone for a while.

[FecklessFool]

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else.

 

One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know.

 

But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards.

 

This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

 

This would have easily been solved if the main quest story in this game already happened by the time the Watcher woke up. Say you were brought back to figure out how to fix the thing that happens and to find answers as to where Eothas went and why he did it.

 

That way, it takes out the sense of urgency for finishing up the main quest, which clashes with the rest of the game's content. With a different story, they could set the pace to start of as more of an investigation, and having to deal with the factions in order to gain access to certain ports / dig sites / places where Eothas dropped by. 

 

Then towards 3/4ths of the game, once you know more, they could insert the urgency to finally rush on with the story. 

 

Or if  they  really wanted to keep the story, give another reason for the Watcher  being in the Deadfire, like say Eder becomes a Saint because end of the day he still believes in an aspect of Eothas and that allows Eothas to inhabit him, and he has set off to the Deadfire. So now it's up to the Watcher to go after him and figure out what he's up to. Once the Watcher is more established in the Deadfire, 3/4s into the game, maybe Eothas finds a colossus there, and inhabits that which leads to the sense of urgency.

[morhilane]

The plot is written so that you can role-play that you want to hurry or that you don't care and go do other stuff. Dialogue options support those choices all over the game when you talk to NPCs. Maybe some people here should be more consequent with their role-playing instead of asking a "fix" so that every characters are railroaded into the same decisions.

 

How urgent the plot feels is left to the player. If you decided that Eothas is urgent business go after him and don't bother with exploration and doing side content more than necessary, that's is what role-playing is about.

[Voss]

 

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else.

 

One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know.

 

But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards.

 

This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

I dunno, I think they found a good compromise, with showing you right at the beginning, that you might be to weak. You have to do some quests, so you spend time with your environment and get sucked in. So the illusion of starting to live in the Archipelo is given. Not a bad solution and with Magran's Teeth we have an in-story reason, why we leave Eothas alone for a while.

Wait, what's showing your weakness? Combat is faceroll from waking up onwards.

 

There really isn't any reason not to chase the jolly green giant, and party dialogue (and NPCs) encourage you to so just that.

[lightsol]

 

 

 

.

Wait, what's showing your weakness? Combat is faceroll from waking up onwards.

 

There really isn't any reason not to chase the jolly green giant, and party dialogue (and NPCs) encourage you to so just that.

 

 

If you turn off scaling and up the difficulty atleast a bit - it isn't as much of a faceroll at all. 

[Ninjamestari]

I mostly like the side content, I like that it doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with the main story. The problem is that the Main story itself is way too short and uneventful.

[FecklessFool]

The plot is written so that you can role-play that you want to hurry or that you don't care and go do other stuff. Dialogue options support those choices all over the game when you talk to NPCs. Maybe some people here should be more consequent with their role-playing instead of asking a "fix" so that every characters are railroaded into the same decisions.

 

How urgent the plot feels is left to the player. If you decided that Eothas is urgent business go after him and don't bother with exploration and doing side content more than necessary, that's is what role-playing is about.

No it isn't. The fact that he has a piece of your soul and that your continued existence is contingent on you finding Eothas for Berath is not what I would describe as allowing you to just do whatever. 

[morhilane]

 

The plot is written so that you can role-play that you want to hurry or that you don't care and go do other stuff. Dialogue options support those choices all over the game when you talk to NPCs. Maybe some people here should be more consequent with their role-playing instead of asking a "fix" so that every characters are railroaded into the same decisions.

 

How urgent the plot feels is left to the player. If you decided that Eothas is urgent business go after him and don't bother with exploration and doing side content more than necessary, that's is what role-playing is about.

No it isn't. The fact that he has a piece of your soul and that your continued existence is contingent on you finding Eothas for Berath is not what I would describe as allowing you to just do whatever. 

 

I haven't encountered a single conversation where someone told my character he was going to die (again) if I didn't find Eothas right away after Berath resurrected him. I got no timetable from Berath either.

 

You are asked to find Eothas, you are given "he has a piece of your soul" as a motivation to do so among others (revenge, divine mission, stop Eothas destruction, etc) along a reason as to why finding Eothas should be easier at least until he cut the cord and you lose the connection. Once you get a ship you can go "I'm gonna be a pirate" instead of "Lets hunt Eothas"...and if you could break vows to gods in POE1, I don't see why you should feel like what Berath is demanding is imperative and urgent in POE2.

 

Also, Berath doesn't even need you to find and talk to Eothas, if you pick the "take the Wheel" choice at the beginning you learn that they will simply find another Watcher for the task.

[FecklessFool]

Also, Berath doesn't even need you to find and talk to Eothas, if you pick the "take the Wheel" choice at the beginning you learn that they will simply find another Watcher for the task.

 

 

Yes, this is the weakest part of the main story. Any guy could do it.

 

Unsure why you don't think there is an urgency to a god killing thousands and the whole being ordered by Berath to find Eothas. One of the god conversations has Berath essentially telling you to give answers or die, but no die option at that stage in the game. So you just get your choices locked out to telling her what you learned in Hasongo.

[Miro]

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else.

 

One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know.

 

But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards.

 

This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

I'll spoiler a lot, so dont read on if you haven't finished the game.

 

I agree with the part about the mystery. Not only are Eothas' whereabouts not a mystery, also his intentions are quite clear from the beginning, and they don't seem evil at all. Most RPGs feature a very prominent antagonist. A huge nemesis to the world, an evil that needs to be destroyed; or if you're into playing evil characters, then they at least stole something significant from you, that lets you tremble, leaves you weak, so that you have only pursuit in mind. Irenicus or the White Hunt come into my mind.

Here the main plot is to get favor with 4 factions, then turn them against each other and ultimately decide for one, to then "find" an island, which is not very well hidden, but all people want to find it, and when you finally prepared enough to get into Eldorado(Cant keep the name, Ukuzi or what it was :D), all you get is a fight against a guard, and not the giant the game made to be the main antagonist. Of Eldorado itself or why it's so sought after, there's little and less to be seen, and the giant who stole part of your soul already gave it back and doesn't fight against you.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game, I loved some of the quests, and like the item-design, but I most certainly see it as a "narrative mistake" like the guy I quoted. You get to fight 2-3 dragons(if you want to), which is nice, can stop slave-trading if you want to, can kill or succumb to a imp-demon-god, all of which I found really great, but then after this, there should be the ultimate fight, the real challenge, the hardest or most story-relevant fight in the game, but there's not, which I found sad. There's just the "hey, care about those that get stuck in the in-between" - "ok, will do, thanks for pointing out" - "cool, have fun destroying the wheel then"

[Icesong]

I dunno, I think they found a good compromise, with showing you right at the beginning, that you might be to weak. You have to do some quests, so you spend time with your environment and get sucked in. So the illusion of starting to live in the Archipelo is given. Not a bad solution and with Magran's Teeth we have an in-story reason, why we leave Eothas alone for a while.

 

Needing to gather strength, either your own or that of allies, is a good way for a main questline to encourage side questing. That's not really an option in Deadfire, though, because they made Eothas utterly unstoppable. Gather the entire might of Eora and it would avail you nothing. The only thing the story allows you to do is follow him and talk with him, neither of which are helped by resolving tribal rights or pirate rivalries. Until Ondra's Mortar.

 

What do you mean about Magran's Teeth?

 

 

 

 

The plot is written so that you can role-play that you want to hurry or that you don't care and go do other stuff. Dialogue options support those choices all over the game when you talk to NPCs. Maybe some people here should be more consequent with their role-playing instead of asking a "fix" so that every characters are railroaded into the same decisions.

 

How urgent the plot feels is left to the player. If you decided that Eothas is urgent business go after him and don't bother with exploration and doing side content more than necessary, that's is what role-playing is about.

No it isn't. The fact that he has a piece of your soul and that your continued existence is contingent on you finding Eothas for Berath is not what I would describe as allowing you to just do whatever. 

 

I haven't encountered a single conversation where someone told my character he was going to die (again) if I didn't find Eothas right away after Berath resurrected him. I got no timetable from Berath either.

 

You are asked to find Eothas, you are given "he has a piece of your soul" as a motivation to do so among others (revenge, divine mission, stop Eothas destruction, etc) along a reason as to why finding Eothas should be easier at least until he cut the cord and you lose the connection. Once you get a ship you can go "I'm gonna be a pirate" instead of "Lets hunt Eothas"...and if you could break vows to gods in POE1, I don't see why you should feel like what Berath is demanding is imperative and urgent in POE2.

 

Also, Berath doesn't even need you to find and talk to Eothas, if you pick the "take the Wheel" choice at the beginning you learn that they will simply find another Watcher for the task.

 

 

If you don't do what Berath asked you die. That Berath will just find another Watcher is only more proof of that. You think Berath will have you die for refusing the job, but will let it pass if you're not doing it? If you're under the impression Berath can't kill you once you left the Beyond, remember the deathknell within you:

 

 

 

Your goal is to catch up with Eothas and ascertain his plans, and the longer you dawdle about the further along Eothas gets. The timetable and urgency is inherent in the premise. Yes, the game lets you say "It's a pirate's life for me!" and spend months plundering ships and islands only to find that Eothas hasn't budged from where you were told he was, but that doesn't mean it makes any narrative sense.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Icesong

[Guest Ontarah]

I personally feel like a game like PoE, which has a heavy focus on story, should put more focus into a tight narrative. And by a tight narrative, I mean one where the characters, the setting, the side content, have something to say that is relevant to the central plot and its themes.

I disagree because games that do this tend to be thematically heavy. Some of them approach didactic and I'm just not interested in polemics as game. I personally found the tendency in the first game for *everybody's* shtick to center around a crisis of faith (because the central plot was about belief/disbelief in the gods) to get really old, really fast. It comes off like "we know this is a role-playing game but we [the writers] mostly are only interested in questions about X and thus will allow you meaningful role-playing in regards X only."

 

DA2 is another example of an egregious offender in this category. You can have choices, sure, so long as those choices are about mages & templars and once in a while Qunari.

[Voss]

 

Also, Berath doesn't even need you to find and talk to Eothas, if you pick the "take the Wheel" choice at the beginning you learn that they will simply find another Watcher for the task.

 

 

Yes, this is the weakest part of the main story. Any guy could do it.

 

It's worse than that; if you romance Maia, you find that Hylea can watch what's going on in the world from birds.  Any birds.   

Finding Eothas was never any problem for the gods. As for his motives, most of them give no f's for his motives.  

 

Some of them even get involved in what I view as one of the cardinal sins of storytelling: having a solution but just not executing it.  Ondra and Magran suddenly start advocating for blowing Eothas the hell up with volcanos and underwater vents and crap.  You can actually agree with them, and they settle on this being a fine solution to the problem. And then... they don't do that.  They actually come to decision about taking action and simply... don't, and you go back on the rails.

 

The last time I saw this in a game was the terrible 'Siege of Dragonspear' 'expansion' for Baldur's Gate, where the villain proposes you team up with her, you agree and then she disagrees.  Seriously, wtf?  This seems cut in the same mold and 'quality' of writing.

 

i really want an non 'epic' game where an adventurer/adventurers have exciting adventures and interesting campaign arcs on a local/regional level, not philosophical drivel and kicking over the entire setting shortly after its introduced to the audience.  Seen it too many times (Bioware is especially guilty of this, but several D&D settings have the same problem- Dark Sun being the poster child for this.  City States with Dragon Kings!  Year one: Mostly dead Dragon Kings by way of the intro novels and first adventure trilogy)

----

 

 

@Ontarah- the really aggravating thing about PoE1 and the belief/disbelief thing is the answer presented is horrifyingly simplistic: they absolutely exist, are giant jerks, and belief/disbelief does not matter in any way at all, rendering all questions raised entirely moot.    Except for Sagani's, because she actually behaved like a person rather than a flawed attempt at a philosophical archetype, and could focus on what her journey meant for her.  

Edited May 17, 2018 by Voss

[jones092201]

i really want an non 'epic' game where an adventurer/adventurers have exciting adventures and interesting campaign arcs on a local/regional level, not philosophical drivel and kicking over the entire setting shortly after its introduced to the audience. Seen it too many times (Bioware is especially guilty of this, but several D&D settings have the same problem- Dark Sun being the poster child for this. City States with Dragon Kings! Year one: Mostly dead Dragon Kings by way of the intro novels and first adventure trilogy)— posted above by Voss

 

100% agree.

 

For a while now, crpgs have often started the game with a bang to introduce the world ending threat, told you why you’re the one who can stop it, and then sent you to do it. Then you end up spending the vast majority of time not doing it. For some reason, even in the face of unequivocal doom, the mortal powers in these worlds keep on with their petty squabbles, so that even in the face of an extinction event , you spend so much of your time doing these— within the context of the world ending— mundane tasks that have no real value. Luckily, the great threat just kind of sits around and waits on you to come kill them.

 

This is both dragon age games, origins and inquisition, skyrim, deadfire, and mass effect.

 

Next time, I’d rather do something that doesn’t result in my actions blowing up the entire power structure of the world space at every level of articulation. I was most happy in deadfire uncovering ancient ruins on undiscovered islands. Having to deal with the main quest seemed more like tedium than something I wanted to do.

 

I liked the game. I’m excited to see where they take it and how it improves with patches and dlc. But next time, just make up an Indiana Jones kind of adventure, or something like the first baldurs gate or fallout. As Voss said, a regional/ local conflict. Intermingle that with a strong personal narrative, and you’re doing good.

 

There is a whole lot of good in the lore, world-building, and presentation of Eora. Obsidian should trust the quality of what they’ve established, and not try and blow the players mind with some stunning revelation.

[E.RedMark]

yeah but there is an issue there . 

 

See , when you get a game that lead you from one area to another to the ending . Some peoples complain thats it's too limiting and they want to explore . 

 

When they ease up and open up the map and make it so you can take your sweet time , it become a 'So dude was waiting this whole time while I was playing fedEx ? Laaaaaaaaaame !'' . 

 

See what I mean ? 

 

The real question is what is the middle road ? 

[FecklessFool]

i really want an non 'epic' game where an adventurer/adventurers have exciting adventures and interesting campaign arcs on a local/regional level, not philosophical drivel and kicking over the entire setting shortly after its introduced to the audience. Seen it too many times (Bioware is especially guilty of this, but several D&D settings have the same problem- Dark Sun being the poster child for this. City States with Dragon Kings! Year one: Mostly dead Dragon Kings by way of the intro novels and first adventure trilogy)— posted above by Voss

 

100% agree.

 

For a while now, crpgs have often started the game with a bang to introduce the world ending threat, told you why you’re the one who can stop it, and then sent you to do it. Then you end up spending the vast majority of time not doing it. For some reason, even in the face of unequivocal doom, the mortal powers in these worlds keep on with their petty squabbles, so that even in the face of an extinction event , you spend so much of your time doing these— within the context of the world ending— mundane tasks that have no real value. Luckily, the great threat just kind of sits around and waits on you to come kill them.

 

This is both dragon age games, origins and inquisition, skyrim, deadfire, and mass effect.

 

Next time, I’d rather do something that doesn’t result in my actions blowing up the entire power structure of the world space at every level of articulation. I was most happy in deadfire uncovering ancient ruins on undiscovered islands. Having to deal with the main quest seemed more like tedium than something I wanted to do.

 

I liked the game. I’m excited to see where they take it and how it improves with patches and dlc. But next time, just make up an Indiana Jones kind of adventure, or something like the first baldurs gate or fallout. As Voss said, a regional/ local conflict. Intermingle that with a strong personal narrative, and you’re doing good.

 

There is a whole lot of good in the lore, world-building, and presentation of Eora. Obsidian should trust the quality of what they’ve established, and not try and blow the players mind with some stunning revelation.

 

Yes. This is why I think the game would have been better if you weren't the Watcher. The Watcher can show up, wearing a hooded mask or whatever, and maybe you get to accompany him on quests to find Eothas.

 

I would rather he not though, and this could just be about you, the privateer captain, making a name for yourself in the Deadfire. Flesh out factions, flesh out sea battles, make ships attack each other and not just you, have fleets, essentially make a Sid Meier's Pirates! RPG. 

[Lexi]

The most fun I had in Deadfire were the side quests, the factions and exploring. The least fun I had was the main story. You're not really discovering anything, or even doing anything but following the God around and turning on some adra pillars. Which does.. Stuff. I guess. Meanwhile in Pillars 1 I found the main story to be far more engaging, its more personal, has lots of mystery and pays off.

[Aridea]

yeah but there is an issue there . 

 

See , when you get a game that lead you from one area to another to the ending . Some peoples complain thats it's too limiting and they want to explore . 

 

When they ease up and open up the map and make it so you can take your sweet time , it become a 'So dude was waiting this whole time while I was playing fedEx ? Laaaaaaaaaame !'' . 

 

See what I mean ? 

 

The real question is what is the middle road ? 

 

I don't think there is a middle road. There will always be people complaining about something - damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

I for one am happy that this game is different to its predecessor, yet it still pulls at my heart strings. Its a lot of fun, and while the main quest doesn't have as much urgency, the game doesn't feel any worse for it, at least to me. I think if it was too much like the previous one, it would get very old very fast. And there will be EVEN MORE complaining on the forums

[E.RedMark]

 

yeah but there is an issue there . 

 

See , when you get a game that lead you from one area to another to the ending . Some peoples complain thats it's too limiting and they want to explore . 

 

When they ease up and open up the map and make it so you can take your sweet time , it become a 'So dude was waiting this whole time while I was playing fedEx ? Laaaaaaaaaame !'' . 

 

See what I mean ? 

 

The real question is what is the middle road ? 

 

I don't think there is a middle road. There will always be people complaining about something - damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

I for one am happy that this game is different to its predecessor, yet it still pulls at my heart strings. Its a lot of fun, and while the main quest doesn't have as much urgency, the game doesn't feel any worse for it, at least to me. I think if it was too much like the previous one, it would get very old very fast. And there will be EVEN MORE complaining on the forums

 

dunno..

 

I like to think there is a middle road somewhere . Only , nobody tried finding it . 

 

Because if you go with 'Game is either X or Y' ..then by that saying , Deadfire is a failur . Since the 1st game that set the setting wasn't about exploring much but story driven . This game has exploring island and combat at sea . 

 

A middle road would be a bit more story heavy when it come to chasing the main quest , more urgency and drama . 

 

And keep the exploring and fight at sea . 

 

That would be a middle road no? 

 

I personally , games that tell me to go explore...like skyrim , and such...are a bore . I'm a shameless starving person that love a good story . And heck even when I try to get into the exploring..I just get bored fast . 

[Zeths]

The ending really drove home to me how much the main plot isn't the game.

 

I'm making a decision that is likely to affect the world forever. It will impact everything and everyone. Yet every companion, faction or small area got as much attention in the post-game story as the implication of this decision did.

 

It also bothered me greatly that Eothas assumed that the gods had persuaded me to their side in the end game dialog options. Not only could I not make the decision I wanted but the few decisions close enough to what I wanted he made a statement about how its not my choice but one of the gods choices that I'm just going along with.