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Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Pillars of Eternity II - It's Pretty Alright

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
Oh fuck I think I spoiled it when I read the part about POE2's writing, but that line, “Pallegina, you should learn to respect her opinions” is worth it.
Please tell me this is a word-by-word quote from the game. :lol: Honestly who wrote this.
Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.
 

Bumvelcrow

Somewhat interesting
Patron
Dumbfuck
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
1,867,060
Location
Over the hills and far away
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Strap Yourselves In
Good review, disappointing sounding game. The mechanics of PoE1 was a problem and this sounds like it's turned up to 11. I had zero expectations for the quality of the story so am not particularly disappointed. Where is my Icewind Dale spiritual successor you bastards?
 

Tacgnol

Shitlord
Patron
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
1,871,734
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
We need more games where plot companions don't try to get involved with the PC.

This Bioware-esque romance shit really needs to die, especially in games like Pillars 2 that handle it so badly.

It just needs to die. No game has gotten better because the companions are playersexual. It's shit for the writers as well, having to make the relationship from normal companionship to romance no matter the gender or race with pretty much every companion in the game.
It ruins the characters completely and leads to weak writing. If the romance feels forced, there's nothing the writer can do to make it any better. He/She/It has to write some clichee lines to get the characters from point A to point B in few moments. There's no room for the relationship to build naturally over time that would actually support the writer and help them to build the romance as a sorta natural progression for the characters instead of them just blurting out how they have deep feelings for you and they want to fuck right now and here with these giant spiders lurking around the corner.

It's just really bad design to begin with. If they want romance in the game then they should just pick the characters and their sexuality that fit their personalities. It's not only a lot easier for the writer to come up with it when it's orlan on orlan romance or fish vs. male PC etc, but it also feels less forced on the player when everyone in the goddamn game isn't trying to fuck you.

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

It has become a "standard" feature that popamolers now expect in an RPG.

We can't just have well developed characters with their own backstories and motivations anymore, everything about them has to revolve around the player. I blame Bioware for this.
 

Flou

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
869
Location
Hellsinki
I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.
In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.
 

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
Eh, PST is full of romances. But the writers had a very good idea what to do with them, why they were relevant, and how they made the game more captivating.

It is not about having romances or not, it is about why the content is there, what it's trying to achieve. I bet MCA laughed himself to tears with the PoE2 romances.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Good job Darth Roxor. I'm sure someone will read this review. Someday.

I did, title says it's alright conclusion said he had fun so obisidian advertisement contract is fulfilled, plebs wont look further ,infinitron can relax, codex wont have to reimburse josh. However if you read in between, like a clever codexer, he thinks its almost complete shit so contract with grognards is fulfilled too.
As gary gigax (a dude liking rpgs) said what matters the most in a RPG is storytelling,roxxor says " If it’s combat, you might end up disappointed. If it’s story and related matters, stay the hell away."; no need to say more about POE2 quality.
A clever and devious review.
 

Flou

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
869
Location
Hellsinki
Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.

Dollarhyde also wrote the talking the sword.
 

Zakhad

Savant
Joined
Dec 10, 2012
Messages
284
Location
Gurtex
waiting for Roxor to quit the Codex and never mention us again because he gets a job writing for Obsidian
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
Which flavor of Doritos did you end up preferring, Darth Roxor ?

thats a trade secret i'm afraid

I did, title says it's alright conclusion said he had fun so obisidian advertisement contract is fulfilled, plebs wont look further ,infinitron can relax, codex wont have to reimburse josh. However if you read in between, like a clever codexer, he thinks its almost complete shit so contract with grognards is fulfilled too.
As gary gigax (a dude liking rpgs) said what matters the most in a RPG is storytelling,roxxor says " If it’s combat, you might end up disappointed. If it’s story and related matters, stay the hell away."; no need to say more about POE2 quality.
A clever and devious review.

its-a-conspiracy.jpg
 

Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.
In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.


Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.
 

Flou

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
869
Location
Hellsinki
Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

Too early to say anything about Dollarhyde.
Scokel seems like a keeper.
Kirsch definately struggled with the fishman, but didn't he write the best companion for Tyranny?
Starks wrote Kills-In-Shadow for Tyranny and now Xoti, two kinda weak companions.
Sawyer shouldn't write companions. his strength is elsewhere
They should use Fenstermaker as a freelancer in the future too
Patel I don't know. Aloth isn't bad companion, but the main plot wasn't that strong in Deadfire. But how much influence did Sawyer have on that?
Rest of the writers haven't produced anything while at Obsidian, so can't really judge them.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.
In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.


Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.
With such sales, not even sure they will still hire anyone at all.
 

nobre

Cipher
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Messages
674
Location
Pays-Bas
At least the magic/special items are a big improvement compared to the first game. Unique items now feel like actual artefacts, with their own exclusive properties, some of which can be very interesting or powerful, or upgraded even further for additional functionalities. Unfortunately, they lost a lot of their relative “oomph” and uniqueness when the autist-in-chief struck and decided to nerf everything across the board in the first major Deadfire patch. This encompassed cutting most item abilities by half (including both the chance to trigger and the power of effects), some of them even more, no matter whether they were garbage things that nobody would ever use, gear that companions start with (!!!) or stuff you get from tough endgame boss fights.

Holy shit MMO-style nerfs in a single-player game :lol::lol::lol:. Glad I never even considered spending money on this piece of garbage.

Thanks Darth Roxor for this informative review.
 

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