Ok so Betrayal at Krondor is awesome

[Azrael the cat]

It's a very poor RPG, more of an interactive book.

"It's not the kind of RPG I'm used to playing" does not equal "It's a poor RPG". That's as asinine as saying that it's not a good RPG because you can't customise the characters. Kindly get a clue.

I remember this game , it was very good and faithful to raymond E. feist first books, the plot is the same or almost. If you loved the story you cant possibly miss his books, in my opinion its very good fantasy in a believable world.Its keeps going on with the next generations and descendants of heroes.Theres truly material for more rpgs there, off course nothing of such will happen ever again.. ah the 90's..

FEIST DID NOT WRITE THE STORY OF THE GAME. Neal Hallford did.

Also, Feist kind of sucks, and I'm saying that as someone who grew up loving his books. The more I look back and investigate the backstory, the more I'm convinced that the stuff that was actually good about the series usually involved cribbing off of someone else - the original Friday Nighters (= the rest of his group of college buddies who, together, came up with the world and lore for Midkemia, and are thus presumably responsible for a lot of the awesome in the first trilogy), the various co-writers, and of course Neal Hallford. Unless you think it's a coincidence that what's widely considered the best books in the series (Honoured Enemy, Empire Trilogy, Magician) either had co-writers or input from the aforementioned Friday Nighters.

From what I can tell, the last few sagas in the series have been more fully original Feist flavour, which explains why he keeps jumping between trite plots without bothering to resolve them fully and the characters are bland copies of previous ones.

The novelisation of BaK mostly sucks as well, sadly. There's some great moments, but the characters really suffer from Feist's take on them. I mean, that scene where Gorath accidentally punches Owyn unconscious... Way to turn a great story into The Three Stooges, Ray. T_T


If you want a great story, freaking play the game, and try to be as completionist as you can. That's the only way you're going to get the awesome you should get from it. I cringe at the thought of people only knowing the characters and the story through the mess Feist made of them.

I had a similar experience with Feist - I loved him as a kid, but liked him less and less as I went through my latter teenage years. I think part of what I liked as a kid was that it was the first time I'd encountered such a well-planned world/culture (well, 2 worlds/cultures) - I didn't read LoTR until I was abut 13-14 - and the dual perspectives were neat. I think it was just that Feist was the first decent fantasy writer I read, more than finding him to be an excellent one - the series starts, at least, with two understandable sides rather than lawful-good v chaotic-evil, and that put it a long way ahead of the ultra-cliched stuff I'd read until then. As a kid you don't really see how cliched the characters are...although I think he did start out better on that point as well. I remember fondly the bit in the first book where you get the perspective of the invaders for the first time, and how shit-scared they are of war-dogs and horses due to not having the concept of trained animals.

The big turning point was - like 99% of people - reading LoTR, and then especially Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Hard to go back to Feist from that point. Not knocking the guy though - most of the fantasy genre is fucking awful, completely relying on the fact that in that genre (more so than most) folks just swallow up the same plot/characters, and Feist is above that line. Being 'ok' as a fantasy author basically puts you in the top 1% of fantasy authors (not because the genre is inherently crap, but because of the sheer quantity of churned out shite compared to less popular genres - though these days I think vampire/gothic-romance novels have topped it for 'lowest proportion of readable books to shite').

And by game writing standards, he's a fucking genius.

 

[Hekateras]

And by game writing standards, he's a fucking genius.

Your mileage may vary... As far as character development goes, at least, which is a big component of the quality of writing, I think most of the games I've played, even the woefullly underpolished ones, still fare better in terms of story. I think a big part of what started putting me off Feist was me coming to develop a preference for character arcs with realistic and complex psychology, and Feist's characters typically change very little save for the standard "coming of age"-type maturation.

By contrast, take Dragon Age. Despite its flaws, some of its character development is rather sophisticated, in idea if not in execution - just take Fenris's struggle to learn to function as a free man and have affectionate relationships that aren't driven by Stockholm's Syndrome. Or Anders's descent into selfishness and extremism. Or any other number of things. What does Feist have that is anywhere near the same level? And I'm not just saying that because I kind of went all fangirl on Fenris the moment he butchered a man with his bare hands. :D

 

[SCO]

It's not so much that he blew it up, but the way he did it. Then again that book was horribly rushed towards the end and several of the reveals made no goddamn sense. Shame, as I kinda liked Flight of the Nighthawks and thought it was his best in a very long time.

I believe the maximum derp occurred when the insectoid race (can't remember name), who are, by the way, friendly master spellcasters and thus supremely useful for fighting against the big bad can't leave the planet for some moronic reason. But no guilt necessary, they're cool with being tele-fragged.
Rarely seen a more clumsy example of tidying inconvenient loose ends.

 

[Hekateras]

I almost wouldn't mind Kelewan's fate if he actually followed up on what happened to the survivors. But no. It seems like this was a crude attempt to get an entire culture out of the way so that people wouldn't ask for him to write about them when there's much more interesting stuff he wants to write, like the adventures of Awesome Pug, Jimmy the Hand v.3 and Martin conDoin v. 5.

 

[Hekateras]

So, in lieu of "BaK is awesome"...

What was your favourite moment? :D


...

*crickets*

 

[SCO]

Either Glamredhel or the rusalka quest or the gods conversation on the mana planet or digging up graves.

It's hard to tell, it may be something else - the game has a consistent aura of awesome in my memory.

 

[Zomg]

the best wordlock:

Spoiler

"Trade mares"

 

[Wyrmlord]

So, in lieu of "BaK is awesome"...

What was your favourite moment? :D


...

*crickets*

Coming face to face with the perfumed leader of the Nighthawks.

I was stuck for two months on that section. Seeing a payoff after so long, after so much pain, after so much searching - just wow. Finishing that part, it was a less than a month that I finished the game, I think.

And I mean, some fortuneteller had already dropped the hint that a perfumed man would be the leader, so I should have known.

 

[Hekateras]

I think I had a big "OMG we totally had a civil conversation earlier when we didn't know who he was" moment there. Kind of scary. And paranoia-inducing.

I liked the part how, late in the game, Owyn can practically beat people to death with his staff without using magic. It kind of makes me want to cheer for him every time he gets a hit in, because it's heartwarming to see him having come this far from the bundle of martial fail he was in Chapter 1. >D

 

[Mrowak]

So, in lieu of "BaK is awesome"...

What was your favourite moment? :D


...

*crickets*

Coming face to face with the perfumed leader of the Nighthawks.

I was stuck for two months on that section. Seeing a payoff after so long, after so much pain, after so much searching - just wow. Finishing that part, it was a less than a month that I finished the game, I think.

And I mean, some fortuneteller had already dropped the hint that a perfumed man would be the leader, so I should have known.

Haha! Only two months? Damn, I got stuck there for more than half a year. Then again, I was only just starting learning English back then. Still, after reading you LP I was quite surprised that there is actually a second way I didn't know to reveal who he really is.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I think I had a big "OMG we totally had a civil conversation earlier when we didn't know who he was" moment there. Kind of scary. And paranoia-inducing.

I liked the part how, late in the game, Owyn can practically beat people to death with his staff without using magic. It kind of makes me want to cheer for him every time he gets a hit in, because it's heartwarming to see him having come this far from the bundle of martial fail he was in Chapter 1. >D

Is Owyn primarily able to fight better with his staff because he gets a better staff or because you can boost his strength from a particular well permanently? I don't remember. Of course, one could do both, but one of them was merely necessary, the other sufficient, to get Owyn to fight meelee.

I think there were lategame moments when I tried to get Owyn to fight meelee, because the fight was too easy and I wanted to save his strength.

Mrowak, I acted on the tip from somewhere that it is best to use a spell that detects chests in the area, as often as possible in every place in the game. That way, you notice that there are hidden chests where you least expect it. For the Nighthawk quest, the important chest was near Cavall Keep, and that one made all the difference, because it contained a note.

Disclosure: I still used a walkthrough for Dimwood Forest chapter, because god damn! I am sure some overman here figured out that there was an invisible mountain, but not me, not me.