Game News Drakensang: Phileasson's Secret to Have English Release

[Szioul]

Are you supposed to play this after the main quest of RoT or does it start during the main quest?

The way I've understood it, is that you can start playing during the main quest(Once you get the ship, most likely.), but it might be a bit hard, if you're low level.(No level scaling.) Or once you've finished the main game.

 

[Excidium]

What's so shit about the combat? Didn't seem any more shit than almost any post 2000 RPG. Actually 'shit combat' is the default for most RPG's this decade so that's nothing to complain about. Rather you should instead praise the one or two games that did combat right.

Well yeah, the combat isn't THAT bad compared to other recent RPGs. It's just that each round in Drakensang takes like 5 seconds, it gets boring really fast on large fights because the combat options are very limited. Standard RTwP I guess.

 

[Shannow]

What's so shit about the combat? Didn't seem any more shit than almost any post 2000 RPG. Actually 'shit combat' is the default for most RPG's this decade so that's nothing to complain about. Rather you should instead praise the one or two games that did combat right.

I always praise JA, ToEE, Gothic and M&B for their combat, but Drakensang's is - even in the decade of shit combat - especially bad, IMHO. The IEs, NWN2 and DA all have better combat (Better != "good"). More options that actually mean something and positioning matters. More diverse enemies, that require different tactics. I also dislike TDE's "one attack per round". Drakensang would work so great with an action point system like JA. Drakensang with TB combat, relevant positioning, action points, enemies that require more diverse tactics, more unique encounters, and without ridiculously overpowered magical weapons and some more tweaks here and there and it would have been such an awesome game...*sigh*

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Another thing that doesn't work too well in a RTwP game is when spells have casting times of several combat rounds. How many combat rounds did casting fireball require? Five? Seriously, who did ever use this spell?

 

[godsend1989]

Another thing that doesn't work too well in a RTwP game is when spells have casting times of several combat rounds. How many combat rounds did casting fireball require? Five? Seriously, who did ever use this spell?

As i was saying combat is exploitable fireball is only used as a spell starter, if a pack of monsters didn`t spotted you yet, you can cast fireball on them within 1 combat round otherwise is useless in the middle of the fight because is too long and also there is no friendly fire.

About game speed i never played it at his normal speed because is not chess btw, with a quick search on google you will find that is very easy to adjust speed just by modifying your save from 1.0 too 3.5 i think and all animation turns and walking speed are like in a normal game. (also all monsters in the game will act faster just like you so there is not a cheat or something)

 

[Gord]

Well, yes, don't exactly expect highly tactical combat where you have to carefully plan position and role of each companion.
But then again, which non-indie cRPG of the last decade does offer this?

Anyway, several seconds per round isn't as bad as it sounds. There are a couple of feats you can pick which will affect combat and endurance cost means that you cannot just spam them usually.
If you want a fast way to resolve esp. fights with mini-bosses, get feats that cause wounds - they reduce enemies attributes/skills and once you've caused 5 or more it's instant death.
Contrary to what Shannow said I don't think that RoT has "ridiculously overpowered magical weapons", in fact most weapons will just offer slightly higher dam or attack (and technically aren't even magical but just finely crafted and such). There are a few, though, that have quite powerful abilities like %chance to cause wounds.
Overall RoT has less overpowered magical gear than 1st part.
However one should consider that TDE PnP is usually pretty low on magical gear, esp weapons and armor.

As for fireball - it's not usable in a fight usually, that's true, esp. as you will cause party damage, too.
But it's a great way to initiate a fight. Sometimes you will even get to cast 2 fireballs before enemies get too close.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

River of Time was pretty damn good.

I played it right after NV and then Div2: DKS both of which I also enjoyed immensely. Actually, now that I think about it, the second half of last year was one of the best periods for new RPG releases that I can remember in a very long time - three in a row. (I'll pretend I forgot about 2W2 - though it wasn't too horrible).

 

[Sceptic]

(I'll pretend I forgot about 2W2 - though it wasn't too horrible).

It's pretty telling when even the black sheep of the list isn't a complete disaster, even if it's a deeply flawed game.

I need to grab RoT at some point, but I have too many other games with higher priority (Divinity...)