Interview Josh Sawyer talks Pillars of Eternity at Eurogamer, confirms no romances

[ghostdog]

Just wait for the imported Saerileth character/romance.

 

[Septaryeth]

I might agree that Grace and Deionarra are partially "romance" characters, since you have the options to "talk nice".
But how does Ravel comes into the equation? Her relationship with TNO is more of a backstory; it's not like the players can actually do anything about her even if they wish to.

You can confess your love to her.

You can? Huh, must have missed that, now I feel

I have no problem with the romances in PS:T.
It seems less like an advertised "feature" where the player can actively pursue a love interest, but more as a central part of the story.
I guess I'm just so sick of "saving the world and choose your F-buddies along the way" that I automatically assume Sawyer is talking about waifu.
It could be interesting to see what romance story Obsidian can come up with then, but it doesn't really matter if they don't want to do it(which seems to be the case).

 

[Apexeon]

I want a refunded.

I want my Bromance !

 

[Roguey]

I might agree that Grace and Deionarra are partially "romance" characters, since you have the options to "talk nice".
But how does Ravel comes into the equation? Her relationship with TNO is more of a backstory; it's not like the players can actually do anything about her even if they wish to.

You can confess your love to her.

TNO can also kiss her while she's shape-shifted into Annah or FFG.

 

[Morality Games]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

Josh Sawyer has been a busy man lately. In his latest interview, over at Eurogamer, he discusses various aspects of Pillars of Eternity, such as its artistic style, its themes, the stronghold and modding. But the best part is the confirmation that the game will have no romances. I quote:

Pillars' characters are not flamboyant fantasy heroes, not wizards with pointy hats, not knights with elaborate armour. 'Why?' people asked after watching the recent trailer (embedded above). 'Why are the characters so... normal?'

"Some people might not like that our characters' proportions and outfits look comparatively drab and dressed down and not exaggerated," answered Sawyer, "but that's also kind of what the original [Infinity Engine] games were like. They don't look like [World of Warcraft] characters, they don't look like Diablo characters. They're not super-exaggerated.

"It was fantasy," he added, "but it was mundane fantasy."

It stems from the work of a man called Keith Parkinson, who did artwork for Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR back in the day.

"He had a philosophy to make the fantastical mundane," Sawyer recalled, "and to make the mundane fantastical, and so he achieved a really neat look in his D&D art, and so we've referred to that in a lot of cases, where you take something that's very fantastic and you make it a little more believable, and you take something that's very mundane and you dress it up so it's a little more fantastical."

Romances between you and fellow adventurers seem to be a de facto feature of role-playing games today. But Obsidian isn't doing them in Pillars of Eternity.

"We're not doing romances," said Sawyer, "but [the other characters] do have pretty detailed stories, they do have their own personal motivations and goals that sometimes align with yours and sometimes they don't. They interject into your conversations, they argue with you, they argue with each other."

And if you play on Expert mode, or if you enable character death, then followers can die. But Obsidian's "not real big on having characters die in scripted sequences". (Incidentally, if you don't like the given, storied crop of party members, you can make your own, using the Adventurer's Hall.)

[...] Pillars of Eternity gives you, the player, a base - a base that can be upgraded over time and where events will happen. It can even be attacked. And it's called a Stronghold.

"Those events range from visitors coming to people mounting an attack against you to a travelling merchant or someone needs help," explained Sawyer. "And these little events are things you can send your adventurers [to do], or your companions that are not in the party - you can send them to go do them and get little rewards for them. It is a sort of game within a game, but you can manage it from anywhere in the world - there's actually a dedicated part of the UI for managing your Stronghold while you're out and about.

"When Tim Cain [key person from the original Fallout games] was implementing it, he had only implemented it essentially through text - there wasn't even the area, and he was still having fun with it."

You'll come across your Stronghold early on. But, said Sawyer, "When you find it, it's unsurprisingly not in great shape, and you have the ability to restore sections of it and change your roster of defenders and things like that."

Strongholds will also bestow resting bonuses dependent on what facilities you have there. Training Grounds will bolster the Strength stat, for instance, whereas a Library will bolster Lore. You'll also be able to grow ingredients in gardens there, get special offers from travelling sales people and... get filthy rich. Your Stronghold comes with all the surrounding lands, which are taxed. And you're the taxer.

There's a small chance you'll be able take your customised Stronghold into other Pillars of Eternity games (and there's a good chance there'll be more of those). But Sawyer seemed to like the idea of a new game being set in a new area.

Nevertheless, "If we made another Eternity, whether or not it's that Stronghold, we would still have a Stronghold that works in the same general way."
​

Excellent.

We'll see. Obsidian's operating concept of romance is the same as Chrono Trigger's (whose design philosophy is admired among Obsidian's developers), where its written into the script but there's not a lot you can do to interact with it. That was the case in both Planescape: Torment and Kotor II.

Arguably neither of those games has romance, but a love triangle for the PC's affections forms two of the more character developing (in a literary sense) subplots.

 

[throwaway]

One kiss does not make a romance. Plus it goes nowhere, like the devs couldn't even be bothered finishing it.

It does, especially the part where she's all I love him more than my own life, getting jealous over FFG and prostitute conversations, etc.

Grace is a romance too. So are Deionarra and Ravel.

I might agree that Grace and Deionarra are partially "romance" characters, since you have the options to "talk nice".
But how does Ravel comes into the equation? Her relationship with TNO is more of a backstory; it's not like the players can actually do anything about her even if they wish to.

They have full closure insofar as it makes sense within the themes of the game. All of the romances in PS:T are there to underline the way in which TNO is bringing torment and suffering to all those close to him. The romances for Annah, FFG and Deionarrah serve the same purpose as Dakkon's enslavement and Morte's fate following you for eternity. Deinorrah needs no explanation, but Ravel makes it pretty clear that Annah falling in love with you is a 'very bad thing' (which can lead directly to her death - and even without that, puts her in a doomed devotion to someone whose fated to hell). FFG is the final part of the curse of torment - notice how when you encounter Ravel, she expertly picks apart every companion's weakness and points out just how TNO is bringing suffering upon them (Annah's love, Dakkon's slavery, Nordrom in a hopeless struggle against his own nature, and most of all, the one time in the whole game where Morte's joking facade gets broken, with Rael revealing the bitter desparation beneath his humour)....but when she comes to addressing FFG she doesn't really have anything to say - in fact, while all the other characters are being taken apart, FFG is described as carefully sizing Ravel up for weaknesses.

Then you get to the end of the game, with TNO on his way to hell...and finally FFG's torment becomes clear when she swears that she's go back to the very place that she had once escaped from, making a vow to rescue TNO that can't possibly be fulfilled and serves only to doom her to the same fate as TNO.

What more closure would you want? Romances shouldn't be there to play waifu - it's like saying there's no closure between Hamlet and Ophelia because he drives her mad and she kills herself, instead of them having a sex scene and living happily ever after.

Damn you, now I have to replay PST.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[GarfunkeL]

No fat Americans cosplaying PoE ever confirmed.

I dunno, dude. Denying the drones their gigglesquee can do some very strange things.

WHAT.THE.FUCK

I didn't even dare to click the other links, reading the abstract for the first link was enough. Shepard is a sex slave of some pirate king?

 

[Xor]

I stopped being surprised by the depravity of fanfic writers years ago.

 

[Trojan_generic]

Huge disappointment for those who never had sex IRL. Those who did have sex, understand that man can easily take 30 hours of good gameplay without thinking of sex or romances.

Also, for sex, there are other games out there.

 

[mondblut]

The game's top down perspective isn't really well suited for romances anyway.

Tell that to Betty in Arcanum

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

There's nothing "mundane" about throwing fireballs and magic missiles.... it's just an indication of just how ridiculous modern fantasy has become

I dunno man. I've seen the concept art and I think I have to agree with Sawyer on this one.

 

[Xeon]

Probably a controversial opinion but Man, I really hope the stronghold will be similar to Suikoden's castles where you take a run down castle and with work (recruits) it prospers and you get a tons of things to do.

 

[DreadMessiah]

I like fixer uppers. Or is that being a fixer on uppers. Dunno really yet I like building buildings or fixing them.

 

[AngryKobold]

No romances? Nonsense. There gonna be a shit ton of romances. As soon as someone finds out how to mod this thing.

 

[Irxy]

No romances? Nonsense. There gonna be a shit ton of romances. As soon as someone finds out how to mod this thing.

Mods are seriously overrated, while community mastered making quality nude and house mods and fixing bugs, I am yet to see something with a story which is not amateurish crap.

 

[Dokkalfar]

Mods are good for bug-fixing and tweaking, but anything with new NPC's/dialogue stay the fuck away.

 

[Jaesun]

But the best part is the confirmation that the game will have no romances.

I am now proud to have backed this game.

 

[Haba]

But the best part is the confirmation that the game will have no romances.

I am now proud to have backed this game.

Why do you hate love Jaesun? Is it because you are a homofag?

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

 

[Commissar Draco]

The game's top down perspective isn't really well suited for romances anyway.

Tell that to Betty in Arcanum

You can't romance the Betty Comrade.

 

[mondblut]

man can easily take 30 hours without thinking of sex

Nonsense.

 

[AngryKobold]

No romances? Nonsense. There gonna be a shit ton of romances. As soon as someone finds out how to mod this thing.

Mods are seriously overrated, while community mastered making quality nude and house mods and fixing bugs, I am yet to see something with a story which is not amateurish crap.

Retarded fanfiction chicks. Never underestimate this plague.

 

[Excidium]

No romances? Nonsense. There gonna be a shit ton of romances. As soon as someone finds out how to mod this thing.

Mods are seriously overrated, while community mastered making quality nude and house mods and fixing bugs, I am yet to see something with a story which is not amateurish crap.

I'm yet to see that from the actual game devs, let alone modders.