Completed Let's play Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD - Part 71: Phex Temple 15 - WTF Ending

[Eriador]

Part 64: Phex Temple 8 - Boat Ride

Spoiler

Alright, we are done here, let's go to that eastern part of the temple.

Dammit Boreale, stop wasting money!

This door is now opened, probably from us solving that scale puzzle.

Look, a boat, let's go for a ride!

I think the game picks the character with the highest Steer skill to sail this thing. As a viking thorwalian, Boreale of course has a high Steering skill.

Yes, this is another minigame and you have to complete it everytime you use this boat.

I think it actually moves in an L shape in the chosen direction, kinda like the Knight chess piece.

I got lucky and reached the other side in just three clicks Doesn't take very long to get through this tbh, just click enough times and you will eventually get where you want.

Oh look, a fancy chest!

Yeah, guarded again.

This is too easy.

Yes, taking those items out closes the door to the boat and you can't go back until you return them (or use Tranversalis, but then you can't return). The first I was here, I've figured out that you can replace those items with any helmet and shield. Since we don't have any shields, I've tried if any item works and used the mirror. As you can see, it didn't work.

Fine, we still keep the helmet and replace it with a cheap leather helmet. We'll leave that shield inside the chest for now, until I figure another way to get it out.

This area has two secret rooms, one contains a bathtub full of water and some vases.

This one contains barrels of water, but we can't drink from them or anything.

Not that we'd need to, since this is the main source of water in this dungeon. But the way you refill water is pretty weird, you actually have to use the waterskin on that tub to refill your water, instead of the game automatically offering it. So naturally, I've assumed that this is some part of a puzzle.

There's 4 of these vases in this room and each of them can hold a different volume of water. Naturaly, I thought about filling them with water from the tub.

I thought that the puzzle with the vases would open up a door in this wall, since it's a pretty obvious place for a secret door. Well, there's nothing behind this wall, as you can see on the minimap, so this is probably just a red herring.

First, we use waterskin on the tub.

There, we no longer need to drink from those glass bottles I've filled in the fountain.

Obviously, the next thing I've tried was to fill this thing.

But the narrator guy tells me that it's a waste of time, so I guess there's nothing else interesting here. It seems like some kind of unfinished puzzle, but maybe I'm wrong and there some kind of solution to this?

Even this badly drawn fish agrees.

Finally out of that area. Now we can explore the rest of the eastern section.

 

[Azira]

List=cunning in Danish. Not sure about German though.

 

[Eriador]

List=cunning in Danish. Not sure about German though.

Alright, I guess that mystery is solved then :D

 

[Eriador]

Part 65: Phex Temple 9 - Boreale Steals From Phex (twice)

Spoiler

This looks suspicious, but nothing happens when walk past it.

Well, yet anyway...

Well, this looks dangerous. But we fear no danger, everything in this temple will be ours! ONWARD!

Danger or Always Inhabited? This language is weird.

Yes, a bunch of golden necklaces!

Unfortunately, Vazha yet again fails to disarm the trap. Thankfully, turns out it's way less deadly then it looks.

Oh look, another stone!

We savescum our way through this once again.

Acting "saintly"? Well, that should be easy, our party is the epitome of Lawful Good.

(Alright, maybe Ylleh isn't, but everyone else should be atleast Chaotic Neutral)

Maybe donating some money could be considered a saintly act, so let's try that!

Wait, no, Boreale, what are you doing-

Hey come on, you are the God of Thieves, surely complaining that someone steals from you is really hypocritical!

Well, this surely means bad things.

Oh god, not here, please no, I will do anything.

This place is a labyrinth with pressure plates. When we step on one, some doors open, while others close.

There's nothing interesting here besides one of those "sockets" in the back of the labyrinth. It's empty, but if you screw up while trying to recover the stone from that "socket" near that trapped chest, then that stone gets teleported to that very "socket" inside this labyrinth, so you have to go throught it to recover it.

Thankfully, we already have that one, so we need not bother.

First time I've been in this dungeon, I've tried for 40 minutes to get out of this labyrinth, with no success (I didn't get sent here, I just entered the normal way). The closest I got was to get the door outside open, but it closes as soon as you step on the pressure plate near the stairs outside. I guess you could try to split the party and somehow get out of here like that, but there doesn't appear to be a reason to go here unless you screw up and need to get that "stone" or you get sent as punishment for stealing from the offering bowl.

Well whatever, let's just teleport out of here.

Azira casts Tranversalis and we are out!

We go back.

You can walk inside without problems, but if you try to leave without donating something to that statue, then this circle teleports you to that labyrinth. Truly, these priests are greedy!

Alright, let's try this again. Donating money will disarm that teleportation circle and hopefully also open some secret door-

BOREALE!!!

And we are back, just great!

Also, our Favor with Phex is now at 0. Thanks Boreale!

No idea why it's Boreale, both times!

Really, Boreale and Grimgravy are the only ones who DON'T have maximum Avarice. But no, it's not the ultra greedy Azira, Vazha, Ylleh or Morkar who try to steal from the freaking God of Thieves, it's BOREALE with his mediocre 4 Avarice...

Anyway, after teleporting out of that labyrinth yet again, we decide to leave that statue be for now and look around some more.

This is the entrance to that labyrinth.

Normally, the door can be opened by this lever, but since we've teleported out of here, the only way to open them seems to be from the inside. Well, we have Boreale in case we ever need to visit that place again...

I really wanna know how they get to these beds and more importantly, how they get out. Do they just climb up the walls every morning?

Anyway, after two failed attempts at robbery, Boreale finally decides to just sit back and let the grown ups handle this. Let's try to donate some of our money, but not too much, in case we need to pay more to proceed further.

Well, now we can leave normally without ending up in that horrible place yet again. Maybe it also did something else? We shall see.

Anyway, we get out of there and continue exploring!

 

[Darth Roxor]

Boreale Steals From Phex (twice)

In this business, we call it "reclaiming long lost secrets of the Chapter"

 

[Eriador]

Boreale Steals From Phex (twice)

In this business, we call it "reclaiming long lost secrets of the Chapter"

Well, in that case, MISSION FAILED, both times. Should've tried multiple simultaneous and devastating defensive deep strikes instead.

 

[Eriador]

Part 66: Phex Temple 10 - Pressure Plate Puzzle

Spoiler

Doesn't seem like any secret doors opened, so let's explore the area behind this fake wall.

First, we go east.

Seems like this is another sewer.

It takes 4 tries, but Vazha finally manages to open this door.

This is that fake wall we've discovered earlier. So now we can access the eastern part as well without going through that steam room. Yay, no more unavoidable damage!

We can go even further east. But instead, let's go back and explore the other direction first.

Oh yes, I remember this!

This room is full of pressure plates.

Just like Darth Roxor said, the first letter of each word marks a cardinal direction and we need to walk through that pressure plate field using those directions. The worst hardest thing is to determine where we are supposed to start, as the "rethink thy standpoint" says.

This is the most obvious place to start, but if you start with the first plate it doesn't work. Eventually, I notice that the first plate is fake and doesn't actually work, when we walk over it, it stays up, while every other plate is lowered into the floor. I guess "rethink thy standpoint" is meant as a clue for this. Anyway, you are meant to step onto the first pressure plate first and THEN follow the directions from that stone tablet.

So first, we go 4 times to the west.

Once to the south.

Back north again.

Back south again.

Twice to the west.

Twice south.

Once east.

And finally, west again.

 

[Azira]

Reminds me of this:

 

[Eriador]

Part 67: Phex Temple 11 - NUMB3RS

Spoiler

Behind the secret door, we find another socket with a stone and a pressure plate.

We get the fourth stone via save-scumming to save ourselves the needless running back and forth between the sockets.

Now, let's check out what's in this direction.

Probably wise to heed this warning.

We return back to the pressure plate room and then to the room with that stone plate. A nearby wall turns out to be fake, so we can exit this area like this.

Then we return back to the eastern area near that other fake wall and check out what's behind this locked door.

This place clearly makes our party really paranoid. I don't blame them.

What...

The rarest number is 0, but I have no idea how to connect them or how to get the secret code. Any ideas?

 

[Eriador]

So, no Codex mastermind is gonna show up and help me out? Fine, I guess it's up to me then.

 

[Darth Roxor]

If you connect all the zeroes, they kinda sorta expose a "228" in the middle?

I also thought that the general outline was kinda shaped like an arrow, but it pointed at 4 numbers, not 3.

Edit: actually no I forgot to connect a few lines. I have no idea, it seems connecting all of them leaves an "8" uncrossed, but that's all.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Try 836 maybe, they are sorta in the middle of the rectangle formed by four of the zeros. It looks like a very :crafty: puzzle though.

 

[Eriador]

Ok, in the meantime I actually got to the area where you need to put in the code. After a few attempts I gave up and found a german let's play where some guy solves this. It's here.

Spoiler

Apparently, the actual solution is 912.

If anyone can understand german and knows how he found out the solution, then tell me, I'm kinda curious. Well, a big to that guy who made the let's play, I couldn't figure it out on my own.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Well, if it's 912, then it's like I thought at first - the 0s form an arrow and point at "5912".

except you know

there's four numbers there and not three which makes the puzzle ridiculous

the fact that the 1 looks like a 2 or even a 7 doesn't help much either

 

[Eriador]

Well, if it's 912, then it's like I thought at first - the 0s form an arrow and point at "5912".

except you know

there's four numbers there and not three which makes the puzzle ridiculous

the fact that the 1 looks like a 2 or even a 7 doesn't help much either

Yes, I actually tried to count how many of each number are on that paper and ran into that very problem, I couldn't tell 1 apart from 2 or 7. I guess it could obvious that 0 is the rarest number at the very first glance, but I counted them just the same in case there was a trick to it...

I actually kinda like this dungeon, atleast you don't have to fight 12 cultists every few steps and I like some of the puzzles, but this and those "sockets" are pretty bad.

I think the Dwarven Pit was actually the best dungeon in the game, undead dwarves from hell and all.

Tbh, I think I actually like Blade of Destiny more then this. Even with those awful character models and voiceover guy...

 

[Eriador]

Alright, made it through the dungeon... and the only thing I can say about that ending is WTF?

 

[Eriador]

Part 68: Phex Temple 12 - Accidental Solution

Spoiler

Alright, we won't worry about that code thing for now. Near this room was another fake wall that leads into another area.

Look, an already open secret door! I guess this opened after we donated that money at the altar?

We find a locked door we can't open.

Another pressure plate.

This lovely table.

These... things.

We'll leave this for later.

A secret passage behind a wall.

An empty "socket". If we screwed up one of those attempts to remove those stones, one of them would get moved to this "socket". And if we screwed that up again, it would be moved back and so on and so forth.

Now we are on the other side of that trapped tunnel.

Let's try something. We return back to that "virtue" are and leave Morkar standing on that pressure plate. As you can see, that area is very dark without a light source.

Now, we walk around the trap to the other pressure plate.

We leave Boreale standing on the other pressure plate. This tunnel is even darker then that previous area. If we didn't already fill out our automap before, it could actually be a problem.

The rest of the group try to walk past that trap.

Yes, the trap is disarmed, now we can walk past it with no problem.

I move Morkar and Boreale off the pressure plates, but it seems you need to stand on atleast one for the trap to continue being disarmed. Otherwise, this happens. And it does a pretty big amount of damage.

I move Morkar back to his pressure plate and have him reunite with the others. No, this is not a bug, this area is just so dark without a ligh source and Boreale doesn't have night vision among his superpowers.

Boreale can walk past the trap without problems while Morkar is standing on his pressure plate. After this experience, the group returns the Morkar and finally, they all return to those... weird shrine thing.

Well, ok, let's try the upper hollow since it's the first?

Well, there are four spaces in the first hollow and we have four of these weird stones with letters on them. I honestly doubt it will work, but let's try it and-

Wait, those things symbolized virtues? What virtues in particular?

G... Greed? No, Phex hates greedy people. Generosity?

E... Endurance? Empathy? Emancipation? Phex is a liberal?

M... Materialism?

K... Kindness?



Or do they actually make sense only in the german version? Maybe I've missed a clue, but none of the virtues described in that library section seem to correspond to these letters.

Well, whatever's the answer, we can now go forward!

 

[Eriador]

Part 69: Phex Temple 13 - Everyone Is Doing Fine!

Spoiler

Alright, Mut is Courage, which is a virtue that suits Phex. Klugheir, or Cleverness is another one. No idea about the rest of them though...

And yes, I've checked and it seems that the stones have the same letters in the german version.

Anyway, let's move on.

This seems to be the room that locked door leads to, but there seems to be no way to actually get there. Atleast, I didn't find it.

Well, I think I know where this is going...

Yeah, thought so...

Platforming section, everyone! Well, as much as it can be in a game with no jump button.

We get skill checks instead. Well, actually an attribute check. They have to pass an Agility check to jump across and if they fail, they have to pass a Body Control check to avoid fall damage.

Grimgravy and Ylleh failed both times, but Boreale actually succeeded at the Body Control check, so despite the game saying otherwise, he wasn't hurt at all.

So, now it's up to Azira, Vazha and Morkar to get through this!

Now we have to get past this wooden beam. This is an Acrobatics check, Acrophobia makes it harder.

Morkar and Azira both failed Acrobatics, but Morkar succeeded at Body Control, so he didn't suffer any damage.

Well, everyone else is down, so vazha is our last hope! This is a Climbing check and he even gets a bonus, because he has a grappling hook.

Well, Vazha failed the Climbing check, but that's okay!

Because now, everyone is doing just fine!

Vazha failed.

Twice even. And the second one was even a critical failure. But that's okay!

See, everything's just fine!

Well, another wooden beam. Can Vazha get past it with his 7 Acrophobia?

Let's find out!

Vazha has some mad Acrobatics skills, yet somehow he keeps failing to make any money with them.

 

[Eriador]

Part 70: Phex Temple 14 - Combination Lock

Spoiler

Alright, Vazha made it through!

Of course, the door still can't be opened.

Yes, this is where we will need that code.

First though, we reunite everyone else.

Afterwards, they just teleport to Vazha.

I send Vazha back down and discover that you don't actually have to go through that whole jumping platforming section, instead you can go right here and use the grappling hook we've found earlier. But it seems we need more rope then Vazha has.

I send Morkar down to Vazha with a supply of rope and with that, they get back up with the grappling hook.

Now we have a permanent and easy way back here.

This seems to be the only place in the whole game that has fall damage.

Anyway, let's go back.

The rarest number is 0, so those are the numbers that should lead us to the solution. I did try a bunch of stuff, including 523, but it didn't work. It seems that like Darth Roxor said, the zeroes actually form an arrow that points towards the real solution, 912. But even that is confusing, since the arrow points towards 4 numbers, 5912. Well, if I've noticed that arrow shape I think I'd eventually try 912, since they are the closest to the arrow, but still would've been nicer if it only pointed to three numbers to make it a bit more obvious.

Anyway, I got the solution from here. Kudos to that guy!

Yes, this certainly seems like the end!

 

[Darth Roxor]

aleister slowley

 

[Eriador]

Part 71: Phex Temple 15 - WTF Ending

Spoiler

Since this seems like the end, we return back for this shield.

Yes, now we are trapped here, until we return that shield back...

...or teleport out.

As soon as we approach these guys, we enter a "cutscene" of sorts. It's mostly just these three standing there and talking.

There are three people standing in front of the statue. One of them is the young priest from the inn. You don't know the second one.

The third one is that traitor Hensger who is responsible for your being here. The man looks at you for a while, and then sharply says:

Bouncing with Hensger sounds fun, but let's just be pious and bow in front of the statue, since I want to know what's going on here.

"All right, then. I assume you still want to know where Star Trail is. Put your mind at ease: The axe is safe and secure where it belongs."

Yes, it's where it belongs, all right! In Boreale's backpack!

"Where exactly is none of your business. But it is in the middle of Orcish Lands and thus impossible to reach."

...seriously? So what, that axe we have was a fake Star Trail? Did the game lie to us? Or is it you who are sadly misinformed?

"In some ways, we are sorry that you have gone through such strenuous effort."

I don't like where this is going...

"Especially since you shall not receive the reward our young brother mentioned so rashly."



"You see, all of this has been no more than a test."

"No, not for you, but for our acolyte here. You weren't slated for any kind of test."

...the hell is he talking about?

"Or do you really believe that fates is so unimaginative to test you twice during something like a search for some weapon?"

Is searching for a magical D20 that can unite the elves and dwarves against an orcish invasion really that different from searching for a sword that can save Thorwal from an orcish invasion by convincing the orcs to invade elsewhere?

And why call the game Star Trail if there's no plot importance to the actual Star Trail? Why not "The Salamander Stone" or "Magical D20 of Destiny" or "Orcs Take Your Stuff"?

Anyway, after this great line, that priest in the red robes turns to that novice priest and starts talking to him.

"As for you, young friend: You have failed your test in 'Historical Research' miserably;"

This was "Historical Research"? What.

"However, since it was only a minor subject, and you deserve reccomendation for your achievments in"

" 'Building Security' and 'Motivation of Third Parties', we shall go easy on you."

Building security? Did he design all of those puzzles himself? If yes, he should flunk out just for those stupid finger "sockets".

And Motivation of Third Parties? Didn't you just say that it was rash to promise a reward?

"But you must take care to be more diligent in your research next time."

So, we've gone through all of this just so a "college student" can receive his credits fir a minor subject?

After this startling revelation, the priest adresses us once again.

"And you, brave heroes, be assured of our eternal gratitude."

Boreale is level 9, I'm pretty sure that's more then you have.

Anyway, let's just get out of this place. I'm sick of it.

Also, I've checked and yes, this is the same ending as in the original game. The only thing they've added is this part, where he lets us keep the treasure and offers some more. In the original, if you choose to leave, then you just leave and that's that.

Anyway, by that artifact, does he mean Star Trail? So is it really Star Trail? Are there multiple Star Trails or what? Or does he mean that helmet and shield?

By that sandbox, he means this thing.

I guess it's kinda like minesweeper? They were so kind as to mark one spot where there's guaranteed to be treasure.

But now, we have to pick something completely at random.

And is you choose an empty field, the game automaticaly ends. And the treasure fields are random, so you can't savescum.

You get these jewels for each treasure you find...

Let's get out of here, this was just dumb.

We spawn several meters in the air. I guess they threw us out of the second-story window, despite that whole dungeon being in the cellar?

Anyway, now that we've landed successfuly, we can pay attention to Grimgravy's drama.

Wait, what happened-

You serious-

Ok, silver loot instead of golden is not THAT bad, but still...

We reload and take our vengeance!

Yes, they shall taste our wrath! Also, they have really weird names. Doesn't matter, we will have our vengeance-

Wait, no-

Not like this-

Those cowards have escaped justice!

They are still standing here, now we just can't interact with them or the "minesweeper" minigame... We can leave, but what's the point.

Let's reload and get out of here nicely with our jewels, so that we have atleast something valuable.

Well, Phex Temple is completed.

 

[Darth Roxor]

:russiastronk:

 

[Eriador]

Yeah, I noticed that too, I just forgot to make a joke about that because I was still trying to comprehend WTF just happened.

 

[Eriador]

So, I've decided to play the original for a bit. I'm now at Finsterkoppen and I did notice some improvements the HD version made.

Remember this?

Spoiler

None of this appears in the original. There are no dialogue skill-checks, no option to use skills like Human Nature or any spells, you just come into their house, threaten them, they try to flee and if you pursue them, you enter combat. Mind you, you only get told of two possible suspects with no real difference between them other then their names, so it's basically about who you choose to try first. If you choose wrong, the game is all like "Haha, this dead guy was actually innocent, dummy! Sucks, doesn't it? Anyway, it was that other guy, go get him tiger!"

This is a definite improvement, even if it's not perfect. If only because it actually allows you to use things like Human Nature.


Some other things I've noticed in the original:

You can minmax even more, since the negative attributes go all the way to 8. So far, only superstition and necrophobia seems to have a noticeable effect, but then again I'm not really far in the game.

Newly generated characters start at level 1 and you can only pick them up at the temple in Kvirasim. You gain 2 more levels just after leaving Kvirasim from that Rondra Priestess encounter. In the remake, new characters start at level 5 and only need 50 XP to get another one.

The game has a beginner mode, but all that does is that you can't manually increase your skills at level ups. When I loaded the starting save, the game switched to begginer for some reason and I didn't notice until after I've left Kvirasim, so I had to do with characters that had their skills and spells increased by the computer.

There's no "negative Life Energy", if a character gets to 0 or lower, they die.

Damage from the lack of boots seems to be minimal, whereas it's actually significant in the remake.

Haggle is automatic. You just press the haggle button, select a character and he automatically negotiates a discount.

That crossbow bolt in Gashok almost killed my Leaf Elf, unlike in the remake, where it barely scratched him.

There's a random encounter with some preacher that convinces a random party member to abandon adventuring and become a monk instead, if you choose to listen to her. So you lose that character forever, including the stuff they had. I actually got the same encounter in the remake after finishing the Phex Temple, but there, you can use Persuade to convince your party member to stay, which is nice.

You can fast travel in towns using the automap (not in the HD version), but you have to locate a signpost to leave the city. So far, each city had a wooden palisade around it, so you can't even leave any other way.

When you travel, you can't choose to go back until you finish your current route, which is really annoying. You can actually change the direction in the remake.

It's really easy to get miracles at the temple. You don't even have to donate anything, just pray and every 5 or so attempts, a floating face appears and you get a miracle. So far, Ingerimm blessed weapons and ressurected someone, Boron also ressurected someone and lowered Necrophobia of my party.

Wand rituals are really easy. My magician upgraded his wand fully in Kvirasim over the course of a few days, while at level 1. In the remake, you actually need to invest in Arcane Lore and you will still fail a lot.

Dagger rituals for druids don't seem to exist.

Chain and Manacle in the original (AKA Ball and Chain) is not overpowered, that title belongs to Paralyse. Paralyse also actually petrifies the target, which is a nice effect.

Charmed enemies that fight at your side count as incapacitated, so if you enslave everyone with Evil Eye, the battle ends with your victory.

You need some specific herb to meditate, unlike in the remake.

Camping actions are more limited. It's nowhere near as limited as in BoD HD (you get only 2 actions total and everyone can only try to do one thing), but also not unlimited like in Star Trail HD. Each character can try to Restock Supplies once and you can only try to look for herbs once. But once character can treat the wounds of the entire party.

You don't get as many random battles while travelling and camping. I think I got twice as many in the remake.

It's pretty hard to hunt for food, my party already almost starved to death once.

The money you get for performing in taverns is much higher (around 2 Ducats per performance, compared to the remake's 2 silver per performance), but each character can only use each performing skill once per day. I don't know if you can go to a different tavern and try there. In the remake, you can sing as many times as you want, until you critically fail.

Pickpocket is silly. My dwarf with 0 in Pickpocket got 10 Ducats per attempt to steal from merchants and he hardly ever failed. I guess the fact that he had 13 in all 3 important stats helped mitigate the 0 skill. It's also unlimited, you can try as many time as you want. You lose all of your money if you fail, but that hardly ever happened (and you can always savescum :D). Before he finally failed, the dwarf stole 60 ducats from some random store.

The voice acting is better, but still not really that good. The english translation is better then the HD one, but it still has some weird phrases. "Not exactly Prem flounder noses."

The sound effects are actually much better.

The graphics are fine, I really like the temple and shop screens, but the people in those random houses look like caricatures. Pretty much every town looks the same though, only Finsterkoppen seems to have something unique about it. Kvirasim is supposed to be an elven city, yet in the original it looks just like Gashok, except smaller.

Finsterkoppen is much bigger in the original, but it's empty and deserted. Literally, almost every house is empty and if you knock on the doors, you get no response. There's only a few shops in there, a temple and one tavern, the underground portion is a literal maze.

The dwarves in Finsterkoppen don't allow Druids inside in addition to elves. And you can't use the Eagle, Wolf or Visibili spell on anyone but the caster, everyone either has to be able to cast their own disguise spell or you have to leave them outside and go through the dungeon without them.

In Finsterkoppen, when you get the key to the dwarven pit from the priest and return it, you can't ask for it again, which is pretty silly. So you are pretty much screwed if you return to the temple and accidentaly return it. In the remake, you can borrow it as many times as you want. You can still get inside through that exit, but it collapses behind you, so you pretty much HAVE to get that silver key from that gnome to get out.

 

[Eriador]

So having experienced the original, would you say that the QOL and "rebalancing" is worth sacrificing the classic sprite art and sense of scale for?

Well, I'd think it was worth it to me, i've played the remake first and while going through the original, I found myself missing some features from the remake. And the character creation in the original is pretty painful to go through, especially the stats in the manual don't seem to include all requirements for some archetypes. It was a pain trying to create a Silvan Elf and then I've realized that I screwed up and had his Necrophobia way too high. In the end I just took a Green Elf instead, because I didn't want to go through it all over again.

As for the graphics... well, I don't really have much of a preblem with the remake in that regard, yes they are dated and pretty generic, but they do the job fine. If there's anything I have problems with, it's the animations and sound effects in combat, those are pretty bad in the remake.
I would prefer if the remake was done in the same style as its character portraits, those look incredible.

The towns in the original so far don't really look good at all, just a bunch of copy-pasted buildings, only Finsterkoppen looks somewhat unique and that place is a maze full of identical houses and tunnels. It's also hard to navigate through the towns, since everything looks the same, of course the buildings themselves look different based on their type, but there's not really a sense that you are in a town, the buildings feel like they are just spread around at random. While the towns in the remake look like the towns in the first Witcher game, they atleast have landmarks and you can navigate them easily without a minimap. If the original game didn't have the fast travel feature, it would be really annoying traveling through them.

It's also much better to start out without imported characters in the remake then the original, since you start at a higher level and start with a slightly better equipment then normal, so it's more accessible. Combat is more challenging in the remake too, which might be a good or a bad thing, depending on your preferences.

The steam version of the original also has this annoying thing where you have to type in a random password everytime you want to save or load the game, which in itself is annoying as hell.

I think the remake has the potential to be a much better game then the original (as it should, seeing as it's a remake), but it's still pretty rough. It would probably be best to wait a few months until they patch this a bit more, but it's definitely playable in this state, the worst is probably the fact that the game is really slow in Lowangen, it crashed two times there for me, but it got better after the first patch. There wasn't anything else truly gamebreaking in there, mostly graphical glitches and stuff like "you spawn 2 meters above ground". And if it's anything like BoD HD, they'll add in a bunch of new stuff later.

I guess I'd rather play the remake then the original, simply because of the quality of life changes (and less opportunities to screw yourself over) and some other additions. That doesn't mean the original is a bad game, it's still really good.

Also, on the official forums of the game, they have an internet feedback thread and someone checked the RPGCodex thread in GRPG discussion. They've clearly read my post in that thread, but I don't think they've noticed my LP. :D