Completed Let's play Tyranny, a classic old-school cRPG -- Blind LP -- Make Terratus Great Again!

[Poseidon00]

I fucking love Tyranny. One of the few games in the modern era I have done multiple playthroughs of. Kyros, her methods and motivations, why she tolerates you at all, if she planned your rise, actually get you thinking and are not immediately obvious like 99% of vidya game baddies. The world has so much potential. I even enjoyed messing with the spell creation system. Too bad we will never get a sequel.

Hell, even the short stories that were included with the DLC were damn good. I would read a whole book just about that Chorus member who never speaks.

 

[luj1]

You must have low standards then

 

[Poseidon00]

I realize Tyranny fanboys are in the minority.

The whole thing felt like a breath of fresh air to me. Being a judge in an unfair world of arbitrary laws, where the "good" path isn't shoved into your face right away or otherwise made immediately obvious, where you often have to mask your good intent for fear of reprisal, felt so much better than the standard fare of saving the world. In fact, the world is fucked and there's little you can do about it, but it's also not quite your stereotypical post-apocalypse. An optional conversation you get from touching the Edict Spire after unlocking a few more tells you that the majority of the world is ravaged by Edicts, some centuries old and getting stronger, and habitable land is the minority. Even if you could destroy Kyros, that doesn't guarantee the Edicts would fade.

Having the big bad be unkillable, unreachable, with victory on your part unlikely or unsure no matter what you do, also makes it stand out to me. Kyros has the upper hand through political machinations moreso than invincibility, hoarding the knowledge of the Spires and Edicts and pitting Archons against Archons to thin the heard of dangerous enemies and keep them mutually hostile and paranoid enough not to conspire.

I dunno, I just like the world as it was offered, and I can forgive a lack of polish. I'm probably one of, like, 5 people who have tried to do every possible route and make every possible Conquest choice.

 

[Storyfag]

The setting as presented has enormous potential, true. The game itself, including the writing, varies from competent to HOPW ROEWUR NE.

 

[vazha]

Wait, why on earth is Kyros a She?

 

[Storyfag]

Wait, why on earth is Kyros a She?

Kyros' gender... varies. Xir is referred to as either "he" or "she" by various NPCs. IIRC "she" is more prevalent.

 

[vazha]

Any plausible explanation given for that, as to why the gender issue is ambiguous? Is Kyros a hermaphrodite?

 

[Storyfag]

I blame the Edict of Randomly Timed Transitions.



Seriously though, it hasn't been explained. My own take is that the game was SO rushed, they weren't able to provide uniformity.

 

[Poseidon00]

Kyros is a female. The only reason anyone is confused is because Sirin likes to fuck with you about it because you don't know and because Tunon tells you not to ask the question, but always refers to her as female.

If you read the DLC books (like I said, i'm a Tyranny fanboy) they have a whole section where Bleden Mark and Kyros are having a conversation and from that it's obvious Kyros is a female.

 

[Poseidon00]

Wait, why on earth is Kyros a She?

Because she rules by manipulation rather than violence. Totally feminine behavior.

 

[Storyfag]

Wait, why on earth is Kyros a She?

Because she rules by manipulation rather than violence. Totally feminine behavior.

Oh you sweet, sweet summer child...

 

[Tigranes]

I mean, nobody really knows anything about Kyros. So who cares about gender? That would be like the 80th thing I need to know about an all-powerful overlord.

If there was a sequel, the big deal would be whether Kyros even exists, is even alive, has what kind of powers, is what kind of ruler, whatever. I suspect the writers never had much of a plan for that, either.

Tyranny is a bad game primarily because its gameplay (combat) is an inferior, dumbed down version of POE. Which is bad if you liked POE. And if you didn't like POE, well... However, I would certainly love a well run tabletop game in the Tyranny universe, by a DM who pledges to stop naming everyone in the world like it's a Chuckie family restaurant.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Any plausible explanation given for that, as to why the gender issue is ambiguous?

Kyros is definitely female. Just look at this game - I guess that Tyranny actually sets the record for the sheer number of "strong" female characters - from soldiers to commanders alike. There's not a single chance that the Overlord wouldn't be a female.

 

[Ol' Willy]

This game looks great in this playthrough, but I reckon if I will try it myself the impression would be different. I had it on my list for some time, never actually bothered to try it.

I agree with people here talking about potential. It's here, and it's solid. But in the golden words of Nines Rodrigues, "Good effort. Execution needs a little work": not only the game shows the obvious signs of being rushed, but the shitty combat system and obnoxious modern-Obsidian feminist writing... Imagine Tyranny, but with AoD like combat and AoD like writing.

 

[Storyfag]

But in the golden words of Nines Rodrigues, "Good effort. Execution needs a little work"

You know what happens when someone mentions Bloodlines...

 

[Poseidon00]

This game looks great in this playthrough, but I reckon if I will try it myself the impression would be different. I had it on my list for some time, never actually bothered to try it.

I agree with people here talking about potential. It's here, and it's solid. But in the golden words of Nines Rodrigues, "Good effort. Execution needs a little work": not only the game shows the obvious signs of being rushed, but the shitty combat system and obnoxious modern-Obsidian feminist writing... Imagine Tyranny, but with AoD like combat and AoD like writing.

Honestly, I didn't get a feminist or agenda-driven feel from the game at all. Sure, there are a couple of token gay npcs, but you can also ally yourself with literal rapists. Very no-no in today's popular culture.

I gotta agree that the games combat is toned down PoE, except for the magic system. Probably the one good thing about the combat system. Create-a-spell, and viable strats centered around certain spell modifications, should be standard.

I personally find Tyranny's combat to be slightly better than PoE's, just because I wasn't a fan of their class system, but both of them are worlds away from the much improved PoE2 system.

 

[Tigranes]

It's a misguided obsession with superficial gestures that leads people to obsessively rifle through a text and say oh my god, there are too many women / too few women. A porn film isn't suddenly feminist if you insert five female CEOs.

If we actually look at the underlying themes in something like Tyranny, it's a game where the brutal conquest and subjugation of people through violence and deception is understood everywhere as the basic tenet of reality, the way the world works. The fundamental source of all this power is from the Edicts, which are again a kind of reductive fantasy about how law and language can control human beings and societies through a totalised, dominating logic. Everything in the game comes down to the vagaries of power, understood through this very traditional militaristic fantasy. That's the essence of the game.

If anything, the real issue with Tyranny's delivery on this front is that it failed to really follow through on the initial inspiration - "what if evil won?". The unfamiliar position of being the executor of an 'evil' overlord is interestingly played up right at the start, but quickly fades away and you essentially just become an adventurer like any other. My memory of the details is fuzzy since I was so unimpressed, so maybe I'm being inaccurate, but it felt like there's no consistent theme/question that asks, 'what is actually evil in such a circumstance', or 'how do 'evil' characters believe themselves to be good', or whatever. And that key failure has nothing to do with whether Kyros had a giant dong, a limp dong, or no dong.

 

[Darth Roxor]

which brings us to the next important question, why was there no edict of dongs

 

[Tigranes]

Sounds ready-made for DLC, my friend

My horse could use some armour after all

 

[Storyfag]

It's a misguided obsession with superficial gestures that leads people to obsessively rifle through a text and say oh my god, there are too many women / too few women. A porn film isn't suddenly feminist if you insert five female CEOs.

It also bears pointing out that of the truly powerful people you actually meet - the Archons - only one is female. And she's a begginer. All those female officers and mages? Middle management.

 

[Harry Easter]

You know what happens when someone mentions Bloodlines...

*Reinstalls Bloodlines again.*

[QUOTE="Tigranes, post: 7124107, member: 10336" [...] ]If anything, the real issue with Tyranny's delivery on this front is that it failed to really follow through on the initial inspiration - "what if evil won?". The unfamiliar position of being the executor of an 'evil' overlord is interestingly played up right at the start, but quickly fades away and you essentially just become an adventurer like any other. My memory of the details is fuzzy since I was so unimpressed, so maybe I'm being inaccurate, but it felt like there's no consistent theme/question that asks, 'what is actually evil in such a circumstance', or 'how do 'evil' characters believe themselves to be good', or whatever. And that key failure has nothing to do with whether Kyros had a giant dong, a limp dong, or no dong.[...] [/QUOTE]

I think (it's been two years since I replayed the game) two of the themes are:

- Evil is what is bad for me. You can recruit psychopaths, racists and cannibals, but as long as they are loyal too you, you don't care. Or you are willing to compromise with them, because fighting alone will get you killed by Kyros troups, so you downplay the horrible aspects of your companions. Basically reality kicks in and it's all about survival.

- Power, what it is and what it does to you. We see that most Archons in this game are mostly unhinged, but it is also hinted, that Kyros is more of an idea than a person and that this is more powerful than the real being could ever be. I personally like the idea that it's just their harem pulling the strings, as often as they are mentioned :D.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

It's a shame that the game comes off a bit mishmashed.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Game was the last made by Obshitian worth playing, I liked late bronze age setting pitted against early iron age, the edicts, the conquest mini game from beginning and open endings... combat and variety of enemies were meh though, Bronze age was full of strong and independent wombyn one of the reasons all those bronze age civilizations were bamboozled by patriarchal iron wielding tribes. Always Ended it as allied with Ashen Grave, his not Roman Legion and my former Boss though, Crimson Chorus is too chaotic for me and I would never ally myself with dirty rebels who got conquered so easily I might add.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

It's a shame that the game comes off a bit mishmashed.

"a bit", yeah.

 

[Storyfag]

Bronze age was full of strong and independent wombyn

Bronze Age collapse explained.