The voice acting reminds me of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon:
Kind of charming that way, actually.
That was an excellent little trailer. The voice acting is perfect. Light and colorful without being absurd. Aside from the half-orc, all of them are distinctive, yet none of them are over-wrought. The tone emphasizes high adventure--you know, FUN. That thing we used to love before age and retrospection jaded all of our hearts. The spells also looked awesome. I am feeling very positive that these guys understand what made Baldur's Gate so great. Hopefully this will be a launch for them to ascend like Larian has.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Blends Role-Playing, City Management
SEATTLE – I first saw Pathfinder: Kingmaker at GDC earlier this year, and I generally liked what I saw. The game seemed like a modern take on retro RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, where you recruit a party of adventurers, explore a big fantasy world, and tackle a complex political narrative. The game’s big differentiator — creating and managing your own kingdom — seemed more like icing on the cake. But now that I’ve had a chance to see it firsthand, ruling your realm in Kingmaker is a vital, and potentially perilous, part of the experience.
I got a press demo from Pathfinder: Kingmaker’s developers at PAX West, where I learned that city management was much more integral to the game than I initially thought. The game doesn’t simply hand you a kingdom and let it generate wealth over time. Instead, you’ll have to invest money in buildings, lay out the architecture, deal with the populace, treat with foreign envoys and more.
(The rest of the gameplay was much the same as it was back in March. You’ll create an adventurer, recruit a party, build up relationships with your companions, and explore more than 200 discrete areas as you tackle a variety of story missions and side quests. The gameplay consists of real-time-with-pause combat, like in the old Infinity Engine games. You can read more about it in my hands-on post.)
I first realized just how in-depth the city management aspect was when a developer opened up a map of his kingdom. In games like Baldur’s Gate II and Pillars of Eternity, you have a stronghold, and you can invest money in its defensive and aesthetic features. But Pathfinder: Kingmaker is on another level entirely. Instead of a list of upgrades, the game showed an entire city, building by building, with a detailed menu of how to add more structures, how much each one would cost and what benefits they could confer on the burgeoning kingdom.
Planning a city isn’t just about cramming a building into every inch of available space, either. Structures can affect one another, meaning that you’ll want to optimize your building placement. A barracks next to a tavern, for example, will keep soldiers happy and business owners in the black. But a tavern by itself on the outskirts of town is not going to do much good for either your townsfolk or your coffers.
Your party members and other recruitable NPCs are also instrumental to keeping your citizens happy. You can assign these characters to various posts in your kingdom — treasurer, general, diplomat and so forth — and each character will have various strengths and weaknesses. You can also assign party members to carry out assignments. For example, a mining consortium requested an arbiter for a dispute. The developer sent one of his party members, only to discover a few days later that she’d failed in her task. These various successes and failures will add up over time, and determine what kind of allies and resources your kingdom can call upon.
What surprised me most about building a kingdom in Pathfiner: Kingmaker is that it’s not just an extra feature; it’s inexorably tied to your game’s overall success. If you allow your kingdom to fall into disrepair and ruin, the game will end. It’s not enough to defeat enemies and advance the plot; you also have to demonstrate your value as a good ruler.
Granted, what constitutes a “good” ruler is subjective. Your story choices and character disposition will determine what kind of monarchy you run. Good-aligned characters may host carnivals and dispatch knights to patrol the streets; evil-aligned characters may host public executions and dispatch monsters to keep the populace in line. Even neutral characters can build up havens for financiers and mercenaries. As long as you keep your lands prosperous, any moral alignment can get the job done.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker will be out on PC, Mac and Linux on September 25 for $40. If you absolutely can’t wait that long, there is indeed a tabletop campaign of the same name that you can pick up.
You Can Build Your Own Kingdom and Rule it Like a Jerk in Pathfinder: Kingmaker
"'Lawful Good?' We don't like your kind 'round these parts."
Fans of Western RPGs and JRPGs often have differing tastes, but we can generally agree on one thing: A robust town-building feature can elevate any good RPG into a great one. kind of bland, but its town-building feature is one of the best things about the game.
"How y'all feeling about 'Weed_Vegeta's Ballin Hookah Lounge' for a town name?"
I spent some time with Pathfinder: Kingmaker at PAX West last weekend. It's an isometric RPG based on the Pathfinder franchise, which itself is a spin-off of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Anyone who's therefore played Baldur's Gate should find themselves at home with Pathfinder's combat and character-building.
There are certainly worse inspirations for Owlcat to latch onto—and when you get down to it, most RPGs that spring from the isometric loins of Baldur's Gate typically contain so much depth and diverse gameplay, each one winds up bringing something new to the sub-genre. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is huge and pocked with massive dungeons teeming with loot.
I was intrigued by a confrontation between a handful of Mites (a small goblin-like race) and some reptilian kobolds. The critters were arguing about a theft, or an insult, or possibly both issues. Your choices here are myriad: You can egg the monsters on until they attack one another, you can ally yourself with one side, or you can remain completely neutral. If you're feeling bloodthirsty, you can just slaughter the lot for having the audacity to make so much noise so early in the morning. If you spare them, however, you might find yourself in a position to help them work out the issue that ignited the fight somewhere down the road. These interludes help remind you you're not the only living thing in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and your grand quest doesn't necessarily mean a thing in the day-to-day struggles of the other races and monsters you meet. It's a big world, but you all need to share it. How generously you share it, however, is up to you.
But it's the aforementioned town-building feature that might really help separate Pathfinder: Kingmaker from its inspirations. I was shown a small town while some of the benefits of building towns were explained to me. Towns add bonuses to your warriors, plus they also contain neat structural and story elements. If a shop is placed close to a tavern, tavern patrons who land in a good mood after three drinks might be compelled to spend more money on whatever you're selling. If you run your town well, you'll be revered by your people and might spot knights and other lawful-good types wandering around your roads. If you decide to rule your town as a shrieky little tyrant, though, your citizens will come to hate you. In time, your rotten behavior might even attract some monster tenants who will do your bidding.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker appears to be a good isometric RPG with a cool town-building feature that reminds you monsters need a place to live, too. Look for it on September 25 on PC, Mac, and Linux.
Correct way to deal with the problem.If you're feeling bloodthirsty, you can just slaughter the lot for having the audacity to make so much noise so early in the morning.
The tone probably lends itself well to the co-op experience, but from a singleplayer perspective I know what you mean. When silliness has no restraint, it undermines the drama. Baldur's Gate played it right down the middle. Vampire: Bloodlines too.That was an excellent little trailer. The voice acting is perfect. Light and colorful without being absurd. Aside from the half-orc, all of them are distinctive, yet none of them are over-wrought. The tone emphasizes high adventure--you know, FUN. That thing we used to love before age and retrospection jaded all of our hearts. The spells also looked awesome. I am feeling very positive that these guys understand what made Baldur's Gate so great. Hopefully this will be a launch for them to ascend like Larian has.
Exactly
As i get older I cannot into those overly serious, self-important tryhard RPG's (coughPoEcough).
On the other hand I found DoS to be too whimsical.
Well see, thats the problem. There aren't to many examples of actually serious RPGs, even in POE and especially POE2, you have characters cracking dumbass jokes left and right then 2 seconds later the game wants you to take everything seriously again. Theres just to much Bathos and shitty writing in general in games today, hell in ALL media today. Sarcasm and snark are actual cancer now.That was an excellent little trailer. The voice acting is perfect. Light and colorful without being absurd. Aside from the half-orc, all of them are distinctive, yet none of them are over-wrought. The tone emphasizes high adventure--you know, FUN. That thing we used to love before age and retrospection jaded all of our hearts. The spells also looked awesome. I am feeling very positive that these guys understand what made Baldur's Gate so great. Hopefully this will be a launch for them to ascend like Larian has.
Exactly
As i get older I cannot into those overly serious, self-important tryhard RPG's (coughPoEcough).
On the other hand I found DoS to be too whimsical.
It's a fine line with humour and tongue-in-cheek really.
It does not compare at all since this is RTwP, not TB. You can ask how it compares with BG or PoE.How is the combat in this game? Does it have a decent baseline difficulty? How does it compare to ToEE, Blackguards, DOS2 on tactician?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Tools of Engagement
5 SEPTEMBER - THEZEISONSHA
Since pre-historic times clubs are universal tools of, uhm, "special short-term friendships". In PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER dealing out blunt-force trauma will become a passion of yours!
It does not compare at all since this is RTwP, not TB. You can ask how it compares with BG or PoE.How is the combat in this game? Does it have a decent baseline difficulty? How does it compare to ToEE, Blackguards, DOS2 on tactician?
LOL, that was a D&D cartoon? I remember it watching as a little kid, but I had no idea what is D&D back in the day. For me it was just like any other cartoon. :DThe voice acting reminds me of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon:
Kind of charming that way, actually.
LOL, that was a D&D cartoon? I remember it watching as a little kid, but I had no idea what is D&D back in the day. For me it was just like any other cartoon. :DThe voice acting reminds me of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon:
Kind of charming that way, actually.
I don't think you realise that I lived in a post-communist country. :D Of course we didn't hear about that.LOL, that was a D&D cartoon? I remember it watching as a little kid, but I had no idea what is D&D back in the day. For me it was just like any other cartoon. :DThe voice acting reminds me of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon:
Kind of charming that way, actually.
You don't remember all the hubbub of why it was cancelled? I lived in a black neighborhood in a city where anyone caught doing something like playing D&D would of been beat up on principle and even I heard about the D&D cartoon being cancelled because of Satanism and Devil worship.
Aarklash Legacy is not a game to compare with, it is more of an action game. Like playing dota with a party.It does not compare at all since this is RTwP, not TB. You can ask how it compares with BG or PoE.How is the combat in this game? Does it have a decent baseline difficulty? How does it compare to ToEE, Blackguards, DOS2 on tactician?
How does combat compare to Aarklash legacy? How true to the Pathfinder system were they? Is combat so easy it undermines the whole point of having an rpg system like Pathfinder?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Tools of Engagement
6 SEPTEMBER - THEZEISONSHA
So, you want to strike like the RPG baseball star of the month? Use this mace in PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER to score big time!