Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[Sizzle]

You have to admire the total incompatibility in tone between Josh's writing and the Deadfire writing team.

It was like that in PoE1, but at least that game had Avellone's good writing to reinforce the themes and lore-building with Durance.

JS admitted that he let the writing/design team mostly do their thing in DF, which is why all the romances are BioWare bisexual, and half of the weapons in the game are swords and sabres.

 

[vortex]

To quote Ratatouille,
criticism is easier than creation.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

Yeah, Avellones "good writing" in PoE. I take that with a grain of salt. Durance was bearable, while Grieving Mother was a tedious clusterfuck of a char.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If anyone else had written durance he'd be criticized as a loredump
I've played the game a few times and my eyes just glaze over half of what Durance has to say tbh

 

[Eisenheinrich]

But he curses a lot and is the opposite of what you expect from a fantasy cleric, that's dark and mature.

 

[Sizzle]

Yeah, Avellones "good writing" in PoE. I take that with a grain of salt. Durance was bearable, while Grieving Mother was a tedious clusterfuck of a char.

Both were heavily edited without Avellone's approval.

 

[MajorMace]

More like the contrast between durance loredumps and others is sharp.
His shtick feels more involved and believable than Edér talking about his own brother's fate.
Durance actually has a standpoint on events, and an interesting one as well - with all his trials shit.
The others, companions or npcs, have almost nothing to offer.

It's still loredump though, and I agree that Grieving Mother is unbearable. I still have no idea what she's about and couldn't have cared less.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I only wish the rest of the NPCs were half as good as Durance.

 

[Herald of Durance]

I like him. He's a rambling drunken priest that doesn't know what he's saying half the time and you don't have to listen (=you can safely skip) more than half the time.

 

[Jimmious]

Well to be honest, PoE's companions are much more memorable than any other recent RPG at least in my point of view.
Don't tell me that you find Kingmaker's companions interesting or better written for example.
I can't think of a recent RPG that had companions with more "character" than PoE, feel free to say so if you do

 

[Herald of Durance]

Shadowrun Dragonfall and Hong Kong both have very interesting and memorable companions.

 

[Jimmious]

True DF was decent in that. I wouldn't say they are necessarily better, but certainly more "compact".
Of course you'd get big lore dumps there too, from time to time

 

[Sizzle]

Well to be honest, PoE's companions are much more memorable than any other recent RPG at least in my point of view.
Don't tell me that you find Kingmaker's companions interesting or better written for example.

Yes and no.

In Kingmaker, the (majority of) characters are these larger-than-life personas, with interesting backstories and "classic" archetypal fantasy personalities (if oftentimes mediocre writing). It evokes the feel of BG much better than PoE ever did.

For PoE, they went the other way and purposefully made almost all the characters "ordinary" people. A character like that can work great - they can be a sounding board for all the strange and messed up stuff in the game and lore, but when the entire cast is composed of such characters, it can quickly get dull.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

I take Zahua over Durance and his purple prose everytime.

 

[Prime Junta]

Zahua is the best P1 companion, no contest.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

For PoE, they went the other way and purposefully made almost all the characters "ordinary" people.

Yeah. Dunno if we played different games but while I agree that PoE 1 companions are more grounded in realtiy as far as character portrayal and depth goes, they're far from ordinaray. I mean, we got:

Mage with split soul, godlike atheist paladin, civil-war-veteran/redneck farmer with a faith crisis, inuit dwarf on a soul hunting quest in a foreign land, soul bound mechanized mass murderer, masochistic and zealous monk, fire worhsipping Rasputin and then some. Deadfires new companions are even more intresting in my book. Minus Xoti, she suffers a lot from the voice acting.

Which doesn't mean I despise Pathfinders companions, quite the contrary. They're much more chliché and lighthearted and I don't mean that in negative way. Both companions in PoE and PF:KM suit their games well. Obsidians take is just more interesting as a whole. Not expescially more fun, but more intresting.

 

[Lacrymas]

Durance is literally a priest, it suits him to ramble on about whatever god de jour, but among his ramblings he's the only one with an actual connection to the game's events and other characters. His personality and views aren't possible outside of what he has experienced, so that makes him the most technically competent character in the entire roster. Zahua could've gone somewhere, but you aren't given the possibility to argue anyone's worldview, you can only listen and nod in understanding. His methods obviously aren't working since he's like 60+ and with all his self-flagellation he hasn't achieved what he hopes to achieve. Durance is the only one who has a point and a relevant opinion about events to share.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Disagree with Durance and he sets himself on fire

 

[Eisenheinrich]

Durance is the only one who has a point and a relevant opinion about events to share.

If they would be just be delivered in a more compelling way, I'd agree. The stories of the other companions are more connected to the world itself than the game plot.

 

[Nano]

Durance is a Fenstermaker character and Grieving Mother is a Carrie Patel character. Only thing Avellone about them is their concepts.

 

[MajorMace]

Disagree with Durance and he sets himself on fire

Usually when I disagree with an npc they frown. Sometimes they yell.

 

[Quillon]

Durance is a Fenstermaker character and Grieving Mother is a Carrie Patel character. Only thing Avellone about them is their concepts.

Prolly both are at least 75% MCA characters imo. Avellone wrote too much, not too little. And we haven't seen MCA dismissing them as someone else's characters, he's usually quick to point out that kinda stuff.

 

[Lacrymas]

MCA said they've been butchered, so it's not like they are 100% approved.

 

[pomenitul]

MCA sans the benefit of editing isn't always a palatable proposal, auteur theory aside.

 

[Tigranes]

Durance is a well conceived character that suffered from poor delivery (including whatever editing was done and not done re. MCA).

This may be unpopular but I thought Eder is actually a really well executed character: a Carth that is actually likeable and has a fleshed out, believable personality. He is a middle of the road reasonable guy foil for the PC, but overcomes that to have a down to earth, believable story about the gods schtick unlike Aloths over the top schizo.

He suffered from too much jokey banter in POE2 but his reaction to Eothas, like Durances reaction to Magran, is the few places where the gods stuff gets to deliver something other than loredumps.