Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

[Diggfinger]

Grimoire changed my life. When Cleve finally accomplished this massive accomplishment that took years of hellish madness—even though Robert Sirotek himself was scheming against him the whole way—I had no choice but to reprioritize everything.

I stopped drinking, got in shape, actually went and learned the names of my neighbors. Instead of throwing old ladies down the stairs and then choking out any that survived, I would help them with their groceries. When a customer contacted me with a complaint, instead of sending him or her dick pics, I would profusely apologize and ask how I could be a better person. Usually they would say, just stop sending dick pics, and that would be a big improvement.
Every day was met with sunshine and birds chirping. I would wake up at 6a instead of noon, with blood flowing in my veins instead of alcohol, and just thank God Almighty for waking up in this beautiful world, in which something as godly as Grimoire was released.

Granted, I have now officially spent more time playing Vendetta Raven's Cry and Arcania, than I have spent playing Grimoire. That is some compelling evidence, your honor. But ever since I have started drinking constantly again, it's really hard to concentrate on a masterpiece like Grimoire. I mean, do you expect me to think? I, like, am an adult, and have a job and responsibilities. I just want to "have fun" when I play a game. Why do they call them GAMES if they are NOT FUN LOL.

So it only makes sense that I would put Grimoire on the back burner, as I am not sound of mind. If I am playing Fallout 4, and I shoot another Raider, and his leather chaps are ++++ versus my leather chaps, then, there you go. That's enough decisions for me!

Sorry, but without dick-pics this post is not convincing

 

[Darth Roxor]

Having just finished the game and re-read this review, I must say this revio is very embarrassing

My favourite bit is probably the comment about disabling random encounters, followed by 'umg i never got to level above 9 and zomg the xp requirements so big', which is something that I'd flagged as suspicious already when I read the first draft, and so I'm pleased to find that I was completely right about it

what now motherfucker

 

[V_K]

Wasn't that on a different version of the game though? I seem to remember something about XP tables getting rebalanced in 2.0.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I seem to remember something about XP tables getting rebalanced in 2.0.

Dunno. Was it? All I know is that multiclassing was made available earlier, xp table rebalances I've never read aboot.

And then there's also this on the first page:

Cleve already said leveling will be adjusted. People used to get to Level 27 at the end.

 

[V_K]

Dunno. Was it? All I know is that multiclassing was made available earlier, xp table rebalances I've never read aboot.

It's actually quite easy to check.
Your endgame character has ~2.5 mil XP, felipe's - ~0.7 mil XP. That's a 3.7 times difference.
Now your endgame character has killed 920 enemies which amounts to 14%, putting the total enemies killed by the party at around 6.5 thousand. Felipe's - 184 enemies or 5%, amounting to a 3,7 thousand total. That's a 1.7 times difference.
So you got 3.7 times more XP for killing 1.7 times more enemies, suggesting the average XP per enemy being roughly doubled between the versions.
(there's a lot of non-critical rounding going on in this calculations for simplicity's sake)

 

[Darth Roxor]

That's a 1.7 times difference.

Even if the experience tables were changed etc, that's still a non-trivial number. Basically means you kill twice as fewer enemies and get twice as fewer occasions to get xp - which I think in practice can be a greater relative loss of xp than double, considering the gains grow sort of exponentially in the higher-level parts (i.e. you'll get more xp from a random encounter of naga at the bahomet megalith than a random encounter of stinkbugs in crowl).

 

[V_K]

which I think in practice can be a greater relative loss of xp than double, considering the gains grow sort of exponentially in the higher-level parts

That would only be so in one of two cases: either 1) the frequency of random encounters in high level areas is higher than in low level areas; or 2) you purposefully grind random encounters in high-level areas (and not do that in low-level ones).
But given that leveling requirements grow exponentially as well, even doubling the XP would give him at most 2 more levels - hardly worth twice the amount of grinding.

Besides, one of the things the review mentions is that in that version the XP awards did not in fact grow exponentially:

XP rewards are also completely unbalanced. In the same area you might fight weak enemies that give you 4,000xp, while the deadly ones will give like 100xp. By the end-game my characters needed around 200,000xp to reach the next level, but enemies there gave only like 500xp

 

[felipepepe]

Having just finished the game and re-read this review, I must say this revio is very embarrassing

Bro, have you read your Pillars of Eternity review? PoE in 2019 plays nothing like you wrote in 2015, is like you didn't play the game.

I mean, FFS, you didn't even mention the DLCs or the fucking sequel.

 

[Invictus]

Having just finished the game and re-read this review, I must say this revio is very embarrassing

Bro, have you read your Pillars of Eternity review? PoE in 2019 plays nothing like you wrote in 2015, is like you didn't play the game.

I mean, FFS, you didn't even mention the DLCs or the fucking sequel.

How about a re review then guys?

 

[Rpguy]

The xp gains changed, the xp tables changed to level up faster, also a fountain of xp for gold or something like that was added as well.

 

[Lady_Error]

Considering that you become overpowered anyway, more level ups would only make the game too easy - the current balance seems to be fine.

With multiclassing you can level up the same guy literally 60-70 times* with the same amount of XP you would need to get to around Level 15 with just one class.

*works only for Barrowers for sure, other races may not be as multiclass-friendly.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Bro, have you read your Pillars of Eternity review? PoE in 2019 plays nothing like you wrote in 2015, is like you didn't play the game.

I mean, FFS, you didn't even mention the DLCs or the fucking sequel.

orly now

Were safe havens added just last month that you don't even bother mentioning them?

Were dark fairies and trogs somehow nerfed to hell or alternatively deflection screen/gaze reflection added to the game only just now given that I never had a problem with them?

Was the extended clock/mecha-owl "soopa impossible gotta spoil it in revio" puzzle somehow made easier considering it felt obvious to me at every stage?

Or how about that autowalk and moongates? I don't remember ever having to do 20 autowalks because the moongate network is posted very conveniently around the world. And even if I had to, I sure as hell don't remember, because it takes so little time to do the autowalking, and is in fact one of the better overall convenience features in Grimwah.

And of course let us not forget MUH BALANS and all the other tripe about the samhain horror's being immune to most weapons (enchanted blade wozzat), "quick draw competition" combat (armourplate wozzat), encounter tables that somehow "don't make sense" despite being much more reasonable than in say Wiz 6-7 (with the drawback being that the game never mixes enemies from separate encounters; something which you mysteriously [this is irony, I know exactly why] don't mention too) and """controversial""" death mechanics.


also on another note, have you managed to get past the first room in wiz6 yet



this must be how some people felt after reading my battel bruvas review i swear

 

[Shadenuat]

"It is all obvious to ME" is not much of an argument. Enchanted Blade description doesn't actually state that it allows harming physically immune enemies or anything. If you played Wiz you obviously know what to pick.

Hearths feel a bit like cheating though, and there are bit too many of them sometimes.

 

[felipepepe]

I stand by my review of Grimoire in August 2017, if you want to write one about Grimoire 2.0, be my guest.

 

[Grunker]

Roxor: HEY THIS

Felipe: nah that's actually untrue

Roxor: OH YEAH BUT WHAT ABOUT THESE UNRELATED ARGUMENTS

 

[Darth Roxor]

Roxor: HEY THIS

Felipe: nah that's actually untrue

Roxor: OH YEAH BUT WHAT ABOUT THESE UNRELATED ARGUMENTS

please specify unrelated arguments

 

[felipepepe]

BTW, check the changelog: https://steamcommunity.com/app/650670/discussions/0/1471967615862858084/

Version 1.2.0.27
----------------------------------------

Maintenance release prior to 1.2.0.30 accompanied by manual.

* Emergency fix to starting skill sets for newly created characters
* Enchanted Blade spell enables non-magical weapons to hit magical creatures
* Little Rosy toned down a little when recruited into party
* SHOWMAP function in NPC scripts fixed so NPCS can mark maps
* Adjustments made to some learning rates for skills

Not to mention several changes to balance, XP gain, missing NPCs, etc...

Which is a good thing, FFS. I legit think Grimoire 2.0 must be a great game, but that's what should have been released before, not that mess that came out at first.

 

[Darth Roxor]

... I was looking for that fucking specific changelog for a long time and couldn't find it for shit

 

[Shadenuat]

Patchnotes are the manual!

 

[Dorateen]

Grimoire 100% exonerated.