Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Pathfinder Kingmaker

[NJClaw]

PF: Kingmaker has bloated stats and more encounters per day for increased difficulty but then saddles you with trash builds for your prebuilt companions, so you should generally recruit custom companions if you want companions with actually decent builds.

Oh boy, you are trying really hard to trigger our Desiderius.

Now I want to see BLOOD.

 

[Urthor]

it does add a lot of different active abilities that I found overwhelming to have to read through, so I largely ignored them and made it through well enough.

If Sawyer had made it you would have read those tooltips

 

[Sentinel]

Didn't talk enough about the combat which I thought absolutely ruined the game. At this point, I think the only RTwP combat system I enjoy is IE.

The most recent update added a turnbased combat system, you should give it a try.

Can anyone actually confirm if the TB combat is actually good?

Yes it is. Reminds me a lot of ToEE.

 

[LannTheStupid]

I'm used to lawful good characters being written as jerks who wish to genocide everyone evil

That's very American Lawful Good approach.

Kingmaker adventure path was written entirely by americans

There was a post (may be by Xamenos ?) where someone kindly spent their time to compare original Pathfinder story and Pathfinder: Kingmaker plot. Owlcats made an intricate labyrinth of pranks out of a boring straightforward setting for rolling dice with pizza and beer.

 

[Tavernking]

The review doesn't even mention the new turn-based combat

 

[ERYFKRAD]

A lotta words to say "Buy it, it's got barbarians."

 

[Mark Richard]

Wow a reviewer didn't finish the game before writing the review. Codex getting more mainstream every day.

Doesn't even finish the game. This is not the kind of codex review I used to read...

Avoided the final chapter.

Do you lot really want to be among the crowd of people who claim there's only one true ending in a roleplaying game? That anyone who takes the villain's deal which skips content (refusing to fight Letho from The Witcher 2 skips an endgame boss battle, forming a demonic pact in Shadowrun: Hong Kong skips the final section) hasn't actually completed the game? Your attitude is antithetical to the very essence of RPGs.

 

[Zer0wing]

Do you lot really want to be among the crowd of people who claim there's only one true ending in a roleplaying game? That anyone who takes the villain's deal which skips content (refusing to fight Letho from The Witcher 2 skips an endgame boss battle, forming a demonic pact in Shadowrun: Hong Kong skips the final section) hasn't actually completed the game? Your attitude is antithetical to the very essence of RPGs.

Except it's not just a forum post with fresh impressions but an extensive review that is supposed to view the game from many angles.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Do you lot really want to be among the crowd of people who claim there's only one true ending in a roleplaying game? That anyone who takes the villain's deal which skips content (refusing to fight Letho from The Witcher 2 skips an endgame boss battle, forming a demonic pact in Shadowrun: Hong Kong skips the final section) hasn't actually completed the game? Your attitude is antithetical to the very essence of RPGs.

Except it's not just a forum post with fresh impressions but an extensive review that is supposed to view the game from many angles.

nobody is stopping you from posting a review from another POV

 

[Roguey]

If Sawyer had made it you would have read those tooltips

I believe Sawyer did the wrong thing in trying to make a 3.5-derived system that doesn't appeal to 3.5 fans, but one thing he did right was not dump a bunch of different abilities on you from the start.

Except it's not just a forum post with fresh impressions but an extensive review that is supposed to view the game from many angles.

Most reviews are written after a single playthrough. This is a hobby, not a job, and even people paid to do this only go through games once (and many times not even then).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and even people paid to do this only go through games once.

anyone got those screencaps of game reviewer steam accounts with only a few hours played on games they reviewed?

 

[Zer0wing]

Welp, guess I'm too used to Darth Roxors writeups.

nobody is stopping you from posting a review from another POV

Too lazy to do so rn.

and even people paid to do this only go through games once

That's because gaming journalism's job is promotion.

 

[Roguey]

Welp, guess I'm too used to Darth Roxors writeups.

Can you cite him going through games multiple times because to my recollection he also only does them once and that's it.

Anyway some fun achievement stats after nearly two years https://steamcommunity.com/stats/640820/achievements

80% of people who start the game at least once finish the prologue, 50% clear chapter 1 (about 13 hours, more if doing optional content), 1/3 clear the first half of chapter 2, 1/4 clear the second half of chapter 2, 1/5 clear chapter 3, 17% clear chapter 4, 12% clear chapter 5, 7% see ending slides, 5.9% beat the bonus chapter. Seems like I'm part of the 1% who finish but can't be bothered to go all the way. Most people come nowhere near seeing this content.

 

[Zer0wing]

Can you cite him going through games multiple times because to my recollection he also only does them once and that's it.

He gets all the way to the end.
Saying that I harshly claim you to finish this content bloat ass of the video game twice is putting words in my mouth, that's inhuman request.

 

[Roguey]

Can you cite him going through games multiple times because to my recollection he also only does them once and that's it.

He gets all the way to the end.
Saying that I harshly claim you to finish this content bloat ass of the video game twice is putting words in my mouth, that's inhuman request.

I also got all the way to the end. Bonus content is just that. I don't believe it should be a requirement to have to visit every area and complete every sidequest in a RPG to review it, though the more that's seen, the more accurate it is. I let everyone know that I have no assessment on the few hours of content I didn't see. I doubt it would add much to the review; a few sentences at most.

 

[LannTheStupid]

Seems like I'm part of the 1% who finish but can't be bothered to go all the way.

And now you sound like Porky. Way to go, pal.

 

[TheGameSquid]

So this review comes out AFTER the Definitive Edition has been released, but does not discuss the turn-based combat at all? C'mon.
Couldn't you have just postponed this review by a few weeks in order to take the TB mode for a test drive at least? We're already two years late here...

(Still appreciate the effort behind this review though, lacking in thoroughness though it may be.)

Anyway, I personally love Kingmaker, warts and all, and I'm not even a big RTwP fan. Yeah yeah it has wonky design issues, but it's still some of the most fun I've had with an actual CRPGs in the past 5 years or so.

 

[Tyranicon]

Didn't talk enough about the combat which I thought absolutely ruined the game. At this point, I think the only RTwP combat system I enjoy is IE.

The most recent update added a turnbased combat system, you should give it a try.

Can anyone actually confirm if the TB combat is actually good?

Yes it is. Reminds me a lot of ToEE.

Shit that's pretty high praise. I'll need to redownload Pathfinder now.

 

[Tyranicon]

If Sawyer had made it you would have read those tooltips

I believe Sawyer did the wrong thing in trying to make a 3.5-derived system that doesn't appeal to 3.5 fans, but one thing he did right was not dump a bunch of different abilities on you from the start.

Except it's not just a forum post with fresh impressions but an extensive review that is supposed to view the game from many angles.

Most reviews are written after a single playthrough. This is a hobby, not a job, and even people paid to do this only go through games once (and many times not even then).

People who review games for a living especially do not play those games comprehensively. Ain't nobody got time for that, especially if you only have a limited time before you need to put the review up.

 

[Desiderius]

PF: Kingmaker has bloated stats and more encounters per day for increased difficulty but then saddles you with trash builds for your prebuilt companions, so you should generally recruit custom companions if you want companions with actually decent builds.

Oh boy, you are trying really hard to trigger our Desiderius.

Now I want to see BLOOD.

Can't fix stupid. It was the way to bet, but it turned out to be wrong.

 

[Desiderius]

Do you lot really want to be among the crowd of people who claim there's only one true ending in a roleplaying game? That anyone who takes the villain's deal which skips content (refusing to fight Letho from The Witcher 2 skips an endgame boss battle, forming a demonic pact in Shadowrun: Hong Kong skips the final section) hasn't actually completed the game? Your attitude is antithetical to the very essence of RPGs.

Except it's not just a forum post with fresh impressions but an extensive review that is supposed to view the game from many angles.

Search my posts and you'll get more of that than you could ever want. Over 2000 hrs.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Can you cite him going through games multiple times because to my recollection he also only does them once and that's it.

I usually replay the ones that promise replayability and aren't excessively long-ass (and/or crap). A few examples off the top of my head would be Risen, AoD and all Shadowruns.

 

[Desiderius]

You can switch difficulties on the fly, so for instance go Story Mode to fast forward thru Ch. 1 on third playthrough or whatnot.

 

[Tyranicon]

You can switch difficulties on the fly, so for instance go Story Mode to fast forward thru Ch. 1 on third playthrough or whatnot.

Now that I'm redownloading Pathfinder anyways, how's the modding scene? I'd expect that after two years, modders will have already fixed most of the common complaints people have.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Mods will fix it (tm).