Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous

[Nikanuur]

It's about: "how, when, and where" and not about "it is there."

This whole thread reads like bad bait. I was writing a longer post detailing other parts of the review that point out things that are clearly wrong but I think it's honestly not worth it.

So much of this thread is haters and people who didn't even like Kingmaker. Roguey himself hadn't been a fan of the first game to speak of. It has no point.

I hope it warms your heart that I would recommend WoTR and Kingmaker to others. I believe, I have stated my critique in a vitriol-free manner and mentioned some of the games' strong traits as well.

 

[Roguey]

Played crusade on story mode, opinion invalid.

Can you explain what benefits can be gained from playing crusade mode as intended? The easier difficulties just modify your resources gained and the amount of recruits you can buy per week by 2/3 and story mode fixes it so you the game doesn't fail if you hit -50 morale (which I never got remotely close to). It seems to me that this just means you have to do a lot more day-skipping and possibly spend a lot more of your own money to get the stack you need to beat the various armies on the map. As far as I'm concerned this doesn't make it worthwhile.

 

[Jaedar]

Played crusade on story mode, opinion invalid.

Can you explain what benefits can be gained from playing crusade mode as intended? The easier difficulties just modify your resources gained and the amount of recruits you can buy per week by 2/3 and story mode fixes it so you the game doesn't fail if you hit -50 morale (which I never got remotely close to). It seems to me that this just means you have to do a lot more day-skipping and possibly spend a lot more of your own money to get the stack you need to beat the various armies on the map. As far as I'm concerned this doesn't make it worthwhile.

Can you explain the benefits of playing it on scrublord mode?

I don't recall ever really needing to skip days to grow my army on normal. I in fact found it quite easy to wipe the whole map of demon armies before coming close to beating the story missions. But I guess if you autoresolve you might have to, since the autoresolve has some... interesting ideas about the outcome of fights.

Dismissing this abortion of a system and refusing to interface with it in any way is the only appropriate way of dealing with it and thus sending the message that no, we don't want that shit in our games.

Heaven forbid actually having to manage a crusade in a game where you take the role of commander-general of a crusade. Or having to manage your domain in a game where you go from noname loser to king. People might actually think there's more to playing an RPG than combat and leveling up!

 

[Shadenuat]

Gamuplay is much better in wrath than roguey writes if you are durlag scs enjoyer and not "muh pnp slightly weaker enemies" roguette (a "better real dragonspear" for a2 is good comparison from rog ) but dialogue companions worse than rogue writes. It is a much more rollercoaster quality. I fuck swear wished they learned lesson on minigames and grinding gameplay but then i watched rogue trader videos

 

[Roguey]

Can you explain the benefits of playing it on scrublord mode?

I don't recall ever really needing to skip days to grow my army on normal. I in fact found it quite easy to wipe the whole map of demon armies before coming close to beating the story missions. But I guess if you autoresolve you might have to, since the autoresolve has some... interesting ideas about the outcome of fights.

Not having to engage as much with a minigame I knew I wouldn't like.

There were quite a number of battles I had to fight myself because I was going too fast to outlevel them. It was annoying. If I ever do play Wrath again, I'll use the mod that lets you autowin everything regardless of your army's level.

 

[Sarathiour]

I also didn't skipped a single day before clearing the whole crusade map, despite not having any incentive to do so. It was still piss easy and too badly designed to really be enjoyable in any way.

Gamuplay is much better in wrath than roguey writes if you are durlag scs enjoyer

Pretty spot on, for the autistic enthusiast there is ironically way more nasty shit enemies can do despite the "uniformization" of enemies types. The problem is that they often feel crammed into the map. Games is definitely shorter than kingmaker, but might feel longer because of the higher encounter density.

 

[LannTheStupid]

There were quite a number of battles I had to fight myself because I was going too fast to outlevel them. It was annoying.

This is called "overextension". IRL, it causes encirclements, tactical or strategic losses, massive casualties, and the loss of military equipment.

I agree that the game does not punish commanders enough; however, for the military commander of the crusade, there should be at least some consequences for bad decisions.

And again: if you do not want to role play the commander of the 5th Crusade, then play something else.

 

[Shadenuat]

I also didn't skipped a single day before clearing the whole crusade map, despite not having any incentive to do so. It was still piss easy and too badly designed to really be enjoyable in any way.

Gamuplay is much better in wrath than roguey writes if you are durlag scs enjoyer

Pretty spot on, for the autistic enthusiast there is ironically way more nasty shit enemies can do despite the "uniformization" of enemies types. The problem is that they often feel crammed into the map. Games is definitely shorter than kingmaker, but might feel longer because of the higher encounter density.

Idk i felt a lot more boredby wolves to the left, wolf south and werewoff east than demons constantly deep striking on my ass left and right
But Of course, owlcats still cant get idea that often less is more

 

[Roguey]

This is called "overextension". IRL, it causes encirclements, tactical or strategic losses, massive casualties, and the loss of military equipment.

I didn't lose any units. Just kept healing losses so I didn't go over the threshold.

And again: if you do not want to role play the commander of the 5th Crusade, then play something else.

This minigame is something Owlcat tacked on themselves, it's not how it works in the adventure path itself. Paizo obviously wasn't going to force players to have to play a wargame on top of an RPG.

 

[Arthandas]

Imagine being an RPG Codex staff member writing a review for codexian elite ubermensch and playing on "normal"...

 

[ga♥]

I imagine something like this happened:

Phone rings at Owlcat.

infinitron: "hello Owlcat, at RPGCodex we really like the game you made, Baldur's gate 3... ah no wait, Pathfinder something, so we decided to write a review after 3 years it came out... you know if you could send some Doritos things could run smoothly..."
Owlcat: "no doritos"

Back at RPGCodex admin staff forum.

Infinitron: "Roguey write a neutral positive review!!!"

 

[Jaedar]

This minigame is something Owlcat tacked on themselves, it's not how it works in the adventure path itself.

True. Which has some interesting narrative implications. As I understand the adventure path, Galfrey is basically doing all the crusade mode stuff and giving orders to the PC's on where to make surgical strikes against critical locations. But since the PC is doing that in the game, Galfrey has nothing to do and ends up being superfluous, which also makes her deeply unsympathetic when she shows up and tells you you're not doing your job right (even though you accomplished in months what she has failed to do in decades).

Still a good decision though.

 

[luj1]

Before release, it was my hope that Wrath of the Righteous would address the biggest issues I had with Kingmaker and become an undisputed classic. Instead it's a whole-lot-more-of-the-same sequel that does some things better and some things worse. That's fine, but once more I find myself not wanting to go through it again even though I would like to explore more mythic paths and make different choices. Nevertheless, if you can accept that Owlcat is dedicated to filling their games to the brim with text and enemies and strategic management minigames, and you have the time to commit to it, then it's certainly worth playing.

just reading this paragraph tells u everything

turd review by a low standard reviewer

 

[Roguey]

Imagine being an RPG Codex staff member writing a review for codexian elite ubermensch and playing on "normal"...

All the powergamers had well over a year to write and submit their own reviews if that was something they cared to do.

 

[S.torch]

I agree with the majority of Roguey's points and I am hardly a 'hater', I spent over 300 hours creating build pages for both games

And you think that makes you look good? That you'll spend 300 hours on a game you supposedly don't consider very good? All you're doing is confirming that the ones who are participating in this thread and giving it their approval are haters and people who didn't pay attention to the game at all like you.

people who liked the game are build autists who spend more time on the char screen than actually playing the game.

I didn't spend a single moment looking for builds or making them either, except for what I was going to use for myself over the course of the game and I enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps the reason so many here can't enjoy it is precisely because they are incapable of making their own characters, start metagaming, and then come here to complain that they didn't find the game exciting.

 

[Yosharian]

I agree with the majority of Roguey's points and I am hardly a 'hater', I spent over 300 hours creating build pages for both games

And you think that makes you look good? That you'll spend 300 hours on a game you supposedly don't consider very good? All you're doing is confirming that the ones who are participating in this thread and giving it their approval are haters and people who didn't pay attention to the game at all like you.

I didn't spend a single moment looking for builds or making them either, except for what I was going to use for myself over the course of the game and I enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps the reason so many here can't enjoy it is precisely because they are incapable of making their own characters, start metagaming, and then come here to complain that they didn't find the game exciting.

I don't give a flying fuck whether it makes me look good or not, I'm simply pointing out that I am not a hater.

 

[S.torch]

Apparently, you're just illiterate.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Yeah, Wrath is disappointing, but bet on the codex to focus on what a negress says in the tutorial dungeon instead of the important stuff.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I enjoyed first half of Kingmaker. I struggle to find a part of WotR I like.
I guess some companions are interesting in that "what the hell is wrong with you" and "is this anime" kind of way.

And I still don't understand what writers tried to achieve with Camellia.

 

[Roguey]

And I still don't understand what writers tried to achieve with Camellia.

It's a test of how willing you are to appease a mentally ill bad person who can never change.

 

[LannTheStupid]

And you think that makes you look good? That you'll spend 300 hours on a game you supposedly don't consider very good? All you're doing is confirming that the ones who are participating in this thread and giving it their approval are haters and people who didn't pay attention to the game at all like you.

He does not play the game. He makes builds, tests them, and publishes them on his Steam page or wherever. He is not interested in the story itself. IMHO, it's worse than hate; it's exploitation.

However, capitalism is all about exploitation, so nothing is new here.

And I still don't understand what writers tried to achieve with Camellia.

To see how righteous Angels will try to keep her, because she is hot and helpful.

 

[Lagole Gon]

And I still don't understand what writers tried to achieve with Camellia.

It's a test of how willing you are to appease a mentally ill bad person who can never change.

So I guess they failed? Because it's pretty clear she's a bad case of CE from the start.
People who stick with her do "lmao evil" playthrough or are just curious.
Not gonna lie, I enjoyed this somewhat edgy anime writing in a cRPGs, just from novelty perspective.

Also, bitch is fun to build.

 

[Gromoer]

There’s only one person on the whole Codex who could have written a proper review on WOTR. It is…

Spoiler

Cryomancer

What a waste of opportunity. DarkUnderlord I want my money back.

 

[Cryomancer]

LOL. My review of PF:WotR :

Good power fantasy but still worse than kingmaker

End of my review.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

There’s only one person on the whole Codex who could have written a proper review on WOTR. It is…

Cryomancer Desiderius

Fixed that for you.