Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Pillars of Eternity II - It's Pretty Alright

[Roguey]

Oh fuck I think I spoiled it when I read the part about POE2's writing, but that line, “Pallegina, you should learn to respect her opinions” is worth it.
Please tell me this is a word-by-word quote from the game. Honestly who wrote this.

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Good review, disappointing sounding game. The mechanics of PoE1 was a problem and this sounds like it's turned up to 11. I had zero expectations for the quality of the story so am not particularly disappointed. Where is my Icewind Dale spiritual successor you bastards?

 

[Tacgnol]

We need more games where plot companions don't try to get involved with the PC.

This Bioware-esque romance shit really needs to die, especially in games like Pillars 2 that handle it so badly.

It just needs to die. No game has gotten better because the companions are playersexual. It's shit for the writers as well, having to make the relationship from normal companionship to romance no matter the gender or race with pretty much every companion in the game.
It ruins the characters completely and leads to weak writing. If the romance feels forced, there's nothing the writer can do to make it any better. He/She/It has to write some clichee lines to get the characters from point A to point B in few moments. There's no room for the relationship to build naturally over time that would actually support the writer and help them to build the romance as a sorta natural progression for the characters instead of them just blurting out how they have deep feelings for you and they want to fuck right now and here with these giant spiders lurking around the corner.

It's just really bad design to begin with. If they want romance in the game then they should just pick the characters and their sexuality that fit their personalities. It's not only a lot easier for the writer to come up with it when it's orlan on orlan romance or fish vs. male PC etc, but it also feels less forced on the player when everyone in the goddamn game isn't trying to fuck you.

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

It has become a "standard" feature that popamolers now expect in an RPG.

We can't just have well developed characters with their own backstories and motivations anymore, everything about them has to revolve around the player. I blame Bioware for this.

 

[Flou]

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.

 

[Flou]

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

 

[Roguey]

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.

In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.

 

[Trashos]

Eh, PST is full of romances. But the writers had a very good idea what to do with them, why they were relevant, and how they made the game more captivating.

It is not about having romances or not, it is about why the content is there, what it's trying to achieve. I bet MCA laughed himself to tears with the PoE2 romances.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Time to change his tag to Darth Roxor, Liker of Eternity.

 

[Sizzle]

Great review, Darth Roxor, kudos for taking the time to write it :D

 

[Darth Roxor]

Time to change his tag to Darth Roxor, Liker of Eternity.

what have I become, my sweetest friend

 

[Mortmal]

Good job Darth Roxor. I'm sure someone will read this review. Someday.

I did, title says it's alright conclusion said he had fun so obisidian advertisement contract is fulfilled, plebs wont look further ,infinitron can relax, codex wont have to reimburse josh. However if you read in between, like a clever codexer, he thinks its almost complete shit so contract with grognards is fulfilled too.
As gary gigax (a dude liking rpgs) said what matters the most in a RPG is storytelling,roxxor says " If it’s combat, you might end up disappointed. If it’s story and related matters, stay the hell away."; no need to say more about POE2 quality.
A clever and devious review.

 

[fantadomat]

Soo when is the dlc review coming?

 

[Flou]

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.

Dollarhyde also wrote the talking the sword.

 

[Zakhad]

waiting for Roxor to quit the Codex and never mention us again because he gets a job writing for Obsidian

 

[commie]

Which flavor of Doritos did you end up preferring, Darth Roxor ?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Which flavor of Doritos did you end up preferring, Darth Roxor ?

thats a trade secret i'm afraid

I did, title says it's alright conclusion said he had fun so obisidian advertisement contract is fulfilled, plebs wont look further ,infinitron can relax, codex wont have to reimburse josh. However if you read in between, like a clever codexer, he thinks its almost complete shit so contract with grognards is fulfilled too.
As gary gigax (a dude liking rpgs) said what matters the most in a RPG is storytelling,roxxor says " If it’s combat, you might end up disappointed. If it’s story and related matters, stay the hell away."; no need to say more about POE2 quality.
A clever and devious review.

 

[Riddler]

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.

In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

 

[Roguey]

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

They should get rid of him too as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Flou]

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

Too early to say anything about Dollarhyde.
Scokel seems like a keeper.
Kirsch definately struggled with the fishman, but didn't he write the best companion for Tyranny?
Starks wrote Kills-In-Shadow for Tyranny and now Xoti, two kinda weak companions.
Sawyer shouldn't write companions. his strength is elsewhere
They should use Fenstermaker as a freelancer in the future too
Patel I don't know. Aloth isn't bad companion, but the main plot wasn't that strong in Deadfire. But how much influence did Sawyer have on that?
Rest of the writers haven't produced anything while at Obsidian, so can't really judge them.

 

[Mortmal]

I recalled back when the PoE kickstarter update announced that they won't add romance into the game.
There was a huge uproar from a specific group of players that "need companionship to immerse in their characters" and I admired Obsidian for sticking with their decision.
I wonder why Obsidian changed its mind.

MCA is heavily against romances in most games. He most likely influenced that decision.
The uproar from that crowd has an effect as well for sure. They make more noise than the people who hate playersexuan romances.

In his May-rage thread, he stated he actually was in favor of romances in PoE because it was an expectation of the audience. http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...archies-and-more.121588/page-116#post-5598914

Xoti conversations are the domain of Megan Starks.

Do you know who wrote each companion?

Pallegina - Sawyer
Xoti - Starks?
Eder - Fenstermaker

Aloth - Patel
Maia Rua, Tekehu - Kirsch
Serafen - Scokel

Sidekicks
Rekke - Dollarhyde
Ydwin, Vatnir - Scokel

The others are a mystery to me and I don't care enough to try to look them up.

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

With such sales, not even sure they will still hire anyone at all.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

They should get rid of him too as far as I'm concerned.

For what, writing all the good content?

 

[FreeKaner]

An analysis of the initial patch with its bugs and difficulty half a year after release. A fitting review for the dumpsterfire.

 

[fantadomat]

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

They should get rid of him too as far as I'm concerned.

For what, writing all the good content?

Maybe they should get rid only of him. So the game will be perfect next time,no such irregularities in the writing!

 

[Delterius]

Sounds like they should fire everyone but Scokel.

They should get rid of him too as far as I'm concerned.

For what, writing all the good content?

They don't need Scokel when Feargus has such a prolific literary know-how.

 

[nobre]

At least the magic/special items are a big improvement compared to the first game. Unique items now feel like actual artefacts, with their own exclusive properties, some of which can be very interesting or powerful, or upgraded even further for additional functionalities. Unfortunately, they lost a lot of their relative “oomph” and uniqueness when the autist-in-chief struck and decided to nerf everything across the board in the first major Deadfire patch. This encompassed cutting most item abilities by half (including both the chance to trigger and the power of effects), some of them even more, no matter whether they were garbage things that nobody would ever use, gear that companions start with (!!!) or stuff you get from tough endgame boss fights.

Holy shit MMO-style nerfs in a single-player game . Glad I never even considered spending money on this piece of garbage.

Thanks Darth Roxor for this informative review.