Titan Quest II - Greek mythology action-RPG sequel by SpellForce 3 devs

[CountNemo]

Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for?

I guess you don't? The whole point of random item drops was to add spice to replays, not make it an endless hamster wheel grind. I really don't understand this idea that you have to be able to grind forever in a game. Just enjoy and move on.

Not forever and it won't be a grind if it's challenging. Random items spicing up replays might've been the idea when developing Diablo 1, but a lot of itemization after that points to different goals. Set items for example. There's no way to get a complete set without some kind of grind. Crafting as well, there's no way to get enough items to craft a bunch of stuff. Besides, there's no way for the game to be challenging if you can complete everything with minimal gear, hack and slashers aren't exactly know for their intricate gameplay.

They also gave you a shared stash when they introduced sets in D2 with the intention that you'd build up your set among multiple playthroughs. Runewords obviously were a base mechanic in LoD, but lots of cube crafting recipes and uber bosses were end game grinds they added a lot later to cater to the growing fanbase of people who wanted some endless chase to grind for. And as I've mentioned before on the Codex, LoD 1.10 is the basis for modern ARPGs, i.e the beginning of the decline. An ARPG with the design philosophies of a pre-1.08 D2 is what I and many people here want. A game where beating the campaign is an actual challenge that you overcome and then reroll to try again with a different character or play something else until you get the itch again.

What did patch 1.10 philosophically change?

 

[CountNemo]

Neither TQ nor GD revolve around one button builds. Not that there aren't one button builds, but they are surprisingly rare because mobs are tough enough to force you to use defensives once in a while. I'm almost certain the marketing for TQ2 says it will feature the mastery system again. Which is great, I think TQ and GD's build systems are the best in this genre and invite a lot of creativity, especially when paired with interesting itemization. PoE2's gameplay does indeed show promise too, but I'm not hopeful they'll keep it up for long. Zoomers wanna zoom zoom. There is a bigger chance of that happening, though, since PoE1 and 2 are going to be separate games, so why have the exact same combat for both? Seems self-defeating to me.

I'd be genuinely sad if dopamine fried redditors cried until PoE2 is as fast as PoE1. As it looks now, and based on how they philosophically talk about it, it feels like it might be one of my favorite games ever.

 

[deuxhero]

Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for?

I guess you don't? The whole point of random item drops was to add spice to replays, not make it an endless hamster wheel grind. I really don't understand this idea that you have to be able to grind forever in a game. Just enjoy and move on.

Not forever and it won't be a grind if it's challenging. Random items spicing up replays might've been the idea when developing Diablo 1, but a lot of itemization after that points to different goals. Set items for example. There's no way to get a complete set without some kind of grind. Crafting as well, there's no way to get enough items to craft a bunch of stuff. Besides, there's no way for the game to be challenging if you can complete everything with minimal gear, hack and slashers aren't exactly know for their intricate gameplay.

They also gave you a shared stash when they introduced sets in D2 with the intention that you'd build up your set among multiple playthroughs. Runewords obviously were a base mechanic in LoD, but lots of cube crafting recipes and uber bosses were end game grinds they added a lot later to cater to the growing fanbase of people who wanted some endless chase to grind for. And as I've mentioned before on the Codex, LoD 1.10 is the basis for modern ARPGs, i.e the beginning of the decline. An ARPG with the design philosophies of a pre-1.08 D2 is what I and many people here want. A game where beating the campaign is an actual challenge that you overcome and then reroll to try again with a different character or play something else until you get the itch again.

What did patch 1.10 philosophically change?

That most of the skills are there as filler and there only to serve as prerequisites to stuff that is actually good.

 

[Yuber]

I love Grim Dawn and Titan Quest was very good too.
I heard it is some different developer so I am a little worried

 

[Dadd]

As it looks now, and based on how they philosophically talk about it, it feels like it might be one of my favorite games ever.

It's not even out yet.

 

[CountNemo]

As it looks now, and based on how they philosophically talk about it, it feels like it might be one of my favorite games ever.

It's not even out yet.

that is literally my point

"it might"

 

[geno]

Titan Quest II - Soundtrack Behind the Scenes
With this post we want to give you an insight into the creation of the official soundtrack for Titan Quest II by taking the cinematic trailer music as an example.
Please enjoy this audiovisual piece:


The celebrated Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou (https://www.instagram.com/aphrodite_patoulidou) is performing the vocals as well as providing the ancient Greek lyrics by drawing influences from her Greek heritage and working closely together with our inhouse audio director, composer and multi-instrumentalist Bastian Kieslinger https://soundcloud.com/bkeyslinger. Together we are taking you with us on a musical journey through our picturesque ancient Greek world.

The soundtrack of Titan Quest II combines ancient, as well as modern traditional Greek musical influences with orchestral soundtrack elements to create an authentic atmosphere while still using unique elements that provide some room for imagination and mythological fantasy.
As the three Moirai, goddesses of fate play a major role not only in the cinematic, but also in the story of Titan Quest II, we focused on creating a memorable and personal musical theme for them. Aphrodite is approaching the colour of the three Moirai’s different voices assimilating their age, in the singing tradition of Epirus. The ancient Greek lyrics derived from Pindar and Heraclitus can be translated as “One cannot escape one's fate” (Pindar) and “Everything is predetermined by fate” (Heraclitus) and show the differences between the Moirai and Nemesis towards fate / free will, as well as the fatalistic nature of the Moirai.

Bastian plays several uncommon instruments that you can also see in the video. An ancient Greek Lyre, a Pandura, a Bendir Drum, a Bouzouki and a Cretan Lyra. If you look and listen closely you can also spot Bastian’s Bass-Talharpa that supports the unique sound for Nemesis, the Goddess of divine retribution, together with Aphrodite’s intense guttural screams that are translated as “Man's character determines his life, it is his destiny, his god” (Heraclitus) and, contrary to the Morai’s lyrics, highlight the rebellion spirit that everybody is responsible for their own fate.

Are you ready to choose your own fate in Titan Quest II? From now on we will deliver monthly updates or sneak peeks into what we got cooking. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Lacrymas]

A bit generic-sounding but I like their inclusion of exotic instruments and the use of extended vocal techniques at the 1:45 mark. There is no such thing as "ancient traditional Greek music" because we don't know how it sounded like at all, we can only guesstimate and not very well at that.

 

[ADL]

Looking forward to their monthly updates. 2024 is stacked for aRPGs so hopefully they can squeeze themselves in a drought somewhere.

 

[deama]

This thing probably isn't releasing until 2025.

 

[Lyric Suite]

A bit generic-sounding but I like their inclusion of exotic instruments and the use of extended vocal techniques at the 1:45 mark. There is no such thing as "ancient traditional Greek music" because we don't know how it sounded like at all, we can only guesstimate and not very well at that.

This is what it sort of sounded like:



It's a very faithful rendering of the musical fragments we have as far as that's possible, some of which have missing parts which the performers here leave empty rather than attempt to try to fill the gaps which wouldn't be "accurate".

Inaccurate performances of ancient music is actually a big pet peeve of mine. Most "modern" groups, especially the ones popular with normies are basically making shit up for the most part. Celtic music, medieval music, none of it actually resembles the real thing, it mostly sounds like what metal bands would come up with to try to sound "medieval". The track of this game is no different, but it's not like i expected anything less. It's a game after all.

This is the fake medieval music i'm talking about btw:

 

[fantadomat]

Do hope it is not a shitty diablo clone like the first one.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

It might be a clone of the first TQ.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's gonna be a clone of the first TQ with Persia instead of Babylon/China and amazing graphics because Grimlore can do that somehow. Seriously, Spellforce 3 has insanely pretty 3D maps, the best I've ever seen.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Do hope it is not a shitty diablo clone like the first one.

Why wouldn't it be that.

 

[fantadomat]

Do hope it is not a shitty diablo clone like the first one.

Why wouldn't it be that.

it is a hope not expectation...but they did change spellforce 3 for better compared to the first two.

It's gonna be a clone of the first TQ with Persia instead of Babylon/China and amazing graphics because Grimlore can do that somehow. Seriously, Spellforce 3 has insanely pretty 3D maps, the best I've ever seen.

yeah,one of the best engines out there,also very low resource need for the quality.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Do hope it is not a shitty diablo clone like the first one.

Why wouldn't it be that.

it is a hope not expectation...but they did change spellforce 3 for better compared to the first two.

But did they change the genre?

 

[Riddler]

It's gonna be a clone of the first TQ with Persia instead of Babylon/China and amazing graphics because Grimlore can do that somehow. Seriously, Spellforce 3 has insanely pretty 3D maps, the best I've ever seen.

Clearly something in the water in Austria/southern Germany

 

[fantadomat]

Do hope it is not a shitty diablo clone like the first one.

Why wouldn't it be that.

it is a hope not expectation...but they did change spellforce 3 for better compared to the first two.

But did they change the genre?

You don't need to change the genre to add complexity,good story and fun gameplay. Just get rid of the respawning enemy and the random loot garbage mechanics while adding some more side quests and activities while having a good story and you will have a good game. You could still have a good action rpg lol.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Isn't that what they did with Grim Dawn (add more side quests etc).

I don't think you can turn a Diablo clone into an actual Baldur's Gate style RPG.

 

[Lacrymas]

yeah,one of the best engines out there

Unfortunately, that's not the case. Spellforce 3 was/is severely unoptimized to the point of frying some people's systems. Hopefully they've worked on that.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Frying your system? Dandy?

 

[abija]

You don't need to change the genre to add complexity,good story and fun gameplay. Just get rid of the respawning enemy and the random loot garbage mechanics while adding some more side quests and activities while having a good story and you will have a good game. You could still have a good action rpg lol.

Don't need to change the genre just change the genre.

 

[duskvile]

I would like darker horror story and creatures.

 

[ChildInTime]

Diablo clone into an actual Baldur's Gate style RPG

They sorta did with Dungeon Siege 3