Well, I finished the game. Took me around 31 hours, which would make Sagus little less than half of the game. I don't think it's too short, not for a game like this.
My opinion about the game didn't change much from what I said before. The writing is of varying quality, the descriptions are little purple prose-heavy, dialogues themselves seem mostly alright. I found myself just glancing at the descriptions quite a bit, instead of reading the whole thing. Combat (or crises, whatever) is pretty shit. Luckily I counted only 3 mandatory encounters. Itemization seemed surprisingly decent, but mostly combat focused, so there weren't many opportunities of actually using a lot of your items. Character development is also pretty bad, the most interesting stuff probably being the passive abilities you get from the reflections in the labyrinth or the chiurgeon implants. Skill checks get really easy really fast. Two areas where the game really shines are the setting and quest design. Bloom is a really fucking interesting place. There is some weird shit for weird shit's sake (I blame backer NPCs, although the Codex one is great), but the Bloom is pretty contained. Took Erritis, Rhin and Matkina. Erritis was genuinely good, the other two were kinda alright too. But they could have done better on the companion front. I liked scan thoughts a lot, even though it was mostly flavour. I liked how you could ask a question again and get a different answer. There were lots of small things I liked, that added up to create a really nice experience. Failing a check and getting a better result than if I succeeded. An official calling me on my bullshit when wearing a fake badge if I spoke to her before without it. The woman you could trade secrets with. How some memories I thought irrelevant turned out not to be. Good stuff.
Main story is meh for the most part, I don't mind the linearity at all, but it's pretty predictable and not that exciting.
It's not PS:T. I mean not even close. I really wish this wasn't concieved and marketed as its spiritual successor, because they were never going to live up to it and it only serves to invite comparisons to an unatainable ideal and hurt the reception of what is otherwise a pretty decent game in its own right. But that's on their heads, obviously.
Solid 7.5/10 game imo (using an actual 10 point scale).
My opinion about the game didn't change much from what I said before. The writing is of varying quality, the descriptions are little purple prose-heavy, dialogues themselves seem mostly alright. I found myself just glancing at the descriptions quite a bit, instead of reading the whole thing. Combat (or crises, whatever) is pretty shit. Luckily I counted only 3 mandatory encounters. Itemization seemed surprisingly decent, but mostly combat focused, so there weren't many opportunities of actually using a lot of your items. Character development is also pretty bad, the most interesting stuff probably being the passive abilities you get from the reflections in the labyrinth or the chiurgeon implants. Skill checks get really easy really fast. Two areas where the game really shines are the setting and quest design. Bloom is a really fucking interesting place. There is some weird shit for weird shit's sake (I blame backer NPCs, although the Codex one is great), but the Bloom is pretty contained. Took Erritis, Rhin and Matkina. Erritis was genuinely good, the other two were kinda alright too. But they could have done better on the companion front. I liked scan thoughts a lot, even though it was mostly flavour. I liked how you could ask a question again and get a different answer. There were lots of small things I liked, that added up to create a really nice experience. Failing a check and getting a better result than if I succeeded. An official calling me on my bullshit when wearing a fake badge if I spoke to her before without it. The woman you could trade secrets with. How some memories I thought irrelevant turned out not to be. Good stuff.
Main story is meh for the most part, I don't mind the linearity at all, but it's pretty predictable and not that exciting.
Only until near the end admitedly. I genuinely didn't see it coming that the Changing God was dead all along and the spectre is just a "copy" with his memories. I thought the end wasn't bad, like some complaints suggested, the choices made sense imo. I went through the whole game saying I was the Changing God and then I finally became him, in a way. I'm satisfied.
It's not PS:T. I mean not even close. I really wish this wasn't concieved and marketed as its spiritual successor, because they were never going to live up to it and it only serves to invite comparisons to an unatainable ideal and hurt the reception of what is otherwise a pretty decent game in its own right. But that's on their heads, obviously.
Solid 7.5/10 game imo (using an actual 10 point scale).
Your complaint was that you cannot pay for Rhin's freedom to the slaver since "money was what the slaver really wanted", which is simply false. And once you find Rhin and she comes with you, you find out the slaver's reason for wanting her. Your complaint is simply stupid.
