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Where does Piranha Bytes stand among all time great studios?

IHaveHugeNick

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Apr 5, 2015
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My take on Piranha's legacy is it will eventually amount to them creating what I believe is a perfect template for a 3D RPG. Open world that goes for tight level design rather than just sheer size, strongly integrated factions that allow multiple plays, epic main quest and standard zero-to-hero plot hook that doesn't unnecessarily overthink things.

That they haven't lived up to that legacy since Gothic 2 is another story.
 

Wunderbar

Arcane
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Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
Btw, people who were responsible for Gothic 1-3 are not in PB right bow.
They founded new studio (Piranha Bytes Red), and are working on a space rpg or something.
 

Tito Anic

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Piranha - the only game studio which survived decline, they are NUMERO UNO:incline: I dare you, name one competitor who makes better PC action rpgs than Piranha, there is none:smug:

I don't consider them to be as objectively good as Obsidian or Black Isle or whatever, but man, I just love their games the same way people love From Software.

Obsidian? In 15 years they did one solid game which could be compared to Gothic. Black Isle studios did none. I am talking about PC action rpgs.
 

Aeschylus

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Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
In terms of a pantheon of RPG devs, I would say that PB quickly sprinted to the top of the mountain, got tired, tripped, briefly grabbed onto a branch that snapped halfway through pulling themselves up, and then tumbled all the way down to the bottom.
 

Gepeu

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In terms of a pantheon of RPG devs, I would say that PB quickly sprinted to the top of the mountain, got tired, tripped, briefly grabbed onto a branch that snapped halfway through pulling themselves up, and then tumbled all the way down to the bottom.
Just to quickly get on the top again with their Elex' jetpack. Truly a miraculous journey.
 
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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
They still are my favourite developers, despite having developed the worst gaem I ever played. That says a lot I guess.
(They also developed the best gaem I ever played, so I am enormously thankful for that!)

Gothic ---> GOTY forever! 10/10
Gothic II + NotR ---> Masterpiece, except for the atmosphere and the setting nearly as godlike as the first one! 9/10
Gothic 3 ---> With community patches beautiful experience, wonderful world! 8/10
Risen ---> Solid mechanics, but generally a bit meh. 6/10
Risen 2 ---> Infantile consoletard bullshit! 2/10
Risen 3 ---> Still a child of the modern days, but at least with a nice world and great, sometimes nearly Gothic-like atmosphere. 6/10
ELEX ---> ELEX! 7/10
 
Last edited:

Lahey

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Screen Shot 2018-06-10 at 11.58.28 PM.png
 

SkiNNyBane

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
They still are my favourite developers, despite having developed the worst gaem I ever played. That says a lot I guess.
(They also developed the best gaem I ever played, so I am enromously thankful for that!)

Gothic ---> GOTY forever! 10/10
Gothic II + NotR ---> Masterpiece, except for the atmosphere and the setting nearly as godlike as the first one! 9/10
Gothic 3 ---> With community patches beautiful experience, wonderful world! 8/10
Risen ---> Solid mechanics, but generally a bit meh. 6/10
Risen 2 ---> Infantile consoletard bullshit! 2/10
Risen 3 ---> Still a child of the modern days, but at least with a nice world and great, sometimes nearly Gothic-like atmosphere. 6/10
ELEX ---> ELEX! 7/10

Hmm I actually loved elex. I wonder If I should try Gothic since people are saying it is better of the same type of thing. Any mod recommendations would be appreciated.
 
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
77
The majority of mods to G1 and G2 is add-ons which change the gameplay quite a lot and add a ton of new things. Or even total conversions. They also are of questionable quality. So I'd recommend playing without mods for the first time. Except for graphics mods, if that's your kind of thing. But seriously, the games are great as they are.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Messages
4,092
Gothic 2 is god tier.
Risen 2 and 3 are underrated to be honest. World of both the games is pretty cool. Both are 6.5/10
Elex is the greatest role playan gay of all time, and by all time I mean nothing better came out in 2017 and it's pretty good 7.5/10.
 

Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
2,155
Location
Germany
They still are my favourite developers, despite having developed the worst gaem I ever played. That says a lot I guess.
(They also developed the best gaem I ever played, so I am enromously thankful for that!)

Gothic ---> GOTY forever! 10/10
Gothic II + NotR ---> Masterpiece, except for the atmosphere and the setting nearly as godlike as the first one! 9/10
Gothic 3 ---> With community patches beautiful experience, wonderful world! 8/10
Risen ---> Solid mechanics, but generally a bit meh. 6/10
Risen 2 ---> Infantile consoletard bullshit! 2/10
Risen 3 ---> Still a child of the modern days, but at least with a nice world and great, sometimes nearly Gothic-like atmosphere. 6/10
ELEX ---> ELEX! 7/10

I mostly agree still do not understand why so many in this forum like Risen 2.
Sadly PB fucked up the Risen series after the second game, let's just hope they won't forget what made Elex good.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
So they have released seven games in their history
You mean they made 1 really good game. Then they re-released it 7 times.

What are you talking about? While there are certainly similarities between PB games, which is their style, all their games are fairly different from each other.

Gothic and Gothic 2 were the closest, most similar ones among their games, but even those 2 were fairly different and did not feel like clones of each other. Risen games took place in a completely different setting, as did ELEX.

Their games featured vastly different settings, different gameplay mechanics (e.g. shields in Risen, jet-pack in ELEX), different level of emphasis on factions, quests, C&C, etc. It is no worse than the similarities between Ultima, Wizardry, Might and Magic, SSI, Bethesda, or Bioware games.

Piranha Bytes devs are old and stuck on the past, basically dinosaurs

Not everyone can evolve as quickly as Todd Howard.
 

imweasel

Guest
PB is pretty much the only developer that truly knows how to do open world justice IMO. Even their objectively crappy games like Risen 2, while disappointing, are still captivating and enjoyable.

PB has the very high honor of me purchasing every single one of their games on day one for full price directly from Steam.

:cainapproves:
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
It's true. I've enjoyed other open world RPGs over the years (New Vegas, Witcher 3), but no other studio does them as well as PB when all cylinders are firing.

It's the inherent gaminess of them, which is a bit hard to describe but it's always there. The way everything is integrated together, the way things interact and interrelate, the way the dialogue is so understated and yet works so well, the way the NPCs and world design bring the worlds to life, the way the world is always so much more than just a backdrop, the way you feel cool playing them...
 

Morkar Left

Guest
The biggest problem PB always had was lack of money. For the first game they were able to produce an rpg at the height of technology all by themselves garage-style. Later on technology moved too much forward that they couldn't keep up with bigger studios. They challenged Bethesda and Bioware (the rpg top dogs at the time) with the release of G1 (and G2). At this time they were on equal terms in regards of gameplay and production values (but with a much smaller team). And surpassed them and set new standards (which Bethesda tried to feverishly copy in an amateurish way seen in Oblivion)

Then they had exactly one chance to establish themselves on the olymp for decades. And that was G3. The game had some bad design decisions (but not gamebreaking) but was one of the most ambitious rpgs since decades. Unfortunately they needed more time than what was initially planned (not surprising, look at Witcher 3 or M&B Bannerlords) and their publisher was nearly bankrupt. Would the publisher have been in a better state, G3 would have become an rpg classic.

I guess the disaster of G3 (and the unability to handle a team of the size that would be necessary) broke the "old" PB (which happened to a lot of old German gamestudios). They got back to smaller and easier to handle rpgs (without ever really doing the additional jump to consoles at the time and getting their confidence back). Nowadays they struggle with updating their own engine and low budgets. Elex was a good attempt to get back to old heights by trying new things and making the world bigger again (almost too big with 3 biomes). I hope they manage to get their tech back to state of the art and refine gameplay again. I have the impression they are on the right track. I'm just worried they won't have the ressources to ever come back to the first league (to achieve that probably 2-3 German studios would need to wortk together to create one game).

But no matter what, with G1 and G2 they set new standards in the (action) rpg genre which influences modern rpgs till today (npc schedules were back, npc background talk and animations, different npc and monster ai, open world, real time action combat, chapter staged changes in an open world, npcs you have to gain their trust etc).
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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Aug 20, 2017
Messages
4,092
I'm only hoping that Elex sold well enough to get a bigger budget for Elex 2.
The fact that it's selling better than PoE2 on steam is keeping me hopeful.
 

Silly Germans

Guest
As it stands all their games after Gothic 2 are decline in direct comparison.
I wonder how they would be received if the order of the releases had been different.
If they had made first the Risen series, then Elex and then Gothic I and II.
 

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