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Pattonesque posted:BioWare style RPGs scratch a very specific itch and the fact that they’ve abandoned them and only like ... Greedfall has picked up the baton is very strange! It's hard to monetize a big-budget single-player RPGs with microtransactions, and that's been the zeitgeist at major publishers the last five-to-ten years. Bioware and Bethesda have both more or less abandoned the genre despite games like MA 2/3 and Skyrim being some of the biggest knockout hits of the decade. That's not good enough for them. Every game needs to be a giant fire-hose of MT money like FIFA, Fortnite, or Overwatch otherwise it's not worth it to them. Maybe we'll see things come around again when the trend dies out but for now, CDPR is the only big studio that seems willing to sink triple-A dev costs into an RPG. Or maybe Microsoft will tell Bethesda to get off their rear end and make a decent game again, who knows!
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Nov 18, 2020 12:53
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Larian are still fighting the good fight too, in fairness.
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Nov 18, 2020 13:04
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CottonWolf posted:Larian are still fighting the good fight too, in fairness. I bounce right off their games for some reason. I keep trying to get into BG3 and I kinda hate it? It has cool moments surrounded by what seems like endless work Like, ok, you can make it to this little stretch of land if you jump. But you have to select each individual member of your party to jump. Oops, you don’t have quite enough room for your third party member, so make sure to move the ones that have already jumped. Now that you’ve done that, guess what: this stretch of land doesn’t lead anywhere. So now it’s time to repeat the whole process in reverse Also we have a button that highlights things you can pick up but doesn’t highlight every container you can open which seems like an actively hostile thing to do
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Nov 18, 2020 14:01
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You can't play Larian's more recent CRPGs on a strict timetable to fully enjoy them. Gotta clear out the backlog for a month and take your sweet time to get the most out of the experience.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:16
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Larian is also a much smaller studio, more on par with Obsidian. They make good games, but they don't have the same production budget as your Mass Effects or Elder Scrolls.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:18
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Larian have their hearts in the right place but they are goofy euro rpg fans at their core so their games will always be a little "special". Honestly I'd wait until BG3 is out of early access - it still may not be to your taste, but there's a good chance the more annoying mechanics will have been fixed by Larian or modders.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:19
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Goofy Euro RPGs are the way to go, quite honestly.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:21
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Honestly Divinity OS 1 is a loving terrible game to go into blind unless you like spending hundreds of hours trying to figure out an obtuse crpg game, and that's the enhanced edition. I'm following a walk-through and character build guide and having way more fun then when I tried to play it blind as 95% of the game is going to be trial and error until you figure it out yourself and then want to restart everything anyways. BG3 seems better in that they learned from their mistakes but the overall design for Larian is very much "throw player in sandbox, explain nothing" even if the sandbox is the best of its kind in the last decade.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:29
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I like that Larian designs their encounters with the expectation that you'll play dirty and in fact encourages the player to do so, from teleporting enemies out of bounds to putting oil barrels in everyone's way to loading up a huge box with junk and dropping it onto people's heads with telekinesis. It's a very unique approach and certainly never boring.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:36
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exquisite tea posted:Goofy Euro RPGs are the way to go, quite honestly. I think BG3 will be pretty cool, but just imagine how awesome it would be if Larian got the rights to Two Worlds or Gothic.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:42
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Problem with Larian is that they can’t write for poo poo. The combat mechanics are all right, but I’d like their games to have some meat on the character and story side as well.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:55
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Smol posted:Problem with Larian is that they can’t write for poo poo. The combat mechanics are all right, but I’d like their games to have some meat on the character and story side as well. All the BG3 characters so far just come off as huge jerks
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Nov 18, 2020 14:56
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I tried with the Divinities, but they are so very combat-focused, I just got bored with it. I wish games would have a Story mode that actually removes fights, rather than simply make them easier.
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Nov 18, 2020 14:57
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Divine Divinity is basically Diablo, but open world with factions and you can rearrange furniture. Very cool, but also why??? It's like Swen noticed you could flush the toilets in Duke Nukem 3d and applied that philosophy to everything else, regardless of genre.
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Nov 18, 2020 15:10
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Pattonesque posted:All the BG3 characters so far just come off as huge jerks That's actually kind of intended for early access. They said that in general most people play good characters, and they wanted to test out the evil options for EA, so they've only included the evil and neutral aligned companions to encourage people to play evil. Once BG3 gets out of EA the good companions will be added and presumably they'll be nicer. Soysaucebeast fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Nov 18, 2020 |
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Nov 18, 2020 15:21
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Smol posted:Problem with Larian is that they can’t write for poo poo. The combat mechanics are all right, but I’d like their games to have some meat on the character and story side as well. I'd honestly say DOS2 has some of my favorite companions, so I disagree. Re: BG3, it has the first examples of evil companions I actually like. Shadow heart and... the poncey elf whose name escapes me both approve of using dialogue options to avoid fights and spare people. The elf approves of side questing if you pick the options for 'well since you promised a reward...'. The Gith is the most Sten/Morrigan 'rush the main plot and dont do any side quests', except even she approves of violent side quests where you get to kill poo poo.
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Nov 18, 2020 15:42
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The characters in DOS2 were great. I rolled with Red Prince, Fane, and Lohse in my party all game. So sassy.
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Nov 18, 2020 15:44
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Fruits of the sea posted:Divine Divinity is basically Diablo, but open world with factions and you can rearrange furniture. Very cool, but also why??? If I'm not mistaken, Swen originally wanted to make a turn-based game that did a lot of the same poo poo Ultima VII did. But they were told it wouldn't sell so they made it real-time. Which is fine because it's also pausable so it's easy to play. I just burned through Larian's early games this past couple of months: Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, Ego Draconis/Flames of Vengeance, and their writing was overall a lot better than I'd given credit for. I really enjoyed Flames of Vengeance where you're exploring an entire town and underneath and getting to air everyone's dirty laundry.
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Nov 18, 2020 16:08
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I will never forgive Larian for taking a cool idea like turning into a dragon and making that intensely unfun. Ever since Drakan I've wanted a RPG where you could be a dragon and gently caress poo poo up. Ego Draconis promised that and boy was I disappointed. Raygereio fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Nov 18, 2020 |
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Nov 18, 2020 16:13
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Pattonesque posted:I bounce right off their games for some reason. I keep trying to get into BG3 and I kinda hate it? It has cool moments surrounded by what seems like endless work honestly, i don't know if this is a good time to judge the game since it's still in its public beta phase. i'm holding off on it until it officially comes out because there's tons of poo poo they are gonna end up tweaking as a result of public comments and i don't want to build base my opinion of it based on its unfinished state.
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Nov 18, 2020 16:25
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Larian's early access releases are genuinely EA instead of glorified betas. A ton of stuff is totally broken and game systems will be reworked many times over based on feedback.
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Nov 18, 2020 17:13
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For nostalgia's sake I rewatched some scenes from Inquisition, and man, if you played a female elf who romanced Solas, the confrontation in Trespasser is really emotional.
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Nov 18, 2020 18:13
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I am praying that after DA4 we'll finally get Jade Empire 2.
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Nov 18, 2020 20:19
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The DA franchise has been my go-to 2020 lockdown timesink, and this thread now has me curious about ME. A DAI banter group that I am having lots of fun with, for my Elven Rift Mage, is running Vivienne, Solas and Cole. It is like exposure therapy for her fear of spirits and Solas's bitchy snipes are fantastic. Having Solas in group is one of the few things that helps me tolerate Sera's existence. Torrannor posted:For nostalgia's sake I rewatched some scenes from Inquisition, and man, if you played a female elf who romanced Solas, the confrontation in Trespasser is really emotional. Yeah, that arc... Sure is something. Loved hearing the writers talking about how they'd run drafts by the staff's resident Solas fans to see if the developments made them cry more. Trespasser and all the Solamance options were great fun for me. Solas's motivations and goals are 100% in line with my hopes and dreams for the Elven people of Thedas, especially after doing DAO #yesallshem Dailish runs. Solas is such a self-sabotaging, miserable, smug but sympathetically tragic figure. The way he treats the Inquisitor is awful throughout the romance, so it is not surprising to see a sad and creepy fandom spring up around his romance option. It has been interesting to dig through some fan theories that have sprung up, especially when folding in content from official DA books. Liking the prospect of lyrium being the blood of Titans, and hoping to see that Mythal is the Last Great Hope and tearing down the Veil being the only way to give Thedas a chance to fight the Forgotten Ones, Titans, or whatever in DA4 (assuming the Bioware DA writing crew is not totally gutted and incoherent haha, ha... No high hopes.)
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Nov 19, 2020 00:36
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exquisite tea posted:I like that Larian designs their encounters with the expectation that you'll play dirty and in fact encourages the player to do so, from teleporting enemies out of bounds to putting oil barrels in everyone's way to loading up a huge box with junk and dropping it onto people's heads with telekinesis. It's a very unique approach and certainly never boring. I like that too. Played both DOS games in a coop and was excited to come back to replay it on higher difficulty using everything the game has to offer to beat it. But it turned out to be quite boring. Higher difficulty just results in a lower margin of error and in making any higher level enemy encounters almost impossible. I was very surprised about how boring my second playthrough is compared to my first. Saying this as someone who is currently on 4th or 5th Pillars of Eternity 2 run.
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Nov 19, 2020 10:36
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Solas' romance is pretty bad, but I feel like Sera's is worse in some respects, especially as an elf. The Bull romance if you let the Chargers die is also kinda wrenching as well.
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Nov 19, 2020 11:15
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ApplesandOranges posted:Solas' romance is pretty bad, but I feel like Sera's is worse in some respects, especially as an elf. It certainly has some pretty disturbing implications by Trespasser. I don't know if he's 100% clear in the elf romance but he basically views all post veil people as barely more then pets and cares 0 about the millions who will die when he brings it down because they aren't his people.
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Nov 19, 2020 11:23
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Torrannor posted:For nostalgia's sake I rewatched some scenes from Inquisition, and man, if you played a female elf who romanced Solas, the confrontation in Trespasser is really emotional. My second playthrough was as a female elf who romanced Solas and I definitely consider it the 'best' way to play. EDIT: Did Bioware fix the banter bug already? Vichan fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Nov 19, 2020 |
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Nov 19, 2020 11:36
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pentyne posted:It certainly has some pretty disturbing implications by Trespasser. I don't know if he's 100% clear in the elf romance but he basically views all post veil people as barely more then pets and cares 0 about the millions who will die when he brings it down because they aren't his people. So, Solas is a goon.
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Nov 19, 2020 16:16
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I was so relieved to find out Solas is some weird ancient god thing who hates the world because every attempt to talk to him always ended badly for me. I just didn’t know what to say to make him happy and I thought I was missing something, which I guess I was. It’s like the fantasy themed version of Chris Fleming’s “Wildly Unlikeable Guy”
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Nov 19, 2020 20:52
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It's been a while since I played but to my recollection Solas usually likes it when you show curiosity about his area of expertise or generally rely on his advice, or be nice to the spirits.
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Nov 19, 2020 20:59
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Yeah, Silas always seemed easy to stay friendly with as long as you weren’t going maximum Templar boot-licker
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Nov 19, 2020 21:06
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I played a female elf on recommendation from pretty much everyone, but I still couldn't quite pull the trigger on the romance. Still, the last Trespasser conversation was still very satisfying and melancholy, and I appreciated I could tell him "Well, you have some good points, but I still think you're an idiot, and I'm going to track you down and convince you as such" which was the exact tone I wanted from my inquisitor I just finished a replay of DA:O and I never realized how many parallels there are between Morrigan and Solas, at least romance-wise.
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Nov 19, 2020 21:11
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Pooncha posted:It's been a while since I played but to my recollection Solas usually likes it when you show curiosity about his area of expertise or generally rely on his advice, or be nice to the spirits. Well early on he gave me a Spock vibe so I thought he’d be cool with some pointed questions and maybe a debate about certain issues. But he always shut me down and got really pompous about things. I got very used to “Solas Disapproves” popping up when I asked him how he’s doing. I was playing a male dalish elf if that helps explain things Endless Trash fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Nov 19, 2020 |
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Nov 19, 2020 21:14
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WarpDogs posted:I played a female elf on recommendation from pretty much everyone, but I still couldn't quite pull the trigger on the romance. As frustrated and lacking playing an elf was in other areas, it really made the Solas plot better and improved my overall feelings towards the game. And it really sells the second option you can take towards him, where like you want to restore your race but you also want it to be your people and not some theoretical elves you never knew.
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Nov 19, 2020 21:17
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Endless Trash posted:Well early on he gave me a Spock vibe so I thought he’d be cool with some pointed questions and maybe a debate about certain issues. But he always shut me down and got really pompous about things. I got very used to “Solas Disapproves” popping up when I asked him how he’s doing. I think he generally approves if you ask him questions and are inquisitive, so that's an easy way to get approval with him. But yeah if you disagree with his takes it can be pretty easy to piss him off too.
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Nov 19, 2020 22:44
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That's another point of comparison between Morrigan and Solas for me. Both enjoy curiosity and open-mindedness, but they absolutely hate being contradicted or disagreed with. With Morrigan is mostly is just annoying, but I think the "twist" with Solas - that he's not just a stereotypical arrogant elf, but rather he has no patience for debating "speculation" because for him things are a matter of facts that he either directly witnessed or is the cause of - works really well. This revelation can either change your mind or reinforce your irritation, and both are very valid emotions the game supports
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Nov 19, 2020 23:01
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Cuddly Tumblemumps posted:The DA franchise has been my go-to 2020 lockdown timesink, and this thread now has me curious about ME.
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Nov 19, 2020 23:04
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SubponticatePoster posted:Sera's intro is one of the worst lolmonkeycheese things in BW history and ruined her for like 85% of the playerbase. She gets way better in Trespasser, like they heard the complaints and started working on them but by that point I think most people either completely ignore her or have kicked her out. Her romance is also bad and dumb, but if you treat her like a younger sister with severe ADHD she has some drat funny random banter. My go-to group for just loving around is Cass, Dorian, and Sera. Sera actually gets along with most people except Viv and Solas. Cole weirds her out but then again he does that to everyone but Solas and Varric. Sera made sense to me when I realized that she's like a 19-20-year-old and 19-20-year-olds are extremely dumb
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Nov 19, 2020 23:10
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Ginette Reno posted:I think he generally approves if you ask him questions and are inquisitive, so that's an easy way to get approval with him. But yeah if you disagree with his takes it can be pretty easy to piss him off too. One of my favourite little touches in Inquisition comes from this. All through the game you get approval from Solas for asking him questions about stuff and investigating topics with him. Then if you take him to the ball at the Winter Palace, afterwards back at Skyhold, he mentions how much he misses courtly intrigue. If you ask him a question about this, because as far as you know he's just a wandering elven apostate when and how would he have been involved in court intrigues?, you suddenly get a 'Solas disapproves' and he shuts you down.
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Nov 19, 2020 23:28
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