Tyranny

Pretty good. NP Cs are fun. Magic system is fun.

It's good. The world is well written, the story is intriguing, and your companions are fascinating.

I was worried that this would be a grimdark game that would result in Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy, but I find myself genuinely caring for this cast.

Sounds like the biggest complaint to me is the ending sucks

Sooo, anyone found the third Sigil rubbing for Sunset Spire? I am assuming it's behind the locked doors the village elders said he sealed, but I can't figure out how to unseal them.

... How are people compalining the ending sucks, I've been playing the game non stop since launch, not even close to finished.

edited 10th Nov '16 6:13:11 PM by Ghilz

Well it's apparently just supposed to be eight hours, and was purposefully made that way so that you could play it over again multiple times.

Yeah, heard about it being short a while ago while making the differences in choices between playthroughs distinct. Guess that's a hard number to how short now.

...to be honest, I'd be kinda worried about it not catching on with a bunch of players due to Complacent Gaming Syndrome making them ignore a bunch of the potential.

edited 10th Nov '16 7:13:13 PM by VutherA

I got up to the point where a Timed Mission started, I won't play much more because of school though.

Soo... Literally the 2nd area and the first main quest mission after the starting fight? :-P

Anyway, so far it's really good. Highly Recommended. Between this and Dishonored 2, it's a great week.

It's longer than eight hours. You could probably finish it in that time if you're into speedruns, but I think the devs said 40 hours as a first-time player, assuming you aren't in any hurry, with vanilla Pillars being 70+ or so? From what I've played, there definitely aren't as many side quests or BG 1-style wilderness areas to map out. This is more akin to Icewind Dale, where it's pretty linear in a way, although I can definitely see how things would branch out if I'd made different choices.

Would recommend. I really like everything I've seen so far except Sirin, who just seems badly written and out of place...except maybe she's supposed to be like that? Just picked her up as a party member and exhausted her dialogue options. Her backstory is intriguing, as is her position in the Court, but the monotonous, run-on sentences made it a chore to read. Or maybe I was just up too late.

Although her bardsong mechanic seems like it could be pretty cool. I loved chanters in Pillars.

edited 11th Nov '16 1:45:16 PM by Unsung

Just beat the game. It's short (took me about 12 hours on easy), but there's a lot of replay value.

Ending spoilers: I can say with reasonable certainty that we are getting a sequel. Hopefully one with save importing.

Been having quite some fun with the game. I focused on Interaction skills because I found the writing to be fairly interesting, and I do enjoy the Story Branching. Combat is pretty much what you'd expect, it doesn't revolutionize the genre but it is pretty solid.

Won't be surprised if it's an Expansion Pack or two instead.

I'm up to 18 hours and just finished the Sentinel Stand arc with the Disfavored. Half the map is still greyed out.

I don't have the game yet, and I won't be able to get it until the holidays, so I'm curious. What are the various combos like that the PC and the party members have with each other?

Stuff like having your companion knock someone over so you can Megaton Punch them into the ground when they hit the floor, hurling swords up into the air and then firing them in all directions, slowing down time, or throwing a big boulder up in the air for your companion to shatter with her voice, so that it so that it rains debris on top of nearby enemies. It still controls like Pillars, but combat is a lot more stylized and dynamic— there's a big focus on delaying enemies and repositioning them. If you've ever played Chrono Trigger, it reminds me of that. One of the moves you get later is straight-up X-Strike. Well, more like V-Strike.

There are quite a lot of abilities to unlock, some passive, some active, slottable powers. You start off with two, unlock one per level, there are two to be unlocked on each companion's loyalty meter, two more on their fear meter, and four more for each faction— that's two each on their favour and wrath meters, respectively. You probably won't unlock every single one in the same game, or at least not your first game.

Basically, your abilities are tied to your choices rather than your gear. I approve.

edited 13th Nov '16 11:52:48 AM by Unsung

Yeah, the combat takes a bit of getting used to after Pillars.

Anyway, started it today and have been heavily biased towards the Disfavored in most situations. Right now, we're going to be starting our main assault on that tower place, but I'm not sure who to pick. I'd like to stick with the Disfavored but if it causes the other side to flip their shit at me and they won't compromise, I'm kind of stuck on who to choose.

I do really like the aesthetic of the world, though. Really does seem like it's Bronze Age stuff, with the falx being a prominent weapon, infantry apparently being the primary mode of fighting, and whatnot.

Lantry's kind of useless though. Squishy Wizard, I know, but I'm really annoyed that I have to repeatedly watch him go down during fights.

Probably the funniest combo is the one Barik and Verse can do if you ask them to train togheter.

Verse shoots Barik a bunch of times with her bows, the arrows bounce off him and hit everyone around him

It's got this "lol wut" factor I love.

I specialized Lantry on javelins. He gets insane armor piercing bonuses, and can throw really fast for mad DPS. IMHO he's sort of wasted as a mage. (Admitedly my PC is a dual wield / Frost mage)

Siren's a good mage, in that she has high spell damage, but her lore sucks so she can't learn complex spells. Doesn't help she has the same weakness Chanters did in POE: It takes forever for her to gain enough breaths to use her special singing powers.

Still, combat is a lot better than Pillars'. In particularly the magic system, you end up with less terrible spells you never want to use.

edited 13th Nov '16 12:58:42 PM by Ghilz

Yeah, I was honestly thinking of giving him a javelin to use as a secondary weapon. I've got an Iron Javelin anyway xD

With any of the companions, their spec trees pretty much tell you what they can be good at. There's no benefit to trying to turn Lantry into a combat caster, because he's set up to be a support caster/healer/rogue. You don't need him to cast offensive spells anyway— Eb and Sirin have got you covered. This game is designed to be a little broken. Your options aren't really meant to be balanced, everything's built from the ground up around creating crazy power builds and kicking ass, and the only abilities that are the same for everybody are spells, which are so customizable as to almost prove me wrong. Which is honestly about what you'd want from a game that's short but focuses on replay value.

I'm pretty near the end, barring any sharp and sudden turns (I just had Tunon bow down to me, and I'm on my way to talk to Nerat, which should be interesting since I sided with the Chorus at Vendrien's Well— I'm very much about trying to broker all the alliances I can with this character), so I think I was mistaken before. A 20-hour campaign with branching paths and a focus on Obsidian's reputation system seems about right.

edited 13th Nov '16 8:01:36 PM by Unsung

I love the ability system. Its rare to see an rpg like this where having a party made entirely of non casters is viable.

Seriously.

Anyway I"m having fun with the game. I'm really enjoying all of the world-building that you get from just random conversations. I wonder, though, about the Spires and the Oldwalls.

Is there anything in the game that suggest that Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity take place in the same world/universe/what have you?

Well, the technology levels are definitely completely distinct from one another, so feel free to consider Tyranny part of the (really) early history of Pillars of Eternity I suppose.

Indeed. Tyranny takes place in the Bronze Age while Pillars of Eternity is far enough along that guns and bombs are a thing, along with ancient machines.

Speaking of that I need to re-start Pillars of Eternity >.> I haven't played that in so long I've forgotten what I'm supposed to be doing.

edited 13th Nov '16 5:27:57 PM by theLibrarian

Man, I'm really bad at these types of games. So many stats and numbers that I feel like I screwed myself somehow, and I already got to a part where I stand no chance of winning a fight (the final battle during the siege of Echocall) since my party gets wiped in about 5 minutes.

I'm not even on any of the harder difficulties and I barely even made it to that point. I don't really want to give up, but I have zero clue on how beef up my party more than I've already been able to.

I know how you feel. I had to do the final battle of Echohall Crossing several times with different strategies. Eventually for that one I got it down to "Kill the Sage, then the leader, then mop up".

You can't even grind or anything, so it's more difficult XD