Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, by Obsidian Entertainment

It seemed like Neriscyrlas was meant to have something to do with chanting, doesn't it? I have to wonder if the trapped souls you can recruit to fight her weren't going to have more to do at some point Her clawing at the ground before being dragged back into the Vytmadh, too — it's oddly pathetic, like they wanted you to feel sorry for her so you'd talk to her. But she doesn't really get much to say. Kind of hoping it's a decision that gets paid off at some point in the last DLC, so that all three taken together become a kind of Tyranny-esque Choices Matter branching storyline — short, but a lot of reactivity depending on your previous choices.

The Forgotten Sanctum mentions you'll be working with archmages, so what happens if you never met them, or killed them all, or killed Concelhaut but mind-melded with Llengrath?

I actually went full independent on my first run too, and I think that was in-character — but I actually quite like how that's shown as clearly not ideal either, resulting in what amounts to a four-way war over the Deadfire that will last for years. Real change, one way or another, means working with people you'd rather not. It means some people will get hurt, and you'll have to make some compromises — but at the same time, you don't have to sit idly by at Crookspur. You'll lose the support of their fleet in the finale, but pretty much everyone can live with that.

Castol's a weak man, but that doesn't mean his ideas for Ukaizo are all bad. He's kind of like House from New Vegas, except you can actually prevent his most unforgivable act, and as an added bonus he doesn't want absolute, everlasting power over all mankind.

Oddly enough, though, as ruthless as Alvari might be in business, she hates slavers.

^^Like I said, didn't say he isn't a horrible person, all I said is that its not that hard to justify it in character

Edited by SpookyMask on Sep 8th 2018 at 12:54:19 PM

Seeker, Slayer, Survivor launched today, right on schedule. No emails about it yet, oddly. As you might have guessed/heard, Konstanten seems to be our featured sidekick, the Faces of Toamowhai (maybe an aspect of Galawain) are involved as hinted by that one encounter with the big burned tree at Whetura Cleft, and it's set on that big island north of Dunnage that you couldn't land on before.

Aaaand the trailer: here

I won't be able to check it out until this weekend, at the earliest. I hope there are a few good character or story moments amid all the seeking, slaying and surviving.

So I just played throught it. And it's...what I expected. A few interesting rounds of combat, but that's it. There's a bit of interesting story in the endgame of it, but it's not so great. And what I assume is the final boss fight of the DLC is also pretty underwhelming. A giant crocodile? Really? It wasn't even that hard.

I think I hit a bug too since one NPC just kept repeating the same dialogue even though it's implied he's supposed to give you something for a sidequest, so I was locked out of content. It's also implied there are multiple endings, but how you get them is really vague.

I dunno. It's not as good as Beast of Winter, but then I didn't reallye expect it to be. I'm more anticipating the last DLC anyway.

I did like having a reason to use Konstanten in my party, and he gets some sorely needed Character Development.

Edited by M84 on Sep 26th 2018 at 10:18:13 PM

Played it, liked it, wished there was more of it.

I knew it wouldn't be the focus this time out, but I was hoping there'd be more of an excuse to roam around that big island and explore, at least a little. Have some repopulating random encounters or something, special tournament events outside the temple grounds. There are the relic quests around the rest of the world map, but they're just places you've been before, usually not even any new battles or dialogue. Although I did like the sole survivor in the Kraken's Eye.

The DLC may be all about the fights, naturally enough, but they're well-crafted fights, interesting encounters with some nice magic items, and I did like the Faces as commentators. Plus the fact that you can replay them makes it a good place to test out builds, which gives it some replay value. I also liked being able to finally, y'know, talk to Konstanten, but I can't help but feel like there has to be more to his content in this, right? We don't even get to actually meet his sister. At least it seems like the sidekicks get more to say in all the DLC, not necessarily limited to their own "spotlight" DLC. I took Ydwin along into the Beyond, and she does offer further insights into the nature of the gods' realm that I suspect you wouldn't get, otherwise.

I had some trouble whittling down the porokoa's hit points, actually. My go-to party isn't built around Armor Penetration — I know, I know, then what did you do about the Guardian? Mostly relied on critical hits and Tekehu's Rust Armor spell, but I didn't have him with me for this fight (luckily I eventually remembered Ydwin had Psychovampiric Shield). I can't help but feel like some of these bosses are designed to be a lot bigger than the maps will let them be. Also I suspect that time was a big factor here, since whole point of the porokoa is obviously to take advantage of the water surrounding the arena and jump in and out between attacks, and they clearly didn't get to implement that.

Funny how this is Galawain's big DLC and he's still barely even in it. And then it ends (potentially) with an excuse for him to keep it that way, hibernating on top of his secret soul reservoir while Eothas and the other gods self-destruct.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 30th 2018 at 8:48:33 AM

I had an easier time since I had an Armor Penetration heavy team. And I kept hitting the boss with whatever debuffs I could (not easy since it has quite a few immunities).

Compared to the boss of the previous DLC, it was a relative pushover. And this was supposed to be the combat-heavy DLC.

Is Engari supposed to give you an artifact or something? He was the bugged NPC in my game. That's probably why I didn't ever fight that fire titan that is heavily advertised.

Edit:

Yeah, he's the main source of Artifact quests. Dammit. He just keeps repeating "Speak to Humaire". So I'm locked out of a lot of the content.

Edited by M84 on Sep 27th 2018 at 1:00:53 AM

Ouch, yeah, you are. Each time you turn in a relic it opens up a new battle in the arena, and as you complete more battles it unlocks more relic quests. I've done around... seven? quests, and maybe four of the fights I unlocked. Got a nice set of soulbound hide armor, a cool new war bow, and there's a set of heavy armor I want to get, but doesn't show up in my inventory after winning the fight, so I'm reloading to a previous save for now.

Obsidian and their bugs. It's always something.

How did you resolve the situation with the Faces in the pocket realm? I passed Eruke's Metaphysics check and unlocked some additional dialogue options because of that, but I'm still not sure I got the quote-unquote "best" ending.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 26th 2018 at 11:11:36 AM

My metaphysics skill wasn't so hot so I just went fuck it and killed the Slayer and Seeker. I probably got the "bad" end where everyone hated me but at that point I didn't care. They were a bunch of bloodsport loving assholes anyway.

Like, is it possible for me to get the artifacts anyway without speaking to him? Just explore the places using a guide? That's how I progressed the main DLC quest.

Edited by M84 on Sep 27th 2018 at 1:21:30 AM

Not sure. They're all places you've probably already been, so I'm guessing the hotspots wouldn't activate unless you had the quest.

So (big spoilers) the secret of the three is that they're all reincarnations of the same soul, with Whelami being an Awakened Watcher. Knowing this, you realize that Aexica is manipulating Whelami into trying to escape so that they can both be free, and you can then tell Whelami that Aexica was only using him, at which point he'll agree to let you go. There's a Religion check with Aexica I couldn't get, though, which makes me wonder if there was a way to deal with her peacefully as well. Whelami also brings up the possibility of possessing the porokoa, but only if you defeat it using his axe, which I never found in my playthrough. In spite of the DLC being fairly short and definitely combat-focused, there do seem to be quite a few ending possibilities.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 30th 2018 at 8:44:10 AM

I should try visiting one of those places to see if the artifact is present. I'll be pretty miffed if they don't show up.

Friggin' Obsidian and their friggin' bugs...

I wonder if the axe is one of the rewards from the challenges. Or maybe it's found in the area where you get the relic that opens his path in one of the text routes.

Edited by M84 on Sep 27th 2018 at 1:38:11 AM

Some of them are dialogue-based, so you probably can't get those. Among the environmental ones are the finger of the statue of Woedica in Oathbinder's Sanctum, and the head of one of the jaguar statues on Motare o Kozu.

Maybe if you best the other would-be champions of the Slayer? I might try that eventually.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 26th 2018 at 11:59:23 AM

I think I'll start a new playthrough once the last DLC comes out. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out by then.

For now, I'll go back to playing Divinity Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition and Dead Cells.

Edited by M84 on Sep 27th 2018 at 2:33:29 AM

Update:

Alright, loaded an earlier (much earlier) save and I avoided the bug. So now I get to redo all the quests and the new challenges.

Edit:

Okay, so now that I could actually play through most of the content of this DLC my opinion of it has improved. The Survivor Challenges can get fucked, though. Especially that one with the books you have to protect. The rewards are nice too. That one heavy armor is tailormade for monks...which is kind of odd since a monk build probably should be wearing light armor for lower Recovery time, but eh. It looks cool. I was planning on a new pure Monk playthrough once the third DLC comes out anyway.

I completed the Slayer path this time and got the Soulbound axe. Showing the axe to the Slayer allows you to leave the Beyond peacefully and shove the souls into the Pokohara.

I still think the Pokohara is a really uninspiring final DLC boss fight. Especially compared to BOW's lich dragon. Even the Beast of Winter, easy though it was, at least looked cool as hell. The Pokohara? Relatively easy and boring design. I think the developers knew it too — that's probably why the loading screen art for this DLC is of the much cooler looking Fire Titan (which was featured in the trailer too) than of the Pokohara.

I do like that you can repeat the fights. It's good for testing builds and for leveling up Soulbound gear.

Edited by M84 on Sep 29th 2018 at 2:10:15 AM

I started the DLC today, but I had the same bug and haven't been able to resolve it, so I'm locked out of most of the content. Drat.

I loaded a save before I entered the Crucible, then I avoided speaking to that NPC until the main quest progressed to the point that I was directed to speak to him.

The DLC was okay. This game's kind of combat isn't really my thing, and I don't particularly appreciate the fights being difficult even on Story Mode. Konstanten getting actual characterization was great though. He was the highlight of the DLC for me.

I pledged my fealty to the Seeker, which allowed me to get her to admit the truth without a skill check. I "killed" the Seeker to convince the Slayer to let me go (although according to the Survivor, she'll return after a few centuries), left the Crucible intact, and kicked Galawain's dinocrock's ass.

I never got a message to speak to the guy. I finished the last trial, tried and failed to send the souls back to the Wheel, then was left wondering what the heck had just happened. Eventually I figured out he was supposed to give me quests, but he wouldn't say anything. I tried reloading a save before I landed on the island, then I tried again on an entirely different character, but he still wouldn't talk to me.

I agree that the porokoa we got is a letdown, but I think it's just another case of them really wanting to implement sea monsters that you can actually fight in-engine, and just not being able to pull it off crunchwise.

...I was totally expecting a two-handed axe, what with Beast of Winter introducing those.

I sided with the Seeker on my run but it didn't seem like I learned anything about how she was manipulating the Slayer. Then again I did still have some of the relic quests left to go — maybe that was it.

As for monks in heavy armour... Obsidian does like to encourage unorthodox builds, and the talents that normally are just there to let them survive wearing light armour ought to make them tanky as hell with the right build. Xoti often ended up wearing the Nomad's Brigandine in my previous playthroughs.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 30th 2018 at 8:46:18 AM

Finally got it to work! I also sided with the Seeker, but I'll go Survivor on my next run to see if I can get more of the story, because I still don't entirely understand what was going on there. And I can't help but be curious about what happens if you absorb all of the essence at each opportunity. Nothing gamebreaking, obviously, but it seems like it should be.

Like Unsung said, the Faces are different incarnations of the same soul. It is a mind at war with itself — the Survivor seems to want to remain in the Crucible and do their duty while the Seeker wants out and is manipulating the Slayer into doing the dirty work. Galawain has a personal stake in this because the Crucible is his own private soul collecting device — the Blood Sport competition is bait to lure in victims whose souls he can claim. And the Crucible itself was created by the Seeker as a test run for the technology that would be used to create the Great Wheel at Ukaizo. She also reveals that said technology was actually inspired by Watchers like the player character.

If you absorb all the essence, which is what I did on my Bleak Walker playthrough, each instance grants you a Culmination Stone, which can be used for a free upgrade to Legendary tier — and when you absorb the giant porokoa's soul, you get an additional description of how the vast amount of soul energy nearly makes the Watcher explode. Then it stops, and it's left unclear what exactly happened. If I had my guess, it's that the Watcher is now bound to Galawain as well as Berath, possibly Rymrgand, and any godlike ties they might have, serving as a reservoir of souls (including any wayward souls still tagging along with you) in and of themselves. Which, knowing the gods, they'll end up fighting over in the next DLC.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 30th 2018 at 9:37:13 AM

Right, I got all of that, but I didn't understand why the Seeker was keeping her part in all this secret, pushing things off onto Slayer, and I also don't get what the Seeker's plan was supposed to be. Something like this, I gathered. Step 1: give tooth to Slayer so it could break the adra pillar. Step 2: wait while weird things start happening up top, so the custodian of the place - maybe, hopefully - summons a Watcher to investigate. Step 3: once this Watcher - maybe, hopefully - survives the trials, they come down to investigate the troubles and - maybe, hopefully - set the Faces free. Somehow. This plan seems likely to fail in various and sundry ways.

Edited by Tarlonniel on Sep 30th 2018 at 8:45:05 AM

Aexica's gone a little mad over the centuries, and they certainly don't lack for time on Kuzawari. She says that if the Watcher fails, they'll just wait for the next one to come along. The reason she's lying about it is because Whelami doesn't trust her (with good reason), and won't do what she tells him — he didn't seem to care about escaping until Aexica planted the idea in his head. And the reason she's fobbing things off on Whelami is because he's apparently the only one of the three with the strength to break the pillar, possibly through sheer soul power, willpower, and warrior prowess, possibly the result of having been the last of the three to die with the other two as his Awakened past lives, and/or something to do with his Watcher powers still functioning in death.

Edited by Unsung on Sep 30th 2018 at 11:04:55 AM