Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, by Obsidian Entertainment

Fair enough. Agree to disagree.

Second game should at least satisfy the people who want swashbuckling crpgs

Anyway, I don't think second game needs to be mind blowingly great. Because to be honest, none of classic crpgs besides Fallouts were THAT great

(sure Planescape had great story, but the gameplay)

edited 25th Jan '18 11:44:26 PM by SpookyMask

The gameplay was great. You shut your mouth!

But I get where you're coming from. I seriously need to finish the first POE. This one looks fun, but I'm SO BEHIND on CRP Gs right now...

Love me some flintlocks.

April, huh? And Aloth, Pallegina, and Eder are coming back? I didn't have much interest in White March, but this is.... tempting...

I liked White March, Part 2 quite a bit, myself. Sort of fitting that a spiritual sequel to the Icewind Dale games would also get a lot weirder and more interesting in the last leg of the game.

I played the IWD games but found them pretty boring, which, after seeing all the comparisons, was one reason I didn't buy White March. The other reason was that none of the new companions looked appealing and I wasn't sure if they'd give the old companions much to say or do. But if there's a new game coming out, and if I have to replay the old one anyway (because I deleted all my saves like an idiot), well....

Mind you, there's a element that's a bit "off" in the game's argument.

I'm fine with the fact the Gods of the Present Day are artificial. That leaves options for religious characters.

1. It doesn't matter they're artificial, they're still gods

2. I don't believe your evidence (even if it's true in this universe)

And so on.

But it did think the fact they were artificial was a BIG DEAL for some reason.

The reason the "gods" exist at all is because their creators couldn't handle living in a universe with no gods. They took it so badly they were willing to make gods and commit mass suicide to preserve the secret. The Big Bad of the first game was the lone survivor of said civilization and had the unenviable task of making sure the truth remained a secret at all costs. He genuinely believed that it would be the end of civilization if the truth came out — after all, his own civilization committed suicide rather than live in a godless universe.

edited 2nd Feb '18 11:20:31 PM by M84

I like the premise; it certainly makes playing a priest of Eothas fun, even if the first game's reactivity to that choice was lacking. I just wonder where they intend to go with it - chasing a rogue AI, even one that's viewed as a god, isn't terribly new ground.

Obsidian's games never really broke new ground per say, they just do them well enough with some clever writing.

Pretty much every game Obsidian and Black Isle has ever done, including the original Fallout and Torment, has taken something familiar, cliched even, and deconstructed the hell out of it. They like to repeat themselves, but not thoughtlessly. It's like a riff or motif in a song, where they continuously find new angles and different ways of combining their favourite tropes.

Details on Tekehu, from a post on the official forums:

"So Tekehu is a native of the Deadfire Archipelago, one of the godlike, or people who are born with features that resemble or are associated with a certain god. Pallegina is also a god-like and is associated with Hylea, the goddess of birds. Tekehu is a marine god-like, associated with Ondra, the goddess of the sea. Because the Huana culture is also very nautically oriented and they live in the Deadfire, he's sort of doubly revered. He was born into a caste of artisans, and from a very early age, people decided that his art would be water-shaping. Water-shaping is something that is unique to the Deadfire Archipelago. It is actually seemingly unique to the city of Neketaka. Tekehu is able to manipulate water in this beautiful, artistic, sometimes deadly way and he is a member of the Water Shapers Guild, and although he is not really a senior member or guild master, he's got a chip on his shoulder. Because everyone has told him he is so gifted, he believes it. He is really talented, but it goes to his head. He's very dismissive of people telling him how he should be using his arts, how he should use them to help people. He believes that is his gift to decide what to do with it. He's very headstrong and amorous. He has a lot of romantic inclinations and as you walk around the city of Neketaka, you run into people who have come across him in various ways. He is well known throughout the city. He is a very colorful and passionate character but is very headstrong and full of himself. He is also very inexperienced in dealing with the outside world. That is his conflict with reality.

"From a mechanical standpoint, Tekeku can either be a druid or a chanter or a combination of the two. Regardless of what class you pick for him, he has the ability to turn into a wereshark. This is an ability that is unique to him. It's a very potent combat form. He can still cast spells in that form, but he is a very powerful melee combatant in that form as well."

This is awesome. I was hoping he'd be the smug, self-satisfied type. And a wereshark?! Yesssss. *rubs hands gleefully*

On captaining a ship, which seems a great deal more interesting than ruling Caed Nua.

These backer updates are pretty hilarious. Why muppets? Why not?

I'm glad the stronghold will be more relevant this time around. I did get attached to Caed Nua, but it was mostly pointless and could be irritating. As long as the ship management stuff isn't too time-consuming - and there are console cheats so I can cheese it all to heck - it sounds like it'll be fun.

Companion relationships and romances are what I'm really looking forward to, especially since my Watchers have been eyeing Aloth from day one. But if he turns out not to be available to ladies I'll just pout for a bit, then continue dragging him everywhere to enjoy the accent, the snobbery and the snark. Looking forward to anchors aweigh in April!

edited 24th Feb '18 8:20:18 AM by Tarlonniel

Delayed until May 8

Given Obsidian's history with buggy launches, this is probably for the best.

The entire cast of Critical Role is doing voice work for this game.

I'm not familiar with Critical Role, but that's a pretty extensive list of talented voice actors.

Matt Mercer, the DM of Critical Role, quite prominently featured in the first game. He voiced both Aloth and Eder - the first two available companions.

Obsidian and Mercer seem to have a good relationship. Obsidian were the first company to allow Critical Role to play parts of their soundtrack as a 'score'/background music during the show.

Speaking of voice over, every line of dialog in the game will be voiced.

Sounds good. As long as they don't sacrifice quality for quantity; I hate games where the main characters are voiced beautifully but the side NP Cs sound like amateur night. Or they're all the same three actors.

Three post-release DLC have been announced.

Some miscellaonous features.

Main theme song.

Not meaning to destroy this thread, but I wonder if the launch period will be affected by Avellone's allegations due to the timing.

Probably not mostly because its not making big news as of yet, game is looking promising from customer point of view at least and because unethical business decisions are already unfortunately common that people accept them too easily even if they are disappointed that less successful not as huge developers do them too. Like people like to think that underdog who creates good quality stuff also works in ethical ways, but I dunno if that is enough to ruin them financially since crpgs is niche genre with not many developers providing customers what they want

I just find the timing interesting because in the last couple of weeks Josh Sawyer has been talking about crappy conditions in the game industry and that a union will be needed at some point.

But you're right, the effect won't be immediate, but more on the sense of what will happen after Deadfire.

edited 4th May '18 5:00:03 AM by UltraWanker

The most concerning thing to me is that Avellone was disownered after inquiring about financial irregularities.

CohhCarnage is doing a pre-release stream of the game, if anyone's curious. Obvious potentional spoilers depending on where it goes.