S
Sacred_Path
Guest
So I've played TRoT recently, and I can't for the life of me understand why people rate it more highly than Drakensang. I think it might just be that you'd expect a sequel that doesn't change the basic formula of the predecessor and that was in development for 2 years to be more refined, but in this case, it really isn't.
The story is generally more epic in Drakensang, 1/3 murder mystery, 2/3s artifact hunt. In TRoT, you spend 80% of the game looking for the pirates that hit you on the head.
Combat is essentially the same in both games, or almost the same as you have some limitations in party composition in TRoT, i.e. you can't have more than two magic users. There are IIRC three new activated abilities in TRoT, and they aren't even among the best, so no real difference there. Skills and spells are exactly the same in both games.
Exploration also isn't vastly different. When I first read about TRoT I thought "yeah, having a ship as your base sounds fun", I was thinking of a kind of open world scenario. It isn't, and sailing that ship up and down the same river over the course of the game is as boring as it sounds. Adding insult to injury, there are no random encounters in TRoT. These tended to be fun (especially the first time around when you didn't know what you'd run into), and a bit exciting (when your party was weakened and out of supplies). The "base" itself is as inconsequential as it was in Drakensang, with the same option to use a gold sink and install some workbenches that you don't really need.
The writing certainly isn't any better in TRoT than it was in Drakensang; it has the same stereotypes, the same "harmless" light tone. If you didn't like it the first time around, you won't like TRoT either.
Rakorum was actually fun to meet in Drakensang, as it goes against the (Western?) stereotype of the intense, brooding wizard. In TRoT, he just has a short cameo. For shame.
The only improvement that I can see is that, without random encounters, you can no longer farm herbs, which makes the system a bit less broken than in Drakensang. But if you're really looking to get into the series, start with Drakensang, and then if you can stomach a slightly weaker successor, try TRoT. It's definitely not like BG2 > BG1.
The story is generally more epic in Drakensang, 1/3 murder mystery, 2/3s artifact hunt. In TRoT, you spend 80% of the game looking for the pirates that hit you on the head.
Combat is essentially the same in both games, or almost the same as you have some limitations in party composition in TRoT, i.e. you can't have more than two magic users. There are IIRC three new activated abilities in TRoT, and they aren't even among the best, so no real difference there. Skills and spells are exactly the same in both games.
Exploration also isn't vastly different. When I first read about TRoT I thought "yeah, having a ship as your base sounds fun", I was thinking of a kind of open world scenario. It isn't, and sailing that ship up and down the same river over the course of the game is as boring as it sounds. Adding insult to injury, there are no random encounters in TRoT. These tended to be fun (especially the first time around when you didn't know what you'd run into), and a bit exciting (when your party was weakened and out of supplies). The "base" itself is as inconsequential as it was in Drakensang, with the same option to use a gold sink and install some workbenches that you don't really need.
The writing certainly isn't any better in TRoT than it was in Drakensang; it has the same stereotypes, the same "harmless" light tone. If you didn't like it the first time around, you won't like TRoT either.
Rakorum was actually fun to meet in Drakensang, as it goes against the (Western?) stereotype of the intense, brooding wizard. In TRoT, he just has a short cameo. For shame.
The only improvement that I can see is that, without random encounters, you can no longer farm herbs, which makes the system a bit less broken than in Drakensang. But if you're really looking to get into the series, start with Drakensang, and then if you can stomach a slightly weaker successor, try TRoT. It's definitely not like BG2 > BG1.