So I finished my first actual playthrough a few days ago.
Just some random remarks which contain mild spoilers:
Just some random remarks which contain mild spoilers:
- If I had to describe the experience in one word it would be epic, which entails the main theme and the perceived awesomeness of the game, and my game time of almost 300 hours. There's no other single-player RPG I have put that much time into for a single playthrough. And I enjoyed most of it.
- I guess the main reason for the long playtime is the turn-based combat. I started the game with RtwP and only switched to TB in tough battles. But from approximately early mid-game I played TB only. Difficulty was core, and I haven't optimized my party in detail, so some of the encounters where really tough for me (especially in early game and late end-game) and I had to replay them a few times which again increased game time.
With this game I realized that I want to play every D20 game in turn-based mode. That's what D20 systems were made for. For me it's so much more fun, elevating the game to another level.
However I can see that for other folks it might become tedious and thus I hope that Owlcat and other devs keep and improve the hybrid approach.
- My MC was a NG Aasimar Wizard (Elemental Specialist) and I went for Azata without switching later. I guess it's also quite a strong build because by chosing the right feats you can overcome any elemental resistances and immunities with every spell. (You can select a feat to ignore immunities for one element type, e.g. Fire. Then you chose another feat turning all elemental damage to this elemental type. E.g. you chose Fire and all other spells like Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, Stormbolts will as well cause fire damage.)
Also spell resistance isn't a concern anymore. My mid-to-late-game opener often was to teleport directly into the enemy crowd with a Quicken rod and then cast Stormbolts with a Maximize rod doing 100-200 (later even more) damage to each creature, sometimes stunning most and thus trivializing the encounter.
The path was quite fun, however a little too flowerish and childish. I would have liked a more serious non-Angel good option like the Archmage.
- I liked most of the companions. All in all they're well done, including their personal quests which (I guess) I all completed.
My core party was Sheelah, Lann, Arueshalae, Woljif, and Daeran (initally I went with Sosiel but he was too boring).
- A nice little detail was that by encouraging Ember with her preaching she ultimatly managed (or at least helped) to turn a demon lord around and leave the evil ways behind, which I afterwards noticed is even Pathfinder canon.
- My main complaint about the game still is the setting (adventure path) and the quite monotonous theme that comes with it. During the alpha I complained that you do nothing besides fighting demons in destroyed buildings. Well, I need to partly revoke this because you don't always fight in destroyed buildings. But still it's almost always demons. Only on rare occasions you get some variety and fight humans, golems or dragons. So it really gets boring.
I think Owlcat could have done more to create variety without having to sacrifice the authenticity of the setting (e.g. the demons could just have used various enslaved creatures).
- My second biggest complaint is the crusade management. While I think that every diversion and change of pace in an RPG is nice, the actual implementation of the crusade management in WotR is heavily flawed. Usability is horrendous. Also it is simultaneously too complex (I have still no idea which types of troops I can train, via upgrades and how all of it works) and too simple: During the whole game I had only a single actual army. Just in one specific moment in Act 5 I had the need for a second army which I luckily had because I dropped all random unfitting troops in an army and leveled the general a bit (just in case). But if you only need a single army, then you don't have a strategy game.
Also building stuff in Drezen and the outposts is badly done with having to switch between screens a thousand times without having an actual overview.
All in all this part of the game didn't pull down the quality of the game too much but it also didn't add anything significantly positive besides giving the feeling that the MC wasn't responsible for a small party only but for an actual crusade. It's a lot wasted potential.
- In terms of items/loot I missed good robes for my MC wizard and also enough good bows. With Lann and Arue I used the same bows for most of the game. I would have liked to switch more often.
Also there haven't been enough boots or gauntlets. Imho there should be at least a few good items for each slot for each character type.
- Can't say anything about romance besides that my "planned" romance with Arueshalae didn't work out. Perhaps it was bugged or I chose the wrong dialogue options.
It was quite funny with Daeran as he tried to seduce my MC. MC played along as he just wanted to spend some bro-time with him to understand him better, but that didn't work out in the end.
I then finally tried to hook up with the Queen but she refused. Apparently she was afraid of my chaotic Azata nature.
Oh well, I guess MC will die alone… hm… or he could seek out Nocticula in Elysium.
- I'm still unsure about the Mythic paths. First thing is that for me they're a little over the top. While I like my MC (and companions) to become stronger with time, I don't want to become on a level with demon-lords during a single game. I like it a bit more down to earth or at least slower. However that's more a problem of the adventure paths itself I think.
Also mechanically the Mythic levels add another layer of complexity which imho isn't necessary in an already complex rule set. They should have at least simplified it a bit. I still don't understand why we need to make a distinction between Mythic Abilities and Mythic Feats.
- Also I'm unsure if I like it that they again implemented a secret ending which in a first playthrough imho can only be achieved by pure luck. It more or less forces a replay which I think is the reason why they put it in. I'd like it better if the possible outcome is somehow communicated early so that you can deliberately work towards this goal and have an actual chance to achieve it on first try without meta-gaming.
- Technically the game was ok. I didn't play a lot in the first weeks after release and I restarted after ~60 hours, so I guess a lot of the bugs had been fixed when I finally played the later acts.
So I only had some minor problems.
- The best part of the game for me was Alushinyrra, the city in the Abyss. I just like playing in cities and being in a demon city was a novelty for me. I was very happy being assaulted while spending a night in the tavern. It somehow felt familiar and right.
- All in all I rated it 9.25/10 on my personal fun scale which is the same I gave for Kingmaker. WotR had some clear improvements (e.g. TB combat), but I liked the setting in Kingmaker a lot better.
Thus I rated it above than all of the party based isometric RPGs in the last years like D:OS2 (9.0) , PoE2 (8.5), PoE (8.0), TToN (7.5), Solasta (7.25), D:OS1 (7.0). So for me Pathfinder is the actual spiritual succesor of the original BG games.
I also rated it better than CP77 (9.0), KCD (8.5), ME:A (8.5), DA:I (8.5), but still not as good as TW3, BG2, ME2/3 (all 9.5).
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