Grimoire Started…

Some creatures are pretty clever. The one with “reach” that could hit my 3rd line was a bit of a surprise. I almost lost my Sage that way before moving him to the 4th line. I watched a “let’s play” where they guy clearly didn’t realize you car reorder your party in combat and promote fresh characters to the front lines if one of your tanks take a beating. He kept save scumming. So far the puzzles are doable - provided you have the patience to pay attention and look carefully. I have not figured out how “detect secrets” works. Is it supposed to chime when you are in the right spot or something? So far I’ve just been touching walls and such.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
I said never REALLY play it

So you are saying your points are based on an unreal play-through!?

I've now played 82 hours of Grimoire and would recommend it to any fans of Wizardry 6 & 7. I've collected all the cuniform tablets so I think I'm entering the last part of the game, however big that proves to be.

Originally Posted by SirJames
Make sure you have room in your party for the fairy to join!

In general the companions who can join your party are much better than any of your starting characters. While their lower levels when they join may initially seem problematic this is general made up by their far superior hit points, magic points, and skills. Also the xp system means they catch up to your pregenerated pc levels pretty fast. You also get access to a number of classes like the Jester and Assassin that are simply hard to design. Letting companions join your party (even in the later game) makes the game much easier. I wonder if Cleve did this as an option to lower the game's difficulty of if he just liked his companions so much that he wanted everyone to play with them,

I hope that's optional I like my party now. I could kill my Bard but otherwise I'm fairly happy.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I hope that's optional I like my party now. I could kill my Bard but otherwise I'm fairly happy.

So Todd McFarlane plays Grimoire?

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I hope that's optional I like my party now. I could kill my Bard but otherwise I'm fairly happy.

It is completely optional. It actually didn't dawn on me quite how powerful the npcs are until I added my third one and saw the pattern. I initially made 7 characters and was somewhat dissatisfied with my ranger and my cleric who always seemed to be hurting for MP, so I "tried out" 2 more npcs midgame.

I have to stop these 3AM sessions. Creatures are starting to hurl AOE stuff into my rear ranks which is making it harder to hide my Fae Necromancer. Fire Beetles keep taking her out. She can cast Summon Undead to distract and that seems effective. But damn low hitpoints is brutal!

Already bought but not sure to find the appeal to ever play it. It would be on Mac or playable through some wine, I would have try it already, but switch just for that i need a high motivation.

I saw a let's play first part, with click and click and click repeated to increase various skills, I wonder who can design such gameplay and think it's good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TotLNp2TC68

It starts at 12"25.

Seriously… That said it's quite possible i would never have solve the riddle, nor find all those little secrets.

I wonder how be positive with such things.

How are folk finding the new Spirit Meter? That wasn't in version 1 when I played it. I think it basically means some of your party get too frightened to move sometimes?

Really looking forward to diving into version 2 when I was cleared my backlog a bit.

If you aren’t interested in so called “Golden Age” RPG gaming I can’t fathom why you’d buy it. The Dev made some modern concessions for usability and presentation but sparingly so it still feels extremely vintage. Some of use love that. This and “The Quest” have been more engrossing for me than Witcher 3. I like modern gaming as well but everything these days is pretty much a streamlined pretty guided tour.

Ok starting to get a bit concerned about quest issues. I’m pretty good at finding secrets and such but some things are game stopping obscure. No spoilers - but I guessed a password recently that was based on a scout skill check discovery that I could see many missing. Clever is good but extremely obscure isn’t. Earlier than that I was stuck because I wasn’t talking to NPC’s properly. Meaning had to charm the NPC to get what I needed. Also on the main quest. If I have to constantly refer to walkthroughs I’m going to lose interest pretty quickly. The Lich area is great though

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Ok starting to get a bit concerned about quest issues. I’m pretty good at finding secrets and such but some things are game stopping obscure. No spoilers - but I guessed a password recently that was based on a scout skill check discovery that I could see many missing. Clever is good but extremely obscure isn’t. Earlier than that I was stuck because I wasn’t talking to NPC’s properly. Meaning had to charm the NPC to get what I needed. Also on the main quest. If I have to constantly refer to walkthroughs I’m going to lose interest pretty quickly. The Lich area is great though

Well I'll probably never been able to really play this game.

My small thought on that is the best design is to make at least two degree of hints. The first hint setup the base, and let smart fast people find the solution. The second is a bit in background, vaguely hidden or longer to find, this second hint is much more direct and is to allow the majority of players decipher the point. When smartest players see it, it doesn't matter they already had the fun to solve all without it.

It could even be a second reward for them, to let them feel superior, ha I didn't need such obvious hint for the idots. :-)

EDIT: Another design trick that I think it is good, it's just to multiply the hints, all rather tough, but for some players one will work much better, when for some other players it's another hint that will work much better, and get them all should make it easier for most players.

Good thoughts. There is certainly a fine line between obscurity and leading the player with quest map markers. A few hints is a nice compromise. I’ll keep playing to see where this game lands. Knowing how to talk to NPC’s may prove to provide adequate hints going forward. The dialogue system isn’t multiple choice it’s free text keyword based!

Originally Posted by Pongo
How are folk finding the new Spirit Meter? That wasn't in version 1 when I played it. I think it basically means some of your party get too frightened to move sometimes?

Really looking forward to diving into version 2 when I was cleared my backlog a bit.

Its kind of annoying IMO. Your characters take spirit damage when fighting scary creatures. This can be healed almost entirely by casting the bless spell at the lowest level. I think if you don't heal it, you have a worse time with fear effects. I personally always healed up in between combats. It was just another sort of time consuming healing. Bless spellbooks have become pretty common drops (for spellbooks in any case) so its pretty easy to have a number of spellcasters who can cast it.

Just be careful you don’t bless a necromancer. It doesn’t go over well

Dragonflies. What the hell. As soon as they appear its an instant reload. They one shot my entire party and have initiative. Where is the balance in this? This is in an otherwise fairly easy area "the Eyrie".

Dragonflies are a pain. Make sure you have armour plate up at full is the only advice I can give. They aren't even worth killing as the XP is way to little for a monster with killing blow. I usually just reloaded in the Aerie when they spawned. Later in the game I had higher initiative than they did and usually killed them before they could attack.

Edit: You'll find Speed the most important attribute for your non-spellcasters, especially late in the game. You want in most cases to kill things before they can attack. Monsters who can paralyze your characters, drive them insane, or killing blow them are much more common later. Best slay as many them as possible before they can attack.

Bought it, just before steam sale ends.

I had to save scum to get through it. The hilarious thing is that the alternative spawn is a firebug or condor which are nothing. That vs 6 dragonflies that will wipe you in 2 turns. The only town I’ve seen is Crowl and I bought the only armor they had - a single set. The dragonflies went through it like butter.