Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

The DoS2 Origins all have very heroic paths open to them even in their companion forms. Which is the reason the Origan paths are widely accepted as a legit way to play DoS2 compared to BG3. It's an indication of how the CRPG audience has changed that a developed evil path barely elicits any reaction

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

That's one of the other things with the DoS2 Origins. They're all very traditional heroic fantasy archetypes, even Lohse and Beast but Astarion as expected, takes far more from gothic horror. Sebille the closet to Astarion is about heroic empowerment compared to his (Spawn) heroic disempowerment

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

Origin playthroughs are strange in BG3. In DOS2 they made some amount of sense inserting you into a preexisting character. In BG3 it's almost like you're wearing the skin of a companion you knew for a long time. By putting more effort into the generic starts, they made redundant the Origins.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

Larian may have added a reaction for each companion romance but let's be honest the only ones that make sense are Wyll and Karlach.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

BG3's openness clashes with its intent that you play an Origin option in this instance. Larian did not want to deny a genetic Tav who's not pursuing Wyll or Karlach a chance with Mizora so they make it available as long as you keep Wyll in your party.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

The Mizora plot is one of the best things about Wyll (I love a Warlock who actually has a contract) and the worst things (general audiences hate a warlock who isn't them with a contract). I mean honestly why can you have the experience with her if you not Wyll/Karlach? Makes no sense otherwise.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

It's a quest that can involve Wyll but does it really centre him?For all their attempts to create a unique story for him Larian could not come up with anything to distinguish Wyll from a generic Tav.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

I mean yes, but does Wyll exist beyond act 1? When he's brought up sure you've got a competitor but let's be honest, he's not being talked about unless it's a directly related quest and there are not many of those.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · 8d

Ok listen it's DnD so we've all done some bad things in the name of optimization and mechanically you're rewarded for murdering children so I can't blame the bear for it.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Sep 17

Are you talking about a different neck snapping incident becuase the one I'm familiar with involved a mind controlled Superman with no other way to save Clark. Like Maxwell definitely pissed her off but he himself admitted that there were no other options to undo the mind control.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · May 26

There's probably an article to be written on the appeal of these sort of games being in how they make the large complex organisations legible and therefore easy to direct. Linking that to popular assumptions about the limitations or the lack thereof real world organisations face.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · May 26

I suspect that the vibe difference is a limitation on the popularity. The clarity of information and the ability to use that for optimisation seems to be the big appeal for most fans of management games, almost a necessity. The resulting smaller audience may only be able to support very few games.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · May 24

It's such a fascinating world and it's absurd that the only games based on it are KODP (not aligned with current edition) and Six Ages (set before time itself and slightly misaligned with the current edition). There's a very rich vein to be tapped, but no one seems interested in it.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Apr 24

The SWTOR Imperial Agent making this explicit is one of the reasons why it's the best class story in that game. Just twenty hours of dealing with insane wizard aristocrats really makes you appreciate the rule of two and the Jedi no family policy.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Apr 2

It's very good, really brings the first two episodes up to spec. It's also very interesting in relation to this topic because you can clearly see where stuff has been added or edited to make people stop picking the seventeen year old dog

someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Apr 2

The devs of Scarlet Hollow put out a blog post on the subject and being able to see the decision making behind the dilemmas to make them roughly equal is amazing. Really gave me an appreciation for the craft of narrative design and made me think that what we might need is smaller narrative stakes.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Apr 2

It's strange because even though telemetry caused a lot of devs to give up on putting stark decisions in games, I still find it fascinating when they make them public. Getting to see the fine detail on what decisions "worked" and managed to make both choices equally appealing is almost worth it.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Apr 2

Going in that direction you're also running up against the big elephant of just how Serana became a vampire which is acknowledged vaguely but never quite get's the discussion it deserves. Which is probably a good thing because I don't trust Bethesda to handle anything like that with grace.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 27

I'm about half way though and I'm enjoying it so far. The one major quibble is the Saw plot line. It's OK but I would have preferred more focus on Bail and Mon but what's there is good.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 27

Oh yeah the whole book (Mask of Fear) and the series it's part of Reign of Empire severs as a bridge between the Prequels and the Original trilogy. More interestingly is that it's also serving as a bridge to Andor becuase it's going to cover what happens during the formation of the rebellion.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 27

There's a funny moment (well I found it funny) in one of the latest books where Mon and Bail are arguing about how to respond to the rise of the Empire where Bail is just ranting on about the purging of the Jedi and Mon can't help but point out that nobody gives a damn about them.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 17

Listen if I can smite them without breaking my oath of devotion then the only conclusion I can come to is that Halsin ripping those kids to shreds was cosmicly and ethically fine. It's weird that Larian made it like that but it's their game so they get to decide I suppose.

someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 13

As the original RETVRN bro I feel like Julian would have written a whole political track on how his enemies were woke.

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someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 13

The Durge bad end is so good, Withers just shows up only to judge you for being stupid, crazy and in a cage. No rescue or second chances. They really should have had something like for the Illithid ending but nope gotta save it for a hyper niche Origin ending because what would the fans think.

someguy9255.bsky.social @someguy9255.bsky.social · Mar 5

Though I enjoyed the Origin system in DOS2 it does feel like on the whole it's holding Larian back by requiring them to make characters that function as both PCs and Companions. Inevitably one aspect will be favoured and if the PC aspect is then a majority of players get a weaker character.

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