To all of you regarding whenever the devs are reading or not - I am also quite sure they are around. However I'd be beyond surprised if they replied and I am not expecting them to. I'd be happy if just one Larian-employee reads the letter gets just a tiny bit of encouragement in silence. I'd ask for nothing more. :] Just seeing the community reading it is more than enough for me!
Two games handled this worse than the other titles - namely Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity 2 (I did not at all feel this way about the first PoE..). Pathfinder Kingmaker is an extremely long game, and the small amount of actual dialogues you get with your companions prove... Disappointing. You see their amazing character development during their quests and you experience all of these amazing (and horrendous) things alongside them, yet you don't really feel like you ever talk it out (except for their personal quest objectives - I'll give credit where credit is due). In general, the dialogues in Pathfinder Kingmaker are limited, especially the ones related to the relationship between you and your companions (both romances and non-romances) - and in a game as long as Pathfinder Kingmaker (not just irl play-wise, but actually ingame-wise too) it just feels so odd to not have more proper dialogues with your companions. I mean, you basically live with these people alongside you for *multiple years*... A video containing *ALL* of Valerie's interactions with the player (romance run) only rounds up to 40 minutes (including the time given to read the conversations) in a game that is MORE than 50 hours (!!!) long! That's nowhere near enough, imo.
I'll just respond to this as this is what I know the most about compared to most others on these forums.
You might be pleased to know that the sequel addresses this problem, at least in a different way. There is slightly more interaction between your character and your companions in general (and also seemingly more elaborate companion quests, chapter 3 of WotR feels like it's 40% main quest and 60% companion quests - sidequests seem to have taken a back seat in favor of the main story and companion quests), but they also went all in on party banter in general. They talk, a lot, often reacting to each other.
For example, here's a screenshot of FOUR party members talking to each other at one point in the main quest, one of them outside of the party for story reasons but about to rejoin, and three inside your current party.
Thank you very much for your reply - I am truly delighted to see this!
<3 I will keep a close eye on WotR and I will most definitely buy it. I am very excited to see Owlcats development as a gaming company in general. <3
@OP: Thank you for your post.
Some things about companions and dialogue:
- In BG3 tons of character related stuff happens when you rest in the camp.
I think I missed lots of stuff about my companions because I did not rest very often.
So the game does not only NOT restrict resting in any way, it also encourages you to rest spam just to progress companion quests and see some interesting things.
There is one scene you can only see when you rest before recruiting the first companion and you can find her after a few steps with no enemies in between.
I would prefer Kingmaker style when companions come to you and say they want to talk about something.
When you come to a situation that is related to their quest they say they want to talk about this later and you can talk to them in camp (without resting).
In some cases this is the case but I feel some interesting things are locked behind rest spamming.
I have suggested that resting would consume some kind of rations.
Think of PoE1, resting is not really limited there.
But I think it makes a psychologic difference if something is free or if it costs a very small prize.
- About companions and party role
Because of the reasons described above I want to be a bard when the game is fully released.
- They can fill many roles, so I have more freedom which other chars to take.
- They have high charisma and many skills. This means that I (the main char) can interact a lot with other NPC or the environment.
If I optimize my char for combat now it always is better to have somebody else talk to other people so I am playing somebody else and not my main char which feels strange.
Thank you for your thoughts and your suggestions. I absolutely agree on most things. Especially regarding resting.
- my 2 cents about the games you mentioned
+ I think Kingmaker is the best game at the moment. It is big and epic as BG2 and in many regards it is even better I think. Main downside is that the pathfinder system is the most complex system I know and often things are not explained very well. It is great when you understand it. But many players will fail a lot and maybe even quit before they can enjoy this. My first char was quite a desaster.
+ PoE1+2. I liked both games. Actually I like the PoE game system. The basics are easy to understand though there are some exceptions. Like PoE2 adding the totally unintuitive double inversion (20% bonus and 20% penalty does not result in zero but a small penalty, even the devs sometimes did not understand this).
My problem with PoE1 was that sometimes it was too depressive. You see a tree of dead people, tons of cultists and children without soul and almost nothing funny. As counter example, the witcher series is very dark but it does not feel depressive. One of my favourite games is Nier Automata (action JRPG): While the setting is as dark and and depressive as it can be and everybody goes insane (they really do, its not just a theoritical thread as in PoE) there are also some funny moments and you get a strong emotional connection to the characters.
+ Dragon Age Origins: A very good game. My main problem is that for every main quest you have to chose between two sides but it does not feel it makes much of a difference.
+ DOS2: I have never finished it. I hated inflating stats, random equipment, the whole screen filled with stuff like necrofire after every fight, the new armor system and some other things. I also do not really like the origin system, so in BG3 I will play a custom char and treat the others like normal companions in other games.
While DOS1 had some flaws, I finished it and enjoyed it more than DOS2.
I think BG3 is great and I like it. The best change was going to DnD 5E system. My opinion is that if they stick closer to DnD rules and leave behind more DOS2 mechanics it would be even better.
+ Pathfinder Kingmaker - I agree! I was nervous since I knew what kind of rep it had, so I'll admit without shame that I made everything as easy as possible and I did a ton of beginners guide reading before I actually started playing. I never gave up on my first character, but chose to live with my mistakes and play the entire game through in one go. I do not regret it at all (I am at the very end right now
).
+ PoE1 and 2. Like I said in the original post, I adored both games. Imagine how different people feel about the scenery! PoE1 being so eerie and dark with comical relief in the banter is one of the things that made me adore it. Perhaps it is because it gave me some hack-n-slash vibes (most famous hack n slash titles use similar eerie environments - and I played a lot of hack n slash) - but I absolutely adored it. And it also genuinely felt like a world that needed saving. The entire first thing with the dead tree and when you meet Aloth and Edér there is among the things I remember most fondly - I feel so nostalgic about it even though it only happened like one or two months ago! And the first dream about the dwarven lady - sure, I got a bit spooked playing the entire thing, not knowing the game very well and sitting here, in the dark, late at night getting introduced to this dark universe - but oh god did it leave a lasting impression. <3 I absolutely loved it. Every minute. Unfortunately I did not yet have the chance to enjoy the NA games, so I cannot comment on this particular part.
+ DAO. Can't tell just yet as I didn't get very far on my first attempt with an RTwP-game :'D But apart from getting my butt kicked by random bandits - I loved the entire thing!
+ DOS2. I played DOS2 without having any prior experience of CRPGs, so I had nothing to compare it to.
I absolutely loved their turnbased combat with environment-interactions and I believe DOS2 was a perfect first CRPG game for me, because of how different and simple it is compared to the other titles. It felt natural because it had similarities to Xcom 2 (which I played A LOT) which made the combat much easier for me. c:
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