Just have to chime in here because I've been lurking for a while and I'm compelled by a devilish pact to talk about POE 1 & 2, likely my best games ever.
The tone, the settings, the writing, the gameplay, itemization, the music... it was everything I hoped for. Yes, the story and characters could have been improved (especially in Deadfire) but by far, it was a solid experience in both (I have over 1500 hours in both games).
So why wasn't it commercially successful? And yeah, they made the budget back but that doesn't qualify as commercially successful.
My own experiences with it were I found the narrative ungrounded and fractured with all the factions versus go find a walking God but also fix everyone's problems for no reason. The combat was really boring - uninspired and unchallenging.
I made it halfway through both games and just stopped out of boredom. It just felt like work.
Also a new system that is needlessly complicated, yet every class manages to feel the same basically. I've tried to re-start once they made turn based an option but I can't get past character creation. Apparently there is a significant difference in class build effectiveness between turn based and RTWP.
And its sad because Obsidian is a great company, they deserve the win! Especially after Bethesda screwed them over with FNV.
