All the complaints people have about WotR seem to imply that they really learned nothing, and made an even bigger, bloated-er, and less structurally sound game because it sure is a great idea to extend your ambitions when you couldn't properly assemble a smaller project. Eh, no accounting for taste, I guess. Or I am simply burnt out on the older formula by now, and looking forward to the more unconventional approaches like the one Larian takes.
You are completely right. I liked Kingmaker and for all it's problems it had an excuse of being first game they made. What made me particularly disappointed with WoTR is that while extending the class/subclass pool seemed like a good idea, the problem was implementation. First off at release tons of new classes were simply broken or lacking core features and to this day AFAIK some classes lack some core abilities that they should have. I also remember some ability descriptions being copy-pasted from another class without even bothering to change mentions to the original class (Hellknight Signifier). At least half of subclasses had some mechanical issues. And why add 5 archetypes to Bloodrager, when one of them is superior to every other one and is almost never allowed at any reasonable table.
Secondly, a lot of classes were made unattractive, due to mythic paths often being anti-synergistic with them. Obvious combination of inquisitor/Aeon? Guess your not using half of your class features, since your swift actions will be taken by all the Aeon stuff. There are plenty of examples of that. Mechanically using Swift Action in RTWP is still dubious (unless you time them in some arbitrary way, the eat your other actions), so you are forced into TB with some classes. But then, sorry, stuff like Leading Strike mythic ability is now operating at 5% effectiveness.
Not to mention game is filled with hidden homebrews. Larian seems to be clear on what is being changed, while Owlcat doesn't change anything in spell/ability description but mechanics are different. F.e. Shatter Defenses which is a must for any of the higher difficulties is just making all intimidated foes flat-footed since Kingmaker, which is nothing like RAW. Charisma double-stacking for AC is another dumb implementation of the rules. Not to mention hundreds of little things. Magic Missile getting bonus damage from Mark of Justice for each missile, making it the best spell in the game for boss killing. Touch of Glory giving you +1/Cleric Level Charisma for all things charisma is used, until you decide to use it for a skill check. For someone who played 1e Pathfinder for couple of years, a lot of times when I check how something works in game, something work against RAW. Most modders pay more attention to what they release.
Don't get me wrong it's not a bad game for one playthrough, but the final product that Owlcat developed is a bit scammy.
Yessss! I agree 100%. I think Owlcat is really bad at adapting ttrpgs into the framework of their own game engine. When people say that Larian should take notes from them, I am like "please dont". Cause Larian actually adapts and not just copypaste a system, ignoring the obvs limitations btw the mediums.
