Please at least make UnderRail video at some point, it doesn't have to be the next one, but it deserves recognition at some point, especially regarding that it's made by an obscure Serbian studio. Great video by the way, thank you for your dedication.
@@MaddieRaeGun same for me. Watching everyone's crpg videos made me really wanna play them and now I'm having dread because i have like 8 of them i haven't played before lol
@@kentcampbell122 might as well give up and not play any. I hear there are some good crpg critique retrospectives out there though. Don't forget matt chat (matt barton) for the real classic developer interviews.
@kentcampbell122 my tip is to play them on a relatively easier difficulty so you don't need to worry about ever pausing the game to look up guides etc.
Agreed, I really liked they didn't go for the easy jokes. So instead of repeating Minsc, they made versions of the silly humour for the people who have grown up since the old Baldur's Gate games.
Not to mention all the various interactions between them. Even Aloth gave me some hearty chuckles at his aristocratic shock and disdain towards the world around him
I finally started Tyranny recently and, after playing Wasteland 2 just before, I'm incredibly grateful for some of the features it inherited from Pillars. The fast mode and infinite stash are superb and every comparable game should have them. I've come to the conclusion that RPGs don't gain anything from restrictive inventory limits. If Gothic didn't need one, no game does.
I think RPGs can have inventory management that adds to the game, but it's often seen as just boilerplate standard stuff rather than a creative decision, so it just ends up being out of place.
I think it depends on the game. Something like Darkest Dungeon it makes sense because you have interesting decisions about what resources to bring at the expense of inventory space for loot. Outside of games that center around resource management there's little benefit
Eh. I like one restriction, which is a personal inventory for a character on top of an effectively infinite stash like PoE does. Because I've played through Wasteland 3 recently, which has an infinite inventory but it's all combined without any character inventories, and it's a big mess to sort through a lot of the time as you accumulate more and more items that you might need occasionally but not all the time. While it's nice to not have to worry about weight limits, character based inventories to sort gear along the lines of who needs what or what you want to hold onto rather than sell help keep things much better organized.
"Every companion is serious, not one of them is funny". Hiravias is staring at you dumbfounded. The little guy could be Minsc's rodent sidekick or Morte's drinking buddy, since both are lecherous and foul-mouthed.
If there's one thing to take from this retrospective series, one cardinal rule for all games in this genre is: save often and save separately. Going for a bathroom break? Save. About to enter a new area? Save. Unsure if to save? Save.
I have a theory about why the story falls short, especially in the first half. I myself stopped playing for over a year after reaching the first town and didn't know what to do with myself, not understanding the world and having no connection to it (all characters from the introduction were basically thrown away). Then I started watching the making of, out of interest, and when they showed off their "vertical slice" it actually looked rather interesting. So I picked Pillars up again and basically the moment I reached that part of the game *it started to be good*. So my impression is that they wrote an outline, made the vertical slice and pretty much knew where they wanted to go from there, but not how to get to that point. That's why maybe the first 60% felt ill paced and somewhat tacked on.
There is a little error in the video. In the narrative our character has two problem : -He is now a Watcher (and he will stay like that) -He is awaken by his first encounter with Thaos, which means he will become mad if he didn't resolve this condition.
Yeah, I think Chris didn't realize that the main character's personal motivation isn't to get rid of their super power, it's to stop from going insane. You're told pretty clearly that unless you find Thaos and confront your past life, you're inevitably going to lose your mind, and probably die. I think the companions even get increasingly worried about you as your flashbacks grow more and more disorienting as the story progresses.
@Ladiesman1447 Yep, game need's a "Less Loading Times Edition" or something. I may try to go back to it but I dread buildings with more than one floor lol.
Pillars 1 had a ton of achievements bugged and don't pop though, otherwise I'd probably replay it for a 100%. Divinity original sin 2 I will do another run to finish all achievements this summer.
The sequel remedies a number of issues: quests have recommended levels, there are scattered mini-dungeons instead of giant slogs, better fast-travel means less load-screens, and the main campaign is very short.
@@adrenalin2957 Gameplay is improved as mentioned, but I agree, the main story is disappointing. I get tired of high fantasy stuff like gods. I actually prefer a more down to Earth (or whatever the particular world may be called) plot like Baldur's Gate 1. Sure BG 1 did involve a god, but a lot of it just revolved around a villain who wanted to gain power and an iron shortage. Same thing with Baldur's Gate 2. Yes that involved a godlike power as well, but the main plot was really about a regular villain who wanted to gain power. And yes BG2 is better than the expansion for BG2 which goes too much into the high fantasy stuff too much.
@@JimmyMon666 Late comment but. I really like the gods. Because they're not, true deities. They're ascended people, which makes their conflicts much more human. It's reminiscent to me of stuff like Deus Ex Human Revolution's illuminati. Mysterious, powerful, but undoubtedly human. I usually hate gods in games, but the way they went about it won me over. For the sequel i really didnt care much about the eothas story but the new vegas style conflict between the kith groups really kept me interested. I think Pillars 2 does a decent job at capturing the essence of colonialism and the british east india company.
Pillars was my first CRPG and made me fall in love with the genre, it’s actually what led me to your channel after wanting to learn more about other CRPGs. The game holds a special place in my heart even after playing more from the genre. Also I think you might just be exceptionally good at these games or I’m just exceptionally bad because I always find Normal or Easy to be enough challenge for me lol. Thanks for making these excellent videos, can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Deadfire
I think your complaint about lack of comedic relief just sold me on the game. There aren't many things I hate more in serious settings than the forced funnies. Yes, I am indeed German.
I really enjoyed PoE. I disagree about the writing a bit, not because I think the story as a whole was great, but because I found a few things that really connected with me. Durance, Eder, and Aloth I thought were pretty interesting, and Aloth's relationship with his awakened soul provided some much needed levity. Also, the game offered enough small choices in the way you interact with the story that I felt like I could actually play a role, a trait I rate very highly in RPGs (obviously). There were certainly a lot of details and references to slog through, but there were enough good things that overall I remember it fondly. I don't know if I'd ever want to play PoE again, but I think that's mainly because Deadfire was such an improvement in so many ways that it would be hard to go back.
Very few games hit me hard enough to make me get truly emotional in a story. But god damn, the Deadfire ending that I got with my complete, start to finish playthrough….yeah I shed a year or two. Beginnings and endings are the best parts of stories, and it’s even better when the ending recalls how the story began. A kind of “Let’s have a look back and get nostalgic.” I’m glad I had Edér and Aloth in my party when I got my ending.
Very glad you made a point to call out the massive amount of world building stuffed into the dialogue. It nearly turned me off from Pillars completely until I managed to push through to Defiance Bay.
I don't think the problem of this game is the writing itself as much as the pacing and Obsidian focusing on the world-building a bit too much. The story itself is interesting, but it only starts to get going after Act 1, which is a complete slog to get through due to the huge amount of info dumps. It's kinda like what NeverKnowsBest said in his critique, the story writing is strong, but the storytelling is not. I also don't agree that the game takes itself too seriously. Sure, its more serious compared to Divinity Original Sin for example, but it has a ton of witty banter and moments of levity between characters like Eder, Aloth, Hiravias, Durance, and Maheha.
"dyrwood, which is a basically a renaissance era European place" - i thought Dyrwood was meant to be a fairly blatant analogue to the early colonial USA?
I think you're right. Been a while since I played but I'm near certain that was the primary inspiration, but it's also easy to imagine them throwing in a dash of Europe.
Yeah. The technological level is (roughly) early modern, so 1600s-1700s. The Dyrwood is referencing a post-Colonial America, with references to throwing off the Adyrans a couple centuries previously.
There were some sparks of brilliance in this game like when you could sneak into the ogre cavern, not kill a single one and make peace with them or going similiarly bloodless in the main game in the keep sidequest. Though the sneaking was a bit grating at times.
@@CC-of5xl Yep, hopefully obsidian can keep the quality up. I see it as a great challenge for them to prove themselves as one of the industry elite if they can pull it off.
PoE's ending still disappoints me to this day. So much build up and interesting answers to intriguing dilemmas raised by the narrative, the characters, the quests, and it all just becomes a fickle boss fight to close things out bombastically and with finality.
Agreed, would have been awesome to continue the game after the ending seeing how ur choices effected the world in person rather it being told by a slideshow.
I actually backed Project Eternity despite never growing up with those old Infinity engine games simply because I loved New Vegas so much and thought 'old school' just sounded intriguing. Still haven't gotten very far in this game. The combat never quite clicks for me and the world/story, while decent, aren't interesting enough to keep me engaged when I'm not enjoying the gameplay.
Because it's simply bad. The combat, story, dialogues, everything is horrible. Only graphics look good but very static at the same time because it's simply slides made in photoshop with different masks
@@Valentyn90A I don't think it's bad. Chris actually accurately described the problems with the game. I always felt like something was missing, and Chris said it in this video. It gets boring and there's little to no humor in the game, and nothing that is actually pretty fun. It's too serious. Other than that, the game is pretty good, but not great as he said. That said, I do also agree with Chris on real time with pause. I was never a big fan of it even in BG2 days. That fight with that level 14 red dragon was hell back in those days. It was hell trying to figure out what spells were cast, and why you couldn't damage a certain enemy. My experiences with Wasteland 2 and 3 (both of which I really enjoyed) show me that I like turned based combat better for this type of game.
Ive beaten number 1 once and have like 40 hours in it, its ok. Number 2 I have 160 hours in and have beaten it 3 times working on my fourth. The games are night and day in my opinion. Its open world and I have a boat :)
Another great video! Can't wait the next one! About PoE main story: I'm not sure, but I think what worried your main character was not the fact he was a watcher, but that he's both a Watcher and a person with a Awakened soul, someone who can remember his past lives. A combination that can lead the character to insanity, like the Old Watcher from act 1...
Love seeing a notification from you, love it more when it's part of the CRPG Series.l you got me into this genre and I've now finished F1, F2, GG1, Planescape Torment, and Tyranny which you haven't done yet lol.
Wow, if you thought that this game threw too many irrelevant blocks of text at you with names and places without any meaning, just wait until you get to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Every minor NPC in that game is from some different place in the world, places that you never visit and that never come up again. It's insanely meaningless clutter.
Oh god, Pathfinder Kingmaker will likely test Chris's patience more than any other game in these retrospectives. The game is so full of frustrating decisions. I still rage to this day thinking about the quest that's only available a certain day of the week and they have all the days of the week not be in english and there's no way to tell which is the right one. Or the fact that some AoE spells can take upwards of 20 minutes IRL to wear off, leaving me to have to redo a particularly tough battle because my cleric (the one with dispel magic) got paralysed. Or webs staying onscreen for 10 minutes. Or skill checks needed for completing certain quests not being repeatable and not even showing... or... See, I'm getting worked up again. Srat-Edgy has a video on Kingmaker which is just stream of conscious ranting on its systems for 3 hours and I watched it out of cheer need for validation as to why the game frustrated me so much.
besides watching literally all of your videos - Pillars is what brought me back into CRPGs for the past 4 or so years. Really healthy and a blast compared to CSGO/MMOs
I've been replaying Pillars - am currently on a hiatus caused by a heat wave - and I think the backer NPCs were wasted potential. Some of them have stories that could have been relevant for certain backgrounds. They could have been used as sources for spells, abilities, talents, or extra skill points. Worse of is the fact that they could have been made so you only see certain such NPC's depending on your class so you wouldn't be bombarded with them over the course of one playthrough. You'd be a lot more interested in reading an ultra-short story if there were only half a dozen to find per class. And if you'd have actually received something from reading them, other than a short irrelevant tale, you would have had more of an interest in clicking on the NPCs. Limiting them per class and background would have also made it more likely for you to click them on a replay. Terrible wasted potential there.
in pillars 2 you can switch on turn based combat when you start a new game. Very well implemented as well, the entire game is rebalanced to make sure the abilities work as intended in turn based mode
To me, poe is a nearly perfect crpg. Art design, music, mysteriousness of the story, it’s epic adventure, the atmosphere completely took me over. I sometimes close my eyes and just listen to the music score. It’s a magical game. I finished poe2, it’s mired by extremely short and not challenging main mission, basically non existent companion quests and multitude of loading screens. But I beat the game within 7 days with all dlc and enjoyed it immensely. I do hope obsidian continues to make more crpg.
I also share that generally less popular view. I liked the hex crawl aspect of BG1, which is a lot more like old school D&D. My favorite part of BG2 is likewise the early game where you can wander where you want. Once you get more rail-roaded later my interest wanes.
What's sad is that we know Obsidian can do writing very well. They made New Vegas, after all. But some of their more recent games seem to be suffering in that department.
I don't think Pillars 1 and Tyranny suffer in that department, even though PoE 1 goes overboard with exposition. Outer Worlds however shows that without a good writing staff, all Obsidian can make are fairly bland and mediocre games.
Good review, though I'm not sure how you can say that none of the characters were funny. Especially Eder, Durance, and Aloth, those three especially were really funny when you chat to them.
I struggled with Pillars somewhat, until I set myself a disposition to it: it's a brand new universe with an authored system and different philosophy behind it - it has to be learned the same way first approaches to DnD. It's a fine game after all
PoE managed to revive the genre by showing companies that there is still a somehow large target audience for isometric rpgs, it delivered on its promise on release and it feels somehow "not that great" now because the genre is improving and evolving, but it was PoE that sparkled the fire. Also no comic relief and silly stuff = great news, enough with that stuff
Weirdly, having no nostalgia for the old infinity engine games as PoE was my first isometric CRPG, I find that I enjoyed it a hell of a lot and going through baldurs gate 1&2 for the first time recently I dont like them as much as PoE.
3:58 - thumbs up earned :D I think this is my favourite fantasy group-of-adventurers RPG and I'm an old dude who played Betrayal at Krondor, Eye of the Beholder and both Baldur's Gates back in the day.
I've bounced off PoE 1 twice and am giving it another go now hoping the third time's a charm. You're definitely correct about the overall story assessment. I've described it as: the story is interesting, but not compelling. Like, I've always found the setup of what's going on to be very intriguing, and definitely dark and tragic, but there's no serious human connection the game makes with the player to try and get them to want to be involved to soldier on to solve the crisis going on. The closest companion character to create this connection is Grieving Mother, but you meet her pretty late in the game to create a hook that carries the main plot forward for the player (technically you can get her in Act 1, but it's extremely unlikely as once the player unlocks the East Barbican at Caed Nua they''re likely beelining to Defiance Bay rather than exploring East to Dyrford). They needed to include Grieving Mother as the second character you meet in Guilded Vale alongside Eder, but I'm pretty sure they didn't because she's an esoteric class, and it was more important that the first three companions the player meet be key party building blocks - Tank, DPS and Healer in Eder, Aloth, and Durance - before introducing the more out there classes like Cipher to the party. It also doesn't help that the game, because of its throwback artstyle, can't do anything with the camera to create drama in pivotal scenes. Playing Wasteland 3 recently showed off to me how important the occasional close-up is to pivotal conversations and character introductions, even in a game that mostly maintains a pseudo isometric view. In fact, it's kind of amazing to me just how much these sequences elevate the experience in terms of presentation, and really highlights just how ahead of the curve the OG Fallout games were for doing this with their occasional "Talking Head" characters.
Would be curious to know your thoughts on PoE2. Quite a bit of modernization in gameplay versus PoE1. And what I would argue, punchier writing and better companions.
I also chose to return the souls to the bodies they were supposed to inhabit and will never forget the line about how many families mourned that they had abandoned or killed their hollowborn children and those that bore them. In fact I don't remember how any of the character's stories ended because I was stuck dwelling on how horrible that is.
I love how dragons were handled in this game and that you can bassicly befriend them and avoid combat :) Only sad thing is that bringing save to poe2 is broken :(
Tbh not sure what you mean about no fun characters, like the humor may not be as in-your-face due to the very text heavy nature of the game compared to others but there's quite a bit of humor with characters like Durance and Eder. I do agree that the overall tone of the game is very serious though, despite the occasional bit of humor. I like it, especially in contrast to DOS1 (which is a bit too unserious and makes it unimmersive), but I wouldn't want every game to be like this in that regard.
I liked Pillars of Eternity but what really grinded me down was combat. Half way through the game I wished it would end already. Combat was really the only thing that bothered me but it bothered me enough to not play the expansion. Now, after watching this video I may actually go back to PoE and do the expansion. :D PS: Will you do a video about PoE2 ?
I'd recommend Torment Tides of Numenera. I have a similar problem with old school CRPG style combat(dropped BG2 and Pilliars recently because of combat). Torment fixes this by basically making combat almost completely avoidable.
@@CC-of5xl Done and dusted when it came out, but I appreciate the suggestion. :) I love Planescape: Torment and the new Torment was ok as well, but in last few years I found myself more interested in games like Divinity Original Sin. I don't know, maybe because of turn based combat?
@@RudalPL yeah pause and play combat is honestly terrible especially on console. DOS2 and Torment ToN are the only CRPGs I've liked out of this new era. Probably both in my top 10 favorite games.
@@CC-of5xl I actually liked Tyranny as well and Wastelands 2 recently. I am not the biggest fan of the story but gameplay wise DOS 1 and 2 are definitely on top of my list.
i dont know if thats something which happened to a lot of people, but i couldnt bring myself to finish either of the two. i liked them a lot until like....the last 20% each? i found both final fights to be excruciating so i stopped playing, both times.
I replied after watching half way. Will watch the rest next time. There's no reason to solo Valewood. You can pass through that whole map without sneaking to get to Guilded Vale. Then it's easy to pick up two companions, and even purchase one or two fully customizable characters from the bar. I went to Valewood to find the chef with a group of 5. Me, two companions, and 2 characters I made. Also fighting close range with a bow when you have two slots to switch to a different weapon set. It's true that buffs on gear should always stack. If I have a +5 deflection cape, and +5 deflection ring, then I should have +10 deflection. The game being easy is what I kept telling everybody. I kept seeing user say well on PotD you have to do this and do that. And I keep saying no. PotD is normal mode. Yes you have to be much more careful, and user proper knowledge/strategy. But that is how a game should be designed for normal play. Normal mode in all games from this company is always easy mode. They don't announce it, but they seem to be doing this on purpose and it screws their games. Because of deceiving the market by labeling easy mode as "normal". A problem in this game is the time. I still don't get it. There seems to be 27 hours per day. And the date switches over at the end. However, the days from day 1 to day 2 switch over at day 21. So you start day 1 on the 18th hour 21. It becomes the the 19th 6 hours later. But you're still on day 1. At hour 21 of the 19th, it becomes day 2. WTF?
I love the two Pillars games, if you get to Deadfire it might grab you more favourably: less gloom - more swashbuckling, less vancian spellcasting - more per encounter flow. And myriad other refinements, but I think I still prefer the first. Quick lore gripe: Godlikes aren't their own race despite how the character creator presents them. They're one of any other race that've been "touched" by the gods during the setting's reincarnation cycle.
Pillars 2 is a better game in every way on the surface. But playing through it now as I recently finished pillars 1(preparing myself for baldurs gate 3) I can't help but miss almost everything about pillars 1. Even though I just finished it, it feels like nostalgic comfort food. Pillars 2 feels infinitely more modern. That's not inherently bad obviously but I think that's why I might actually prefer the first game as well.
I really don't mind the kickstarter npc's, honesly i didn't even know about this, before the video i just thought those people hat a strong experience made in the past that strengthend their soul and i as a watcher can go into it and take a look at those defining moments of them. Felt like a cool idea to me.
Really love these retrospectives. Not sure what you meant at there not being funny characters. I recall there being an elf companion you get right off the bat that gave me some chuckles
We had opposite experiences with this game and BG1. I played BG1 as a kid (before I played DnD which I have now been a DM for 10 years) but when picking up PoE I . . . Couldn't get into it. The combat sorta drove me nuts and I never understood what I was actually doing. However I think I'll go back and try again =)
I played on Hard, and was a decent challenge. I step up on the sequel to PotD, and a i have no regrets. I was pulling my hair out in some parts, but was always my fault. Positioning, party composition and strategy is what matters. Highly recommend play the sequel at least on hard. (Avoid the Turn based battle system, you will double the length os the game)
@@CC-of5xl the timed quests are only a problem for the first one you get, every one after is too generous and I found myself just passing days in the kingdom management system.
@@desotodesun3449 As a completionist I just can't play timed games. But I also just don't understand why it's even necessary. Who finds being rushed fun?
@@CC-of5xl I do. Makes the world and the pressing issues seem more....well, pressing. It gets away from that problem of disconnect between urgent story and doing fun sidequests. I think times quests are superior honestly, at least for the main story quests.
Ok, I have to know what's up with the "STORY" transition card at 23:43 I need an explanation! Thanks for another rad video, it's no masterpiece but I had a lot of good hours with this game, and for some reason I will ALWAYS click on a Pillars retrospective or analysis, couldn't tell you why but I don't get tired of talking about this particular game.
Weird that you jump directly to Pillars and don't look at DAO first. Which, by the way, is a unique example of having streamlined the genre AND dealt with AI issues by introducing Tactics - a feature so powerful it has it's own mods that allow you to create very complex AI presets that work hand in hand with character buids. I made it a point to use a few of those together with a difficulty mod to finish the game rarely touching controls in combat at all - the system is that robust. You can literally teach your AI tank to hold aggro, everyone to drink pots when needed and your mage to carry out several-spell combos that decimate enemies without your input.... All in all, I'd love to see you cover DAO, BG3 and Wrath of the Righteous one day, since every one of those is a better game Pillars could EVER hope to be, in literally every aspect imaginable.
I agree about DA:O. It is actually my 2nd favorite game of all time. I absolutely love it :D. (Which is why I would hate his video on it if he made any complaints about it lol XD)
Having played Tyranny, which is similar the main thing that killed my ability to enjoy it was the combat. If I was able to queue several special attacks instead of having to wait for the timer to refresh (the number of times I clicked a little bit too early and nothing happened was a bit frustrating to say the least) and if the movement was not halted every time you used an AOE attack (intuitively I wanted to be able to set my character on a path to engage someone, while on the fly targeting a different group as I went past. I would expect to be able to swap to another character but instead I had someone standing still and doing nothing because they forgot the original movement command) I know that these are issues with my approach being informed by more modern games than Balder's Gate but it made me less inclined to finish the game in spite of the fact that I adored the setting and characters.
For those curious about the next video, it will likely be UnderRail. Or something else entirely. Probably something else entirely. Hope that helps.
Please at least make UnderRail video at some point, it doesn't have to be the next one, but it deserves recognition at some point, especially regarding that it's made by an obscure Serbian studio. Great video by the way, thank you for your dedication.
Really looking forward to your retrospective of UnderRail
I wish you all the best therefore I'm not asking for your next one to be UnderRail.
I'll take whatever you got!
try not to forget about Tyranny.
I hope this channel is still fun for you. The retrospectives are appreciated.
Agreed. These videos got me back into CRPGs - I was so happy to see a new one!
@@MaddieRaeGun same for me. Watching everyone's crpg videos made me really wanna play them and now I'm having dread because i have like 8 of them i haven't played before lol
@@Mattznick I'm up to about 15 now ahead of me to play and they grow faster then I can play
@@kentcampbell122 might as well give up and not play any. I hear there are some good crpg critique retrospectives out there though. Don't forget matt chat (matt barton) for the real classic developer interviews.
@kentcampbell122 my tip is to play them on a relatively easier difficulty so you don't need to worry about ever pausing the game to look up guides etc.
As long as you ignore Eder, Durance, Isylmyr and Hiravias then you are right at there being not a single character who is funny or attempt at levity.
remember hiravias talking about the ''happy hole'' of pallegina? if that's not a funny compenion i don't know what is
A wolf is just a dog who hasn't been pet enough.
Agreed, I really liked they didn't go for the easy jokes. So instead of repeating Minsc, they made versions of the silly humour for the people who have grown up since the old Baldur's Gate games.
Not to mention all the various interactions between them. Even Aloth gave me some hearty chuckles at his aristocratic shock and disdain towards the world around him
I finally started Tyranny recently and, after playing Wasteland 2 just before, I'm incredibly grateful for some of the features it inherited from Pillars. The fast mode and infinite stash are superb and every comparable game should have them. I've come to the conclusion that RPGs don't gain anything from restrictive inventory limits. If Gothic didn't need one, no game does.
I think RPGs can have inventory management that adds to the game, but it's often seen as just boilerplate standard stuff rather than a creative decision, so it just ends up being out of place.
I think it depends on the game. Something like Darkest Dungeon it makes sense because you have interesting decisions about what resources to bring at the expense of inventory space for loot.
Outside of games that center around resource management there's little benefit
Eh. I like one restriction, which is a personal inventory for a character on top of an effectively infinite stash like PoE does. Because I've played through Wasteland 3 recently, which has an infinite inventory but it's all combined without any character inventories, and it's a big mess to sort through a lot of the time as you accumulate more and more items that you might need occasionally but not all the time. While it's nice to not have to worry about weight limits, character based inventories to sort gear along the lines of who needs what or what you want to hold onto rather than sell help keep things much better organized.
Pillars doesn't have infinite stash....does it?
@@shane2863 Yep, it does. But it can also be switched off if you don't believe in such things. I never used it personally.
"Every companion is serious, not one of them is funny". Hiravias is staring at you dumbfounded.
The little guy could be Minsc's rodent sidekick or Morte's drinking buddy, since both are lecherous and foul-mouthed.
"I think I prefer turn-based combat to real-time with pause combat in games like this."
One of us...One of us...
If there's one thing to take from this retrospective series, one cardinal rule for all games in this genre is: save often and save separately. Going for a bathroom break? Save. About to enter a new area? Save. Unsure if to save? Save.
I have a theory about why the story falls short, especially in the first half. I myself stopped playing for over a year after reaching the first town and didn't know what to do with myself, not understanding the world and having no connection to it (all characters from the introduction were basically thrown away). Then I started watching the making of, out of interest, and when they showed off their "vertical slice" it actually looked rather interesting. So I picked Pillars up again and basically the moment I reached that part of the game *it started to be good*. So my impression is that they wrote an outline, made the vertical slice and pretty much knew where they wanted to go from there, but not how to get to that point. That's why maybe the first 60% felt ill paced and somewhat tacked on.
There is a little error in the video.
In the narrative our character has two problem :
-He is now a Watcher (and he will stay like that)
-He is awaken by his first encounter with Thaos, which means he will become mad if he didn't resolve this condition.
Yeah, I think Chris didn't realize that the main character's personal motivation isn't to get rid of their super power, it's to stop from going insane. You're told pretty clearly that unless you find Thaos and confront your past life, you're inevitably going to lose your mind, and probably die. I think the companions even get increasingly worried about you as your flashbacks grow more and more disorienting as the story progresses.
The sequel to this game Deadfire is my favorite crpg of all time. One of my favorite games period. I can't wait for you to cover it one day.
I was loving it too but the loading screens are too much for me. Shame cuz I prefer 2 over 1.
@Ladiesman1447 Yep, game need's a "Less Loading Times Edition" or something. I may try to go back to it but I dread buildings with more than one floor lol.
Deadfire is the only game I've ever loved so much I went for a 100% achievement (cyberpunk will be second in a week or so)
Pillars 1 had a ton of achievements bugged and don't pop though, otherwise I'd probably replay it for a 100%. Divinity original sin 2 I will do another run to finish all achievements this summer.
The sequel remedies a number of issues: quests have recommended levels, there are scattered mini-dungeons instead of giant slogs, better fast-travel means less load-screens, and the main campaign is very short.
But the main story is so boring and the final is disappointing.
@@adrenalin2957 nah
I remember hearing that the sequel was disappointing
@@adrenalin2957 Gameplay is improved as mentioned, but I agree, the main story is disappointing. I get tired of high fantasy stuff like gods. I actually prefer a more down to Earth (or whatever the particular world may be called) plot like Baldur's Gate 1. Sure BG 1 did involve a god, but a lot of it just revolved around a villain who wanted to gain power and an iron shortage. Same thing with Baldur's Gate 2. Yes that involved a godlike power as well, but the main plot was really about a regular villain who wanted to gain power. And yes BG2 is better than the expansion for BG2 which goes too much into the high fantasy stuff too much.
@@JimmyMon666 Late comment but. I really like the gods. Because they're not, true deities. They're ascended people, which makes their conflicts much more human. It's reminiscent to me of stuff like Deus Ex Human Revolution's illuminati. Mysterious, powerful, but undoubtedly human. I usually hate gods in games, but the way they went about it won me over. For the sequel i really didnt care much about the eothas story but the new vegas style conflict between the kith groups really kept me interested. I think Pillars 2 does a decent job at capturing the essence of colonialism and the british east india company.
Pillars was my first CRPG and made me fall in love with the genre, it’s actually what led me to your channel after wanting to learn more about other CRPGs. The game holds a special place in my heart even after playing more from the genre. Also I think you might just be exceptionally good at these games or I’m just exceptionally bad because I always find Normal or Easy to be enough challenge for me lol. Thanks for making these excellent videos, can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Deadfire
I think your complaint about lack of comedic relief just sold me on the game. There aren't many things I hate more in serious settings than the forced funnies. Yes, I am indeed German.
I really enjoyed PoE. I disagree about the writing a bit, not because I think the story as a whole was great, but because I found a few things that really connected with me. Durance, Eder, and Aloth I thought were pretty interesting, and Aloth's relationship with his awakened soul provided some much needed levity. Also, the game offered enough small choices in the way you interact with the story that I felt like I could actually play a role, a trait I rate very highly in RPGs (obviously). There were certainly a lot of details and references to slog through, but there were enough good things that overall I remember it fondly. I don't know if I'd ever want to play PoE again, but I think that's mainly because Deadfire was such an improvement in so many ways that it would be hard to go back.
I totally agree with you my man
Very few games hit me hard enough to make me get truly emotional in a story. But god damn, the Deadfire ending that I got with my complete, start to finish playthrough….yeah I shed a year or two. Beginnings and endings are the best parts of stories, and it’s even better when the ending recalls how the story began. A kind of “Let’s have a look back and get nostalgic.” I’m glad I had Edér and Aloth in my party when I got my ending.
Agreed, Chris Wilson made a good game
Very glad you made a point to call out the massive amount of world building stuffed into the dialogue. It nearly turned me off from Pillars completely until I managed to push through to Defiance Bay.
I don't think the problem of this game is the writing itself as much as the pacing and Obsidian focusing on the world-building a bit too much. The story itself is interesting, but it only starts to get going after Act 1, which is a complete slog to get through due to the huge amount of info dumps. It's kinda like what NeverKnowsBest said in his critique, the story writing is strong, but the storytelling is not. I also don't agree that the game takes itself too seriously. Sure, its more serious compared to Divinity Original Sin for example, but it has a ton of witty banter and moments of levity between characters like Eder, Aloth, Hiravias, Durance, and Maheha.
This is the first isometric RPG I’ve been able to bring myself to complete. Loved it.
"dyrwood, which is a basically a renaissance era European place" - i thought Dyrwood was meant to be a fairly blatant analogue to the early colonial USA?
I think you're right. Been a while since I played but I'm near certain that was the primary inspiration, but it's also easy to imagine them throwing in a dash of Europe.
Yeah. The technological level is (roughly) early modern, so 1600s-1700s. The Dyrwood is referencing a post-Colonial America, with references to throwing off the Adyrans a couple centuries previously.
I agree, and it's not just the accents, but that they seemed to be mostly a farming based country, and basically "hicks".
There were some sparks of brilliance in this game like when you could sneak into the ogre cavern, not kill a single one and make peace with them or going similiarly bloodless in the main game in the keep sidequest.
Though the sneaking was a bit grating at times.
Love this game, currently playing the second one. I hope Avowed really takes the series to a higher level while keeping the original feeling.
Avowed?
@@michimatsch5862
The next game in the series
I hope it stays story and character heavy. A giant problem with open world RPGs is the lack of both those things.
@@logandenton6467 Another one after deadfire?
Sounds good. Didn't play 2 as I don't care about pirates.
@@CC-of5xl
Yep, hopefully obsidian can keep the quality up. I see it as a great challenge for them to prove themselves as one of the industry elite if they can pull it off.
Was so happy to see you still doing this Chris, thanks
PoE's ending still disappoints me to this day. So much build up and interesting answers to intriguing dilemmas raised by the narrative, the characters, the quests, and it all just becomes a fickle boss fight to close things out bombastically and with finality.
Agreed, would have been awesome to continue the game after the ending seeing how ur choices effected the world in person rather it being told by a slideshow.
Was missing an upload from the channel, can't wait to watch this!
I actually backed Project Eternity despite never growing up with those old Infinity engine games simply because I loved New Vegas so much and thought 'old school' just sounded intriguing.
Still haven't gotten very far in this game. The combat never quite clicks for me and the world/story, while decent, aren't interesting enough to keep me engaged when I'm not enjoying the gameplay.
Because it's simply bad. The combat, story, dialogues, everything is horrible. Only graphics look good but very static at the same time because it's simply slides made in photoshop with different masks
It’s the battle system for me. I’m okay with the world, but the battles are just not compelling at all.
@@Valentyn90A I don't think it's bad. Chris actually accurately described the problems with the game. I always felt like something was missing, and Chris said it in this video. It gets boring and there's little to no humor in the game, and nothing that is actually pretty fun. It's too serious. Other than that, the game is pretty good, but not great as he said.
That said, I do also agree with Chris on real time with pause. I was never a big fan of it even in BG2 days. That fight with that level 14 red dragon was hell back in those days. It was hell trying to figure out what spells were cast, and why you couldn't damage a certain enemy. My experiences with Wasteland 2 and 3 (both of which I really enjoyed) show me that I like turned based combat better for this type of game.
Ive beaten number 1 once and have like 40 hours in it, its ok. Number 2 I have 160 hours in and have beaten it 3 times working on my fourth. The games are night and day in my opinion. Its open world and I have a boat :)
@@Valentyn90A That's an over-exaggeration. The game has flaws, but it's not bad by any means.
Another great video! Can't wait the next one! About PoE main story: I'm not sure, but I think what worried your main character was not the fact he was a watcher, but that he's both a Watcher and a person with a Awakened soul, someone who can remember his past lives. A combination that can lead the character to insanity, like the Old Watcher from act 1...
Love seeing a notification from you, love it more when it's part of the CRPG Series.l you got me into this genre and I've now finished F1, F2, GG1, Planescape Torment, and Tyranny which you haven't done yet lol.
POE is the only game where I asked myself "what am I doing,and why is might a requirement for mages".
I love this Project of Yours and hope you will come back to it someday 🥰
Wow, if you thought that this game threw too many irrelevant blocks of text at you with names and places without any meaning, just wait until you get to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Every minor NPC in that game is from some different place in the world, places that you never visit and that never come up again. It's insanely meaningless clutter.
Oh god, Pathfinder Kingmaker will likely test Chris's patience more than any other game in these retrospectives. The game is so full of frustrating decisions. I still rage to this day thinking about the quest that's only available a certain day of the week and they have all the days of the week not be in english and there's no way to tell which is the right one. Or the fact that some AoE spells can take upwards of 20 minutes IRL to wear off, leaving me to have to redo a particularly tough battle because my cleric (the one with dispel magic) got paralysed. Or webs staying onscreen for 10 minutes. Or skill checks needed for completing certain quests not being repeatable and not even showing... or...
See, I'm getting worked up again. Srat-Edgy has a video on Kingmaker which is just stream of conscious ranting on its systems for 3 hours and I watched it out of cheer need for validation as to why the game frustrated me so much.
besides watching literally all of your videos - Pillars is what brought me back into CRPGs for the past 4 or so years. Really healthy and a blast compared to CSGO/MMOs
No funny characters?
I found Durance fun. But I will admit that I skipped a lot of text as well
I've been replaying Pillars - am currently on a hiatus caused by a heat wave - and I think the backer NPCs were wasted potential. Some of them have stories that could have been relevant for certain backgrounds. They could have been used as sources for spells, abilities, talents, or extra skill points. Worse of is the fact that they could have been made so you only see certain such NPC's depending on your class so you wouldn't be bombarded with them over the course of one playthrough. You'd be a lot more interested in reading an ultra-short story if there were only half a dozen to find per class. And if you'd have actually received something from reading them, other than a short irrelevant tale, you would have had more of an interest in clicking on the NPCs. Limiting them per class and background would have also made it more likely for you to click them on a replay. Terrible wasted potential there.
Dude, I’m so glad you made this!! I haven’t watched it, but I’m already psyched. Love your stuff!
in pillars 2 you can switch on turn based combat when you start a new game. Very well implemented as well, the entire game is rebalanced to make sure the abilities work as intended in turn based mode
Please continue this series! Have been loving hearing your take on these esp coming in without much nostalgia
To me, poe is a nearly perfect crpg. Art design, music, mysteriousness of the story, it’s epic adventure, the atmosphere completely took me over. I sometimes close my eyes and just listen to the music score.
It’s a magical game. I finished poe2, it’s mired by extremely short and not challenging main mission, basically non existent companion quests and multitude of loading screens. But I beat the game within 7 days with all dlc and enjoyed it immensely.
I do hope obsidian continues to make more crpg.
Always a treat to see your channel update. Don't worry about the schedule too much.
I love this game . Its so epic . I did get a headache from reading so much lol
i appreciate your entire crpg series i just watched it recently, well done!
Honestly I enjoyed BG1 more than BG2 so when you say it sits between 1&2 in quality I'm actually really pumped!
I also share that generally less popular view. I liked the hex crawl aspect of BG1, which is a lot more like old school D&D. My favorite part of BG2 is likewise the early game where you can wander where you want. Once you get more rail-roaded later my interest wanes.
this was such a good series and im very excited to see what they can do with avowed. and hopefully MS can fun PoE 3
These games need to fully explain their systems.
Commenting for engagement because I always enjoy your videos!
I love these and all the hard work put into this. These are a treasure.
What's sad is that we know Obsidian can do writing very well. They made New Vegas, after all. But some of their more recent games seem to be suffering in that department.
none of the people besides josh who worked on new vegas work at obsidean anymore.
@@megamike15 that makes sense
I don't think Pillars 1 and Tyranny suffer in that department, even though PoE 1 goes overboard with exposition. Outer Worlds however shows that without a good writing staff, all Obsidian can make are fairly bland and mediocre games.
i've been looking forward to this, gonna snuggle up watch this before bed tonight if i can resist watching it in the day
I keep coming back to these videos, please make more
I enjoyed this video so much, please keep making these they’re so good. You’re the man Chris Davis!
Cannot wait to dive in with this video, cheers Chris!
In those warm (it's always warm now lol) evenings it's good to know i am accompanied by your video. Thanks!
It's been a long time coming. *This* is the video I subscribed for when this series first started
Ohhhh, I was so looking forward to this!
Please keep making videos man. They always make my week when a new one drops.
Good review, though I'm not sure how you can say that none of the characters were funny. Especially Eder, Durance, and Aloth, those three especially were really funny when you chat to them.
I struggled with Pillars somewhat, until I set myself a disposition to it: it's a brand new universe with an authored system and different philosophy behind it - it has to be learned the same way first approaches to DnD.
It's a fine game after all
PoE managed to revive the genre by showing companies that there is still a somehow large target audience for isometric rpgs, it delivered on its promise on release and it feels somehow "not that great" now because the genre is improving and evolving, but it was PoE that sparkled the fire.
Also no comic relief and silly stuff = great news, enough with that stuff
I don't want to but yea man I gotta agree with you there
Chris Davis thank you for your work, especially the Baldurs Gate retrospectives !
Weirdly, having no nostalgia for the old infinity engine games as PoE was my first isometric CRPG, I find that I enjoyed it a hell of a lot and going through baldurs gate 1&2 for the first time recently I dont like them as much as PoE.
3:58 - thumbs up earned :D
I think this is my favourite fantasy group-of-adventurers RPG and I'm an old dude who played Betrayal at Krondor, Eye of the Beholder and both Baldur's Gates back in the day.
I've bounced off PoE 1 twice and am giving it another go now hoping the third time's a charm. You're definitely correct about the overall story assessment. I've described it as: the story is interesting, but not compelling. Like, I've always found the setup of what's going on to be very intriguing, and definitely dark and tragic, but there's no serious human connection the game makes with the player to try and get them to want to be involved to soldier on to solve the crisis going on. The closest companion character to create this connection is Grieving Mother, but you meet her pretty late in the game to create a hook that carries the main plot forward for the player (technically you can get her in Act 1, but it's extremely unlikely as once the player unlocks the East Barbican at Caed Nua they''re likely beelining to Defiance Bay rather than exploring East to Dyrford).
They needed to include Grieving Mother as the second character you meet in Guilded Vale alongside Eder, but I'm pretty sure they didn't because she's an esoteric class, and it was more important that the first three companions the player meet be key party building blocks - Tank, DPS and Healer in Eder, Aloth, and Durance - before introducing the more out there classes like Cipher to the party. It also doesn't help that the game, because of its throwback artstyle, can't do anything with the camera to create drama in pivotal scenes. Playing Wasteland 3 recently showed off to me how important the occasional close-up is to pivotal conversations and character introductions, even in a game that mostly maintains a pseudo isometric view. In fact, it's kind of amazing to me just how much these sequences elevate the experience in terms of presentation, and really highlights just how ahead of the curve the OG Fallout games were for doing this with their occasional "Talking Head" characters.
Your videos are real good! I hope you keep it up
Would be curious to know your thoughts on PoE2. Quite a bit of modernization in gameplay versus PoE1. And what I would argue, punchier writing and better companions.
I also chose to return the souls to the bodies they were supposed to inhabit and will never forget the line about how many families mourned that they had abandoned or killed their hollowborn children and those that bore them. In fact I don't remember how any of the character's stories ended because I was stuck dwelling on how horrible that is.
I love how dragons were handled in this game and that you can bassicly befriend them and avoid combat :) Only sad thing is that bringing save to poe2 is broken :(
Tbh not sure what you mean about no fun characters, like the humor may not be as in-your-face due to the very text heavy nature of the game compared to others but there's quite a bit of humor with characters like Durance and Eder. I do agree that the overall tone of the game is very serious though, despite the occasional bit of humor. I like it, especially in contrast to DOS1 (which is a bit too unserious and makes it unimmersive), but I wouldn't want every game to be like this in that regard.
20:21 I think the reason you minions moved quite late because it's a D&D mechanic. They only moved after the wizard casted the spell
I liked Pillars of Eternity but what really grinded me down was combat.
Half way through the game I wished it would end already. Combat was really the only thing that bothered me but it bothered me enough to not play the expansion.
Now, after watching this video I may actually go back to PoE and do the expansion. :D
PS: Will you do a video about PoE2 ?
I'd recommend Torment Tides of Numenera. I have a similar problem with old school CRPG style combat(dropped BG2 and Pilliars recently because of combat). Torment fixes this by basically making combat almost completely avoidable.
@@CC-of5xl Done and dusted when it came out, but I appreciate the suggestion. :)
I love Planescape: Torment and the new Torment was ok as well, but in last few years I found myself more interested in games like Divinity Original Sin. I don't know, maybe because of turn based combat?
@@RudalPL yeah pause and play combat is honestly terrible especially on console. DOS2 and Torment ToN are the only CRPGs I've liked out of this new era. Probably both in my top 10 favorite games.
@@CC-of5xl I actually liked Tyranny as well and Wastelands 2 recently. I am not the biggest fan of the story but gameplay wise DOS 1 and 2 are definitely on top of my list.
i dont know if thats something which happened to a lot of people, but i couldnt bring myself to finish either of the two. i liked them a lot until like....the last 20% each? i found both final fights to be excruciating so i stopped playing, both times.
Oh man I've been waiting for this. Thanks for your hard work.
I replied after watching half way. Will watch the rest next time.
There's no reason to solo Valewood. You can pass through that whole map without sneaking to get to Guilded Vale. Then it's easy to pick up two companions, and even purchase one or two fully customizable characters from the bar. I went to Valewood to find the chef with a group of 5. Me, two companions, and 2 characters I made. Also fighting close range with a bow when you have two slots to switch to a different weapon set.
It's true that buffs on gear should always stack. If I have a +5 deflection cape, and +5 deflection ring, then I should have +10 deflection.
The game being easy is what I kept telling everybody. I kept seeing user say well on PotD you have to do this and do that. And I keep saying no. PotD is normal mode. Yes you have to be much more careful, and user proper knowledge/strategy. But that is how a game should be designed for normal play. Normal mode in all games from this company is always easy mode. They don't announce it, but they seem to be doing this on purpose and it screws their games. Because of deceiving the market by labeling easy mode as "normal".
A problem in this game is the time. I still don't get it. There seems to be 27 hours per day. And the date switches over at the end. However, the days from day 1 to day 2 switch over at day 21. So you start day 1 on the 18th hour 21. It becomes the the 19th 6 hours later. But you're still on day 1. At hour 21 of the 19th, it becomes day 2. WTF?
I've been waiting for this video since this series started
I have to get back and play this game all over again. I believe the second game came out too . I enjoyed the game
Hope you are going to do a wasteland 3 review, I've been blown away by it from what I've played so far
Today(!) I started rewatching your series, guess I've missed it. Good timing. Edit: the history of CRPGs series I mean.
You can't understand how much I've waited for this xd
Thank you for the up-load
I was waiting for this one! Thank you Chris
I loved PoE1, I played it when I was playing by myself while doing D:OS while duoing with my gaming buddy.
Great review, love the depth of your content!
I started playing this game, not sure why I didn't continue. so many games on the backlog. I will try eventually again.
Cannot wait for a video on pathfinder kingmaker and wrath of righteousness
Never won’t watch a Chris Davis video when it comes out. And then many times after
Ah, I'm confused. What do you mean?
I love the two Pillars games, if you get to Deadfire it might grab you more favourably: less gloom - more swashbuckling, less vancian spellcasting - more per encounter flow. And myriad other refinements, but I think I still prefer the first.
Quick lore gripe: Godlikes aren't their own race despite how the character creator presents them. They're one of any other race that've been "touched" by the gods during the setting's reincarnation cycle.
Pillars 2 is a better game in every way on the surface. But playing through it now as I recently finished pillars 1(preparing myself for baldurs gate 3) I can't help but miss almost everything about pillars 1. Even though I just finished it, it feels like nostalgic comfort food. Pillars 2 feels infinitely more modern. That's not inherently bad obviously but I think that's why I might actually prefer the first game as well.
I really don't mind the kickstarter npc's, honesly i didn't even know about this, before the video i just thought those people hat a strong experience made in the past that strengthend their soul and i as a watcher can go into it and take a look at those defining moments of them. Felt like a cool idea to me.
Seeing these video notifications pop up always make my day better, Chris!
Really love these retrospectives. Not sure what you meant at there not being funny characters. I recall there being an elf companion you get right off the bat that gave me some chuckles
Fair enjoyed that. Played it when it came out but house fired it up the other day. Even better the second time.
Just finished this, superb yet buggy game, scum saving required as it constantly checks out losing hours. Brilliant as always sir.
Hello Chris Davis, are you doing any retrospective on Fallout New Vegas at any point in the future?
We had opposite experiences with this game and BG1. I played BG1 as a kid (before I played DnD which I have now been a DM for 10 years) but when picking up PoE I . . . Couldn't get into it. The combat sorta drove me nuts and I never understood what I was actually doing. However I think I'll go back and try again =)
I would love to see your opinions on Pathfinder Kingmaker.
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES I can’t wait to see your take on this one!
Yeah, the party AI was added in a patch. Playing before the party AI was mad tedious. Bad as it is, I was so grateful they added it.
I played on Hard, and was a decent challenge. I step up on the sequel to PotD, and a i have no regrets.
I was pulling my hair out in some parts, but was always my fault. Positioning, party composition and strategy is what matters.
Highly recommend play the sequel at least on hard. (Avoid the Turn based battle system, you will double the length os the game)
Yet the writing is one of the best and well known for its great writing..
Man if this stat system threw you through a loop try Pathfinder: kingmaker.
I know. Pathfinder is great, isn't it :)
@@althesilly I'd would be better if the resting, weight and timed mission systems didn't exist.
@@CC-of5xl the timed quests are only a problem for the first one you get, every one after is too generous and I found myself just passing days in the kingdom management system.
@@desotodesun3449 As a completionist I just can't play timed games. But I also just don't understand why it's even necessary. Who finds being rushed fun?
@@CC-of5xl I do. Makes the world and the pressing issues seem more....well, pressing. It gets away from that problem of disconnect between urgent story and doing fun sidequests. I think times quests are superior honestly, at least for the main story quests.
Ok, I have to know what's up with the "STORY" transition card at 23:43
I need an explanation!
Thanks for another rad video, it's no masterpiece but I had a lot of good hours with this game, and for some reason I will ALWAYS click on a Pillars retrospective or analysis, couldn't tell you why but I don't get tired of talking about this particular game.
Thanks for making subtitles :)
Weird that you jump directly to Pillars and don't look at DAO first. Which, by the way, is a unique example of having streamlined the genre AND dealt with AI issues by introducing Tactics - a feature so powerful it has it's own mods that allow you to create very complex AI presets that work hand in hand with character buids. I made it a point to use a few of those together with a difficulty mod to finish the game rarely touching controls in combat at all - the system is that robust. You can literally teach your AI tank to hold aggro, everyone to drink pots when needed and your mage to carry out several-spell combos that decimate enemies without your input.... All in all, I'd love to see you cover DAO, BG3 and Wrath of the Righteous one day, since every one of those is a better game Pillars could EVER hope to be, in literally every aspect imaginable.
I agree about DA:O. It is actually my 2nd favorite game of all time. I absolutely love it :D.
(Which is why I would hate his video on it if he made any complaints about it lol XD)
Having played Tyranny, which is similar the main thing that killed my ability to enjoy it was the combat.
If I was able to queue several special attacks instead of having to wait for the timer to refresh (the number of times I clicked a little bit too early and nothing happened was a bit frustrating to say the least) and if the movement was not halted every time you used an AOE attack (intuitively I wanted to be able to set my character on a path to engage someone, while on the fly targeting a different group as I went past. I would expect to be able to swap to another character but instead I had someone standing still and doing nothing because they forgot the original movement command)
I know that these are issues with my approach being informed by more modern games than Balder's Gate but it made me less inclined to finish the game in spite of the fact that I adored the setting and characters.