Final Thoughts - ID: 1218

FORUM: Gossip - The rusty dagger tavern

This topic was started by Oroboros on 21/08/2013, 01:38:31

Post by Oroboros on 21/08/2013, 01:38:31

After just having finished the expansion to the game last night, I wanted to offer some feedback about it. I will do this with the "spoiler" function so that nothing about the end game is revealed to those who want to finish it without said spoilers.

Alright, I just gotta say that I was thinking this was going to be more about dragons than a mishmash of loosely connected plot threads--now its time to chase some orcs, now its time to go to a random wizard and hand him 13 souls (and hope he doesn't use them for nefarious purposes), now it's time to prevent a volcano from erupting by talking to someone you don't know and handing him random gizmos, now it's time to go to the planes and *not* interact with any dragons, but rather just kill them all outright. And my favorite of all is: now it's time to travel from a random "command center" in the elemental plane of fire to a #$%*@%$ *spaceship* that inexplicably is the cause of all our woes. How is it the cause of all these bad things? Haha--that's on a need to know basis, and your job is just to kick some ass and move on to the next threat when needed. When I see other people's comments about their end-game experience, they are usually commenting on how their characters were level 70 with countless HP, and a Hackmaster +12 to smite their enemies with. No one ever says "Wow, I sure am glad I beat those aliens! They almost took over the planes and Tarnack to boot! People don't say that because the aliens and spaceship have no real context within the storyline. It came out of the blue at the very end as another random baddie to fight along the way.

I do think that this expansion was well-balanced in terms of gameplay, but with regards to the storyline, I felt like I was just about to get an explanation for what's really going on with the planes and the dragons who rule them the whole way through, only to find out that this information was never going to be presented in the story other than us being told that they had been enslaved by a powerful unknown force. Why not have a dialogue with those four imprisoned dragons where, once you reach them, they don't merely say "You're not supposed to be here" and then attack, but they tell you their fate as slaves to this mysterious race of beings, and how their elemental energies are being constantly drained by them, and their minds controlled, and how the glory of the mighty dragons has been tarnished by these evil forces. Then they plead for your help and tell you that they are sorry, but are being commanded to attack you against their will.

Really though, I kinda wish that there had not been any "aliens" and that the dragons had been the top dogs of this game world (right under the gods, that is). Dealing with them in that light might have made the game more fun and it would not have broken with immersion in the fantasy theme here. Anyway, those are my two cents. I'm still looking forward to another expansion, or even Part II, though!

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Post by icetear on 21/08/2013, 13:28:01

Hi Oroboros,

thank you very much for your thoughts.
I promise to put more effort in enhancing the dragon / planes storyline. Forgive me.

Kind regards
Mario

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Post by Oroboros on 22/08/2013, 06:00:07

Hi Mario,

     Yes, if you ever create another expansion (or a sequel), please do include more plot elements that are able to effectively describe the storyline about the dragons and their relationship to the planes.  In my experience, what best drives a game like this should not be the desire for greater and greater power as a party, but is more about a storyline that is immersive and captures one's heart.  The Bard's Tale had problems with this in various ways as well, but this is a reboot of that type of game that ought to be able to do it better even than Michael Crawford could do.  In many ways, this is a superior game to the original BT series, but there is still room for improvement with the storyline, and I am very sure that you have what it takes to make this story as enthralling as it needs to be.  Thank you very much for a wonderful revisiting of this kind of party-based RPG game from my youth! I feel that my sense of childhood wonder for these types of games has been renewed here.  Be well, and good journeys to you with your future endeavors!

Best regards,
Oroboros

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Post by Oroboros on 24/08/2013, 05:36:44

Okay, this is for everyone who thinks that finishing the game at massive character levels is a good thing: doesn't it make more sense for one to have a higher status (due to one's demonstrated proficiency at using one's combat skills) at finishing the game with a lower level of party members rather than a higher level? For instance, I was able to finish the game with 39th level characters, so isn't that more impressive than finishing the game with 70th+ level characters? It seems like the lower one's level, the better, as this requires more skill.

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Post by wizardz on 28/08/2013, 10:03:14

I would agree, perhaps, in Legend mode. In Classic and modern mode where you can save before every move, then replay it for shorter play time and and successful results.

Your accomplishment is indeed laudable. You set a criteria and you did very well against it.

You could play again in Legend mode with a Paladin, an arch Mage and the character of your choice to make into a Dragon Caller (I'd pick thief, because a monk or another paladin would be more effective the higher you make him). By using NPCs you can lower the exp your PCs make. I bet you can end the game with even lower points.

I personally prefer grinding and enjoy the game more that way. Everyone has his own style. Mine is analyzing things from all the ways I can without being threatened or bothered by the pesky monsters. You prefer racing through as fast as you can with as few points as possible. You did yours quite well.

I may accept your challenge if Mario doesn't need me to grind another billion points checking stuff...(and the other players don't want me to finish my expansion walk through)...I think maybe we should add a second criteria of shortest elapsed game time...

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Post by icetear on 28/08/2013, 10:08:03

Quote from Author: wizardz
I may accept your challenge if Mario doesn't need me to grind another billion points checking stuff...

Request for time off approved.

;)

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Post by wizardz on 05/10/2013, 11:50:22

So as I noted in my walkthru I finished the game in Legend mode with a party of 25th level characters. It took longer than I thought, partly due to Legend mode. I also had only one Arch Mage. In the first phase I had 3 Bards and a Paladin along with a Rogue and a Monk. For the Post Mazuriel phase I settled on 6 DCs and the Arch Mage. I believe I could have done it with lower level characters, but wanted to leave a reachable goal for others. I much prefer the style of overkill play and will return to it. It took 227 days, which I'm positive could be lessened.

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