[0:00] [music]
[0:05] >> What's going on everybody? Mortem here,
[0:07] this time bringing you what I would want
[0:09] from Avowed 2. Because you see, I have
[0:12] been playing a lot of Pillars lately, a
[0:14] turn-based review for the original game,
[0:16] and I've been running through the second
[0:18] game recently to take another look at
[0:19] that one for a video as well. And those
[0:22] games are of course set in the same
[0:23] world as Avowed, if you didn't know. And
[0:25] that combined with some rumors of Avowed
[0:27] 2 swirling around last week or so. That
[0:30] said, just being rumors that this is
[0:32] something that Obsidian was working on,
[0:33] and I'm not one to put a ton of stock in
[0:35] that, but I'd be lying if I said all of
[0:37] that didn't have me thinking what I
[0:38] would even want from an Avowed 2. And so
[0:41] I figured I would of course make a video
[0:43] about it. Now, if you have not played
[0:45] Avowed since release, you may well be
[0:47] interested in an anniversary video I
[0:49] made for it earlier this year talking
[0:51] about all of the updates it got, because
[0:52] some of the things that I would
[0:53] definitely want in Avowed 2 were already
[0:55] added to Avowed post-release. These of
[0:57] course being things like all of the
[0:59] races being added, bonuses to each of
[1:01] those races, just little stuff going on
[1:04] like that. But, before we get into that,
[1:06] I do want to point out that I do think
[1:08] Avowed 2 is more likely than Pillars 3.
[1:11] Personally, I would take Pillars 3 all
[1:13] day every day, but I love CRPGs, and so
[1:15] it shouldn't really be a surprise that I
[1:17] would prefer a more traditional CRPG
[1:19] experience in the vein of Pillars of
[1:21] Eternity. However, it's also not really
[1:23] news that Pillars 2 took a long time to
[1:25] become profitable, and that combined
[1:27] with Microsoft and Xbox having all sorts
[1:30] of money troubles these days, rumors of
[1:32] them shutting down studios, etc. I
[1:34] sincerely doubt they would be willing to
[1:36] take a bet on something like Pillars 3,
[1:38] as much as I would really enjoy it. I
[1:40] certainly don't have enough money to
[1:41] keep them afloat. So, something a little
[1:43] more mass appealing like Avowed would be
[1:46] makes more sense. Because, while there
[1:48] were plenty of people with some
[1:50] legitimate criticisms we're going to get
[1:51] into in this video actually, it also did
[1:54] the important work of making the genre
[1:56] transition happen. And so,
[1:58] theoretically, it should be a little
[1:59] easier to build from there and take into
[2:02] consideration some of those criticisms
[2:04] people had for the original game in
[2:05] order to make a more complete experience
[2:08] people would enjoy. With that said,
[2:09] let's go ahead and dive into this thing.
[2:11] Let's first talk about setting. So, some
[2:14] small spoilers for Avowed actually going
[2:16] forward here in a little bit of Pillars
[2:18] 2 as well, to be honest. Let's talk
[2:19] about where this game would even be set
[2:21] because you could theoretically set it
[2:23] in the Living Lands again. If you're
[2:25] unaware, Avowed takes place in the
[2:27] Living Lands, and the Living Lands is a
[2:28] very vibrant, over-the-top place, just
[2:31] absolutely teeming with life and diverse
[2:34] biomes, etc. And so, you could
[2:36] theoretically set another game there and
[2:38] actually have it be substantially
[2:40] different in uh you know, in terms of
[2:41] like biomes and things. However, I could
[2:43] see them not wanting to reuse that, and
[2:46] so they might want to set it someplace
[2:47] else. If they are going to set it
[2:49] anywhere else, I think it needs to be in
[2:50] the Aedyr Empire, personally. That being
[2:53] the empire that sent you as an envoy in
[2:55] your role in Avowed, anyway. But, it's
[2:57] also a place the games have thus far
[2:59] never taken us, and so they would have a
[3:01] lot of room to work with there. And
[3:03] while I would be totally fine with that,
[3:05] personally, it does uh sort of run into
[3:07] another problem, which is that ideally,
[3:10] Avowed 2 would start tackling some of
[3:12] the bigger lore that has been
[3:13] introduced. So, if you're up to date on
[3:15] the timeline, the world of Eora, the
[3:18] actual setting we are in, is dealing
[3:20] with a very tumultuous moment, let's
[3:22] say. At the end of Pillars 2, the cycle
[3:24] of reincarnation that defines the world
[3:26] has largely been put to a stop. And as a
[3:29] result, they've basically got a couple
[3:31] of generations to figure out a long-term
[3:33] solution, or there's going to be a
[3:35] problem. Because without the cycle of
[3:37] reincarnation happening, people will be
[3:39] born without souls, which is more or
[3:41] less like a zombie in some ways. And
[3:43] then, without souls churning through
[3:44] this cycle, the gods themselves cannot
[3:47] feed off of that energy, which means
[3:49] they would also die. And so, there has
[3:51] to be a solution found to that problem.
[3:53] Avowed takes place a couple years after
[3:55] Pillars II, where we're starting to see
[3:57] the effects of that, but it's not
[3:59] immediately dire. And then that game
[4:01] introduces a whole bunch of new lore
[4:02] about a natural-born god, which up to
[4:04] this point hadn't really been a thing.
[4:06] However, that natural-born god was sort
[4:09] of cut off and confined to the area of
[4:11] the Living Lands. And regardless of
[4:13] where I think they would set a new game,
[4:14] I do think they would want to uh
[4:16] hopefully address some of that stuff,
[4:18] and so it would come up and you'd have
[4:19] to the sort of write your way around
[4:21] that. Nothing that would be impossible,
[4:22] but you know, one of those would
[4:24] probably be ideal. But I think both
[4:26] would come with some hoops to jump
[4:27] through. But then there's the character
[4:29] side of things. This is pretty important
[4:31] to me personally, because with the big
[4:32] genre shift, there were some things lost
[4:34] in translation there. Namely, uh some of
[4:37] the class stuff that made Pillars really
[4:39] unique as an experience, but also I
[4:42] think a larger investment into your
[4:43] character as well. As I already
[4:46] mentioned at the top of the video, some
[4:47] of the post-release updates for Avowed
[4:50] did bring back things like all of the
[4:52] normal races you could play, minus uh
[4:54] the Godlike, but you are a Godlike
[4:56] already in Avowed no matter what, which
[4:58] is how that always works. As technically
[5:00] a Godlike can be of any other race, and
[5:01] the Godlike portion is just on top of
[5:03] that. But either way, those races are
[5:05] there and playable. So, the other side
[5:08] of this would just be that I want them
[5:10] to bring the classes back. And I think
[5:12] there's a couple ways they could do
[5:13] this. So, the way Avowed works already
[5:15] is that you could effectively be a
[5:17] multi-class of fighter, mage, or ranger,
[5:20] which are, to be fair, three of the
[5:21] classes available in the Pillars games.
[5:23] However, there's a lot of other classes
[5:25] that weren't really available outside of
[5:28] some ability overlap, let's say. And I
[5:30] would really want them to bring those
[5:32] classes back, along with multi-classing,
[5:34] in fact. And I think a way they could do
[5:36] that is by effectively making one of
[5:38] these skill trees for every single
[5:40] class, and then simply allowing you to
[5:42] pick two of them at character creation,
[5:44] which would effectively be your
[5:46] multi-class, and then you could proceed
[5:47] relatively as normal from there. Now,
[5:50] that is of course much easier to say
[5:51] than it is to do, as you would have to
[5:53] make all those abilities for all those
[5:55] classes, make them thematic, etc. And I
[5:57] don't think a little bit of overlap,
[5:59] especially in terms of like passive
[6:00] abilities, would be a big deal at all.
[6:02] Just add those passives to individual
[6:05] trees where they make sense. I don't
[6:06] think they have to be 100% unique tree
[6:08] to tree, but having some overlap there
[6:11] in terms of the active abilities and
[6:12] just incorporating a lot of what makes
[6:14] Pillars unique in particular would do a
[6:16] lot for I think both build diversity,
[6:18] but also getting you more attached to a
[6:20] character in terms of replayability.
[6:22] Also, this would allow them to make use
[6:24] of the incredible multi-class names that
[6:27] were added in Pillars 2. So, in Pillars
[6:28] 2 you could multi-class and every single
[6:31] possible combination of multi-class got
[6:33] a unique class name, which I thought was
[6:34] fun. And I would like to see those in
[6:36] Avowed 2, to be honest. But, I think the
[6:39] real challenge of even that system, as
[6:41] nice as it is to say, would be
[6:43] incorporating some of the more difficult
[6:45] classes to bring into this
[6:46] action-oriented fold. Some of them, like
[6:49] I think barbarian and fighter, would be
[6:51] relatively easy. You see that in other
[6:52] games, as barbarian and fighter have a
[6:54] lot of overlap, obvious things like
[6:56] that. However, the two most unique
[6:58] classes that are very like Pillars and
[7:00] what you think of when you think of
[7:02] Pillars fantasy is of course cipher and
[7:04] chanter. But, I also think these would
[7:06] be difficult to incorporate into an
[7:08] action-oriented game, but certainly not
[7:10] impossible. The problem is I just don't
[7:12] think you could port them in wholesale,
[7:14] no matter how much you wanted to.
[7:16] There's a couple reasons for that. I
[7:17] think cipher in particular is a class
[7:20] that has interesting targeting
[7:22] mechanisms for a CRPG. A lot of its
[7:25] abilities often trigger very uniquely by
[7:29] either bouncing off friendly targets to
[7:30] hit an enemy, or going from you to a
[7:33] friendly target and affecting enemies in
[7:35] between you two, jumping from enemies,
[7:38] being like purely debuffs and things
[7:39] like that. And I could just see that
[7:41] being more difficult to incorporate into
[7:44] an action game. Especially given that
[7:46] with those abilities, positioning is
[7:48] really important. And how that would
[7:50] feel in a more action-oriented RPG would
[7:52] almost certainly require some tweaking
[7:55] and a lot of time to get right. And I
[7:57] can see why they didn't want to do it
[7:59] for Avowed, to be honest. Chanter runs
[8:01] into a slightly different problem, where
[8:03] yes, it is a variation of a bard, let's
[8:05] be honest. It also functions a bit
[8:07] differently in the CRPGs in that
[8:10] chanters basically chant phrases, and
[8:13] those phrases individually will, of
[8:15] course, produce different effects. And
[8:17] then as they have so many phrases
[8:19] chanted, they basically build that up as
[8:21] a resource. They can then use their
[8:23] actual normal abilities outside of the
[8:25] effects produced by the chants. Meaning
[8:27] that a lot of what their class does is
[8:30] like build up those chants, and those
[8:32] happen sort of passively, and then your
[8:34] big abilities, once you've said so many
[8:36] phrases over a period of time, have a
[8:38] little more active participation. As
[8:40] typically what you'd do is set the
[8:42] chants up before you get into combat.
[8:44] And this would be difficult to
[8:46] implement, I think, for a variety of
[8:47] different reasons. There are a ton of
[8:49] these chants in the CRPGs, and tons of
[8:52] different ways to mix and match those,
[8:54] but they take time, you know, in combat
[8:56] to actually go off. And again, I'm not
[8:58] really sure how well that would
[8:59] translate to an action game, like how
[9:01] well you would even be able to use those
[9:03] chants. It would obviously be more of
[9:05] like a support situation, which I think
[9:08] would obviously make for a good
[9:09] multi-class in that case, cuz then you
[9:11] could have more active abilities on top
[9:13] of the chanting. But long story short, I
[9:15] would really want these to be in Avowed
[9:17] 2. I think they're some of what makes
[9:19] Pillars so unique. And I think finding a
[9:21] way to implement them into the game in a
[9:24] fun way that is, of course, enjoyable is
[9:27] not a small thing. But if we're going to
[9:29] do Avowed 2, I really think that's where
[9:31] a lot of the effort needs to be focused,
[9:33] personally. And yet, it is actually not
[9:36] the only place a lot of the effort would
[9:38] need to be focused because next I want
[9:39] to talk about the biggest criticism
[9:41] Avowed received which was its static
[9:43] world. So, Avowed was never like going
[9:46] to be a big open world sandbox. That is
[9:48] to say the version we got. I know there
[9:50] were like rumors from the initial
[9:52] announcement of Avowed being a thing
[9:54] that people really wanted it to be the
[9:56] sandbox to rival Skyrim and people were
[9:58] very disappointed when it was not that.
[10:00] And I think that's for a few reasons but
[10:02] I mainly think it's because a lot of
[10:03] people just want a city and to do that
[10:06] again. A lot of people love New Vegas of
[10:08] course and that is obviously an open
[10:09] world sandbox and I think people just
[10:12] really want that as an experience from
[10:14] them again and they just aren't
[10:16] receiving it and so this game they got
[10:18] close to that in the sense of it's like
[10:20] open world hubs and everything was
[10:21] frustrating for a lot of people. And if
[10:24] you wanted to address feedback and
[10:26] criticism that Avowed received, this is
[10:28] pretty much the top of the list which
[10:30] would be to make the game an open world
[10:32] sandbox with NPCs that have schedules
[10:34] and move around. That is again something
[10:36] that is much easier said than done,
[10:38] especially in an RPG where there's a lot
[10:41] of potential for non-linearity but
[10:43] Obsidian does have that experience and
[10:46] it certainly could be done. What's more
[10:48] though, I think something that goes a
[10:50] little unsung so to speak was how
[10:53] rewarding exploration could be in
[10:55] Avowed. There was just stuff tucked
[10:57] everywhere and every little nook or
[10:58] cranny and they really made it a delight
[11:00] to go and explore like individual pieces
[11:03] of levels and climb on top of stuff.
[11:05] There's a lot of verticality and you
[11:06] would usually get up somewhere and they
[11:08] would pretty much always be some form of
[11:10] loot. Even places you might think were
[11:11] initially unreachable, you get up there
[11:13] and sure enough there's loot to find and
[11:15] be collected. And I think combining that
[11:17] rewarding exploration with a proper open
[11:20] world sandbox that people want and
[11:22] ideally giving us a lot of different
[11:24] ways to approach different quests and
[11:26] things on top of the more
[11:28] action-oriented elements and really kind
[11:30] kind rope all of the RPG aspects into
[11:32] it, which Avowed certainly plays around
[11:34] with here and there, but could certainly
[11:35] lean into more as well. And suddenly, I
[11:38] think you have a game that would at the
[11:40] very least address the criticism this
[11:42] game mostly received. But to sort of
[11:44] start wrapping this up, if we were to
[11:46] get an Avowed 2, I would say that I
[11:48] would sincerely hope that Avowed would
[11:51] in fact just be a stepping stone to
[11:53] something bigger and better, which is
[11:54] something that Obsidian has done well
[11:56] with in the past. A lot of their sequels
[11:59] are in fact better than some of the
[12:00] original games. Even speaking uh purely
[12:03] to the Pillars series, which was all
[12:05] in-house at Obsidian, as opposed to the
[12:07] sequels they worked on from other
[12:08] franchises. Pillars 2 for me was a
[12:11] dramatic improvement over the original
[12:14] game. And in that sense, I would hope
[12:16] that Avowed 2 would be a dramatic
[12:18] improvement over that original that
[12:20] would hopefully incorporate some of this
[12:21] feedback and criticism that the original
[12:23] received. And in that sense, I do think
[12:25] there's a way forward, and I certainly
[12:27] hope there is, because otherwise, I just
[12:29] don't know that we would get more of the
[12:31] world of Eora. And personally, to me, as
[12:34] somebody who's made a ton of lore videos
[12:35] and covered these games uh pretty
[12:37] extensively at this point compared to
[12:39] the vast majority of people out there
[12:41] anyway, the idea of not seeing more of
[12:43] this world in a medium that I love,
[12:45] video games of course, would be
[12:47] incredibly disappointing. But
[12:49] ultimately, time will tell what actually
[12:51] happens with this, and we will see if
[12:53] those rumors prove true. But for today,
[12:56] that is going to do it. Certainly hope
[12:57] you enjoyed the video. If you did, by
[12:59] all means, like, comment, subscribe, all
[13:01] that YouTube jazz. But regardless of any
[13:04] of that, truly, just thank you so much
[13:05] for watching. I really do appreciate it.
[13:07] May you wander in wisdom and have an
[13:10] amazing day.
[13:30] >> Mhm.