[0:06] What's going on everybody? Mortem here.
[0:08] This time bringing you my re-review of
[0:10] Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, which
[0:13] is a video I've been wanting to get
[0:14] around to for a while because of two
[0:17] reasons really. One, the quality of my
[0:20] original video, which was done before
[0:21] this was my full-time job all the way
[0:23] back in early 2021, as this is one of
[0:27] those games I've been playing basically
[0:28] since it launched. and got 100% of the
[0:31] achievements long before I started doing
[0:32] this full-time. And I'd like to think
[0:34] that somewhere in the meantime, I've
[0:36] gotten slightly less terrible at making
[0:38] videos. However, that's not the only
[0:40] reason I wanted to take another look at
[0:41] this via a video. The other reason, of
[0:43] course, being, as I'm sure many people
[0:45] at this point are aware, at least my
[0:46] regular viewers anyway, last year in
[0:48] 2025, I completed the ultimate, which is
[0:51] an extraordinarily difficult challenge
[0:54] associated with Deadfire that I was the
[0:56] 15th person to officially complete. That
[0:59] is because again it is extraordinarily
[1:01] difficult and at the time of my original
[1:02] review I had not done that though I did
[1:04] talk a little bit about it there and
[1:06] both of those reasons combined were a
[1:08] pretty good reason to make a thinly
[1:10] veiled excuse to play through the game
[1:11] again and talk a little bit about it and
[1:13] so let's do exactly that. Now Pillars of
[1:16] Eternity 2: Deadfire is an interesting
[1:18] game in the sense that I've never really
[1:20] considered it like my be all end all
[1:22] favorite of CRPGs. However, it's always
[1:25] kind of bounced around my top five to
[1:27] top 10 depending on my mood. The reason
[1:29] for that is while I enjoy the game for
[1:31] what it is, I do think there are CRPGs
[1:34] that do more mechanically, that do more
[1:36] story-wise and even gameplaywise. Even
[1:39] though I do think there is more depth to
[1:41] Pillars as a series than people give it
[1:43] credit for, the main draw for me has
[1:45] always been the lore and the world,
[1:46] which is why I made a bunch of videos
[1:48] about that in particular over the years,
[1:50] as it's by far the thing I was the most
[1:52] invested in. And yet at the same time,
[1:54] coming from the original game, I think
[1:56] Pillars 2 does a lot of leg work in
[1:59] terms of making the system uh just flow
[2:02] a lot better, a lot of more refined
[2:04] elements to it, like just something as
[2:05] simple as being able to retarget a spell
[2:07] you've already started casting, even
[2:09] more control over your companion AI, and
[2:11] just a million little details that can
[2:13] go unnoticed if you don't play the game
[2:15] a ton. But as the fact that this video
[2:17] is coming out so much later, even just
[2:19] that original video might tell you,
[2:21] Pillars of Eternity 2 is a game that's a
[2:23] bit of a slow burn. It comes at you over
[2:26] time the more you uh take time to think
[2:28] about it and absorb the story, even come
[2:31] back to it, play it again, come at
[2:33] things at a different angle and that
[2:34] kind of thing. It's just a game that has
[2:36] grown on me over the years even though
[2:38] I've always liked it. And a lot of that
[2:39] is again just down to those details that
[2:41] you might not necessarily appreciate on
[2:43] a first playthrough, but that really
[2:44] start to shine on replays especially.
[2:47] And so let's get on with the rest of the
[2:49] review and talk about all of it.
[2:51] Starting with first, of course, the
[2:52] technical state. How's this game
[2:54] running? I can report that this game is
[2:56] basically in the exact state that it was
[2:58] in when I left it last, which is that
[3:00] the main issue you're likely to run into
[3:02] is some stuttering, especially the
[3:04] longer your save file runs on. I've
[3:07] heard it is much worse over on consoles.
[3:09] I've never played it on console, PC
[3:11] channel after all. And I have on
[3:13] occasion seen people mentioning other
[3:16] problems like the occasional
[3:17] game-breaking bug or something, but
[3:19] again, the only issue I've experienced
[3:21] personally and by far the largest
[3:23] reported one is the stutters that pop
[3:25] up, especially in again the later parts
[3:27] of the game. And so, let's move on to
[3:30] difficulty. If you've watched a lot of
[3:32] my videos over the years, you may well
[3:34] have heard me refer to Pillars of
[3:36] Eternity to Dead Fire as both the
[3:38] easiest and hardest CRPG depending on
[3:41] your mood. But when the game first
[3:42] released, it was just easy. Some of that
[3:45] is because with uh relatively minimal
[3:48] knowledge, you can set up a decent AI in
[3:50] order to control your companions in the
[3:52] game's real time with pause combat. And
[3:54] then even on the higher difficulties,
[3:56] you can actually let it autoplay for the
[3:58] most part. and then there wasn't a ton
[3:59] of challenge to be had. And so taking in
[4:02] some of that feedback over the time this
[4:04] game was receiving active patches, they
[4:06] added quite a bit of difficulty both in
[4:08] the form of things like mega bosses and
[4:10] optional challenges known as Magrron's
[4:12] fires, which is where the ultimate
[4:14] challenge actually springs from. that
[4:16] was added post-release of course because
[4:18] while you do have your standard
[4:20] difficulty options basically story
[4:22] through the super hard mode which is
[4:24] supposed to be path of the damned but
[4:26] doesn't wind up being that difficult
[4:27] like I mentioned you also have a bunch
[4:29] of extra options like of course an iron
[4:31] man save file or expert mode which turns
[4:34] off some of the helper features etc you
[4:36] also have the optional Mrron's fires
[4:38] that were added fires are special
[4:40] challenges that alter the way some of
[4:42] the game mechanics work in order to make
[4:44] for a more challenging experience
[4:46] overall. Now, I'm not going to go
[4:47] through every one of these. I have
[4:49] videos where I have done that. Uh
[4:51] specifically talking about the ultimate
[4:52] challenge because the ultimate challenge
[4:54] is in fact to play with all of these on
[4:57] at the same time, which makes the game
[4:59] not literally impossible obviously, but
[5:01] extremely difficult. Just to throw a few
[5:03] out there so you kind of get a gist of
[5:05] what I'm talking about. Some of the more
[5:06] impactful ones are the Athyst Challenge,
[5:08] which gives you a strict deadline to
[5:10] beat the game by as time is passing
[5:12] while you're playing. Barath challenge,
[5:14] the god of death's trial for you, if you
[5:17] will, is to make sure that combat does
[5:19] not end when it is started and you have
[5:21] to finish it, which combined with the
[5:23] Iron Man mode is obviously not great.
[5:26] However, that actually opens up some
[5:28] interesting combos that make that mode
[5:30] possible. And so, while that might seem
[5:32] like a detriment at first, it actually
[5:33] is the ultimate thing that makes certain
[5:36] runs possible because most of the time
[5:38] in combat, a lot of your buffs and stuff
[5:40] are per encounter. So when combat ends,
[5:42] that stuff just falls off, which means
[5:44] you can't carry it from fight to fight.
[5:46] And then you can use that new mechanic
[5:48] of combat not dropping via this
[5:50] challenge to actually do some stuff you
[5:52] cannot do otherwise. And then of course
[5:54] the most difficult one by far is Hilish
[5:56] challenge, which gives you uh the orphan
[5:59] from the first game that you could
[6:00] potentially take into the second game,
[6:02] Vela. And she follows you around and if
[6:04] she dies, you lose and she dies to
[6:06] basically everything. So again, there's
[6:08] just all those optional challenges to
[6:09] make it more difficult. However, there
[6:11] are some options to make replays more
[6:14] interesting even beyond that in the form
[6:15] of Barath's blessings. Basically, every
[6:18] achievement for Deadfire is associated
[6:20] with a currency that you can then spend
[6:22] on bonuses to your next playthrough.
[6:25] This can be things like starting with
[6:26] the entire map revealed, extra starting
[6:28] cash, extra starting stats, and just all
[6:31] sorts of stuff to make replays a little
[6:33] bit of a smoother experience. I think
[6:35] that is fun overall, and it basically
[6:37] functions as the game's new game plus,
[6:38] if you want to think of it that way.
[6:40] Now, while not strictly speaking a
[6:42] difficulty option, another thing you
[6:43] have to pick right at the beginning of
[6:44] the game is actually turnbased or real
[6:47] time with pause. Now, I'm going to be
[6:49] real with you. Turn-based in Deadfire is
[6:52] not great. In fact, I would go so in
[6:54] fact, I would go so far as to say for me
[6:56] it's kind of unplayable. I really don't
[6:58] like it. Now, they did uh do an
[7:00] interesting thing, which is that they
[7:02] added turnbased mode to Pillars of
[7:05] Eternity 1 not all that long ago,
[7:06] earlier this year from the time of this
[7:08] recording, actually, where they
[7:09] addressed a lot of the criticism that
[7:11] turn-based mode received in Deadfire in
[7:13] that earlier game. So, in a weird twist
[7:15] of fate, the original game actually has
[7:17] a better turn-based mode now than the
[7:19] second one does. However, another change
[7:21] there is while in the first game now you
[7:23] can toggle it in a playthrough, you
[7:25] can't do that here without using uh
[7:28] console commands in order to do it. And
[7:30] you don't want to do that cuz it comes
[7:31] with the potential of corrupting your
[7:33] save file. This is because of the ways
[7:35] that uh turnbased mode can change how
[7:38] certain things are calculated and some
[7:39] of that stuff works. And so you pick it
[7:41] at the start of a playthrough and that's
[7:43] just what you're going to have to do for
[7:44] the rest of that playthrough unless you
[7:46] want to risk that save file corruption.
[7:48] Moving on a little bit though. Next up,
[7:49] let's talk about the world state. So,
[7:51] Pillars of Eternity 2: Dead Fire is a
[7:54] direct sequel from the original game. As
[7:56] far as the story is concerned, you play
[7:58] the same character from that original
[8:00] game, the Watcher of Cad Noa. And so,
[8:02] the game handles this in a couple of
[8:04] interesting ways. You can pick a preset
[8:07] history, which is basically a rough
[8:10] approximation of six different ways you
[8:12] could have played through the original
[8:13] game. that being making every mistake
[8:15] possible, doing everything pretty well,
[8:18] kind of being more judicious about it,
[8:20] etc. Now, the other option is, of
[8:22] course, to import your save file from
[8:25] the original game. If you've played
[8:26] through it and have an in-game save
[8:28] file, you can just use that as your
[8:29] history. However, there is a third
[8:31] option that is a little more obscure.
[8:34] I've noticed that a lot of people tend
[8:36] to miss it, which is just that you can
[8:38] make your own history. And what this
[8:40] means is that you can actually go to the
[8:42] main menu of Deadfire and go into the
[8:45] options there and there will be an
[8:46] option to effectively create a pillars
[8:49] one save file that gets added to the
[8:50] menu there as a history meaning that you
[8:53] can just select it. So this means if you
[8:55] have specific choices and you know what
[8:57] they affect and you want to carry them
[8:58] forward into Deadfire, you can
[9:01] absolutely do so without playing through
[9:03] the first game. So, in that way, you can
[9:05] just jump straight into the second one
[9:07] and the stuff you want to see if that's
[9:08] something you're trying to do. Though, I
[9:10] certainly would recommend playing the
[9:12] first game at least once. Now, in case
[9:14] you're wondering about what gets carried
[9:15] forward, there's a lot of different
[9:17] stuff. So, I would say that some of the
[9:19] more impactful things are basically
[9:20] which god you decided to side with and
[9:23] if you actually followed through on that
[9:25] deal. So, in the original game, in order
[9:27] to get to the end game, you need to make
[9:28] a deal with one of the gods. You have a
[9:30] few different options there and you can
[9:32] also break that deal once you get to the
[9:34] actual endgame. Who you sided with and
[9:36] if you kept your end of the bargain is
[9:38] one of the more impactful choices you
[9:40] can make as it carries forward into the
[9:42] next game. But there's also all sorts of
[9:44] stuff that gets referenced mostly in
[9:46] passing and dialogue here and there. And
[9:48] of course whether or not you kept the
[9:49] companions alive. They can absolutely
[9:52] die in the original game and they could
[9:53] not be carried forward into the second
[9:55] one. And so if one of the companions
[9:56] that would normally be in the second
[9:58] game didn't survive your first game save
[10:00] file, then they are just gone. So keep
[10:02] that in mind as you approach this game,
[10:04] I suppose. But then one of my favorite
[10:06] parts of all of Pillars of Eternity 2 is
[10:09] its character creation. So let's talk a
[10:12] little bit about it. This is probably
[10:14] when you'll notice that they made some
[10:15] big changes from the system in the
[10:17] original game to the second one. And
[10:18] that is most immediately felt by the
[10:21] fact that you can multiclass in this
[10:23] one. This is also a decision you have to
[10:25] make as soon as you start with that
[10:27] character because it affects progression
[10:29] in a really integral way. For instance,
[10:31] if you multiclass, you will never get
[10:33] the last two tiers of abilities from
[10:35] either of the individual classes that
[10:37] your multiclass is made of. However,
[10:40] each individual class has also been
[10:42] given subclasses. And one of my favorite
[10:44] little well-known details is that the
[10:46] game will actually give you a unique
[10:48] class name based on every possible
[10:50] combination of multiclassing you could
[10:52] do, which is just a really fun little
[10:54] thing. Even beyond that stuff that's
[10:56] more immediately obvious, they also made
[10:58] a lot of changes to how leveling up
[10:59] works in general. For starters, you can
[11:02] preview the ability trees now, which is
[11:04] nice. But essentially, every level
[11:06] you're going to get either one or two
[11:07] abilities to put into those ability
[11:09] trees. And while some things like
[11:11] passives overlap and multiclassing often
[11:14] forces you to choose between one tree or
[11:16] another per level as you uh sometimes
[11:18] only get one point and then other levels
[11:20] you'll get two or have to pick between
[11:22] or be able to put one into both etc.
[11:24] That's just a little bit different from
[11:26] how pillars one handled things. But
[11:28] realistically the fun here is of course
[11:31] in the builds you can make. And while
[11:33] yes, some of these classes are
[11:34] technically speaking a little better
[11:36] than others based on potential build
[11:38] combos, balancing, all that usual stuff,
[11:41] I'll say this. If you're not playing on
[11:43] the highest difficulty with some of
[11:45] Mrron's fires enabled, it's really not
[11:47] that big of a deal. And I would
[11:49] recommend you play the thing that sounds
[11:50] the most fun to you. With Cipher and
[11:53] Chanter really being the kind of things
[11:54] that are unique to the Pillars games in
[11:57] particular, the rest being more or less
[11:58] what you would expect them to be in
[12:00] other fantasy titles. Chanters work by
[12:03] building up their chants every so often
[12:05] in real time with pause or per turn and
[12:07] turnbased. And once they've chanted
[12:09] enough phrases, which have their own
[12:10] individual effects, they can then spend
[12:12] those chanted phrases on abilities that
[12:14] they can cast in a sort of variation of
[12:16] a bard, but they're much more fun than
[12:18] that if you get into them. Cipher is all
[12:21] about mental and soul energy, which
[12:23] matches the watcher nature of your
[12:25] character very well, and we'll get to
[12:26] that in a moment. and they have a bunch
[12:28] of very unique abilities that play off
[12:30] of like positioning and targeting in
[12:33] ways that can be uh fun to mess around
[12:35] with. Now, from here, rather than get
[12:37] too in-depth for a video like this, I
[12:39] instead want to give you a few of my
[12:41] favorites. Now, some of the stuff I love
[12:43] the most isn't even like mechanically
[12:46] superior to a lot of other things.
[12:48] They're just really fun. Like, one of my
[12:49] favorite multiclasses is druid and
[12:52] ranger, which is called a beastmaster.
[12:54] And then with Druid, you can lean into
[12:56] their shape-shifting and then of course
[12:58] have your uh ranger pet from being a
[13:00] ranger. And that's like a really fun
[13:02] combo that has a sort of natural synergy
[13:04] to it, especially for the ranger
[13:06] abilities that require your pet to be in
[13:08] a certain proximity, which the
[13:10] shape-shifting leans into. And then even
[13:12] then, you can still fall back on the
[13:14] druids like AoE's and control spells.
[13:16] For the ultimate, a really popular uh
[13:18] way to do that is blood mage and priest
[13:21] of SCE. Now, I want to mention this in
[13:24] particular because this combo works
[13:26] specifically because of some of the
[13:28] challenges that are enabled, which is
[13:29] the other side of things. The minmaxing
[13:31] is there if you want it to be, and it is
[13:34] possible to build a character around
[13:35] certain mechanics you want to take
[13:37] advantage of. Blood mage is able to uh
[13:39] basically spend their health in order to
[13:41] recoup class resources, which in
[13:43] combination with a buff called
[13:46] brilliant, which helps you do the same
[13:47] thing. And the priest of Skain's uh
[13:49] uncanny ability to get the spells you
[13:51] need at the exact levels you need them
[13:53] by default makes for an incredibly
[13:55] potent combo where combat doesn't end
[13:58] until you win. And with Vodica's
[14:00] challenge, recouping your class
[14:02] resources is much more difficult as it
[14:04] becomes per rest as opposed to most of
[14:06] it being per encounter. But then to give
[14:08] you yet another option, uh one of the
[14:10] ways I the way I approached this most
[14:12] recent playthrough, I played a death
[14:14] godlike. Godlikes are basically people
[14:16] who have been blessed with the
[14:17] appearance of the gods, which manifests
[14:19] as what is often referred to as a chime
[14:22] inside of them, but also gives them the
[14:23] outward appearance of the god they are
[14:26] blessed by, let's call it. So, this
[14:28] death godlike has a connection to Barth,
[14:31] the god of death, cycles, doorways, etc.
[14:34] And so, through the first game, you're
[14:36] going to inevitably meet that god as
[14:38] part of the main story. And while I
[14:40] wanted to play through as a cipher, I
[14:42] figured I would rope that into the
[14:44] details of the second game where I
[14:45] decided that after meeting Barth
[14:48] accepting her deal to get to the endgame
[14:49] of the original game, she also decided
[14:52] to grant you the power of a priest of
[14:54] Barth as the priest in this game of
[14:55] course worship their associated gods
[14:57] with this one having a slightly more
[14:59] complicated relationship with Barth. And
[15:01] so that was a fun sort of role-play
[15:03] centered multiclass that is also pretty
[15:05] fun to play because priest is a great
[15:07] class to multiclass other stuff with
[15:09] because it has a ton of support and
[15:11] utility abilities that pair well with
[15:13] just about anything. But there's ways to
[15:15] add flavor and roleplay to all of that
[15:17] stuff. And hopefully those examples kind
[15:19] of gave you an idea of what's possible
[15:21] because from there I do want to go ahead
[15:23] and move on and talk a little bit about
[15:24] the story. The story is one of the
[15:26] things in Deadfire that gets the most
[15:28] flak, and that is mainly because it is
[15:30] very, very short. In fact, in total,
[15:32] it's technically only like four quests.
[15:34] And while you're unlikely to do it on a
[15:35] first playthrough, you can easily burn
[15:36] through it in a few hours. But let's
[15:38] talk a little bit about it. So, in this
[15:40] game, you play as the Watcher of Cadua,
[15:42] no matter what character you choose to
[15:44] create. The watcher of Cadua is called
[15:46] such because they are a watcher, which
[15:48] is someone who can see into the beyond
[15:50] and talk to and interact with the souls
[15:52] of the dead, opening up possibilities to
[15:54] them that are simply not something every
[15:57] random person can do. Watchers are
[15:59] relatively rare, and they tend to go
[16:01] crazy from what they've seen, which is a
[16:03] big subject of the original game. Now,
[16:05] the Catnua part is because Cat Noa is
[16:07] your stronghold in the original game,
[16:09] which gets unceremoniously destroyed by
[16:11] a giant Audra statue. Audra being the
[16:14] conduit through which souls pass into
[16:16] the beyond from the mortal realm. Now,
[16:18] this statue, as it turns out, happens to
[16:21] be inhabited by the god Athys, long
[16:23] thought dead, after having been
[16:25] destroyed once he manifested in a
[16:27] physical form via St. Widwin in events
[16:29] that preceded even the first game. So,
[16:31] him not only suddenly coming back, but
[16:34] then animating this Audra statue and
[16:36] marching off to the distance while also
[16:38] killing you by destroying your
[16:40] stronghold in the process gives you a
[16:41] pretty strong reason to want to track
[16:43] the guy down, which is exactly what the
[16:45] goddess Barth orders you to do, which is
[16:48] how you become the herald of Barth as
[16:49] far as this game is concerned. And
[16:51] that's basically the main plot. You
[16:53] chase Athys around the Deadfire
[16:55] Archipelago that he is marching through.
[16:57] At first, after you are attacked, right
[16:59] as the game starts, and you come back to
[17:01] life after being sent back by Barth, you
[17:04] track him down at the Anguan dig site
[17:06] nearby and get your ship up and running
[17:07] again before you can start sailing the
[17:09] dead fire. From there, you go meet the
[17:11] major players in the main city,
[17:12] Nekotaka. You then go to Hango and do
[17:15] the same thing, talk to Athyst. Then you
[17:17] go to a place called Ashen M, and talk
[17:19] to Athyst again. And then you find a way
[17:21] through a big storm to the endgame of
[17:23] Ukiso. And that is the entirety of the
[17:26] main story. And while in theory uh the
[17:29] last leg of it getting past Andre's
[17:31] mortar is supposed to see you
[17:32] interacting with one of the factions
[17:34] which is technically side content to get
[17:36] away past that giant storm that's
[17:38] actually really easy to do in a couple
[17:40] of different ways and doesn't take long
[17:42] at all. And so what you have is a story
[17:44] that is very short with yet gigantic
[17:47] implications for the lore of the world
[17:49] which I'm going to get into. So, like I
[17:51] said, I love the lore of this world. And
[17:53] one of the things that really wrote me
[17:54] in about it was the way uh reincarnation
[17:57] and cycles work here. While I have not
[18:00] been light with spoilers thus far, I'm
[18:02] about to get into super heavy spoilers
[18:04] here. You see, the big reveal of the
[18:06] original game was basically that the
[18:08] gods were manufactured. They are real in
[18:11] the sense that they are present. You can
[18:13] talk to them. They are very powerful and
[18:15] they are unquestionably gods. However,
[18:17] they are not natural. They were made by
[18:20] a civilization known as the ingithans.
[18:22] They did this as a result of uh getting
[18:25] into anamancy which is the study of
[18:27] souls in this world. And they studied it
[18:29] to a point where they eventually started
[18:30] seeking out their own creators. That
[18:32] age-old question of how did we get here?
[18:35] And unfortunately for theans, what they
[18:37] found was nothing. If there was a
[18:39] creator or a deity, it seemingly had
[18:41] long since left. And they were left
[18:43] alone in the universe and decided then
[18:45] that they would become the gods. and
[18:47] threw a whole lot of nonsense at Ukiso,
[18:50] the ancient ancestral homeland of the
[18:53] Hana civilization, which are the main
[18:55] controllers of the Deadfire Archipelago,
[18:57] even to the day of this game, is where
[19:00] they did that. The machinery that turned
[19:03] the Ingens into these deities is housed
[19:06] at Ukiso. It's also where the machinery
[19:09] that took control of a natural process
[19:12] known as the wheel or reincarnation
[19:14] occurred. So, a few big lore topics
[19:16] there right away. The wheel was a
[19:18] natural process by which souls were
[19:20] recycled more or less through the
[19:22] reincarnation process. This wasn't
[19:24] perfect and was prone to errors and
[19:26] could cause things like holloworn, which
[19:28] are people born without souls, and a
[19:30] number of other soul maladies that are
[19:32] expressed throughout the games where
[19:33] that process could go wrong. And while
[19:36] they still happen even in the time of
[19:37] the gods, it was apparently much worse
[19:39] before they took power. Combine that
[19:42] with a bunch of civilizations all trying
[19:44] to worship deities they had made up and
[19:46] doing terrible atrocious things in their
[19:48] name. The Inguithans basically wanted to
[19:50] use their ascension to godhood as a way
[19:53] to force all of the civilizations in the
[19:56] world of Aora to march forward, become
[19:59] stronger and better themselves, and of
[20:01] course do so under their own banners.
[20:03] However, this leads to a few other
[20:05] things. Uh, one, the gods themselves
[20:07] aren't individual people. Each
[20:09] individual deity is actually made up of
[20:12] who knows how many thousands of
[20:13] ingithans who were each selected for
[20:16] kind of their rough personality traits
[20:18] because the deities that they wound up
[20:20] making took the place of legends and
[20:22] myths of deities that kind of were
[20:24] already around in their time. So they
[20:26] basically just took on the mantle of
[20:28] some things people around had already
[20:29] believed in and chose to make it real
[20:32] while squashing the rumors of things
[20:33] that did not fit into their pantheon.
[20:36] Now they accomplish that by again taking
[20:38] control of the wheel. This natural
[20:40] process of reincarnation and forcing it
[20:43] into an unnatural but more efficient
[20:45] process which cut down on the number of
[20:47] soul maladies and gave it direction
[20:50] which is what allowed them to ascend to
[20:51] godhood like this. But this came with a
[20:54] bit of a catch. You see all these uh
[20:56] untold thousands of years later, that
[20:58] machinery has controlled that process
[21:00] for so long that that process can no
[21:03] longer function without that machinery.
[21:06] Meaning that if someone were to say
[21:08] destroy it, the process would be broken,
[21:10] which is a problem because the gods feed
[21:12] off of the energy from the reincarnation
[21:15] cycle. As souls enter the beyond and get
[21:18] reincarnated, it produces the energy
[21:20] that the gods need to survive and of
[21:22] course then provides souls for future
[21:25] generations of the mortals that inhabit
[21:27] the world of Aora in a sort of mutually
[21:30] beneficial situation. The thing is
[21:32] Athyus as the god of rebirth, light,
[21:34] dawn, etc. kind of hates this and he
[21:37] wants to do something about it, which is
[21:39] what he was trying to do when he was
[21:40] killed in the version of him that was
[21:43] St. Widwin. and again those events that
[21:45] preceded the first game. And the second
[21:47] time around, he decides to take a more
[21:49] direct approach of taking this giant
[21:50] Audra statue to march to Ukiso where
[21:53] this machinery is and destroy it to stop
[21:55] the process of reincarnation. And that
[21:58] happens no matter what you do. You
[22:00] cannot stop it, but you can have some
[22:02] effects on the outcomes, which then
[22:04] leads to the game's various endings
[22:06] based on both how you got there and how
[22:07] you influenced Athys along the way. But
[22:11] the reincarnation cycle getting broken
[22:13] is the ending that happens no matter
[22:15] what. And you're left with this big
[22:16] cliffhanger then that while a lot of
[22:19] souls are already in the process of
[22:20] being reincarnated and that will
[22:22] continue. There's basically a generation
[22:23] or two before that process stops
[22:26] completely at which point the deities
[22:28] will die because they won't have any
[22:30] sustenance via the energy coming through
[22:31] the wheel and every single person born
[22:34] after that will be born without a soul
[22:35] which basically means holloworn. And so
[22:37] a solution will have to be found. And
[22:39] you may be asking, why would the god of
[22:42] light and rebirth choose to do that? And
[22:44] the simple answer is that he was tired
[22:46] of living that lie. He wants mortals and
[22:49] the gods themselves to either find a way
[22:51] forward together or to die together as
[22:53] opposed to being trapped in this endless
[22:56] cycle of them trying to manufacture some
[22:59] idealized society that the deities
[23:01] themselves can't even readily agree
[23:03] upon. Now, as fun as that is, that's
[23:05] really only scratching the surface of
[23:07] the lore. There's a lot of really cool
[23:09] stuff there. Uh, there is the added lore
[23:11] of Avou, which came out that has huge
[23:13] implications because even more spoilers
[23:15] for Avowed here. A crux of a vowed is
[23:18] that a naturalb born god is discovered,
[23:20] Sapidol. It turns out that while there
[23:23] were apparently no deities around when
[23:24] the Angans sought them out, it turns out
[23:27] that it wasn't impossible or anything
[23:28] because in Avou we find one that was
[23:30] born that way only for the pantheon to
[23:32] immediately attack it which then leads
[23:34] to the events of a vowed itself. And
[23:37] that is to say nothing of Yzua. So Yzua
[23:40] is a thing that is kind of briefly
[23:42] mentioned in a couple of the games, but
[23:45] a lot of it comes from Deadfire in
[23:47] particular because a sidekick you can
[23:48] get Re is from there. It's a continent
[23:51] on the other side of the world, blocked
[23:53] by Andra's mortar. Andra's mortar is the
[23:55] giant storm that protects Kaiso from
[23:58] discovery prior to this game. It also
[24:00] made travel to the other side of the
[24:02] world seemingly impossible, which is
[24:04] where Yzua was. And Yzua is a world
[24:07] where they worshiped a single deity that
[24:09] seems to be probably another naturalb
[24:11] born god situation. But that's just
[24:13] speculation and we don't really know
[24:14] because again, it's just kind of a thing
[24:16] that pops up. So, in theory, if they
[24:18] were to ever make A Pillars 3, which
[24:20] seems exceedingly unlikely all things
[24:22] considered at this point, they have a
[24:24] lot of stuff to work with, and I would
[24:26] love to see a conclusion to it. Because,
[24:27] if you couldn't tell by this very long
[24:29] rambling, I'm pretty invested in the
[24:31] story, and I would love to see what
[24:33] comes of that conflict and how a problem
[24:35] like that gets solved and again, how all
[24:37] that stuff gets approached. And it's
[24:38] incredibly interesting to me at the very
[24:40] least, which is one of the reasons I've
[24:42] loved this game so much and made all
[24:44] those lore videos about it. But let's go
[24:46] ahead and move on a little bit to
[24:47] progression. So, progression is
[24:49] interesting because again, like I
[24:51] mentioned, they did change a little bit
[24:52] of it from one to two, introducing
[24:54] things like power levels, uh, making
[24:56] gear and itemization much more
[24:58] interesting. There's your ship that
[25:00] you'll be using to sail around. The way
[25:01] crafting and resting bonuses work, and
[25:03] just all these other modifiers and
[25:05] things that you could potentially turn
[25:06] on via Magnires, which can affect
[25:08] progression. So, all of that is probably
[25:10] worth a quick mention. The simplest
[25:12] being levels, of course, though. As you
[25:14] kill things, complete quests, etc., you
[25:17] will be leveling up. As you level up,
[25:19] you will get access to higher tiers of
[25:21] abilities up until the max level of
[25:23] level 20. Now, the thing is, every tier
[25:25] of ability that you go up, which is
[25:27] roughly every couple of levels, you also
[25:30] increase your power level. As your power
[25:32] level goes up, all of your abilities
[25:34] increase in strength. This is how they
[25:37] keep lower tier abilities relevant
[25:39] throughout the entire game. And that
[25:41] applies to every single class. You can
[25:43] also in combat even uh affect this a
[25:46] little bit farther by using the new
[25:47] empower ability. Empowering basically
[25:49] allows you to cast a spell or ability at
[25:52] a higher power level than it would
[25:54] normally have. And there's a couple
[25:55] other ways to affect that as well, but
[25:57] it's definitely something to keep in
[25:59] mind. Now, where I think uh progression
[26:01] in Deadfire really, really shines is
[26:04] actually itemization, the gear that
[26:06] you'll be picking up and using. And this
[26:08] is because by default, any character can
[26:11] basically use any type of equipment.
[26:13] Now, when it comes to weapons, you can
[26:15] uh become proficient in them. You gain
[26:17] proficiencies every I think it's like
[26:19] four or so levels as your character
[26:20] levels up, but all that really does is
[26:22] allow you to use the special ability
[26:24] associated with that weapon, which isn't
[26:26] always useful and not even really
[26:28] necessary all the time. Now, the catch
[26:30] there is uh the heavier stuff you wear,
[26:32] in particular, your armor increases your
[26:33] recovery time, which means you act
[26:35] slower in uh real time with pause. And
[26:37] then the rest of it is just items that
[26:39] have various effects that you can make
[26:41] use of. And so I figured I would give
[26:42] you a couple of examples of my
[26:44] favorites. My favorite item in the
[26:47] entirety of Dead Fire isn't even that
[26:49] good, but it's a archabus called the Red
[26:52] Hand. You get this in the capital of
[26:54] Nekotaka, specifically in the black
[26:56] market known as Delver's Row. This is
[26:58] basically just a two-handed gun that is
[27:01] really cool to me because of an
[27:03] enchantment. You can enchant unique uh
[27:06] weapons and armor with extra abilities
[27:08] and increase their overall usefulness.
[27:11] This enchanting mechanic can be used to
[27:13] give the red hand an ability called
[27:15] double tap. Double tap is an enchantment
[27:18] that means if you hit any vessel type
[27:21] enemy twice in a row with the red hand,
[27:24] it immediately dies. And that can be
[27:26] used on bosses and basically just
[27:28] anything you can get two consecutive
[27:29] hits on. As the name would imply, it
[27:31] also lets you shoot twice per attack.
[27:34] Combine that with a ranger who actually
[27:36] gets an ability to also shoot twice as
[27:38] well, and you're off to the races. But
[27:41] there are straight up bosses you can
[27:42] instantly uh not literally one shot, but
[27:44] I suppose two shot with this rifle. And
[27:47] it's just one example of the way
[27:48] itemization is approached here where you
[27:50] can use it to do some really fun stuff
[27:52] in specific situations because that
[27:54] specific item can trivialize a couple of
[27:57] really difficult fights against that one
[28:00] specific enemy type. But that's just the
[28:02] tip of the iceberg. In order to complete
[28:04] the ultimate, as at least the way I did
[28:06] it, you make use of a buff called
[28:09] brilliant. Brilliant is a rare in the
[28:12] sense that there's not a lot of things
[28:13] that give it to you. Buff that basically
[28:15] allows you to restore class resources.
[28:18] There is a cloak that allows you to put
[28:20] brilliant on yourself that you can find
[28:22] in Bikarnner's Observatory by basically
[28:24] hitting yourself and as long as you give
[28:26] yourself a way to survive that like say
[28:28] the priest spell barring death door
[28:30] which makes you unkillable for a set
[28:32] time and then combining that with
[28:34] another priest spell called salvation of
[28:36] time which increases the length of the
[28:38] buffs that are on you right now. like
[28:40] say barring death's door and the
[28:42] brilliant inspiration or buff that
[28:44] allows you to again restore class
[28:46] resources meaning you can continually
[28:48] cast the spells allowing you to make
[28:50] that cycle you can set up a situation
[28:52] where your character in combat is
[28:54] literally unkillable thanks to these
[28:55] spells and unless the enemy has a way of
[28:58] removing them you cannot die which is
[29:00] one of the ways thanks to Barth's
[29:02] challenge as part of the ultimate not
[29:04] dropping combat you can get through some
[29:06] of the encounters that would otherwise
[29:08] not be possible but to not spend too
[29:10] long on it. Basically, when it comes to
[29:12] itemization and how you can approach
[29:13] combat, there's actually so much depth
[29:16] there if you go and look for it and you
[29:18] can just find all these little ways to
[29:19] interact with those systems in really
[29:21] unique ways that are just so much fun.
[29:24] And again, that is one of the parts of
[29:26] this game that I've just come to
[29:27] appreciate more and more over the years.
[29:29] And that's not even all of it. Uh,
[29:30] another bit of progression is pets. Uh,
[29:32] only you can equip a pet by default, but
[29:35] one of the Barrett's blessings actually
[29:37] lets you give it to a deer as well. And
[29:39] pets will give you a partywide effect.
[29:41] And you can find tons of pets throughout
[29:43] the game. And there was an update that
[29:44] added this thing called the creature uh
[29:46] the critter cleaver, I think it is, that
[29:48] lets you make custom pets by sacrificing
[29:50] the pets you have found to it to get the
[29:52] exact combination of a pet you want
[29:54] following you around and the effect you
[29:55] actually want it to give you. And then
[29:57] there is your ship, of course. We are
[29:58] sailing around the Dead Fire after all,
[30:00] and you do actually have to do that via
[30:02] a ship. Now, I will say you do
[30:04] technically need to keep your ship
[30:06] stocked with food and water, but that is
[30:08] uh trivially easy if you are not using
[30:11] the Magrins fire that makes your food
[30:14] and stuff rot. That is actually, I
[30:16] think, one of the small balancing things
[30:17] that the base game could have changed.
[30:19] It's actually so easy to do that in the
[30:21] base game that I think it kind of
[30:22] removes the point of it being there at
[30:24] all because there's just no friction at
[30:26] all. you'll find more than enough food
[30:28] more than likely to keep everyone fed
[30:30] and made sure they're drinking as well
[30:32] as you move your ship along. But in
[30:34] Nekataka, you will find a shipyard, the
[30:36] docks there, where you can buy new ships
[30:38] to upgrade to. And then you can actually
[30:41] upgrade those ships via parts and
[30:43] things, as well as hire sailors and
[30:44] stuff to man it, which is important for
[30:46] ship combat, but we'll talk about that
[30:48] here in the next section. Upgrading and
[30:50] maintaining a ship is a big part of it.
[30:52] And if you want to get through Andra's
[30:53] mortar on your own, one of the two ways
[30:56] you can do that is by upgrading your
[30:57] ship to the the best hull and sails.
[31:00] There are a couple of unique ships as
[31:02] well that you'll only get through
[31:03] certain quests as part of the story sort
[31:06] of. Then there is crafting and resting.
[31:08] You can put to use all of the junk you
[31:10] are picking up, which you can pick up
[31:12] everything. There's no weight limit or
[31:13] anything to some use by crafting
[31:15] scrolls, potions, food, meals, etc. And
[31:18] when you rest, you can use those meals
[31:20] to give you buffs. And do not
[31:21] underestimate how useful that is. Some
[31:23] of those buffs are crazy. But that's the
[31:26] bulk of what you're looking at
[31:27] progression-wise, which brings me then
[31:28] to the gameplay and world section. So,
[31:32] Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire uses a
[31:34] world map system where when you are not
[31:36] in a given location, you'll be traveling
[31:39] around the world via uh land or sea. At
[31:42] sea, you'll of course be using your
[31:44] given ship in order to sail around. You
[31:46] can have random encounters and stuff
[31:48] that deal with that as well that take
[31:49] the place of text events. While you are
[31:51] typically traveling on land, though a
[31:53] couple places at sea as well, you will
[31:55] find locations and these are typically
[31:57] speaking either a text event or a
[32:00] physical place you can actually explore,
[32:02] which is most of like the cities and hub
[32:03] areas. Of course, the text events are
[32:06] relatively basic. Sometimes they'll lead
[32:07] to fights or you can use your non-combat
[32:10] skills as a way around the given
[32:11] situation and pick up loot and stuff
[32:13] from those also. Now, the first part of
[32:16] the game structurally sees you trapped
[32:18] on an island trying to get your ship
[32:19] back up and running after you get
[32:21] attacked by pirates at the beginning of
[32:23] the story. This area called Port Maj is
[32:26] really the only part of the story that
[32:28] you are hemmed in. Uh because once you
[32:30] get that done and you get your ship, you
[32:31] can basically go wherever you want as
[32:34] long as you have the level to do so.
[32:36] Now, there is scaling if you want there
[32:38] to be in the game's options. You can uh
[32:40] scale just the main story up. You can
[32:42] scale or scale down everything to your
[32:45] character's level to try to make it more
[32:46] challenging. But basically, once you
[32:48] leave Port Mage, technically speaking,
[32:50] you can go wherever you want. And that
[32:51] actually does make things a little more
[32:53] interesting than people give it credit
[32:54] for because as you may remember, I said
[32:56] the main story was short, and it is.
[32:59] However, the game of Deadfire is like
[33:01] 90% side content. You can technically
[33:04] beat the game while seeing very little
[33:05] of what the game actually has to offer,
[33:07] and exploration plays a really big role
[33:09] in that. One of my favorite mechanics
[33:11] there is that some of the islands that
[33:13] you will find are technically unexplored
[33:15] and you can go there and see what's
[33:17] what. There's usually like a dungeon or
[33:18] place to explore a sort of like main
[33:20] event if you will and once you get that
[33:22] done and exit, you'll actually be able
[33:24] to name that island. And there's a bunch
[33:26] of those. There's quests surrounding it
[33:27] to sort of send you to them. And I
[33:29] really really love that. And then
[33:31] there's of course Nekotaka, the main
[33:33] city, which is made up of several
[33:34] different hub areas you can travel
[33:36] between. Each individual port has port
[33:38] services you can make use of. Basically
[33:40] a supply store if you just want to stop
[33:42] in and buy supplies before you move on
[33:44] to where you're actually going, that
[33:46] kind of thing. And there's a lot of just
[33:47] like wonderful little details there. In
[33:49] fact, to give you one, your crew, if
[33:52] their morale is high, if you're not
[33:53] feeding and watering them basically,
[33:56] they will uh eventually drop morale and
[33:58] potentially mutiny. But if their morale
[34:00] is high, they will potentially sing sea
[34:03] shanties. And the sea shanties actually
[34:05] have varying uh voices and stuff that
[34:07] will sing them based on the makeup of
[34:09] your crew. And again, just wonderful
[34:11] little bits of detail. However, I want
[34:14] to talk about naval battles and then I
[34:15] want to talk about some of the bigger
[34:17] stuff uh politicalwise as far as the
[34:19] game is concerned. Anyway, now on the
[34:21] naval battles, they changed this after
[34:24] the game released. When the game
[34:25] initially released, when you came across
[34:27] another ship or you got attacked by
[34:28] another ship, you could enter into a
[34:30] naval battle or a ship combat.
[34:32] Basically, this was initially done
[34:35] purely through a text event. The text
[34:37] event wasn't a lot of fun, and in my
[34:39] opinion, it still isn't. And so, what
[34:42] people would do, and myself included,
[34:43] was basically get the fastest ship you
[34:46] could, which is the Voyager. fully
[34:47] upgrade it. And then when you enter the
[34:49] naval combat text battle, you just full
[34:52] speed ahead as fast as you can to the
[34:54] other ship, which would be before they
[34:55] got a chance to attack and you would
[34:57] board because boarding them brings you
[34:59] to an actual combat situation that is
[35:01] much easier to win and frankly a whole
[35:03] lot faster to win. Post launch when
[35:06] everyone was doing this because it was
[35:08] just the easier thing to do. They did
[35:10] change this to where now when you
[35:12] encounter another ship this way you get
[35:14] the popup that you're seeing on screen
[35:16] where you have the choice to either
[35:17] engage in that text event immediately
[35:19] board them or try to surrender or flee.
[35:23] Surrendering sees you taking a morale
[35:25] hit and losing supplies but you know not
[35:27] necessarily uh dying to a battle you
[35:30] cannot win. And then fleeing gives you a
[35:32] chance of avoiding the encounter
[35:33] entirely. And so that in particular is a
[35:36] little easier these days. But from here,
[35:38] I want to talk about the factions. One
[35:41] of the things I find really, really
[35:42] interesting about Deadfire is the way
[35:45] the colonialism and the political
[35:47] situation around the archipelago is set
[35:50] up. Because while there are independent
[35:52] routes through the game, it's actually
[35:53] kind of split up between four different
[35:55] factions otherwise. The natives, the
[35:57] Hana, the two uh factions trying to set
[36:00] up outposts here, Rouatai, as well as
[36:03] the Veian Trading Company. And then of
[36:05] course your pirate faction, the
[36:07] Principy. Now, this is set up in such a
[36:09] way that a lot of these characters are
[36:12] at odds with each other, of course, and
[36:14] they're all trying to politically
[36:16] maneuver and gain leverage over the
[36:18] others. And when you dig into that and
[36:20] do all of the quests, it's really,
[36:21] really interesting. And you can work for
[36:24] all of them up until their very last bit
[36:26] of questing right before the end of the
[36:28] game where you do have to commit to one
[36:30] of them fully. But you may or may not
[36:32] lose companions based on what you choose
[36:34] to do there. You know, who's following
[36:36] you. You get companions from the
[36:37] factions. They'll leave you if you do
[36:39] this, that, or the other. So, you may
[36:40] want to go the independent route just
[36:41] because of that. But more on that in a
[36:43] moment. Let's start with the Hana. The
[36:45] Hana are the natives, a tribal society
[36:48] still using a cast system that thanks to
[36:50] their expansion into a city like
[36:52] Nekotaka, is fraying at the seams and no
[36:54] longer working because their lowest
[36:56] cast, the Roaru, feed off the scraps of
[36:59] others, which has turned into kind of a
[37:01] literal rotting pile of food in the
[37:03] slums known as the Gullet. So, the Hana
[37:05] are struggling with the growth they've
[37:07] seen, and they're also struggling
[37:09] against these factions that have come in
[37:11] to basically stake their claim to the
[37:13] Dead Fire for one reason or another. But
[37:15] while the Hana have seemingly grown a
[37:17] little more tolerant of people coming to
[37:19] the Dead Fire, they have a bit of an ace
[37:22] up their sleeve in terms of defense, and
[37:24] that is actually the water shapers.
[37:26] Because while Rowatai has their big
[37:28] cannons and well-made ships and honestly
[37:31] a bit higher tech than everyone else,
[37:33] it's very difficult to fight an enemy
[37:35] that can literally take the water out
[37:37] from under your ship and just sink it
[37:39] entirely, causing waves, etc. Because
[37:41] water shapers are basically Avatar the
[37:43] Last Air Bender in the sense that they
[37:45] can control and move water or shape it
[37:47] if you will as they please. This is
[37:50] shown via the water shapers guild.
[37:52] However, if you dig a little deeper, you
[37:54] learn why the Hana have started to allow
[37:57] outsiders in. It's because their power
[37:59] is waning. You see, the Hana were
[38:01] charged uh anciently with a covenant to
[38:04] the goddess of the oceans, Ingati as she
[38:07] is called here, or Andra as she is known
[38:09] elsewhere. But as the Hana started to
[38:12] seed ground to outsiders for one reason
[38:14] or another, that covenant weakens,
[38:16] making their water shaping weaker. But
[38:19] it was of course a slow battle. There
[38:21] was however a water shaper named Periqi
[38:24] who got some help from a dragon that she
[38:26] later betrayed and then trapped that
[38:28] dragon, binding the water shaping to
[38:31] draw on the dragon's power as their
[38:33] power from Andra waned. And this has
[38:36] caused the slow decline of the water
[38:38] shapers along with uh the outsiders
[38:40] coming further into the deadfire to just
[38:42] weaken over time. And so the water
[38:44] shapers are really kind of a pale
[38:47] imitation of what they used to be. And
[38:49] so the Hana are trapped in this vicious
[38:51] cycle of needing the water shapers to
[38:53] defend themselves, but also knowing that
[38:55] the water shapers are losing their power
[38:57] and that's not a fight they can win
[38:58] forever. And so they're basically trying
[39:00] to play diplomat and set themselves up
[39:02] for success that way in an effort to
[39:04] continue to control their own territory,
[39:07] losing the battle by attrition
[39:09] basically. Then you have the Rouatai.
[39:11] The Rowatai's interest in the dead fire
[39:13] is actually to do with Andra's mortar.
[39:15] Raouatai is an area that is racked by
[39:18] constant storms, much like the exact
[39:20] storms of Andra's mortar, in fact. And
[39:23] so Rouatai wants to come here, study
[39:24] that, and see if there's a way to stop
[39:26] it, basically, so they can actually
[39:28] prosper. They're also, uh, thanks to the
[39:30] harsh way they have been living, all
[39:32] about their military might, cooperation,
[39:34] and triumph in the face of adversity.
[39:37] This doesn't make them particularly nice
[39:39] people. However, one of their
[39:40] representatives at Sura will literally
[39:42] take into account your character's
[39:44] disposition. So, as you talk to people,
[39:46] you gain a reputation more or less or a
[39:48] disposition based on your responses.
[39:50] This can be things like shady or stoic,
[39:53] cruel, that kind of thing. And Atsura
[39:55] will frame his responses and how he
[39:57] tries to get you to do things based on
[39:59] your character's disposition. So, he has
[40:00] a bunch of varying dialogue based on how
[40:03] he thinks he needs to talk to you in
[40:05] order to get you to do the thing you
[40:06] want to do, which I thought was an
[40:08] interesting approach to a character like
[40:10] that because he's very clearly not
[40:11] somebody who's got uh the best of
[40:14] intentions, especially when the
[40:15] assassinations come to light. But they
[40:17] are, whether you like it or not, a lot
[40:19] more stable than the others for sure.
[40:21] They're trying to build and focusing on
[40:23] tech and doing a lot more technological
[40:26] advancements than a lot of the others
[40:28] are. And that's why they rely on the
[40:29] strength of their cannons after all.
[40:31] Then you've got the Veian Trading
[40:33] Company. Basically, the people using
[40:34] anamancy to try to further their own
[40:37] ends. Anamanscy being the science that
[40:39] was much discussed in the original game
[40:41] that has only advanced since then. The
[40:42] study of souls basically. And they use
[40:44] this to invent tech to solve their
[40:46] problems. And in order to do that, they
[40:48] need luminous Audra. Luminous Audra is
[40:50] unique to the dead fire, a very powerful
[40:53] form of again the conduits through which
[40:55] souls pass to the beyond. And so their
[40:57] interest in the dead fire is trying to
[40:59] harvest as much of that Audra to advance
[41:01] their anammancy as possible. And this
[41:03] leads to exciting new discoveries. And
[41:05] then last but not least, there are
[41:06] pirates. And I feel like I probably
[41:08] shouldn't need to explain their
[41:09] motivation, but in case it wasn't
[41:11] obvious, they're obviously after that
[41:13] booty and some treasure from what I
[41:15] understand. Now, the princip are
[41:17] actually a little more interesting than
[41:18] uh just being pirates as well because
[41:21] they are often times people's last
[41:23] resort. They can certainly get up to
[41:25] shady things. They are also not at one
[41:27] with themselves. They are divided
[41:28] between the new bloods and the old
[41:30] bloods who have very different ways of
[41:32] looking at things. But in some ways, you
[41:34] could kind of consider them a necessary
[41:36] evil because they are one of the only
[41:38] people willing to do something about the
[41:40] starving Roaru from the Hana's lowest
[41:42] cast. That is to say, you know, help
[41:44] them. But obviously, they're not exactly
[41:46] doing it out of the kindness of their
[41:47] hearts either. But depending on which
[41:49] faction you're dealing with, they are
[41:50] more than happy to undercut all sorts of
[41:52] different laws as you would expect from
[41:54] pirates. Some of them are slavers, some
[41:56] of them are anti-slavery. They're kind
[41:58] of all over the place, but trusting any
[42:00] of them completely would be a
[42:02] questionable decision. And for me at
[42:04] least, I really love how each of those
[42:06] factions is represented in a way that
[42:08] feels uh plausible, let's say. Like each
[42:11] of these factions and their motivation
[42:13] seems realistic. They all have uh
[42:15] different qualities to them. Some of
[42:17] them are doing some good things. Usually
[42:19] that's coupled with them also doing some
[42:21] terrible thing. And so if you're looking
[42:22] for like a moral high ground here, there
[42:24] really isn't one. It's just kind of
[42:26] shades of gray and which questionable
[42:28] thing you're okay with them doing or
[42:30] none of them because you can go the
[42:31] independent route if you want. But that
[42:33] back and forth is really compelling and
[42:35] each of them has their own quest line
[42:36] and many of them are associated with
[42:38] companions. So before we start talking
[42:40] combat, let's talk a little bit about
[42:42] companions. Companions are for the most
[42:44] part representatives of a faction. A
[42:47] couple of them are returning from the
[42:49] original game. Adir and Aloth as well as
[42:52] Palagena. And then we also get some new
[42:54] ones as well via Teahu. Now, truth be
[42:57] told, uh, companions are a little hit or
[42:59] miss for me. I think actually this might
[43:01] be the last game Obsidian did with
[43:03] romance. So, there is romance in here if
[43:05] you want it that you can't romance
[43:07] everybody. But, the I guess you could
[43:09] call it a problem is that a lot of these
[43:11] companions outside of what are clearly
[43:13] meant to be the main ones don't get a
[43:14] lot of interaction. uh so much so that
[43:17] they uh post launch actually had to add
[43:19] a recommended companion by quest you
[43:21] could undertake. So you could try to get
[43:23] the most out of them. But if you fail to
[43:25] do that, there are some of these
[43:26] companions who might barely say anything
[43:28] along your journey. And that's
[43:29] complicated a little farther by the fact
[43:31] that there's your actual companions and
[43:33] then there are sidekicks. Sidekicks are
[43:36] characters that are kind of in between a
[43:38] hired mercenary and a full-blown
[43:40] companion and they really only have
[43:41] interactions in a couple of quests. The
[43:43] thing is, companions don't feel that
[43:45] much better than side quests in that
[43:47] regard, depending on, you know, what
[43:49] quest you're doing with them in your
[43:50] party. But for the most part, try to do
[43:53] the faction quest with that faction
[43:56] companion, and you'll be mostly better
[43:58] off. Now, Aloth and Adar return from the
[44:00] first game. They're mostly the same.
[44:02] Aloth is dealing with the fallout of the
[44:04] Leen Key from the first game. Adear is
[44:06] trying to reconcile his sort of belief
[44:08] in Athys with what is happening here.
[44:11] And that's actually kind of more
[44:12] interesting that might initially sound.
[44:13] He has a more grounded feel to him.
[44:16] You've got Maya, the sister of Korua
[44:19] from the first game. She is a
[44:21] representative of Rouatai and gets up to
[44:23] some shady stuff in the name of progress
[44:25] for Rouatai. And she has to struggle
[44:28] with the realities of doing what is
[44:30] needed to impose order here, at least as
[44:33] far as Rowati sees it, which is
[44:35] difficult for her. Uh, Palagena makes
[44:37] her return. Palagena is in fact a member
[44:39] of the Veian trading company. Palagena
[44:42] is most interesting for reasons that
[44:43] have nothing to do with the BTC as it
[44:46] were because she is also a godlike or
[44:49] something of a former godlike in some
[44:51] ways because at an early age she had her
[44:53] chime sort of severed. The thing that
[44:55] makes a person a godlike and so as a
[44:57] result she is not a full godlike the way
[45:01] you would think of the rest of them
[45:02] which is why she looks the way she does.
[45:04] and she has a side quest that kind of
[45:06] like leans into the nature of godlikes
[45:09] and stuff that is super interesting. So,
[45:11] there's that. And then there is Sarapin.
[45:13] Saraphin represents the principy. He is
[45:15] an Orland cipher usually. And he's all
[45:19] right. To be honest with you, he's a
[45:20] little run-of-the-mill for me. Um, his
[45:22] character is very, I would say, on the
[45:24] nose in terms of where they go with his
[45:26] story and stuff. It's actually really
[45:27] easy to miss his companion quest because
[45:30] even in the Prince of Eye quest lines, I
[45:31] feel like he doesn't have that much to
[45:33] say. So, he's always felt a little
[45:34] underwhelming to me. Uh, one of the
[45:36] better ones, however, is Teahu, the Hana
[45:39] representative. He is a water shaper,
[45:41] and more importantly, he is a marine
[45:43] godlike. That is important lore-wise
[45:45] because it confirms that gods can in
[45:48] fact make multiple types of godlike, and
[45:50] teu is special in that regard. There's
[45:52] only one of him. There are a lot of moon
[45:54] godlike, and they are also associated
[45:56] with the goddess Andra, but Andra made
[45:59] teu very, very specifically. She
[46:01] considers him like her son, and it's a
[46:03] very different situation, and that's
[46:04] important for another lore reason, which
[46:06] I may or may not bother to explain. I'll
[46:08] see how I feel. But he's lived a cushy
[46:10] life. The Hana see him as this
[46:12] incredibly good omen, and they've done
[46:14] basically everything they can to make
[46:15] his life very easy. And as such, he's a
[46:18] bit of an artist and sees water shaping
[46:20] as art, which is very different from how
[46:22] other water shapers see it. And where
[46:23] they struggle, he's a natural. He's a
[46:26] fun one to have around. His main story
[46:28] is about him trying to reconcile who he
[46:30] is with who the Hana are and how to move
[46:32] forward and of course Andra's role in
[46:34] all that and how she sees him and wants
[46:36] him to grow. Interesting guy overall.
[46:39] But then last but not least for the
[46:41] actual companions, we have Jod. Jod is a
[46:44] priestess of Gone, which is one of the
[46:46] aspects of Aithusy. She sees gathering
[46:49] up lost souls and guiding them uh to
[46:52] their rebirth, if you will, as her role
[46:54] in her priesthood. how she does that,
[46:57] how she feels about it, how she goes
[46:58] about it, and whether or not it drives
[47:00] her absolutely bananas is the nature of
[47:03] her particular story, which is pretty
[47:05] interesting overall. As someone who's
[47:07] tied really closely to Aithis, she gets
[47:09] a ton of interactions, as you would
[47:10] expect, and as a priest, she's super
[47:12] useful because of her support abilities.
[47:14] So, I usually keep her around for that.
[47:16] Everyone else is a sidekick. Now, what's
[47:18] curious about sidekicks is pre-DLC, they
[47:21] did not have hardly any interactions.
[47:23] They had a couple of things here and
[47:25] there, but the DLC's actually added a
[47:28] bunch of interactions for these
[47:29] sidekicks which actually makes them feel
[47:31] a little more impactful. Like Vatir, for
[47:33] instance, is a sidekick that was added
[47:35] by Beast of Winter and he's like one of
[47:37] the main focuses of that DLC. So, he
[47:39] gets a ton of interactions there. And
[47:41] while that's a late game thing, and so
[47:43] he doesn't get a lot of play elsewhere,
[47:44] he's neat in that regard. And combined
[47:46] with him being a godlike of Rimmerrand,
[47:49] which he's the only one we've ever seen
[47:50] in the game, and that's pretty neat.
[47:51] There's also Rek, which I've already
[47:53] mentioned. He gives you all that lore on
[47:55] Yzua. Constantine, a dwarf you can pick
[47:57] up in Nekotaka, gets a bunch of
[47:59] interactions in the Seeker Slayer
[48:01] Survivor DLC. Facina and Aloth actually
[48:04] both get a bunch of interactions in the
[48:06] Forbidden Sanctum DLC. And Yiddwin, uh,
[48:09] the cipher you can also pick up in
[48:10] Nekotaga get some interactions and some
[48:12] unique ones even in Beast of Winter,
[48:14] which open up some, uh, let's say less
[48:16] than nice options for you. So, they have
[48:19] a lot of companions with varying levels
[48:22] of, I would say, interactivity with the
[48:24] player. Some of them feel a little
[48:26] underwhelming as a result of that, but
[48:28] there are some pretty good interactions
[48:30] there if you go out of your way to make
[48:32] sure you're cycling through companions
[48:33] and you have the right one at the right
[48:35] time, which can be a little much. From
[48:37] there, though, I finally want to move on
[48:38] a bit to combat. So, let's talk about
[48:41] combat. You've almost certainly seen
[48:43] some of it playing in the background
[48:44] here up to this point. As mentioned,
[48:46] combat is either a turn-based or real
[48:48] time with pause-based affair. I vastly
[48:50] prefer real time with pause. I don't
[48:52] feel like turnbased is implemented super
[48:53] well in Deadfire, but if you're playing
[48:55] on normal, you'll probably be fine, but
[48:57] real time with pause is my go-to here.
[49:00] One of the main things you need to know
[49:01] straight away are then the AI setups.
[49:04] So, something you can do that we've
[49:06] actually seen in previous games like
[49:07] Final Fantasy 12 or Dragon Age Origins
[49:10] is you have this system of conditionals
[49:12] that you can set up in order to
[49:14] customize a character's AI and that is
[49:16] how they will act when you are not
[49:18] controlling them, provided you have it
[49:19] turned on. You can get super super
[49:22] granular with this. So much so that you
[49:24] can basically set up characters to
[49:26] automate themselves entirely. I've been
[49:28] playing this game enough over the years
[49:30] that I actually have a custom AI setup
[49:32] for basically every character that you
[49:34] can play. And so, while occasionally I
[49:36] might give them directions, for the most
[49:38] part, they're free to kind of do their
[49:40] thing, which then lets me focus a little
[49:42] more on what my main character is doing,
[49:43] but you can also do the same thing for
[49:45] your main character if you want.
[49:46] However, you also don't have to do that.
[49:48] Like, you can get in there and control
[49:50] characters yourself if you want. Like
[49:52] for instance, when you're playing solo,
[49:53] like for my ultimate run, I only really
[49:55] automated like one thing, and that's
[49:57] because I was actively involved in
[49:58] controlling and making sure everything
[50:00] happened as I needed it to. And you're
[50:02] only controlling one character there, so
[50:03] it makes sense to do that. The only
[50:05] thing you really need to automate in
[50:06] that situation was the casts on
[50:09] Salvation of Time so you don't
[50:10] accidentally die. Now, I've already
[50:11] mentioned a couple of these things, but
[50:13] some improvements that they've made on
[50:14] the combat system from the original game
[50:17] are things like the ability to retarget
[50:19] a spell or the empower abilities. So, in
[50:21] the original, if you cast a spell and
[50:23] like people moved or whatever and you
[50:24] wanted to retarget it, you couldn't do
[50:26] that. But here, you can. You can just
[50:28] click on the retargeting button and move
[50:29] the spell where you actually want it to
[50:31] go based on where things have moved to
[50:33] or how things have played out, etc.,
[50:35] which is a nice little thing. Empower
[50:37] allows you to cast a spell or ability at
[50:39] a higher power level than you normally
[50:40] would be able to when you hopefully need
[50:42] that little bit of extra oomph, and you
[50:44] can do that so many times per rest. you
[50:46] don't even need to use empower that
[50:48] often, but there are situations where it
[50:49] is very useful and there are some items
[50:51] from the DLC in particular that lean
[50:53] into that. So, there's certainly that,
[50:55] but let's talk a little bit about the
[50:57] basics from there. So, real time with
[51:00] pause mode is in large part determined
[51:03] by things like your recovery time. Based
[51:05] on how heavy your character is and some
[51:07] of your stats and your attributes and
[51:09] how you've distributed them, you have a
[51:11] base recovery time. So recovery time is
[51:14] simply how long you have to wait in
[51:16] between actions to take another action.
[51:19] Ideally, the lower the better. But if
[51:21] you have something like a low dexterity
[51:23] or you have heavy armor on or you're
[51:25] using a slower weapon like a two-hander,
[51:27] it can take a little while in between
[51:29] attacks and whatnot and you obviously
[51:31] want to minimize that. There are class
[51:32] features that can help with this like
[51:34] fighters can mitigate some of the
[51:35] recovery time from heavier armor as an
[51:37] example. And it's just something you
[51:39] need to keep in mind because ideally you
[51:41] want to take as many actions as possible
[51:43] so the enemy can't do as much and you
[51:45] can interrupt what they are doing. Now,
[51:47] in order to hit the enemy, it's
[51:48] basically accuracy versus one of their
[51:50] four defenses. Most everything you do is
[51:53] going to target one of a character's
[51:55] four defenses. Things like fortitude or
[51:57] will. And almost everything you do has a
[52:00] baseline accuracy based on your stats as
[52:02] well. And obviously, you just want to be
[52:04] more accurate than their defense is.
[52:06] There are also other aspects to this
[52:08] like penetration and armor rating and
[52:10] some finer details that are mostly
[52:12] pretty self-explanatory like the higher
[52:14] your armor, the less damage you're going
[52:15] to take from physical attacks, stuff
[52:16] like that. The power level thing that I
[52:19] mentioned, but for the most part, it's a
[52:21] relatively straightforward system that I
[52:22] don't feel like is super difficult to
[52:24] get your head around. Really, most of
[52:26] the fun for combat for me comes with
[52:28] itemization and the things you can do.
[52:30] As I've also already mentioned, there's
[52:32] stuff like the red hand, which lets you
[52:34] just twoshot various enemies, even
[52:36] bosses included, which is really fun.
[52:38] There's the stuff you can do with
[52:40] Barring Death Door and Salvation of
[52:41] Time. There is a actually there's a bug
[52:44] with an item called I think it's strand
[52:46] of favor, which lets you like
[52:47] indefinitely stack like durations of
[52:50] effects and things, which is also kind
[52:52] of fun. And so while combat can be this
[52:54] really simple thing that you just get
[52:56] good equipment and automate it with,
[52:57] there's also this deeper layer if you
[52:59] choose to go looking for it, especially
[53:01] on higher difficulties where you find
[53:03] like all these like little interactions
[53:04] and things you might not necessarily
[53:06] think about and how they can benefit
[53:08] you. But then of course there's how that
[53:10] functions normally and then there's how
[53:12] that functions during like say Barath's
[53:14] combat challenge where combat doesn't
[53:15] end until those enemies die. Under
[53:17] normal circumstances, however, combat
[53:19] ends when you get far enough away from
[53:21] an enemy. And early game on higher
[53:23] difficulties, this is actually really
[53:25] useful because something you can do is
[53:26] just kite enemies away from where they
[53:28] start and some of them usually won't
[53:30] make it. And so you can kind of separate
[53:32] groups of enemies to make them a little
[53:33] more manageable just as a matter of like
[53:35] slightly more divide and conquer, if you
[53:38] will. If you don't like the companions
[53:39] or the classes or abilities they have on
[53:41] offer, you can go either respspec them
[53:44] or just hire mercenaries that you can
[53:46] make on your own and add them to your
[53:48] party even though they won't necessarily
[53:49] have any interactions. You can also use
[53:52] items from your pockets to do things
[53:53] like summon in creatures or set traps,
[53:57] which leans into stealth a little more.
[53:59] So outside of all of that, uh you also
[54:01] have active and passive skills where you
[54:04] can do all sorts of stuff with them
[54:06] really, but like something you can do,
[54:07] for example, is set traps for enemies to
[54:10] walk into and potentially damage them
[54:12] that way. Stealth is present. I don't
[54:14] like combat stealth personally, but
[54:16] non-combat stealth is super easy to take
[54:18] advantage of because of the way line of
[54:20] sight works. Stealing things via stealth
[54:22] is extraordinarily easy. Probably a
[54:24] little too easy to be honest. But if you
[54:26] want to like say pickpocket characters,
[54:27] you're going to want a high stealth and
[54:29] slide of hand. And you can do all of
[54:30] that. And those are things you can do to
[54:32] initiate combat from stealth. And you
[54:34] can even uh use stealth and item called
[54:37] spark crackers to redirect enemies and
[54:40] cause them to investigate things, which
[54:41] is another way you can approach things
[54:42] via like divide and conquer strategies,
[54:45] if you will. And so, uh, strangely
[54:47] enough, I guess the main point I want to
[54:48] get across in the combat section is
[54:51] really just that I think Deadfire is a
[54:54] rare game that actually embodies the
[54:56] saying of easy to learn, hard to master.
[54:59] There is nothing particularly
[55:00] complicated about Deadfire's combat, but
[55:03] there is so much depth there if you go
[55:05] looking for it. And as you probably
[55:07] know, if you watch a lot of my CRPG
[55:09] videos, I love some mechanical depth.
[55:11] And short of just like going class by
[55:13] class and talking about individual
[55:14] things or effects, I think that's
[55:16] probably the best broad overview I could
[55:18] give you without getting a little too
[55:20] bogged down in the details. So, next up,
[55:22] we're going to talk DLC. Dead Fire
[55:24] ultimately got three DLC. One I don't
[55:26] like very much and two that I think are
[55:28] very cool. So, the one I don't like is
[55:29] Seeker Slayer Survivor. This is a
[55:32] basically arena DLC where you can take
[55:34] on various combat challenges via an
[55:36] island called Kazuari and its arena, the
[55:39] Crucible. The story here is all right,
[55:42] but the main thing here is just combat
[55:44] challenges in the form of various arena
[55:46] fights. They're okay. Ironically, I
[55:49] think they're easier to do in the
[55:50] Ultimate than they are to fight
[55:52] normally, which is kind of funny, but I
[55:54] don't know. This one just never really
[55:55] spoke to me. I will say next, uh, Beast
[55:57] of Winter is my favorite. I love this. I
[56:00] think Rimmerand is just like a really
[56:01] cool god and character, and this DLC
[56:04] focuses on him a lot. You get an
[56:06] invitation to a place called
[56:07] Harbingers's Watch, which is an ice flow
[56:10] that has been expanding lately, and
[56:11] you'd like to find out why after getting
[56:13] a mysterious invitation from who turns
[56:16] out to be Vatir, a sidekick and
[56:18] recruitable character that you can take
[56:20] through this DLC. Because at the heart
[56:22] of this DLC is a dragon that is escaping
[56:25] through a portal to the beyond known as
[56:28] the white void, the realm of Rimmergand,
[56:31] the god of entropy and oblivion, which
[56:33] is why this ice flow is expanding. And
[56:36] it's just a really cool DLC that focuses
[56:38] in on some really great lore like around
[56:40] St. Widwin and the old Hana
[56:42] civilization. It's also got some really
[56:44] cool fights and there's some unique
[56:45] interactions. And while this is not like
[56:47] canon in any sense of the word, it also
[56:50] provides a potential solution for what
[56:52] to do about the watcher, especially in
[56:54] the face of like all the reincarnation
[56:56] stuff that happens. If there's ever a
[56:57] Pillars 3, I have no idea if we'll still
[56:59] be playing the Watcher of Cadua, but
[57:01] they have sort of built themselves in a
[57:03] little off-ramp here via Beast of Winter
[57:06] if they choose to take it, that is. But
[57:08] I love this DLC. It's again my favorite
[57:11] personally. I just thought it was very
[57:12] cool. And then there is Forbidden
[57:14] Sanctum. Forbidden Sanctum deals with
[57:16] Whale and the Titans. You see, when the
[57:18] gods manufactured themselves into gods,
[57:22] at one point they made the Titans,
[57:23] bodies they could walk around the world
[57:25] of Aora with, they eventually decided
[57:27] this was a bad idea and abandoned it.
[57:29] But the bodies can still be found. And
[57:31] that's kind of what's at the heart of
[57:33] the Forbidden Sanctum DLC. The body of
[57:35] Whale, the god of mystery. At the same
[57:38] time, you get to interact with the hand
[57:40] occult, which makes it its job to try to
[57:43] make things obscure and unknown. And so,
[57:45] you can get all this lore that's like
[57:47] slightly wrong and of questionable use.
[57:49] As Whale seeks to distribute
[57:51] disinformation about all sorts of stuff,
[57:53] you get to involve yourself in the
[57:55] Council of Arch Magi. And there's also
[57:57] some really cool fights and some really
[57:58] unique set pieces that are here as well.
[58:01] So, Forbidden Sanctum is cool and an
[58:03] enjoyable experience, worth experiencing
[58:06] if you like the rest of the game, of
[58:08] course. That however finally brings us
[58:10] to the Steam Deck section before we
[58:11] start wrapping this up. Uh, just in case
[58:13] you were curious, this game is
[58:14] considered playable on the Steam Deck,
[58:16] and that is due to the text size and the
[58:18] lack of controller support. I will say
[58:20] the lack of controller support is a
[58:22] little strange, as this game is
[58:24] available on consoles, but does not have
[58:26] controller support via Steam for some
[58:29] reason. As a result, you'll need to
[58:31] configure the controls on the Steam Deck
[58:33] if you want to do that. But if you're
[58:34] willing to jump through those hoops, it
[58:36] plays fine there, just so you are aware.
[58:39] But that brings me to the positives and
[58:41] negatives and then my conclusion. So, on
[58:43] the positive side of things, if you
[58:45] couldn't tell, I just love the world of
[58:47] Aora. The lore of this place and like
[58:50] the back and forth and the situation
[58:52] between the gods, the mortals, the messy
[58:55] nuance that goes into the themes of
[58:57] colonization that saturate every game in
[59:00] this series. And while I absolutely
[59:02] understand that some of the presentation
[59:04] is a little dry and not for everybody,
[59:06] for me, I love this stuff. It's
[59:08] actually, I would go so far as to say,
[59:10] one of those instances in which I love
[59:12] the lore even more than I love the game
[59:14] itself, even though the game is pretty
[59:15] fun. The other side of it, though, is
[59:17] really just like the depth beyond the
[59:19] surface level. Like, if you choose to
[59:20] dig in, there's just so much interesting
[59:22] stuff to discover, so many little
[59:24] details and little things that this game
[59:25] gets right. And that if you go searching
[59:28] for them, I think they stick with you.
[59:29] And it's just one of those games that
[59:30] over time has even grown on me more and
[59:33] more thanks to all these little things
[59:35] you can discover and ways to play and
[59:37] mastery over individual systems and
[59:39] going back and trying like a different
[59:41] playthrough with this individual
[59:43] combination of things, that kind of
[59:44] stuff. I think it also just makes a ton
[59:46] of improvements that make it a more
[59:48] playable game than the original. Even if
[59:50] I understand the people who prefer the
[59:52] tone and everything from the first game,
[59:54] there are nonetheless some negatives.
[59:56] Obviously, this isn't my favorite CRPG
[59:58] that I've talked about over the years,
[60:00] and that's for a variety of different
[60:01] reasons. Uh, one of which is the very,
[60:04] very short main story. A little too
[60:06] short, to be honest with you. 90% of the
[60:08] game, I would say, is really more side
[60:10] content than main story. But the flip
[60:12] side of that as well is that you get
[60:14] this cliffhanger ending that
[60:15] unfortunately I don't know that we're
[60:17] ever going to see a resolution to. It's
[60:19] been 8 years since this game launched,
[60:21] and uh, it's not looking good, all
[60:22] things considered. If you've been
[60:24] watching the news, as far as the
[60:25] industry is concerned, my hopes are not
[60:27] high for A Pillars 3. And you have like
[60:29] this incredibly interesting thing that
[60:31] would be the obvious focus of Pillars 3,
[60:33] and I just don't know if we're ever
[60:35] going to get it, and it drives me crazy,
[60:37] and I don't love that. Another uh
[60:39] honestly kind of nitpicky negative is
[60:40] the pathfinding can be rough. Uh on the
[60:43] world map, especially, sometimes you uh
[60:45] will be traveling and then your ship
[60:46] will just stop. Even if you set course
[60:48] for somewhere via the menu or even just
[60:50] clicking on it, the ship is just like,
[60:51] "Actually, no thanks." and it just
[60:53] completely stops and then you got to go
[60:54] in and make it move again. And that can
[60:56] happen on regular maps as well.
[60:58] Sometimes characters just become
[61:00] unresponsive and don't want to go
[61:01] anywhere. That can certainly be very
[61:03] frustrating. There's that stuff with the
[61:05] companions I mentioned where it really
[61:07] feels like they should have more
[61:08] involvement than they do and they again
[61:11] tried to help that out a little bit with
[61:13] the uh recommended companions for
[61:15] quests. you get the most interactions,
[61:16] but even then it kind of feels like
[61:18] they're not chiming in as much as they
[61:19] should. Especially when you're often
[61:21] bringing like the direct competition via
[61:24] faction representatives into enemy
[61:26] headquarters and sometimes they'll
[61:28] comment on that, but there are other
[61:29] times where you're like, I really feel
[61:30] like you should be saying something and
[61:32] they just don't. They will eventually
[61:34] leave if you commit to like other
[61:35] factions and stuff, but even then it
[61:37] just feels like a little off in places,
[61:39] which isn't helped along by the fact
[61:40] that uh your main companions really only
[61:42] have one quest and only a couple of
[61:44] those quests are even substantial. Like
[61:46] Sarapins, for instance, is super short.
[61:48] But ultimately, that brings me to my
[61:50] conclusion, which I realize might come
[61:52] as an astounding shock to some of you,
[61:54] but generally, yes, I obviously
[61:56] recommend this game. In fact, I think
[61:58] there are very few games I have beaten
[62:01] as thoroughly as Dead Fire. It's not a
[62:03] perfect game by any means, but it's got
[62:05] just a ton of fantastic details. I think
[62:07] it's a huge improvement over the
[62:09] original in all the ways that matter to
[62:11] me personally. And while it certainly
[62:13] has its shortcomings, I by and large
[62:15] think it's an incredible game set in an
[62:17] incredibly interesting world. And I
[62:19] think it would be a really big shame if
[62:21] we didn't see any more games set in the
[62:23] world of Aora. But even if we don't, I
[62:26] still hope people wind up playing uh
[62:28] Pillars One, Pillars 2, even Avowed and
[62:31] appreciating what this world was all
[62:32] about. Appreciating all the tiny little
[62:35] details that I think often go unnoticed,
[62:37] like the fact that all the enemies
[62:39] technically drop different types of
[62:40] currency that the game helpfully sorts
[62:42] out into the single currency that you
[62:44] actually use on the trading screens, for
[62:46] example, just as a way to help
[62:48] differentiate their various cultures
[62:50] that I talked about. But I suppose I
[62:52] will close with this. As I'm sure many
[62:54] people watching this are aware, Pillars
[62:56] of Eternity 1 and 2 have never been my
[62:58] favorite CRPG. I've been pretty upfront
[63:01] about that. Gameplaywise, I have
[63:03] certainly played better and more
[63:04] interesting games that I honestly think
[63:07] if we ever do see Aillars 3, it would
[63:09] need to do something to try to contend
[63:11] with in the hopes that it actually sold
[63:12] well. But one thing that has forever
[63:14] stuck with me after playing these games
[63:16] and why I made so many lore videos about
[63:18] it and why I'm making this video and why
[63:20] I talk about them every chance I get is
[63:22] that there is something truly special
[63:24] about the world of Aora that I think is
[63:26] worth continuing and worth building on.
[63:29] I don't know what the future of this
[63:30] franchise holds. Pillars 3 seems less
[63:33] likely by the day. A vowed 2 seems
[63:36] possible, but I got to be honest with
[63:37] you, I just don't know how well that
[63:39] would do financially. But what I do know
[63:41] is that the world of Aora is one of a
[63:45] handful of games where the setting and
[63:48] the world building has sort of
[63:49] transcended just what it is in video
[63:52] games to me. And so if you wind up
[63:54] playing this or any of the Pillars games
[63:55] or a vowed even and any of that speaks
[63:58] to you even half as much as I've enjoyed
[64:00] the world, then I would certainly love
[64:02] to hear about it. But I do think that's
[64:04] where we're going to wrap up this
[64:05] particular video. If you enjoyed all of
[64:07] that rambling, by all means like,
[64:09] comment, subscribe. all that YouTube
[64:11] jazz. On the off chance anything happens
[64:13] with The Pillars universe in the future,
[64:15] I will certainly be covering it.
[64:16] Otherwise though, I typically just
[64:17] review games. But regardless of any of
[64:20] that, truly just thank you so much for
[64:22] watching. I really do appreciate it. May
[64:24] you wander in wisdom and have an amazing
[64:27] day.