What I Would Want From Avowed 2

[00:00] [music]

[00:05] >> What's going on everybody? Mortem here,

[00:07] this time bringing you what I would want

[00:09] from Avowed 2. Because you see, I have

[00:12] been playing a lot of Pillars lately, a

[00:14] turn-based review for the original game,

[00:16] and I've been running through the second

[00:18] game recently to take another look at

[00:19] that one for a video as well. And those

[00:22] games are of course set in the same

[00:23] world as Avowed, if you didn't know. And

[00:25] that combined with some rumors of Avowed

[00:27] 2 swirling around last week or so. That

[00:30] said, just being rumors that this is

[00:32] something that Obsidian was working on,

[00:33] and I'm not one to put a ton of stock in

[00:35] that, but I'd be lying if I said all of

[00:37] that didn't have me thinking what I

[00:38] would even want from an Avowed 2. And so

[00:41] I figured I would of course make a video

[00:43] about it. Now, if you have not played

[00:45] Avowed since release, you may well be

[00:47] interested in an anniversary video I

[00:49] made for it earlier this year talking

[00:51] about all of the updates it got, because

[00:52] some of the things that I would

[00:53] definitely want in Avowed 2 were already

[00:55] added to Avowed post-release. These of

[00:57] course being things like all of the

[00:59] races being added, bonuses to each of

[01:01] those races, just little stuff going on

[01:04] like that. But, before we get into that,

[01:06] I do want to point out that I do think

[01:08] Avowed 2 is more likely than Pillars 3.

[01:11] Personally, I would take Pillars 3 all

[01:13] day every day, but I love CRPGs, and so

[01:15] it shouldn't really be a surprise that I

[01:17] would prefer a more traditional CRPG

[01:19] experience in the vein of Pillars of

[01:21] Eternity. However, it's also not really

[01:23] news that Pillars 2 took a long time to

[01:25] become profitable, and that combined

[01:27] with Microsoft and Xbox having all sorts

[01:30] of money troubles these days, rumors of

[01:32] them shutting down studios, etc. I

[01:34] sincerely doubt they would be willing to

[01:36] take a bet on something like Pillars 3,

[01:38] as much as I would really enjoy it. I

[01:40] certainly don't have enough money to

[01:41] keep them afloat. So, something a little

[01:43] more mass appealing like Avowed would be

[01:46] makes more sense. Because, while there

[01:48] were plenty of people with some

[01:50] legitimate criticisms we're going to get

[01:51] into in this video actually, it also did

[01:54] the important work of making the genre

[01:56] transition happen. And so,

[01:58] theoretically, it should be a little

[01:59] easier to build from there and take into

[02:02] consideration some of those criticisms

[02:04] people had for the original game in

[02:05] order to make a more complete experience

[02:08] people would enjoy. With that said,

[02:09] let's go ahead and dive into this thing.

[02:11] Let's first talk about setting. So, some

[02:14] small spoilers for Avowed actually going

[02:16] forward here in a little bit of Pillars

[02:18] 2 as well, to be honest. Let's talk

[02:19] about where this game would even be set

[02:21] because you could theoretically set it

[02:23] in the Living Lands again. If you're

[02:25] unaware, Avowed takes place in the

[02:27] Living Lands, and the Living Lands is a

[02:28] very vibrant, over-the-top place, just

[02:31] absolutely teeming with life and diverse

[02:34] biomes, etc. And so, you could

[02:36] theoretically set another game there and

[02:38] actually have it be substantially

[02:40] different in uh you know, in terms of

[02:41] like biomes and things. However, I could

[02:43] see them not wanting to reuse that, and

[02:46] so they might want to set it someplace

[02:47] else. If they are going to set it

[02:49] anywhere else, I think it needs to be in

[02:50] the Aedyr Empire, personally. That being

[02:53] the empire that sent you as an envoy in

[02:55] your role in Avowed, anyway. But, it's

[02:57] also a place the games have thus far

[02:59] never taken us, and so they would have a

[03:01] lot of room to work with there. And

[03:03] while I would be totally fine with that,

[03:05] personally, it does uh sort of run into

[03:07] another problem, which is that ideally,

[03:10] Avowed 2 would start tackling some of

[03:12] the bigger lore that has been

[03:13] introduced. So, if you're up to date on

[03:15] the timeline, the world of Eora, the

[03:18] actual setting we are in, is dealing

[03:20] with a very tumultuous moment, let's

[03:22] say. At the end of Pillars 2, the cycle

[03:24] of reincarnation that defines the world

[03:26] has largely been put to a stop. And as a

[03:29] result, they've basically got a couple

[03:31] of generations to figure out a long-term

[03:33] solution, or there's going to be a

[03:35] problem. Because without the cycle of

[03:37] reincarnation happening, people will be

[03:39] born without souls, which is more or

[03:41] less like a zombie in some ways. And

[03:43] then, without souls churning through

[03:44] this cycle, the gods themselves cannot

[03:47] feed off of that energy, which means

[03:49] they would also die. And so, there has

[03:51] to be a solution found to that problem.

[03:53] Avowed takes place a couple years after

[03:55] Pillars II, where we're starting to see

[03:57] the effects of that, but it's not

[03:59] immediately dire. And then that game

[04:01] introduces a whole bunch of new lore

[04:02] about a natural-born god, which up to

[04:04] this point hadn't really been a thing.

[04:06] However, that natural-born god was sort

[04:09] of cut off and confined to the area of

[04:11] the Living Lands. And regardless of

[04:13] where I think they would set a new game,

[04:14] I do think they would want to uh

[04:16] hopefully address some of that stuff,

[04:18] and so it would come up and you'd have

[04:19] to the sort of write your way around

[04:21] that. Nothing that would be impossible,

[04:22] but you know, one of those would

[04:24] probably be ideal. But I think both

[04:26] would come with some hoops to jump

[04:27] through. But then there's the character

[04:29] side of things. This is pretty important

[04:31] to me personally, because with the big

[04:32] genre shift, there were some things lost

[04:34] in translation there. Namely, uh some of

[04:37] the class stuff that made Pillars really

[04:39] unique as an experience, but also I

[04:42] think a larger investment into your

[04:43] character as well. As I already

[04:46] mentioned at the top of the video, some

[04:47] of the post-release updates for Avowed

[04:50] did bring back things like all of the

[04:52] normal races you could play, minus uh

[04:54] the Godlike, but you are a Godlike

[04:56] already in Avowed no matter what, which

[04:58] is how that always works. As technically

[05:00] a Godlike can be of any other race, and

[05:01] the Godlike portion is just on top of

[05:03] that. But either way, those races are

[05:05] there and playable. So, the other side

[05:08] of this would just be that I want them

[05:10] to bring the classes back. And I think

[05:12] there's a couple ways they could do

[05:13] this. So, the way Avowed works already

[05:15] is that you could effectively be a

[05:17] multi-class of fighter, mage, or ranger,

[05:20] which are, to be fair, three of the

[05:21] classes available in the Pillars games.

[05:23] However, there's a lot of other classes

[05:25] that weren't really available outside of

[05:28] some ability overlap, let's say. And I

[05:30] would really want them to bring those

[05:32] classes back, along with multi-classing,

[05:34] in fact. And I think a way they could do

[05:36] that is by effectively making one of

[05:38] these skill trees for every single

[05:40] class, and then simply allowing you to

[05:42] pick two of them at character creation,

[05:44] which would effectively be your

[05:46] multi-class, and then you could proceed

[05:47] relatively as normal from there. Now,

[05:50] that is of course much easier to say

[05:51] than it is to do, as you would have to

[05:53] make all those abilities for all those

[05:55] classes, make them thematic, etc. And I

[05:57] don't think a little bit of overlap,

[05:59] especially in terms of like passive

[06:00] abilities, would be a big deal at all.

[06:02] Just add those passives to individual

[06:05] trees where they make sense. I don't

[06:06] think they have to be 100% unique tree

[06:08] to tree, but having some overlap there

[06:11] in terms of the active abilities and

[06:12] just incorporating a lot of what makes

[06:14] Pillars unique in particular would do a

[06:16] lot for I think both build diversity,

[06:18] but also getting you more attached to a

[06:20] character in terms of replayability.

[06:22] Also, this would allow them to make use

[06:24] of the incredible multi-class names that

[06:27] were added in Pillars 2. So, in Pillars

[06:28] 2 you could multi-class and every single

[06:31] possible combination of multi-class got

[06:33] a unique class name, which I thought was

[06:34] fun. And I would like to see those in

[06:36] Avowed 2, to be honest. But, I think the

[06:39] real challenge of even that system, as

[06:41] nice as it is to say, would be

[06:43] incorporating some of the more difficult

[06:45] classes to bring into this

[06:46] action-oriented fold. Some of them, like

[06:49] I think barbarian and fighter, would be

[06:51] relatively easy. You see that in other

[06:52] games, as barbarian and fighter have a

[06:54] lot of overlap, obvious things like

[06:56] that. However, the two most unique

[06:58] classes that are very like Pillars and

[07:00] what you think of when you think of

[07:02] Pillars fantasy is of course cipher and

[07:04] chanter. But, I also think these would

[07:06] be difficult to incorporate into an

[07:08] action-oriented game, but certainly not

[07:10] impossible. The problem is I just don't

[07:12] think you could port them in wholesale,

[07:14] no matter how much you wanted to.

[07:16] There's a couple reasons for that. I

[07:17] think cipher in particular is a class

[07:20] that has interesting targeting

[07:22] mechanisms for a CRPG. A lot of its

[07:25] abilities often trigger very uniquely by

[07:29] either bouncing off friendly targets to

[07:30] hit an enemy, or going from you to a

[07:33] friendly target and affecting enemies in

[07:35] between you two, jumping from enemies,

[07:38] being like purely debuffs and things

[07:39] like that. And I could just see that

[07:41] being more difficult to incorporate into

[07:44] an action game. Especially given that

[07:46] with those abilities, positioning is

[07:48] really important. And how that would

[07:50] feel in a more action-oriented RPG would

[07:52] almost certainly require some tweaking

[07:55] and a lot of time to get right. And I

[07:57] can see why they didn't want to do it

[07:59] for Avowed, to be honest. Chanter runs

[08:01] into a slightly different problem, where

[08:03] yes, it is a variation of a bard, let's

[08:05] be honest. It also functions a bit

[08:07] differently in the CRPGs in that

[08:10] chanters basically chant phrases, and

[08:13] those phrases individually will, of

[08:15] course, produce different effects. And

[08:17] then as they have so many phrases

[08:19] chanted, they basically build that up as

[08:21] a resource. They can then use their

[08:23] actual normal abilities outside of the

[08:25] effects produced by the chants. Meaning

[08:27] that a lot of what their class does is

[08:30] like build up those chants, and those

[08:32] happen sort of passively, and then your

[08:34] big abilities, once you've said so many

[08:36] phrases over a period of time, have a

[08:38] little more active participation. As

[08:40] typically what you'd do is set the

[08:42] chants up before you get into combat.

[08:44] And this would be difficult to

[08:46] implement, I think, for a variety of

[08:47] different reasons. There are a ton of

[08:49] these chants in the CRPGs, and tons of

[08:52] different ways to mix and match those,

[08:54] but they take time, you know, in combat

[08:56] to actually go off. And again, I'm not

[08:58] really sure how well that would

[08:59] translate to an action game, like how

[09:01] well you would even be able to use those

[09:03] chants. It would obviously be more of

[09:05] like a support situation, which I think

[09:08] would obviously make for a good

[09:09] multi-class in that case, cuz then you

[09:11] could have more active abilities on top

[09:13] of the chanting. But long story short, I

[09:15] would really want these to be in Avowed

[09:17] 2. I think they're some of what makes

[09:19] Pillars so unique. And I think finding a

[09:21] way to implement them into the game in a

[09:24] fun way that is, of course, enjoyable is

[09:27] not a small thing. But if we're going to

[09:29] do Avowed 2, I really think that's where

[09:31] a lot of the effort needs to be focused,

[09:33] personally. And yet, it is actually not

[09:36] the only place a lot of the effort would

[09:38] need to be focused because next I want

[09:39] to talk about the biggest criticism

[09:41] Avowed received which was its static

[09:43] world. So, Avowed was never like going

[09:46] to be a big open world sandbox. That is

[09:48] to say the version we got. I know there

[09:50] were like rumors from the initial

[09:52] announcement of Avowed being a thing

[09:54] that people really wanted it to be the

[09:56] sandbox to rival Skyrim and people were

[09:58] 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.