Looks and sound
In terms of visuals it looks very beautiful. It feels like a massive and direct upgrade over Pillars I in this sense. Everything seems to have more detail and the lighting in particular stands out. There are just these moments when I have to stop to marvel at a location and take a screenshot. The spell and ability effects also look a lot better.
The 3d models for the characters are also improved a lot over the weird blobs I saw in Pillars I. Most importantly though, I think this game has a lot of visual clarity which was much appreciated coming from Pillars I where it became quite difficult to distinguish between companions and enemies when the who area was surrounded by spell affects
The areas are expansive and well detailed. There's just a lot many places to visit compared to I and they look way better. The environment does not follow the 'pseudo-traditional' but dull fantasy look of I but instead shows a vibrant tropical-island setting with some pirate aesthetics. There are also deserts, snowy cliffs and burn molten areas next to a volcano adding to the variety.
The soundtrack overall feels like an improvement to Pillars I with some caveats. The emotional, environmental and non-combat themes have a lot more variety than Pillars I but I heavily disliked the combat music. The only combat music that I liked here were repeat tracks from Pillars I or the White March
The game is fully voiced which is a huger step up from Pillars I but it can be hit or miss. Most of the important characters are well voiced, especially the companions though some side-characters and NPC voices feel stilted. I like the regional accents and variations for different factions and nations with the voice acting. The sound effects are pretty good but nothing special
Combat
I have only played this game in turn-based mode so far. Some of the issues I will mention here do not exist in RTWP from what little I tried of it.
There are a lot of returning abilities spells with newer ones added giving the game a good amount of variety to work with.
I like how spells are encounter based instead of rest based. This makes the gameplay less limiting imo. I however dislike the way cast time is implemented in turn-based mode where it takes a few turns from other characters before a spell is cast which makes the turn-based mode even longer than it should be. I used the faster cast mod from Nexus to speed things up but it also made certain fights unbalanced. I also dislike how weapon-switching takes a proper action turn which again slows the combat down. I used the free action switch mod from the steam workshop to fix this.
The combat encounters have not been rebalanced or redesigned for turn-based at all. Fights with many allies can turn into forever of waiting for those 10 allies to complete their turns making the game very slow
Overall, turnbased is fun but unbalanced at times
Story and worldbuilding
PIllars II is a direct sequel to I and it does that part very well. There's an option to import a save file from I or simulate your decisions and the way these decisions lead to changes in II really helps make the world seem more natural and make the choices of the player matter more. It even accounts for DLC choices which was a pleasant surprise.
One of my complaints on pillars I was how the world felt like generic fantasy at the start. This isn't an issue here. The game starts with the watcher dying to a god, walking through something close to an afterlife, coming back and entering a locations consisting of tropical islands. The introduction is interesting and more direct to the watcher than some random old dude doing funky stuff in the woods. The central conflict of the gods takes the forefront here and the story is all the more better for it since I felt that the gods were some of the most interesting worldbuilding aspects of the games.
There are 4 factions, each different with a unique questline that entwines with the main questline and has massive consequences on the ending. There are around 6-7 companions with 3 returning from I. Companion questlines, dialogues and relationships are more expanded now.
The choices offered here for the questlines and the companions offer a huge variety and have a pretty big impact on what happens be it the entirety of Eroa or a companions future.
There is more detail in the setting here and I appreciate it a lot. I won't go over it here but Eora is one of my favorite settings.
In terms of visuals it looks very beautiful. It feels like a massive and direct upgrade over Pillars I in this sense. Everything seems to have more detail and the lighting in particular stands out. There are just these moments when I have to stop to marvel at a location and take a screenshot. The spell and ability effects also look a lot better.
The 3d models for the characters are also improved a lot over the weird blobs I saw in Pillars I. Most importantly though, I think this game has a lot of visual clarity which was much appreciated coming from Pillars I where it became quite difficult to distinguish between companions and enemies when the who area was surrounded by spell affects
The areas are expansive and well detailed. There's just a lot many places to visit compared to I and they look way better. The environment does not follow the 'pseudo-traditional' but dull fantasy look of I but instead shows a vibrant tropical-island setting with some pirate aesthetics. There are also deserts, snowy cliffs and burn molten areas next to a volcano adding to the variety.
The soundtrack overall feels like an improvement to Pillars I with some caveats. The emotional, environmental and non-combat themes have a lot more variety than Pillars I but I heavily disliked the combat music. The only combat music that I liked here were repeat tracks from Pillars I or the White March
The game is fully voiced which is a huger step up from Pillars I but it can be hit or miss. Most of the important characters are well voiced, especially the companions though some side-characters and NPC voices feel stilted. I like the regional accents and variations for different factions and nations with the voice acting. The sound effects are pretty good but nothing special
Combat
I have only played this game in turn-based mode so far. Some of the issues I will mention here do not exist in RTWP from what little I tried of it.
There are a lot of returning abilities spells with newer ones added giving the game a good amount of variety to work with.
I like how spells are encounter based instead of rest based. This makes the gameplay less limiting imo. I however dislike the way cast time is implemented in turn-based mode where it takes a few turns from other characters before a spell is cast which makes the turn-based mode even longer than it should be. I used the faster cast mod from Nexus to speed things up but it also made certain fights unbalanced. I also dislike how weapon-switching takes a proper action turn which again slows the combat down. I used the free action switch mod from the steam workshop to fix this.
The combat encounters have not been rebalanced or redesigned for turn-based at all. Fights with many allies can turn into forever of waiting for those 10 allies to complete their turns making the game very slow
Overall, turnbased is fun but unbalanced at times
Story and worldbuilding
PIllars II is a direct sequel to I and it does that part very well. There's an option to import a save file from I or simulate your decisions and the way these decisions lead to changes in II really helps make the world seem more natural and make the choices of the player matter more. It even accounts for DLC choices which was a pleasant surprise.
One of my complaints on pillars I was how the world felt like generic fantasy at the start. This isn't an issue here. The game starts with the watcher dying to a god, walking through something close to an afterlife, coming back and entering a locations consisting of tropical islands. The introduction is interesting and more direct to the watcher than some random old dude doing funky stuff in the woods. The central conflict of the gods takes the forefront here and the story is all the more better for it since I felt that the gods were some of the most interesting worldbuilding aspects of the games.
There are 4 factions, each different with a unique questline that entwines with the main questline and has massive consequences on the ending. There are around 6-7 companions with 3 returning from I. Companion questlines, dialogues and relationships are more expanded now.
The choices offered here for the questlines and the companions offer a huge variety and have a pretty big impact on what happens be it the entirety of Eroa or a companions future.
There is more detail in the setting here and I appreciate it a lot. I won't go over it here but Eora is one of my favorite settings.