The first Dragon's Dogma released in 2012 (followed by the Dark Arisen version a year later) and quickly garnered a cult following for its unorthodox approach to Western RPG game design -- obtuse, often time-sensitive quests; minimal fast travel; varied and unique vocations that play more like a spectacle fighter than a "grounded" contemporary like Skyrim. I admire Dragon's Dogma for these qualities, but I also share some of the most common criticisms -- the story is terrible, the world is too sparse and repetitive for the limited fast travel to be interesting, and the combat, fun as it may be, loses its luster as you generally fight the same enemies over the course of the entire game. It's no secret, even amongst the game's biggest fans, that Dragon's Dogma is an unfinished game with its potential handicapped by a limited budget and development time -- the Dark Arisen expansion improved the experience, but allegedly, the main game has less than half of the original planned content. Now, 12 years later, Dragon's Dogma II has arrived, with director Hideaki Itsuno claiming that it encapsulates the scope of his original vision for the first game. Unfortunately, Dragon's Dogma II is more or less a bigger budget remake of the first game, with all its strengths and flaws, just with the best elements more frontloaded this time.

The combat system, already a highlight of the first game, shines. I played both Archer and Magick Archer over the course of my playthrough, and had a blast with both. Skills feel powerful and weighty, and the fights with larger creatures are epic affairs. Of course, there's still plenty of the enjoyable and wacky quirks from the first game; it's still viable to pick up a stumbling foe and throw them towards one of their comrades, or straight off a cliff.

One of the biggest problems with the first game -- the uninteresting world -- has been mostly fixed here, at least in the first half. Vermund, with its thick forests and multiple settlements, is much denser than the barren expanses of Gransys in Dragon's Dogma. The beginning of the Dragon's Dogma II is the strongest, when you have multiple paths to traverse and enemies can be deadly, but the pacing and exploration are mostly engaging until you first step foot in the second country, Battahl. Battahl feels much less dense than Vermund in terms of meaningful content; there are fewer quests and points of interest, and there aren't any new enemies (that aren't just recycled enemies with different armor). The number of encounters in Battahl, however, is dramatically higher than in the first half of the game; hordes of identical goblins swarm you every time you round a new corner, making even simple traversal tedious. In fact, the game at large takes a turn for the worse once you hit the halfway point.

Frankly, the story in the first game sucks, but it somehow has a better sense of pacing and feels more complete than whatever is going on here. The first half of the story in Dragon's Dogma II is a standard-but-serviceable political intrigue plot that tasks the Arisen with gathering information on Disa, an evil queen who, by proxy, is controlling the throne that rightfully belongs to the player character. It's a bit incredible how every character you interact with is immediately aware of your identity and also wants to take down the queen, and the stealth sections are broken at best, but it's all functional. Until you are sent to Battahl at what is ostensibly the end of the first act...and the main quest wraps up three or four short quests later. The story is an unfinished mess that reeks of being cobbled together; major players in the first half (such as the queen herself!) are never seen again, and the game speedruns through the introduction of a few new characters and locations with laughably low impact. The dragon is reintroduced for a final boss fight, and the game unceremoniously ends.

Dragon's Dogma II was blatantly released early to its severe detriment. The story is embarrassingly unfinished, easily missing an entire act, if not two. The later areas have no new enemies or surprises to offer, meaning that the entire experience feels like a slowly deflating balloon after it peaks in the strong opening hours. As a whole, I can't necessarily say it's worse than the first game, but it's certainly not better. Unfortunately, though, I don't see a hypothetical expansion fixing the issues with the game, as there are fundamental shortcomings in the presentation and amount of existing content, especially the story. I'd love to know what went on behind the scenes with this one.

The best "generic" fantasy action RPG game.

The setting? Typical sword-and-sorcery stuff.
The premise? Whatever.
The combat? Delicious.

For all its faults, Dragons Dogma is at its best when you start climbing and whacking your foes with gigantic tornadoes.

Out of all the WRPGs (western RPGs), I've played thus far. Pathfinder: Kingmaker(PK) is without a doubt the most complex and rich in nearly every category I long for in the genre. And to Owlcat’s credit, the Kickstarter backed CRPG almost achieved full marks. Multiplex of systems, deep mechanics, extensive kingdom-building, matched by a fascinating world-building and filled with memorable characters. A long story, featuring multiple endings. Real-time with pause combat. Dense fantasy single-player title in an isometric perspective. And yet I can’t help but find the whole experience of clearing everything possible in over 130 hours a double-edged sword. Full of sharp awesome content. Yet underneath lies a blunt edge full of troubling matters. Alexander Mishulin, Creative Director at Owlcat Games eloquently sums up the matter in an 2020 interview saying “...Huge Pathfinder system ruleset was left tricky and unclear in many ways for the new players unfamiliar with the tabletop game.”

The IP is incredibly different from what I dabbled in Baldur's Gate 1 last year. And the old Fallout titles. Feels a lot more in-depth not just in terms of pen-and-paper, but in different rules and how the mechanics are implemented by Owlcat on Paizo’s ruleset. I’ll run through the positives first before I dive into my mixed feelings. Full disclosure: I played 100 hours without mods before relying on them to end credits. I’ll denote a mod section properly later on, but if I don’t discuss it please assume I'm discussing vanilla.

Storywise I found to be a slow-burn. But ultimately an enjoyable affair. You start in a competition for the rights to become baron/baroness of the Stolen Lands. A large swath of unclaimed land with no leader. Think bandit territory except fantasied to the gills. Crypts and hidden tombs full of nocturnal creatures sinisterly lurk. Local settlements are plagued by monster attacks and the occasional banditry. Fill your wanderlust and discover ancient ruins and dungeons! Full of traps, puzzles, and of course great treasure awaits! But take care, whimsical fey beings roam here and there so beware! For better or worse, depending on your choices in dialogue you may come across interesting outcomes. Discover a key piece and be led to a hidden location out on the world map! Or used in a way to uncover another hidden check. Where the locals and monsters alike will be found in all manners of the noble to villainy spectrum. Take heart, for finding a true pure soul in such a hostile place may seem dangerous! Yet behold! Beyond the borders lie a people still living brightly and drinking merrily in taverns. Singing to their heart's content without end!

Before I sing on further, I must talk about the initial priorities after becoming Baron/Baroness. Consists of the gameplay overview without combat. A gentle reminder, to not go gallivanting off into the wilderness following the wanderlust compass. Rather, one must remember to research curses. Curses are something unexplainable and mysterious occurring within your lands. And it is up to you to research why. There are more than 13+ of these curse events that need to be resolved as you progress through the game's many acts. All of which contain a time limit to complete under “xxx’ day. Doing so is one of the key requirements to unlocking a secret ending and progressing through the main story conveniently. Refrain from doing so and the consequences will be severe. I didn’t have much issue with deadlines. Bona fide lenient as long as you prioritize what to do. A general loop emerges: Enter building management -> research curses, solve problems, assign advisors, resolve advisor concerns, construct structures in settlements, invest in building points(BP) or use them for erecting structures or helping pass a bill using BP. Finished? Good, we're not done. -> Check the journal to see any main quests. Usually, one or two pop-ups and its a number one priority to complete. -> Once finished then you're allowed to finish any sides and errands. Followed by companion quests -> If you have any days left on the clock. Explore the map, discover new dungeons, finish off random mobs trying to kill you while traveling, and unearthing loot by turning over rocks and crannies you see are all worthy endeavors. The priorities may seem daunting at first, but I assure you have ample weeks to months. In finishing any important tasks before moving on to the rest. Generally, Traveling around and researching will consume most of your precious days. However, there are certain ways to mitigate any losses later on. I’ll include some links later on for extra tips.

Plethora of classes to choose from and upgrade. More than fifteen main jobs. And several archetypes within. A barbarian, for instance, specializes in an armored hulk, mad dog, or invulnerable rager. A cleric branches off into a herald caller, ecclesitheurge, and crusader. All with their unique powers and skills offered. I stayed as a paladin and found it decent. My primary joy came from the multiple allies who joined my merry band. Swapping into a different profession if inclined, but I kept them as their base class to see how it feels to use them. At the end of the day, I concluded they’re fun to use. One serves as a tank such as my tower shield specialist while my inquisitor summons undead to serve as handy meatshields. My bard’s songs randomly stun my enemies. I and my barbarian cleaned up! Rinse and repeat and voila! Dead guys in the aftermath. Granted not all encounters will not go as smoothly as one would think. Plenty of surprises await in store for any curious adventurer.

Should be noted there are special prestige classes. Several are not selectable at the character creation. As you progress and meet certain requirements they become available as your second class. I’ll be honest with the exception of the Wildcard DLC. I was not able to use any of these prestige ones. As a result, I am unable to comment on them other than some being powerful and others meh from what I skimmed online. Overall essential in understanding classes, since comprehending their capabilities will mark triumph and despair concerning the combat portion.

I mainly used real-time with pause(RtwP) mode. For those unaware, in CRPG's this means each action your party makes is conducted at the same wavelength against the opposing enemy side. Casting spells takes seconds before casting but attacking is ongoing when not in cooldown. Trading blows until one side is gone. For those uninterested in RtwP. Owlcat implemented a turn-based(TB) method. Activatable anytime with a single press of a button. Initially, a mod early, the devs decided to add it for those not enthused in the RtwP approach. As someone who favors turn-based. I have to say the move was pretty based. But I couldn’t stand doing TB for every fight encounter. My entire playthrough would’ve easily doubled or tripled. But the inclusion of the mechanic later on after release I appreciate a great deal especially if I get tired of RtwP. Convenient when needed.

In my honest opinion, an enjoyable isometric gameplay emerges. Regarding the many systems at play. Battles are somewhat challenging relying on your crew's profession. For instance, if you improperly manage equipment, health items, and proper class understanding then you may be in for a life of hurt when confronting multiple foes in a large open area filled with scattered mobs. I struggled early on since I had zero Pathfinder exposure. Meaning I rushed into things without thinking, quick-saved like my life was about to expire. To make sure I gained a favorable outcome and spammed abilities like a madlad. Kindly erase those foolish ‘jump before thinking’ mentality and realize no one will hold your hand gently. Despite a wealth of options available to reduce difficulty which I will talk about later on. Look at my character and witness how one tab from the summary may induce information overload. What is AC? Fortitude? Reflex? Will? The difference between wisdom and intelligence. Knowledge arcana/world? lore/nature? Sounds rubbish, who needs these skills? Alignment? Bah, who cares. Well, my friend I do! A great deal since you must understand a sizable chunk to succeed. I won’t go into complete minute details, but suffice it to say each terminology is important to survive. Basic stereotypes do exist though, so no need to worry! A mage is squishy early on, but a glass cannon. Ranger and barbarian are viable builds and hybrid classes are available for those who wish to slot into a job outside of the standard ones.

Have no fear of the daunting Pathfinder homework ahead! I did only the bare minimum cause I wanted to get straight into the thick of things and still managed fairly well. Here’s a secret that has never failed me when playing any CRPG. Buffing/debuffing/summoning is honestly the bread and butter. And will undoubtedly your life easier. Without any of those above, I would not be able to win against my adversaries. Helped me so much to the point I spent over 100 hours buffing in less than a minute before engagements. In the blink of an eye. Yeah, I'm not kidding about those buffs. Crucial in starting up a massive advantage before striking any foe ahead. Summon any pets, skeletons, elementals, or animals at your side ahead of any battle so attackers will be dumb dumbs and attack them foolishly. As if they are the priority. Debuffing is equally important. Any Atlus JRPG fan should know from Megami Tensei how skills like reducing enemy power, missing an attack, freezing them, and whatever manner of debuffs to inflict. Will turn the tides in your favor. The same principle applies here. Min-maxers like myself who love adjusting little morsels of numbers are in for a real treat. Countless loot is around, as a result, I never had an issue strengthening my characters and applying any spells to their repertoire. No requirements to micromanage level-ups either. If checked in the menu. And since I started from beginning to end credits with the preference on. You are in good safe hands. An indispensable accessibility feature reduces the steep cliff into a more manageable one for newcomers to the series.

Do keep this in mind. It's inadvisable to spamming spells and abilities without a drawback. The consequence of using magical abilities means the 'charge' will be used up. Mana is unavailable. Instead, your party will have a certain amount of ‘charges’ so to speak on how many times to reuse a magick discipline. A basic 'fireball' for example may have one charge. In spite of that, within the magic system for some classes, possible to increase multiple slots. Consequently granting more amounts. Area of effect, cones, and single targets, bouncing are all attainable parameters, so watch out not to hurt your allies. Lest you need to revive them after the battle ends. After an engagement with an enemy, a non-combative status will occur for all. Any damages and spells used along with health will not return to their original condition. This means every skirmish with a mob will leave you bleeding. Continue fighting and sooner or later the effect of 'fatigue' will emerge. A debuff handicapping with horrible stats. Go further and you may become exhausted incurring further penalties. To counter a weakened state, one 'rest' is recommended, and rations to heal back to 100%. Be warned you may be ambushed by nearby hostiles. It's these little things that pile up later on when you expect a benefit there must always be a drawback in some form. Not much of an issue provided players remember to buy rations and set their PC to scavenge for rations out in the wild.

In the wilds and civilizations players will need to contend with the text and dialogue system. You will inevitably conduct a wide array of meaningful conversations. For instance, talking yields a host of options. Both are informative to educate, pushing to the next segment in a quest, moving the conversation forward with lore passages highlighting key information whenever you need, and taking a gamble in stat-oriented discourse to affect an outcome. Crucial to give context to the rich history in Pathfinder where putting the mouse cursor will describe any bolded phrase. Appropriately connecting any relevant lore with anyone. Where paragraphs on gods, nations, political figures, religion, etc. will be described when highlighted. Hearing a disgruntled futilist dwarf talk about the impending doom of the end of days from the god Grotis transforms otherwise static boring sentences into flavorful dynamic words to remember and an “Ahah!” moment arises. Stumble upon reading a book about certain dangerous religions only to learn later about a crazy cult related to said religion. You will inevitably come up with many of these examples. Nevertheless, conversations are susceptible to stats; you have to needle your way through unique text. Granting extra experience and new conversational topics to discuss with whomever you meet. Such a deeply intricate word system is only part of the whole gameplay pie to understand why I adore talking to my party to understand their backstory, relationships, and history and develop them further with their quest lines down the road.

Under these circumstances, the world-building is richly implemented and flourishes through meaningful lines as I meandered my way to talk to important NPCs whenever I traveled. Be it a villain, an unsuspecting stranger, or an upstanding citizen of the realm. All are not spared my inquisitive nature to converse! In my delight, speaking yields both favorable and unfavorable outcomes concerning a dice roll. Meet the stat check to enable the dialogue requirement, but plausible still failing the result. Meaning my goals for a peaceful resolution between two angry interracial groups could be thrown into the fire. Erupting a bloody feud betwixt two leaves me no choice but to eliminate both or take one side. Invigorating my soul and leaving me contemplative to carefully consider a circumspect approach. Take information with the grainiest of salts and don’t label everything in simple good or evil manners. Difficult to judge whether the NPC is acting in the best interest at your behest while secretly holding a dagger behind their back unknowingly to your eyes. As a result, Non-conflict encounters are unique here, where fights interrupted are an uncommon occurrence with a conversation box, hearing their plea and moving on from there. I’ve had the personal pleasure of converting evil dastards onto my side while subjecting good souls to betrayal. Interconnecting later on in a future side-mission or main narrative where your previous actions will have a consequence later on. I befuddled a group and investigated a murder or caused mayhem on the populace by lying to whomever. Offered a mysterious item I picked up just for this occasion. Bribed, persuaded, intimidated, or sought further lore knowledge. No one is spared from my decisions and I lived with the consequences of my actions.

If there is one notable strength here in PK then companions here are a breath of fresh air. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. Recruit all eleven comrades, plus two more from the Wildcards DLC. A wonderful motley crew full of contradictions and wild alignments from chaotic to lawful and those staying in the realm of neutrality. I adore my party's banter. Sharing wonderful stories and barbs anytime I rest. And their voice actors deserve only praise for going the distance. Seeing their background update during a loading screen is a small, but appreciative detail. As I progressed further in their questline. From the loveable optimistic bard who never fails to brighten the room, the tough barbarian exile who continues to thirst for a challenge, the curious explorer alchemist who underneath their arrogant exterior lies a heart of gold, the noble tower specialist who continues to make each stranger drop their jaw in awe at her beauty. The chaotic duo of eldritch scion and rogue wizard lent their bond to my group despite their horrible past. A stoic tragic ranger avenger, a dwarven futilist cleric, a goblin knife master, and others I could list but I'll save them for a surprise… Needless to say, all have a colorful history beyond simple tropes and evolve constantly throughout my journey. I won’t say any favorites since I like all of them equally, instead, I will remark my allies' goals are a must-play and some intertwine with the main story at length. Providing a nice integration into the story and commenting during side activities on their thoughts, feelings, and alignment. Your actions will favor or dislike you. Therefore, it's essential to think carefully about their beliefs, morals, and alignment to adjust your response accordingly relative to the situation. Complex and not one-sided, and not all that hard to keep with you by when the end credits rolled around. Heck, I operated a solid crew of five. With changes in the guard whenever any relative friend's objectives arrived. Some benefit from putting any relative members in a relatable matter for instance. Otherwise, serving an appropriate role in another area below.

Kingdom building surprised me a great deal. There are plenty of systems in place here to almost make me wish for a separate game to play exclusively. Heck, employing any of your companions as advisors who will approach you about a delicate matter related to any of the stats concerning your authority. Population, relation, military, culture, divine, loyalty, arcane, stability, espionage, and community. Accepting a new policy, rejecting or fashioning a unique dialogue choice conditional on the advisor’s characteristics. I was able to increase the guardsmen with more men and budget instead of leaving them to their whits. Fought espionage wars with another neighboring nation by honoring our dead spies than risking their status. Favored culture of the arts and freedom to use magic freely and threw away the bill restricting their passion. And so forth. Completing these requests and listening to my advisors leads to benefits and detriments. So take heed of your colleague's advice and choose the best course of action. In doing so you manage your domain from impending self-destruction. Be careless and your citizenry will revolt. Therefore, it is imperative for one to finish any dilemmas arising in priority rather than any opportunity points. Issues if not solved, worsen stats, so pray to RNGSUS you land on a good dice roll to resolve the conflict peacefully. Or quickload like me hehe. Opportunities are okay to ignore, but for those who decide to try them the rewards are equally as good as solving problems. Don’t worry about taking care of your vassals constantly, a timer will run on when resolved and a notification will pop up for any impending event.

An option to automate your kingdom exists, but I still suggest that folks embrace the system to get a feel of managing affairs in your nation while also investing your precious days. Pays dividends later on in the form of passives and supplementary items. The latter leads you to new objectives and random encounters providing free equipment through artisans(Specialists who join your nation, when you visit your new settlement when claiming a region), and investing in your crown pays dividends later on to grant permanent buffs like increased attack roll chances, immunity to fear, and faster movement when traveling and more. Constructing mage towers(unlockable once you level up an advisor's ranks) allows one to teleport with minimal downtime creating a genuine saver for those urgent investigations in your journal. Aside from leveling your partners in combat and dialogue, you advance their rank in their advisory role to have a better chance to resolve troubles and opportunities. Useful when RNGSUS will sway to your lucky side rather than the unlucky side.

Decent-to-quality sidequests and errands are plentiful and ultimately awesome to complete. Enhanced my experience during my adventures. Here is a small taste of what I encountered. Uncovering a dark mega villain through a long monster extermination hunt Mediated between fey beings on trees and preached to no end on civility, peace, and compromise during heated debates and mob pitchforks. Hunted weird cultics from weird satanic ones to disturbing groups with their nefarious agenda preying on helpless innocents like a pregnant woman in need delivering her baby for a price. Oh hell no. I saved her thankfully, but whether or not it was a good thing in the end leaves me still troubled. Engaged in a puzzle to resurrect a powerful, but evil ghost for sick armor and weapons. Participated in treasure hunts, fought bandits holding hostages, saved mythical creatures like dragons, and found a boy who cried wolf-like investigation whose outcome was vastly different from what I expected. Returned a Necronomicon-like book to a powerful hermit in the lands and traveled to other realms to investigate curses to reach and attain the absurdly difficult secret ending. Heck, I took advantage of alignment choices to brutally reach a good outcome. Nonetheless, I still time-traveled into alternate universes. By reloading to recruit horrible fellows into my cabinet. Yeah, I’m not proud of that at all…

Anyway, mod time. Earlier I mentioned I played vanilla for 100 hours. Once I reached that point I decided enough was enough and threw away the base content life. And subsequently enjoyed in greater detail the latter half to an insane degree with much-needed quality-of-life features. Below I’ll briefly outline some must-haves for anyone on PC.

Mod manager - Number one key ingredient for all kingmaker needs and easy to install any of the following to make your playthrough fun and eliminate the tedium.

Bag of Tricks - Solve 99% of any troubles you face. From side quests not occurring, to fixing a bug here and there. And to be fair I had very little bugs or crashes. I think outside of a handful of minor bugs my playthrough was nearly perfect. My convenient tricks were instant teleporting on the world map, instant rest + after fighting, instant auto-complete realm events, lock-picking unlimited attempts, force success/triumph on problems and opportunities, pass skill checks, and my personal favorite a romance counter which is crucial for the secret ending. Trust me. If you want the bonus act to activate I recommend it. These listed are my favorites from the mod, but there’s way more inside I never used.

Faster menu book zoom - When you launch the program, it takes a long eternity for the book which contains the standard menu options to proceed. Do yourself a favor and download them to save you extra. Adding in the command line ‘-skip intro’ from the program launcher when right-clicking the properties on Steam is beneficial too.

Buffbot - Takes less than a second to activate all the buffs you currently have. A necessary alternative than taking a minute to individually select each member and buff them to the nth degree I said previously. Use Buffbot once and be done.

Aside from the mods above. You have a wealth of selections to tune the difficulty to your liking. From the image I customized the normal settings, making encounters less of a chore and more on the easier side. Restricting to the confines of vanilla as much as possible. So I recommend tuning them to your preference.

Now then for my mixed feelings. Consider the following text as small to big red flags in varying degrees. I feel are worth noting down. I had to trim this a bit since this review is getting too long and I apologize for that.

Kingdom Building is a mixed bag. I love the aspect of erecting settlements and determining the kinds of architecture. However the ‘time-limit’ before the next act and what to do perhaps make newcomers feel pressured and quite honestly have no clue what to do. I had to frequently Google and ask my friends about priorities. Although frankly, I'm leaning towards being positive on the aspect. Sincerely cool having advisors and solving problems since you are a Baron. I found it more enjoyable than my playthrough with Ni No Kuni 2’s version. Which ultimately was all right with uninteresting sidequests. Here I kept coming back to my empire. Taking personal pleasure in being hands-on in my day-to-day. See how your settlements grow and flourish along with your subjects. It’s thrilling, satisfying, and most of all worth seeing all your efforts come to fruition. For general tips, I'll echo what before I play & walkthrough for advice. Was instrumental and made daunting tasks to fulfill become easier to manage.

However, tiredness will undoubtedly occur. I had to stop playing kingmaker constantly in 2023 due to fatigue. The sheer amount of content if you combine the DLC is a lot for anyone’s plate. Acts on average took me 20 hours give or take some change to complete considering there are a total of 8 acts. If you count the act-like DLC Varnhold and the roguelike beneath the stolen lands. You’re easily reaching 150+. This is a friendly reminder to stop and take a break in case you are feeling burned out. I played palette cleansers like indies and shifted into different genres from a CRPG in between chapters to refresh my willpower to keep going. The slow-burn narrative along with my mixed feelings on kingdom-building aspects among others leave me in doubt whether I unintentionally had resorted to sunk cost fallacy. However, I would say once you reach part 2 to part 3 then the plot beats start to heat up gradually into a snowball. Turning my interest from a “hmmm” to an “Oh now we're getting somewhere.”

I think some rules for Pathfinder in general are too restrictive and punishing. This isn’t a negative against Owlcat; rather they did a phenomenal job adapting the tabletop ruleset for the videogame audience. Paizo the company from my understanding created the IP and surrounding laws within. Here are notable head-scratchers. I am not allowed unlimited lockpicking? Once I fail an attempt it's impossible to try again. I had to resort to a mod to give me unlimited attempts. Moreover, no instant rest after skirmishes. Meaning in vanilla, if my heavily damaged party needs to rejuvenate I have to manually activate the button to heal where I am assailable randomly. And lord help my soul if I fail that encounter during the process. Thus my momentum of adventuring unimpeded is halted. Sure I soothe my comrade's health, but what happens when I run out of charges for each of my healers? Then I am incapable of reviving their vitality. Resulting in, busywork. Coupled with the majority of loading screens from entering my throne room -> kingdom management -> back to throne room -> going out to world map -> entering a new area on the map -> reverting a save if something awry occurs -> repeat. Granted not a major deal, but over the course of my long playthrough, it all adds up. As a consequence, I am forced to struggle whereas I could be enjoying. Maybe I'm spoiled by fast load speeds, but I did install this on a fast SSD. Maybe a faster M.2 drive would be better. Goodness, imagine playing this on an HDD…

Other miscellaneous stuff: Gameplay would hang. An uncommon occurrence during random battles. Perhaps an NVME is better? I played on a Samsung SSD with a decent PC that ran the highest graphics on max settings to optimal framerate. The hanging is like a split second. Usually, initializing textures and characters when starting and during loading screens to govern your principality or unpacking a file. Not something glaringly obvious since my overall experience is still positive. Nevertheless, it is something noteworthy. Moving on. Some portraits of enemies are not given a unique picture. We are faced with our characters' faces. Pretty jarring to witness as if any major enemy is well an imposter of us. Granted not all of them are like this, but the inconsistency is mildly weird to witness.

Owlcat’s version of Pathfinder gamified is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. Took me nearly a year to finish in its entirety and while I did have some annoyances from the ruleset, scattered loading times, and mixed feelings. There’s quite a bit to enjoy among the many systems within. I liked overseeing my realm. Making tough decisions based on fair policies and having an immediate effect on my subjects whether good or bad. I delved deep to understand the deep mechanics in real time and pause. Yet at the end of the day, I think the amount of gratification here despite the herculean effort the devs have encompassed with a gigantic stuff to devour is dependent on the user's experience to get down in the trenches. If I never knew about skill checks and buffing, then I would have suffered early on because of my ignorance in taking advantage of magical resistances. If I didn’t read up on how to manage my provinces better, then possibly in a bad alternate universe I would’ve game over in my 100+ hour run due to my improper handling and neglect of the state of affairs. And that is NOT a feeling I want anyone to suffer with. Considering the reports I've read online of users having the same issues of neglecting their nation. Please make sure to check 'invincible kingdom' in the options. Speaks volumes how much you have to devote yourself to bring out something worthwhile. And for me? I think this is certainly one of the greats along with Baldur’s Gate. As long as you dedicate enough energy inside and mods installed. A deep & expansive CRPG that doesn’t hold your hand, but rewards the most invested of players. Sadly I find this incredibly difficult to recommend to everyone. Except only to fans of the genre. I believe Mandaloregaming said it best "... you play this game more for the systems than for the writing." And I can’t help but agree with their statement despite him saying the line in his story section. I would say it also accounts for the whole breadth of the game itself.

Base game without mods: 7.6/10
Base game with mods: 8/10

References & Additional Material:
Interview with the creative director on Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Classes overview and archetypes
Example of information overload from my character
Long road to secret ending - heavy endgame spoilers within
PK Difficulty Settings - Pretty extensive options to tune the combat modifiers to your preference.
Before I play & Walkthrough

Mods:
Mod Manager - Bag of Tricks - Faster Menu - Buffbot

From what I've seen IW really fixed almost all my complaints about this game so I decided to finally step over my weird relationship with this game and to my surprise it's actually pretty fun. I got a bit used to the whole turn based gameplay and realised it's pretty fun. Still only 8/10 because this gameplay still isn't really my cup of tea and side content is pretty lackluster, but the story and characters here are one of the best in the series so it's good
Upd.
I just keep dying no matter what I do in chapter 6 dungeon because I don't have any healing items so I think it's better if i finish this game on youtube actually...

to think that i would play a game such as myst when i absolutely despise point and click adventure games because they make me skyrocket my adhd to the stars and yet i managed to finish this one maybe im stronger than i believe

sexy ANerdList recommended this to me as part of this list thanks dude

so long story short I did enjoy the game but I do have some gripes with it that could only be explained by the fact that this game is now almost 30 years old and just thinking about the state of videogames during that time is making me go insane honestly that being said its absolutely unbelievable how this haven't become lost media because I swear getting a “rom” (???) idk whats the name of the format of the game files but ok whatever that one

mind you myst is really weird I read something around this site and there was a lot of good opinions so I HAD to try it out just for emotional value do I think this game is a masterpiece ??? hard to say definitely not for me but I do believe it had some resonance in the entire gaming industry and for that I have to F pay respect BUT its also to be said that its not as enjoyable an experience nowadays as it wouldve probably been during its releasing time its like how I have a lot of respect for the beatles but I would rather shoot myself in the migraines than listen to one of their albums

I have to come clean here i didn't really understand most of the storybeats in here so there's this guy who found a book and got sucked and licked and and slurped into the world of myst that I'm pretty sure of now from that point ONWARDS my understanding of everything in the game starts to crumble they begin to push in front of me lots of books and infodumps that I for the life of me did NOTSSSS read what the actual FUCK this is definitely not an ADHD friendly game ong all the ADHDies in the room please be advised and also the “do shit and wait for animation” was a red flag and also the talking books brothers that have the tendency of saying 10 lines of dialogue in 5 minutes its such a fucking bore WOW really detrimental to the pacing ngl

so there's these two brothers who are played by real life people and I didnt want to be that close to their face but ok go on let them cook so they hate each other and are not willing to have some truce for some reason so youre inbetween two brothers trying to get out of their book prisons and to do that you have to get some more pages in different ages of myst that you can access by other books

this game has a heavy focus on books and lord knows I don't like books so yeah the story isnt really that interesting TO ME but it sure can get its point across and has a really good way of setting the general vibe and atmosphere for the game

and then this is the gameplay loop find a “portal” get in the page aka another age of myst find either a blue page or a red page or both or anything and go back put the blue/red page back into the brothers books and listen them talk and talk and talk and talk wow they never FUCKING shut up and most of the time they don't even say anything interesting just “lemme out / fuck my brother / look at my nostril” rinse and repeat the end

so yeah even the ending no spoiler leaves a lot to be desired its like ok cool you did all the puzzles and shit and now you can have a conclusion to the story ……. this is the conclusion bye and then youre literally left with nothing umh ok I guess I'll get the next part of the story in the following game(s) even though I'll probably only stop at riven I'm not sure I can take 5 more games of this kind in the series that being said I liked the story for what it is but it's definitely not the winning point of this experience it has a lot of different worldbuilding elements that I did enjoy but most of the shit here is left unexplained like why are these people trapped in books and why are you also trapped in a book now whatever

so let's talk meat of the game now because theres a LOT

now at first I gotta say I was not impressed with the graphics mind you this is a pre rendered screens kind of game which means they're gonna have hi res pics formatted into a 10 byte disk and they're gonna get all grimy and grainy and shit usual final fantasy 7 through 9 psx era kind of art direction . now at first I was not impressed I did not think the island of myst was really that gorgeous it has some pretty landscape some great monuments a nice detailed library and cool effects but there's that the trees were fucking cones the buildings all looked plasticky and the entire island just felt kind of low budget (it was probably a high effort during that time and definitely blew some people's minds im not that stupid) so this was my first impression but as soon as I got to the different eras of myst i swear theres some of the most beautifully rendered screens and effects I've ever seen to this day now im not really a huge point and click fan so I don't know the graphical advancements of stuff in this genre but wow some of the places in here were fucking beautiful literally could not believe they could get something this high detailed and gorgeous and I still have no idea how in the hell they managed to do that I have to watch a documentary of some kind because that had to take an INCREDIBLE amount of effort even for today's standard some of the graphical effects and sceneries are still jawdropping im betting

so that to say that they really did a good job in the art department and its probably way this game was so well received in the previous millennium the vibes are UNMATCHED all the different ages of myst are characterised by a very specific sound design that makes them really intriguing and about the sound design umhhhhhh I'm pretty conflicted because theres some of the most forward thinking tunes I could think of and also some of the most ear piercing sounds made from the humankind . most of the sounds dabble into the ethereal / mysterious domain theres not really music to talk about but some of these “songs” really heighten different moments in the playthrough and every time you find something they usually put this really spooky tune thats SO GOOD like not good as in “I would listen to it” good but as in “sets the tone beautifully” good

myst really plays into the spooky territory mainly because youre gonna find some really fucking scary places and then they're gonna be like “ok now solve a three X inequality problem” girlie that shits the scariest thing I've ever seen in my entire life purr

that to say myst knows what's up with setting an atmosphere every single age is characterised by some surface level degree of wonder and them the deeper you dig the scarier are the secrets that are gonna unfold now this game is not inherently “scary” horror games don't have any effect on me but it's nice to see that they actually manage to convey the feeling of “being lost in an unknown environment” kind of vibe

so uhhhhhh I guess I'll need to talk about the THING…

this game is a puzzl- shoots himself in the head no jk but everyone knows I fucking hate puzzle games and I swear yall I TRIED to play this game walthrough free but the most I managed to do was “walk” around the island of myst trying to get a clue of what to do next for like a hour so since I fucking HATE not knowing what do to in a game I decided it was time to boot up a walkthrough from like 2001 literally something ancient the page was using some god forgotten coding language literally transported back to early 2000s (do you ever think about the fact that stuff you read online could be written from people who are now dead ? I always think about this its really going to deteriorate my dissociation with myself and reality) and I could manage to complete the puzzles with this walkthrough MOST OF THE TIMES

now after finishing the game I can confidently say that without a guide I wouldve NEVER been able to finish this game these puzzles are so fucking hideous sometimes I would just solve them and be like how the FUCK was I supposed to know I was gonna translate piano keys to frequencies or like or like the voltage combination and don't get me fucking started on that SHIT FUCKING MAZEEEEEEE GRRRRRRRRR OH MY GOD

every time I was under the spell that this game came out yesterday the gameplay made me come back to reality literally could not believe this gameplay could be real in 1997 WITHOUT walkthroughs I wouldve never played games anymore in the entirety of my life

I have no idea how a person should solve this shit without any sort of guidance but I digress I know the anniversary edition has hints of some kind that could help you but I decided stupidly that the original lost media one was the greatest choice

also that maze fucking suck the developers were under some LSD type of alterate state of consciousness because theres no way in hell somebody could enjoy THAT

so umhhhhhh I wasn't the target of this game i hate puzzle games and i hate point and click games but I found some stuff that I liked and some stuff that I hated and thats what love is all about maybe I will check out either the remakes and PROBABLY I'm gonna play riven because I want to know how they'll continue to implement real life videos into a videogame with the fucking cameras and computers of 1997

why can father myst git it