good game, bad ending

[frobisher]

A few good improvements, some interesting maps. Overall I enjoyed the game up until the end. Without giving a spoiler--- I want to win not just have a choice of which way to lose. Very unsatisfactory ending.

[Oneeyed]

Well yes the end of Book 3 is not very good. But nevertheless I enjoyed the whole series so much I even played it multiple times and will play it again.

Book 3 I mostly avoid anyways because its short and in comparison to Book 1 and 2 its just a weak shadow of 1 and 2.

Saddly I never found a similar game like it:

- single player isometric rpg without any companions or group
- old school to the bone
- turn-based
- hardcore difficulty
- dialogue only whats necessary without NPCs all chewing my ears off
- awesome random loot variety
- even in the late game you have lots and lots of choices what you use as armor and weapons and you will never max out your gear
- money is so useful and you have never enough -> you can always buy something for it even 5 minutes before the end there is a better armor to buy which just costs 32000 gold or something ^^
- simple but effective combat system affected by skill, light, amount of enemies, opponents skill and so on
- superb character classes which all work: you can play and finish the game as alchemist, ranger, melee fighter, mage, priest, thief and so on and they all have their unique skills and playstyles.

The downside:

its clunky - especially the controls, its not telling the player whats what and you only have trial and error to find out.

So for me even with the bad ending of book 3 I would always play it again after a while ^^

[frobisher]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

Well yes the end of Book 3 is not very good. But nevertheless I enjoyed the whole series so much I even played it multiple times and will play it again.

Book 3 I mostly avoid anyways because its short and in comparison to Book 1 and 2 its just a weak shadow of 1 and 2.

Saddly I never found a similar game like it:

- single player isometric rpg without any companions or group
- old school to the bone
- turn-based
- hardcore difficulty
- dialogue only whats necessary without NPCs all chewing my ears off
- awesome random loot variety
- even in the late game you have lots and lots of choices what you use as armor and weapons and you will never max out your gear
- money is so useful and you have never enough -> you can always buy something for it even 5 minutes before the end there is a better armor to buy which just costs 32000 gold or something ^^
- simple but effective combat system affected by skill, light, amount of enemies, opponents skill and so on
- superb character classes which all work: you can play and finish the game as alchemist, ranger, melee fighter, mage, priest, thief and so on and they all have their unique skills and playstyles.

The downside:

its clunky - especially the controls, its not telling the player whats what and you only have trial and error to find out.

So for me even with the bad ending of book 3 I would always play it again after a while ^^

Yes, I certainly agree with all the above.

[Veeshan]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

- money is so useful and you have never enough -> you can always buy something for it even 5 minutes before the end there is a better armor to buy which just costs 32000 gold or something ^^

This is a huge deal for me. Something even Final Fantasy (usually highly competent, mechanically) games eventually failed at, maintaining a functional economy (I mean functional in that it makes you care about money).

I rather LIKED rolling up into the next town and going out to build money to afford the next upgrades in FF1, say. Kinda pointless when you roll up with 3x as much as you'll need to upgrade...

[frobisher]

I'm not really complaining. I love all 3 of the games. I just hope the developer will learn from all the comments on the horrible ending to never do it again. As with giving a speech, the most important parts are the beginning and the ending. The beginning is to get the listener hooked and the ending is to make him want more. This game fails on the ending for sure.

[Oneeyed]

Originally posted by Veeshan:

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

- money is so useful and you have never enough -> you can always buy something for it even 5 minutes before the end there is a better armor to buy which just costs 32000 gold or something ^^

This is a huge deal for me. Something even Final Fantasy (usually highly competent, mechanically) games eventually failed at, maintaining a functional economy (I mean functional in that it makes you care about money).

I rather LIKED rolling up into the next town and going out to build money to afford the next upgrades in FF1, say. Kinda pointless when you roll up with 3x as much as you'll need to upgrade...

Yeah in many rpgs money is not very useful. But in Eschalon it is. In addition all traders get new stuff every month and magical items are partially randomized. So even if you played this game a hundred times you can find new magical items you never saw before.

Originally posted by frobisher:

I'm not really complaining. I love all 3 of the games. I just hope the developer will learn from all the comments on the horrible ending to never do it again. As with giving a speech, the most important parts are the beginning and the ending. The beginning is to get the listener hooked and the ending is to make him want more. This game fails on the ending for sure.

Also yeah. I agree to some degree the ending doesnt make you wanna play the series again. But then I am used to that by many rpgs. I like Gothic/Risen very much but the endings are always only mediocre at best. Also I really despised the ending of Witcher 3.

But I had fun playing all 3 games and the Eschalon series is one of my most beloved rpg of all time despite the "alienating" ending. ^^

[kelticpete]

I concur about the ending. So many games seem to have this bait and switch. like two worlds 2.

even if the dev kept this ending arc, I think it could have been made more palatable

. 1) have npcs and books that hint that malkur may not be as evil as you are told. 2) (more a subpoint of 1)-- find an orakur location that has a record of their internal debates about the one (maybe a crystal that is like a recording of orakur asking, "what if malkur is right?" 3) at the end have the ability to TALK to a few NPCS again after the ending.. even if it was just in an epilogue setting where you can talk to like lilith, erubor or malkur, etc...

overall, I think Eschalon was the high point. most replayable, most fun.

a great series overall though.