Setting myself up for disappointment?

[BigSexy]

Currently I'm playing the King Arthur: Knight's Tale and loving it. Much better game overall than I ever expected. Tactical combat is best in class tier, lore is wonderful, character development is endless fun, graphics are stunning, voice acting is everywhere and superb, and no bugs encountered with 30 hours played. I just can't say enough about how much I'm enjoying Knight's Tale. Kudos to that all that helped in making this magnificent game.

So when I started reading review for this game I was somewhat surprised. As a dev myself, I'm trying to understand why on earth would you diverge from successful features in a sequel game. You should be building on the game features strengths. Here's my industry educational guess: on why the short comings of Legion IX (so far) budget, roadmap, team churn/culture, incompetent product members (seen a lot of that lately).

I did buy both games in a bundle, so at some point when I finish Knight's Tale I'll be trying Legion iX. I usually wait until a few major patches, cause again I know how the industry uses customers as beta testers. Thank you Paradox <cough HOI I> for making this mainstream. Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with EA. At least they are telling you up front it's not a finished product.

That said, I'm preparing myself to be disappointed with Legion IX. For those that have played both, is that a fair assumption with the current state of Legion IX? Maybe a year later I could be wrong?

[_Oin_]

Yes, it is a fair assumption.
No, no amount of time can fix it.

It's poorly written dumbed-down shadow of the original game using the same assets without introducing much. Cash grab aimed at the fans of the first game. Bad DLC turned stand-alone game. I finished the campaign this weekend. Currently I'm playing the "endgame" missions and... well, those bad reviews are there for a reason.

[sandman25dcsss]

Both games have some advantages and disadvantages. For instance, advantages of second game: better balance of classes, game removes wounds and gives free heal between missions, free respec, ultimates, game changing morale choice, game changing features like vampirism or lack of AP saving, more challenging fights right from first mission.

PS. I have 600+ hours in first game.

[Terrarius]

I just finished legion IX maingame after 8 or so hours, opinion:

it reuses alot of stuff than KA KT, but for it's fairly short runtime it is far better than knight's tale balance and encounter design wise.

The original game really likes to throw a ton of fillerbattles at you, ofcource with the injury system to slow down your progress even more

[Avallach]

If you think of it as a sequel you'll be disappointed.

If you realise it's more like DLC (and was priced accordingly), you'll at least be keeping your expectations more reasonable.

I think the streamlining / removal of some of the strategic elements was the right approach for what they were delivering. I mean sure, if they ever made a true sequel I'd love to see those elements expanded and refined to offer a more Xcom-like strategy experience. I just didn't need or expect that for Legion IX.

Personally I think it's excellent DLC for anyone who plays on a high enough difficulty to genuinely challenge themselves. It probably has less to offer as far as playing through a story though, compared to the main game. It's really about a series of more balanced and challenging tactical battles, and whether or not that's something you're after.

[sandman25dcsss]

Yes, first game cost $45 on release, second game costs $20 and initially was developed as DLC, and yet there are people who complain that second game has less content/mechanics and "is just a DLC released as standalone game". Of course, it is by design. Let me know when you find a sequel with more content and less than half price :)

[BigSexy]

Originally posted by Terrarius:

I just finished legion IX maingame after 8 or so hours, opinion:

it reuses alot of stuff than KA KT, but for it's fairly short runtime it is far better than knight's tale balance and encounter design wise.

The original game really likes to throw a ton of fillerbattles at you, ofcource with the injury system to slow down your progress even more

Well 8 hours sounds like a big let down to me. I will have to totally disagree with this idea of 'fillerbattles' in Knights Tale. These other event missions are very well done and have unique story lines. Also, that's how at times you pick up more Knights. I'm enjoying all battles and haven't missed one. Now in Act III. Seems my assumptions about Legion IX were well founded. Very sad, because they had a great thing going and the engine was solid. So to not build on that is IMO sheer stupidity and/or incompetence.

[sandman25dcsss]

8 hours seems extremely fast to me unless it was on the easiest difficulty level.

[BigSexy]

In conclusion, I'm still extremely happy I found this game, Knight Tale was worth every penny and than some. I got both in a bundle so even if Legion IX is a flop, I'm still very satisfied overall. I can only hope that the people making the decisions behind any attempt at a 3rd title with this engine can learn from their mistakes with Legion IX and produce a title worthy of Knights Tale. Time will tell.

[AT1st]

Originally posted by BigSexy:

Currently I'm playing the King Arthur: Knight's Tale and loving it. Much better game overall than I ever expected. Tactical combat is best in class tier, lore is wonderful, character development is endless fun, graphics are stunning, voice acting is everywhere and superb, and no bugs encountered with 30 hours played. I just can't say enough about how much I'm enjoying Knight's Tale. Kudos to that all that helped in making this magnificent game.

So when I started reading review for this game I was somewhat surprised. As a dev myself, I'm trying to understand why on earth would you diverge from successful features in a sequel game. You should be building on the game features strengths. Here's my industry educational guess: on why the short comings of Legion IX (so far) budget, roadmap, team churn/culture, incompetent product members (seen a lot of that lately).

I did buy both games in a bundle, so at some point when I finish Knight's Tale I'll be trying Legion iX. I usually wait until a few major patches, cause again I know how the industry uses customers as beta testers. Thank you Paradox <cough HOI I> for making this mainstream. Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with EA. At least they are telling you up front it's not a finished product.

That said, I'm preparing myself to be disappointed with Legion IX. For those that have played both, is that a fair assumption with the current state of Legion IX? Maybe a year later I could be wrong?

I feel you. I also was not expecting much from Knights Tale. Bought it on sale and planned spending a few hours before getting bored, but the battles and overall scope are amazing, so I ended up with 100 hours in the game (the end game got a bit tiresome eventually)

So I bought Legion IX on day 1 trusting it would be great, too.
The biggest disappointment is that you are stuck with 6 characters and for me personally, comparing them with KT heroes, I wouldn't have chosen at least 3 of them; they are just not my play style.
Then I started playing on very hard, since I played through KT, but had to repeat some battles several times and got really frustrated to the point I wanted to quit playing.
But after accepting all the removed content, getting used to the characters and skills and realizing that the first missions are actually the hardest in the game, it is quite enjoyable again.

I personally would call it a spin-off of the first game. Content and complexity wise it is more like a prequel, so they really could have done a better job positioning the game to not make it feel like a cheap way of just reusing the already existing content.

But yeah, I think you have to accept it as it is.

[Moobert]

Jebus, what a cringe post.