i like the game but..

[IronGoat]

first let me say this is one of the best console ports ive played.
i enjoy the look and visual style.. the story telling is pretty good as far as that goes in any RPG.
the foes are interesting in that you cant just tank them all.
HOWEVER
the quests are vague in the extreme. unless they are a kill x amount of whatever.
the quest markers are UTTER ♥♥♥♥♥♥! they are almost pointless at giving you any aid to finding what your after.
you can bork quests unknowingly..
find a big monster all alone? kill it did you? oops 20 levels later that was some important NPCs pet and now they hate you because you killed what was clearly a threat to you at the time..

its the quest system. its just crap.. they might as well have mosts quest descriptions just say " go someplace and do things untill we are satisfied..

ESCORT QUESTS.. FFS! WHEN will devs learn to STOP this HATEFUL bu11shiite i hope there is a special place in hell for devs who add UNNEEDED escort quests to games.. i mean one where every nasty sharp buring thing you have ever heard of is rammed into every oriface their body has for all eternity..

and my final real gripe is, when im "tired" i will do nothing to protect myself in any way.
yea cause humans who have sprinted for a few minutes will TOTALLY let someone hack thier head off while they catch their breath.. without making ANY attmempt to dodge or stop them
this wouldnt be so bad but guess what about the AIs? they NEVER tire out no matter what spells/skills/attacks they use..

FFS level the playing field. if im winded for sprinting 100 yeards then so too should, at the very least the human baddies be..

DISHonorable mention: Mobs of conflicting types all hanging out in one spot palling around together. because yea a wyvern or chimera TOTALLY wouldnt munch on the bandits or goblins standing around within spitting distance. NOPE! they would totally ignore all that yummy bandit meat to wait for a few people to come along that will proabably be able to kill the beast in the first place, swathed in fire clad in armor and brandishing very pointy weapons in every direction.

this is the equal of passing on a fresh premade steak, to instead, go out in the woods and see if you can gnaw a hedgehog to death..

[Andou Miyuki]

Ok explain to me how you managed to find Ophis' pet without going by her first and how was it a threat to you when it's inside a pen and doesn't even attack you unless you're right on top of it. And more generally, I'd say quests being vague and quest markers not being there are for the sake of making you actually follow the story

But yes, there are a lot of frustrating things in the game. Fire drakes and Trappings of Evil are two.

[IronGoat]

Messaggio originale di Andou Miyuki:

Ok explain to me how you managed to find Ophis' pet without going by her first and how was it a threat to you when it's inside a pen and doesn't even attack you unless you're right on top of it. And more generally, I'd say quests being vague and quest markers not being there are for the sake of making you actually follow the story

But yes, there are a lot of frustrating things in the game. Fire drakes and Trappings of Evil are tw

well if youre clever and lucky you can fall a great height and not die . i like to explore in open world games so i work very hard at NOT being cornered by devs.

and any 30 ft tall thing with a club standing it what would make an AWESOME ambush and lock you in spot is CLEARLY a threat to an explorer..

then why have quest marker at all? they are not helpful and often misleading. id prefer none at all and better text descriptions of where to go. the fact the map is hidden from you when you start ( yea cause thats how maps work folks. you dont use it to plan a route you just use them to draw where you already went.. nothing i like better then pulling over at a local filling station buying a blank piece of paper and then driving around the USA till i have a map..) exacerbates this problem. for instance the area i was in when i was sent back or i should went back to do a quest. i later found out i was almost RIGHT NEXT to the quest location but instead had to treck to the other side of the map, use ALOT of resources just to have the marker go back to where id almost started from after i killed a certain person..

ps i edit alot because i have poor vision and make alot of typos

[Andou Miyuki]

I think you're misunderstanding which one is Ophis' pet. Is your arisen male?

[IronGoat]

Messaggio originale di Andou Miyuki:

I think you're misunderstanding which one is Ophis' pet. Is your arisen male?

yes and i dislike discussing the quest specifics here. i dont spoil for other players if i can help it

i misunderstood? well the end result is the same. i killed something someone was all on about.

its simple. if you keep a big scary pet and dont tell people its a pet they will probably kill it

[Andou Miyuki]

You didn't kill her pet. She attacked you cause you're male and they are a female bandit gang. Her pet is on the other side of the wall, way west. The cyclopus you killed was just that, a random cyclopus

[wh1sper_123]

Messaggio originale di IronGoat:

and my final real gripe is, when im "tired" i will do nothing to protect myself in any way. yea cause humans who have sprinted for a few minutes will TOTALLY let someone hack thier head off while they catch their breath.. without making ANY attmempt to dodge or stop them this wouldnt be so bad but guess what about the AIs? they NEVER tire out no matter what spells/skills/attacks they use..

learn to manage stamina. don't sprint whole time, don't carry too many items because stamina depletes faster with every burden level and so on

stamina recovery is also conditioned by character weight and burden level

Messaggio originale di IronGoat:

FFS level the playing field. if im winded for sprinting 100 yeards then so too should, at the very least the human baddies be..

face it, once you level up you can run further. A LOT FURTHER!

also, you can stop combat at any time, use stamina item and continue. if there is anything i have gripe with this game, it is this because it totally destroys challenge unless you force yourself to play with no items

you can put yourself stamina item on hotkey

Messaggio originale di IronGoat:

DISHonorable mention: Mobs of conflicting types all hanging out in one spot palling around together. because yea a wyvern or chimera TOTALLY wouldnt munch on the bandits or goblins standing around within spitting distance. NOPE! they would totally ignore all that yummy bandit meat to wait for a few people to come along that will proabably be able to kill the beast in the first place, swathed in fire clad in armor and brandishing very pointy weapons in every direction.

this is the equal of passing on a fresh premade steak, to instead, go out in the woods and see if you can gnaw a hedgehog to death..

they somewhat fixed this in BBI, but no game really does that well, even games like Skyrim only work for few scripted encounters

[JtDarth]

The escort quests really aren't an issue in this game. None of them are required for the story (not counting cart quest, since it is impossible to fail, just time consuming), and the npcs involved, aside from those that are clearly mooks or non-combatants in the first place can easily handle themselves.
Mercedes, Julien, ser Berne, all three of those can practically do their escort quest on their own aside from stuff like chimeras.

[wh1sper_123]

Messaggio originale di BasKy:

Important NPC? I never talk with Ophis. I kill her. She is a bandit and I hate them. These thieves can give you two quests, kill 10 specific type of enemies, and feed a cyclops. No reward. How is that important?

except the rewards you get for those 2 quests (badges) open 2 more quests where you need to aquire those two badges, and these two grant you two unique golden weapons which can't be obtained any other way.

these 2 weapons are far more effective in inflicting silence than next best ones.

[raubrey]

Messaggio originale di IronGoat:

first let me say this is one of the best console ports ive played.


DISHonorable mention: Mobs of conflicting types all hanging out in one spot palling around together. because yea a wyvern or chimera TOTALLY wouldnt munch on the bandits or goblins standing around within spitting distance. NOPE! they would totally ignore all that yummy bandit meat to wait for a few people to come along that will proabably be able to kill the beast in the first place, swathed in fire clad in armor and brandishing very pointy weapons in every direction.

this is the equal of passing on a fresh premade steak, to instead, go out in the woods and see if you can gnaw a hedgehog to death..

I really miss Skyrim when this happens (when dragonfire rains on friend/foe alike and vampires kill indiscriminately) and overall in a perfect game world I would see major elements of both games combined.

And the only thing I dislike more than escort quests is *chase* quests. So I skip most of them. I'd rather miss out on X bauble than substract X months from my lifespan.

@ OP I also have problem with following some of the quests --I wasted far too much time on the trial quest, for instance, and waiting for the verdict until I googled on what I should do. So you're not alone there.

In any case, I personally love the game but I probalby won't recommend it -- or I might with a big disclaimer -- as too many potential frustrations (esp. for non-console players) in the game exist and I don't want people griping about it to me. That's pretty much most games these days though :D

For the most part it has some wonderful RPG elements I've missed in other games. I'm plesantly surprised by how immersive the game world is and particularly the dungeons. I also feel a good deal of care went into the random NPC dialog. It's nice being able to click on NPCs and get little tidbits of lore or random conversation.

P.S. Also, with all the faults of the Pawns, it's probably the best companion system I've seen.

[JtDarth]

Messaggio originale di BasKy:

Messaggio originale di wh1sper_123:

except the rewards you get for those 2 quests (badges) open 2 more quests where you need to aquire those two badges, and these two grant you two unique golden weapons which can't be obtained any other way.

these 2 weapons are far more effective in inflicting silence than next best ones.

These golden weapons are weak really. You can find much better ones even for free. But yes I suppose that's a reward after all.

*facepalms* You don't use golden weapons for damage output (although once gold-rarified they are quite capable in that role as well). You use them for the debilitation infliction. Silencing a wyrm, for example, makes the fight a walk in the park, while silencing a gorechimera stops it from healing.
That fight with 2 frost-wyrms becomes much much easier when you can silence them, and IIRC you can silence the dark bishop, making that fight signifigantly easier.

[JtDarth]

Messaggio originale di BasKy:

Messaggio originale di DarthNachoz:

*facepalms* You don't use golden weapons for damage output (although once gold-rarified they are quite capable in that role as well). You use them for the debilitation infliction. Silencing a wyrm, for example, makes the fight a walk in the park, while silencing a gorechimera stops it from healing.
That fight with 2 frost-wyrms becomes much much easier when you can silence them, and IIRC you can silence the dark bishop, making that fight signifigantly easier.

*Doublefacepalms* I still don't like them. Weapons with higher damage are better and make the job faster.

And with proper weight management, it's not a binary decision. You can easily carry both, and spend a second switching between the two.

[Arnmazing]

quests isn't the main reason I play this game. Once you get to the end game it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome! And this was released in 2012 probably 2-3 years in development so that's 2009 mindseta ande tech.

[wh1sper_123]

Messaggio originale di BasKy:

Messaggio originale di wh1sper_123:

except the rewards you get for those 2 quests (badges) open 2 more quests where you need to aquire those two badges, and these two grant you two unique golden weapons which can't be obtained any other way.

these 2 weapons are far more effective in inflicting silence than next best ones.

These golden weapons are weak really. You can find much better ones even for free. But yes I suppose that's a reward after all.

as others said, it is not about strength. it is about getting upper hand in fight.

I always carry Golden Bardiche (Mauls badge) on me when playing yellow for 2 reasons. sometimes i just want weaker weapon and sometimes i go with debilitations.

debilitations are fun anyways. nothing like utterly humiliating enemy in the game.

[wh1sper_123]

Messaggio originale di BasKy:

Completely destroying the enemy is rarely fun to anybody, but, when is it considered that you "utterly humiliated" the enemy? When you drained his 50k health in 5,5 seconds? Or maybe 10 seconds? That part is relative. There are much better and funnier weapons than the golden ones, without being OP, that is my opinion. Also, how is fun fighting a silenced enemy? Everything comes down to personal taste.

debilitations usually take more time, not less. same as you don't use them every time. you use those to break the pattern, but utter enemy humiliation is something different than you imagine

watch the work on eliminator and wyrm
https://youtu.be/i9kAQaVPuzQ?t=449

and then compare to when i go at same wyrm with your so called better. is that really better? then i kill same wyrm with golden weapons and then 2 of them.
https://youtu.be/i9kAQaVPuzQ?t=2475

good weapon/bad weapon has nothing to do with power for me or effects. there is nothing really fun in power, in debilitations?... yes, there is, but it is situational.

i play most of the time as low level in BBI anyway. if you check my playlists, they are all about low level powerplay in BBI or tips for people who want to wander into BBI from game start. started recording this because everyone always proclaims how that is hard or slugfest or... it is not if you just have a little knowhow

same as i don't have "this vocation sucks, this rocks". i play all of them,

if i had to take a guess. my most used weapons are tier 1 (stilettos, broadsword, iron shield, fine magick buckler...) which are usable at level 10-20 which is my usual level to spend time in BBI

[Donoghu]

While the game isn't as hard as the Souls series, one point is clear : Many things are optionals and temporary available. You can skip most quests if you hate them (better skip them than fail them), but in the end YOU decide what you want to do or skip.

The only quests you can't skip is those story-based main quests and those usually are like chapter's end which once completed, all available (or most) sidequests remaining are replaced. So it's litterally like this : You do sidequests of your choice, then the main quest, then you move to the new set of sidequests, then again the main quest. If you rush the main quest, you got to skip most sidequest.

This is because the sidequests are often relevant to the main quest. For example, once you're known as the one who cut off the head of the three headed giant snake and get part of the Wyvern Hunt group, you get many escort missions available because your feats makes your appears as someone with power and capacity to protect. If you fail some of those escort mission (be it because you didn't know where to go or because the dumbest AI pathfinding system ever in a open world game), later some escort mission won't be available.

You want to do everything?
Then that's a choice that you made. The game didn't force you to take on the quest.

Another point mentioned by the OP is the lack of details in the Map/Quest markers.
This isn't a MMO which hold your hand. Markers are quite precise when it come to an area or a specific item. Otherwise, you got to read the description that clearly state what you got to do and then travel/scavenge to get what's required or hunt a specific monster.

If a quest state "Give X to Y to recieve Z", it's clear : You got to have X and give it to Y (which is usually Selena or someone else you have ALREADY met) and you will get Z which you got to KEEP and return for the reward. (So don't give the quest item to any Pawn if it's consummable.)

Escort quests are simple once you know that quest start as soon as you take them. This is the only point that isn't clear : Don't start an escort quest IF you haven't been to the escort's area before. The reason is simply because the roads aren't clear of ALL the crap that has 100% chance to spawn the first time you move around there. (Griffon, Chimera, Drake, etc.)

Would you agree to move to an unvisited area while protecting a VIP without FIRST scouting that area without said VIP? Yeah, it's kinda of a pain in the butt to move all around the map first and then do the escorts mission, but well... it saves you from an huge fang up your VIP's butt. (The only one which you can't really kill unless you leveled quite a bit or unlocked the right skills/abilities is the Drake roaming the forest South of the Black Fortress. That b*tch can be a pain in the butt even if he (or she?) is the weakest one since you can meet him/her quite near the beginning of the game (like I did on PS3 before DA) just because you travel around a lot.

The only issue I got with the game's system (except for the dumb AI pathfinding system) is that some quests require you to hunt some creatures that you MIGHT have already killed or, at least, that you killed the "pre-spawned" version earlier... making it a lot harder to find through random encounters. (For example, the quest which ask you to hunt 2 chimera. Those 2 are easy to find IF you haven't killed each ones that automatically spawn... otherwise you got to move around the world at the right level until they start spawning as "semi-normal" mobs... usually at the point where you start killing Griffons as a sport. :P