For a seemingly low budget RPG

[CasinoBandit]

Not bad. Reminds me of Mars: War Logs that eventually transitioned to an even better The Technomancer.

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

I thought ELEX was far better than Technomancer. Greedfall was really good though.

[LukanGamer]

Ya it felt almost inspired by Spiders' games. Especially since they added the appreciated though just as rushed romances. Though that more likely just due to listing to what some people been saying they wanted and them wanting to be more unique.

And since other post gave his opinion may as well add mine.
I would say I liked
Technomancer -> Mars War Log -> elex -> greedfall
Though given Mars War Log Age, I would give it some extra credit points.

[Hypnophage]

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros). Gothic used to be on par with Morrowind/Oblivion and above Mass Effect in terms of popularity in Germany/Eastern Europe.

[LukanGamer]

Originally posted by Humanophage:

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros).

Where did you tally all the budgets including DoS2's edition and kickstart?
Honestly curious as those numbers seem off but idk, very least pretty sure that not counting the edition upgrade at any rate.

Also both those budgets are not massive, and of course Elex would cost more to make then DOS2.

(Ignoring 2nd part since that opinions and very small area compared to world with all sorts of things needing to be brought forward, with you maybe even bias, so totally pointless to bring up.
I mean at most that would be like pointing out jrpgs/VNs especially back then were bigger in Japan then most places, though least this 100% known and obvious with Japan being part of the name of Jrpgs.)

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Humanophage:

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros). Gothic used to be on par with Morrowind/Oblivion and above Mass Effect in terms of popularity in Germany/Eastern Europe.

One would think then that they could afford better voice acting, marketing and animations than divinity original sin 2 with that kind of money.

[LukanGamer]

Originally posted by Private Cat:

One would think then that they could afford better voice acting, marketing and animations than divinity original sin 2 with that kind of money.

Found voices fine and they likely have a more limited "pool".

Actually saw little official marketing for either and I think even slightly more for Elex then DoS2 which was odd, (Unofficial marketing for DoS2 of course was beyond massive)

hmmm they probably did have more animations in grand scheme, if you mean combat, that unfair comparison considering genres + setting and what they have available to do.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Humanophage:

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros).

What would be the source of those figures?

ELEX 2 had been in the 2016/2017 news due to the Creative Media Europe funding program that granted them 150,000 EUR. It has been said that it is about 9% of the game's budget. It has also been said that it is barely enough to pay the company's salaries for one month. So, if on average they take three years to complete a game, the overall development and marketing budget should be much lower than your 15+ million EUR.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

Elex>Risen>gothic>mars<technoman<greedfall

[Hypnophage]

Originally posted by LukanGamer:

Originally posted by Humanophage:

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros).

Where did you tally all the budgets including DoS2's edition and kickstart?
Honestly curious as those numbers seem off but idk, very least pretty sure that not counting the edition upgrade at any rate.
(Ignoring 2nd part since that opinions and very small area compared to world with all sorts of things needing to be brought forward, with you maybe even bias, so totally pointless to bring up.
I mean at most that would be like pointing out jrpgs/VNs especially back then were bigger in Japan then most places, though least this 100% known and obvious with Japan being part of the name of Jrpgs.)

ELEX budget is indeed lower than 15 million, which was the first number brought by google, but it was a miscalculation. Here they are discussing the budget: https://steamcommunity.com/app/411300/discussions/0/3182216552786035160/?ctp=2 - with the possible budget for ELEX 1 being calculated at around 5-7 million Euros.

Divinity: Original Sin 1 is stated to eventually have costed 4.5 million Euros here: https://www.pcgamer.com/how-divinity-original-sin-almost-bankrupted-larian-studios/#:~:text=Larian%20initially%20had%201.5%20million,studio%20spent%204.5%20million%20Euros. - it's a bit unclear and obfuscated with D:OS2.

I'd imagine most people who are interested in non-Japanese RPGs are either from Europe or the European settler colonies, particularly the Anglo ones. Eastern Europe and the German states comprise about a half of Europe, with a total population about similar to the US, although not the richest or the most piracy-averse. A JRPG could be big or minor in Japan as well, and the point is that Gothic/Gothic 2 were huge.

If ELEX is low-budget with its huge audience and the pedigree of Gothic/Gothic 2, where does that leave most good recent RPGs like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, ATOM RPG, Underrail, Age of Decadence, Disco Elysium, Expedition: Vikings/Conquistador, etc.?

To compare the scale to Technomancer, Mars: War Logs, and the more recent Greedfall:
Technomancer: https://steamspy.com/app/338390 - 36 players yesterday
Mars: War Logs: https://steamspy.com/app/232750 - 19 players
Greedfall: https://steamspy.com/app/606880 - 749 players
ELEX: https://steamspy.com/app/411300 - 1757 players

The bizarre thing about ELEX is how it manages to have so many weird, janky decisions with it all (like the locked keybinds).

[Y Ddraig Ddu]

No way in hell DOS:2 was only $4.5 million. DOS:1 sold like hotcakes and Larian expanded to... like, at least 80 devs... maybe more?

PB was 25 people for ELEX 1. They've since expanded slightly for ELEX 2.

[LukanGamer]

Originally posted by Humanophage:

It's not really low budget. It had 3 times the budget of Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example (15+ million Euros vs 4.5 million Euros)

ELEX budget is indeed lower than 15 million, which was the first number brought by google ELEX 1 being calculated at around 5-7 million Euros.

This says enough, you can't read well (only focus and quickly jump on, things that you assume are in your view point favor), research beyond poorly, and don't admit how awfully wrong you were, along with not knowing how games costs can be different .
Think even the modern Game Journos would be jelly.

And ya bring up random games ok.. even keep them as different sorts.
How about looking up budget of the actually big budget titles with similar style.. that how you compare lower end budgets to high ends....
aka like How much Skyrim cost or Dark Souls 3

I mean the whole posting of yours bad any ways, especially since OP even used word seemingly any ways and you jumping on it like he said they spent 1.00$ or said he was comparing it to some no name indie developer trying to make a quick buck / prove he can make stuff.
It is on lower end compared to Big titles.
(if you look up Skyrim/Dark Souls 3 costs you will see this instantly even with your horrible research capabilities, as I checked both google and yahoo and they both point this out pretty quick, due to them being actually massive popular titles).

Also sorry to tell you but Gothics are niche, unknown, and forgotten by far more then currently popular, by a HUGE margin.
Even Skyrim VR is on par in player count then any of them (which I am bringing up more because it funny considering VR is you know, something not everyone has and all that). Though to be fair and say a non-vr title, that still ends up being funny, even MORROWIND Dominates them.
And it not just steam player numbers, but things like youtube, review numbers, mods, etc... I see far more on Morrowind then any Gothics.
->
Which is fine, niche fan games are awesome. I mean that why we get these awesome jank games from here and as you mention Spiders.

[Hypnophage]

You seem to get quite worked up. There is a large spectrum between an AAA project like Skyrim and a low budget title.

Morrowind is one of the most famous RPGs out there with a major modding community. It is the precursor to probably the most well-known and mainstream AAA RPG. I'm not sure what this example is supposed to illustrate. What next, 'it's even less popular than Diablo 2'?

Here is a comparison of Morrowind and Gothic II, which were released around the same time: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F039n4_,%2Fm%2F08gbqd,%2Fm%2F03nkyl - you can see that Morrowind is roughly twice as popular. A comparable game from that period by popularity would be Baldur's Gate 2, which is certainly a major RPG.

The reason I want to point this all out is that Gothic 1/2 is not especially popular in the US, which was a bit closed off for foreign RPGs. So US players tend to underestimate its popularity, and ELEX seems like just another title with no major pedigree.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Y Ddraig Ddu:

PB was 25 people for ELEX 1. They've since expanded slightly for ELEX 2.

34 according to most recent interviews.

[MegaClaus]

i expected a budget game and got a garbage game. the devs forgot that its not 2002 anymore because this game tries so hard to be gothic 2, it hurts.