"Wow, your bigotry is showing"

[Jekko]

Is it me or writing took a massive blow compared to POE1?

Where are the memorable companions? I honestly cringed through half of the dialogues, felt like I was surronded by pre puberty teenagers doing stuff just for the lulz.

Who thought voicing everything was a good idea? "Uhm...too many words hurt my head, let's dumb everything down and add an empowering fem voiced narrator, heh, progressive quotas before quality!"

Where is the roleplay? There is no way for you to actively antagonize a major faction before endgame (basically no paths), there is no way to actively antagonize your companions (even after they use you to send assassination letters), there is no way to alter the events of the main Eothas story in any meaningful way.

It's really sad, reminds me of what happened to the Dragon Age games, I fear Obsidian is on the same car crash trajectory, especially now that Josh is taking a pause.

[WanderingPenguin]

Originally posted by caev37:

Originally posted by Excerpt:

I'd also like to point out that many people have complained because "All the companions are bisexual" is untrue. I have seen this multiple times. It is important to remember the difference between MC options and what the actual stories of the characters indicate. One is done to please a larger range of roleplayers, the other is confirmable story cannon. Just a few notes:

Eder is not bisexual or gay and is not portrayed as bisexual in any way during either game.

Aloth had zero mentions of sexuality in the first game, in this one he is arguably the ONLY cannon gay male character of any importance as he is the only one shown specific interest in other males with none towards females. And I hate Aloth his personality sucks ass so that kind of irks me. While both genders can romance Aloth, there are never any mentions of him doing anything with women outside of MC romance (which indicates he otherwise wouldn't imo).

Sarafen is the only character I would consider cannonically bisexual storywise as he is the only one that has expressed cannon relationships with both sexes.

Xoti while showing numerous interest in gay activity during many conversations doesn't really seem to fit any particular sexual orientation (maybe pansexual), her whole schtick seems to be closer to a mental disorder where she becomes infatuated with anyone that even remotely shows her attention. It's also part of why I found her very annoying.

All of these are great points, but I particularly like your assessment of Xoti. Though at first she seemed cute and funny, things definitely got weird as she continually blushed at and flirted with Eder and Maia. She seemed way too eager to jump into a relationship with anyone, which turned me off from her pretty quickly.

She was my least favorite companion to be honest, I found her dialogue to be frequently awkward and kind of crazy. She reminds me of a friend I used to have that had borderline personality disorder, though Xoti doesn't seem self aware at all. I would have liked it more if they had downplayed her thirstyness a bit and increased her sweet charm that she comes off with originally. I thought she'd end up being like a female Eder to begin with... nope so wrong.

[WanderingPenguin]

Originally posted by Valdr:

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

Aloth is bi. He mentions in the start that he was interested in Benessa but saddly she was not interested. He's also lovely :P

There you go, every Deadfire companion except Eder is either gay/bisexual/pansexual. Pallegina, while not being a romance option, was having a lesbianic flirt with Maneha in the first game. One or two LGBT characters would have been nice, all except one shows the rather pedantic cultural background of the writers. Perhaps it would have been better to focus on quality writing pertaining a renaissance/fantasy setting, not modern day political themes.

How is this a modern day theme? If anything the setting is most reminscent of turn of the milenia political landscape (goes back to my earlier comparison of Rautai to the Roman Empire earlier). Bisexuality was if anything MORE common during that historical period of time and was openly accepted as a way of life.

I don't see why this should be a problem, not to mention other than Xoti and Serafen the characters are not extremely in your face about it either. Serafen isn't even really in your face about it either he just makes lots of crude jokes (which fits his personality).

We are also promised more companions in the DLCs so its entirely possible some of them will not be bisexual as well.

[WanderingPenguin]

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

Originally posted by Excerpt:

I must have missed that, probably cause I don't like him so didn't pay attention to much of anything to do with him lol. To each their own I guess, I find his personality irritating that's all. The best part of having him on the team though are the rather hilarious chatter interactions that he frequently gets into with Eder.

You need high insight to specifically ask him "Whats up with her" cause its Aloth and he won't volunteer. I see why you may find him irritating but I really enjoyed having him in the party. And writting wise, his was the only romance that broke the mold. He seems to genuinely like the Watcher and care about them. His romance lines are much better than the creepy, stalker, hormone riddled lines of the others (personal opinion, I thought they came on too fast and too strong). Just a sidenote :)

Thanks for the tip. I was playing a rogue for my first playthrough and so insight was not one of my focused skills.

[TaKo]

Originally posted by Valdr:

Pallegina, while not being a romance option, was having a lesbianic flirt with Maneha in the first game.

One or two LGBT characters would have been nice

game makes it very clear that was just maneha and pallegina was not into her in any way, you can literally ask her about it and shes says we let our imagination get the better of us or smth


and nah lmaom having actually gay characters instead of all being bi when non-straight would have been great, maybe even some trans folk as long as it was done well, but only 2 whole LGBT people? nope

[c0mfld]

each writer chose the sexuality of the companion they were writing. (which is why pallegina is work-sexual since josh wrote her)

[Jekko]

Originally posted by Excerpt:

Originally posted by Valdr:

There you go, every Deadfire companion except Eder is either gay/bisexual/pansexual. Pallegina, while not being a romance option, was having a lesbianic flirt with Maneha in the first game. One or two LGBT characters would have been nice, all except one shows the rather pedantic cultural background of the writers. Perhaps it would have been better to focus on quality writing pertaining a renaissance/fantasy setting, not modern day political themes.

How is this a modern day theme? If anything the setting is most reminscent of turn of the milenia political landscape (goes back to my earlier comparison of Rautai to the Roman Empire earlier). Bisexuality was if anything MORE common during that historical period of time and was openly accepted as a way of life.

I don't see why this should be a problem, not to mention other than Xoti and Serafen the characters are not extremely in your face about it either. Serafen isn't even really in your face about it either he just makes lots of crude jokes (which fits his personality).

We are also promised more companions in the DLCs so its entirely possible some of them will not be bisexual as well.

You have made such a sweeping superficial statement I don't know where to begin. There were no homosexual societies in the past, as that would lead to the death of a culture by childlessness. All men were expected to take a wife, the erastes/eromenos relationship of the greeks was nothing like modern homosexuality and the romans looked down at the "greek vice of the elites". Again, same has happened to Bioware, progressive writers and quotas were prioritazed to real talent like Avellone.

[c0mfld]

avellone sucks.

also is it really so hard to accept a fantasy setting where a lot more ppl are bi? does it really bother you that much?

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by Valdr:

Originally posted by Excerpt:

How is this a modern day theme? If anything the setting is most reminscent of turn of the milenia political landscape (goes back to my earlier comparison of Rautai to the Roman Empire earlier). Bisexuality was if anything MORE common during that historical period of time and was openly accepted as a way of life.

I don't see why this should be a problem, not to mention other than Xoti and Serafen the characters are not extremely in your face about it either. Serafen isn't even really in your face about it either he just makes lots of crude jokes (which fits his personality).

We are also promised more companions in the DLCs so its entirely possible some of them will not be bisexual as well.

You have made such a sweeping superficial statement I don't know where to begin. There were no homosexual societies in the past, as that would lead to the death of a culture by childlessness. All men were expected to take a wife, the erastes/eromenos relationship of the greeks was nothing like modern homosexuality and the romans looked down at the "greek vice of the elites". Again, same has happened to Bioware, progressive writers and quotas were prioritazed to real talent like Avellone.

People like to believe History was not always a shallow pit of misery to everyone, in order to justify their unnatural fantasies. The vast majority of societies everywhere shunned homosexuality, and those that did not where either brutally conquered, or suffered revolutions from the inside that shaped into a moe common form.
Same goes for female polygamy.

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by c0mfld:

avellone sucks.

also is it really so hard to accept a fantasy setting where a lot more ppl are bi? does it really bother you that much?

Yes, Middle Ages and Renaissance were extremely homophobic, and I want this reflected.
The societies portrayed in this game would fragment and fall apart very quickly, eventually being conquered and diluted by militaristic and heteronormative aggressors.

[c0mfld]

this doesn't take place in the renaissance. it's _inspried_ by renaissance western europe and colonial era (south-)eastern asia. it takes place in eora. a fantasy world. where souls, dragons, and magic exist. and a whole lotta ppl are bi. deal with it.

[Jekko]

Originally posted by c0mfld:

avellone sucks.

also is it really so hard to accept a fantasy setting where a lot more ppl are bi? does it really bother you that much?

It bothers me bacause writers seem to be more focused on politics than quality writing, quality that many have pointed out being extremely lacking. Perhaps the writers could have focused on a more engaging, deep main story rather than the cringy diversity sexual innuendo of most companions.

[Krom]

ITT people implying Aloth is "gay" because of his exchange with a male hooker he used to dorm with at college... when given how timid, polite, and formal Aloth is you could just as easily read that whole exchange as Aloth being freaked out that his gay stalker from college suddenly popped back up and gave him an anxiety attack. Why you could even imagine the whole incident was caused by Aloth's Sassy Black Woman taking over and hitting on this gay elf one day. Awkward, and it completely fits Aloth's personality and background.

You can read whatever you want into most of this stuff if you have the brain power for it. Which is what makes these threads so funny... people who have a dogmatic, 1 dimensional world view complaining that the characters are all hamfisted and 1 dimensional. No the problem is you've been indoctrinated somewhere along the way and your mind has been trained to latch onto the first troupe or meme you spot and then turn your brain off because you've successfully catalogued the innermost workings of a person you just met.

[c0mfld]

tekehu likes to ♥♥♥♥. xoti is a farmer girl who's finally been let free to enjoy herself. serafen is a _pirate_. hope this helps.

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by c0mfld:

this doesn't take place in the renaissance. it's _inspried_ by renaissance western europe and colonial era (south-)eastern asia. it takes place in eora. a fantasy world. where souls, dragons, and magic exist. and a whole lotta ppl are bi. deal with it.

I dealt with it, but it still sucks, and still is nowhere near how good and successful the first game is.
Deal with it.

[c0mfld]

poe2 is superior to poe1 in every single way lol