...And Then You Remember.

Last week I was thoroughly enjoying the CRPG Pillars of Eternity.  Then, after one tragic and very frustrating encounter, I decided I'd had enough.  My trend of being unable to finish CRPG's continues.  I am an utter failure.  /sadface.

My whole frustration started with a bounty.  Once you have built the warden's lodge as part of your stronghold, you can accept bounties that send you after different characters scattered all over the map.  These bounties are designed to be high paying, high experience, and high difficulty encounters.  So yeah....they should be a challenge.  The first bounty sent me to kill a large earth elemental creature called "The Dweller."  The Dweller possesses some unique abilities--he can cast druid-like spells that inflict sickness on your group AAAAND the best part....he can summon these ridiculous earth elementals which are giant, floating balls of rock.  Along with his obnoxious spells, it is also accompanied by several trolls.  The first major difficulty of the fight is to decide if it's better to just mow down the big, baddy itself or to try to take out the minions.  Despite being made of rock, The Dweller is surprisingly squishy.  My advice to anyone who wants to take on this bounty is to go straight for him.  Don't waste time on the minions because he will just keep resummoning more earth elementals.

One of my biggest frustrations with PoE has been the difficulty of keeping enemies focused on my "tank" characters.  I have found that in many instances enemies will either completely ignore my fighters or become very easily pulled off.  It's easy to deal with the aggro from a few small enemies that are killed off easily, but it's much more irritating when the big ones won't stay in one place.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong--I am focusing fire on one target so there shouldn't be a reason for them to attack anyone other than my fighter.  I do not fully understand "engagement" and how it works.  I know my fighters can only engage so many enemies at a time and that it is partially determined by the talents you take for your fighters.  I have been rolling with one tank and that might be my mistake.  I have read that it is recommended that you take two fighters and I think I'm going to have to adopt this strategy.

It took me a few or twenty attempts before I finally managed to down The Dweller.  The battle was challenging, but not so hard that I couldn't manage it.  I decided to move on to another bounty and immediately hit a wall.   Sly Cyrdel is no slouch.  He also really hates any casters in your party and will completely ignore your fighters to smack your squishies around.  Beside his un-tankability the fight is further complicated by the presence of casters who will heal Sly.  A head-on battle resulted in failure every time.  The strategy I settled on was highly unorthodox--I would send my wizard running across the map which would allow him to kite Sly away from the group.  In the time it took Sly to chase and kill my wizard, the rest of the team could take out his posse which would allow me to focus all efforts on taking out Sly.  This actually worked!

Sly Cyrdel and his band.  I hate them.

Taking out Sly on his own turned out to be just as difficult.  Sly was far enough away that my group came out of combat and could crawl away and re-group.  Re-engaging Sly was much easier, but he still felt the need to go straight for my wizard.  It's no easy matter trying to whittle him down--he has a big, two-handed weapon and hits like a Mack truck.  He also has freakishly high resistances.  It didn't matter how many spells I slung at him trying to reduce his damage or damage reduction...he continually managed to slay my group.  I spent hours trying to kill him.  Then, I threw my hands up in futility.  I give up!

I think I just need a little break from Pillars and then I will end up finishing it.  Where I initially found the complex mechanics to be refreshing, now I am finding them frustrating.  Maybe I am just not "hardcore" enough for CRPG's?  I struggled with Divinity:  Original Sin and still haven't finished it.  Ugh.

UPDATED 5/31/16:
I decided to give PoE another go.  I skipped over good ol' Sly and his bounty and returned to the main questline and side quests.  I was having a pretty good time and had almost forgotten how frustrating the complicated combat systems can be when I was reminded of something else...the game crippling reality of bugs.  The Endless Paths of Caed Nua were needing some exploring and I bravely ventured past the fifth level.  Once on the sixth floor I discovered the progress blocking door that requires you to find three seals (from the quest with the title something like "Seals of the Endless Paths").  I already had the quest for the seals since I had stumbled across one of them on the fourth floor in my previous explorations. But, lo and behold, when I went to slot them into the door I found that I only had two in my bags.  The third seal had mysteriously disappeared, which meant that my progress on the Endless Paths had come to an end.  Did I sell the seal?  Nope.  It's a quest item which means it's unsellable.  I ventured back to the fourth floor to explore the original spot of discovery only to find that the seal was not there, which I already knew.

Could I keep playing?  Yes, I could.  Not being able to explore the Endless Path's isn't really a game-killer.  Do I want to keep playing?  Nope.  I think I've had my fill and just need to give up on CRPG's.  Maybe it's just not meant to be.  /sigh.

Sometimes You Just Don't Know Why

Do you ever have those games that you barely play and then revisit later and think to yourself "why didn't I keep playing this?"  I've been having one of those moments lately with Pillars of Eternity.  I had played it for about ten hours and then it sat in my library for months.  No second thoughts...just pure neglect.  Stardew Valley has been getting a little stale so I decided to give something else in my library a whirl.  I couldn't remember exactly why I stopped playing Pillars of Eternity.  I had some vague recollections of difficult fights that I couldn't figure out but it was odd that I had played for ten whole hours before setting it aside.  Well, I've dusted off my adventurers mantle and decided to take on this modern CRPG.

CRPG Magic!

CRPG's had a big comeback in 2014/2015 with games like Divinity:  Original Sin, Wasteland 2, and Pillars of Eternity all aiming to bring back one of the staple genres from the heyday of PC gaming.  I thoroughly enjoy a good CRPG but sometimes find that their complexity, depth, and length can be slightly overwhelming.  Even though I was 80% through Divnity, I still haven't finished it.

As I plunge back into PoE, I am remembering the many enjoyable parts of this game.  The character creation process is rich and full of choices to make your character unique.  Not only do you get to select a class but you get to select a specific background and backstory.  Each choice yields up special stats that can help you craft your hero into exactly who you want them to be.  My character is a fighter who I opted to make into a tanking type.  She wields a sword and shield and has stats that support being a fully effective meatshield.  Most games today have simplified their character creation process into three or four different classes with numerous cosmetic choices.  Is it more important for your character to be unique or to look unique?

CRPG's can be more than a little daunting and I am finding the challenge of combat in PoE a nice change from the simplified formats present in many of today's games.  That doesn't mean that I have mastered it or that I actually understand much of what is actually happening.  For some reason my fighter has a very difficult time keeping enemies locked down in true "tank" form.  My priest is commonly reduced to a thin, priesty paste as the baddies make a beeline for him.  I have managed to cobble together a diverse group of characters from many different classes, but actually utilizing all their abilities is difficult.  Wizards possess many powerful AoE attacks but it is difficult to find the exact moment to use those spells.  Friendly fire is real and forces you to focus on where you're laying down a huge fireball.

I'm also finding that I'm enjoying the lore at the center of the game.  I didn't pay much attention to the story during my brief 10 hour adventure and honestly, you can't expect to briefly play a big RPG and really get a grasp on the story.  The central concept of souls being reborn and the ability to manipulate them is unique.  Your character's unique ability to "read" souls allows you to learn about random NPC's.  Every NPC with a name has a backstory that you can "view."  These brief glimpses are well-written mini-stories that can easily be skipped if you don't like to read.

Despite having neglected Pillars of Eternity, I am really enjoying it and am counting on eventually finishing the entire thing.  I am hoping that as I progress that I will become more masterful at the combat aspect of the game.  My poor casters can't keep taking the poundings that they have been.

Updated My Game List and Random Game Thoughts

I decided to finally update my "Games I've Played" list to reflect some of my more recent acquisitions and experiences.  I'm also wracking my brain trying to think of some of my favorite classic games.  This has become a lot harder than I thought it would be as I've always been surrounded by so many games.

This post is just going to be a mish-mash of random gaming related things.  Commence mashing!

1.) Fallout Shelter works really well on iPhones but works like crap on my iPad2.  I had created a very nice thriving vault on my iPad and had patiently weathered the numerous crashes and problems.  Once my vault hit 30 people it would no longer load so I gave up and decided it was time to just admit defeat.  I deleted it from my iPad and said goodbye to my 30 vault dwellers from vault 619.  It's a cool little game so I decided I would give it a go on my iPhone (I have an iPhone 5s--essentially the cheapest newerish iPhone you can buy) and found that it works like a charm!  No loading screen lockups and nice, smooth play.  If you're experiencing difficulties playing on your older iPad you should switch over to your phone.  It's a smaller screen, but you will be happy with the stability.

2.) Valkyria Chronicles has again confirmed that I am horrible at turn-based strategy games.  It's a good thing that I can save my game before every turn because I am generally doing something stupid.  I'm also enjoying swearing at my characters when they miss ridiculously easy shots.  There's no display that actually shows the probability of your shot hitting in Valkyria but it has that same futile feeling as playing X-Com and watching as one of you soldiers misses a 95% shot.  Each battle is taking me a very long time to finish and I'm not going to brag about my combat ratings.  I have one last chapter to play and some DLC to mess around with and then I think I will be giving it a rest.

3.) I feel guilt over my total neglect of Pillars of Eternity.  I bought it, fired it up and got a little into it and haven't touched it in more than a week.  It's supposed to be a really great game.  After the Divinity:  Original Sin fiasco which tops my pile of shame I'm not really sure why I opted to buy it's doppleganger.  The Steam Sale made me do it.

A few of the new characters in Shadowrun:  Hong Kong.

4.) Shadowrun:  Hong Kong is coming out soon and I'm really excited.  Yep, it's another turn-based strategy game, but I love the cyberpunk setting.  I've been getting updates from Kickstarter and the anticipation is building.  The release date is going to be announced sometime this week!

If Three is a Crowd, Six is a Stampede

I've played many RPG's with varying party sizes.  Some might just be your character and a companion while others sit at a comfortable four member group.  Thes smaller groups are relatively easy to control and manage.  But what about a group of six?  My newest adventure in Pillars of Eternity has pushed my party numbers up and requires some serious management.

I started off with myself and my one companion.  It was pretty easy managing my little group, but two characters just wasn't cutting it.  Encounters with multiple opponents were a roll of the dice, so I hesitantly decided to expand my group.  I was hesitant because it felt weird making all my own party members from scratch--many of the RPG's I had played before included party members that were part of the storyline and who joined at various points.  I'm still a little boggled about this as I have two characters in my current party who are story characters.  Even though this is a little strange, I have to admit that I am enjoying the ability to design my own characters rather than simply choosing from pre-made adventurers.

How can you go wrong with six people in your party?

As my party has gotten larger, combat has become increasingly easier but also more difficult to manage.  Pausing to issue commands is happening almost constantly.  It can be difficult to continually command party members to change targets or activate and re-activate certain abilities.  I still haven't figured out how to have a sort of tanking character draw and keep the attention in large groups of enemies.  My poor rogue continually gets pounded and has spent much time unconscious during many encounters.

Learning the ropes of this complex RPG system is taking some time and I hope that I am making the right choices.  Pillars of Eternity is definitely not the simple RPG that I play so often and that has become popular as gaming expands into the masses.  Playing a complex RPG is a nice change--even with the gigantic party.  The more, the merrier, right?

In-Depth Character Creation

Character creation can be an exciting time.  Adding the features and attributes to your desired character is definitely fun.  The Pillars of Eternity character creation panel was an intense experience.  Besides just picking basic aspects like race, class, and hair color, it also required me to choose a sub-race, and a former profession or background.  The great part about this complicated process was that each choice carried with it special skill or attribute bonus.  For certain races or classes there were many sub-races, each offering unique skills.  This is a whole new level of character creation.  It seems like the indie/Kickstarter games really lend themselves to more customization.  Wasteland 2 also gave players many choices when it came down to creating their character.  Players are able to pick a religion for their character and write their own unique biography.

Character creation for a barbarian.

Sadly I got so wrapped up on looking at all the possible options for every race/class that I didn't actually play much of the actual game.  The gameplay seems a little strange to me--it's not really turn-based, it can pause for you to issue orders, and you can have a rather large party.  My party didn't make it above three and neither of those characters fared very well...in fact they both died as part of the story.  I'm also a little boggled by the speech choices.  Players are sometimes able to choose special speech options but a prompt mentions that just because there is a special option that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best option.  Huh?  Doesn't that go against everything we've ever been taught in a game?  It's always best to choose the special option!  Why provide a special option if it doesn't do something special?  I guess it's going to require more time to figure out.

One complaint I've read about the game, but which doesn't bother me, is the amount of reading that is required.  There is some voice acting, but many descriptions are at least partially written out.  The writing almost reads like a story or novel, so it's very pleasant.  I think we've become too spoiled with many modern games which are almost completely voice acted.

It's going to take much more playing and investigating for me to finally get a good grasp on Pillars of Eternity.  I like what I've seen so far.