Thebazilly

I'm here for the Disco Elysium memes. Kim must be protected at all costs.

Hey, I'll have you know that after 1,000 hours of Total War, I have finished a whole campaign twice.

The rabies test requires decapitation, so don't worry, the debt went to the bat's widow.

I'm so excited for BG3! I'm already over-planning my first character's backstory.

Just finished Final Fantasy XVI and feel vaguely disappointed and unsatisfied. The story kinda fell apart in the last third.

2 weeks until Baldur's Gate 3, no idea what I'll do until then.

I am a huge Pathfinder fan (check my home instance) and have played both games.

Tl;dr, play Wrath. The plots of both games are standalone.

I hated Kingmaker. Incredibly frustrating experience. The game is difficult, buggy, the writing is beautiful in places and baffling in others, and the kingdom management is balanced poorly. It's easy to get yourself into a death spiral on kingdom management that takes 50 hours to play out (which then gives you an instant game over).

However, Wrath of the Righteous is one of my favorite CRPGs. I have roughly 200 hours in it. The writing for companions is much better in this one and while the army management side game still isn't good, it is a lot less frustrating and opaque than the kingdom management mini game. There are still some bugs... I had one game-breaking bug where I had to install a mod to teleport out of an inaccessible area after the game deleted an elevator. My only other complaint is that the ending was clearly rushed, but the campaign is about 100 hours and most of it is of excellent quality. Overall it's very worth it. The different mythic paths have tons of interactivity in the world, so it really changes each playthrough when you make different choices.

Also kudos to Wrath for well written evil companions and choices! You can be a psychopath that kills everyone you come across if you want (and there's even a mythic path tailored exactly to that), but there are also more subtle choices that allow you to twist the crisis at the Worldwound to your advantage (try Lich!). It is still satisfying to be a big damn hero, too.

I love FFXVI, and I understand the pacing and sidequest criticisms. I'm nearing the final boss battle, and let me tell you, the pacing gets worse as the game goes on.

The sidequests feel like all the budget was funneled towards the huge setpiece moments (which are cool), and then everything else was tacked on as an afterthought. They're just so flat and boring. I do recognize the need for quiet moments in between the huge bombastic scenes, and sidequests sort of do that in the beginning, but they just drag. On. So. Long.

It's hard to understand when there's 5 high-octane boss battles in a row in between two 4-hour fetch quest sessions.

I do really enjoy the story and characters overall, though I have some criticisms here, too. (Like Jill being relegated to "useless damsel".) I enjoy the reflection of the slavery themes in both the beginning and end of the game, the fact that the characters want to overthrow oppressive systems for the good of all (and are allowed to! Refreshing!), the dark tone, the political focus. I find Clive an incredibly endearing protagonist. I think the deciding factor for if you enjoy the game is whether or not you like the story, since it's what holds everything together.

Baldur's Gate 3 is coming out in two weeks (on PC, a month later on console) and has this!

Final Fantasy is a lot like Zelda in that a particular person's favorite is going to be the one they played when they were 12 years old. Depending on the age of the recommender, you are most likely to get 4, 6, or 7 as an answer.

Personally, my favorite is FF10.

I agree, I like the variance in line weight on it. I'm a dirty serif-lover, though.

more information is planned to be revealed ahead of the Kickstarter campaign

Aaaand you lost me

Over 750 hours in Total War: Warhammer II.

Probably 2,000 or so in Guild Wars 2.