Let's Play Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Thread 2: Götterdämmerung)

[Morty]

The Bridge Ablaze is one of my favorite parts of the game. Getting to know more about Waidwen is nice, but the visual design of a level composed of three split-seconds frozen in time is also great.

[VoxRationis]

Oh, no, it's definitely a fun level.
I'm not hearing much from Ydwin, though, which disappoints me. I suppose she probably wouldn't have a lot of personal opinions about the Saint's War, but this is supposed to be "her" DLC, and yet she's been a lot less chatty than Fassina in FS.

[Keltest]

Oh, no, it's definitely a fun level.
I'm not hearing much from Ydwin, though, which disappoints me. I suppose she probably wouldn't have a lot of personal opinions about the Saint's War, but this is supposed to be "her" DLC, and yet she's been a lot less chatty than Fassina in FS.

Do you have Vatnir with you? She bounces off him a bunch IIRC.

[VoxRationis]

I do (even though he's absolutely terrible from a mechanical perspective in this environment).

[Morty]

Unsurprisingly, Eder has a fair bit to say in the Bridge Ablaze. Xoti doesn't, weirdly enough.

[Keltest]

Unsurprisingly, Eder has a fair bit to say in the Bridge Ablaze. Xoti doesn't, weirdly enough.

Xoti is the wrong generation for that. She didnt fight in the Saint's War, or have her land invaded by it. It wasnt a defining event for her the way it was for Eder.

[VoxRationis]

Hey, everyone! Sorry about having another long hiatus. Between various personal matters, the looming weight of all the dread happening of this year, and Civ's release of the Byzantines and Gauls, I wasn't particularly in the right mindset to continue the game for a bit.

Part 37:

(I’m putting off leveling up to 20 until I either finish the DLC or think I need the extra level to beat it, which seems unlikely, simply because the decision-making tends to paralyze me and make me waste a lot of time not actually playing the game, but I’d like to note that most of my current party has now hit level 20).
We continue back towards the main hub of the White Beyond and roam about for a while, using the tools we’ve gathered to poke about and collect both assorted resources and lost souls. Ryndara typically decides to try and get them to follow her, in the hopes that they can be led out of this place and back into the reincarnation cycle. We collect some sort of watershaping horn that appears connected to the final realm, which we enter. Given its title, its connection to watershaping, and the general tendency of these realms to be reflections of things the gods are happy consigning to oblivion, Ryndara suspects that this will have something to do with Ukaizo.
It is comprised of ancient Huana architecture and has souls fleeing from something. It takes little time for Ryndara’s suspicions to be confirmed; this is Ukaizo, in the moment of its doom, and the fleeing spirits had taken us for the “outlanders” who had promised much and filled Ukaizo’s cities with machines, only for the machines to kill thousands and the gods rain doom upon Ukaizo. We find the king who (no doubt shaken by the loss of his only son and desirous of a more direct connection to the divine) listened to Thaos and allowed the Engwithans to build their machines. This answers the questions we’d been asking about the relationship between Engwith and Ukaizo. Ryndara brings the king, who sits imprisoned by his pride, to reality, and bids him travel with us, that we might bring him to the Wheel.
Fortified by the souls under our belts, we delve deeper into the White Void. There we find Neriscyrlas by her phylactery. This time, she is rather conversational, and we discuss her place and intentions. She had hoped to use the phylactery to defy the power of the gods, who, she was aware, had ensnared and destroyed other ancient dragons so as to protect their secrets. Silver-tongued Ryndara is able to play off their mutual dislike for the gods, and suggests that Neriscyrlas attack Rymrgand directly. The dragon, to Ryndara’s surprise, takes to the suggestion and sets off at once.
We follow (if unwillingly) into the very deepest heart of the White Void, battling our way through swarms of shambling souls and monsters of the Void. (Vatnir’s Dismissal spell serves us very well here, as it did in the drowned Ukaizo.) There we see the Beast of Winter ably dispatching Neriscyrlas and disintegrating the dragon. Ryndara, who had sensed a worthy ally, feels a tinge of regret at this, but gets ready to try to spin it to Rymrgand as a means of fulfilling her task.
The god isn’t having it, however. He bluntly says that we failed to do what we promised and sets the Beast of Winter after us. It’s not a difficult fight, thanks to Wall of Many Colors. Afterwards, Rymrgand, suitably amused, kicks us out, leaving us back in Eora (complete with essence versions of all the items we looted, solidified by the presence of Rymrgand’s relic). Vatnir appoint Hafbjorn his semipermanent steward and begs leave to travel with us, to Ydwin’s disapproval. We accept, and together bid adieu to the friendliest cultists of annihilation that ever graced a fantasy setting.

(I resisted the urge to reload and play through the Neriscyrlas conversation several ways on account of wanting a more authentic experience, where decisions must be weighed and lived with, but I am curious to see the other ways it could have played out.)

Edit: Also, every time I think I have a good sense of how terrible the Engwithans were/gods are, it just gets worse. At least the Engwithan apotheosis project had some level of understanding and support from their community (as seen in the visions in Sun in Shadow). I'm sure that the political climate did not exactly encourage dissent, but you had multi-generational families who thought that this was a good idea. Apparently they did the same thing to Ukaizo, but with no warning or consent.

[Morty]

(I’m putting off leveling up to 20 until I either finish the DLC or think I need the extra level to beat it, which seems unlikely, simply because the decision-making tends to paralyze me and make me waste a lot of time not actually playing the game, but I’d like to note that most of my current party has now hit level 20).

I'm mildly jealous, since my preference for swapping teammates frequently means they all lag behind my Watcher by a few levels.

Fortified by the souls under our belts, we delve deeper into the White Void. There we find Neriscyrlas by her phylactery. This time, she is rather conversational, and we discuss her place and intentions. She had hoped to use the phylactery to defy the power of the gods, who, she was aware, had ensnared and destroyed other ancient dragons so as to protect their secrets. Silver-tongued Ryndara is able to play off their mutual dislike for the gods, and suggests that Neriscyrlas attack Rymrgand directly. The dragon, to Ryndara’s surprise, takes to the suggestion and sets off at once.

Which skill did you use for this? I remember being able to use my second Watcher's high Bluff to hoodwink Neriscyrlas into attacking Rymrgand, but it seems there's quite a few ways to do that.

[VoxRationis]

I believe I used Metaphysics. I argued something to the tune of "Why not use Rymrgand's essence to escape? Since the gods were made, they can be unmade." I think there was probably a Diplomacy check in there somewhere as well.

[Morty]

Right, with Bluff I was able to convince her that Rymrgand is afraid of her and that's why he hasn't taken her down personally. He didn't find the result as amusing as my Watcher had.

[VoxRationis]

I would argue that convincing the dragon to commit to a hopeless battle is a perfectly valid way of killing her, but I was never given the chance to argue that to Rymrgand. He is, as one of the dialogue options on the way out notes, "so mean." (I did not take that dialogue option; I thought it imprudent to rock the boat on the way out of his realm.)

[VoxRationis]

Part 38:
We travel back to Neketaka, Ryndara dreading what must be done now. She does not dread the journey to lost Ukaizo, nor any beast or guardian it might hold, nor another meeting with the rogue god Eothas. Rather, she fears what the following days will do to the party, and fears most of all that of all the bodies that line her path, one might be the sister of a dear friend. The time has come to commit to the Vailian Trading Company and strike a blow against the forces of Rauatai.
Ryndara picks a squad appropriate to the task: Aloth and Eder as her ever-faithful companions, Tekehu, who bears no love for the Rauataians, and Pallegina, who will of course be eager to conduct this bitter work on behalf of the science of animancy, the cause of tearing down the gods, and the bettering of the Republics. (It turns out that Tekehu is somewhat behind in experience, but only by a couple of levels, and I somewhat suspect we’re all over-leveled for this quest anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.)
Aloth does the legwork here, slipping through the staff in the powder storeroom and setting the charge. We are barely out of the explosion and back to Queen’s Berth, however, than we receive a summons to the palace, where Castol has already been called. When we arrive, it turns out that the Brass Citadel’s investigative staff have made quick strides… They already have a suspect who claims that he destroyed the house on Castol’s orders. Onekaza calls on Ryndara as a witness, and though Ryndara is able to deflect in court, the queen privately lets the Watcher know that she was not fooled. Moreover, she declares us unwelcome, thinking our efforts to be to her detriment. Still, we and Castol are both free to return to the VTC headquarters. Once there, Castol explains that the animancers have made another advancement in the teleportation principles they have been studying, and that they have a device which should allow transportation of the Caed Nua past Ondra’s Mortar. The Vailian fleet is amassing near there so as to ensure our safe passage.
When we get to the Caed Nua, Maia is gone, and has left Ryndara a note about living for something better and greater than oneself. If only she knew… Ryndara is both relieved and worried: relieved that this means Maia will be safe, and worried because now she has alienated one of the world’s best snipers.
Putting this rift behind her, she commands the Caed Nua set sail for Ukaizo. We are met at the strait by a fleet of Huana, who do battle against the fleet of Vailia. Our business, however, does not lie in bloodshed on the decks, and so we proceed. Ryndara suspects the affair will be one-sided in favor of the VTC, but the Caed Nua makes its way too rapidly to confirm that. We are then menaced by a mechanical guardian, crafted of metal and adra, rising from the depths like some animantic kraken, only for the dragon we freed from the Watershapers’ Guild to engage it. The Caed Nua makes its way to its destination unopposed.
In Ukaizo, we drive our way forward (after some mutual words of encouragement among the party members), finding a vast machine at the top of a tower. This is the very heart of the storm. Tekehu speaks up, saying he has had a vision of the place, and that this is the center of the covenant with Ngati that grants watershapers their abilities. A cursory reading of the machine’s essence shows this to be true; a trio was chosen to be bound here. The machine’s production of the storms around Ukaizo seems to be somewhat different from the covenant itself, however. Tekehu does not interact with the machine, but simply cries out, saying that he has recovered that which he was born to find. Ryndara, wary of this factor that she had failed to take into account, deactivates the machine…
And is brought to another council of the gods. They show themselves as falling into two camps, one favoring leadership of kith and the other disfavoring it. Ryndara expresses her faith in kith’s ability to see things through, but otherwise says little and chooses her words carefully. The plan is almost at fruition, and there’s little sense in antagonizing the gods while they might still react to stop her.
Once that’s done, we head back down the tower and are confronted by Onekaza, who seems to have survived the battle and storms, if barely. Ryndara asks for peace and negotiation, but the queen isn’t having it. She picks a fight, which she loses badly. Though this confrontation was not what we desired, there is nothing to be done. We stride over the unceremoniously sprawled corpse of the Queen of Neketaka to face Eothas.
Of course, Ryndara doesn’t mean to “confront” Eothas per se. (Maybe my next character will choose the “I’m going to fight you” line, but Ryndara has no interest in stopping Eothas.) Rather, she engages him in dialogue, asking for additional information, as they stand atop the towers of Ukaizo. (She also notes with concern that there are alcoves for the bodies of the titans, and that three are empty, meaning that there is a titan form unaccounted for somewhere, but that will have to wait.) The two chat amiably (rather more amiably than the party members, who are, with the exception of Pallegina, miffed at Eothas deciding to foist responsibility for remaking the Wheel onto kith), and Eothas frees Ryndara of the connection she had to Berath. Ryndara suggests that Eothas lend inspiration to the scholars and innovators who will need to carve a new path forward for mortals, and then sits back and watches him fulfill his design.

And things turned out pretty well! Though the epilogue leaves the reinvention of the Wheel as something not yet completed, it mentions that kith knowledge and technology is proceeding apace, thanks to Ryndara’s choices in supporting Castol and the VTC, as well as Eothas distributing his essence to scholars, so it seems likely that it’ll be done in the time available. The Huana, in spite of losing their queen and what seems like a substantial fighting force, manage to keep things together pretty well, and even improve matters in the Gullet. There are a few issues that turn sour, but most are of small scale. The companions do well for themselves, and even Maia manages to turn the ranga nui of Rauatai to a more honorable path in foreign policy (and refrains from assassinating Ryndara, which is nice).

All said, I think the ending is pretty satisfactory. Thus wraps up the tale of Ryndara (unless a Pillars 3 comes out). I'm excited to play other characters (though I probably won't publish their travels in exacting detail; a lot of the freshness is forever gone) and explore other choices, other factions, other playstyles. Almost all of my party was multiclass in this game, and so I kind of want to get around to playing with the 8th and 9th abilities levels for various classes (like summoning a DRAGON!). One character idea I have is of a pacifist Eothasian priest who always attempts to avoid violence and never does damage themselves, but I think I might go with a more militaristic and ruthless sort first, just to shake things up from Ryndara. (Though that's kind of what I said with Ryndara in the first place, if you'll recall. We'll see how well I can stomach some of the things this game allows you to do.)

[Morty]

I have mixed feelings about the ending. I don't dislike it, but I understand why others might and I don't particularly like it either. I feel like the game doesn't really reconcile the political plotline and the god-related plotline. I've only really finished the game once so far, siding with the Huana. Which is good, except for the part where it upholds their unfair social structure and the royal family whose authority is built on various lies we uncover along the way.

Of my other two Watchers, sort of hanging around the endgame, one is going to side with the Principi and another also with the Huana. I feel like I might revisit my first Watcher at some point and go independent.

[VoxRationis]

Certainly, there is something of a problem with the two layers of the main conflict. For example, at the end, when confronted by Onekaza, I should have been able to say something like, "Go ahead, take it. I'm here for Eothas, and I only needed the Vailians to get me here. You can have Ukaizo, for all I care." (Ryndara wouldn't have said that, because she thought, seemingly correctly, that leaving the city in the hands of the Vailians provides the surest path forward to a repaired reincarnation cycle, but the option should have been there.)

My opinion of the ending seems to have been colored by the fact that I made a character, through no design of my own, that suits the narrative best. From what I've read, had I played a devout Berathian who would do whatever it took to save the Wheel, I would not have found the ending as fulfilling. That tendency for certain characters to be better supported than others extends to other parts of the game, though. I've started a playthrough as that pacifist Eothasian priest I mentioned, and it really shows that the writing assumes that the worship of Eothas is foreign to you. Xoti and Eder talk about the subject as though they have to explain everything to you, and the gods don't seem to react to the fact that you've devoted yourself to the entity they've tasked you with hunting and opposing. (Berath's leverage over you seems very weak in light of the fact that most of the priesthoods we've seen in this setting tend to be very willing to lay down their lives for their gods.)

[Keltest]

Certainly, there is something of a problem with the two layers of the main conflict. For example, at the end, when confronted by Onekaza, I should have been able to say something like, "Go ahead, take it. I'm here for Eothas, and I only needed the Vailians to get me here. You can have Ukaizo, for all I care." (Ryndara wouldn't have said that, because she thought, seemingly correctly, that leaving the city in the hands of the Vailians provides the surest path forward to a repaired reincarnation cycle, but the option should have been there.)

My opinion of the ending seems to have been colored by the fact that I made a character, through no design of my own, that suits the narrative best. From what I've read, had I played a devout Berathian who would do whatever it took to save the Wheel, I would not have found the ending as fulfilling. That tendency for certain characters to be better supported than others extends to other parts of the game, though. I've started a playthrough as that pacifist Eothasian priest I mentioned, and it really shows that the writing assumes that the worship of Eothas is foreign to you. Xoti and Eder talk about the subject as though they have to explain everything to you, and the gods don't seem to react to the fact that you've devoted yourself to the entity they've tasked you with hunting and opposing. (Berath's leverage over you seems very weak in light of the fact that most of the priesthoods we've seen in this setting tend to be very willing to lay down their lives for their gods.)

The Eothas Priest having to have Eothas explained to them by Eder and Xoti can at least be explained by you being a foreigner who has very different understandings of Eothas than people who lived through the Saints war and, before that, had his presence more generally in their lives (ie farmer and rural types). Xoti in particular is an excellent display of how Eothas can mean different things to different people without being wrong.

[VoxRationis]

The Eothas Priest having to have Eothas explained to them by Eder and Xoti can at least be explained by you being a foreigner who has very different understandings of Eothas than people who lived through the Saints war and, before that, had his presence more generally in their lives (ie farmer and rural types). Xoti in particular is an excellent display of how Eothas can mean different things to different people without being wrong.

Fair enough, I suppose, though you can at times show that you seem to be rather familiar with the liturgies of Readceran Eothasians.

As I continue the playthrough:

I've noted before that the timeline regarding Neketaka seems a little jumbled, and it's really standing out to me more as I embark upon a second playthrough. Aruihi makes clear that Neketaka has not been continuously settled, and that the Kahanga who presently inhabit it moved into the deserted ruins of the city. Yet the questlines surrounding the Old City and various dialogue about Neketaka at the beginning of the game continually refer to fairly detailed legends (like the tale about the loss of the Cornett of Waves and how Ondra promised that "[the Huana who called for her mercy] would rise when it did," which relates directly to the skeletons that pop up when you retrieve it) that suggest direct continuity, and most likely a more recent continuity than the 2000-some years that we suspect (the fall of Ukaizo is closely dated to the apotheoses, which puts it at the same time as the disappearance of the Engwithans, and the disasters that befell Neketaka are implied to be related to Ukaizo's fall).

Also, playing with the turn-based feature causes some interesting interactions with how the start of combat works. There's a brief delay between NPCs turning hostile and the start of the turn order, and one can potentially put the whole party into stealth mode during that delay, slipping quickly out of combat or getting a free round of sneak attacks even though one was just talking with the enemy. Conversely, attempting to bushwhack opponents with a volley from hiding tends to fail because combat starts the moment the first attack goes off, canceling all the subsequent ones.

[Morty]

Also, playing with the turn-based feature causes some interesting interactions with how the start of combat works. There's a brief delay between NPCs turning hostile and the start of the turn order, and one can potentially put the whole party into stealth mode during that delay, slipping quickly out of combat or getting a free round of sneak attacks even though one was just talking with the enemy. Conversely, attempting to bushwhack opponents with a volley from hiding tends to fail because combat starts the moment the first attack goes off, canceling all the subsequent ones.

The turn-based mode is fun and I wish it had been in the game from the start, but it does play a bit of havoc with game balance as it is. In the end I stuck to real-time after it came out.

As far as playing a priest of Eothas goes... yes, it was already odd in POE1, where Eothas wasn't immediately present but the Saint's War cast a long shadow on everything. In Deadfire, where Eothas is stomping around the place, it's even weirder.

[VoxRationis]

Some more thoughts as I continue my pacifist Eothasian playthrough:

• There actually is some good Eothasian dialogue in there. I found the conversation you have with Eothas at Hasongo, where he comes within a hair's breadth of telling you not to worship him, to be interesting.
• I think I erred in conflating the destruction with Ukaizo and the devastation of the gods' rise. As I go through the Neketaka quests again, it seems clear that the covenant with Ngati was an actual thing with real power, and not simply a mythical explanation for watershaping, which means that much of ancient Huana culture must have developed after the gods' apotheosis. Similarly, Ukaizo and ancient Neketaka do not seem to have been destroyed in the same event, considering the mural in the Old City depicting Ukaizo lost in storms and waves. Or maybe the writers just got things confused. I'm definitely a little confused on the timeline regarding Periki and the watershapers' guild. Onekaza suggests that Periki was Mairu's direct predecessor (she says that the secret about the dragon was kept by "Periki, and Mairu after her," but not anything about any other guildmasters in the interim), but the Vailians have been here for a century (per Castol), and Scyrioelephas says that Periki was trying to manage a conflict which predated the Vailians' appearance as a foreign threat. Moreover, it's pretty much unthinkable that the decline in the watershapers' power from "raising islands and parting seas" to "parlor tricks" would not be common knowledge if
• Man, is it hard to work with Onekaza. After the long gap between starting Ryndara's journey and finishing it, I had kind of compressed the reason why she started working for the Huana and then stopped to "Onekaza is devout and that doesn't sit well with our goals," but it's not just that (although the fact that one of the gods she invokes frequently is Woedica should give the large majority of player characters, not just the explicitly anti-theist Ryndara, pause). Onekaza is flawed in many ways. Her goal is a unification of the Deadfire she explicitly refers to as imperial, which is at least honest, because it is. Her state-building project is strongly centered on the supremacy of her own tribe, and she regards other tribes' customs, when they differ from the Kanhangas', with the sort of condescension the foreign powers treat her with. She does not seem to care about the injustices of the caste system, and it's essentially unthinkable, between her being a cipher and the questline you undertake on behalf of the crown, that she doesn't know about them. (Aruihi can be talked into being a champion of the Roparu, as happened in the epilogue of Ryndara's playthrough, but you have to couch it in terms of foreign politics rather than moral rectitude or compassion.) She rightfully objects to the depredations of the Crookspur slavers, but has no such qualms about enslaving Scyrioelephas. In spite of having survived for a long time by cooperating with those of unlike interests, she turns very swiftly to a with-us-or-against-us mentality after Ashen Maw, creating enemies unnecessarily and potentially resulting in her demise. This mentality intersects with the interplay of faction questlines in a frustrating way:
  Spoiler: A lot of stuff I've left unspoilered since it's a let's play, but this revolves around a different playthrough

  Show

  Remember when Ryndara blew up the Rauataians' powderhouse and Onekaza became furious, declaring us betrayers and enemies? It turns out, if you approach this from the Huana questline, that she knew about the plan in advance and actively desired that it succeed. The Vailian trotted out to confess that Castol paid him for the sabotage, it turns out, was not some random person bribed or blackmailed into giving false witness, as Ryndara had assumed (because the VTC paying a Vailian national to walk into the heavily-guarded powderhouse and drop a bomb in it seems too clumsy to be believed, particularly in light of the fact that Castol's other plan involved a plausibly independent third party and a form of attack the Rauataians didn't know was possible and therefore couldn't prepare for), and in a Huana-aligned playthrough, the crown, having intercepted this saboteur, sends the player to go finish the job. (This puts my pacifist character in a bit of a bind.)
  Now, it could be said that her anger (towards Ryndara) is a show, meant to allay Rauataian fears of her sympathizing with the Vailians... except for the fact that she a) expressed that anger privately to the Watcher while publicly pretending to accept Castol's protests of innocence, b) never allows for any attempt to explain oneself or suggest a route of mutual benefit, suggesting that her position is not a calculated one, and c) commits her own forces (and person) to oppose the Vailians, rather than doing the simple and obvious route (and what, in an alternate timeline, is her plan) of siccing the RDC against the Vailians and doing her work for her. I can only guess that we are supposed to conclude that the realization that the Watcher did this at Castol's behest, rather than hers, so angers her that she loses sight of reason.
  
  And it's not really a criticism of the writing that Onekaza is a flawed character, that her viewpoint has biases and hypocrisies and so forth. On the contrary, she feels very realistic in that regard. It's just that those flaws make her very hard to work with for anyone who isn't a Huana nationalist.

[Keltest]

Personally i tend to side with the RDC almost every playthough because, while they are imperialist conquerors, they are at least doing so with reasoning beyond a power grab, and are up front about how theyre there for their own benefit, unlike every other power besides the pirates.

[VoxRationis]

I can see an attraction to the RDC. Certainly, the Patton-esque hazanui bears admirable qualities, and there's a pleasant mixture of austerity and ornament in Rauataian architecture that draws me to that faction. I also have a soft spot for any faction whose primary method of off-duties recreation is a strategy board game. Looking at them generally, though, I find them a little too imperialistic; the Vailians will gladly abuse unfair contracts and the like, but they ultimately want to trade rather than conquer, whereas the RDC makes a point of how it's always a hair's breadth from just conducting all diplomacy via gunpowder.

I think that's one of the things that I like about this game. Every faction has these attractive factors (whether moral, pragmatic, or aesthetic) as well as deep flaws that can easily turn someone away if they don't have some predisposition to the faction for one reason or another. It's very easy to play a partisan, an adrift ethical outsider trying to find the least bad option available, an utterly disloyal mercenary willing to sell themselves to the highest bidder, or a lone wolf.

Changing the subject: I really, really hate the music that plays in the level up screens. I find it both bland and obtrusive at the same time, and I've gotten to the point where I will go to the settings menu and turn the music off, then play other music on YouTube while I level characters up.

[Keltest]

I can see an attraction to the RDC. Certainly, the Patton-esque hazanui bears admirable qualities, and there's a pleasant mixture of austerity and ornament in Rauataian architecture that draws me to that faction. I also have a soft spot for any faction whose primary method of off-duties recreation is a strategy board game. Looking at them generally, though, I find them a little too imperialistic; the Vailians will gladly abuse unfair contracts and the like, but they ultimately want to trade rather than conquer, whereas the RDC makes a point of how it's always a hair's breadth from just conducting all diplomacy via gunpowder.

I think that's one of the things that I like about this game. Every faction has these attractive factors (whether moral, pragmatic, or aesthetic) as well as deep flaws that can easily turn someone away if they don't have some predisposition to the faction for one reason or another. It's very easy to play a partisan, an adrift ethical outsider trying to find the least bad option available, an utterly disloyal mercenary willing to sell themselves to the highest bidder, or a lone wolf.

Changing the subject: I really, really hate the music that plays in the level up screens. I find it both bland and obtrusive at the same time, and I've gotten to the point where I will go to the settings menu and turn the music off, then play other music on YouTube while I level characters up.

Personally ive found that all of the factions are interested in conquest, some are just better at lying about it. Even the Kahanga are specifically intent on military conquest of the deadfire to unite the Huana and drive out the RDC, VTC and Principi. So from that angle, the RDC is both more honest with us and probably has the most legitimate motives for it beyond simple greed.

[Morty]

The fact that the Rauataians outright ask you to kill Onekaza if you side with them makes me rather iffy about the prospect. It's easy to side with the Huana because they're a culture beset by people wishing to exploit them in some way or the other, but it's certainly true that their ruling family has their share of problems. All in all, the independent option is looking fairly tempting sometimes.

[Keltest]

Spoiler: Epilogue spoilers

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The independent option is the super bad ending. All four factions duke it out and nobody really comes out on top. Its full on open warfare in the deadfire with all factions at full strength because you never tipped the balance.

As for the queen, i would have felt significantly worse about killing her had she not just a short moment ago declared that only the Huana were allowed to help us deal with this problem, and that she would actively attack anybody else who wanted to try and stop Eothas. Even ignoring all of the other issues with the Huana government, that kind of stance places her pretty firmly in the "too dumb to live" category for me.

[Morty]

Spoiler: Epilogue spoilers

Show

The independent option is the super bad ending. All four factions duke it out and nobody really comes out on top. Its full on open warfare in the deadfire with all factions at full strength because you never tipped the balance.

As for the queen, i would have felt significantly worse about killing her had she not just a short moment ago declared that only the Huana were allowed to help us deal with this problem, and that she would actively attack anybody else who wanted to try and stop Eothas. Even ignoring all of the other issues with the Huana government, that kind of stance places her pretty firmly in the "too dumb to live" category for me.

Spoiler: Independent ending

Show

Yes, the independent option is bad for the archipelago as a whole, but it's still tempting in the sense of its not being my character's job to fix the political situation they stumbled upon while chasing Eothas.

[Taevyr]

Yeah, my "self-expy" playthrough quickly realized that the faction choice wouldn't be quite as clear-cut as in most games. Reminded me of Tyranny, where each of the 4 choices shows its very ugly head sooner or later.

• Pirates: actually pretty clear. They're fun, but I'm not giving'em the reins over the region. Surprisingly, my second character went with Furrante and got quite a good ending overall.
• VTC: Animancy is one of the most awesome fantasy sciences ever, but they're still backed by a company grinding down part of the reincarnation mechanism to make coin through soul revitalizers and stuff. Problematic soul revitalizers, as apparently consuming raw soul essense that way isn't good for your psyche. (according to some in-game lore whose origin I unfortunately can't remember )
  
  Now who would've expected that, right?
  
  As such, I happily helped the scientists with their experiments, but I can't willingly support the company that they're, unfortunately, bound to .

Which..... left me with two imperialistic nations wanting to impose their will on the Deadfire. Yay.

In the end, I would've likely gone with Onekaza if it hadn't been for that stupid, ridiculous, boneheaded announcement that she wouldn't allow any outsider to set foot on Ukaizo in order to stop Eothas. That... easily settled the issue for me. Still wish you could get rid of Atsura though, darn brilliant snake.


Overall, Obsidian did an excellent job with the factions: all of'em are a great variation of greatness and utter awfulness, and it actually makes the independent/pirate choice an attractive option for people other than the "I do what I want" group. Unfortunately, the integration with the "god plot" was rather messy, and I can definitely understand why many dislike the ending because of that.