Though i consistently dislike Obsidians game always having the caveat of "small-scale", this game is truly great. This might be my first real time RPG in years (maybe ever) so i completed it on easy mode, which i dont think impacted my experience
The Story: The story, unsurprising to fans of Obsidian is really, REALLY good. The writing kept me engaged at all times, and i looked forward to the dialoug encounters way more than i did combat encounters (to no fault of the combat, might i add). The game feels very much like a court drama and the storybeats felt very much like they were only brought forth by my actions, instead of the game having a "right" storyline. This did make the experience very... non-videogamey? like [spoiler] You are not marching on Kyros at the end of it, and neither have you solved all the worlds problems through an epic battle, [/spoiler] , instead, every storybeat feels delightfully messy, like I got into this ♥♥♥♥, now i gotta navigate it myself. Im definitely playing the game again at some point to try out the different paths, all of which i suspect have been just as well thought out as the path i ended on
The Combat: The Combat is solid. I didnt ever feel like i got the hang of it though. A lot of enemies would hit harder and faster than my party, and make some encounters spike in difficulty by a lot. BUT this is my first time with real time combat done like this, and i suspect i might have understood the whole thing if the game was a little longer (but i do think the game is just the right length as it is). The whole thing pops off, once you discover artifacts, the only weapons in the game that arent just stat-sticks. They get introduced a little late into the experience if you ask me, but its a lot of fun hunting for these weird abilities and objects when they appeare.
The Roleplaying: The game sports an impressive background system, with a cool graphic opening, wherin you pick some past exploits that heavily influence your character's renown when you get to the real game, which is really cool and makes you feel like you are a part of the world. This system of your actions mattering works really well throughout the entire game. The only two real complaints i have about the roleplaying (and the game in general) is the fact that your companions dont say a whole lot, and they can be hard to recruit (Sirin is, like, just in a house?) and for some reason, i never came across a skillcheck i didnt have enough stats for... dont know why this happend tho, but it felt a little strange to be able to do every skillcheck in an RPG.
Lastly, its stupid how only Lantry can give you the healing sigil, i only found it shortly before my last boss... Why is it like this? i dont know, but the game is still phenomenal!
9/10
