Tyranny

Is it me or is Obsidian really bad at explaining who or what a Fatebinder is supposed to be and what his actual position within the empire is?

I've unlocked the second spire and made it over to Lethian's Crossing now and I am still struggling to play the role I'm given. I genuinely don't understand how I relate to the archons in terms of political power, or even their soliders for that matter. Not even foot-soldiers show any kind of respect towards you and the lore description of Fatebinders makes them seem more like intermediaries than law-enforcers. Which is stupid considering how many vital decisions you get to make in the game. Why would anyone ask some arbitrator to make final decisions on a military strategy?

Also how are you supposed to enforce the law when you are not even given basic guidelines of what the law is? When you resolve a dispute between factions you listen to their grievances and make a decision but the game doesn't seem to give you any prime directive you could consult or at least actively ignore if that is what you want.

Like IS IT ME or did anyone else feel like they're just stumbling along the main story here?

Nope, I'm with you. Disappointing game.

Haven't played but a similar thing happened to Pillars of Eternity

They try to make their deep weird lore but they don't bother explaining shit properly.

Your post is on point. I expected cringy writing when I was starting the game, but I was not prepared for the lore to be so unconsistent.
I wish that crpgs would go back to the time when they were sharing lore with tabletop rpgs.

the writing in general is trash in this game

same with POE and F:NV

>Like IS IT ME or did anyone else feel like they're just stumbling along the main story here?

I barely got 2 hours in before I dropped it for that reason. I had no attachment to anything.

Even PoE managed to hold me to the end.

It's all to make the player feel important and powerful. Just a poor excuse to dump all these world-changing decisions on your ass with no oversight.

You're just completely retarded. Kill yourself, trash.

Judging by Tunon's reactions, you define the law and bind their fates, but if and only if you have something to act upon. So absolutely no guidelines at all. Fuck.

Josh Sawyer you are a cuck

YOU'RE THE LAW, dumdum.

Nope, not just you.

Personally I also hate the way they railed you based on your decisions. Not even proper explanation or scene, just limiting your character's dialogue choices and responses. So you don't even know if things can be different if you had done something differently.

It's like "eh, what, why? ok..." all the way to the end.

You're basically Judge Dredd while also being utilised as a military asset. All are military assets under kyros one way or another, especially if you have an archon.

I got the spirit of the law pretty easy, the gist of the overlord is they worry about the big picture and do no give a shit about the small stuff leaving the subjects to manage themselves with only a few loose guidelines. It's Tunon who worries about that shit.

The spires make the plot linear in several regards since you end up pissing people off whether you enjoy being a subject of the overlord or not, i went for a loyalist run and still managed to go rogue somehow, i just wanted to smite the guilty.

Game is on hold for me, pretty much all encounters ends up in blood shed for me. Game doesn't even allow you to try friendly solution, either no option for it or other side just doesn't listen.

>Is it me or is Obsidian really bad at explaining who or what a Fatebinder is supposed to be and what his actual position within the empire is?

Underling to Tunon, Archon of justice. His fatebinders serve to enforce Kyros' laws across the lands. You are sent at the beginning to proclaim an edict and to work towards its resolution of possible. As the proclaimer of the edict you have more say in the matters at hand than normal fatebinders. You are still lower than the archon of war/chaos but you carry the court's voice and you carry the weight of Tunon with you.

>Also how are you supposed to enforce the law when you are not even given basic guidelines of what the law is?

As a spellcaster with high lore I often had special dialogue choices explaining the laws and how they were supposed to be followed. I don't know how you would know without those options. Seems like a fairly large flaw if the other special dialogues don't give you any background, but I haven't seen them.

The game literally cock blacks you out of 100 percenting it, you can only liberate 2 towers and your only get 1 edicts, the other 3 are literally DLC bait

>i went for a loyalist run and still managed to go rogue somehow, i just wanted to smite the guilty.

Same. I just wanted to uphold the courts law and ending up with everyone bowing or wanting to kill me.

I got all five my first play through. You can guess the patterns fairly easy if you look at the charcoal drawings. They have a faded picture of the complete thing. Or just cheat at look it up online.

The reason why the lore behind Kyros' law is so ambiguous is explained many time though not so clearly that even a retard gets it. It's pretty simple: you are supposed to determine what the law is and how it is reinforced. You are also the one that determines the role of a fatebinder as you play the game. Tunon gives a speech about it when you first meet him. Sometrhing about actions having consequences and ruling either with force or empathy.

It's this whole "create your own way" thing. Pretty refreshing really in these times of spoon fed bullshit.

Avellone was busy with Numenera, so tyrany was written by people who usually mop floors in Obsidian studio.

The voices of nerat also speaks to your mind with the cane, a lot of the lore is bled in via highlights in the dialogue and special choices.
There was also the sages ink which tells you a few truths if you can infer them correctly.

All in all not a bad game considering i pirated it.

You are forced to pick one of two sides in prologue, but then you have a bit more freedom.

What happens in the end if you don't have all spires?

>You are forced to pick one of two sides in prologue, but then you have a bit more freedom.
Not him, but I'm really turned off for siding with the Disfavored and it removes any chance of resolving things with the Sages peacefully, even when you've been positive with and helped all the previous sages. Lantry doesn't even give any shit.
It doesn't even give a proper narration, just suddenly you met with the Sages leader all friendly and out of the blue your response can only be:
>1.) Please die.
>2.) I will kill you all.

That's not refreshing at all because RPGs never spoonfeed you shit. On the contrary they go for this exact "do whatever you please" approach most of the time only in Tyranny you are supposed to work it in what is supposed to be a strict hierarchy. All I'm getting from your argument is that Tyranny is trying to have its cake and eat it too.

Pillars of Eternity was much, much, much better. What happened?

Based on the start and then the following introduction to the game it's pretty clear you're like judge dredd but as a fantasy warlord/officer

The game would have been much better if it let you roleplay more as a judge and executioner who roamed the land looking for injustice against the great bad overlord and dishing out punishment in whichever way you deemed fit (Full lawful, pragmatic, evil for the sake of being evil, greedy and self-absorbed, etc)

That's the concept that sold me on the game. But then you play it and you're in the middle of an army making huge decisions and then you're the chosen one and then you're too powerful and an Archon. You don't even feel like any of these things because you're still basically an errand boy for every other NPC. They put in way too much shit in there and it diluted what could have been a really cool game otherwise.

Also, almost every single character sucks and is either badly written or not relatable. Lantry is the one dude that I actually enjoyed being in the company of.

You can count me in, as well. I tried roleplaying as someone that was loyal to Kyros and was unable to.

>All of these people admitting they don't give a shit about Kyros market or the forbidden knowledge
>Can't deliver them justice, I have to either ignore them or actually buddy up with them

>Forced to cast an edict to defend a fucking tower, as if I gave a shit about the base rather than Kyros law

Not to mention that it starts feeling like every dialogue option has you not giving a shit about your overlord halfway through the game. They really railroad you heavily.

Yep, I would have actually liked the game way more if it had some kind of law book and you could follow the law or ignore it and piss Tunon off. It would still give you freedom to do whatever you wanted, but there would be a right way to act if you wanted to go full lawful Fatebinder, instead of this completely free option. Tunon doesn't give a shit about what you do as long as you don't ask for bribes.

...

T R A N N Y

Different team. Josh Sawyer and his guys are working on Pillars of Eternity 2, although that game could also end up being shit, especially from a writing standpoint, since the three best writers that contributed to the first Pillars are all gone.

With that said, Josh Sawyer has been dropping some small things about it on his twitter. For example, I'm pretty sure that the third pic of this image is new and you can clearly see Edér fighting in a ship. This goes in line with the theory that the game happens in the Vailian Republics (the isles of the Italian black people)

Lethian's Crossing was the best area of the game. Comfy, beautiful and fun to explore and talk through. The rest of the game is all dungeons and battlefields, which is no fun at all.

Pillars of Eternity got this right, there were so many fucking good comfy areas.

>Edér is back
I liked the companions from the first game but I was hoping they wouldn't go Baldur's Gate 2 on us and have all new companions instead. What about their endings? What if I sacrificed one of them to Skaen? I FUCKING KILLED IMOEN, GOD DAMN IT!

>cast a teeny tiny storm around the spire to ward off the invading peasantry with their silly sticks, implying they can even get up here i got a doorman bitch.
>Damn son, Kyros gon' be mad yo.
>b-but i did it for Kyros's glory!

It pained me as well to see tunon disregard all the evidence i gathered against nerat (though i had way more on ashe, but it was allied for smiting efficiency and under the will of Kyros they were the lesser offender).
Fucker then tries to call me out on my blatant lawbreaking by entering the oldwalls all the time, guilty as fuck, wasn't my idea.
I should have been cast into the pit but by that point it was a deathmatch so i just ace attorneyed my way out of it.

He's not big on technicalities either. Odd because those are the best kind of right.

Actually I was able rationalize my taking bribes saying that I went with the proper justice despite them paying me, it was great.

Tunon accepted all evidence I had against Voices of Nerat and even had Bladen Mark offer up to kill him. I told him I'd do it myself just to go there, though.
He also accepted that I was justified in going to the Oldwalls.

>i went for a loyalist run and still managed to go rogue somehow, i just wanted to smite the guilty.
Same here, I hope they include that if they make an expansion.
>The voices of nerat also speaks to your mind with the cane
That one was fucking neat when I first saw that manipulations aside, the guy gives out tips from time to time

Anyone sided with Nerat? Disfavored are pretty cool guys, does Scarlet Chorus have any redeeming qualities or all of them are edgy dumbfucks?

>Finally a game where you don't play as a good guy
>Obsidian surely won't drop the ball
>You're an anti-hero and in the end you can't actually side with the dark you've been serving

So when's the dlc with the ending coming out? I really wanna play this but they can suck my dick if it's really not finished

Why is this even allowed wtf

>Scarlet Chorus have any redeeming qualities or all of them are edgy dumbfucks?
Haven't finished my SC route yet, but so far, yeah they're edgy fucks and the Archon of Shadow hates my guts in my first meeting with him. Goddammit Voice of Nerat.

There are two missing acts.

>dat feel when both Inquisition and Tyranny failed in getting me what I want

Thank fuck for Inquisitor, I guess.

I think they're definitely saving it for the sequel. I mean, if Paradox wants a sequel because they own Tyranny wholesale.

>does Scarlet Chorus have any redeeming qualities or all of them are edgy dumbfucks?

Not really. You do discover some cool shit about Voices of Nerat if you go with SC, but that's about it.

ending really spits in the face of the entire game based on reactivity and your choices

>not telling all three fractions to fuck off
>not aligning with Bleden Mark

Pretty disappointed with the way they executed the concept. I was looking forward to being some sort of mid level ruler in an occupation who needs to gain both the fear and respect of the populace under you, instead you're more of a soldier who barely interacts with the populace at all.

The one improvement over Pillars is that important names are hilighted in the dialogue, and you can mouse over them for a quick recap.

That's literally it. Nothing else is better, and PoE was a 7/10 game at best.

Obsidian are exposed as frauds who made one good game (KOTOR2) and got a free pass on one game (New Vegas) because it came on the heels of an even less impressive game.

Being a ruler figure never works in RPGs because it ties you down to a place and designers always want to keep you moving to advance the story. Spire was more or less useless in the game and once I unlocked it I only traveled back for upgrades until I gave up on that. But yeah, with in-depth reputation Tyranny had it felt like a waste they didn't do something grand scale with the concept.

Siding with the Disfavored is the single worst thing you can do in the game.
The entire Act 2 is you sucking Ashe's dick for more errands to run and your only option is purging everything in sight, every single time. You're simply not allowed ANY peaceful solutions. Fuck, you're not even allowed any choices. It's railroading to the max.

>You're simply not allowed ANY peaceful solutions.
You can lawyer your way out of baby murder by having the mother abdicate the regency on behalf of her child.

No it does not, you piece of shit. You can unlock all spires regardless of where you go. All 5 edicts are unlockable only for neutral route. For any other route you may unlock only up to 4.
Eat cock for making me defend obsidian.

Oh yeah, there's one situation. Forgot about that.
Otherwise, you're forced to murder everyone in your way the moment you meet them. Brotherhood? Dead on the bridge. Beastmen? Dead. Sages? Yup.
You don't even get a "[Betray Alliance] Fuck this shit, I'm not helping you" option when they decide to blight Azure for all eternity. For fuck's sake, you'd expect the ability to make a choice in a matter so big.

I think a LOT of your Beastmen interaction depends on A) how you treat Farts-in-Shadows and B) if you're a Hunter background. Latter apparently gets you two dozen+ specific dialog options for Beastman conversations.

Hey a tyranny thread. I'm loving the game but I guess its because the setting and theme appeal to me hardcore. I always have questions about this game that I can't get answers to.

Without spoiling me hard:

Can verse be made not edgy? I wanted to kill her but Barik
Can I get Bariks armour off?
Can you actually rebel or do you just sort of support no party and put the people first?

From what I understand Barik's armor can't be removed.
I'm not sure about putting the people first, but by act 3 you'll see what Kyros thinks of what you've become in the tiers.

Is act three the final act?

The whole "Play as the evil guys!" thing seems for moot when Disfavoured and Chorus are pretty much good guys and bad guys respectively

You can feed him to Nerat thus removing his armor with his dead body.

Cheeky cunt

A fatebinder is essentially a judge. Like judges in real life they are generally considered high status people.
The laws are pretty vague, mainly because the game is situated on the mostly untamed fringes of the empire and in actual war zones. You're expected to be fair and consistent with your judgements but that's about it.
I'd say the overarching concept for the game is one of the best in the genre but yes, analyzing it in much more depth than that brings up some pretty patchy writing.

but the disfavoured are fantasy nazis

CAN I FUCK VERSE OR SIRIN

OBSIDIAN PLZ

We'll always have overlord 1 & 2 where being evil means you're still the whipping boy, but at least they're scared of you.

Reminds me of black & white where it was simply uneconomical to treat your villagers like shit, you needed those little bastards in great numbers to expand your influence.
Also meant fireballing the heathens one village over was not good for future expansion unless you wanted to repopulate from scratch.

>is Obsidian really bad at explaining who or what a Fatebinder is supposed to be

They're magistrates. I thought that was pretty fucking clear, what with the dispensation of justice and shit.

>Play as the evil guys!"

That was never the tagline, though. It was simply "sometimes, evil wins". This is also where a lot of complaining about the game not letting you to be completely evil comes from.

>tfw the ink warned you of this
>tfw you knew they would never call you brother.

What? No, they're not. They just stick to their families.

I was under the impression I would get the option to really half ass my assistance during that.
Like when you need to realign the staffs or whatever when dealing with cairn i just wanted to leave one out and tell them i got it to fudge the whole thing, nope.
Or lying about the consent and saying it wasn't given.

> Also how are you supposed to enforce the law when you are not even given basic guidelines of what the law is?

You are thinking about it from a 21st century view of there being one single "law" - the game is set around the end of the Bronze age, when most IRL cultures did not have a written, standard code that applied uniformly to everyone. Being the judge, jury, and executioner makes sense in Tyranny's world.

You're the good guy

fucking awful game

It plays okay providing you never wanted to serve Kyros to begin with.
Unfortunately I believed in the overlords plans for conquest and am sad I'm going to have to fuckup their puny armies sent to subdue this humble servant.

The disfavored favor killing over anything when it comes to dealing with things. If you go with the Chorus the word "mercy" is mentioned few times. But neither are black and white when it comes to morality, morality being all subjective 'n' shit. There's no evil, there is no good. There's just assholes with different opinions.

What... No god dammit. Why.

21st century law consists of a billion individual laws though, not a single big one. I'd be fine with being given something like the prime directive in Star Trek. Something that defines whatever the fuck this conquest and the culture of Kyros empire is supposed to be about aside from "fear Kyros and do whatever the overlord says".

Glad to know I'm not the only one who noticed this. There has been many decisions that imply what your basic guidelines are with putting [Lie] in front of a decision. But I still have no idea what rigths Disfavorable and Chorus have and what rules I'm supposed to enforce. Those two factions handle situations completely differently and when you have to choose between one of the two, it's always favoritism instead of enforcing rules.

I've just gone with the explanation that someone fucked up royally by splitting army into two so different factions and Fatebinders are sent to whip them into action so they can get shit done.

>it's always favoritism instead of enforcing rules.
THIS

Tell me now I'd rather have this one detailed spoiled.

Am I forced to betray Kyros'? Are you actually the good guy all along? Save me the time of playing.

Yes, no matter what you do you will inevitably end up against Kyros.

You can ask (atleast from Nerat if you side with the Chorus) what are the base tenets the army abides by.

Could we not have one fucking game... Fuck you Obsidian.

You're forced to betray your loyalty but everything is still according to plan.
Only sadness and Edict Lite™ await the loyal.
Good and evil doesn't really work here, you have an overlord on a unification conquest looking to clean house after a job well done and all are it's playthings, what seems like a deviation from the plan is infact, the actual plan.

Well, you don't actually betray him, he just decides to get rid of you because power and shit. You don't have to be the good guy.

Did anyone else really not give a shit about the combat?
I couldn't stand it, cranked it to casual I don't give a fuck. Twas boring.

That game is a clunky pile of dog shit.

There's zero enemy variety, no actual encounter design and the combat system itself boils down to watching cooldowns, I turned it down to easy in Act 2 just to get through it faster.
The speed up button is a godsend, discovering it was the best thing ever.

To be perfectly clear Kyros is against you. She's the one declaring the second edict and sending another army. If there ever is an expansion or DLC I'd imagine you could either discuss this Kyros or at least prove she was the aggressor and you did everything in her name etc.

>you did everything in her name
You didn't die in >her name

Why are shitty "RPGs" like these even being made? The combat is shit, the party customization and itemization is shit, the skills are shit, the quests are shit, the writing is shit, it's basically a really boring and shitty CYOA.

Why don't they just turn the genre into actual CYOAs, so people can just click and watch pretty pictures and feel like they've accomplished something?

Same here, I understand exactly where you're coming from user. I kind of like the game, or at least I really want to but things like this are just holding it back. Also the story just isn't very interesting. Some of your companions are okay, I like Sirin but thats just because shes a 15 year old white girl I get to be mean to, Landrey is alright but everyone else, well kinda sucks.

I do not feel important or respected at all as a Fatebinder and you nailed it on the head with how you explained it.

I am not sure if I am going to continue the game or not, I pirated it but so I have no real obligation to finish it but I kind of still would like to see it the whole way through. Even if it is to just finally meet Kyros.

Also I think this is the first thread I have seen where people arent just complaining about the weird gender stuff and "equality" in the game.

I don't want to be the bad guy either. I want to be the slightly good guy who believes in something bigger than himself. Jesus fuck.

This just took the wind out of my sails. I'm thinking of restarting and just playing a wild good guy buy the super limited class shit is harsh.

I like how they basically just split up a mage class and a warrior class and called it a day.

Can you go a little deeper as to why its bad? I agree with you but I want to explore exactly what about the writing is bad or why its not good. It just feels very flat to me and uninspired.

It suffers from the exact same shit as Pillars did, it's a massive infodump about bullshit highschool-tier "I JUST READ LOTR AND I MUST BUILD MY FANTASY WORLD BECAUSE AUTISM" events and people that don't really mean anything.

To be honest, Planetscape Tournament suffered from the same shit, but at least it dealt with the human condition, stuff that people can relate too, you know, "deep shit man", I played this fucking bullshit until I got to the second pillar and I don't give a shit about anyone in it and it didn't raise one single philosophical question or anything yet.

>speed up button

Wait what.

>Even if it is to just finally meet Kyros.
You can guess what is behind the spoiler, but you don't meet him\her

Just press the Num + button user.

God fucking damn it....