Spoilers: Path of Love Completed

@Lum the Mad

Overall some good stuff here. I otherwise enjoyed this quest line but for the parts I mentioned in other feedback threads, and now this...

Spoiler

1. Way too many mobs running around in Malice to really enjoy it. I'm fine with the number of mobs in general, but once I kill them, don't make them respawn - ever. It's only taking away from the scene. The scene btw is fantastic looking! But the average player won't be able to appreciate that when they're running for their lives. Please either slow the respawn rate WAAAAAYYYY DOWN or stop re-spawning completely.

This goes for Midras too. (It's a PVP area so just remove all the resources and let players be the bad guys there) That way no farming exploits and when you're not being attacked by other players you can actually enjoy the view!

2. Malice is a farming paradise. There's all kinds of resources there that I'm sure are being farmed to death by a number of players. Please stop the exploit madness and stop things from respawning (including resources).

3. In Malice, the three gem thing is a horrible idea. Let me tell you how that little experience went for me.

A. Enter Malice, kill everything, methodically go through all the rooms, saving the green gas corridor for last because it obviously looked important.

B. Get to the green gas, find the letter explaining that I need to get 3 gems to remove the barrier. Great I think, this was so much (not) fun before when I did it in Eceter Crag Mines. But ok, after killing everything and getting this far without ever seeing a single gem, I'll go on a scavenger hunt to "retrace my steps" and see what I can find.

Without any other clues, I'm looking in boxes, in coffins, and all through this area (which is rather large) without any luck. I finally break down and ask people in discord chat if they know where these gems are.

"I just finished the quest this morning" one person said. "And the gems are on glowing skeletons."

Wonderful, I think. There's no way I missed glowing skeletons, so there must be a bug. A-yep. The skeletons with the gems don't glow until AFTER you remove the gems from them. They weren't easy to find when they weren't glowing, but that's really besides the point.

This is a stupid task that should be removed completely. Because if the skeletons are glowing correctly, you'll see them, and you'll get the gems. Which means you don't need to read the note. If the gems are not glowing correctly then the note doesn't help you and you're screwed because there's a bug. It's really a pointless ask of the players.

4. The dialogue from the NPC's was generally fine, but Samuel kept following me in the Crypt of the Avatar even after he and I said our farewells. There's also still a Samuel call in my inventory that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with. I've finished the love quest and so it would seem that my time with Samuel is finally at an end, yet I guess I can call this 4700 hit point tank to my side whenever I need to?

5. The Crypt of the Avatar doesn't appear to have a second exit. So while Samuel is clinging on to me and saying farewell at the same time, I'm looking everywhere for the doorway home/out. I didn't find it and instead just quit the game and logged back in to the overworld map. If the only way out is back the way I came, you might consider having Samuel tell you that instead of just saying farewell. You might also consider how much fun it's going to be to fight the same exact things over again on your way out. Spoiler: it's not going to be fun unless you're farming them for loot.

6. I found this quest line to be solid in some areas. The bugs/design choices (above) interrupted some of the good feelings for me though.

I guess my overall feedback would be that it didn't seem like I was making any choices in this quest line. I freed Sequanna (I'm not sure if I had another option to not free her though because whenever I clicked on air crackling it all just kind of happened). So how as a player can I feel satisfied that what I did, my choices, matter? I don't think in this case I can. Maybe that's because I didn't read closely enough and missed my opportunity to keep her locked up? (though I don't have any idea why someone would do that) Or maybe so far this is just a very linear path where the decisions are all made for you. If that's the case, booooooo.

 

#1. I gave my alt 3 mil exp, did blades, water and life magic with that exp, and was able to kill all of malice without a problem. I do believe 3 mil exp is well below average.
What farming exploits? If there really is some kind of mat gathering exploit, you should tell the devs.
#2. Malice kinda sucks for farming mats and I hardly ever see anyone there on my friends list.
#3. I think, the skeles that have the gem on them have a piece of headgear on. It tells you you need things to cross the barrier, and it really only takes a few minutes to find them.
#4. I am pretty sure you can only use it in areas samuel is already in.
#5. The secondary exit is in sarcophagus near the entrance.
#6. I agree with you on this point. Ever since FF7 I have noticed many rpg type games really just have a strait forward path with some side quests, and dont really give other options. Only thing you really had choice that would effect something was the way you answered some of arises, tifa's and yuffies quesstions and see who you ended up going on a date with. I cant think of the name of the game for super nintendo, but it had 74 different endings depending on many of the choices you made in the game, that was kewl.

 

Is this puzzle thing new? Cause I completed this quest line 4 times without ever knowing about it.

 

Spoiler

Yes a second barrier was put up closer to the first Samuel. So you talk with Jim, break a barrier, do anapa, and the a second barrier, etc.

 

legend of the dragoon, and... Star Ocean ? had multiple endings based on who/what characters you decided to bring and what missions you decided to do. those were both PS 1.

 

Star ocean, that was it. AHH yes maybe it was ps1, dam that was a long time ago.

 

@Lum the Mad

Spoiler

I forgot to mention that when Sequanna's chains are broken, my point of view was on Samuel. So I missed the cool animations that you guys worked so hard to make. If possible you should try to make the character face towards Sequanna when talking with Samuel.

 

Legend of Dragoon has a single ending. Chrono Trigger/Cross have a bunch of endings depending on when you kill Lavos. Trigger was SNES (later packaged with FF Anthology on PS1) and Cross was PS1.

 

Ah damnit, its been to long!

There was always the Single player game Dragon Age : Origins. I know its not as ancient, and altho the ending was.. close to the same, they really did real consequence to actions right i thought.

 

I always wanted top play dragon age, but never got the chance .

 

Honestly. Dragons Age : Origins remains one of my all time favorite games. And im not really a SP focused kinda guy.. but i probably played that game for 3 months straight, multiple characters all doing dif paths.

The story, the dialogue, the combat, .. its one of those well done games that i would play right now (just from talking about it) if i wasnt in middle of Fallout 4.

Dragons Age : Origins.
Did not like the 3rd or whatever the 3rd was that came out.. turned it a little to hack and slashy for me.

But that game i cannot reccomend enough.

 

I am looking forward to Samael helping out in Malice.

 

May the shwartz be with you.

 

This is a "forced solo" area, so there is no reason for respawns without a good story reason for it. I would argue the same for Crypt of the Avatar. All respawns do is add a grind area for those who like to grind. (Though not necessarily a good grind area.) I understand the game tech would make it difficult to save the empty status, even for a solo-only area (though my understanding is that offline is intended to be able to save the status of some defeated areas) and that the scene could get a force-reload exploit, but that's a problem that is already handled well enough by delayed scene destruction.

Good point. And it's not without precedent to stop resource respawns in forced solo and party-only areas, encounters have been that way for a long time. It also works with Chris's desire to not have unguarded resource spawns, if neither mobs nor resources respawn in a scene, even with forced reload.

The exit to the underground passage? It's semi-hidden, but in plain sight, already spoiled in this thread.

So if you came in from the underground passage, you magically appear in the room with the ladder up to the ruins, even though you really entered through a hidden passage down the hall that closed itself and wiped your memory of going through it! Yeah, okay, it's dumb and the scene should at least be set up with it already open and you in front of it if you came in that way.