Source
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Disclaimer
This material is based on the 0.4.0 - 0.4.2a version of the game, available to those who supported the Owlcat Games project during the crowdfunding campaign in March-February of this year.
At the request of the studio representatives - and the common sense of the author himself - spoilers in the review were kept to a minimum. However, the reader should keep in mind that in order to demonstrate the changes in atmosphere and narrative, I will touch on the lore of the setting, the stories of some of the characters, the backstory, and the prologue of an unreleased game. This review also presents screenshots of dialogues that are not important for the main plot.
Just in case, I remind you that the project is at the early stage of production, which is why many of the elements described in the article are only a framework for future mechanics and not their final embodiment.
Taking this opportunity, I express my gratitude to the Owlcat Games studio, as well as the administration of their official VK-group for their help in preparing this work.
Now let's get started.
Three pillars of evil from the Outer Planes: neutral daimon, law-abiding devil and chaotic demon.
The ancient lands of Sarcoris were drowned in fire and blood when Areelu Vorlesh, a scientist convicted of practicing forbidden sorcery, opened a portal to the most terrifying corner of the universe. Countless hordes of demons, led by the monstrous Baphomet and Deskari, poured into Golarion, tearing apart those who dared to resist them and poisoning the very essence of the material plane with the evil and chaos of the Abyss that gave birth to them. Where the half-wild Sarcoris once lay, now the body of Golarion is disfigured by the enormous Worldwound.
However, in the days of great disasters, it becomes ordinary to unite before the face of a common threat. The neighboring countries of Sarcoris chose not to wait for a repeat of his fate. Led by the church of the goddess Iomedae, hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all over the world have come together to fight the greatest threat to the world since the day of the Earthfall and drive the demons back into their realm of destruction and vice.
So the First Crusade began!
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And the Second followed it...
And the Third...
And the Fourth...
A hundred years have passed since the discovery of the Worlwound, and every day the chances that this nightmare will end in victory are sinking deeper into darkness. Only the World Stones - divine obelisks that prevent the Worldwound from growing - give mortals an elusive hope that the threat will at least be contained.
But the Stone is a stone. It is washed out with water and crumbles from strong blows. And what crumbles can be broken.
The story of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous begins on the day when a band of demons and cultists personally led by Lord Deskari make a surprise attack on Kenabres and severely damage one of the World Stones.
Deskari, Lord of the Locust, and Herald of the Apocalypse.
Many defenders perish, demon-worshipping spies plunge Kenabres into chaos and anarchy, and the blow of the scythe of Deskari, which killed the heroic dragon Terendelev, splits the city to deep caves, where the descendants of the first crusaders, distorted by the Abyss, hide from light and human eyes.
And it is there the future commander of the Fifth Crusade finds incredible strength.
When it comes to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, it's impossible not to compare it to Owlcat' first game. Pathfinder: Kingmaker at one time extremely disappointed the audience with a poor state at the time of release, but over time it still managed to earn well-deserved love and recognition.
This was largely due to the developers' sincere love for the original and their offspring, as well as the incredible hard work with which they were fixing bugs for a long time and adding more and more content to the game due to paid and free updates. When their work was completed, Kingmaker was regarded by some as one of the best CRPGs ever made.
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When the sequel's Kickstarter campaign was announced, money poured into Owlcat Games, making Wrath of the Righteous the most successful project on the site in the Russian market segment.
I, like a number of others who supported the project, got access to the alpha testing of the game and now I hurry to share with you what Owlcat plans to please players with in 2021.
First, let's talk about the changes in the basic gameplay, and then move on to the most important innovations.
\Scene of battle, beware old interface])
The first thing that catches your eye is the correction of the mistakes of the first part.
Kingmaker, aside from bugs, was heavily criticized for three kind of things: poor graphics, harsh ruthlessness towards newcomers, and too high defenses of enemies, which led to the notorious "miss-miss-miss-miss".
These moments were more or less corrected and ironed out in the sequel.
The graphics have been significantly improved in comparison to the first game. Characters, weapons, and armor have noticeably increased in detail, and although their level (partly due to the peculiarities of the art design and budget) is inferior to the second Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2, the new models of heroes in the inventory window look relatively passable and quite capable to please the eye.
\New inventory interface])
Another thing is a smart tutorial, which describes in great detail the basic game mechanics and is able to accompany the player throughout the entire game if they so wish. Owlcat is still working on this feature, promising even a character builds planning help, but this is a question for future versions, as for now let's move on.
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The problem of constant misses, at first glance, was also solved. I passed alpha in equal proportions on "easy" and "normal", switching to higher gears a couple of times. Apart from those latter times, only once I came across a mini-boss with extremely high armor class, but otherwise, there were no situations with numerous misses in the game.
However, correcting errors alone will not go far, and the authors, in order to follow the letter and spirit of the original PnP, chose the path of "expanding in breadth."
One of the things that many have come to love with Kingmaker is the enormous amount of variation when it comes to creating the protagonist. Race, subrace (for tieflings and aasimars), class, subclass archetype, heritage, gods, domains, animal companions, familiars...
At one time, there was a joke that those who did not refund Kingmaker due to bugs simply could not cope with character creation.
Well, in Wrath of the Righteous Owlcat Games decided to go even further, adding 3 new races with subraces, almost a dozen new classes, new archetypes to the old ones, and the ability to choose the homeland or the social class for the protagonist. And this is all only if you throw overboard the prestige classes, the ability to ride an animal companion, new traits and spells. In this regard, WotR has come closer than ever to a simulator of creating an RPG adventure.
\Ok, so here we see yet old character creation screen and certain new archetypes.)
Arcanist: Base, Brown-Fur Transmuter, Eldritch Font (I think, Unlettered Arcanist, White Mage)
Kineticist: Blood Kineticist, Overwhelming Soul
Rogue: Sylvan Trickster, Underground Chemist
Wizard: Exploiter Wizard\)
...Very...needed...gestald...mod...
As part of my preferences and gaming experience, I chose an Eldritch Scion aasimar girl (Magus archetype, half-warrior-half-sorcerer with the Heritage system) as the protagonist and set off to liberate the demon-occupied Kenabres.
The gameplay itself hasn't undergone any noticeable changes. This is the same familiar RTwP mechanic from the original, inspired by the Obsidian and old Bioware games. The player still controls a party of six heroes, hands out buffs and debuffs, delivers good and inflicts justice along the way, rests in the camp, passes skill checks, and collects loot scattered around the corners of the map.
\Another scene of battle])
There will be a turn-based mode, but in the alpha, it is yet missing.
However, if the core of the gameplay has not changed, the things around it have changed very, very much.
First, there is a rotating camera in the spirit of Expeditions: Viking and D:OS2, which is a useful innovation, allowing you to look at locations from different angles and look for twists hidden by developers.
However, its overall functional performance is slightly overshadowed by Owlcat's change in approach to map- and level-design of the sequel's locations. If Kingmaker was distinguished by relatively flat territories, then the lands of the World Plague are full of hills, mountains, lowlands, and other irregularities in the landscape, which, if the camera is incorrectly rotated, can lead to a large physical object blocking the party view.
\One]) \Two])
The same location in different angles.
In general, in the wilderness, this problem is minimal, but in large cities with their rows of walls and towers, the camera strives to stumble over a donjon. This is more of an annoyance than a real inconvenience, but it is still desirable to correct it for release.
However, it cannot be said that the level design in the sequel has become worse. Just the opposite. Now locations are actively crammed with secret passages, riddles, sub-locations and places for checking party skills. The epic assault on the city at the end of the second act can even be turned into Assassins Creed with jumping over the rooftops onto the city walls. To summarize, I would say that the new location design allows the player much more variability compared to Kingmaker.
\Example])
Nothing is forced, everything is allowed...
It is also worth noting the emergence of directed cut-scenes. In terms of their visuals, they look good and are distinguished by quite a decent staging and camera work. In general, I would call them functional, but it may be worth working on the graphics engine further.
\One])
Deskari attack on Kenabres is done well.
\Two])
Only graphic shortcomings and missing textures harm the epic, but those are expected from 0.4.0 alpha.
I did not notice any other important changes in the gameplay at its core. In general, it functions as before. However, none of this was the game's leading selling point.
The main innovation that Owlcat Games is presenting to the player is the Mythical Path system that migrated from the original PnP, designed to seriously diversify the leveling progression and storyline of Wrath of the Righteous.
What is it?
In simple terms, Mythic Paths are a parallel system of unique classes that endows the character with abilities that far exceed ordinary mortals’ reach.
The mythical hero is a character who wields the power to defeat powerful demon-balors with one single blow and single-handedly engage in a battle with the hordes of the Abyss without a chance for the latter to survive.
\)Mystic Power: you get 100% Fortified (immunity to crits/sneaks I presume, DR 10/-, 20 resistance to fire, water, and the rest. Your spell ignores ALL resistances and your enemies fail ALL saves. Attack spells add 100% divine damage and staggered/shaken (not sure about exact terms here) conditions.)
You also get 2 additional attacks per round and a +5 mythic bonus to attack. All your attacks ignore DR, automatically confirm crits and deal 100% additional divine damage. Your first attack of a round deal 4d6 additional damage in a line or cone depending on its type\)
Where these forces come from and what they are worth is one of the plot main mysteries.
In the Owlcat Games interpretation, the Mythic system represents a gradual transformation of the protagonist into one of the extraplanar creatures or powerful creatures of the material plane of the Pathfinder world, each of which is endowed with unique gameplay features.
In the alpha, a reduced number of mythics is available compared to what was promised for the release, but the list is already quite diverse:
Angel
Azata (akin to angels, chaotic-good extraplanar creatures, patrons of art and freedom)
Aeon (the ruthless embodiment of law, order, and balance in the universe)
Lich
Demon
and Trickster (an entity that rearranges reality “just for lulz”)
However, it will take some time before you get the opportunity to choose one of the above paths - after all, this part of leveling is timed to plot events. And, importantly, some of the paths can inadvertently be skipped.
\Mythic list with Angel picked)\)
In the course of my playthrough, I skipped the Trickster storyline, so at the moment of choosing the "mythic" it was not on the list at all.
Since the paths are tied to the hero's alignment, I had a choice between an angel and an azata. I decided to test both of them, and therefore first went for the azata, and then rebooted at the end of the second act and took the angelic path. Well, I can say that they differ significantly in gameplay.
The Angel receives an updated priest spellbook altogether with a set of its own super-powerful spells. The Azata gets at its disposal a set of truly powerful "superpowers" ... and the cutest dragon-companion, which is unusually useful in battle and constantly talks about sweets.
\Gif])
Owlcat Games asked testers to not upload any videos. Angel Magic GIF is from the game's Kickstarter page.
\This) dialog is filled with cuteness and freshly invented words so therefore I give up on translating it. But you still can look at the dragon baby\)
The wisdom of dragons is indisputable!
And here we smoothly move on to another feature of the Mythic Paths. Not only do they give incredible powers - the Azata feat, which allows you to carry any weapon and armor and at the same time give a solid increase to all skills, I'm looking at you! - they also seriously change the plot of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
First, the order and prerequisites for obtaining some quests are changing. For example, I received an important story quest for obtaining the fourth level of the mythic for the azata at the very beginning of the third act, and for the angel, it was almost the last one.
Secondly, unique and rather lengthy questlines and plot twists and turns appear. An angel visits an ancient order of astrologers. The azata collects an army of extravagant "free crusaders". With the angel, I mostly communicated with the herald of the goddess Iomedae. With the azata learned the history of the old enmity between sculptors-cavaliers and confectioners-pikemen...
\) Here Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!
Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!
Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!\)
…no, it’s not a joke.
Mythic Paths also affect regular NPCs and companions. The first ones comment on what you are becoming. The latter receive mythical levels themselves (without choosing a path) and sometimes can indirectly participate in your mythical quests.
Another thing that mythics bring is the disappearance of the alignment dialogue options that filled Kingmaker. Those who played the first Owlcat game remember that in the first act, a character with a neutral alignment could avoid participation in the war of mites and kobolds, and a good one could avoid killing the bandit Kressle. In WotR, a different set of options is responsible for this, tied to mythics rather than alignment.
\)The dialog itself here lacks context, but those options look like:
3. (to lawful [Angel Path] [Show Heaven’s Wrath]) text
4. (to chaotic) text\)
Finishing, it must be said that I asked Owlcat Games about the possibility of changing Mythic Paths in the later stages of the game, and their representative confirmed this possibility.
That's all I can say about the Mythic Paths today. They give the player tremendous replay value, gameplay variety, and unique storylines. However, this is not all that the sequel strives to surprise with.
Nival is an interesting campaign in many ways. Few in the industry can boast of working on games of different genres. And even fewer are those who have shown themselves well in literally every one.
Owlcat Games - in particular, the core of their team - are the natives of Nival Interactive responsible for the fifth part of the cult series, and they used their experience to make its fans feel at home in WotR.
In the sequel, the player takes personal control of not only his party, but also the numerous armies of the crusade, and uses them to destroy the demonic hordes that stand in the way.
\Barnd new tactical battle])
It is currently the youngest of WotR mechanics, but HoMM fans may already recognize many of the elements dear to their hearts. Hiring units with unique abilities, recruiting generals with spell books, different types of resources, rebuilding cities, turn-by-turn battles, and weekly growth. The only thing missing is the astrologers announcing the week of berserk hamsters, but the rest is a careful transfer of a turn-based strategy inside an RPG.
\One])
The army uses developer-made roads when traveling the global map, but unlike our party, it has a limited number of turns per day.
\Two])
Enemy armies blocking the path. Right now they can only defend but the developers want to add aggressive elements and even the possibility of losing your capital. P.S. Remember that many interface elements use old Kingmaker assets and are not the final draft.
And importantly, two different genres in the game are intertwined quite organically. By defeating the enemy army, the player can get not only resources for the strategic part of the game, but also the most valuable equipment for his party, and the occupation of enemy garrisons opens up new locations for exploration.
The influence of the party on the army is currently minimal, but after studying the info from the official forum and talking with the community manager, I can say that the situation should be different on release.
The choice of a Mythic Path will determine which units will be available in the player's army and what abilities they will possess. The developers are also thinking about the possibility of adding resources that are unique for mythics, but this element is still a subject of discussion. In any case, those who cherish nostalgia for the Necropolis faction can safely become a lich and send hordes of skeletons into battle.
\)'Artifact forging': Takes 5 days, the officer has +6 magic (no idea what that means. This belt gives the owner +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. If the owner is mounted and he or his mount make a critical strike the enemy is inflicted with an ‘exploding head’ syndrome for 1d3 rounds. Under this effect it starts to hear loud noises, taking -2 to attack and damage rolls…])
Each conquered artifact can be turned into one of the six possible equipment options. Some are ... pretty extreme.
To summarize, today the system is already felt working, functional and promising, but this is still only the backbone of what it will become.
At this point, I propose to end with the analysis of the gameplay of WotR and move on to the main part: radical changes in tone and narrative.
ATTENTION! The next part of the review contains spoilers that are not critical for the plot!
In short, I would apply the epithets "cheerful", "cheerful" and "dear" to the Kingmaker story. And if you're expecting something similar from the sequel...
...be prepared your expectations to be kicked 180 degrees.
\)One. Contains spoilers for Lann so I hesitate with translating it, but it's heavy\)
\)Two. A reminder that this is my translation and not official English localization! Here we go:
Sickening stench roams the room. Like in a slaughterhouse rows of human bodies are hanging on the iron hooks under the ceiling. Some are still, some are twitching and groaning. Female voice spreads pray, faintly. "Saint Iomedae... Forsake... Kha-kha... Forsake us not... In the rotten darkness... But spare us from evil... With your hand...\)
\)Three. Recruit: With trembling hand, the knight brings the knife to his face. "Those eyes that dared to look at you with lust... Take them, oh goddess!" With a hushed moan, the knight cut out his eyes and presents two bloody lumps to the succubus.
Succubus: "I accept your gift!" Having taken the eyes with tender fingers, the succubus draws them along her иуддн and breasts, then places in her mouth and delightedly chews. Bloody mucus flows down her lips and chin. "Now, my knights, I want you to lick... Wait, who is there? What heretics have come to violate our sacrament?" The succubus point at you and the knights who still have their eyes submissively turn in your direction.\)
\)Four. Your throne stands firmly on the backs of naive fools and greedy for glory adventurers. I realized that when the demons brought commander Verstol to the square and pushed him into the healing font of Sarenrae. And then they lighted a fire under it. Commander was being cooked in it for three days and her once merciful yet now cruel blessing was preventing him from dying. His skin swelled in bubbles and peeled off his flesh. We were standing in the square and watching. Our naked bodies were tortured by the cold wind. All our blood flowed out of our wounds as if striving to run far away from that terrible place. Our throats were bleeding without water and our stomaches dried up without food. The whole three days, the commander couldn't die. His meat turned grey and smelled o sweet I hated myself and my desire to taste it. Commander Verstol had stopped screaming before the first midnight, was only wheezing since. On the third morning, this stern man who knew no pity to himself and the enemies started to whimper like a child. His tears were endless, he was boiling in his own tears! Then the font finally broke apart, notwithstanding this terror, and he died. The new owner of Drezed, the demoness Minago, had dinner with his flesh. But she was not greedy - each of us, captives tormented by hunger, was bestowed with a piece of the commander.\)
\)Five. The MC: What the sexual life of the demons looks like?
Arueshalae: "Everything the demons do look like a single thing: cannibalism. Everyone simply devours mortals and other demons in their own way. Some enjoy themselves by gnawing out pieces of flesh. Others prefer to subdue others, turn into slaves, and living tools. The thirds take joy in the humiliation of others. Various forms but the same essence - other creatures are items you use for the sake of your enjoyment.
Arueshalae: "Sex for demons does not differ from other forms of violence. In my last life... (spoiler, I stopped reading myself])
After going through the alpha two times, I still can't say with certainty what kind of "anger pills" the management of Owlcat Games mixes in their writers' dinners, but the degree of naturalism in their texts far exceeds anything I've seen in an RPG before.
Madness; torture; cannibalism; ghouls gnawing at the throats of the crusaders; scenes bordering on real body horror; savoring murder and even superficial descriptions of sexual violence - some of the moments you expect to see more in the pages of "Land Fit for Heroes" by Richard Morgan or "The Great Ordeal" by Scott Backer, but not in a classic isometric RPG.
\)Here. "Devour, 'underground crusaders'! Devour crusaders from the surface! Acquire your power!\)
But do you know what's amazing? All this looks extremely in place within the framework of the unfolding plot. Excessive violence in a work of art is often an element of "childishness" rather than "adulthood" of a story, but in WotR our enemy is the embodiment of evil in its worst forms, and the scriptwriters managed to write it down without reducing everything to shock for shock’s sake. This is a truly robust epic dark fantasy, where all elements of the story feel thoughtful, accurate, and morally ambiguous.
You see, the main conflict in Wrath of the Righteous doesn't even come close to the black and white fight of Good versus Evil that one would expect from Crusade Against Demons. On the contrary, even with the most ‘good’ playthrough, it comes out in black and gray colours at best.
\)More. Crusader: "Our weapons barely scratch the demons' hides! We will sacrifice this girl to Iomedae so the innocent blood could bless our weapons with power to destroy the Abyss spawns!\)
Under the banners of the crusade, not only gallant paladins and servants of good gods gather: ordinary people, green recruits, criminals, maniacs, and sometimes apologists of the most severe tyranny, compared to whom demons can seem like angels, fight next to them.
As a result, while playing, you will more than once encounter acts of betrayal and desertion, showdowns, cases of PTSD, "witch hunts", cowardice and intrigues of those who want to take over your crusade.
\)One. Partly, Sosiel: "On one knight in shining armor, there is a hundred with souls tormented by fear, cruelty, pain. Many seem to have forgotten why they are here and know of nothing but war. When the battle ends they get drunk half-dead and sleep in the dirt. the Rot alive and even not looking for help, have long forsaken themselves."\)
\)Two. Regill: "However, I think respect based on an adequate analysis of your adversary's value is acceptable. I deeply respected my teacher who had been training me for joining the ranks of hellknights. (spoilers])
\)Three. A moment later another scream reaches from above. Rolling over the edge of the canyon, another one of your soldiers falls down and crashes on rocks to death. The decoy squad above desperately fights for lives, theirs, - and yours.\)
The developers initially stated that they did not want to make the history of WotR one-sided, and instead filled it with ambiguity and intrigue on both sides of the conflict.
However, despite all of the above, it would be wrong to say that the sequel's narrative only contains especially dark and violent moments. Still, emotions are strong in contrast, and therefore the game still has room for humor, friendly gatherings, and moments of silence.
\)One, Two, Three, Four, Five - I am not lazy at all, no, I just think the player should discover them on their own!\)
For this, as usual in a party RPG, the main character's companions are primarily responsible. And, as in Kingmaker, each one carries something unique. A priest looking for a lost brother in war; personal cannibal slave; count-hedonist; either a crazy or holy elf girl and many others.
Some will make you laugh tirelessly (Lann, Woljif, and Daeran), others are impossible not to fall in love with at first sight (Arueshalae), and from the thirds you will run away to the demons because the Deskari hordes compared to their background are extremely adequate guys (there is one character out there, whom I was personally asked not to spoil about...).
\)Lann\)
Lann. A joker, handsome athlete, mutant-descendant of ancient crusaders, and simply OP archer. Mast have in any party.
\)Sosiel\)
Sosel. One of the few strictly 'good' characters in the party.
\)Arueshalae\)
The person responsible for Arueshalae clearly understood what they were doing by adding a dialog option with a hint at love at first sight. Without jokes, a great character both in nature and writing. Hugs
Companions ended up with extremely memorable stories and personalities, constantly leading to friendly - or not so - squabbles.
As a conclusion, I can say that Owlcat approached the development of the narrative and story from a very unexpected and risky side. Epic and truly brutal dark fantasy is a rarity in the gaming industry, and despite the "hardcore" atmosphere, the plot and characters manage to captivate, and the clues scattered here and there hint at the possibility of a very interesting and unexpected payoff. As with Kingmaker, I'm more than happy with the story, and I want to unravel the net built by the developers as quickly as possible.
There will be a beta test before the release, and maybe I'll even cover that too.
I hope you enjoyed this review and learned a lot from it.
In the meantime, I'm leaving. The path of the lich will not thread itself.
The end.
https://preview.redd.it/ijzq3i0s2vr51.jpg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd108ca2792a2bbee7bb37cda0cced9759af2e23
submitted by Kiriima to Pathfinder_Kingmaker [link] [comments] - _I_ _am_ _not_ _the_ _author_, but the translator and I don't own the alpha myself. The author has signed up on reddit today so you can direct your questions to u/akar_dorn. I am sure some alpha testers on this subreddit would also gladly join the conversation.
- (Mostly for mods) The author did receive permission to write this review from the Owlcat Games community managers and I to upload it on Reddit so we are safe here.
- The source is written in Russian for the Russian-speaking community. I edited it to the best of my abilities regarding Pathfinder names and terms (oh those names), but don't dare to call it impeccable.
- The author made a number of screenshots in Russian localization, I translated the essentials of them [in this manner]. I repeat, everything outside of [] is from the original article. Reddit supports only a certain number of images uploads (20mb or so), plus quite a few people over the world have slow/limited internet connection therefore I leave actual game images in links to full-sized versions.
- This review contains very mild spoilers, don't miss a separate warning if you don't want to read them.
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The Great Ordeal: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Alpha Experience
Prepared with permission and support from Owlcat Gameshttps://preview.redd.it/wjvlmyn41vr51.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=e14fbcb987d1c9a9ef05a54376907fc3b01c58e9
Disclaimer
This material is based on the 0.4.0 - 0.4.2a version of the game, available to those who supported the Owlcat Games project during the crowdfunding campaign in March-February of this year.
At the request of the studio representatives - and the common sense of the author himself - spoilers in the review were kept to a minimum. However, the reader should keep in mind that in order to demonstrate the changes in atmosphere and narrative, I will touch on the lore of the setting, the stories of some of the characters, the backstory, and the prologue of an unreleased game. This review also presents screenshots of dialogues that are not important for the main plot.
Just in case, I remind you that the project is at the early stage of production, which is why many of the elements described in the article are only a framework for future mechanics and not their final embodiment.
Taking this opportunity, I express my gratitude to the Owlcat Games studio, as well as the administration of their official VK-group for their help in preparing this work.
Now let's get started.
Introduction. Battle for the Abyss.
A big fall always starts with one small step.Three pillars of evil from the Outer Planes: neutral daimon, law-abiding devil and chaotic demon.
The ancient lands of Sarcoris were drowned in fire and blood when Areelu Vorlesh, a scientist convicted of practicing forbidden sorcery, opened a portal to the most terrifying corner of the universe. Countless hordes of demons, led by the monstrous Baphomet and Deskari, poured into Golarion, tearing apart those who dared to resist them and poisoning the very essence of the material plane with the evil and chaos of the Abyss that gave birth to them. Where the half-wild Sarcoris once lay, now the body of Golarion is disfigured by the enormous Worldwound.
However, in the days of great disasters, it becomes ordinary to unite before the face of a common threat. The neighboring countries of Sarcoris chose not to wait for a repeat of his fate. Led by the church of the goddess Iomedae, hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all over the world have come together to fight the greatest threat to the world since the day of the Earthfall and drive the demons back into their realm of destruction and vice.
So the First Crusade began!
https://preview.redd.it/un2zygo81vr51.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3553156137b92a702e29b483e571b310a2c89ee2
And the Second followed it...
And the Third...
And the Fourth...
A hundred years have passed since the discovery of the Worlwound, and every day the chances that this nightmare will end in victory are sinking deeper into darkness. Only the World Stones - divine obelisks that prevent the Worldwound from growing - give mortals an elusive hope that the threat will at least be contained.
But the Stone is a stone. It is washed out with water and crumbles from strong blows. And what crumbles can be broken.
The story of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous begins on the day when a band of demons and cultists personally led by Lord Deskari make a surprise attack on Kenabres and severely damage one of the World Stones.
Deskari, Lord of the Locust, and Herald of the Apocalypse.
Many defenders perish, demon-worshipping spies plunge Kenabres into chaos and anarchy, and the blow of the scythe of Deskari, which killed the heroic dragon Terendelev, splits the city to deep caves, where the descendants of the first crusaders, distorted by the Abyss, hide from light and human eyes.
And it is there the future commander of the Fifth Crusade finds incredible strength.
Chapter one. Crusade of children.
https://preview.redd.it/6skab2ee1vr51.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6339b8039032aaf6996a202b20ea59cc317d87bdWhen it comes to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, it's impossible not to compare it to Owlcat' first game. Pathfinder: Kingmaker at one time extremely disappointed the audience with a poor state at the time of release, but over time it still managed to earn well-deserved love and recognition.
This was largely due to the developers' sincere love for the original and their offspring, as well as the incredible hard work with which they were fixing bugs for a long time and adding more and more content to the game due to paid and free updates. When their work was completed, Kingmaker was regarded by some as one of the best CRPGs ever made.
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When the sequel's Kickstarter campaign was announced, money poured into Owlcat Games, making Wrath of the Righteous the most successful project on the site in the Russian market segment.
I, like a number of others who supported the project, got access to the alpha testing of the game and now I hurry to share with you what Owlcat plans to please players with in 2021.
First, let's talk about the changes in the basic gameplay, and then move on to the most important innovations.
\Scene of battle, beware old interface])
The first thing that catches your eye is the correction of the mistakes of the first part.
Kingmaker, aside from bugs, was heavily criticized for three kind of things: poor graphics, harsh ruthlessness towards newcomers, and too high defenses of enemies, which led to the notorious "miss-miss-miss-miss".
These moments were more or less corrected and ironed out in the sequel.
The graphics have been significantly improved in comparison to the first game. Characters, weapons, and armor have noticeably increased in detail, and although their level (partly due to the peculiarities of the art design and budget) is inferior to the second Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2, the new models of heroes in the inventory window look relatively passable and quite capable to please the eye.
\New inventory interface])
Another thing is a smart tutorial, which describes in great detail the basic game mechanics and is able to accompany the player throughout the entire game if they so wish. Owlcat is still working on this feature, promising even a character builds planning help, but this is a question for future versions, as for now let's move on.
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The problem of constant misses, at first glance, was also solved. I passed alpha in equal proportions on "easy" and "normal", switching to higher gears a couple of times. Apart from those latter times, only once I came across a mini-boss with extremely high armor class, but otherwise, there were no situations with numerous misses in the game.
However, correcting errors alone will not go far, and the authors, in order to follow the letter and spirit of the original PnP, chose the path of "expanding in breadth."
One of the things that many have come to love with Kingmaker is the enormous amount of variation when it comes to creating the protagonist. Race, subrace (for tieflings and aasimars), class, subclass archetype, heritage, gods, domains, animal companions, familiars...
At one time, there was a joke that those who did not refund Kingmaker due to bugs simply could not cope with character creation.
Well, in Wrath of the Righteous Owlcat Games decided to go even further, adding 3 new races with subraces, almost a dozen new classes, new archetypes to the old ones, and the ability to choose the homeland or the social class for the protagonist. And this is all only if you throw overboard the prestige classes, the ability to ride an animal companion, new traits and spells. In this regard, WotR has come closer than ever to a simulator of creating an RPG adventure.
\Ok, so here we see yet old character creation screen and certain new archetypes.)
Arcanist: Base, Brown-Fur Transmuter, Eldritch Font (I think, Unlettered Arcanist, White Mage)
Kineticist: Blood Kineticist, Overwhelming Soul
Rogue: Sylvan Trickster, Underground Chemist
Wizard: Exploiter Wizard\)
...Very...needed...gestald...mod...
As part of my preferences and gaming experience, I chose an Eldritch Scion aasimar girl (Magus archetype, half-warrior-half-sorcerer with the Heritage system) as the protagonist and set off to liberate the demon-occupied Kenabres.
The gameplay itself hasn't undergone any noticeable changes. This is the same familiar RTwP mechanic from the original, inspired by the Obsidian and old Bioware games. The player still controls a party of six heroes, hands out buffs and debuffs, delivers good and inflicts justice along the way, rests in the camp, passes skill checks, and collects loot scattered around the corners of the map.
\Another scene of battle])
There will be a turn-based mode, but in the alpha, it is yet missing.
However, if the core of the gameplay has not changed, the things around it have changed very, very much.
First, there is a rotating camera in the spirit of Expeditions: Viking and D:OS2, which is a useful innovation, allowing you to look at locations from different angles and look for twists hidden by developers.
However, its overall functional performance is slightly overshadowed by Owlcat's change in approach to map- and level-design of the sequel's locations. If Kingmaker was distinguished by relatively flat territories, then the lands of the World Plague are full of hills, mountains, lowlands, and other irregularities in the landscape, which, if the camera is incorrectly rotated, can lead to a large physical object blocking the party view.
\One]) \Two])
The same location in different angles.
In general, in the wilderness, this problem is minimal, but in large cities with their rows of walls and towers, the camera strives to stumble over a donjon. This is more of an annoyance than a real inconvenience, but it is still desirable to correct it for release.
However, it cannot be said that the level design in the sequel has become worse. Just the opposite. Now locations are actively crammed with secret passages, riddles, sub-locations and places for checking party skills. The epic assault on the city at the end of the second act can even be turned into Assassins Creed with jumping over the rooftops onto the city walls. To summarize, I would say that the new location design allows the player much more variability compared to Kingmaker.
\Example])
Nothing is forced, everything is allowed...
It is also worth noting the emergence of directed cut-scenes. In terms of their visuals, they look good and are distinguished by quite a decent staging and camera work. In general, I would call them functional, but it may be worth working on the graphics engine further.
\One])
Deskari attack on Kenabres is done well.
\Two])
Only graphic shortcomings and missing textures harm the epic, but those are expected from 0.4.0 alpha.
I did not notice any other important changes in the gameplay at its core. In general, it functions as before. However, none of this was the game's leading selling point.
Chapter two. Where an angel hesitates to take a step
https://preview.redd.it/xlinzqer1vr51.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca91045d9fceabe1b5c8c339f174f476bfcf9f81The main innovation that Owlcat Games is presenting to the player is the Mythical Path system that migrated from the original PnP, designed to seriously diversify the leveling progression and storyline of Wrath of the Righteous.
What is it?
In simple terms, Mythic Paths are a parallel system of unique classes that endows the character with abilities that far exceed ordinary mortals’ reach.
The mythical hero is a character who wields the power to defeat powerful demon-balors with one single blow and single-handedly engage in a battle with the hordes of the Abyss without a chance for the latter to survive.
\)Mystic Power: you get 100% Fortified (immunity to crits/sneaks I presume, DR 10/-, 20 resistance to fire, water, and the rest. Your spell ignores ALL resistances and your enemies fail ALL saves. Attack spells add 100% divine damage and staggered/shaken (not sure about exact terms here) conditions.)
You also get 2 additional attacks per round and a +5 mythic bonus to attack. All your attacks ignore DR, automatically confirm crits and deal 100% additional divine damage. Your first attack of a round deal 4d6 additional damage in a line or cone depending on its type\)
Where these forces come from and what they are worth is one of the plot main mysteries.
In the Owlcat Games interpretation, the Mythic system represents a gradual transformation of the protagonist into one of the extraplanar creatures or powerful creatures of the material plane of the Pathfinder world, each of which is endowed with unique gameplay features.
In the alpha, a reduced number of mythics is available compared to what was promised for the release, but the list is already quite diverse:
Angel
Azata (akin to angels, chaotic-good extraplanar creatures, patrons of art and freedom)
Aeon (the ruthless embodiment of law, order, and balance in the universe)
Lich
Demon
and Trickster (an entity that rearranges reality “just for lulz”)
However, it will take some time before you get the opportunity to choose one of the above paths - after all, this part of leveling is timed to plot events. And, importantly, some of the paths can inadvertently be skipped.
\Mythic list with Angel picked)\)
In the course of my playthrough, I skipped the Trickster storyline, so at the moment of choosing the "mythic" it was not on the list at all.
Since the paths are tied to the hero's alignment, I had a choice between an angel and an azata. I decided to test both of them, and therefore first went for the azata, and then rebooted at the end of the second act and took the angelic path. Well, I can say that they differ significantly in gameplay.
The Angel receives an updated priest spellbook altogether with a set of its own super-powerful spells. The Azata gets at its disposal a set of truly powerful "superpowers" ... and the cutest dragon-companion, which is unusually useful in battle and constantly talks about sweets.
\Gif])
Owlcat Games asked testers to not upload any videos. Angel Magic GIF is from the game's Kickstarter page.
\This) dialog is filled with cuteness and freshly invented words so therefore I give up on translating it. But you still can look at the dragon baby\)
The wisdom of dragons is indisputable!
And here we smoothly move on to another feature of the Mythic Paths. Not only do they give incredible powers - the Azata feat, which allows you to carry any weapon and armor and at the same time give a solid increase to all skills, I'm looking at you! - they also seriously change the plot of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
First, the order and prerequisites for obtaining some quests are changing. For example, I received an important story quest for obtaining the fourth level of the mythic for the azata at the very beginning of the third act, and for the angel, it was almost the last one.
Secondly, unique and rather lengthy questlines and plot twists and turns appear. An angel visits an ancient order of astrologers. The azata collects an army of extravagant "free crusaders". With the angel, I mostly communicated with the herald of the goddess Iomedae. With the azata learned the history of the old enmity between sculptors-cavaliers and confectioners-pikemen...
\) Here Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!
Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!
Gnome: We are sculptor-cavaliers! The future is ours!\)
…no, it’s not a joke.
Mythic Paths also affect regular NPCs and companions. The first ones comment on what you are becoming. The latter receive mythical levels themselves (without choosing a path) and sometimes can indirectly participate in your mythical quests.
Another thing that mythics bring is the disappearance of the alignment dialogue options that filled Kingmaker. Those who played the first Owlcat game remember that in the first act, a character with a neutral alignment could avoid participation in the war of mites and kobolds, and a good one could avoid killing the bandit Kressle. In WotR, a different set of options is responsible for this, tied to mythics rather than alignment.
\)The dialog itself here lacks context, but those options look like:
3. (to lawful [Angel Path] [Show Heaven’s Wrath]) text
4. (to chaotic) text\)
Finishing, it must be said that I asked Owlcat Games about the possibility of changing Mythic Paths in the later stages of the game, and their representative confirmed this possibility.
That's all I can say about the Mythic Paths today. They give the player tremendous replay value, gameplay variety, and unique storylines. However, this is not all that the sequel strives to surprise with.
Chapter three. Heroes of Cross and Crusade.
Perhaps the most intriguing goal of the Wrath of the Righteous Kickstarter campaign was adding army-to-army tactical battles in the spirit of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic series to the sequel.Nival is an interesting campaign in many ways. Few in the industry can boast of working on games of different genres. And even fewer are those who have shown themselves well in literally every one.
Owlcat Games - in particular, the core of their team - are the natives of Nival Interactive responsible for the fifth part of the cult series, and they used their experience to make its fans feel at home in WotR.
In the sequel, the player takes personal control of not only his party, but also the numerous armies of the crusade, and uses them to destroy the demonic hordes that stand in the way.
\Barnd new tactical battle])
It is currently the youngest of WotR mechanics, but HoMM fans may already recognize many of the elements dear to their hearts. Hiring units with unique abilities, recruiting generals with spell books, different types of resources, rebuilding cities, turn-by-turn battles, and weekly growth. The only thing missing is the astrologers announcing the week of berserk hamsters, but the rest is a careful transfer of a turn-based strategy inside an RPG.
\One])
The army uses developer-made roads when traveling the global map, but unlike our party, it has a limited number of turns per day.
\Two])
Enemy armies blocking the path. Right now they can only defend but the developers want to add aggressive elements and even the possibility of losing your capital. P.S. Remember that many interface elements use old Kingmaker assets and are not the final draft.
And importantly, two different genres in the game are intertwined quite organically. By defeating the enemy army, the player can get not only resources for the strategic part of the game, but also the most valuable equipment for his party, and the occupation of enemy garrisons opens up new locations for exploration.
The influence of the party on the army is currently minimal, but after studying the info from the official forum and talking with the community manager, I can say that the situation should be different on release.
The choice of a Mythic Path will determine which units will be available in the player's army and what abilities they will possess. The developers are also thinking about the possibility of adding resources that are unique for mythics, but this element is still a subject of discussion. In any case, those who cherish nostalgia for the Necropolis faction can safely become a lich and send hordes of skeletons into battle.
\)'Artifact forging': Takes 5 days, the officer has +6 magic (no idea what that means. This belt gives the owner +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. If the owner is mounted and he or his mount make a critical strike the enemy is inflicted with an ‘exploding head’ syndrome for 1d3 rounds. Under this effect it starts to hear loud noises, taking -2 to attack and damage rolls…])
Each conquered artifact can be turned into one of the six possible equipment options. Some are ... pretty extreme.
To summarize, today the system is already felt working, functional and promising, but this is still only the backbone of what it will become.
At this point, I propose to end with the analysis of the gameplay of WotR and move on to the main part: radical changes in tone and narrative.
ATTENTION! The next part of the review contains spoilers that are not critical for the plot!
Chapter four. Black Crusade.
Anyone who played Kingmaker should remember that in terms of storytelling, it was in between the mundane Pillars of Eternity and the daring Divinity: Original Sin. On the one hand, at its core was a serious, moderately epic story that raised questions of the leader's responsibility to the society entrusted to him, and on the other, everything that surrounded the plot twists and turns was imbued with humor and the spirit of exploration, which, together with a team of scriptwriters who knew Russian from in the first place, created in many ways a unique and natively close of the CIS leitmotif.In short, I would apply the epithets "cheerful", "cheerful" and "dear" to the Kingmaker story. And if you're expecting something similar from the sequel...
...be prepared your expectations to be kicked 180 degrees.
\)One. Contains spoilers for Lann so I hesitate with translating it, but it's heavy\)
\)Two. A reminder that this is my translation and not official English localization! Here we go:
Sickening stench roams the room. Like in a slaughterhouse rows of human bodies are hanging on the iron hooks under the ceiling. Some are still, some are twitching and groaning. Female voice spreads pray, faintly. "Saint Iomedae... Forsake... Kha-kha... Forsake us not... In the rotten darkness... But spare us from evil... With your hand...\)
\)Three. Recruit: With trembling hand, the knight brings the knife to his face. "Those eyes that dared to look at you with lust... Take them, oh goddess!" With a hushed moan, the knight cut out his eyes and presents two bloody lumps to the succubus.
Succubus: "I accept your gift!" Having taken the eyes with tender fingers, the succubus draws them along her иуддн and breasts, then places in her mouth and delightedly chews. Bloody mucus flows down her lips and chin. "Now, my knights, I want you to lick... Wait, who is there? What heretics have come to violate our sacrament?" The succubus point at you and the knights who still have their eyes submissively turn in your direction.\)
\)Four. Your throne stands firmly on the backs of naive fools and greedy for glory adventurers. I realized that when the demons brought commander Verstol to the square and pushed him into the healing font of Sarenrae. And then they lighted a fire under it. Commander was being cooked in it for three days and her once merciful yet now cruel blessing was preventing him from dying. His skin swelled in bubbles and peeled off his flesh. We were standing in the square and watching. Our naked bodies were tortured by the cold wind. All our blood flowed out of our wounds as if striving to run far away from that terrible place. Our throats were bleeding without water and our stomaches dried up without food. The whole three days, the commander couldn't die. His meat turned grey and smelled o sweet I hated myself and my desire to taste it. Commander Verstol had stopped screaming before the first midnight, was only wheezing since. On the third morning, this stern man who knew no pity to himself and the enemies started to whimper like a child. His tears were endless, he was boiling in his own tears! Then the font finally broke apart, notwithstanding this terror, and he died. The new owner of Drezed, the demoness Minago, had dinner with his flesh. But she was not greedy - each of us, captives tormented by hunger, was bestowed with a piece of the commander.\)
\)Five. The MC: What the sexual life of the demons looks like?
Arueshalae: "Everything the demons do look like a single thing: cannibalism. Everyone simply devours mortals and other demons in their own way. Some enjoy themselves by gnawing out pieces of flesh. Others prefer to subdue others, turn into slaves, and living tools. The thirds take joy in the humiliation of others. Various forms but the same essence - other creatures are items you use for the sake of your enjoyment.
Arueshalae: "Sex for demons does not differ from other forms of violence. In my last life... (spoiler, I stopped reading myself])
After going through the alpha two times, I still can't say with certainty what kind of "anger pills" the management of Owlcat Games mixes in their writers' dinners, but the degree of naturalism in their texts far exceeds anything I've seen in an RPG before.
Madness; torture; cannibalism; ghouls gnawing at the throats of the crusaders; scenes bordering on real body horror; savoring murder and even superficial descriptions of sexual violence - some of the moments you expect to see more in the pages of "Land Fit for Heroes" by Richard Morgan or "The Great Ordeal" by Scott Backer, but not in a classic isometric RPG.
\)Here. "Devour, 'underground crusaders'! Devour crusaders from the surface! Acquire your power!\)
But do you know what's amazing? All this looks extremely in place within the framework of the unfolding plot. Excessive violence in a work of art is often an element of "childishness" rather than "adulthood" of a story, but in WotR our enemy is the embodiment of evil in its worst forms, and the scriptwriters managed to write it down without reducing everything to shock for shock’s sake. This is a truly robust epic dark fantasy, where all elements of the story feel thoughtful, accurate, and morally ambiguous.
You see, the main conflict in Wrath of the Righteous doesn't even come close to the black and white fight of Good versus Evil that one would expect from Crusade Against Demons. On the contrary, even with the most ‘good’ playthrough, it comes out in black and gray colours at best.
\)More. Crusader: "Our weapons barely scratch the demons' hides! We will sacrifice this girl to Iomedae so the innocent blood could bless our weapons with power to destroy the Abyss spawns!\)
Under the banners of the crusade, not only gallant paladins and servants of good gods gather: ordinary people, green recruits, criminals, maniacs, and sometimes apologists of the most severe tyranny, compared to whom demons can seem like angels, fight next to them.
As a result, while playing, you will more than once encounter acts of betrayal and desertion, showdowns, cases of PTSD, "witch hunts", cowardice and intrigues of those who want to take over your crusade.
\)One. Partly, Sosiel: "On one knight in shining armor, there is a hundred with souls tormented by fear, cruelty, pain. Many seem to have forgotten why they are here and know of nothing but war. When the battle ends they get drunk half-dead and sleep in the dirt. the Rot alive and even not looking for help, have long forsaken themselves."\)
\)Two. Regill: "However, I think respect based on an adequate analysis of your adversary's value is acceptable. I deeply respected my teacher who had been training me for joining the ranks of hellknights. (spoilers])
\)Three. A moment later another scream reaches from above. Rolling over the edge of the canyon, another one of your soldiers falls down and crashes on rocks to death. The decoy squad above desperately fights for lives, theirs, - and yours.\)
The developers initially stated that they did not want to make the history of WotR one-sided, and instead filled it with ambiguity and intrigue on both sides of the conflict.
However, despite all of the above, it would be wrong to say that the sequel's narrative only contains especially dark and violent moments. Still, emotions are strong in contrast, and therefore the game still has room for humor, friendly gatherings, and moments of silence.
\)One, Two, Three, Four, Five - I am not lazy at all, no, I just think the player should discover them on their own!\)
For this, as usual in a party RPG, the main character's companions are primarily responsible. And, as in Kingmaker, each one carries something unique. A priest looking for a lost brother in war; personal cannibal slave; count-hedonist; either a crazy or holy elf girl and many others.
Some will make you laugh tirelessly (Lann, Woljif, and Daeran), others are impossible not to fall in love with at first sight (Arueshalae), and from the thirds you will run away to the demons because the Deskari hordes compared to their background are extremely adequate guys (there is one character out there, whom I was personally asked not to spoil about...).
\)Lann\)
Lann. A joker, handsome athlete, mutant-descendant of ancient crusaders, and simply OP archer. Mast have in any party.
\)Sosiel\)
Sosel. One of the few strictly 'good' characters in the party.
\)Arueshalae\)
The person responsible for Arueshalae clearly understood what they were doing by adding a dialog option with a hint at love at first sight. Without jokes, a great character both in nature and writing. Hugs
Companions ended up with extremely memorable stories and personalities, constantly leading to friendly - or not so - squabbles.
As a conclusion, I can say that Owlcat approached the development of the narrative and story from a very unexpected and risky side. Epic and truly brutal dark fantasy is a rarity in the gaming industry, and despite the "hardcore" atmosphere, the plot and characters manage to captivate, and the clues scattered here and there hint at the possibility of a very interesting and unexpected payoff. As with Kingmaker, I'm more than happy with the story, and I want to unravel the net built by the developers as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
The Kickstarter page lists the release date as June 2021. Given everything that is happening in the world right now, I have some doubts about this date, but even if the game is postponed, I will look forward to its release with great impatience. I am sincerely pleased with what the alpha has offered and what the developers have outlined for future versions of the game.There will be a beta test before the release, and maybe I'll even cover that too.
I hope you enjoyed this review and learned a lot from it.
In the meantime, I'm leaving. The path of the lich will not thread itself.
The end.
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