Source
r/projecteternity•
FunctionPlastic

Will my gear always look this... drab?

PoE2: Deadfire

I've played through the first act I think, getting to Nekataka, a couple of islands and so on. I've also watched some videos of people playing.

I'm kind of dreading that the characters always look pretty much the same, with muted colors etc.

Look at a random game of Wrath of the Righteous, and the level of visual detail on the characters, gear, and weapons is amazing. Shiny effects on weapons, auras, etc.

This kind of visual progression is one of my main draws in RPGs. Did I just not watch enough videos, or will the party always look samey?

Posted Nov 28, 2022, 11:23 PM UTC

020
2ndTaken_username•

POE tends to be on the more realistic side when it comes to armor and weapons.

While there are some flashy stuff here and there it's mostly "drab".

21
FiggNGoose•

Wrath art is very cartoon like, POE is not.

18
ccbayes•

I much prefer POE art style to Wrath for sure.

12
HerculesMagusanus•

If all the shiny, exaggerated stuff is one of your favourite parts of RPGs, well, you might be disappointed here.

Pillars of Eternity uses gambesons, brigandines, breastplates, and other mostly historically accurate armour from the 15th/16th century. The weapons are also great in their diversity, with many weapons hardly ever seen in video games available. It's very cool. The endgame armours can be very ornate and decorated, but never to the ridiculous level of stuff in other RPGs.

9
FunctionPlasticOP•

with many weapons hardly ever seen in video games available

Such as? Looking over the list of weapon types it seems fairly standard, probably fewer than WotR e.g.

2
HerculesMagusanus•

Arquebuses, arbalests, blunderbuses, flails, pikes, (historical) warhammers, pollaxes, zweihander morningstars, and all types of scepter, rod and wand as regular ranged weapons. I'm sure those weapons are in plenty of action games, but I hardly ever see any of those in cRPGs (though a few of them are in Kingmaker, haven't played WotR).

But yeah, the Pathfinder video games have a bunch of weird, exotic weapons, but unless you're going for something very specific, it's unlikely you'll ever (want to) use them. It's personal preference, and I'll admit I don't like Pathfinder. But I'd take Pillars' weapons, armour and art style over Pathfinder's anyday.

6
ThetaCygni•

Seeing warhammers that look like the actual historical warhammers instead of the unusable 30 kg metal monstrosities virtually every other fantasy RPG has is amazing but the fact that it is speaks volumes

7
HerculesMagusanus•

Yeah, warhammers in most other games have nothing in common with actual warhammers, apart from the fact they're hafted. I also love how PoE has the "best pf damage type", to simulate using a weapon in various ways. In Deadfire, my character will usually go with a warhammer in one hand, and a blunderbuss in the other. It's just too much fun. But what do you mean, what speaks volumes?

1
FunctionPlasticOP•

I'm not sure I understand why we're going over the various weapon types. I thought it was common in cRPGs to have them. Like you could tell me those are weapon types in WotR and you'd have fooled me (well, no, they don't have guns right? Thematic differences aside...)

WotR has dueling swords. Do I think it's a flaw PoE doesn't? No not really. Both games have enough, more than necessary for me.

Anyways I'm not talking about weapon types, or just weapons. I'm talking about the fact that if I choose an Angel path in WotR I get a really aesthetic halo for example. Or about how colorful and detailed the gear is.

PoE 2 is already a colorful game. Why can't my characters be, too? Like the character is already a teleporting, 2hand sword vielding spellblade, why would I not be able to pick him out of a crowd of generic NPCs when he's completed 80% of the game?

I know we're arguing tastes, but I'll add that games use visual progressions as one of their primary pulls. In many games it's even the only way the game is monetized! Clearly this is a desirable feature, no?

1
Gurusto•

Different strokes.

Played WoW for a long time. Lots of people were complaining that it was really hard to put together a realistic-looking outfit because the WoW aesthetic is so exaggerated. Both PoE games try to hew much closer to historical and anatomical accuracy. You have padded armor that's actually useful, while "studded leather" is nonexistent. Some games use aesthetic progression as primary pulls. But PoE is selling a cohesive world heavily inspired by history and geography. Aesthetically it's still way flashier than Game of Thrones, and that show was pretty popular (until it wasn't) without Jon Snow getting a halo or glowy pauldrons or whatever. In fact I'd argue that the grounded aesthetics make the fantastical elements stand out more.

Design-wise I think there are quite a few neat outfits in both games. But I care much less about looking fantastical and more about the gorget matching the greaves, if you know what I mean.

Also I'd be careful about halos. There was a dude with a head made of light and it ended badly.

4
TSED•

Do you mean drab as in muted colours? Or do you mean as in... realistic shapes for armour? You're not going to find space marine pauldrons or similar physically impossibly shaped stuff, but you will find "flashier" equipment.

7
Chill_Galad•

you can change colors and get flashier gear as you progress, but the individual piece wont change, nor will the character physically.

In battle you can activate buffs and abilities that have q visual effect on the character. Special gear can also have these.

6
ThetaCygni•

In the first game gear is much flashier and varied (Which means you may also want to change it more frequently), for example there is a shield with the face of a dragon carved on it and enchantment effects that add fire or icy auras to weapons etc. In the second game, gear is more sober-looking and realistic with fewer unique items which also don't look super flashy, there are some exceptions but generally yes, weapons and armour look more sober and realistic than in other RPGs, also companions' starting gear can be enchanted a number of times and it's perfectly doable to have them wear the same armor for the whole game (not the same can be said for weapons)

2
Thrift_opc2•

The tones of the game are more realistic and mature by design. It's probably just not for you. Pathfinder is quite a lot like wow in it's art direction which fits the shallow narrative and the playground high fantasy setting. PoE is very different.

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[deleted]•

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1
FunctionPlasticOP•

in case of the cool loot added in the 3 dlcs.

Regarding this, is there like some compendium where I can look this stuff up to see how it looks? Like item models, character screenshots, etc.

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