Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Dylan here with another solo episode. It's been
a bit since I've done one of these, but there
have been two topics on my mind recently and I
just was kind of putting off recording them for whatever reason,
And you know, I kind of realized that these topics
actually kind of make sense to be put together as
one mega solo episode. So that's what we're gonna do
here today. I don't know what to plug because I
don't know when I'm gonna release this episode, but just
check out Patreon to get episodes early and add free.
This episode, for example, I'll put up right away and
who knows when it will hit the main feeds. But
as we are approaching the end of twenty twenty four,
in the Game of the Year, the goady season of
this year, I felt like it was the right time
to do this because last year I did my of
course twenty twenty three Game of the Year, where I
made kind of a top ten but more of like
a top I think it was like top sixteen seventeen
list Game of the Year, and I talked about how
I was kind of less enthusiastic about the year of
games just as an overall picture. But in the following year,
throughout twenty twenty four, I've played a lot more games
that I was either just late too or maybe they
came to game Pass later. So I finally checked them out,
and I feel like I actually have a lot more
juice in the top ten. And I wanted to kind
of scrub the record, rewrite history a little bit here
and redo my twenty twenty three game of the year
before I go ahead and record my twenty twenty four
because if I wait past that, then it'll then it
will never happen. So I think this episode, I don't
want it to be just overwriting the episode. I'm not
going to delete that episode off the feeds because I
think you should go back and listen to that one. Still,
I'm going to breeze past a lot of the games
that I had mentioned and or that are they're still
in the top ten in similar spots. We'll just kind
of quickly recap those ones and more talk about the
new editions on the list, and then the second part
of this episode and kind of a spoiler over again
that's making another top ten is that you know I
finished boulders Gate three finally a few weeks ago after
many many months, and we'll talk about that journey. But
I want to share a few spoiler spoiler field thoughts
talk about my journey in that game a little bit more,
because I don't really want to spoil that with any
of the other boys on a regular side quest episode.
So this seems like a good way to do it.
So I think I'm gonna save that for kind of
after the recap of the of the top ten list
of the Goady List, and yeah, we'll just talk about
some of my my thoughts on the game now that
I've finished it and had a few weeks to think
about that journey. Now. Normally for a Game of the
Year list, I usually have some preamble, like I'll do
a recap of the previous year's list, I'll talk about
some honorable mentions, and I'll have some other nebulous thoughts
or topics I'm not gonna happen this time around. I'm
just gonna get right into it, because, like I said,
I did all that last year, and this is kind
of more just to rewrite that particular top ten. So
starting out with number ten. Last year when I recorded this,
my number ten was Tara nil. That game has now
unfortunately been booted out in favor of a new edition,
which is Dead Island two. This is a funny addition
to the list because it's like, Okay, what am I
really doing, I'm rerecording just add a game at number ten. Well,
there's obviously more that's coming down the road. But I
had a really really fun time with this game. Eventually
it did come to game Pass and that's when I
picked it up. And you know, I don't think I
have any super deep thoughts on it. It's not like
it had some crazy story with a bunch of plot
twists or really well written characters. It's just a turn
off your brain. Smash some zombies in a very I
don't know if realistic is the right word, but just
in this crazy the crazy graphics and reactions and animations
for everything is just insane. Tons of weapon I eventually
get guns in the game, which takes hours, which just
opens up a whole new possibility. The level design, I
think is really fun, Like the setting of going through
these kind of Hollywood hills mansions crushing zombies is really cool.
And then you get a whole slew of variety of
locations and it was just a joy from start to finish.
And yeah, even if I don't have any super deep
thoughts on it, it didn't change my mind, did it made
me rethink anything. It was just a really really fun,
solid time and fine glad I finally got around to it,
even if it took me a while to get around
to it. At number nine is Pseudo Regalia, which is
originally at number seven, So this got bumped down a
couple slots, but I still really love this game. I
haven't gone back and revisited by any means, but just
such a fun three D platformer. Metroidvania, tons of exploration,
really excited for whatever that developer makes. Mixed Next that
was a really really cool game. And then last year,
A Space for the Unbound was at six. It got
booted down to number eight here, but still firmly in
the top ten. It was a great year for story
narrative games, I feel like in twenty twenty three, and
this is definitely one of the highlights, at least on
the indie front. The narrative highlight. I suppose, Well, that's
a lie. There's another game. I don't know if you'd
consider it indie, but it's coming up later we'll talk
about it then. I Love Space for the Unbound once again,
go back on the last year's episode to get my
full full thoughts on it. But just such a great game,
still easily in that top ten. Number seven is another
new addition, so last time that's where Pseudo Regally was,
but now it is Humanity, which is that weirdo puzzle
game that originally seemed like a PlayStation exclusive, but it
did come to game Pass later on, which is where
I played it. This is a crazy game I talked
about in depth on side Quest. Narratively, like metaphysically, metaphorically,
it's doing a lot. There's a lot of interesting things
that I feel like it's saying, even though it's a
very wordless kind of game, a really really brilliant puzzle game,
a really hilarious game too, and I feel like that's
not enough. Games are funny. Humanity is a very very
funny game. Has just an insane amount of evolution of mechanics.
I feel like whenever I felt like I was getting
to the last world, there was a new world with
some crazy new mechanics. Gets to like RTS level battles
at some point. Just not something I would have expected
from just seeing those initial trailers of the game. It's goofy,
the music is weird, you play as a little ghost sheboo.
You knew. It's like, it's just just a wild, weird game,
and I just could not put it down. I wanted
to get all the goldies. I wanted to beat all
the main levels, and even after that, there's custom levels
and other things to do that I probably could go
back and do even more. So that one's sitting at
number seven now. At number six is alan Wake two,
which was originally at five, so it just got bumped
down one spot. Still a great game, you know. This
is actually one of the few that I have revisited
in this calendar year of twenty twenty four, because there
was a couple DLC packs. I played the first one,
which was called Night Springs Believe, and then Lake House,
which came out later I have not played yet, which
I feel like I should have done that reverse because
I didn't really like Night Spring Springs. I don't think
it's soury in my taste on the game at all,
but it was more of like a I like the
setup of it, I mean a kind of a what
if scenario and I guess the downside of it was
that the gameplay was more of like a combat challenge
combat gauntlet, and I didn't really like the combat in
the game in the first place, so that one didn't
really do it for me. Lake House I should probably
get to because I heard it is more story focused
and more of an expansion of the world in a
more meaningful way, so I should go back and check
that out. But allan Like two is still a fantastic game,
still whant to look back on very fondly, and it
only dropped one spot because of a game that just
surpassed it at number five is Cocoon, which was previously
at number four. Fantastic puzzle game. I still think about
that one all the time. Just brilliant, cool, interesting game.
Number four. This is actually very fitting. This was originally
at three, but now it's at four and it is
Resident Evil four remake, so of course the bit of
an asteris there is I never played the original, so
this is me playing the remake for the very first time,
so you know, shouldn't have been on my list. I
don't know. People might be mad if something like that
makes it up the Game Awards, but you know, whatever,
it's my personal list. This game is fantastic. I love
it from start to finish. Even since then, I've gone
back and played a couple more Resident Evil games, and
I can still confirm that it is definitely one of
my favorites in the series, probably number two. I don't know.
I have to do a thorough Resident Evil ranking once
I've played through all the games. I think that'll be
a fun solo cast to do in the future, especially
because they're all be they will all be pretty fresh
to me. But yeah, love residone Evil four at number three.
That's where Resdin Evel was before, and this is where
and I've debated this long and hard number two and three.
Number three is eventually though, where I am going to
put Balder's Gate three once again very fitting based on
the title of the game. But I promise I didn't
put it there just because of the synergy or pun potential.
But I'll oliven spoil the next one. So number two
is still Starfield, which is what it was last year.
So I really debated, like which one of these gets
the two slot gets the three slot. I knew they
would still be there. It's a very firm top three
and then number one is still far and away my
number one, which we'll get to in a bit, and
it's it's really hard calculus because but balders get three,
you know, much much deeper in depth story, more well
written characters. I think I probably like the combat overall
more than a game like Starfield. But I feel like,
and I'll share this with my Balder's Gate three kind
of story retelling is that at some point I put
the game down because I was a little little burnt
out on it, kind of losing steam a little bit,
and I came back and eventually did finish it. But
Starfield is a game that, for like one hundred hours,
I just could not put it down, even after I
beat all of the side quests, all the main story,
kind of seen everything there is to see quote unquote
other than just random events in the world. I just
still I wanted to play it every night, and eventually
I just had to tell myself, I have to put
this game down because I need to play other things
so I have a little more fuel for my game
of the year and just make sure I'm not only
playing one game. But I could not put it down,
which is weird to look at in retrospect because since
then a DLC has released for the game, and I
haven't picked that up yet. But I think part of
that is more that I believe, but that's disconfirmed that
they're gonna try and have yearly expansions for this game,
or at least yearly content to some extent, and so
it's a game that I know is always gonna have
more and more to it, and so I'm fine to
revisit in maybe two or three years, maybe when I
have a better PC and played on PC and just
experience all that new stuff, get some mods in there,
and just to have a much more greater experience than
just like coming back for whatever it was, like an
eight hour DLC. But yeah, the balance between these two
games is really close. They're both similar in a sense
but also very different, you know, being RPGs, but one's
a lot more of an RPG than the other. I
love both these games very much and for very different reasons.
But I still feel pretty good about this because I
think there is quite a few negative thoughts or less
positive thoughts i'll say on Balder's Gate three, and Starfield
definitely has that too, So I don't know a really
really tough balancing act to figure out where I want
to put these two, but either way, they're both in
the top three, and so I guess what I can
say is they're kind of interchangeable. But I'm okay with
this placement. So once again, yeah, Starfield's at number two,
and then number one is still Sea of Stars, a
game that does have DALC on the way, although I
think it's come out yet. I think there was some
small update that came out this year, but that game
is still still my number one by a mile. I mean,
just visually beautiful. The music is fantastic. The characters two
protagonists I care less about, but like all the other
characters are fantastic. The crazy twists that the story goes on,
the combat is fantastic. The exploration doing a lot of
the bonus collectithon stuff was really fun. Tons of bonus
side content once you've beaten the main game, the wheels,
mini games that you can play at the tavern. Just
everything about that game I absolutely love. And another one
that I was that was the game out of mostly
is I was very sad to put down. I was
very sad to be done with that world and not
be with those characters anymore. It just became such a
comforting even though there's crazy combat sometimes, it was a
very comforting game to come back to. And yeah, I
think that one will maybe forever be enshrined as my
twenty twenty three game of the Year. I don't know
if I could ever go back and play another game
from that year that would surpass that one. It's just
one of those all time great games for me. I
really truly love it. So there you go, There's there,
there it is. Number ten was Dead On two, number nine,
Seed to Greia, number eight, A Space for the Unbound,
seven Humanity six, Alum two, five, Cocoon four, was an
Evil four, three Balls eight three two Starfield, and one
Sea of Stars. So yeah, three new additions on the
list as high as spot number three. So I feel like,
you know, it was worth rewriting this, so to speak.
And yeah, I think the games that I guess got
booted out. I don't know if I mentioned all of them,
but Tara Nill Advanced Wars one plus two, reboot Camp,
and Adnesia the Bunker were the three games that eventually
kind of got the boot from the top ten in
favor of Dead Island, Humanity and balders Gate three. But yeah,
glad I could finally kind of rewrite history there. And
I guess now what I can move into is maybe
some some spoiler filled thoughts on Balder's Gate three. So
let me take a quick minute here, catch my breath,
and I'll come back and do that. Okay, So we
are going to go full spoiler discussion here on Balder's
Gate three as a game. So my history with this,
I still have only done technically one play through. Early on,
I did start a call out play through with another
friend and we played for maybe five or six hours.
Of that play through, it didn't get very far. It
was It was fun to try it out, but I
think this is definitely more of a single player game
to me. But as I mentioned, and I did mention
this last year too, that I got to balder Gate
three late because I was playing it on Xbox and
that didn't come out until December, so I didn't even
start it until after I recorded my Game of the
Year list, and you know, I came to it. I
had those two playthroughs, really played a ton of Act one,
tried to explore every single thing I could, and then
when it got to Act two, I was kind of
less intrigued by it overall. I think that the dire
Dowur setting of it. Perhaps it felt a little more
linear to me, less exploration and I guess even certain
story beats. I'm sure there is a ton of variety
and things that can happen. That seems to be everything
in this game based on your choices, but to me,
it didn't feel like I had as many fun choices,
and so I think so much of my motivation going
through Act two was I just really really want to
get to Act three. I want to get to Balder's Gate.
I want to get to the city and see that.
And it's funny, like you know, it probably took me
into like January February, finished Act two and then got
to Baldersgate City, and I feel like all that motivation
I just kind of slipped away, and then I put
the game down for months and months and finally eventually
came back to it, I guess in probably like October
September something like that. Here. So took quite a hefty
break from it, but I'm glad I did eventually come back.
It's a game that I knew deserved the rest of
my time, especially you know, as I was in Act three,
and yeah, I think, actually really it stuck the landing beautifully.
It was a really fantastic ending to it. As for
my character, my character started out like very hard edged,
very much like a ruthless killer type, like I'll take
out anyone, whether it's just for like a few pieces
of gold or maybe for whatever the armor is off
their back, and just a very cutthroat type character. But
I think as things went along, I was generally trying
to make the decision that was best for the most people.
It was kind of this constant trolley problem of I
don't know who do I want to side with here?
So in Act one, the big decision of like the
Goblin Goblin camp stuff, I went into the Goblin camp.
I'm trying to remember the order of events, but I
think I went through the Goblin camp, got my way
in into the base, and then I just decided Minthara,
some of her things she was saying was a little
two sus even for my character, who was very evil
or not very evil, but you know a little bit
more in the gray area, I suppose, and so I
took her out, which caused just a chain reaction of
things falling down, Domino's falling over, and event led to
just massive battles in those crips underneath the hallways, taking
out all these people, and then when I made it
out to the Goblin camp, I forget how this started.
I think I might have just been the aggressor, because
I don't think anyone outside knew what had happened inside,
but I it led to just a huge battle where
I was up on the wall, up on the castle walls,
just flying firing arrows down, taking out what I felt
like fifty goblins. That was a crazy battle. I feel
like I've never done a turn based or like tactic
style game with a battle of that scale. It was
absolutely wild. So that was super duper fun, and that
kind of became a bit of the story of my character,
is like I kind of just take out people from
all sides, you know, whatever. I felt like they were
doing something a little suspicious, I would kind of take
them out. But yeah, I really really loved Act one.
I think beyond that too, the Goblin camp, the defense
of the town. That's kind of the route I went
with it. Defend the people, and that was just such
a great set piece, such a well designed area of
the enemies flooding in from down below and then kind
of coming in from either side, having to defend from
up above, keep the door reinforced, get down there, create
some chaos. It was such a fun kind of phase
like battle to it. And I thought the exploration and
Act one was really fantastic as well. You know, not
a truly fully open world game, but I still felt
like there was so many interesting pockets of things to do,
which led to interesting quest lines with interesting characters that
now that I finished the game can say like, oh, yeah,
an Act three of the crazy stuff with I forget
her name, but the lady in the green dress and
the blonde hair with the like the zombie husband, and
it's like the fact that she comes back in Act
three and has like a relevant quest line or two.
I just feel like that kind of happened with everything,
and of course the whole Hag storyline, just so much
stuff that came back in the end was really satisfying
to see all of that. My character, itself, a dark
elf ranger type, used a lot of just range, like
really strong range attacks. I think was what I was
going for and like trying to slow enemies down, crowd
control that type of thing. And then my main party
early on was Carlac for the tank feature of it,
Shadow Heart the Healer, and then Laizel also as kind
of like a hybrid range slash up close fighter type,
and I think eventually what happened is with that party,
it was very well bounced, but I felt like Carlac
and Laizel were kind of fulfilling a bit of the
same role. So eventually, as we get into Act two,
that's when Laizel eventually got the boot in favor of Jahiro,
which I I think it took much later into Act
two to get that character, trying to remember exactly when
she pops up, But Jahiro just I felt like her
move set was really interesting as a Druid. I didn't
have the other what's his name, Halson. I forget he
didn't die in my campaign, but he didn't stick around
with my party, and I can't remember why or what
story choice led to that, but I didn't have him.
My party didn't reclass anyone either, so it made more
sense to have Jahir in my party. As for the
other early characters, I found Gail just very overwhelming as
a wizard having all those spells. It was just too
much for my brain to understand. And I think by
the end of the game I could have put it together,
because no matter what character you have, you have like
a million things on your action bar, a million actions
you can take at anytime. But early on it was
quite overwhelming. And then what's his name is Stary And
he just was a bit too similar to my character,
my protagonist in terms of play style. And yes, I
know you can reclass him, but he just didn't really
make a whole lot of sense on my team. So
eventually he got the boot as well. And I'm trying
to think of it. If I'm forgetting any of the
other main companions, I think that's I think that's most
of them. Oh I will, I guess as well. I
think by the time he because he joins a little
bit later on than everyone else, by the time he
hopped into the party, I'd kind of already had a
bit of an established team with their established armor and
weapons and all that, and so he didn't really fit
in with my current kind of team build, so he
sat on the bench for the entire game. I don't
think he was ever with me in the party, even
though I did some quests around his around his storyline there.
So yeah, as we get as we get into Act two,
I think one part that felt a little I forget
exactly when the act to transition happens, but I'm chinking
of like the thinking of the Mountain Pass area, the
area where you go to kind of Lazel's people that base.
I could never figure out how to get in there.
I search around for hours, and I'm sure there's some
way you can blast the door open or have a
high enough lock picking or something, but I could not
find a way in, so that that section never got finished.
And I guess I didn't really realize how much this
game was, like, oh, you're not really revisiting areas at all,
like you're moving along. You're going in like a linear
fashion towards that end point. So that didn't get end
up happening. And then there wasn't really much else. So,
you know, a couple of areas or a couple of
fights I should say, in the Mountain Pass before you
go into the caves underneath, and that's kind of where
the rest of Act two seemed to be. So I
think because of the the lantern mechanic and you need
that moonlight lantern with you. That's where some of the
linearity came in. And then I just felt like the
the area overall filter a little felt a little less exploration,
exploration focused a little more later. I know there is
like different directions you can go, but I guess I
found myself just kind of less intrigued by the general
story beats there. Act two, I guess is when the
villains enter the equation at this point, which I thought
was an interesting choice. I feel like it took a while,
but it I think narrowly didn't did make sense to
kind of just let you explore, learn the game, figure
out some of the players in the world, have like
hints or mention of them, but then not really see
them or be introducing them until X two. I do
think maybe this is the old time to talk about
the villains overall, the three main ones there of Kethick,
Orient and Gortash. I think this was the part that
I felt like was overall quite a bit weaker with
the game, And maybe that's more centered on Gortash as
the main villain, because I just found him particularly not
that interesting or he just would disappear for so long,
or I just seemed like he had gotten to the
point he was through just like this massive manipulation and cunning,
and he was such a strong fighter. But I just
felt like as I was going around Act three, and
I know I'm skipping ahead here a little bit, but
as I was going around in Act three, just messing
things up, taking out his steel watch, doing all these
quest lines, taking out allies of his I felt like
he was never pushing back on anything I was doing.
He was just sitting up in his ivory tower letting
everything happen. And so maybe that felt like a little
weird the way that was connected in And then of
course Kethick, he doesn't make it very far, so you
don't really see how he would flourish in Act three.
But I do think that character was interesting. He had
a cool backstory. It's kind of traumatic and interesting. But
the battle in his base was just amazing. I think
it was really it was really really difficult, took me
many tries. I did really load a lot of saves
in that one. But the initial encounter down at the
very bottom level level, then as you're kind of climbing
through the tower, and then that that fight at the
very roof of the building. I had to reload that
so many times and try so many different strategies because
the one Spider companion he was like right behind me
at the start, and then Kethrick's up there his other
homies that he's spawning the other zombies things, and it
was just such a difficult fight. Eventually I was able
to clench it out and knock him down into like
the the well down below where you do the fight
against the kind of Kaiju version of him, and that
fight went a little bit better. It was still pretty intense,
but it went a lot better, but I think the
phases of that fight was really enjoyable, and Act two
ended in a good way, even if like for the
most part, I was a little uninterested in what generally
happened there. But as I mentioned, yeah, Jahira eventually joined
my party. I really liked her move set with like
the Druid stuff mixed with just like the spells that
I was putting on her were really strong, Like she
was essentially my ice storm machine every fight, even deep
into Act three, even into like the final battle, She's
just throwing ice storms everywhere, like the most effective spell
in the whole game. For me, it was so so
damn good. So as we get into Act three a
little bit more, I guess I'll finish some thoughts on
the villains there. So I think I think Orin was
the most successful villain for me, the most interesting one.
I found that she was the most intimidating. I felt
like she was around the most because she would be
popping up at your camp and you know, she kidnapped
Laizel at one point, leaving notes uh, and then just
that dynamic of wanting to turn on Gortash and offering
some of these uh. Of course she didn't mean any
of it. She was just trying to manipulate you too.
But I felt in that way she was maybe the
most dynamic villain. She was moving around the most, doing
the most. Like when you weren't directly having a cut
scene with her, it felt like she was actually a
part of that world. And then just all this stuff
of like her base, her villainy. That stuff was terrifying
and so expansive and like this whole cult that she
kind of became a bit of a leader in I
thought was all really entertaining. I think her fight was
like total bs that you have to like what hit
her like seven times per term before you can like
start dealing damage to her. I'm sure there's ways around it,
but that was another fight that I found very very difficult,
and I feel like the only way I could ever
finally beat it was by just really cheesing it pretty hard,
which I didn't feel bad about because it felt very
one sided and very ope. But yeah, I think or
In overall was maybe my favorite of the villains. I
think she was the most yeah, the most interesting, I'll
put it that way. As we get into Act three
a little bit more, I know I'm kind of skipping
through a lot of this stuff pretty quickly. I think
if I did have someone else on this cast with me,
maybe be a bit better breakdown how we differed in
our roots. But this is kind of just my path
through the game. But I think Act three, like the
city of balders Gate, I feel like is up there
as one of my favorite video game cities ever at
this point. It's just so expansive, the amount of interesting
characters that you can talk to, the amount of buildings houses,
whether it's like a house that has no relevance to anything,
or if it is a place that has some side
quest storyline attached to it, There's just so much to
go into. When I eventually discovered the sewers and this
whole huge underground area on top of that, and I
feel like my plan with Balder's Gate was like, Okay,
I'm gonna do one big lap. I'm gonna go into
all the shops, meet all the people. Okay, I'm gonna
do all that. It took me hours and hours to
do that because all the things that can distract you.
And then once I had done that, I was looked
at the map and I was like, man, I feel
like I missed a ton of things stolen. So I
did another lap, found another five or six shops that
I had missed, and I feel like did a third
lap after that too, and just discovered even more. And
then once I kind of had it all charted out,
then I was like, Okay, which question do I want
to go do? Which big battles do I want to
go take out the Vampire Mansion? Do I want to
go to the whatever that place where Shadow Hearts people
come from and go do that whole section. I feel
like that was kind of my way I was kind
of setting up setting the table and then deciding which
way I wanted to tackle it. That was super duper
fun I had. I had a great time with Act
three overall. I love the city setting of it all.
The vampire section that one was really funny. One. I
liked the there's kind of a goofiness to the mansion
when you're first in theore in there. I think it's
Kazador's the name of the guy there. And then the
battle down below this was like one of the funniest
fights for me. I just cheesed it so hard by
sending one unit up far to activate the enemies and
then just retreating to this like massive endless staircase and
just putting so many traps and sloughs and ice and
poison on that staircase and just making it like a
just a death trap for anyone who walked through. Like
the only one that could make it past that death
trap was Kzador. But since he was alone at that
point up with my characters, I could solo him down
pretty quick, and man aestarian, he was pissed that I
did not bring him on that mission, which would have
been of course very cathartic for him to have that
moment to take out his oppressor in that case, but
you know what, Starring, You're gonna have to deal with it.
You weren't strong enough, you weren't unique enough, and so
you got to sit on the bench. But that was
that was a funny, funny sequence, and I really enjoyed
that fight. And a very similar situation happened with the
fight in that section with shadow Heart the Revenge for
shadow Heart, and the that base as well also had
a big staircase and that just became a death corridor
where I took out so many enemies on that staircase
and just had one or two enemies kind of slowly
leaking through and they would just get destroyed as they
made it past my death traps. Really really fun, and
that moment I think was maybe my favorite. Shadow Heart
was the character that my protagonist romanced in this game,
and I think I was trying my best to do
the best thing for her and that moment with her
with her parents and you have so many options there,
does she sacrificed yourself? Eventually what ended up happening was
the parents decided to sacrifice themselves that she could live
her life, and I thought that was a very touching moment,
and yeah, it was. It was very sweet, even though
it was very dark and sad at the same time.
And I feel like it took her a while before,
not that she ever got over it, but yeah, I
feel like it took a while before she really kind
of bounced back from that. She needed to take a
break for a little bit. So yeah, I really really
enjoyed that sequence as well. Another really tough fight, but
one that eventually worked out in the end. I feel like,
just maybe talking about the combat a little bit more overall,
I think that overall I love the combat in this
I feel like I've I've played D and D a
few times, but I feel like it after this game,
I have a much better understanding of how the mechanics
of D and D combat actually work. And I mean
just having the visual of it and having the game
obviously process all of the actions and do all the
math for you makes it a lot more easy and
engaging as well then playing tabletop for sure, But I
think that the combat was super fun. It reminded me
a lot of Midnight Suns. And then the way it's like, okay,
it's kind of tactics turn based, but it's not set
on a specific grid. There's a lot more freedom, there's
a lot more interaction with the environments if you want
to do that kind of thing. Positioning is super important.
Positioning your characters, you know, not necessarily right next to
each other, trying to have some space, but maybe you
do want them next to each other for certain things
as well. And I just think it was a very
engaging system, and it got very complex by the end
of the game when your characters are higher level and
they have a ton of powers and abilities. On top
of that, they have a bunch of potions or scrolls
and other things that they can use. So it did
get very complicated. And there are certain characters that I
feel like I never even really explored their move sets fully.
Like Jahira is a great example, where As I mentioned,
she was kind of my ice storm generator and that
would take up a lot of turns of her spending
ice storm over and over again. Then eventually would trans
former into the Velociraptor and then she would just go
ham on people. But I specked her down the route
where she was like a I don't know, I forget
what it was called. It was like an undead she
could turn into like a mold beast creature vegetation thing.
I know, I don't know the name for all of this,
but I feel like I never even used that transformation.
I just never found the right time to do it.
She kind of had a subclass thing where she could
like summon zombies from corpses as well, which were really
good as just tanking shots or distracting my opponents. That
worked out really well, and I think shadow Heart really
came into her own as kind of a support but
also a conjurer. By the end of the game, she
was kind of frequently bringing in different summons, which once
again helped distract, helped block pathways, so that was super
duper effective. Carlac just went full on in the tank route.
I think I wanted maybe a bit more from her,
maybe I was missing a subclass, or maybe I should
have switched her to a different class, but I felt
like the I think it was barbarian is that she is,
and I had her in like bare form, just constantly
going rage mode, and I feel like she didn't really
get many interesting changes to her place sets as she
kind of got to level twelve in those last few
levels and then, as I mentioned, my character really just
focusing on that range DPS, multiple attacks, huge aoeiz, that
kind of thing, just sneaking around a lot as well
get some cheap shots on people. The combat overall, I
think was definitely my highlight of the game, even if
some of the fights, specifically an Act three were a
bit cheesy. I think there was a bit too much
of like instakil mechanics or enemies that had too many
ways that they would just instantly or infinitively like block
damage until certain things have been done and after you know.
It took me to the point where I had to
like google a lot of things like how do I
deal with this particular buff or d buff? And the
answer was like, h you kind of don't, or you
get really lucky, or you ideally kill the opponent before
they can use that buff. And I didn't really like
say some of that, And I feel like the game
kind of struggled a bit with the balance at the end,
and it's like, Okay, once you hit twelve and you're
super strong, how do we make the enemies keep up?
And it seemed like the best way to do that
was to make them kind of annoyingly cheesy. They almost
turned into like puzzle fights rather than boss fights, if
that makes sense. And I think that was another thing too,
Like I hit level twelve, which was max level, I
feel like, fairly early on in Act three, and so
then there was a lot of Act three where I
wasn't really getting much fun progression anymore. I was, you know,
getting some new gear every once in a while, but yeah,
I don't know, I think a little bit higher of
a level cap would have been fun. And I don't
know how you would rebalance everything. I know, since they
used the D and D rules, it's kind of hard
to change too much without getting too overpowered. But that
was something that I felt like maybe took away some
of the enjoyment of like the very tail end of
the game was just not feeling that sense of progression anymore.
But overall, I just absolutely loved the I love the
combat of the game, and it's definitely something that I'm given.
All the classes and subclasses and weapon types and styles.
I feel like on a replay would be really fun
to try just a totally different set of characters, because
I was a pretty standard like range GPS, front face
tank healer and then just kind of like a flex role,
and I feel like, you know, it's a pretty standard build,
but you could do some pretty crazy things, I'm sure,
especially on a second play through, once you know a
little bit more. Let's see what have I not talked
about in Act three here? I think the section where
Lazel gets kidnapped, like it's felt like really large stakes.
I thought that was really cool, really well done. It
was felt good to save her. I'm glad that I
guess at that point in the story she was no
longer part of that main crew, because that would have
been a huge hit if one of my main players
had been taken away, and then Oran's base, like, I
definitely needed to level up a lot before I went
and fought her because of how hard that fight was.
As we approach kind of the very very ending of it.
I think the Gortash fight a little janky because of
some of his abilities, but that was a really fun
one as well, where I just feel like I janked
him out so hard of so many poisons and stuns
and knocking him over and just like essentially triggering the
fight and then running out the doors and then doing
the fight kind of outside and slowly setting up traps
that would slow them and take them out one at
a time. It was really fun. It took me a
couple of tries, but I was happy to finally take
him out. That felt really good. And then I think
that led into some really interesting stuff with Carlac as
a character, and how like this was her goal for
so long, was to get revenge against Gortash who had
toyed with her so much, and how she felt that
after his death that she just didn't really feel anything
from it. I felt like it was a very powerful,
powerful reaction. And after that she just went back to
the base. She's like, I just got a chill for
a bit. And then she came around and she was
like she caught the fire in her belly and that
led her to kind of join back up with me
and go do some fighting in the very end there.
And yeah, that's when you get to the eventual point
where you got to figure out, Okay, what's who's going
to make a sacrifice here? Are you going to sacrifice yourself?
Turned yourself into a mind flare in order to take
the the evil brain, the eternal brain. I forget what
the brain is called, but a car, you know, she
really convinced me that she should be the one to
make that sacrifice, and I felt like it was very
justified in like a very fitting not even end for
her character, because that was the reason why she could
continue to live. And so I felt like that was
really powerful and really lined up nicely with the Gortash
storyline that had happened kind of just before that. I think, overall,
as a setting or a choice for Villainy, I wasn't
a huge fan of the mind Flayers as a villain
in this. I think there's a fine line in this
game of like grounded fantasy to like more high tech stuff,
but when we get into that, it felt a little
too sci fi and the fact that they have these
huge like Avengers airships that are like firing shots down
on the city. I just didn't love the ideas behind it,
and like some of the villains didn't really work in
that way. So that was something I felt like it
was a little bit weaker as a setting choice, or
at least it just didn't work for me. It didn't
really add to the game overall, and that's obviously what
a lot of the end of the game is. I
still think it led to some really fun fights, like
the final fight in the against the dragon and then
the other homies up there. That is firing endless missiles
at you was a really tough fight, took me multiple tries,
but that's one where you're summing it in people and
kind of the final siege of the city. I loved
that mechanic of summoning in people to help you fight.
I thought that was really cool. I felt bad for
Dame Alen. She I had saved her and she was
kind of at my camp at all times, and I
really liked her personality wise. I brought her into that
final fight and just some of her movements were absolutely
wild choices which led to her death in that sequence,
and I felt really bad and I almost considered reloading
to save so she could live, but I was like,
you know what, these are the consequences. She did help
a little bit, but then she was just walking into
really bad directions and she got taken out and I
couldn't save her, unfortunately. But that fight against the dragon
was really really fun, and then just going down and
taking out the brain at the very end there was
all really cool, and I think the epilogue was really
nice and beautiful as well. How your characters go off.
They spend a few months on their own, traveling, doing
their own things, living their lives, and then they kind
of come back for this dinner afterwards a year what
they've been up to and what they're planning to do next,
and then the people who aren't there getting a letter
from each of them and just getting a little information.
I think the one that was missing for me was
I think her name is Isabelle. Yeah, that's the partner
of Aalen, and I feel like I don't think I
got an update from her, and I wanted to know
what was going on with her, especially after her partner
had died. There, I feel like there was nothing mentioned
about that apparently that I was reading that that sequence
that epilogue was like added after the game came out,
or maybe it was related to the Early Access and
just came in very late. I'm not sure. Well, I
think the Early Access was only Act one, so I
think that was something I read that came very much later,
which would be crazy to me because I feel like
that was kind of the perfect ending and the ending
I needed to be satisfied with everything that was going
on there, trying to think what else I would like
to mention about this game. I think, yeah, just there's
so much that happens in Act three, and I kind
of mentioned a couple of highlights but glossed over some
other things. The sequence of going through the steel Watch factory,
I think that was a really really fun setting huge base.
Took a really long time and really slowly just picking
off one player at a time. The final section of
that I found very very difficult. That when you get
to the control room and there's there's four massive steel
Watch guys in there, and the only way I could
do that was like I would just choose that door
because they could not go through the loading zone door.
So I'd go through the loading zone door, use all
of my everything to target one of them down, kill it,
leave the room, go do a long rest, come back,
take out another one, go long rest, come back. And
I had to do that many times. It took a
lot of saves. That one section probably took me like
two or three hours, if not more, just to take
those guys out. But I really liked that sequence. I
think it was a lot of fun going through all
of that, and yeah, just once again, like I just
love that city, all the different merchants and personalities going
on there. There's a lot of minor quests going on,
like the haunted mansion, which led to like that mummy
and the tomb and some other house across town, and
that was really fun to kind of go back and
forth between those got characters, just going through the bank
and the vaults once again. The sewer section was so massive,
such huge fights and just exploration to be doing down there.
That kind of felt like in another act too, just
jammed conveniently underneath the city. So overall, I just loved
Act three and I think it really came together for
all of the main characters. The characters I cared most
about it was. It was really just a really great time,
really great game. You know, voice acting is fantastic. I
think the game is visually very beautiful. The music was
really great. I think the use of the narrator was
just brilliant and it's something I want to see more
games do. I think it's such a clever way to
or to add like choices or reactions to things you're doing.
And obviously the performance there of the narrator. I forget
if that the narrator got a gnom at the Game Awards,
but definitely should have that that is just such a
great addition to the story overall. So yeah, I think
the game was super duper fun. I don't know what's
next for me in this kind of RPG world, Like
I don't I think the old balders Gate games look
pretty dated. Don't know if i'd want to go back
to them. I don't know if I should jump to
some other Larian project or maybe maybe just cool off,
take a break, come back to this game, or just
play whatever Larrying makes next, which they've confirmed is not
another balders Gate game. They're going to go, I think
work on their own IP so we'll see what ends
up happening there and how similar it is to this
D and D and setting that they've done for their
last few games. So yeah, I think that's all I
have to say on this game at this point in time.
I'm sure we'll bring it up more on the podcast
in the future, when I know Travis wants to eventually
play at Kirkland has been playing through it actively have
more to share in the future. But yeah, overall, a
really great game and I'm very happy to put it
at my number three spot for the years. This is
a fun little double combo episode. Let me know what
you think of my new top ten, if you had
another thoughts on balders Gate, things that I forgot to
mention that you're curious about. With my playthrough, it was
a really, really great game. I'm glad I finally got
around to it and gave it the time it deserved
to see it to the finish. So thank you everyone
for listening, and I'll see you again next time. Bye bye,