The dialogue is overall pretty snappy and entertaining. I especially love having Serafen around just to listen to the pirate insult-names that get thrown around.
When Maia leaves your party temporarily during her questline, if Pallegina is in the party Maia says something along the lines of "you'll just have to make do with your other bird friend for a while :)" and Pallegina gives her the finger. I just about actually lol'ed the first time I saw it, the banter between those two is great.
I was thinking about that earlier. I know a lot of people feel like Pallegina was presented as much grumpier and meaneer in the sequel.
I honestly think it's just that so many of the other companions are designed to piss her off. Maia and her have a rivalry due to their factions. Xoti is a religious fanatic. Tekehu takes a diametrically opposed view on being a Godlike, which is presumably infuriating.
But for those of us who don't have a problem with a bit of inter-party conflict (seriously I see people bringing it up as a bad thing and I can't quite relate), the banter is really entertaining! Even the stuff that isn't humorous is *interesting*, as it lets you understand these characters more deeply.
The companions that she has beef with are also generally the fun-loving, adventurous ones, so she comes across as a bit of a buzzkill, like Aloth. Her zealotry is more obvious when the factions are so present in this game, and more jarring when we see so many bad things from the VTC, and even Aloth politely calls her out on some of this.
It seems like no-one but possibly the Watcher supports her in her decision to become less Godlike, which obviously is upsetting for her. She's very warm if you actually have her back on stuff. I think when you make an effort to understand her, she's actually very likeable.
The conflicts are really good - particularly Maia and Tekēhu, who genuinely upset each other and have to tentatively rebuild bridges.
I love that they all have their own motivations and will actually stick to their principles. Also that it's a little different for each one. Pallegina is a Paladin and won't abandon the Republics no matter what, much like Xoti won't give up her faith.
Meanwhile Serafen really isn't married to his faction at all. As long as you're doing right by him and his beliefs he'll stick by you.
Each approach makes sense to that specific character, and I enjoy that. While I don't love the clash between the faction story and the big apocalytic story going on, the faction story would feel even worse if there wasn't some weight to it in the form of not being able to stay friends with all of your companions.
Deadfire *could* have had loyalty missions like ME2 that would make the companions follow you without fail, but honestly I'm happy that different games handle these things differently, so we get a *variety* of stories. Gods know RPGs and narrative games aren't all that plentiful, so I'm happy that different studios and even just different titles take different approaches.
Now Avowed (and Gamepass, I guess) better keep Eora alive 'cause these games and stories are really something special!
Meeting Aloth's old classmate-turned-stripper in Queen's Berth.
I know saying "This is *incredible*." or something along those lines when Aloth is there with you loses influence with him, which can already be pretty hard to come by.
But fuck it, I can't *not* torment Aloth.
Of course it's also funny when he has his fun with Edér, like offering to help him with the math regarding Olafa's son. Or just generally any Aloth/Edér/Iselmyr banter. Just listening to Matt Mercer abusing himself all day long in various forms.
It seems like Aloth is a lot easier to have rep with if he has the background where he takes command of the Leaden Key. I haven't really seen this mentioned or confirmed anywhere but I'm quite certain from my own experiences. He seems to be less judgy and convicted.
I think it's left kind of ambiguous. All I know for sure is that it 'twas a right fierce labor getting him to finger any flesh that wasn't covering his spellybooks. But whether there was an actual relationship or a one-sided interest or literally just Iselmyr yelling "Do it! Do it!" in his head, I'm less sure about.
Honestly I almost never do any romance in these games. Even in BG2 when romances were first introduced into this kind of RPG (I mean maybe there were other RPGs with gamified romance in them before but I can't remember any) the romances have been kind of awkward. Well, *really* awkward. In games like Dragon Age/Mass Effect it makes a bit more sense since those games are like 50% dating sim, 50% epic adventure. But in most RPGs it often feels like romance was just kind of tacked on because it's somehow become an expected feature of the genre.
The dialogue is overall pretty snappy and entertaining. I especially love having Serafen around just to listen to the pirate insult-names that get thrown around.
When Maia leaves your party temporarily during her questline, if Pallegina is in the party Maia says something along the lines of "you'll just have to make do with your other bird friend for a while :)" and Pallegina gives her the finger. I just about actually lol'ed the first time I saw it, the banter between those two is great.
I was thinking about that earlier. I know a lot of people feel like Pallegina was presented as much grumpier and meaneer in the sequel. I honestly think it's just that so many of the other companions are designed to piss her off. Maia and her have a rivalry due to their factions. Xoti is a religious fanatic. Tekehu takes a diametrically opposed view on being a Godlike, which is presumably infuriating. But for those of us who don't have a problem with a bit of inter-party conflict (seriously I see people bringing it up as a bad thing and I can't quite relate), the banter is really entertaining! Even the stuff that isn't humorous is *interesting*, as it lets you understand these characters more deeply.
The companions that she has beef with are also generally the fun-loving, adventurous ones, so she comes across as a bit of a buzzkill, like Aloth. Her zealotry is more obvious when the factions are so present in this game, and more jarring when we see so many bad things from the VTC, and even Aloth politely calls her out on some of this. It seems like no-one but possibly the Watcher supports her in her decision to become less Godlike, which obviously is upsetting for her. She's very warm if you actually have her back on stuff. I think when you make an effort to understand her, she's actually very likeable. The conflicts are really good - particularly Maia and Tekēhu, who genuinely upset each other and have to tentatively rebuild bridges.
I really like that the party doesn't really ever end up falling into the easy found family default.
I love that they all have their own motivations and will actually stick to their principles. Also that it's a little different for each one. Pallegina is a Paladin and won't abandon the Republics no matter what, much like Xoti won't give up her faith. Meanwhile Serafen really isn't married to his faction at all. As long as you're doing right by him and his beliefs he'll stick by you. Each approach makes sense to that specific character, and I enjoy that. While I don't love the clash between the faction story and the big apocalytic story going on, the faction story would feel even worse if there wasn't some weight to it in the form of not being able to stay friends with all of your companions. Deadfire *could* have had loyalty missions like ME2 that would make the companions follow you without fail, but honestly I'm happy that different games handle these things differently, so we get a *variety* of stories. Gods know RPGs and narrative games aren't all that plentiful, so I'm happy that different studios and even just different titles take different approaches. Now Avowed (and Gamepass, I guess) better keep Eora alive 'cause these games and stories are really something special!
Obsidian always crush it when it comes to dialogue.
Meeting Aloth's old classmate-turned-stripper in Queen's Berth. I know saying "This is *incredible*." or something along those lines when Aloth is there with you loses influence with him, which can already be pretty hard to come by. But fuck it, I can't *not* torment Aloth. Of course it's also funny when he has his fun with Edér, like offering to help him with the math regarding Olafa's son. Or just generally any Aloth/Edér/Iselmyr banter. Just listening to Matt Mercer abusing himself all day long in various forms.
It seems like Aloth is a lot easier to have rep with if he has the background where he takes command of the Leaden Key. I haven't really seen this mentioned or confirmed anywhere but I'm quite certain from my own experiences. He seems to be less judgy and convicted.
I thought that was his old boyfriend/lover?
I think it's left kind of ambiguous. All I know for sure is that it 'twas a right fierce labor getting him to finger any flesh that wasn't covering his spellybooks. But whether there was an actual relationship or a one-sided interest or literally just Iselmyr yelling "Do it! Do it!" in his head, I'm less sure about.
I just experienced this dialogue yesterday. Absolutely loving the game so far (probably shoupdve started with 1 then 2, but im already 30hrs into it)
Most of it is fine or at least funny but good grief some of the romance dialogue is just dreadful.
Honestly I almost never do any romance in these games. Even in BG2 when romances were first introduced into this kind of RPG (I mean maybe there were other RPGs with gamified romance in them before but I can't remember any) the romances have been kind of awkward. Well, *really* awkward. In games like Dragon Age/Mass Effect it makes a bit more sense since those games are like 50% dating sim, 50% epic adventure. But in most RPGs it often feels like romance was just kind of tacked on because it's somehow become an expected feature of the genre.
Party banter is the best part of poe. My favorite is in the first game the banter between Pallegina and Durance.