Can we have a thread about the Piranha Byte games? Should I

>>389439485
maybe
no
yes

>>389439678
The first one was an either/or question.

>>389439485
>Should I replay Gothic 1 or Gothic 2?

Are you kidding me?

Video very related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVYrALStucs

>>389440375
No, you misunderstand me. I very much want to replay one of those games, I am just not sure which one.

>>389440464
Okay, so whats your criteria? Gothic 2 is pretty much an improvement in every single way except arguably atmosphere and a tighter design in G1. So I'd say if you really HAD to choose I'd play G2 if you have enough time to get into it. But then again, if you have so much time on your hands why not replay both?

play gothics in order
ignore risen, its shit
probably

>>389440557
Dunno, honestly I could have just tossed a coin. I have played Gothic 2 more, so 1 might be a fresh breath of air to some degree.

Really, I just wanted to talk about Gothic, and since Elex will release in a month I just tossed Elex and Risen into the mix aswell.

I played through Gothic 1 a year ago and will soon install Gothic 2 + NotR. I heard its hard as balls, anything to be aware of?

>>389440873
Honestly, I would recommend playing Gothic 2 vanilla first, and then playing NotR a while later when you get the craving for Gothic again.

Generally, for NotR, I'd say don't be a mage on your first playthrough. Sure, it would pay off in the end, but it is a pain in the ass to get there if you don't know exactly what you are doing, and you might end up not enjoying the game at all.

>>389440873
Play without addon first. Also fuck dx11 mod and l'hivertextures . Anisotropic filtering and antialiasing is all you need.

>>389440652
>ignore risen, its shit
Risen is not shit. It's definitely a budget rpg though. Great music, great sense of progression, decent combat, good exploration and some wierd design choices.

>>389441003
>playing Gothic 2 vanilla first
>>389441024
>Play without addon first.

Do I even have a choice with Gothic Gold?

>>389439485
The only good PB game is Risen 3.

>>389441113
Yes, you can launch it without notr content.

>>389441083
I think Risen's biggest fault was that halfway through the game you have basically seen everything, and the overworld becomes just a boring area to traverse - notice how many fucking quick travel runes you get to compensate for that. Sure, at some point some lizard people roam around, but that is it. There really isn't much going on in the overworld anyway. I think there is a quest to find some cursed rings (which doesn't give you a good reward despite being one of the longest side quests in the game), and then you have to find all the golden platters which makes you travel the entire map. I don't think there are many other quests that have you go somewhere other than the busy places like harbor town or the monastery.

Also, the fact that you cannot leave the monastery/town once you enter them until a certain point, while narratively sound, limits the quest design further, and also lowers the replay value as you basically play the game in episodes rather than forging your own path and doing quests when you want and leaving when you don't.
(Yeah, I know, you could jump over the wall, but the game doesn't really reward you for that as there isn't much going on outside of the town at that point.)

>>389441113
Don't get me wrong, you could totally play NotR on your first playthrough. Some anons on here told me they did and they still love the game. It's just my personal experience speaking here.

>>389441137
I haven't played it, please elaborate.

>>389441540
>Don't get me wrong, you could totally play NotR on your first playthrough. Some anons on here told me they did and they still love the game. It's just my personal experience speaking here.

Can it really be that rough, though? As I understand it, NotR was a deliberate reblance requested by fans.

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>>389441692
Nah. Point is to maximize your EXP gain per chapter aka kill everything you can and do all the quests. Many people gimp themselves initially by just doing stuff for the side they're going to join, for example. Other than that you approach the game as if you were its bitch and not some hotshot player.

>>389441692
It is a reballance to make a lot of the game harder.

For example, the amount of skillpoints necessary to level your weapon skills/stats increases after certain thresholds, so your character growth is slower after a certain point. Stuff like that. Like that other anon said, if you go in minmaxing like shit you will manage. But I don't think minmaxing is necessarily all that fun on your first playthrough of a game.

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>>389441083
Problem with Risen trilogy is after the first they basically ditched the Gothic formula for a more focused and console-friendly setup game. First Risen ran horribly on console and as a result you got islands separated by loading screens in the other two.

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>>389441692
It's rough. A lot of stuff you will miss without experience in the game or using a guide. Little tricks and stuff and ways to end quests. You've played gothic 1 though, so I think you should just dive in to Notr. It really is a good experience even with it's difficulty. You WILL get raped though, so save often. I recommend you look up tricks to using your LP and maybe a build or two to get you familiar with what works well.

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>>389439485
>Should I replay Gothic 1 or Gothic 2?
G1 is extremely linear and you will most likely drop it after completing the first chapter, replayability is non-existant, on the other side — it's never a bad idea to replay G2, you can try some mods as well.
>Should I even bother playing Risen 2 or 3?
Nu-piranha product, has barely any value, if you really want something like Gothic you can try it, but you might as well try G3 or TES at this point.
>Thoughts on Elex? Will it be trash?
Another low budget nu-piranha product, It probably will be trash, although I will check it out anyway.

Gothic 1 has a better final dungeon than Gothic 2.

>>389442429
I heard that Risen 3 is a step up from Risen 1. Also, a friend of mine told me that they finally managed to properly balance the magic system somewhat in Risen 3, which is a struggle felt throughout all of Piranha Byte's games - it is either too OP (like Gothic 2 with all its fire rain and death waves) or way too tame, homogenized and boring (Risen 1). I don't know how Risen 3 handled it though - after all, I haven't played it yet.
I think all in all I prefer Gothic 2's multitude of OP spells, because you have to really work your way up to using them with runes.

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>>389442628
Epilepsy alert

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>>389442752
to be fair both ranged and magic were never primary combat modes in gothic unless you glitched the geometry or until you got op spells. melee is what the game is about.

>>389442954
My friend is currently playing through Gothic 2 bow and magic only, and he says it gets pretty OP once you reach the mine valley.
I mean, sure, melee probably is the way to go as ranged attacks make it too easy to cheese enemies sometimes, but it is fun that the game actually allows for diverse builds.

>>389442752
Risen's Melee Magic is dope (but hella OP)

>>389443153
Magic is always then powerfull when you just got a fresh new spell that can one-shot stuff your on your level or summon stuff that does the one-shotting for you. However you get a massive breakdown in Chapter 4 where you have to resort to shrinking/summon demon scrolls to even be able to cause lasting harm to the dragons.

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>>389439485
>Beat Gothic 1 a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale
>It was pretty mediocre but it satiated my thirst for a WRPG
>fire up Gothic 2 about a week ago
>reach the first town
>exit game
>haven't booted it since

Is it just me or is the 2nd one boring as fuck? Is it even worth playing?

>>389444672
Gothic 2 is one of the best games ever made. Just don't approach it like an Elder Scrolls game. Try to explore and experiment. Don't just follow instructions.

>>389444672
Its probably just you. Khorinis is one of the best towns in an rpg. Granted its helped by being the only town, but it acts as a hub as well, similar to the city in bg2. Gothic 2 may have its problems, but it def ain't boring.

>>389444340
What melee magic was there in Risen? Weren't there just three projectile spells and then one end game fire explosion?

>>389439485
As much as I love the game the only good ones
G1>>>G2>>>>>>>>Risen
G3 perhaps with the community patch but every time I try to play it I just lose interest before even reaching the second town, it just feels so different and generic compared to 1 and 2. Risen 2/3 are trash since they fell for the console meme and I have sadly lost trust in them to make anything good again.

>>389445103
3 is better.

>>389447280
Why do you place 1 so far above 2? Or are you just overusing the "bigger than" sign for no real reason?
I mean, I can accept that people put 1 above 2 (though I disagree with it), but why would you put such an emphasis on 1 being that much better?

>>389447591
Mostly just hyperbole I guess though I do vastly prefer the whole atmosphere and story of 1 over 2. 2 undeniably improved gameplay and graphics but 1 will always be my favourite.

>>389441904
The rebalancing in Notr seemed busted even more. Its hard as balls in the start but you can get the second strongest weapon in the game before going to VoM for the first time and 3shot the rest of the enemies.

>>389447770
I wouldn't say G2 improved the gameplay itself that much. It improved animations, menus and interaction (no more Ctrl+Up), but the gameplay itself was largely the same. I think it added a strafing buttong, but that's it.

No, what Gothic 2 did improve was the world design and quest progression. It took the general philosophy of Gothic 1 and built on that a ton.
But yeah, the atmosphere in Gothic 1 is really unique. Gothic 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, but I also respect Gothic a great deal for what it did.

>>389448131
IF you knew what you were doing. I think I'd consider NotR more as a "second quest" mode than a rebalance.