Author Topic: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  (Read 52882 times)

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #80 on: Monday, May 25, 2015, 04:49:18 PM »
Oh jesus?  Corrupted saves?  Yeah, stay away until they fix that - losing a save usually means I'll stop playing a game.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #81 on: Monday, May 25, 2015, 10:04:06 PM »
Here is the issue in more detail and . . . officiousness?  I'm guessing PC players are in the clear.  Plus you can back up your files anyway.

Edit:  After reading more about it, it seems to be an issue with the standby ("instant on") mode.  It wouldn't be the first game to have problems with it.  I experienced weirdness across system suspends (rather than full power off) without quitting out of a game before.  Great idea, but not properly implemented.  I stopped using it months ago.  ("Power off" now really means power off.)  So maybe it's not as bad as I thought even on the Xbox.  But still, I will wait a while for more stability fixes before even considering it.

Offline gpw11

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Re:
« Reply #82 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 12:40:25 AM »
Well, I guess the good news is that it seems the developers are pumping out patches for PC so consoles can't be too far behind.    When I was first playing I was getting a fair amount of lockups in the inventory and also crashes to the desktop but they seem to have fixed that.   They seem dedicated to supporting the game, which is good.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #83 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 07:00:11 AM »
It's funny how people are accustomed to game crashes now, and don't think much about them.  They used to be rare and shocking.

There is also the issue of frame pacing.  These guys need to learn a bit more about how to handle fluctuating frame rates gracefully.  They should check out AC Unity, which is something I'm surprised to be saying.

Offline MysterD

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #84 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 04:23:22 PM »

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #85 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 07:16:56 PM »
It's funny how people are accustomed to game crashes now, and don't think much about them.  They used to be rare and shocking.




Well, for crashes with PC games I think it's kind of always been a think since I got into PC gaming at all (2002 or so).  I mean, I'm not positive but I do remember having problems with certain games way back when.

Offline Xessive

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #86 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 08:39:01 PM »
Crashes were way more frequent for me back in those days. It was relatively acceptable, almost expected, that a game might crash on occasion. If there was an error message we try to figure it out or wait it out if we can't.

In recent times, crashes have been very rare for me. If a game crashes I feel like there's a serious problem and I check the forums to see if anyone else is experiencing the same crash.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #87 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 09:49:29 PM »
You know,  I think Cobra might be saying Crashes are way more common on consoles now - I totally agree with that.  Pretty much unheard of before the last generation, as far as I can remember.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #88 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 10:03:49 PM »
Do you remember when Twilight Princess had a game-ending bug if you happened to do something in a room with a cannon?  That was like the end of days.  Never before had a Nintendo game fucked up like that.  It just did not happen.  Now, if something doesn't work the way I expect in a game, I assume it's a bug immediately, until something I read shows me I'm wrong.  Sad changes.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #89 on: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 11:59:58 PM »
I don't remember that specifically (I never really played Twilight Princess past the first couple of hours) but I can imagine - back then a game breaking bug on a console meant a.) it would never be fixed for a lot of people and b.) the company would most likely have to issue a reprint.  Huge deal.  You're right, now it's more or less par for the course in console games.

I still think, however, that console games in general do have less bugs than PC releases - for obvious and forgivable reasons.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #90 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 07:08:48 AM »
Here's a well-written and apparently well-reasoned article proposing that the best difficulty for TW3 is Easy.  In short, the claim is that combat is sub-par, falling into a hole between Street-Fighter and Batman-Arkham-City combat styles.  This combined with the tedium of staying healthy at the higher difficulties only detracts from the real strengths of the game, namely the sprawling huge world and the goings-on.  See what you think.  It's a refreshingly literate read at least.

Offline K-man

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #91 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 09:12:49 AM »
That article summarizes how I feel about my experience with The Witcher 2 so far.  The combat is really a means to an end, and there isn't nearly enough depth in the combat system to warrant making it more difficult.  It's one thing to become accustomed to a system like Dark Souls, where there's enough breathing room for you to become better.  But The Witcher's combat confines you into this small box, and sometimes you truly have no control over whether you receive damage.


Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #92 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 12:05:30 PM »
That's disappointing.  I'm not interested in excruciatingly hard combat, but I still want a properly designed battle system which allows responding to some thrilling challenge.  I wonder if it's fixable, or if they'd acknowledge the need to fix it.

Offline K-man

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #93 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 01:45:07 PM »
I can't speak for 3.  But 2's combat reminds me of a cross between a dice roll and the Batman Arkham games. Combat in the original title was pretty atrocious.

The only real depth comes in preparing/drinking potions that would help combat status effects or increase damage.  You can also do things like set traps and throw bombs.  The combat *looks* real time but it's really not.

Offline Xessive

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #94 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 01:58:36 PM »
Hey, I got a free code for The Witcher 3 on PC (GOG.com), must be redeemed through https://redeem.geforce.com.

Since I already have the game, if anyone is interested just PM me.

Offline MysterD

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #95 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 02:35:40 PM »
Hey, I got a free code for The Witcher 3 on PC (GOG.com), must be redeemed through https://redeem.geforce.com.

Since I already have the game, if anyone is interested just PM me.

Are you serious?
PM flying in!

I'll activate it and hold onto it until I buy a new vid-card, if you still got the code!

Offline MysterD

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Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #97 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 07:14:36 PM »
Here's a well-written and apparently well-reasoned article proposing that the best difficulty for TW3 is Easy.  In short, the claim is that combat is sub-par, falling into a hole between Street-Fighter and Batman-Arkham-City combat styles.  This combined with the tedium of staying healthy at the higher difficulties only detracts from the real strengths of the game, namely the sprawling huge world and the goings-on.  See what you think.  It's a refreshingly literate read at least.

Not I think this guy is wrong or anything but I'd recommend at least trying normal difficulty first. The combat is by no means amazing but I haven't really found it to be as broken as the article makes it out to be - more just a bit bland I guess (I can't really remember Witcher 2's combat but I just have that feeling that this is better).  I'm not saying to try the game on normal because I think it will make the combat itself more enjoyable, but just because it will force you take advantage of the mechanics.

I'll occasionally get frustrated with dying in combat and then remember that I'm playing a Witcher, who's a bit different than the regular guy you may play with two swords strapped to your back.  You have to use your Witcher skills and equipment to your advantage.  Group of enemies?  Blind them with one of the bombs you made and cut down half of them. Badass monster? Probably weak to something, better look that up ...oh, and maybe brew some potion to do more damage and make an oil that this monster hates to cover your sword in.   

To me, the fun of the Witcher is figuring out what I need to do to win some of the fights and I only really ever get frustrated when I forget that.  I don't think there's anything wrong with playing on easy, but I have a feeling you won't have to do this nearly as much and you'll just end up bombing through the game without ever having to actually prepare for a fight, etc. 

Also, after I started writing this I went back and watched the video that accompanied the article and I don't know if the guy is just hamming it up or what but he's doing something differently in combat and it's extremely boring to watch - I can see how it would be really frustrating to play - it took him three minutes to finish an encounter I may have gotten through in 30 seconds and it really didn't look fun at all. I won't dissect what he's doing differently or say that he's wrong - play the game the way you want to play it - but definitely judge for yourself before giving the article too much credit.


Offline Xessive

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #98 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 08:40:23 PM »
I'm not gonna say "he's playing it wrong" but the way he was playing is like someone staying put in a Call of Duty game then complaining that it's boring.

The Witcher 3's combat is not complex or revolutionary but it can be gratifying at times. When I dodge at just the right moment and land that final blow, it's just so visceral.

His complaints seem to be based on the fact that he's comparing it to Dark Souls, which I have noticed all my friends who play Dark Souls are also complaining about. It's not the same type of game nor should it be. If it had the same combat as Dark Souls I'd be complaining. Plus his comparison to Street Fighter seems to be solely based on the fact that there are health bars.

To me, the combat is much more akin to the Batman Arkham games though with less variety. Preparation is key but studying the pattern of your foe is critical.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #99 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 09:28:12 PM »
OK, cool.  That's why I wanted feedback.  I have no experience with the game yet.  Also, I thought K-man's first-post mention of TW2 was a typo.  (The "so far" seemed to indicate playing the current game, but maybe he's going through 2 right now?)  If he wasn't talking about TW3, then I guess the consensus is that this writer is just doing it wrong.

Offline MysterD

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #100 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 10:24:28 PM »
The Witcher 3's combat is not complex or revolutionary but it can be gratifying at times. When I dodge at just the right moment and land that final blow, it's just so visceral.
That sounds pretty sweet to me.

Quote
His complaints seem to be based on the fact that he's comparing it to Dark Souls, which I have noticed all my friends who play Dark Souls are also complaining about. It's not the same type of game nor should it be. If it had the same combat as Dark Souls I'd be complaining. Plus his comparison to Street Fighter seems to be solely based on the fact that there are health bars.
IMHO, comparing any RPG's combat to Dark Souls would be just unfair. The combat IS that game - as there's no other game that feels so precise + meticulous w/ it.

Quote
To me, the combat is much more akin to the Batman Arkham games though with less variety. Preparation is key but studying the pattern of your foe is critical.
I loved the Batman Arkham games and thought the combat in those games was awesome.

If you still have that W3 PC key, check your PM's on OWNet here!
Granted, I doubt it'll run well on my 1 GB VRAM 560 Ti - but still, if it ran like crap, would love to toss it aside until I upgraded my vid-card.

Offline gpw11

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Re:
« Reply #101 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 10:33:28 PM »
Yeah, I just went back in ms played a bit.   Combat, while by no means extraordinary, is a lot more functional and fun than he's making it out to be.  He seems to be playing in a way where he's constantly relying upon guarding, parrying, and counter attacking.  A a result he's doing a lot of standing around, getting one or two hits in, and then getting flanked and his attack broken.   Sure, you can play this way - and there might even be a built for it, but its not what I've been doing at all.

I've tended to run in, and try to get the first few strikes in, rolling out of the way when they start to flank and then setting my enemies ablaze, blinding them, or tossing a bomb into their midst while they converge on me.  When the numbers get lower I'll focus on an enemy, strike until he's about to hit me (or I'm getting flanked) and either dodge around him to backstroke or roll out of the way.  I find I rarely block and parry unless against a more powerful enemy. 

Seems fun to me. I think he seems to think the mechanics are a lot more like Assassin's Creed then they are - because that's KIND OF how I play AC games.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #102 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 10:46:39 PM »
Description of the game's combat makes me want to keep away... for now.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #103 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 10:53:34 PM »
It's good enough - it could be better but it really works and the rest of the game is just amazing.

Offline Xessive

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Re:
« Reply #104 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 11:04:00 PM »
The Witcher 2's combat is very similar. Let's not forget that it was also revamped in the Enhanced Edition update, which drastically improved it over the original release.

The combat in TW3 is very similar to TW2EE with various minor tweaks and enhancements. The finishers are also a nice touch.

You also can't just button mash. Depending on the foe, you have to alternate attacks and dodging/parrying.

The common complaint I'm seeing is that there's not much variety in the combat. But I think CDPR kept the variety up to the player by letting you choose to use physical combat, signs, potions, and bombs, or any combination of them. Oh yeah, and the crossbow is a new addition.

I generally combine physical combat with signs, so I feel the combat varies quite a bit depending on the enemies. But the core combat mechanics remain the same throughout the game.

Also, it doesn't matter how strong you are, if you're not careful even the humblest of foes can kill you. Some encounters go smoothly, other similar ones go surprisingly awry. You have to focus when you're fighting. Character level is more or less just an indicator of whether or not you stand a chance.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #105 on: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 11:07:31 PM »
It's funny, I really can't remember any of the the second game's combat at all (I played on release....I think).  I'd say that that couldn't be a good thing, but I remember the first game's and ....well....it wasn't good.

Offline MysterD

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Offline K-man

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #107 on: Thursday, May 28, 2015, 06:47:37 AM »
Playing 2, Cobra.  I figured I needed to play through it before grabbing 3. 

Offline K-man

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Re:
« Reply #108 on: Thursday, May 28, 2015, 08:28:05 AM »
The Witcher 2's combat is very similar. Let's not forget that it was also revamped in the Enhanced Edition update, which drastically improved it over the original release.

The combat in TW3 is very similar to TW2EE with various minor tweaks and enhancements. The finishers are also a nice touch.

You also can't just button mash. Depending on the foe, you have to alternate attacks and dodging/parrying.

The common complaint I'm seeing is that there's not much variety in the combat. But I think CDPR kept the variety up to the player by letting you choose to use physical combat, signs, potions, and bombs, or any combination of them. Oh yeah, and the crossbow is a new addition.

I generally combine physical combat with signs, so I feel the combat varies quite a bit depending on the enemies. But the core combat mechanics remain the same throughout the game.

Also, it doesn't matter how strong you are, if you're not careful even the humblest of foes can kill you. Some encounters go smoothly, other similar ones go surprisingly awry. You have to focus when you're fighting. Character level is more or less just an indicator of whether or not you stand a chance.

I hit a brick wall in 2 when I had to go into a cave to investigate some solider deaths.  I was overwhelmed by nekkers.  To the point to where I had to bump down the difficulty to get past it.  I've left it on easy and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.  My main goal here is to see the story flesh out.  I personally don't find the combat very satisfying, but then Dark Souls did kind of set a high watermark for that.

If my life situation were different I might elect to struggle through on a higher difficulty.  But as it stands I'm lucky to get an hour or two every couple days to play, and I'd rather not spend that repeating the same section and beating my head against the wall.

Offline gpw11

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Re:
« Reply #109 on: Thursday, May 28, 2015, 11:31:48 PM »
You know, there's almost TOO much game here.  Its so easy to get side tracked


Offline gpw11

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Re:
« Reply #111 on: Monday, June 01, 2015, 06:39:48 PM »
GOTY 2015-2020

Offline ender

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #112 on: Friday, June 05, 2015, 07:30:09 PM »
So, I'm obsessed. Probably one of the best RPGs I've played in a very long time. The depth of the world is mind blowing. It also features extremely strong characters and dialog that I haven't really experienced since the original Fallout or Planescape:Torment.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #113 on: Saturday, June 06, 2015, 06:43:35 PM »
Yeah, it's taken over my life quite a bit as well.   So easy to get lost in the world.

Offline gpw11

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Re:
« Reply #114 on: Thursday, June 11, 2015, 11:59:32 PM »
We really should be talking about this game more ... . because it's a big part of my life right now.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #115 on: Friday, June 12, 2015, 03:11:26 AM »
I'm all for talk about anything in this dead place.  Still holding off on buying this until more bugs get fixed.  The consoles lag the PC on that too.

Offline idolminds

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #116 on: Friday, June 12, 2015, 12:36:26 PM »


Over half of the PC sales of the game are on GOG? Thats pretty amazing. That might be because retail comes with GOG keys but the fact that its anywhere close to Steam, let alone ahead, is kind of a big deal.

Offline gpw11

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #117 on: Friday, June 12, 2015, 09:18:23 PM »
I'm not ALL that suprised.  All promotional codes were also through GoG.   I don't imagine other games will mirror this anytime soon.

Anyways, on the actual game, there are few problems I've found with the game itself, but these are the ones that stand out to me:


-Gear.  The original game (As far as I can remember) only had the armor and sword sets you could craft.  Like three armor upgrades and....well, I can't remember if you could actually upgrade the swords themselves. The second game had a ton of gear but a lot of it sucked.  This is a bit of a mix between the two.  You can find a ton of gear in the game but most of it isn't worth even looking at. Ocasionally you'll find yourself in situations where standard loot is better than what you have, but it probably looks really really bad on your character. The real upgrades are the sets of gear from the Witcher Schools that you can find and upgrade, but there are only three of them and it can be a lot of work.  Honestly, I think it would have been better to either go back to the no loot mentality or make is so that there was more worthwhile loot out there aside from the Witcher gear.

-Leveling, xp. I can't explain how much shit there is to do in this game.  It's a lot.  You have main quests which advance the story and give you XP. Secondary quests which flesh out the story/enviroment/backstory and give you a small amount of xp, some money, and potentially some gear.  Witcher quests which give you trophies, a little xp, money, and are really fun.  Then you have Points of Interests of various categories like any other open world game, which usually give you some gear, etc.  Each quest, save for the PoI's have a recommended level and if you're too high above that level you don't get any XP.  This is to prevent over-levelling, I guess but the thing is that there is so much to do out there that you're going to over-level anyways. I'm at a point where I still have a ton of secondary and Witcher quests left for the point of the game I'm in (not to mention a shit ton of PoIs) and I'm pretty far over leveled for the story quests next on my list. Not getting the XP isn't a big deal but I'm worried that this will eventually take away from any challenge in these missions.  There should be a better way to do this.

Beyond that, I'm more than happy with pretty much everything in the game itself.  The depth and level of immersion potential in the world, story, and characters is just amazing and unmatched by anything else out there. RPGs of this nature have felt stale to me for a while for multiple reasons and this one just isn't. Beyond that, you really feel that each of your decisions has a big impact and it makes you think.  I believe part of this is due to how CDPR handles these decisions, which is unlike Bioware etc.  You're never given a pop-up screen that says "dark side + 50 points" or anything, but rather each decision is in character for Geralt anyway and the impacts, large or small, often aren't apparent until hours later.

The other thing that has really impressed me is how it's more "fluid" with the quests.  You can stumble upon a quest you haven't actually gotten yet, and often complete it without really knowing or at least start halfway through, and dialogue will change accordingly.  Instead of "the farmer told me this is where the bodies are, I should investigate!" it will be "a lot of dead bodies....this looks like the work of a vampire" and you can investigate from there.  Later you may run into a farmer who tries to hire you for a contract to kill a vampire and the dialogue will reflect that you already did.   Likewise, you can explore an area before it's a quest area and it may come up in conversation when given the quest later "Yes, I may know a thing or two about the island you're talking about".  Small details, but pretty cool and it helps to bring you in.




Offline MysterD

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #118 on: Saturday, June 13, 2015, 04:20:05 AM »


Over half of the PC sales of the game are on GOG? Thats pretty amazing. That might be because retail comes with GOG keys but the fact that its anywhere close to Steam, let alone ahead, is kind of a big deal.

Are they counting also all of the NVidia GeForce 900 series cards that come w/ W3 GOG Version?
If "yes" - that's seriously really going to help matters for them, as well.

Offline Xessive

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Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
« Reply #119 on: Saturday, June 13, 2015, 08:25:03 AM »
This game is incredible.

Even the most minute of side quests can feel significant and can even have an effect on other quest lines e.g. knowledge that brings up extra dialogue options or bestiary entry to help you defeat monsters. Aside from crown or item rewards, I've never felt like I was wasting time doing anything in this game, it all comes back somehow.

Even though the combat seems simple, I've noticed that it has a lot more depth than I originally anticipated. I've unlocked some more combat moves which have really added to my technique and ultimately the complexity of the combat system.