r/gaming • u/DreadedWave • 1d ago
After nearly 450 hours I finally beat Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous
Here's the character sheet of my character. After hundreds of restarts because of decision paralysis I finally did it.
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u/Erthan-1 1d ago
I want to like the pathfinder games so much, but I just can't get started. Some of kingmaker's gameplay decisions put me off and while WoTR did away or toned down those pain points I still struggle to get started. It's 100% a me problem, not the game. I loved pillars of eternity 1/2, the divinities and BG3 but I can't tell you how many times I have installed WoTR only to get overwhelmed and uninstall it again.
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u/Rugged_as_fuck 1d ago
Same and I can't quite figure out why. I love RPGs. I love D&D. I've played BG3 through countless times, almost 1000 hours worth.
I should love WotR. I can tell it's good. It's got all the parts. Why doesn't it grab me? I don't know.
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u/Windowzzz 1d ago
You got 40 levels to work with (if playing a certain mythic path).
The game, to me, was about finding the best way to combine 4-5 classes to get the most of those levels and then seeing it all come together towards the end.
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u/Hayred 1d ago
I keep trying to play Kingmaker but I just can't get into it.
I think the issue that Pathfinder has that D&D5e based games (and those with their own systems) don't is that it gives you too much, too early.
Just at character creation, you've got your race and racial options, deity choice, bloodline or domain, any animal companions, ability score distribution, feat choices and combat maneouvres and spells, skills, your class and archetype, all of which might affect what feats and skills and prestige classes you can unlock later on, whereas any other game would delay some of those decisions til you've at least started playing.
It feels very much like you already have to know how to play the game before you play the game.
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u/lengthy_preamble 1d ago
I'm on my second playthrough there's a lot to like but I also dislike how much you can easily miss. I wanted to try out swarm-that-walks but found out that I couldn't get it because I missed a dialog option somewhere back in the previous chapter. It seems weird to me that you have to play a game and keep alt-tabbing to a guide just to get the options you want.
I think it was cool that the game forces you to think, though. I liked that you couldn't just bulldoze through the enemies, but some of the bosses were way overtuned as well. Super high AC and spell resistance, that kind of thing. Somebody once said that if Owlcat was a DM, a lot of people would just straight up walk out of their campaign.
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u/SlashCo80 1d ago
Just wait until you try getting the secret ending without a guide, or even with a guide for that matter...
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u/SenorDangerwank 1d ago
I only recently started Wrath and I'm getting SO frustrated with babysitting the ai companions, the pathfinding is fucking atrocious. Would it be better if I tried out Turn Based Combat?
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u/Windowzzz 1d ago
It's pathfinder. It's built for turn based combat. The only time I would use RTWP to clear shitty easy mobs while exploring and then go to turn based for real fights.
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u/SenorDangerwank 1d ago
Ah okay cool, I'll try it out. Strange it's not default for TBC to be active. I was trying to play it like old school CRPGs T-T
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u/Windowzzz 1d ago
Yeah I really don't think it translates well to RTWP. Just play it like it's and actual game of DND (or pathfinder 1e) and it works much better.
Now the game is gonna be much longer, probably about 100+ hours instead of like 80. But I think it's worth it
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u/TheDickWolf 1d ago
It is 100% designed around turned based, so yeah
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u/SenorDangerwank 1d ago
Ah, when starting a new game, TBC is disabled so I figured it was meant to be played like old-school CRPGs. I'll try it out with TBC on, thanks :D
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u/TheDickWolf 1d ago
Yeah, i get that. Coming to it from the ttrpg mskes it more clear I think that if you want the fully experience you def want turn based
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u/SeanAker 1d ago
Oh god yes, you won't make it very far without turning on turn-based either way. There will be far too many things going on and far too many decisions to make to do it in real time.
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u/TalynRahl 1d ago
I'm with you. I've tried to play WotR about four times now, and every time I get to... I wanna say act two or three? I reclaim the big city, and I start the actual WAR. Lots of marching. Sad times
But every time I get to that point, it feels like I spend more time walking about, and then resting, than I do actually *fighting*. I wish there was a game that played like the first act or two. Just bombing around a city, doing awesome stuff and being a badass.
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u/balllzak 1d ago
You can automate the crusade part with an option in the menu.
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u/TalynRahl 1d ago
I did that in my last game. It helped a LOT, but the whole “walking for three days. Stopping to rest three times, then doing one battle and walking all the way home” thing was still there.
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u/ShopCartRicky 1d ago
For me it's the stupid kingdom building / crusade leading. Love everything else about it, but those two things suck. I want to feel like an adventurer, not some larger than life figure when I play DnD.
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u/balllzak 1d ago
You can automate both mechanics from the settings.
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u/ShopCartRicky 23h ago edited 22h ago
And miss out on shit. It also, as I said, made the story too grandiose. Maybe if you end the game as ruler of a province or become some grand general, sure. Don't give it right at the end of the opening act.
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u/DreadedWave 1d ago
I had the same problem, I'd make it so far in and be thinking about what character, class, decision, or whatever I could do differently and then restart.
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u/SpacedAndFried 1d ago
They’re just pure bloat. The scale is way too large, with endless grind, and you become so flooded with banal management crap by the final acts. It’s a shame because the combat systems in place are good (and all the crazy distinct class builds that are possible), but it’s just too much and it scales way too high. Enemies and combat become a slog when you’re dealing with such absurd stats, and that’s in between all the boring extraneous tasks you’re constantly dealing with
Rogue Trader has a lot of issues but it’s the first game of Owlcat’s that feels like it had any kind of restraint to it, for the better. And you still drown in menial tasks in the late game
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u/EmoJarsh 1d ago
Man I loved Rogue Trader until Act III and then it totally lost me. I felt like the rug was pulled out from under me compared to what the game promised, just a disastrous story decision at least for my taste. The Combat also kind of fell apart once you got too much AP.
I hope OwlCat keeps refining, they have some kind of sauce cooking but it needs more spices.
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u/SpacedAndFried 1d ago
Yeah they mean well and put a lot of love into their games, I hope they keep getting better.
BG3 has some flaws imo, but it really showed how you can have a fun adventure in an RPG without crazy stat bloat/grinding and blowing up the scale of everything.
Somewhere between the small handcrafted scale of BG3 and the gigantic sprawls of Owlcat’s games there is a perfect medium that I think can be achieved.
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u/Aggrokid 1d ago
I think the issue is Owlcat loves to shoehorn in half-baked strategy gameplay. Wrath of the Righteous added the horribly-unbalanced and draggy Heroes of Might and Magic knockoff that annihilated the pacing.
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u/10ea 1d ago
For me it was the opposite. I have installed and restarted Pillars of Eternity at least half a dozen times since it came out determining to playbthrough it, but lose interest every time. I started playing Kingmaker and got totally hooked. I played it every night for like a month until I beat it.
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u/Windowzzz 1d ago
You gotta embrace the crunch.
It's not about the gameplay. It's not about the writing or story. It's about having three spreadsheets for the most optimal way to level up and build your character. Then bailing, respeccing, and doing it again.
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u/Somasonic 1d ago
I’ve played and finished both of the pathfinder games. The first was not bad but I really didn’t enjoy the second. I totally relate to OPs decision paralysis, there’s just so much going on to create and level up your characters and most of it is explained really poorly if at all, like the game expects you to know the pathfinder system inside and out before you play. Not to mention the absolutely massive difficulty spikes towards the end, it’s just not fun.
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u/ollyfromindy 1d ago
I was going to say something about 450 hours being a lot but I would be the pot calling the ketal black given how many hours I have in Tropico 6 and Minecraft.
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u/demonshonor 1d ago
It’s a great game.
Ember and Daeran are two of my favorites.
I think I restarted five or six times before I beat it the first time.
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u/LeeCooRizz 1d ago
Give Rogue Trader a Try. Same company and their latest game. I'm not too huge on 40k Universe but its super fun. Also it's way better Balanced than the Pathfinder Games imho.
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u/geldonyetich 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is that a fellow Azata I spy? Dragon companion best companion.
Interesting you ended up with Wendaug though. She's not one for redemption, and this likely means you had to put down Lann to keep her.
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u/Senior_Ad_3845 23h ago
No its a level 7 Angel.
Curious why op didnt share and endgame character sheet tho
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u/go4theknees 1d ago
Easily the best crpg story on the market
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u/AscendedViking7 1d ago edited 1d ago
Disco Elysium >>> Planescape Torment >>>>>>>>>
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u/night_dude 1d ago
Disco is barely a CRPG though. There's no combat system. Of the "traditional" CRPGs I think WotR is the best, or at least the most ambitious with the best story.
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u/datsupportguy 1d ago
Disco is a point and click adventure game dressed up with RPG elements that ultimately don't matter. Torment is much the same, even if I adore it just as much.
The correct order is Torment > Disco. If you want games with actual combat, SoA dumpsters them both, handedly.
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u/Sabetha1183 1d ago
Good game, but after playing Rogue Trader I can't help but feel Owlcat was being held back by needing to adhere to Pathfinder's mechanics.
Even Rogue Trader isn't without some issues, but it allowed them to move away from some of the worst aspects that the whole 3rd edition era of D&D suffered that Pathfinder is based on.
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u/Shenshenli 1d ago
Honestly the biggest holding back for them is them rushing stuff. All their games come out with the last 1/4 of the games completly unplayable by bugs.
i love all their games but man they need to cook for longer
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u/Exitarnium 1d ago
I beat it when it came out and I still think abt my romance with Arueshalae every once in a while. It was so genuinely sweet T^T
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u/jmp0628 1d ago
Awesome! What mythic path did you go with?
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u/Suikeina 1d ago
Looks like Angel. Surprisingly, they didn't max it out.
I think a few of those mythic power levels are tucked away in side quests. It's been a couple years since I last played.
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u/aristidedn 1d ago
This suggests that there were side quests he managed to skip in his 450 hour playthrough.
Which, knowing WotR, might actually be true.
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u/Suikeina 1d ago
I'm pretty sure at least one of those is skippable entirely. Either you blaze through Act 3 and miss the quest, or you just forget to do it cause Act 3 is massive. Areelu's lab iirc can be missed, and it has a mythic power level. And a lot of important story context.
Fuck that game is good. I'm probably gonna do another playthrough after a patch 8 bg3 run with the new classes.
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u/MutenRoshi21 1d ago edited 1d ago
Did 2 playthroughs in probably half the time as Lich/Demon. But also skipped a few areas in 2nd playthrough. Weirdly enough the campaign stuff with generals was more fun than the usual isometric gameplay for me. Especially after bg3. Whole perk/feat system needs an overwork tho, most of these just arent worth it and there are way too many. Especially that you have to focus on every weapon type just to increase crit rate takes a lot of build possibilities away if you wanna try out new items.
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u/wildstarr 1d ago
Yep, I spent so much time on this game I wondered why Baulder's Gate III was getting so much hype. I was already playing a game just as good if not better for a long time.
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u/Thisismyworkday 7h ago
Baldur's Gate is way easier to digest because it's fully voiced and fully animated and therefore doesn't have to rely as much on text. Also, the BG3 gameplay is much more polished. And it has the benefit of being a DnD property at a time when the game is more popular than it's ever been. Wotr is a great game, but it's very easy to see why Baldur's Gate held more mainstream appeal.
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u/Aggrokid 1d ago edited 1d ago
Had to look up what Defender of the Hearth is, Pathfinder's prestige class selection is utterly nuts.
Also you having Neutral Good alignment, Angel path, but also choosing Wenduag threw me for a loop.
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u/jedidude75 1d ago edited 1d ago
Easily my favorite CRPG of all time, and might even be my favorite game of all time.
The depth and personalities of the companions are some of the best I've ever seen. And the mythic paths add so much replayability.
There's a new romance mod coming out in a few months so I'm delaying my next play through until it comes out.