The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 13: Tyranny

Before I commit, there are several versions on Steam for Mac, is there an official one that I should buy? Or any particular set of DLC I should get while purchasing the game?

Edit: I should say I am pretty new to this, and I have never played a CRPG on a computer (but I have played a few on consoles). Gods help me.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Before I commit, there are several versions on Steam for Mac, is there an official one that I should buy? Or any particular set of DLC I should get while purchasing the game?

Edit: I should say I am pretty new to this, and I have never played a CRPG on a computer (but I have sone a few on consoles). Gods help me.

The Standard Edition is just the base game.

The Deluxe Edition is the base game along with goodies like an artbook, soundtrack, wallpapers, etc. This edition does not add any content to the game itself.

There are two DLCs which actually add game content: Tales from the Tiers and Bastard's Wound.

The Gold Edition is the deluxe edition plus both of the above DLCs. This is (I believe) what most people played; not because it was a good deal, but because it was one of the Epic Games Store's free games months ago.

The Gold Edition is currently $13 on Epic right now, which is probably the best deal you can find. (For reference, the base game alone is $30 on Steam.)

Thanks Math. Unfortunately, I am stuck on a Mac, and it doesn't seem to be available on my platform from the Epic Store. But it does sound like the Gold Edition is the one to get.

Next question: My integrated graphics card on my MacBook is Intel Iris Graphics 550 1536 MB. Steam says that the minimum is a Radeon HD 6950m with 1GB VRAM and the recommended is AMD R9 390m or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750m. Will it run or am I boned?

This is the part that I dislike about computer gaming.

Downloading now...I'm in!

Edit: Nevermind, Tyranny won't run. Requesting a refund.

Almost done....

Spoiler:

4 out of 5 Spires are mine and I just finished off the Voices of Nerat. Not sure if I remember trying to cast Edicts in my previous run through, but unleashing an Edict of Fire to deal with the Chorus invaders was incredibly satisfying.

One more note: I still haven't gotten Barik out of his armor. However, I did discover that you can actually upgrade it in place! Got his fused iron pieces up to purples for now and the dude isn't whining for 'needle and thread' nearly as much now.

One more for the books....

Spoiler:

Captured the final Spire and did the optional quest to finally free Barik from his armor. Of course, there's nothing else to do at this point other than one optional quest. Even the Edict abilities seem hollow now that I was one or two degrees away from the end.

I did seek out and win Bleden Mark's loyalty for my final confrontation against Tunon. Tunon didn't want to hear word one about my conflicts with the other Archons and called for my execution. While he proved ineffective, Mark stayed true to his word prior to the confrontation and my group brought down the Archon of Justice.

The Tiers are in for an uncertain future with the Kyros and the Northern Empire looming, but Nephele's pronouncement of an Edict of Nightfall against the North gave them enough pause to buy time and establish the autonomy of the Tiers for the foreseeable future.

As much as I would love to see a sequel or even more DLC, I feel like this game has enough replay value to tell many more (albiet rhyming) stories in this world.

Just curious, how did you

Spoiler:

gain Bleden Mark's loyalty? I'm sure choices I made spoiled my chances for that, but all my dialog options with him before the fight with him led to him attacking me.

beanman101283 wrote:

Just curious, how did you

Spoiler:

gain Bleden Mark's loyalty? I'm sure choices I made spoiled my chances for that, but all my dialog options with him before the fight with him led to him attacking me.

I'm wondering this one myself. I had high loyalty with that character, but no luck turning them.

ubrakto wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

Just curious, how did you

Spoiler:

gain Bleden Mark's loyalty? I'm sure choices I made spoiled my chances for that, but all my dialog options with him before the fight with him led to him attacking me.

I'm wondering this one myself. I had high loyalty with that character, but no luck turning them.

Spoiler:

Essentially I cooperated with every mission/quest he sent me on as well as not blindly following him or letting him push me around too much. The idea is to prove you're capable and willing to take down Tunon and 'cut his leash'

The final encounter in Ashweald has him offering his dagger as a token of your agreement to confront Tunon together. When Tunon pronounces his judgment at court, Mark strikes from behind (and is quickly neutralized), but does survive to become your own vassal in the story coda)

Ok, I never had

Spoiler:

any missions to do with him. Did you side with the Disfavored?

beanman101283 wrote:

Ok, I never had

Spoiler:

any missions to do with him. Did you side with the Disfavored?

Spoiler:

I opted to go my own path (anarchist?) and opposed both the Disfavored and the Chorus. Maybe that's a prereq?

Looks like your initial choices might lock you out of any actual alliance with Mark. He appears to be looking for someone who aspires to their own path and power independent of Tunon and Kyros.

Here's a link back to the path I took

Interesting! I love how many ways there are for the game to play out.

beanman101283 wrote:

Interesting! I love how many ways there are for the game to play out.

Seriously. I went my own path as well, and I don't think I had any of that stuff with the character.

Giving this a try. I am groking the combat more than Banner Saga. I like that the two major Kyros factions have more than one note personalities...though maybe only two note. I tried to thread the needle between the factions but it broke bad. Just started Act 2. I look forward to reading everyone's spoiler tags once I finish.

Okie dokie, I think I've got everyone leveled up now. After much delay, I'm very sorry!

Congrats to the following finishers:
bfgp, strangederby, Malor, ubrakto, gewy, beanman101283, GioClark

And added three new names to the playlist, finally, as well. Welcome!
Lakerboy32
blackanchor
deceivious1

Great to see so many people have made it through, lots of Level 1 and Level 2 accomplishments in there as well. Most excellent stuff.

If I've missed anyone, let me know and I get it sorted right away.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Okie dokie, I think I've got everyone leveled up now. After much delay, I'm very sorry!

Congrats to the following finishers:
bfgp, strangederby, Malor, ubrakto, gewy, beanman101283, GioClark

And added three new names to the playlist, finally, as well. Welcome!
Lakerboy32
blackanchor
deceivious1

Great to see so many people have made it through, lots of Level 1 and Level 2 accomplishments in there as well. Most excellent stuff.

If I've missed anyone, let me know and I get it sorted right away. :)

Missed me.

Thanks, GB!

Math wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Okie dokie, I think I've got everyone leveled up now. After much delay, I'm very sorry!

Congrats to the following finishers:
bfgp, strangederby, Malor, ubrakto, gewy, beanman101283, GioClark

And added three new names to the playlist, finally, as well. Welcome!
Lakerboy32
blackanchor
deceivious1

Great to see so many people have made it through, lots of Level 1 and Level 2 accomplishments in there as well. Most excellent stuff.

If I've missed anyone, let me know and I get it sorted right away. :)

Missed me. ;)

Whoops! Sorry, my bad, and thanks for letting me know. All sorted out now, welcome to Level 9!

Finished.

This is the first modern isometric cRPG I've actually finished. I got ~65 hours into a PoE run before my iMac died and I discovered that Steam cloud saves didn't work cross-platform for that game. The only other isometric cRPG I've ever actually beaten was the original Fallout about a decade ago. I do appreciate the ways that they've modernized the games but kept the same feel. I also appreciated that the game was relatively short (~20 hours for me). As someone with 2 young kids and other hobbies, playtime is often at a premium for me. I never would have been able to finish one of the longer cRPGs in the Club timeframe.

Anyway, overall, it was pretty enjoyable. At the beginning, I struggled with the setting and the fact that I was going to have to side with one of the terrible factions, but then I discovered the anarchy path and played what I think ended up being a pretty good, fair character. I didn't find the combat interesting at all -- I never do in these games -- but the Story Mode difficulty setting meant I didn't have to worry about it at all.

billt721 wrote:

Finished.

Anyway, overall, it was pretty enjoyable. At the beginning, I struggled with the setting and the fact that I was going to have to side with one of the terrible factions, but then I discovered the anarchy path and played what I think ended up being a pretty good, fair character. I didn't find the combat interesting at all -- I never do in these games -- but the Story Mode difficulty setting meant I didn't have to worry about it at all.

Congrats, billt! Your second paragraph pretty much sums up what I was thinking before I got sidetracked a bit. I'm surprised that it was as short as 20 hours, for whatever reason I thought it was going to take me more like 30-40 hours.

So I'm back in but keep getting my butt kicked at the first village (Echofall)? Do you guys have any suggestions? My party is mostly level 3s and 4s so I'm wondering if I need to level up some more. Alternatively, if I have wounded should I fall back and rest?

jdzappa wrote:

So I'm back in but keep getting my butt kicked at the first village (Echofall)? Do you guys have any suggestions? My party is mostly level 3s and 4s so I'm wondering if I need to level up some more. Alternatively, if I have wounded should I fall back and rest?

If you have a tank, use them to tie-up the melee enemies while your ranged characters focus-fire the ranged enemies one-by-one. If you don't have a tank then, uh, go recruit Barik?

Math wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

So I'm back in but keep getting my butt kicked at the first village (Echofall)? Do you guys have any suggestions? My party is mostly level 3s and 4s so I'm wondering if I need to level up some more. Alternatively, if I have wounded should I fall back and rest?

If you have a tank, use them to tie-up the melee enemies while your ranged characters focus-fire the ranged enemies one-by-one. If you don't have a tank then, uh, go recruit Barik?

I think my tactics are off since I chose a two-handed bruiser for my PC - so I have a great front line but not much way to take out back mages. Maybe I need to start over with a mage or archer.

But I did beat the Echofall garrison by...

Spoiler:

Telling them to run. I'm sure I will regret this when I need to fight them later.

I'm still playing but hit a mental speed bump. I ran into Kills-in-Shadow and swapped out Verse to see what that was like. But now that I switched back a few hours later, I'm swimming in armor and weapons and dreading trying to figure out what to equip Verse with. (I also can't tell if party members keep their unequipped items when they leave the party or if they get transferred to the party stash.) I wish you could see the inventory of all companions when eg at a spire (instead of just the current party members).

Slowly inching my way back into this. I am having an existential crisis - who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?

Now that I'm done with Disco Elysium, I'm thinking to restart this. I loaded up the game last night and realized I am only 4 hours in with a flawed party.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Now that I'm done with Disco Elysium, I'm thinking to restart this. I loaded up the game last night and realized I am only 4 hours in with a flawed party.

Could you explain more Godzilla? This feels like a game where you can gimp your party far more easily than other titles.

Fwiw I’m having more fun playing the ruthless Scarlet Chorus lovin’ “survival of the fittest” mage than the honorable Disfavored warrior.

jdzappa wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Now that I'm done with Disco Elysium, I'm thinking to restart this. I loaded up the game last night and realized I am only 4 hours in with a flawed party.

Could you explain more Godzilla? This feels like a game where you can gimp your party far more easily than other titles.

Fwiw I’m having more fun playing the ruthless Scarlet Chorus lovin’ “survival of the fittest” mage than the honorable Disfavored warrior.

Sure thing. My main character is a dual-wielding damage dealer. I've got Barik (for tanking), Lantry (healing), and Verse (dual-wielding damage dealer). So my main character and Verse essentially do the same thing and I don't have offensive magic.

Maybe I could solve things by respeccing (is that a thing in the game?) or finding someone to replace one of my NPCs, but I've forgotten quite a bit since I've last played and I'm only 4 hours in, so I was thinking to just restart with a mage then add the same NPCs. I like the 3 NPCs I've got now.

I'm tempted to try something a bit more malicious as well. I always play for the good side. It'd be good for me to take a walk on the wild side in an RPG sometime.

There's no re-spec as far as I can remember (Though it's possible there's some spire unlock). You just...switch what you do and start gaining levels in that.

Verse should come with some bow abilities as well, mind.

Okie dokie, I restarted tonight. I played through the Conquest again, this time favoring the Scarlet Chorus in choices. I ended up with the nickname Queenslayer. Cool.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/8JDuTTI.jpg)

I've created Keres, a female Scarlet Chorus mage. I was thinking to serve under Nerat, the Scarlet Chorus leader, and play in that direction, while favoring the Scarlet Chorus at every turn. But Nerat is such an ass that I'm wondering if I could potentially remove him and take control myself. Anyway, we'll see where this goes but my hope is to play someone determined to squelch the rebellion.

So far I've just gone through the Conquest initiation, the intro battle at Edgering Ruins, and made my way to the main camp.

I've taken my time this time and concentrated on trying to get a better understanding of the combat systems in the game. Already I feel like I've got a better grasp of things than when I started a few months ago.

So far so good!