![]() I can name so many characters and storylines that dazzled me during the game’s earlier hours: the ageing crime boss caught between the plight of his people and his own ambitions the jerk-off high-ranking pirate I blew up by throwing a rager of a party and wiring his harpsichord to explode the party member I got to romance while his mum – who, by the way, was a god – said he deserved better the legendary dragon who was supposed to be a boss fight, but who I convinced to book it when apocalyptic god Eothas showed up the black market merchant with a spider’s face who respected that I let him read my mind and uncover a plot to murder him (a plot in which I happened to be complicit) … the list goes on. Neketaka is a generously stuffed sandwich of intrigue, and it’s just one island in a sea that’s chock full of them. (One quest lets you make a mess of his posh palace, if you so choose – but there are consequences.)Įach area is full of mini-stories that often feed into larger arcs involving the native Huana people, foreign interlopers trying to reshape Deadfire in their image, and the push and pull between those forces. ![]() In between them, there’s a locale dedicated to both science and religion, as well as my personal favourite, Periki’s Overlook, which is home to a popular bathhouse that serves as a secret entrance to the manor of a world-renowned arsehole archmage named Arkemyr. Pillars II‘s biggest hub city, Neketaka, is a model RPG hub city, with multiple, varied districts like the palace-dominated Serpent’s Crown and the destitute Gullet nearby. It took me tens of hours to really recognise this fact, because at first, I was happy to just sail around, do quests, and inhabit the game’s lively, well-realised world. ![]() This massive game, for all its labyrinthine lore and realistic sea shanties, failed to make me feel attached to it. With Pillars II, it barely even registered. You know that mournful feeling you get when you’re about to finish an 80+ hour game and realise that it’s time to say your farewells? It checks nearly all the boxes on my unusually specific wishlist of Things I Want From A Classic RPG Revival That Also Happens To Be About Pirates.īut. Pillars II has a lot going for it: a vast tropical setting, a story bold enough try unpacking issues like colonialism and oppression, party members who come across as refreshingly grounded and human, a treasure trove of quests for wannabe pirates to plunder, and a bevy of squabbling factions that you can partner up with or piss right off. You then find yourself divinely plopped into the Deadfire Archipelago, aka the part of the world where everybody’s pirates. They task you with hunting down Eothas, whether you want to or not. Your character isn’t thrilled about this turn of events, nor are a bunch of other gods. In it, you once again take on the role of the Watcher of Caed Nua, the main character from the first game.Īt the start of the sequel, Eothas, a god previously thought dead, rises up from beneath your fort, smashes it to slivers, and steals a piece of your soul. Pillars of Eternity II is the sequel to Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity, which was itself a spiritual successor to classic PC RPGs like Baldur’s Gate. “Aw,” I thought to myself, “When I finish this game, I’m really gonna miss my crew.” Then I paused, and my brow furrowed. It was a garment meant to be worn by a captain, he said, but after witnessing me pass so many difficult moral tests with flying colours, he’d decided captaining wasn’t for him. This story has been republished following Pillars of Eternity 2’s release on consoles.
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