Almost 8 years later, and this interview nails it. Thanks for all the hard work, Ian and Joe and the rest of the KOAR team! I miss the alternate universe where a sequel was made too.Also, thanks for debunking the ridiculously persistent myth that KOAR somehow began as a MMO project. That was Copernicus / Amalur, not Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Sure, let's put glitter over shit, it will surely make it like an amazing pizza, 100% chance of working

Loved the game, but although it has a structure of an RPG, it's really more of an interactive narrative. The reason being there's no challenge to overcome, all you have to do is talk to everyone and click on everything, because of the skill check modifiers all the critical path skill checks become very easy once you've done all the prerequisites, regardless of your build, so except for a couple of confusing moments and always being short of money, you really can't fail. The political stuff is there because the game has a certain political point of view, and it wants the player to engage with it, the entire game is very political so it makes sense to make that part of your character, although if the player doesn't particularly appreciate their limited choice of caricature ideologies or agree with the developer's views, that part may not be all that much fun. As far as what happened to the protagonist there are tons of hints in the game hidden and not so hidden, but still everyone will have their own theory as you say. Edit: Also the game is a lot more linear than it first appears, there are only a couple of branches early on on the critical path.Edit: Posted my theory on the protagonist here: http://www.irontowerstudio.... Major spoilers obviously.

May not be everyone's cup of tea, distinctive as it is, but that game starts better than I dared to hope... and I'm finding myself trying to ration play sessions to try and make it last longer. Not sure that ever happened to me before...

Well, PoE is A LOT worse than PoE2 in almost everything. After few hours in PoE I just kept ignoring side quests and going for main quests which is super rare for me in terms of RPG (I'm usually obsessive with doing everything). 2 was a pleasurebale experience except for those, as I previously said, "not RPGing" moments. If you don't mind "not RPGing" I think you both will like PoE2 a lot more than you did the first.

I will get a chance to play it this weekend, but some updated gear for the low epic levels would be nice, normally I just wear a crafted set of gear until 25 or so when new pieces gradually start getting muddled in until the end game gear at 29.

I hated the mechanics as well. Especially the short-term buffs. You were constantly checking durations.

I backed the first gladly, and do not for a moment regret it...but, PoE1 soured on me rapidly.Overall, I disliked the fantasy-renaissance styled setting (in terms of our world's history, the Renaissance is the least interesting to me, despite its enormous contributions...and I detest mixing guns and magic)...and the mechanics. I can drill right down to just not using simple HP....that whole stamina/health thing just...well honestly pissed me off to no end (many other mechanics too, but that one alone just...no). Needless complexity that I just couldn't successfully wrap my head around or get a feel for...it always just felt "wrong". It was the game they wanted (and needed) to make, and I bear Obsidian absolutely no ill will whatsoever. The making of documentary was worth the backing to me (though of course I would have also liked to have found the game fun...but it was not to be).This ultimately led me to having absolutely no interest in PoE2, as I felt it would just be an extension of the same mechanics (likely with even more needless complexity...and the unappealing setting is still the unappealing setting).Frankly, I've found Obsidian to be producing games that hold very little appeal to me lately. Tyranny would have interested me greatly in the early 2000's, but these days I prefer the hero role and not the villain. Fallout/Outer Worlds just don't appeal (I likes me stereotypical medieval fantasy). I find they're more interested in making "artsy" games than "mass appeal" games. Cool, but not for me.

Well I was a backer of the first game, but still haven't bought the second one and mainly because I'm just not that interested in these types of games any more. I thought I would be, that's why I supported the original. I'm still gaming as much now as I ever have but isometric CRPGs like this and Divinity, Wasteland 2, Tyranny, Pathfinder don't interest me like they used to. I much rather play third person RPG like TW3, New Vegas, TOW or even WoW or RDR2.The original Pillars was made to appease a group of us gamers that loved those Infinity engine games back in the day and maybe now that we got our little stroll down memory lane with the original many of us decided it wasn't as good as we remember and decided not to buy the sequel.Just my two cents.

Yes, this. I could compile a list of things that weren't ok with PoE, and some of those came from Josh's vision itself, but in hindsight, i guess it just missed the mark. It was a very good game, but not quite what it should have been.