Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Community Q&A #15

A total of fifteen community Q&A sessions have been posted to the official Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning forums to date, with this most recent batch focusing on city architecture, how intricate the game's side quests will be, whether the open-world feel will be broken into separate paths, and more.
Will there be enemy towns or enemy "strongholds" that we can invade or avoid? By flamechamp

A: The Faelands are dense with castles, camps, and caves that have been taken over by enemies, and you always have the option of storming these to clean them out, or skirting the edge to avoid them. Many quests do require that you brave these enemy strongholds for specific goals, and there's also content or loot that can only be found in these locations.

There's even a fortress type called a "Stronghold", specifically, that is an architecture style that's usually in the form of towering castles breaking the horizon. These are very often filled to the brim with fearsome monsters or villains, just itching for you to poke your head through the door. There's even one such stronghold in the game that you can clean out of enemies, then take on as your own fortress, adding service providers and a place to rest. Go see if you can find it! By Colin "Hugohan" Campbell, Lead World Designer

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If I never take a single point in detect hidden, how much of the game am I missing out on? Will every dungeon have a hidden door I can get through? By Darksend

A: Not every dungeon has a hidden door, but there are a good number of doors and loot piles that you won't find without Detect Hidden. With that being said, you may not get a particular chest without this skill, but if you're putting your points into Blacksmithing instead you can craft an awesome hammer instead of finding it. Or steal it from a shop if you've invested in stealth. Or convince people to give you better rewards with your Persuasion skills. You get the idea! With all the times I've played through the various parts of the game, I feel like the choice is more about "how do I want to find the cool stuff" rather than "will I". By Andrew "Andre" Frederiksen, Producer