Thanks for the analytical preview. I like the aesthetics etc. of the game. Interested to see what the final version will be like. I'm interested but still difficult to tell whether this will turn out good enough for me to get it.

My bad, I guess I didn't give Kingmaker enough attention at the time. I was already put off by the timer and the sudden addition of (timed) management officially killed it for me. I wonder why this fluff keeps creeping into RPGs. You can argue that mechanics like crafting, item maintenance and upgrade, terrible as they are, have some connection to the RPG world, but why this? They rarely get enough work to stand on their own and even if they do, you don't really hear people going "hey check out that new Warhammer title, I hear there's some sick management system implemented."

That's not exactly true. You can and should automate Kingdom Management in Kingmaker. In fact, I question the sanity of anyone who doesn't do it about as much as that of developers who keep putting these bloated, superfluous, barely functioning systems in their games.Speaking of, you hear they're planning to put some management systems into Rogue Trader now? Ain't that swell.

I enjoy stronghold quests, stronghold management - not so much (unless I'm playing Stronghold, heh). Stronghold management in PoE 1 was a low-effort stretch-goal fulfilment, but at least it was an optional side activity, while ship management and naval combat in PoE 2 were both terrible and unavoidable. Kingdom management in Kingmaker was much more involved, but still not my thing and worst of all - unavoidable. At least in WotR you can skip campaign management, altough this locks you out of some of the better endings.

Very unfortunate, all of this. Well, who knows, perhaps the creative team will get together under a different label and create something even better. But Disco Elysium is in my top 3 games of all time, and I really would have liked to see something of similar-ish quality in that same universe. It felt like an exceptionally rich and interesting world, and I was left with a sense that there was so much more to see.

While I personally enjoy the strongholdbuilding, I fully understand that people hate it. It should be optional and certainly not timegated like in PF...

So Elysium will remain a one-off, well, whatever. In the age of AAA productions we forget that not every game/book/movie needs to have a sequel. Best of luck to them.

And while we are at it, take any half-baked semi-obligatory minigames along on the trip to the oven (I'm looking at you Pathfinder & PoE2).

Durability... That loathsome mechanic which can die in a fire. (With craftingmechanics used as firewood...)

Glad that my vast array of useless knowledge could help. :)