Details I enjoyed greatly, and then some rambling

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Treth
Grünschnabel
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Registriert: 20.12.2016 14:31


For a foreword, I'll try to tag all the spoilers, I apologize if I miss something. Also not sure if I put this post in proper subforum, but well, I'll just get banned at worst.

So, details. Maybe not all of them are exactly details, but there are things that I didn't see mentioned around, at least not on english forum and reddit, which I think deserve some attention too.

First of all: mechanic of arcane fever was brilliant idea. Many games go with "magic is dangerous, even for the users themselves" narration, but usually leave it at something as relevant as lore trivia, while here in Enderal consequence of performing magic is built into very mechanics. Finally something that prevents player from chugging 10 health potions per second, which was a major issue in Skyrim. I also love how this also made food relevant in the game. In Skyrim I usually ignored bland foods with miniscule properties, as they give you less than a product of alchmy, in Enderal on the other hand I nearly praised Enderalean Crusty Bread after each bigger fight, almost feeling myself how crispy the crust is.

Second thing: Pennies! This simple word shows how much attention, thought and conscious was put even into the smallest things. Instead of doing fantasy on autopilot and leaving default "gold coins, because they're in every fantasy game and everyone is used to it" here we have something more realistic and down-to-earth. It's one of the smallest changes possible that occured between Skyrim to Enderal, but this is just kind of detail, care and consciousness of design I probably appreciate the most.

Another thing worth noting are dungeons. Each single one of them was hand crafted, had own unique story to tell and I could feel it. I swear each time I went into a dungeon I was expecting a quest to pop up, because that's how it worked in Skyrim: "dungeon works unique? There's a special quest to it", while in Enderal, unique dungeons are a norm which do not even need to notify player of them being unique.

And here we come to the spoilers territory.
There is a detail that caught my attention, which I didn't see discussed
[+] regarding the end game events of course
Black Guardian mentions that he survived multiple Cleansings because thanks to transferring his mind into a machine. He said that mechanical constructs are impervious to the Cleansing. That instantly sparked a thought, regarding my facourite talent ingame, which is Starling Spider. As seen in part where we meet Kurmai, these devices can execute even quite precise orders (or adorably fail to do so). So since Prophet has one in posession too, why not get the best of both endings with help of little mechanical friend. Preparing escape pods for him/herself and company of one of his/her personal choice, while the spider buddy dismantles Black Stones from the Beacon. I'm really surprised nobody earlier pointed that out, at least to my knowledge.
Also regarding nature of being an Emissary, and possible connections with Nehrim, so spoilers for Enderal and Nehrim
[+] this is theorizing, of course
I've read some people point out some things about Veiled Woman. That her words during unfortunate Dal'Varek family reuinion aren't truthful or don't make much sense. She explained that if she didn't led to Sirius' death back on the ship, player would not survive either, would end up with head split open by a dock guard. Some argued that player would become Prophet regardless, since High Ones make their Fleshless by making projections of dead people.
I have arrived at conclusion that High Ones can create a Fleshless only in very specific circumstances. I believe the conditions are that death is isolated, unseen by bystanders, so noone can testify that the person has actually died. Cause of death also needs to be quite specific. Means like having your head smashed open probably are not a good way to go if you want to become an Emissary. In Prophet's case it was drowning, in Tealor's I would probably blame starvation/exhaustion (he was locked away in dungeon by Narathzul, right?). Both cases seem to have in common that is rather non-violent ways to go... well, non-violent regarding all the other ways that a human can leave this world. In both examples dying is slowly progressing event, that can be stopped and it's believable to survive on brink of this happening. Last thing these cases have in common is that consciousness fades out during the process, like fainting and goind to sleep, and therefore leaving an opportunity for waking up still.
And I rambled about something that probably is too obvious to bother explaining.

Either way, Fleshless Emisaries of Enderal have some traits in common with Shadow God of Nehrim. Both are impervious to the passing of time, I wouldn't be surprised if Shadow God was resistant to Cleansing as well. This might be a stretch, but what if during begining in Nehrim, where player falls into deeper caves of the mine, he actaually dies and is projected as a Fleshless too? That would make Sarantha, our "beloved" Envoy of Fate something of similiar nature to the High ones. The Edge of Fate, or Ruins of the Universes, where she resides, bears interesting resemblance to both mind-place of Meditation for Prophet (floating, ruined pieces of architecture) as well as the Numinos (again ruined, floating pieces, and even some lost souls). Both Sarantha and High ones also seem to have thing for performing cyclic events on lesser beings and being condescending, arrogant jerks towards them.
This theory is of course not perfect, many pointed out that Sarantha's Cycle directly contradicts High Ones' Cycle. I would try make a case that maybe it is not that Sarantha does multiple cycles within one Cleansing cycle, but that she was refering to her cycles on more cosmic time scale, simply omitting that after each time a shadow god appears and defeats lightborns, while world is wiped out before her cycle starts anew. Maybe she doesn't bother because she always usually killed the shadow god regardless, or doesn't want to spoil what's next down the road for humanity. Well, though I never bothered research into Nehrim on that topic, I'm afraid that Arkt and his shadow-goding shenanigans basically ruin my theory regardless.
And ending spoiler-heavy theorizing
[+] One thing that bothers me about...
High Ones and Numinos. Numinos is an "essence of a High One", but every High One gets his Numinos destroyed by an angry nihilistic entropist right before Cleansing. How does that affect them? I don't believe it's healthy for them. I would probably want to see a doctor if I'd one time wake up and notice my Numinos is destroyed. What even does that essence do? Is that a reason High Ones are so obnoxious?
[+] And a nonsensical question that I had since I finished the game...
Could the Enderalean Crusty Bread have served as suitable replacement for Numinos all along? Or it would just banish all the pastry products from existance?
And as the end note, I'm properly hyped for Forgotten Stories dlc. Phasmalist class sounds like ton of fun. Having your own fully customizable ghost waifu - in case Calia's accentuated thighs and Jespar's "I have white hair basically like an anime protagonist" is not enough for you, you Lusty Argonian Maids.
Though more than spooky ghost companion, I'd prefer to see something more of golem-making. Something that would involve forging golem parts, platings, powering cores... But well, you guys have enough hassle with what you already have to implement I believe.
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