Since last few pages have been a lot of commentary about the story. Why not put my own two cents.
The biggest problems i have with the game are the story , and the way the game builds around it. Starting with the not game mechanic created problems, the contradictions run deep because of the game doing the arcs the way it does, all characters that are reoccurring end up suffering from different writers, different visions, and a disconnected continuity where at times they go back and fort characterization wise has that particular spot of story demands it, the builder can admit that Rowan is the real power making stuff work, but since we are in the fabled "first part" it never referenced again , Adras can supposedly learn and not be the generic brute, but since events have no real order beside time tables he goes back to being a simple brute, until he is not, then goes back. Even in main story bits, where is the Adras that sat his ass down and read a book about strategy next time he is about to battle and his strategy is "run at thing and put all bets on regeneration being quicker than damaged received"
Then we have the ones that suffer the most, Alexia and Rowan , Alexia being another npc that wears many hats, but none really matter outside events of that specific line.
Rowan...he is a mess, the game calls him a great hero and shows bits of how he was a valiant man with great smarts, but at the same time he cannot be a great hero cause the twins are idiots and if he was the game would not have the "3 arcs/games".
Rowan the great strategist would have made a plan, even if warden ignored and blocked all attempts of him to get help, maybe know its a trap, go for Alexia and out. Yet even in the "best" of heroic choices he is very passive on his trying to find ways out, borderline naive, for a strategist he does not seem to understand how to plan against the twins, why? , is it because they are are too smart?
Not really, adras is repeatedly shown to have about has much smarts has a brick on stuff not fight or strength related and Jezera is repeatedly shown to be a wanna be spy mistress with has much whim control has Adras. Yeah she learns stuff quick, but is about has obvious has one can expect, i doubt anyone would be surprised that saying secrets in front of the staff is a bad idea.
Rowan cannot act agaist the twins...because its the first part of the game, neither of the twins learn much, they just show that they are kids playing with daddys toys, Adras does not die by being a reckless idiot cause he has demon blood and regenerates, Jezera does not screw herself over cause Rowan is there to actualy put effort.
Its telling that most bad ends have the undertone of "and then the Twins get destroyed" , their starting plan is to march on the biggest, most well defended city, with what amounts to a handfull of orcs and nothing else, if Rowan does not do the orchid or goblin questline its all but stated their little plans are imediatly crushed cause they cannot even win agaist the army of the weakest, starving realm.
The game both makes a big deal out of Rowan, and goes to great efforts to make excuses to why we cannot even have a hint of actual resistence for what amounts to the "Its the first part of the game"
And with that wall of text, the smaller, mechanical part of what i think hurts the story, random events, the main story is already full of "if a , then b" that does not acount for c . If a more specific example is needed, the builder one since its what comes more to mind. He gets his conclusion, and alright, getting it does not imedialy means he would try to kick the twins , nor do i expect it, but its never again mentioned, he goes right back to the "Normal" way of treating Rowan since its the easier way to do events to work both to those that did not finish his story yet and those that did.
Add the random events that happen, and there is a lot of things that only exist in their self contained world. There aparently being a dragon on the loose, the dragon oger girl , all the villages that you interact with and little stories. They are nice, but at the end of the day the story at this point is made of seperate developments that only exist on their arcs or do small cosmetic changes.
When playing the game one is not playing a hero having to do hard choices, one is playing a man that suposedly was once a hero serving two brats in adult bodies having no ability to get any semblance of actual resistence until the tail end of the first game (arc) where the fabled "second act" will apear and pick up this disointed threads of self contained plots and start conecting them.
With that i end with the "hero" part, i get its to hammer the point that rowan is not going to have a nice time acting like a hero, but it more seems like the point is "This is not a game of redeption and heroics" , there is no silver lining on the "good" path, the game makes it clear the priestess is not a good person and that werden is a dead man walking, the nobles are part of why the twins did not get their teeth kicked in by an actual challenge before getting to rowan, and are also incredibly corrupt, and somehow this are the people that will be a key element on the "future arcs" to get the good path?
I choose to belive that its a red hearing and the kick in the balls to say "You will not get anywere trying to find a good path". Rowan gains nothing and loses everything trying to do that.
The orcs are not loyal to him since tarish is not and he cannot put her in her place or even interact with her
Dellane gets dollified after a kinda meh "feel bad" scene of having rowan seemingly have fallen more in love with her than the actual woman he got in the situation for to begin with
He gets beaten up
Does not get the girl.
Compare that with a Rowan playing the gaining personal power option. He can
Save dellane, even if she goes away, probably not to apear again, maybe will reapear and actualy get a better arc than "good path dellane" gets
Gets patricia to serve him and not the twins
Gets more on the good graces of the twins
Gets the girl
And tell me its not the writers going "Want to be the hero, play the pragmatic instead of the naivly stupid"
In conclusion. I like the game, but i think it realy will become better and pick up steam once it gets out of arc 1 and stuff can start to happen besides rowan dancing to the twins tune all the time. But so far, the disconected reality of the arcs, the random events not adding to much more than one time things will little weight to the plot, and limitations of the game being this big and limited to just one arc, hurts it.
