Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[IHaveHugeNick]

I still don't undestand what's the point of sidekicks.

They want to make more companions but aren't comfortable calling them "companions" if they don't have the same amount of content as other companions.

I mean, that part I do get, but it seems entirely redundant. Between full-companions and custom companions, I'm not sure what role or void the sidekicks are supposed to fill. A smarter use of resource would be to make customs fit more naturally into the game world. There's no reason not to give them some generic barks and couple of scripted interactions where custom guys interrupts the dialogue.

 

[Jenkem]

I mean, that part I do get, but it seems entirely redundant. Between full-companions and custom companions, I'm not sure what role or void the sidekicks are supposed to fill. A smarter use of resource would be to make customs fit more naturally into the game world. There's no reason not to give them some generic barks and couple of scripted interactions where custom guys interrupts the dialogue.

sidekicks are basically created custom companions but with a set personality and limited dialogue options, they don't have companion quests or deep dialogue trees like full-companions. The role/void they are supposed to fill is to give the player more options to flesh out their party depending on the role of the MC, allowing for more options outside of hiring a custom, or making fun/quirky characters that the devs want to include for shits and giggles.

The reason they don't make customs fit more naturally is because no matter what they did they would end up injecting personality Yeah, barks could be really generic, but what is the point? Any interjecting in dialogue would bring something to that character that the player may not have envisioned when creating them. Unless you want those to be generic also, which would be a waste of time and effort for something unnecessary and potentially annoying.
you have custom hires and full blown companions, with sidekicks being the between the two.

 

[FreeKaner]

I can't figure out what race the ginger dude is supposed to be. He seems to be some kind of ginger-Asian hybrid. Do Asians even come in ginger flavors? (I'm aware "ginger" isn't a race, you know what I mean)

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm not sure what role or void the sidekicks are supposed to fill.

In terms of whether people would actually use them - knowingly missing out on the content of the meatier companions and without the compensating factor of being able to create them from scratch? Yeah, I guess you have a point, could be they'll go largely unused, especially on people's first playthroughs. Still, better than nothing I guess? The Baldur's Gate games had many more companions than PoE did and this is a way to close the gap.

 

[The Wall]

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

In anime, sure yes.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I still don't undestand what's the point of sidekicks.

They want to make more companions but aren't comfortable calling them "companions" if they don't have the same amount of content as other companions.

It could also be a way to throw in some more screwball-type characters to play with that don't necessarily fit with the Standard Obsidian Companion Design Principles(tm), although I don't know if these sidekicks will be like that.

What principles are those?

 

[Merlkir]

The portraits are also photographed off a monitor screen, the colours and contrast are probably way off.

 

[Infinitron]

What principles are those?

I guess I mean Obsidian's companion design seems to gravitate towards more serious/down-to-earth interpretations, so maybe if they go for an intentional "sidekick" approach, they can circumvent that and create wackier concepts.

 

[Merlkir]

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

In anime, sure yes.

As well as in real life.

There are red headed Mongolians, some Chinese (Hui) and also Uighurs living in China. Some Hmong people also have reddish hair.

It's more common in Central Asia (uyghurs, Tajiks etc.), but still present in east Asian populations.

 

[FreeKaner]

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

In anime, sure yes.

Are you always this easy to offend or is it only when it comes to people of non-caucasian ancestry?

 

[Infinitron]

Real-life ginger East Asians are part-Caucasian, but this is a fantasy world so...

Not sure if that guy actually looks Asian though?

 

[Sannom]

I don't think she ever looked anime, but I am keeping myself clean of anime in general.

She was very anime. She strongly reminded me of two characters in particular, Yakushi Kabuto and Lezard Valeth.

 

[FreeKaner]

Real-life ginger East Asians are part-Caucasian, but this is a fantasy world so

Not true, red-hair mutation isn't specifically Caucasian, in fact it's earliest origins are probably from Siberia.

 

[AwesomeButton]

What principles are those?

I guess I mean Obsidian's companion design seems to gravitate towards more serious/down-to-earth interpretations, so maybe if they go for an intentional "sidekick" approach, they can circumvent that and create wackier concepts.

I hope you are right. God knows they are not very good at the serious/down to earth stuff.

This dumb tendency for game directors to strive to ascend to movie director-hood and game writers to ascend to, well, actual writers...

 

[FreeKaner]

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

In anime, sure yes.

As well as in real life.

Red haired Mongolians:
(though iirc this boy might be Tajik)

big picture:

Spoiler

That kid is neither Mongolian nor Tajik, he looks Uyghur and if he is from China, he probably is.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I don't think she ever looked anime, but I am keeping myself clean of anime in general.

She was very anime. She strongly reminded me of two characters in particular, Yakushi Kabuto and Lezard Valeth.

It's normal she looked anime to you, you watch anime. And it's normal she doesn't look that way to me.

 

[Background Character]

Just paying homage to Tiax,

Fuck yeah Tiax! Make way

 

[Jenkem]

pretty odd to have a red-haired character in a game where the lore centers around souls

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think she ever looked anime, but I am keeping myself clean of anime in general.

She was very anime. She strongly reminded me of two characters in particular, Yakushi Kabuto and Lezard Valeth.

It's normal she looked anime to you, you watch anime. And it's normal she doesn't look that way to me.

She's obviously not drawn in a classic anime style, but a fussy white-haired meganekko scientist elf girl is obvious bait.

 

[Merlkir]

East Asians do come redhaired yes.

In anime, sure yes.

As well as in real life.

Red haired Mongolians:
(though iirc this boy might be Tajik)

big picture:

Spoiler

That kid is neither Mongolian nor Tajik, he looks Uyghur and if he is from China, he probably is.

Yeah, see my edit. Did a (too quick) google for this and came up with improperly labeled photos. The girl in the big picture is actually Tibetan. Fucking Stormfront and other sites obsessed with race, but can't fact check for shit. My edited post should have better examples.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Oh, reading TVtropes is something you do on your own responsibility :D

 

[santino27]

Looks like there've been some changes.

 

[Infinitron]

Confirmed that the redhead is Rekke though.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Cut sidekicks? Sad.

 

[Sizzle]