Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out - Ragnarok comes to Glorantha

[Ialda]

I feel like I'm doing something wrong with food.
Can I do ventures during farming seasons? Or it will take away people away from the fields?

Things going wrong with food is how it's supposed to be, I think - Ernalda is dead/asleep, after all. I spent a good chunk of my playthrough regularly butchering cattle to feed my tribe for an half season to slow down the process.

I played the game back in august, before Armored Core 6 came out. Overall I liked it : it's more depressing than SA, but at least you don't feel contrived to follow a plot to "win" the game as everybody will die at the end (I would love to know if there is any "good" end to this game, so far I haven't seen any).

Like KODP and SA1 before it, the real value of the game lies in all the Gloranthan lore and tidbits you can find in pretty much every game events : seeing the Spike explodes, being visited by time-travelling GLs who want to experience the great darkness first hand, being bullied by the Devil, fighting off the Teller of Lies (who may, or may not, be related to another famous Gloranthan entity), seeing the Dara Happan dome being breached, prevent the murder of Rashonara by the unholy trio for at least another day... even the whole ending sequence is fanbait at its best, as the game designer give you his take on who/what the Flesh Man from the Lightbringer myth really is.

And about the whole game

(And somebody pointed to me that from a very remote standpoint, the story of your tribe in SA2 is what will become the myth of Emal Guards the Stead centuries or millenia later)

It's a great "storybook"/tribe simulator, but it really makes you wonder how a game that target a very narrow audience (Glorantha fans, and more precisely, Glorantha fans who liked that weird anthropologicalo-magical era of HeroWars/HeroQuest 1st ed) can be economically viable.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I started again and just went full herds instantly. Food was an issue for a year or two maybe.

We eat cheese for breakfast.
We eat cheese for supper.
We toast with fermented milk.
We dress in cow hides and cheese slices.
A cat choked on a piece of cheese and died.

But I have food for at least a year constantly.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Well, I finished it.
Are the major quests helping you in the finale? The wedding can help you during one slide. But what about the song and the summons of evil?
And the evil goats quest, though maybe I was just trolled by the Uroxi with this one.

I didn't like the god world art. Urox looks like some corn flakes mascot.
The dead world art was BAD. But... edgy shitty deviantart look actually added something to the feeling of the broken reality.

 

[David Dunham]

Ventures are abstract, so in general you can start them whenever’s convenient.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Guys, look. David Dunham randomly appeared to respond to my silly gameplay question.

So... how are the sales?
Are we getting the third part?

 

[Lagole Gon]

I'm replaying Lights right now and RNG blessed me with a very lucky run overall. I get regular good events instead of regular rain of spirit-eating chaos worms.

I even found a piece of Royal Regalia. That's surprising. Can you even complete the whole thing?

 

[Lagole Gon]

Why am I the only person sperposting about this very good game? Hello?

 

[Mortmal]

Why am I the only person sperposting about this very good game? Hello?

Because no one is buying it yet. It's 25 euros for only a few hours of cyoa gameplay, there are no Russian keys available anywhere, and nothing is going faster on sales than RPGs or RPG-like games. So, I assume everyone is waiting for a 70% discount.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Why am I the only person sperposting about this very good game? Hello?

It's 25 euros for only a few hours of cyoa gameplay,

It's 25 euros for a game with a genuinely good, well thought out, mystical and interesting fantasy setting - which is a fucking amazing achievement in the world we live in.

 

[Mortmal]

Why am I the only person sperposting about this very good game? Hello?

It's 25 euros for only a few hours of cyoa gameplay,

It's 25 euros for a game with a genuinely good, well thought out, mystical and interesting fantasy setting - which is a fucking amazing achievement in the world we live in.

It's the worst window of opportunity to release games right now, with Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Phantom Liberty dominating the market, leaving zero visibility for newcomers. Moreover, a recession is looming, accompanied by inflation, and people's mentality has changed; they are not going to spend easily on indies anymore on steam with huge sales in like a few months.

 

[oscar]

I'm liking this one quite a lot. More than Ride Like The Wind. Thoughts:

- It's quite cool starting out powerful, respected and rich but everything slowly going to shit
- A lot of the old 'rules' of KoDP and RLTW don't apply anymore as the world falls apart
- The game is hard. My first tribe (before I figured out how to import my old save so used the generic start) failed after about 20 years. Even had to end up embracing Chaos gifts to survive to get that far (not sure what the long term effect would have been). Food is an almost constant problem seeming no matter what you do. I tried the maximise herds strategy (and using the related spirits) on my second game but still have occasional starvation and the feeling of gradual decline
- It feels a lot more 'attritional' than the previous two games. From what I take it your goal is simply to survive instead of the previous games rise to power and rulership tempo. Even with optimal play your population and herds will shrink across time.
- This is easier said than done. Heroquests, exploration etc is a lot harder than before
- The game captures well the feel of a truly dying world. A bro clan to yours will simply be destroyed suddenly by an event. The gods themselves start to weaken and even die. Spirits become much more essential as the old pantheon weakens.

It's a very moody and grim feeling. The game also feels impressively open-ended, it's really up to you if you will cling to the old traditions or embrace Chaos and do whatever it takes for your clan to make it. The world is clearly doomed and dying but you must soldier on regardless.

 

[Ialda]

Witnessing old KoDP/RLTW "rules"/gameplay mechanisms failing was probably my favorite part of the game. I will always be a sucker for clever integration of narrative with gameplay.

I feel I missed out on the "what to do with old traditions" theme in my playthrought, especially regarding royalty.

Yeah, the tone is an acquired taste. You really have to embrace your inner Wakboth/Kajabor/Klaus Schwab/whatever chaotic entity of entropy you like the most to enjoy this game : destruction is inevitable and comes in an ever-increasing number of ways, peons should always be hungry, and visits from Chaos are a daily occurence.

 

[Silva]

Any tips for a new playthrough? Game kicked my ass hard last time.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Get food gifting spirits ASAP if you don't start with multiple ones.
Get some some lame useless spirits too, just to shield the useful ones from RNG.

 

[Silva]

Get food gifting spirits ASAP if you don't start with multiple ones.
Get some some lame useless spirits too, just to shield the useful ones from RNG.

Thanks.

How about chaos gods, should I cede to some of them? I remember refusing them all in my last playthrough and having a bad time. I feel the game intended for me to join one/some of them.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Get food gifting spirits ASAP if you don't start with multiple ones.
Get some some lame useless spirits too, just to shield the useful ones from RNG.

Thanks.

How about chaos gods,

Just whack them in a head really hard.
I suppose if you have Elmal's protection from dislike you could make a deal or two.

 

[Silva]

Get food gifting spirits ASAP if you don't start with multiple ones.
Get some some lame useless spirits too, just to shield the useful ones from RNG.

Thanks.

How about chaos gods,

Just whack them in a head really hard.
I suppose if you have Elmal's protection from dislike you could make a deal or two.

I've read on Steam that the ones that ask you to build a ledder to the sky help nicely with your fields, and the undead can be used to farm while liberating tour thanes to riad even in summer.

Also, apparently a trickster of Eurmal in the ring helps by hiding your chaos dealings from neighbours.

 

[Silva]

Any word on PS4/5 release?

Just kidding, I know it's not planned. But please folks, consider releasing the whole trilogy on PS5 at some point. Playing this on my comfy couch would be a blast.

 

[Silva]

What's up with the monarchy stuff? Is there a correct path in this? I feel my ring doesn't care and would prefer to ditch the king and his lineage altogether.

 

[Lagole Gon]

What's up with the monarchy stuff? Is there a correct path in this? I feel my ring doesn't care and would prefer to ditch the king and his lineage altogether.

People will not care/care about monarchy depending on you background, choices and individual preferences of the ring members. It's just adds flavour to your clan.

Collecting all royal regalia is not possible. You can't get the real crown. Unless it's some super secret nobody discovered.

 

[Silva]

What's up with the monarchy stuff? Is there a correct path in this? I feel my ring doesn't care and would prefer to ditch the king and his lineage altogether.

People will not care/care about monarchy depending on you background, choices and individual preferences of the ring members. It's just adds flavour to your clan.

Collecting all royal regalia is not possible. You can't get the real crown. Unless it's some super secret nobody discovered.

Nice, it's an open-ended matter then.

Btw, I'm finding the game easier so far. In my first playthrough things went out of control fast. Of course, may be cause I started in the easier difficulty setting, but maybe the updates made things more manageable too? Anyway, I set the game to fast (just two generations) so I'll try Normal difficulty in the next time.