You know what I realized last year, when I was making the music list rant about the remixes and original fan songs and whatnot? A lot of composers of original fan songs actually go to the trouble of making an accompanying music video to go with their tunes. So, like, why wouldn’t I also count those as RPG AMVs? That being the case, expect to see a bunch of these original RPG AMVs in the next couple of these rants. There’ll still be plenty of “normal” AMVs, too, though, no worries.*
FALLOUT
Fallout 4: Some Things Never Change, by Miracle of Sound
The music used is Some Things Never Change, by Miracle of Sound. The perfect video to accompany Miracle of Sound’s beautiful, haunting, weary love song to Fallout 4, this AMV displays the singular beauty and tragedy of the Fallout setting with sweeping, unhurried treks through the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth, perfectly in tune with the music. Tributes to a game’s setting are difficult to make a great AMV for, particularly for landscapes that emphasize quiet and emptiness, but when they work, they work damn well, and this is a great example of that.
FINAL FANTASY
Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Warriors, by RivAyshil
The music used is a cover of Warriors, by Imagine Dragons. The cover itself is done by 2WEI. This AMV is strong overall, a good match of song to game in terms of atmosphere and gravity, but it’s especially notable, I think, for the great timing of the game footage to the music. The powerful and pervasive percussion of Warriors is matched at every point by the movement and actions of the visuals to create a single, flowing entity of sound and sight here. I especially love the part right before the minute mark where the audio’s far-off marching is matched to characters’ steps in the game--it’s a small detail, but it shows off the skill and effort that went into this AMV as a whole very well. Great stuff.
FIRE EMBLEM
Fire Emblem 16: The Storm, by Ramona BadwolfTM
The music used is The Storm, by TheFatRat. This is a pretty neat AMV--the creator has picked an interesting song that, when paired to the game’s footage with such precise and artful timing, demonstrates Fire Emblem 16’s characters and conflicts, their relationships and their pain in a way that’s refreshing and compelling. Let’s face it, after a certain point, there are some games whose AMVs tend to start to blur together, and Fire Emblem titles definitely seem to be examples of this phenomenon--but this music video manages to make the story and its cast feel new again, somehow. It’s an interesting case of the AMV being genuinely fun to watch, even if it’s got enough gravity and sincerity that I wouldn’t call it a “fun” AMV, if that makes any sense.
NIER: AUTOMATA
Nier: Automata: Mercy Mirror, by Rail
The music used is Mercy Mirror, by Within Temptation. You know, I hadn’t really thought about it before, but between A1 and 2B, Devola and Popola, the splintering of N2’s consciousness, the duality of the machines and the androids as a whole, and just a whole lot of moments from the game’s narrative, there really are a lot of examples of mirrors in Nier: Automata, huh? An interesting realization I wouldn’t have had without this high quality AMV calling attention to it with its smart choice of scenes to coordinate with the song’s lyrics and tune, and interesting exploration into the theme of mirrors within the game. This is a solid work with a neat thematic focus!
THE OUTER WORLDS
The Outer Worlds: The Fine Print, by The Stupendium
The music used is The Fine Print, by The Stupendium. I love this one--the song’s a strikingly perfect and ingeniously written representation of The Outer Worlds’s setting, theme, and lore, and the video that goes along with it is excellently tailored to emphasize and enhance the music, giving us a great set of visuals from The Outer Worlds to pay it proper tribute, while staying contained and sparse enough that the video never distracts from the song and its message. The Stupendium’s own role is played perfectly as he sings, and his background, visual effects, costume design, and overall presentation and progression are all excellent, engaging, and in complete sync with the source material. I legitimately don’t think that a better tribute to and representation of The Outer Worlds could be made than The Fine Print--hell, I might even go as far as to say that this AMV is superior to the game itself, even on the game's own terms!
SUIKODEN
Suikoden 1 - 3: SuikoPath, by Squall583.
The music used is Path, by Apocalyptica. There’s very little to say on this one--it’s a blast from the past, possibly older than some of you reading this, and a prime example of a classic, good, basic AMV that gets the job done and is enjoyable to watch. It’s also a bit noteworthy for managing to maintain a cohesive, strong music video from start to finish, in spite of having very little to work with (given how few cinematics the initial trilogy of Suikoden possessed)--granted, some scenes are reused in this, but the way they fit so well into the chorus effectively disguises this as an artistic choice rather than a limitation. Good stuff!
TALES OF
Tales of Berseria: A Demon’s Fate, by Ard1n LC
The music used is A Demon’s Fate, by Within Temptation. This one’s a solid, well-constructed AMV that skillfully brings the visuals and lyrics together in a song that works well with the source material; there’s not much to say about it beyond that it’s a good work all around.
Interestingly, this video also continues with a second AMV for Tales of Zestiria, done to a different song. It’s a fine enough music video, but not great in and of itself. It is, however, kind of a neat thing that the author did this, as ToZ takes place in the far future of ToB’s world--it makes it so that the AMVs sort of set up their own narrative. Nice touch.
UNDERTALE
Undertale: Way Deeper Down, by The Stupendium
The music used is Way Deeper Down, by The Stupendium. It’s a pretty simple video, obviously more about the music than the visual component (which is fair, since this is meant to be the release of The Stupendium’s new song first and foremost), but Way Deeper Down is nonetheless a fun and serviceable AMV. Even if the clever and fun lyrics of this song about Undertale’s iconic undead are clearly the star of the work, the appealing, simple art nonetheless help bring them to life. The Stupendium is a darned fun creator as a whole, and this AMV is certainly on-brand for him.
* Yes, I know no one was actually worried about this.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
General RPGs' AMVs 20
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Neverwinter Nights 1's Add-Ons
Huh! So it looks like Neverwinter Nights 1, with its re-release in 2018, subsequently had a couple of new add-ons made for it in 2020. So while it may have seemed like I was over 10 years late to the party when I originally wrote this rant, the reality is that I was actually a cool 5 years early. How's them apples, punk?
But because I'm a lazy fuck, I'm just gonna leave the original intro as it was. If you're looking for the new content in this revised rant, check out the last 2 entries here (Tyrants of the Moonsea and Dark Dreams of Furiae), and the concluding thoughts.
Is it pointless to look at the add-ons of a game that came out over 10 years ago and is nowadays sold with its add-ons automatically included in the purchase, removing any influence this rant could have on the reader’s purchase decisions? Yup. Has the subject being pointless ever stopped me from making a rant before? Nope. So let’s take a look at the expansions and premium modules of the original Neverwinter Nights.
Shadows of Undrentide: Meh. A cookie-cutter plot wrapped in generic Dungeons and Dragons events. People complain that the second half of this expansion is rushed in its storytelling, and they’re totally right, but I can’t find that upsetting in the least because this expansion is frankly just not interesting enough that I’d want it drawn out at all. Frankly, I had more than my liking of drawn out, tedious plot cliche from the game proper, thank you. The first 2 party members aren’t bad, I guess, but they’re not good, either. They kind of feel like unfinished prototypes of Bioware characters rather than the real thing. I’ll admit that Deekin, and the kobolds in general, do tickle my fancy, so Shadows of Undrentide isn’t a total bore. Still, one amusing henchman does not a boring plot excuse. I don’t know how much this expansion originally sold for, but I know it wasn’t worth it, because even in its role nowadays as a free addition to the game, Shadows of Undrentide still isn’t worth the time it takes to play it.
Hordes of the Underdark: Like Shadows of Undrentide and the main story of Neverwinter Nights 1, the first 2 chapters of Hordes of the Underdark is plodding, largely mindless dungeon-crawling busywork, particularly the first chapter. The first chapter is just schlepping through a big dungeon, as if that were something novel for Neverwinter Nights by this point, and while Chapter 2 does finally see fit to grace us with a plot, it’s pretty generic stuff. The return of Deekin as a companion is welcomed, the return of 4 of the main game’s henchmen is not. The latter bunch clearly had their character development explored to its limit the first time around, and add nothing to the experience here, while Deekin (though he gets only a little more development) is amusing and appealing by nature, so he helps add a chuckle here and there. The new companion Nathyrra is okay, I guess...she’s sort of like an extremely watered down version of Viconia from Baldur’s Gate 1 and particularly 2. Like, if Viconia’s character depth and personality were filet mignon, Nathyrra would be a Slim Jim. Still pleasant, but not even in the same league as what it could be. I did like the part of Chapter 2 involving the mirror-cursed town of flying elves, too, but yeah...overall the first couple chapters of Hordes of the Underdark are no better than Shadows of Undrentide was.
...But then Chapter 3 starts, and suddenly the game pulls a complete 180 on you. No longer are you just going back and forth for one minor sidequest after another, waiting for something real to happen. Now you’re traveling alongside the soul of Aribeth, a paladin blackguard seeking to regain her faith even as she walks through the frozen hell of Cania itself, as you retrace the steps of an ancient, slumbering angel who gave up paradise for the sake of love in order to find a primal being who knows every person’s True Name--the name the gods bless each person with that holds ultimate power over him or her--all while the eternal Blood War rages on closer and closer, all so you can gain control of an interdimensional reaper and confront a hell lord before he can turn your home plane into his new domain to rule over. Filled with philosophy and beauty, the draw and power of the ancient and epic, and finally a companion with some real depth, Hordes of the Underdark’s third chapter finally delivers on the promise of a grand and meaningful Dungeons and Dragons story.
Is it worth it? Well, again, I don’t know how much HotU sold for originally. But the answer would almost surely be yes either way. Despite the majority of Hordes of the Underdark being generic filler, the third chapter makes up for that lost time in a big way and gives you something substantial and epic to enjoy. My policy is that if the payoff is great, I’ll happily suffer tedium to reach it (I really don’t know how I would play most RPGs otherwise, they’re so boring gameplay-wise), so Hordes of the Underdark gets a thumbs-up from me.
Kingmaker: Kingmaker is a Premium Module for Neverwinter Nights 1, which as far as I can tell is just what people called Downloadable Content before there was any widely recognized name for the concept. It’s, uh...odd. On the one hand, it’s just too simple to be interesting--the premise is just doing some quests for people to get their vote on making you the new lord/lady of a city (and oddly, it’s a position always listed as lord/lady, never king or queen, so I don’t know where the title of this DLC comes from), and then a short romp through some bad guys set on conquering that city for bad guy reasons. Boring. And yet, it’s also too complex to be enjoyable--the truth of the protagonist’s lineage, and the identity, nature, and purpose of the individual who sets this whole conflict up, are only half explained, even though they’re the major underlying factors that drive the entire story. Too simplistic on the surface, with inadequately explored complexity as its backbone: it’s a tough line to walk, but Kingmaker manages to do so and fail you twice over. To Kingmaker’s credit, some of the party members are actually pretty decent (particularly Kaidala and Jaboli, though Trip and Calibast are fairly unique, too), and there’s a decent effort put into developing the party members both in their own right and in their connections to one another, which I certainly appreciate. And even if it’s not compelling, Kingmaker is at least short and direct. After a full game, a full expansion, and 2/3rds of another expansion that are mostly just long, drawn out generic boredom, it’s hard not to appreciate a boring story that at least doesn’t dawdle and delay on and on.
From what I can tell, Kingmaker sold for $8 originally. Oddly high price for the time, and definitely not worth it. But as it is nowadays, a bonus that comes free with the game, I would say...well, I wouldn’t recommend it, like I recommend Hordes of the Underdark, but I wouldn’t recommend against it like I do with Shadows of Undrentide, either. It’s a bit of a time waste, but not a huge one.
Witch’s Wake: Alright, finally! It took a while, but Neverwinter Nights 1 at last delivers a consistently engaging story that’s written well, has compelling atmosphere, interesting ideas, a good narrative, and some decent NPCs. Wooo!
Too bad it’s the first part of a planned series of DLC packages that was never continued.
Yes, after only the first leg of a mysterious and potentially awesome quest to remember one’s purpose and self, and to deliver a cryptic message to a king once known but now forgotten, this DLC ends, and you are left with no satisfaction whatsoever. Apparently Bioware planned to make this into a multi-part story, but the Premium Module program was shut down before Witch’s Wake could ever get past its first chapter. A damn shame.
Although I would like to express a serious level of disgust with this plan, had it come to fruition. I mean, consider this fact--back when it was released, you paid $5 for Witch’s Wake (and Shadowguard; they came in the same package), and what you were doing was paying for an unfinished story. If all had gone according to Bioware’s original plan, you would then have been paying more money for each subsequent chapter of the story! A common complaint with Downloadable Content is that if it’s handled dishonestly (and it so, so often is), it’s basically a case of consumer extortion, where you pay for a game but then have to pay an extra fee to actually play ALL of the game you ALREADY PAID FOR. Well, that’s pretty much what we would have had here, if Witch’s Wake had ever been continued. You’d have to keep paying over and over again to fully experience the product that you had already purchased! I tend to think of Bioware as having slowly descended further and further into greedy, amoral corruption over time, but finding something like this makes me wonder if perhaps the company was just always rotten, and we all just didn’t notice it as much back in the day.
Shadowguard: Oh for Phosphora’s sake! It’s Witch’s Wake all over again! While not nearly as intriguing or narratively strong as Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard nonetheless presents an interesting, engaging story with some actual personality for its protagonist...and then drops off into nothingness. Yes, as with Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard is meant to be the first part of a multi-chapter story which was never continued. As with Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard is something that’s enjoyable while it lasts and which you’d actually have some interest in seeing continued, unlike most of Neverwinter Nights 1’s content that we’ve seen so far. And as with Witch’s Wake, the intended concept of paying several times for the privilege of actually playing Shadowguard, the product you’ve purchased, to its conclusion is utterly repulsive, shameless extortion on Bioware’s part. What a load of bullshit.
Pirates of the Sword Coast: How much you get from Pirates of the Sword Coast is going to greatly vary depending on how much you like pirates and the whole swashbuckling adventure genre in general. Myself, I am pretty ambivalent towards pirates. By themselves, they are not interesting, and most stories involving them and the whole idea of seeking fortune on the high seas don’t pan out to be all that compelling. Nonetheless, there’s enough opportunity to the whole pirate thing that you can certainly get some decent plots and characters out of it if you’re a decent storyteller. So I don’t care one way or another about the pop culture pirate genre.
That said, I was surprised to find myself enjoying this DLC pretty well as it went along. Pirates of the Sword Coast isn’t kidding about being pirate-y. A jabbery, smartass parrot, recruiting a pirate crew, undead curses, being marooned on islands with (sort of) cannibal tribes, treasure map hunts, krakens, pirate-filled island towns...this side-story has pretty close to every pirate trope out there, and it plays all of them pretty well. It never feels like any of these common pirate story devices are forced, though, and the overall method of the DLC is pretty good. It’s only sparsely narrated, but what it has works, and overall the story is average, but the characters and NPCs, and the item descriptions and environmental text, are all lighthearted and even a bit clever. It’s kinda like a combination of the fun of Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (and only the first movie; none of that crummy drek that followed) and Muppet Treasure Island. So I did end up liking this one well enough, and I expect people who are more into the high seas genre of books and movies and whatnot would find it all the better.
Pirates of the Sword Coast was a bit costly for its time, selling at $10 (from what I can tell, at least; it’s been long enough since it was sold that my sources are only old forum posts about it). Nonetheless, it’s fun enough that I wouldn’t necessarily call that a waste of money, depending, again, on how much of a pirate fan you are. Maybe not worth that much to me, but I could understand why someone else would think it worth that. Moot point nowadays, of course; Bioware long ago stopped selling it and if you can find an installer for this module (or any of the ones below), it’ll authenticate itself and let you play it even though you haven’t purchased it (at least, mine did). But anyway, yeah. Decent DLC, this.
Wyvern Crown of Cormyr: Meh. Nothing especially bad (besides the damn jousting minigame; expect that bit of annoyance to get its own rant at some point), but likewise nothing interesting, either. Not worth the time to play it, certainly not worth the $10 that Bioware originally charged for this module.
The Dark Ranger’s Treasure: This DLC is among the 3 tiny little modules that Bioware made and released for free. On the one hand, it’s hard to find fault with something a company provides completely for free. On the other hand, this brief little venture could barely even be called a boring sidequest. I’d pass on it, but if you try it and don’t like it, at least it won’t waste much of your time.
To Heir is Human: See what I just wrote for The Dark Ranger’s Treasure? It applies to this one, too.
The Winds of Eremor: Ditto.
Infinite Dungeons: If, after a full game, 2 expansions, and over half a dozen DLCs of various sizes, you are, somehow, still in the mood for running around killing things in a dungeon for hours on end, then this is definitely your module. If, however, you are someone who plays an RPG to experience storytelling in the video game medium, who has become sick to death of the repetitive gameplay mechanics after experiencing them for 100 hours and frankly was not particularly interested in them to begin with, then this DLC is a thoroughly unappealing prospect.
Darkness Over Daggerford: Bioware designed this final DLC with the intent to sell it, but apparently someone pulled the plug on the idea of continuing to produce Neverwinter Nights 1 content before it was finished. So, from what I gather, one of the employees of Bioware decided to finish DOD after he left to form his own company. Thus, Darkness Over Daggerford is legally considered to be user-created content instead of official, but since it was mostly developed by Bioware, I’m still counting it here.
Darkness Over Daggerford is...eh, decent, I suppose. Nothing special, but a little better than the par for Neverwinter Nights 1; I at least didn’t feel outright bored at any point. The party members are alright, and the plot is generic but acceptable. Being unofficial content, this was released for free, so I guess the price was right, at least.
Tyrants of the Moonsea: This is quite a large adventure, easily enough so that I think it’s safe to call it an expansion more than just a DLC. In this expansion, the player takes a hero through the Moonsea on an evolving quest to save the region’s people from a powerful wizard’s misguided attempt to overthrow the evil organization that effectively runs the place. Because of course the wizard sold his soul to a demon and allied himself with violent, conquering tribes of orcs and whatnot to accomplish this goal. If it was good enough for Chrono Trigger’s Magus, it’s good enough for every overly powerful antihero sorcerer, right?
Anyway, this thing’s alright. Its best elements are easily the significant NPCs and party members, several of whom have engaging personalities and interesting shticks--Elf and Lyressa are standouts, but there’s a good handful of characters that give this tale some personality, and few important individuals who aren’t interesting or noteworthy in some regard. I’m especially fond of Beirmoura--she’s fun, clever, and would probably get along very well with Suikoden’s Star Dragon Sword. As much as I’ve enjoyed Finnean over at Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, there’s no question who’s the best sapient talking weapon I’ve used in an RPG this year.
There’s also quite a few smaller qualities of this add-on which are notably pleasant, too. I appreciated, for example, that the book items within Tyrants of the Moonsea actually feel relevant to the setting and story of the game, which is a weirdly uncommon thing for the random tomes you can read in a lot of isometric Dungeons and Dragons games. And speaking of setting and lore, there’s quite a few references and inclusions of significant actors and concepts from the regular D+D canon that make an appearance here which will please more hardcore players and fans quite a bit, I think, like that Drizzt guy I always hear about--but they’re not involved or spotlighted enough that a filthy casual like myself feels excluded in any way. Similarly, it’s a nice touch that there are moments in the game in which NPC conversations can allow you to establish that your protagonist is the same hero as was involved in some of NN1’s other adventures, or even those of entirely different DnD titles--but you can also opt to deny this and have the hero of Tyrants of the Moonsea be their own entity, too. There’s additionally a good bit of moral choices in the expansion that have more substantial results than those of the preceding add-ons, too, which is pleasant.
The only weak point of Tyrants of the Moonsea is probably its overall story, which, honestly, just didn’t feel all that compelling to me. But it’s not bad, at least, and when supported by its other virtues, that shakes out to Tyrants of the Moonsea being a pretty decent adventure as a whole, and given that you’ll likely be romping around in the module for over 10 hours, I’d say it’s worth its $10 price point.
Dark Dreams of Furiae: I’m...not sure what I make of this, really. On the one hand, this adventure set in the midst of a city’s philosophical crisis as its citizens and rulers struggle to change or maintain the community’s views and actions between Law and Chaos in order to secure Furiae’s place in the planes is very pleasantly reminiscent of Planescape: Torment--and the fact that the mod lightly references Sigil and certain concepts examined in PT makes it apparent that this in part an homage to that magnificent game. And I, of course, love that, because it’s been way too long since I’ve taken a journey through the outer planes and witnessed the war of belief that forms the heart of the Dungeons and Dragons universe.
The premise around which the adventure is centered, that being a quest to discover the origins and determine the fate of Worldwine, a potent narcotic notable for being poison to the otherworldly devils that seek to subjugate Furiae and its people, is also interesting, resulting in a choice by the adventure’s end that did give me pause. Small flourishes like an amply alliterative newspaper being periodically published for your perusal, well-written and engaging NPC interactions that immerse you, and some dream sequence moments that skillfully unnerve you and softly develop the silent protagonist in much the way that Fallout 3’s Point Lookout drug trip did, make it clear that there’s a lot of creativity and a good bit of narrative talent at work here.
With that said, I have to admit, a lot of my appreciation for Dark Dreams of Furiae feels objective more than personal. I’m appreciating it from a distance, more than really getting swept up in actually enjoying it. There’s something about its atmosphere, its approach, that keeps it feeling understated enough that it never gripped me. I’m not sure why that is, but there’s just something in its quiet gloom that lacks the personal touch to bridge the gap between an interesting specimen, and something that I’m actually invested in. I can’t really explain it; I just know that the positives I get front his add-on feel more like something I respectfully admire than actively enjoy. Also, the ending to this adventure feels kinda rushed and a bit underwhelming. Not bad, mind you, but not as good as one might reasonably hope for.
Still, the overall experience of Dark Dreams of Furiae was a positive one. It’s a well-crafted add-on that, at $5, easily justifies and excels its price point in terms of content and quality. Recommended!
And that’s the last of’em. There are plenty more modules for Neverwinter Nights 1, of course, but those are ones made by fans, not official sources (or at least released and sold by official sources). So how’s it all stack up?
Well, when I originally wrote this rant, my take-away from NN1's mod scene was a negative one. I gave the add-ons credit for the fact that the original game itself being generic, uninteresting, and terribly paced meant that having any decent stories to be found in its add-ons could be seen as something of a victory, but overall, I called it a lousy showing. And with justifiable cause. The best moments of Neverwinter Nights's add-ons (hell, the game's best moments period) are Witch's Wake, which is incomplete and would have been economically unethical had its original roadmap been followed, and Hordes of the Underdark, which is only good in its last third and requires you to just slog through a bunch of average dungeon-crawling nonsense to get to the good. And honestly, even now, the majority of these add-ons still range from boring to bad.
Still, I think the addition of Tyrants of the Moonsea and Dark Dreams of Furiae may have tipped the scales enough to warrant a new verdict on the matter. They're both positive enough additions to the game's whole to offset a decent handful of the less compelling add-ons that preceded them. Would I say that this makes Neverwinter Nights 1's add-ons a positive experience overall? Well, no, there's still just too many boring and generic components to this whole, and it's still really, really frustrating that we only ever got a taste of Witch's Wake (and Shadowguard; it too was promising). But even if NN1 still doesn't secure a win and join the exceptionally small club of RPGs whose add-ons were more good than bad, it's at least much more neutral now than it once was. With Tyrants of the Moonsea, the final third of Hordes of the Underdark, Pirates of the Sword Coat, and Dark Dreams of Furiae, along with what enjoyment Witch's Wake and Shadowguard can provide, Neverwinter Nights 1's add-on scene is fairly well balanced, providing only a bit more of the negative than the positive. You can even forgive it a little further by virtue of the fact that downloadable add-ons were still a pretty new idea at the time that most of the ones above were created, so some of this can be attributed to growing pains and feeling the concept out.*
So final verdict on Neverwinter Nights 1's add-ons: not good, but really only barely bad. Certainly more than you can say for the main game itself, for whatever that's worth. See you guys here again in another 15 years when the next DLC comes out for it.
* Not that we're any better in the modern age at creating decent DLCs that are anywhere near worth their asking price. In fact, I think things may be worse than ever.
But because I'm a lazy fuck, I'm just gonna leave the original intro as it was. If you're looking for the new content in this revised rant, check out the last 2 entries here (Tyrants of the Moonsea and Dark Dreams of Furiae), and the concluding thoughts.
Is it pointless to look at the add-ons of a game that came out over 10 years ago and is nowadays sold with its add-ons automatically included in the purchase, removing any influence this rant could have on the reader’s purchase decisions? Yup. Has the subject being pointless ever stopped me from making a rant before? Nope. So let’s take a look at the expansions and premium modules of the original Neverwinter Nights.
Shadows of Undrentide: Meh. A cookie-cutter plot wrapped in generic Dungeons and Dragons events. People complain that the second half of this expansion is rushed in its storytelling, and they’re totally right, but I can’t find that upsetting in the least because this expansion is frankly just not interesting enough that I’d want it drawn out at all. Frankly, I had more than my liking of drawn out, tedious plot cliche from the game proper, thank you. The first 2 party members aren’t bad, I guess, but they’re not good, either. They kind of feel like unfinished prototypes of Bioware characters rather than the real thing. I’ll admit that Deekin, and the kobolds in general, do tickle my fancy, so Shadows of Undrentide isn’t a total bore. Still, one amusing henchman does not a boring plot excuse. I don’t know how much this expansion originally sold for, but I know it wasn’t worth it, because even in its role nowadays as a free addition to the game, Shadows of Undrentide still isn’t worth the time it takes to play it.
Hordes of the Underdark: Like Shadows of Undrentide and the main story of Neverwinter Nights 1, the first 2 chapters of Hordes of the Underdark is plodding, largely mindless dungeon-crawling busywork, particularly the first chapter. The first chapter is just schlepping through a big dungeon, as if that were something novel for Neverwinter Nights by this point, and while Chapter 2 does finally see fit to grace us with a plot, it’s pretty generic stuff. The return of Deekin as a companion is welcomed, the return of 4 of the main game’s henchmen is not. The latter bunch clearly had their character development explored to its limit the first time around, and add nothing to the experience here, while Deekin (though he gets only a little more development) is amusing and appealing by nature, so he helps add a chuckle here and there. The new companion Nathyrra is okay, I guess...she’s sort of like an extremely watered down version of Viconia from Baldur’s Gate 1 and particularly 2. Like, if Viconia’s character depth and personality were filet mignon, Nathyrra would be a Slim Jim. Still pleasant, but not even in the same league as what it could be. I did like the part of Chapter 2 involving the mirror-cursed town of flying elves, too, but yeah...overall the first couple chapters of Hordes of the Underdark are no better than Shadows of Undrentide was.
...But then Chapter 3 starts, and suddenly the game pulls a complete 180 on you. No longer are you just going back and forth for one minor sidequest after another, waiting for something real to happen. Now you’re traveling alongside the soul of Aribeth, a paladin blackguard seeking to regain her faith even as she walks through the frozen hell of Cania itself, as you retrace the steps of an ancient, slumbering angel who gave up paradise for the sake of love in order to find a primal being who knows every person’s True Name--the name the gods bless each person with that holds ultimate power over him or her--all while the eternal Blood War rages on closer and closer, all so you can gain control of an interdimensional reaper and confront a hell lord before he can turn your home plane into his new domain to rule over. Filled with philosophy and beauty, the draw and power of the ancient and epic, and finally a companion with some real depth, Hordes of the Underdark’s third chapter finally delivers on the promise of a grand and meaningful Dungeons and Dragons story.
Is it worth it? Well, again, I don’t know how much HotU sold for originally. But the answer would almost surely be yes either way. Despite the majority of Hordes of the Underdark being generic filler, the third chapter makes up for that lost time in a big way and gives you something substantial and epic to enjoy. My policy is that if the payoff is great, I’ll happily suffer tedium to reach it (I really don’t know how I would play most RPGs otherwise, they’re so boring gameplay-wise), so Hordes of the Underdark gets a thumbs-up from me.
Kingmaker: Kingmaker is a Premium Module for Neverwinter Nights 1, which as far as I can tell is just what people called Downloadable Content before there was any widely recognized name for the concept. It’s, uh...odd. On the one hand, it’s just too simple to be interesting--the premise is just doing some quests for people to get their vote on making you the new lord/lady of a city (and oddly, it’s a position always listed as lord/lady, never king or queen, so I don’t know where the title of this DLC comes from), and then a short romp through some bad guys set on conquering that city for bad guy reasons. Boring. And yet, it’s also too complex to be enjoyable--the truth of the protagonist’s lineage, and the identity, nature, and purpose of the individual who sets this whole conflict up, are only half explained, even though they’re the major underlying factors that drive the entire story. Too simplistic on the surface, with inadequately explored complexity as its backbone: it’s a tough line to walk, but Kingmaker manages to do so and fail you twice over. To Kingmaker’s credit, some of the party members are actually pretty decent (particularly Kaidala and Jaboli, though Trip and Calibast are fairly unique, too), and there’s a decent effort put into developing the party members both in their own right and in their connections to one another, which I certainly appreciate. And even if it’s not compelling, Kingmaker is at least short and direct. After a full game, a full expansion, and 2/3rds of another expansion that are mostly just long, drawn out generic boredom, it’s hard not to appreciate a boring story that at least doesn’t dawdle and delay on and on.
From what I can tell, Kingmaker sold for $8 originally. Oddly high price for the time, and definitely not worth it. But as it is nowadays, a bonus that comes free with the game, I would say...well, I wouldn’t recommend it, like I recommend Hordes of the Underdark, but I wouldn’t recommend against it like I do with Shadows of Undrentide, either. It’s a bit of a time waste, but not a huge one.
Witch’s Wake: Alright, finally! It took a while, but Neverwinter Nights 1 at last delivers a consistently engaging story that’s written well, has compelling atmosphere, interesting ideas, a good narrative, and some decent NPCs. Wooo!
Too bad it’s the first part of a planned series of DLC packages that was never continued.
Yes, after only the first leg of a mysterious and potentially awesome quest to remember one’s purpose and self, and to deliver a cryptic message to a king once known but now forgotten, this DLC ends, and you are left with no satisfaction whatsoever. Apparently Bioware planned to make this into a multi-part story, but the Premium Module program was shut down before Witch’s Wake could ever get past its first chapter. A damn shame.
Although I would like to express a serious level of disgust with this plan, had it come to fruition. I mean, consider this fact--back when it was released, you paid $5 for Witch’s Wake (and Shadowguard; they came in the same package), and what you were doing was paying for an unfinished story. If all had gone according to Bioware’s original plan, you would then have been paying more money for each subsequent chapter of the story! A common complaint with Downloadable Content is that if it’s handled dishonestly (and it so, so often is), it’s basically a case of consumer extortion, where you pay for a game but then have to pay an extra fee to actually play ALL of the game you ALREADY PAID FOR. Well, that’s pretty much what we would have had here, if Witch’s Wake had ever been continued. You’d have to keep paying over and over again to fully experience the product that you had already purchased! I tend to think of Bioware as having slowly descended further and further into greedy, amoral corruption over time, but finding something like this makes me wonder if perhaps the company was just always rotten, and we all just didn’t notice it as much back in the day.
Shadowguard: Oh for Phosphora’s sake! It’s Witch’s Wake all over again! While not nearly as intriguing or narratively strong as Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard nonetheless presents an interesting, engaging story with some actual personality for its protagonist...and then drops off into nothingness. Yes, as with Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard is meant to be the first part of a multi-chapter story which was never continued. As with Witch’s Wake, Shadowguard is something that’s enjoyable while it lasts and which you’d actually have some interest in seeing continued, unlike most of Neverwinter Nights 1’s content that we’ve seen so far. And as with Witch’s Wake, the intended concept of paying several times for the privilege of actually playing Shadowguard, the product you’ve purchased, to its conclusion is utterly repulsive, shameless extortion on Bioware’s part. What a load of bullshit.
Pirates of the Sword Coast: How much you get from Pirates of the Sword Coast is going to greatly vary depending on how much you like pirates and the whole swashbuckling adventure genre in general. Myself, I am pretty ambivalent towards pirates. By themselves, they are not interesting, and most stories involving them and the whole idea of seeking fortune on the high seas don’t pan out to be all that compelling. Nonetheless, there’s enough opportunity to the whole pirate thing that you can certainly get some decent plots and characters out of it if you’re a decent storyteller. So I don’t care one way or another about the pop culture pirate genre.
That said, I was surprised to find myself enjoying this DLC pretty well as it went along. Pirates of the Sword Coast isn’t kidding about being pirate-y. A jabbery, smartass parrot, recruiting a pirate crew, undead curses, being marooned on islands with (sort of) cannibal tribes, treasure map hunts, krakens, pirate-filled island towns...this side-story has pretty close to every pirate trope out there, and it plays all of them pretty well. It never feels like any of these common pirate story devices are forced, though, and the overall method of the DLC is pretty good. It’s only sparsely narrated, but what it has works, and overall the story is average, but the characters and NPCs, and the item descriptions and environmental text, are all lighthearted and even a bit clever. It’s kinda like a combination of the fun of Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (and only the first movie; none of that crummy drek that followed) and Muppet Treasure Island. So I did end up liking this one well enough, and I expect people who are more into the high seas genre of books and movies and whatnot would find it all the better.
Pirates of the Sword Coast was a bit costly for its time, selling at $10 (from what I can tell, at least; it’s been long enough since it was sold that my sources are only old forum posts about it). Nonetheless, it’s fun enough that I wouldn’t necessarily call that a waste of money, depending, again, on how much of a pirate fan you are. Maybe not worth that much to me, but I could understand why someone else would think it worth that. Moot point nowadays, of course; Bioware long ago stopped selling it and if you can find an installer for this module (or any of the ones below), it’ll authenticate itself and let you play it even though you haven’t purchased it (at least, mine did). But anyway, yeah. Decent DLC, this.
Wyvern Crown of Cormyr: Meh. Nothing especially bad (besides the damn jousting minigame; expect that bit of annoyance to get its own rant at some point), but likewise nothing interesting, either. Not worth the time to play it, certainly not worth the $10 that Bioware originally charged for this module.
The Dark Ranger’s Treasure: This DLC is among the 3 tiny little modules that Bioware made and released for free. On the one hand, it’s hard to find fault with something a company provides completely for free. On the other hand, this brief little venture could barely even be called a boring sidequest. I’d pass on it, but if you try it and don’t like it, at least it won’t waste much of your time.
To Heir is Human: See what I just wrote for The Dark Ranger’s Treasure? It applies to this one, too.
The Winds of Eremor: Ditto.
Infinite Dungeons: If, after a full game, 2 expansions, and over half a dozen DLCs of various sizes, you are, somehow, still in the mood for running around killing things in a dungeon for hours on end, then this is definitely your module. If, however, you are someone who plays an RPG to experience storytelling in the video game medium, who has become sick to death of the repetitive gameplay mechanics after experiencing them for 100 hours and frankly was not particularly interested in them to begin with, then this DLC is a thoroughly unappealing prospect.
Darkness Over Daggerford: Bioware designed this final DLC with the intent to sell it, but apparently someone pulled the plug on the idea of continuing to produce Neverwinter Nights 1 content before it was finished. So, from what I gather, one of the employees of Bioware decided to finish DOD after he left to form his own company. Thus, Darkness Over Daggerford is legally considered to be user-created content instead of official, but since it was mostly developed by Bioware, I’m still counting it here.
Darkness Over Daggerford is...eh, decent, I suppose. Nothing special, but a little better than the par for Neverwinter Nights 1; I at least didn’t feel outright bored at any point. The party members are alright, and the plot is generic but acceptable. Being unofficial content, this was released for free, so I guess the price was right, at least.
Tyrants of the Moonsea: This is quite a large adventure, easily enough so that I think it’s safe to call it an expansion more than just a DLC. In this expansion, the player takes a hero through the Moonsea on an evolving quest to save the region’s people from a powerful wizard’s misguided attempt to overthrow the evil organization that effectively runs the place. Because of course the wizard sold his soul to a demon and allied himself with violent, conquering tribes of orcs and whatnot to accomplish this goal. If it was good enough for Chrono Trigger’s Magus, it’s good enough for every overly powerful antihero sorcerer, right?
Anyway, this thing’s alright. Its best elements are easily the significant NPCs and party members, several of whom have engaging personalities and interesting shticks--Elf and Lyressa are standouts, but there’s a good handful of characters that give this tale some personality, and few important individuals who aren’t interesting or noteworthy in some regard. I’m especially fond of Beirmoura--she’s fun, clever, and would probably get along very well with Suikoden’s Star Dragon Sword. As much as I’ve enjoyed Finnean over at Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, there’s no question who’s the best sapient talking weapon I’ve used in an RPG this year.
There’s also quite a few smaller qualities of this add-on which are notably pleasant, too. I appreciated, for example, that the book items within Tyrants of the Moonsea actually feel relevant to the setting and story of the game, which is a weirdly uncommon thing for the random tomes you can read in a lot of isometric Dungeons and Dragons games. And speaking of setting and lore, there’s quite a few references and inclusions of significant actors and concepts from the regular D+D canon that make an appearance here which will please more hardcore players and fans quite a bit, I think, like that Drizzt guy I always hear about--but they’re not involved or spotlighted enough that a filthy casual like myself feels excluded in any way. Similarly, it’s a nice touch that there are moments in the game in which NPC conversations can allow you to establish that your protagonist is the same hero as was involved in some of NN1’s other adventures, or even those of entirely different DnD titles--but you can also opt to deny this and have the hero of Tyrants of the Moonsea be their own entity, too. There’s additionally a good bit of moral choices in the expansion that have more substantial results than those of the preceding add-ons, too, which is pleasant.
The only weak point of Tyrants of the Moonsea is probably its overall story, which, honestly, just didn’t feel all that compelling to me. But it’s not bad, at least, and when supported by its other virtues, that shakes out to Tyrants of the Moonsea being a pretty decent adventure as a whole, and given that you’ll likely be romping around in the module for over 10 hours, I’d say it’s worth its $10 price point.
Dark Dreams of Furiae: I’m...not sure what I make of this, really. On the one hand, this adventure set in the midst of a city’s philosophical crisis as its citizens and rulers struggle to change or maintain the community’s views and actions between Law and Chaos in order to secure Furiae’s place in the planes is very pleasantly reminiscent of Planescape: Torment--and the fact that the mod lightly references Sigil and certain concepts examined in PT makes it apparent that this in part an homage to that magnificent game. And I, of course, love that, because it’s been way too long since I’ve taken a journey through the outer planes and witnessed the war of belief that forms the heart of the Dungeons and Dragons universe.
The premise around which the adventure is centered, that being a quest to discover the origins and determine the fate of Worldwine, a potent narcotic notable for being poison to the otherworldly devils that seek to subjugate Furiae and its people, is also interesting, resulting in a choice by the adventure’s end that did give me pause. Small flourishes like an amply alliterative newspaper being periodically published for your perusal, well-written and engaging NPC interactions that immerse you, and some dream sequence moments that skillfully unnerve you and softly develop the silent protagonist in much the way that Fallout 3’s Point Lookout drug trip did, make it clear that there’s a lot of creativity and a good bit of narrative talent at work here.
With that said, I have to admit, a lot of my appreciation for Dark Dreams of Furiae feels objective more than personal. I’m appreciating it from a distance, more than really getting swept up in actually enjoying it. There’s something about its atmosphere, its approach, that keeps it feeling understated enough that it never gripped me. I’m not sure why that is, but there’s just something in its quiet gloom that lacks the personal touch to bridge the gap between an interesting specimen, and something that I’m actually invested in. I can’t really explain it; I just know that the positives I get front his add-on feel more like something I respectfully admire than actively enjoy. Also, the ending to this adventure feels kinda rushed and a bit underwhelming. Not bad, mind you, but not as good as one might reasonably hope for.
Still, the overall experience of Dark Dreams of Furiae was a positive one. It’s a well-crafted add-on that, at $5, easily justifies and excels its price point in terms of content and quality. Recommended!
And that’s the last of’em. There are plenty more modules for Neverwinter Nights 1, of course, but those are ones made by fans, not official sources (or at least released and sold by official sources). So how’s it all stack up?
Well, when I originally wrote this rant, my take-away from NN1's mod scene was a negative one. I gave the add-ons credit for the fact that the original game itself being generic, uninteresting, and terribly paced meant that having any decent stories to be found in its add-ons could be seen as something of a victory, but overall, I called it a lousy showing. And with justifiable cause. The best moments of Neverwinter Nights's add-ons (hell, the game's best moments period) are Witch's Wake, which is incomplete and would have been economically unethical had its original roadmap been followed, and Hordes of the Underdark, which is only good in its last third and requires you to just slog through a bunch of average dungeon-crawling nonsense to get to the good. And honestly, even now, the majority of these add-ons still range from boring to bad.
Still, I think the addition of Tyrants of the Moonsea and Dark Dreams of Furiae may have tipped the scales enough to warrant a new verdict on the matter. They're both positive enough additions to the game's whole to offset a decent handful of the less compelling add-ons that preceded them. Would I say that this makes Neverwinter Nights 1's add-ons a positive experience overall? Well, no, there's still just too many boring and generic components to this whole, and it's still really, really frustrating that we only ever got a taste of Witch's Wake (and Shadowguard; it too was promising). But even if NN1 still doesn't secure a win and join the exceptionally small club of RPGs whose add-ons were more good than bad, it's at least much more neutral now than it once was. With Tyrants of the Moonsea, the final third of Hordes of the Underdark, Pirates of the Sword Coat, and Dark Dreams of Furiae, along with what enjoyment Witch's Wake and Shadowguard can provide, Neverwinter Nights 1's add-on scene is fairly well balanced, providing only a bit more of the negative than the positive. You can even forgive it a little further by virtue of the fact that downloadable add-ons were still a pretty new idea at the time that most of the ones above were created, so some of this can be attributed to growing pains and feeling the concept out.*
So final verdict on Neverwinter Nights 1's add-ons: not good, but really only barely bad. Certainly more than you can say for the main game itself, for whatever that's worth. See you guys here again in another 15 years when the next DLC comes out for it.
* Not that we're any better in the modern age at creating decent DLCs that are anywhere near worth their asking price. In fact, I think things may be worse than ever.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
General RPG Valentines 6
As ever, great thanks must be given to my sister and Ecclesiastes, whose input and suggestions for these idiotic Valentines rants goes way above the call of duty, even in consideration of the fact that just being my sounding boards for normal rants is already going way above the call of duty of family and friendship. If any of the silly things below seem amusing or clever to you, there's a better chance than not that this quality is exclusively thanks to the influence of Ecc or my sister.
Chocolate, candy, special dinners, gestures and displays and professions of love...Valentine's Day is already pretty close to the total package when it comes to the holiday experience. In spite of this, however, there has always been 1 notable failing of the holiday, the glaring and inescapable shame of Valentine's Day for centuries: not enough RPG content. But that ends now! Or...7 years ago, when I first started doing these. Whatever. The important thing is, Valentine's Day is now the perfect holiday because I'm a freaking hero. You're welcome.
But just as I giveth, so can I also taketh the hell awayeth. My gift of RPG Valentines may have elevated the holiday to perfection, but even an angel of Heaven can fall to the darkest depths of the abyss. Because I have lived long enough to see myself become the villain, here are a few RPG Anti-Valentines sure to cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth in their recipients!
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