Ment
Auto-translated
I played through the game as Elsa, and I found her to be greatly underrated. Of course, she has some flaws, but after three hotfixes, there are fewer of them (they increased the movement speed of the hero and the horse, for example). There are also occasional bugs, and overall, it feels a bit underdeveloped. Nevertheless, despite many reviews, I recommend it as a wonderful continuation of the series, very much in the spirit of "Legend of the Knight" and "Princess in Armor." In more detail, I'll start with the positives, I'll be repeating myself (this is a final, updated review):
+ KB2 has beautiful views; the landscapes are very well-designed, and I also really liked the character models and creatures. They aren't next-gen graphics, but they are aesthetically pleasing (the animations, though... but more on that later).
+ The RPG part, while not changing the plot globally, does influence specific people in Nostria, the balance of power, and can even slightly alter the map. Making choices is interesting; it's not always obvious, and you can really try to role-play a certain character.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. Not too complex, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues. Sometimes, you just want to approach NPCs who are talking and listen to their chatter.
+ I liked the plot. It's epic, humorous, and quite fairytale-like, but it also boasts a touch of noir, a double (or perhaps half-double?) bottom, and I would gladly play a sequel to this. Although, it could use a bit more of the Terry Pratchett-esque humor that was in "Legend of the Knight"; that would be nice.
+ The quests of the seer deserve mention as a separate plus – a good opportunity to fight in a way that is not typical for you, and sometimes even solve a mini-puzzle.
Just comments, not pros or cons – related to some reviews.
~ The complaint about the missing ending: I didn't understand. Either the developers quietly fixed this in the third hotfix (and didn't mention it in the changelog), or it was fine from the start. The final cutscene is short, with intrigue and a hint of the future, but what's wrong with that?
~ The view from behind the hero gives the impression of an open world, but the actual corridor-like and scripted nature initially shocks. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous parts of the series. But I understand why many were so shocked that they immediately ran to write negative reviews: "Bring back the top-down view; this isn't KB!!!!" I don't agree, but I understand.
~ Leveling up the ideal points to 28, except for the main one for yourself, turned out to be quite pointless (unless for achievements). If you level up a super-ideal ability, then after that, you almost don't have any talent points left; you can't have two super abilities, and you probably won't have enough for the "upper" skills in the branch either. I don't consider this an unambiguous minus, because on the other hand, there is variability; since there are few talent points, you have to choose between several useful options.
Now, the minuses:
- Speech animations, movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are very garish. It was a little annoying how Elsa, for example, gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- After loading the game and teleporting, the textures take a long time to render.
- In battle, the animations lag, are delayed, and sometimes don't play at all. In the final battle, the bone dragon didn't breathe its poison when attacking, so the two enemy void spirits simply fell from fear, completely silently.)
- The balance is not always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they are literally worse than wolves.
- However, even stranger is that part of the balance that is tied to the level of creatures and the maximum leadership of the squad. The fact is that you cannot accumulate creatures in a squad indefinitely; there is a limit, and low-level troops very quickly reach the ceiling. When the hero's leadership allows you to take more creatures, sometimes significantly more, up to three or four times, but they just won't fit. By the end of the game, all creatures, except for level 5, are of little use; level 4 are so-so... This greatly limits the variety of tactics, because there are only one or two high-level creatures of each ideal. In essence, at the end, there are five strict army sets – maximum levels of order, anarchy, strength, skill, or a mix of top-level creatures of all (the latter is what I did).
- However, given the difficulty level, which cannot be adjusted and can be characterized as medium-low, you can have fun collecting not the most effective troops, but some kind of nonsense, probably.
- Achievements tied to the RPG part require you to play strictly according to specific ideals; one step to the left, one step to the right – you're shot. What's the point of making choices in quests, thinking about their correctness, if you make the choice only once at the very beginning of the game? And then you just repeat it like a robot... But that's okay; there are four powerful artifact sets in the game (the hero's set, the snake king's set, and two more similar ones), and they can only be obtained by strictly following certain ideals in certain missions! All those who complain that they didn't collect the hero's set or similar ones on the forums, pay attention; you just did it wrong... Which, in my opinion, doesn't justify such a mechanic; it could have been made with alternative ways to obtain them.
- The interface is clunky, no matter how you look at it. After they fixed the horse control, it got a little better, but the inventory without normal sorting or search, without favorite sets, and all that – it's very clunky in 2021. By the end of the game, there are a lot of items, and not all of them are easily distinguishable; it could have been simplified. Many mechanics are hidden; for example, from the description of the Maximinian set, we understand that there is a limit on maximum armor and critical hit in the game, but what it is – we have to find out by trial and error. How morale works, what armies of mono-ideals get +1, what the penalty for the opposite ideal is -2, what for two non-opposite ideals is -1, what the maximum morale is +3, how all this interacts with the hero's talents – all this is found out only by trial and error. What happens to creatures after they are upgraded to a level – also by trial and error, and sometimes new abilities appear...
There are, of course, many minuses... But, for me personally, the pros outweighed them, and I enjoyed it.
P.S. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2641340963
+ KB2 has beautiful views; the landscapes are very well-designed, and I also really liked the character models and creatures. They aren't next-gen graphics, but they are aesthetically pleasing (the animations, though... but more on that later).
+ The RPG part, while not changing the plot globally, does influence specific people in Nostria, the balance of power, and can even slightly alter the map. Making choices is interesting; it's not always obvious, and you can really try to role-play a certain character.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. Not too complex, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues. Sometimes, you just want to approach NPCs who are talking and listen to their chatter.
+ I liked the plot. It's epic, humorous, and quite fairytale-like, but it also boasts a touch of noir, a double (or perhaps half-double?) bottom, and I would gladly play a sequel to this. Although, it could use a bit more of the Terry Pratchett-esque humor that was in "Legend of the Knight"; that would be nice.
+ The quests of the seer deserve mention as a separate plus – a good opportunity to fight in a way that is not typical for you, and sometimes even solve a mini-puzzle.
Just comments, not pros or cons – related to some reviews.
~ The complaint about the missing ending: I didn't understand. Either the developers quietly fixed this in the third hotfix (and didn't mention it in the changelog), or it was fine from the start. The final cutscene is short, with intrigue and a hint of the future, but what's wrong with that?
~ The view from behind the hero gives the impression of an open world, but the actual corridor-like and scripted nature initially shocks. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous parts of the series. But I understand why many were so shocked that they immediately ran to write negative reviews: "Bring back the top-down view; this isn't KB!!!!" I don't agree, but I understand.
~ Leveling up the ideal points to 28, except for the main one for yourself, turned out to be quite pointless (unless for achievements). If you level up a super-ideal ability, then after that, you almost don't have any talent points left; you can't have two super abilities, and you probably won't have enough for the "upper" skills in the branch either. I don't consider this an unambiguous minus, because on the other hand, there is variability; since there are few talent points, you have to choose between several useful options.
Now, the minuses:
- Speech animations, movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are very garish. It was a little annoying how Elsa, for example, gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- After loading the game and teleporting, the textures take a long time to render.
- In battle, the animations lag, are delayed, and sometimes don't play at all. In the final battle, the bone dragon didn't breathe its poison when attacking, so the two enemy void spirits simply fell from fear, completely silently.)
- The balance is not always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they are literally worse than wolves.
- However, even stranger is that part of the balance that is tied to the level of creatures and the maximum leadership of the squad. The fact is that you cannot accumulate creatures in a squad indefinitely; there is a limit, and low-level troops very quickly reach the ceiling. When the hero's leadership allows you to take more creatures, sometimes significantly more, up to three or four times, but they just won't fit. By the end of the game, all creatures, except for level 5, are of little use; level 4 are so-so... This greatly limits the variety of tactics, because there are only one or two high-level creatures of each ideal. In essence, at the end, there are five strict army sets – maximum levels of order, anarchy, strength, skill, or a mix of top-level creatures of all (the latter is what I did).
- However, given the difficulty level, which cannot be adjusted and can be characterized as medium-low, you can have fun collecting not the most effective troops, but some kind of nonsense, probably.
- Achievements tied to the RPG part require you to play strictly according to specific ideals; one step to the left, one step to the right – you're shot. What's the point of making choices in quests, thinking about their correctness, if you make the choice only once at the very beginning of the game? And then you just repeat it like a robot... But that's okay; there are four powerful artifact sets in the game (the hero's set, the snake king's set, and two more similar ones), and they can only be obtained by strictly following certain ideals in certain missions! All those who complain that they didn't collect the hero's set or similar ones on the forums, pay attention; you just did it wrong... Which, in my opinion, doesn't justify such a mechanic; it could have been made with alternative ways to obtain them.
- The interface is clunky, no matter how you look at it. After they fixed the horse control, it got a little better, but the inventory without normal sorting or search, without favorite sets, and all that – it's very clunky in 2021. By the end of the game, there are a lot of items, and not all of them are easily distinguishable; it could have been simplified. Many mechanics are hidden; for example, from the description of the Maximinian set, we understand that there is a limit on maximum armor and critical hit in the game, but what it is – we have to find out by trial and error. How morale works, what armies of mono-ideals get +1, what the penalty for the opposite ideal is -2, what for two non-opposite ideals is -1, what the maximum morale is +3, how all this interacts with the hero's talents – all this is found out only by trial and error. What happens to creatures after they are upgraded to a level – also by trial and error, and sometimes new abilities appear...
There are, of course, many minuses... But, for me personally, the pros outweighed them, and I enjoyed it.
P.S. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2641340963