DourCricket
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
May 4, 2020
Platforms Played
Pathfinder Kingmaker is another game in the cRPG 'renaissance' of the past six years, and one that I have been slowly playing over the past year or so (jeez!). So you may have noticed the "beaten" tag on this one - yeah 80 hours in and I still have not finished the game. In fact, I'm still only in Act 4 of 7. Now, about 20~25 hours of that is my original playthrough from when I first got the game but I restarted a couple of months back when I decided to really give it another go. So this is another game I did not really finish per the intent of this challenge, but I put such a time investment into it and I have such thoughts about it that I'm going to count it anyway, alright???
So the time invested here presents an interesting conundrum - if I liked it enough to play 80 hours, why didn't I finish it? I've played really long games before, why not this one? If I got so damn tired of it I didn't want to even keep playing any more (despite setting the entire Kingdom mechanic on auto and using cheats to speed along several other parts of the game) then I must not have liked it right? Well it's complicated alright! So much of the game is great - the combat is damn damn good, the writing is overall pretty solid, companions are all at least pretty good, the art style is pleasant and the music is near enough to top notch. So what's the hold up, Modest? The pacing is fucking garbage, that's what.
While most cRPGs post-2000s I feel are in some way a response to Baldur's Gate, either in aping or repudiating it (a pretty simple judgement on my part but stick with me) and Kingmaker is VERY much a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate I, even moreso than BG2 itself was. Kingmaker is all about having an expansive world map and making your way about, making discoveries, having random combat encounters and meeting strange new folk - adventure!! And in a way, it does that exceptionally well. It is more 'open world' than I believe any other game I have played and it is stuffed to the brim with content. And all that stuff you find? It's pretty darn good, most of the time. Interesting enemies, engaging story or characters, ethical dilemmas... But there's JUST. SO. MUCH. The world map could take upwards of 5~ minutes to walk across WITHOUT any encounters along the way and you're just watching your pawn slide across the exact same map you've been looking at for dozens of hours... There's a main story of course, and companions who follow you who have their own story, but honestly that must account for MAYBE 10-15% of my play time? The amount of sheer BUSYWORK is just neverending.
Speaking of neverending busywork - the entire Kingdom management mechanic. Is it neat in its own way? Of course it is! You get to pick your advisors in each area of ruling to handle the little shit, and every few days a problem comes to you in the throneroom and you get to rule on it. Sounds neat? It is! Then it happens 1000 times in the first 30 hours and basically none of it means a single god damn thing other than the kingdom stats notching up and down a few points and you just get tired... Oh and you have to watch all the same little animations over and over and over each time....
So to get to the main point - nothing about Pathfinder Kingmaker is bad. But on the flip side - basically nothing is genuinely GREAT either. The combat gets pretty close but only with the turn based mod - and that ends up just slowing down the proceedings even more. The characters are pretty good, but no one is great. The art is nice, but generic. The quests you stumble over are at least a bit interesting, but nothing that genuinely pulls the heart strings or gets the blood pumping. The main quest line is very good and all but it is at most 20% of the actual content you will be DOING in the game which makes it tiring to slog towards. Also there is 'missable' events in your kingdom that can lower your stats and potentially end the game, which makes skipping time towards the main content feel risky each time you do it..
It's been a long time since I did this, stopping a game only most of the way through to review it. With Sekiro and Mario Odyssey last year though it was due to pretty bitter disappointment - with Pathfinder its more a bittersweet resignation - I quite liked everything the game had to offer - it just went too far out of its way to keep me wading through mud to get to the good stuff.
So the time invested here presents an interesting conundrum - if I liked it enough to play 80 hours, why didn't I finish it? I've played really long games before, why not this one? If I got so damn tired of it I didn't want to even keep playing any more (despite setting the entire Kingdom mechanic on auto and using cheats to speed along several other parts of the game) then I must not have liked it right? Well it's complicated alright! So much of the game is great - the combat is damn damn good, the writing is overall pretty solid, companions are all at least pretty good, the art style is pleasant and the music is near enough to top notch. So what's the hold up, Modest? The pacing is fucking garbage, that's what.
While most cRPGs post-2000s I feel are in some way a response to Baldur's Gate, either in aping or repudiating it (a pretty simple judgement on my part but stick with me) and Kingmaker is VERY much a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate I, even moreso than BG2 itself was. Kingmaker is all about having an expansive world map and making your way about, making discoveries, having random combat encounters and meeting strange new folk - adventure!! And in a way, it does that exceptionally well. It is more 'open world' than I believe any other game I have played and it is stuffed to the brim with content. And all that stuff you find? It's pretty darn good, most of the time. Interesting enemies, engaging story or characters, ethical dilemmas... But there's JUST. SO. MUCH. The world map could take upwards of 5~ minutes to walk across WITHOUT any encounters along the way and you're just watching your pawn slide across the exact same map you've been looking at for dozens of hours... There's a main story of course, and companions who follow you who have their own story, but honestly that must account for MAYBE 10-15% of my play time? The amount of sheer BUSYWORK is just neverending.
Speaking of neverending busywork - the entire Kingdom management mechanic. Is it neat in its own way? Of course it is! You get to pick your advisors in each area of ruling to handle the little shit, and every few days a problem comes to you in the throneroom and you get to rule on it. Sounds neat? It is! Then it happens 1000 times in the first 30 hours and basically none of it means a single god damn thing other than the kingdom stats notching up and down a few points and you just get tired... Oh and you have to watch all the same little animations over and over and over each time....
So to get to the main point - nothing about Pathfinder Kingmaker is bad. But on the flip side - basically nothing is genuinely GREAT either. The combat gets pretty close but only with the turn based mod - and that ends up just slowing down the proceedings even more. The characters are pretty good, but no one is great. The art is nice, but generic. The quests you stumble over are at least a bit interesting, but nothing that genuinely pulls the heart strings or gets the blood pumping. The main quest line is very good and all but it is at most 20% of the actual content you will be DOING in the game which makes it tiring to slog towards. Also there is 'missable' events in your kingdom that can lower your stats and potentially end the game, which makes skipping time towards the main content feel risky each time you do it..
It's been a long time since I did this, stopping a game only most of the way through to review it. With Sekiro and Mario Odyssey last year though it was due to pretty bitter disappointment - with Pathfinder its more a bittersweet resignation - I quite liked everything the game had to offer - it just went too far out of its way to keep me wading through mud to get to the good stuff.