Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire: Ain't Nothin' But the Gods' Hound Dog

Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire:

Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire: Returning to the Wheel

Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire: Sailing the Seas of Conflict

Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire: Navigating Relationships

Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire: Ain't Nothin' But the Gods' Hound Dog

Eothas spends Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire winding his way to the Wheel. The other gods repeatedly urge the Watcher to intervene. Even they can't allow themselves to conceive what Eothas is planning. Nor can they agree on a plan of action. They dither indecisively. They hide crucial details from the Watcher. The militant gods(Woedica and Magran) demand the player fight Eothas. How absurd. A human attacking a god would be like a fruit fly harassing a human. Against even the entire might of The Deadfire Eothas would remain invulnerable. The gods refuse to realize Eothas' plan, but it isn't difficult to infer. He wants to destroy The Wheel, freeing the people of Eora from the dominion of the gods, but he won't explain the details. What happens when the Wheel is destroyed? Eothas claims there is enough soul energy in motion to last a decade or more, but after that people will be born soulless, like the Hollowborn in the Dyrwood. He claims the cycle of reincarnation, which functioned before the Engwithans made themselves into gods, was disrupted by the creation of the Wheel. It won't restart naturally when the Wheel is broken. Instead, the people of Eora will need animancy to bring souls back into bodies.

This discussion the protagonist has with Eothas, in bits along the way, and at the final confrontation, lacks proper discussion and details. Eothas isn't interested in explaining or debating. The information relayed to the player has too much uncertainty. Subtly is good. Mystery is good. Uncertainty relating to key details of outcomes of the player's actions are bad. Nor does it feel as if the Watcher has agency. The real protagonist of Pillars of Eternity II is Eothas. Eothas attacks the Watcher's home, binding their souls together. Eothas forces the Watcher to follow him to the Deadfire. Eothas enacts his own plan without the consent of the Watcher. The Watcher can do nothing but follow Eothas from location to location, only able to watch. The Watcher doesn't destroy the Wheel, only Eothas can. My character has no power to affect the outcome, only the slim choices Eothas grants him.

Player Agency: Watching Some Incredibly Powerful NPC destroy the MacGuffin, because you can't.

But if we assume everything makes sense, and the gods are truthful (which is difficult to accept because they are super powerful amalgamations of people, working in their own interests, seeking power, and willing to lie to preserve their position), it's difficult to accept Eothas' reasoning. He says humanity needs to be free of the gods. So his solution is to enact a crisis. If animancers don't (or can't) solve the extremely complicated problem of restarting resurrection in a generation, everyone born will be born without souls. At best they will be creatures without a higher level of consciousness. At worst they will be animals that can't even feed themselves, but wither and die. The solution is in the hands of the rulers of the world; the Rauati, Principi, Valians, the people of the Dyrwood, etc. It's easy to imagine that the process of resurrection becomes one of resources and power. Only the wealthy and powerful can afford the work of animancers. Only the elite have children born with souls. Stronger countries could commit atrocities, denying weaker nations the power of resurrection. When there is no neutral arbiter to oversee a process, people must make the best of a corrupt system. But the gods, while not entirely neutral, treat reincarnation fairly (Except – and I know this is a massive exception - for the whole plot of Pillars I, in which Woedica steals souls from the cycle of reincarnation to fund her pet project). The gods also absorb a tiny fraction of each soul that dies to sustain themselves. No solution offers a perfect ending, but Eothas' is a rushed, half thought out project that threatens all conscious life on Eora. If he had wanted to break the dominion of the gods, Eothas should help the people by working with the animancers to develop a plan first.

The conflict is best summarized by a conversation between two of the Watcher's companions. When Xoti says, “I don't see how anyone could favor animancy over the grace of our divines' guiding hand,” Pallegina responds, “Because the mercy of kith is less capricious than the god's guiding hand.” They are both incorrect. Both the gods and people are capable of mercy and cruelty. Xoti worships Eothas, a worthy if misguided god. Pallegina is a powerful member of the Valian Republic, who sees no harm in forcing natives to work themselves to death earning slave wages to strengthen her homeland. She hates the gods, and would be well served by animancers who work for the rich and powerful.

After a final conversation with Eothas that determines the fate of Eora, Pillars II exhibits a series of conclusion screens, similar to Pillars I. These visuals depict the various effects and outcomes of the protagonist's choices. Epilogues are a welcome and necessary part of any RPG, but these are too obvious. If the Watcher did a good thing, a good result occurs. The choices of the player are not synthesized, but remain detached and distinct. This separation causes some events to contradict other events. The ending scenes end up as a summary of events the player already knows. Three particular issues are worth highlighting. Even though I destroyed the base of an entire faction the game didn't mention it. Second, Eothas was upset that I went to Ukaizo alone. He thought it was because I couldn't unify the people of Eora behind one faction. I actually think that by keeping all but one of my companions I had unified different opinions. It isn't my fault that the four factions of the Deadfire are corrupt. If they had allowed me to set up my own faction with the best members of each that would have shown true unity. Eothas is asking not for unity, but dominance. Unfortunately the dialogue options don't allow the player to explain their reasoning, like they would in a real game of Dungeons and Dragons. The developers punish the player by making the journey to Ukaizo alone tougher to achieve, and also the bad ending.Finally, the ending is anti-climatic. The player already knows what is coming. They can't alter the outcome. Nor did they achieve it, making it feel unearned. Without any effort Eothas will give me three choices and do whatever I tell him, because? Beyond that, the endings are massive in how much they change the world of Eora. Yet this change is communicated in only a few sentences. It's impossible to see the change that takes place, or to know if the world is able to recreate the Wheel.

Maybe the developers planned to resolve this issue with Pillars of Eternity III. Unfortunately, PoE II didn't achieve the same commercial success of PoE I. There will be no PoE III. Instead Obsidian plans to release a first person RPG set in Eora in 2022/2023. There is no indication whether it is connected to the Pillars series aside from the setting.

In Conclusion,

The most serious issue with Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire is that it feels like an extended coda to the original Pillars of Eternity. I can't imagine playing II without playing the original first. The main quest is a necessary ending to the first game that had to be moved to a second game. No new information is given to the player. The ending has no subtlety. But the rest of the world feels more open and free. The first game established a fantastic world, and the Deadfire enhances the setting with aplomb. The factions are well depicted, the characters charming as friends or villains, or something in-between. The interactions between the Watcher and others are more complex. The gods are given better focus, though they lack agency. Deadfire improves many aspects of the original, except the main campaign, which is merely a short extended ending of the first game. The ending is flawed both for its lack of detail in explaining the possible outcomes to the player so they can make the best choice, and in the detail explaining what happened after the player made their choices. I also think Deadfire is easier, and still contains some residual flaws, like a poorly designed stealth system that punishes the party by using the sneaking skill of the worst character.

Pillars II is as strong as its predecessor overall, but can't quite overcome its original weaknesses. The lack of a twist ending may be a relief to some, but the dark revelations of the original led to terrible truths and a superior story.

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