r/rpg_gamers • u/earthedflourished6 • 1d ago
Discussion I'm nervous about playing this, sounds like you need to save scum and meta play
8
u/Smirking_Knight 1d ago
I played completely blind and was fine. The main thing I do suggest is banking some of your ability increases in case you come across a check where you’re just shy.
4
u/yokmaestro 21h ago
Same, if you’re going full melee or full speech the game is fairly forgiving with skill points and gives you latitude with dabbling in skills like alchemy or smithing to add more fun and crunch to your playthrough.
Don’t do a hybrid on the first run!
3
u/Responsible-Dog-6233 1d ago
Save scum, warning this game loses it’s shine pretty fast. Get it for cheap. I beat it twice btw.
3
u/busy_monster 1d ago
Reminds me I need to play this, any game directly inspired by Glen Cook is one I really need to give more than a fair shot, given how important I think Cook is to fantasy as a whole (I cheerfully argue he's one of the most important fantasy authors of the last 50 years and that's a flying carpet ride I'm willing to die on, given how foundational to grimdark, and even urban fantasy, the man is. He started The Black Company in 84, years before even Martin, much less the rise of it in the early 2000s; he started the Garrett PI novels in 87, several years before even P N Elrods Vampire Files, and is one of the earliest urban fantasy as hardboiled detective series I can find. He also inspired as diverse authors as Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont of Malazan fame, as well as Jeff VanderMeer).
7
u/ReMeDyIII 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hated it. Tried getting into it on three occasions and thought there was something wrong with me. I should be the target audience for this: Isometric, Roman-inspired, and difficult yet it feels very slow, lazy, and uncoordinated in terms of difficulty curve. It prides itself on being unforgiving, but for all the wrong reasons.
Yes, you need to save scum and I highly recommend a guide, otherwise you'll soft-lock yourself against the difficulty. The reason you'll get different answers is because enjoyment is based on your starting character. The myth of being able to play whoever you want is false.
5
u/ccmull1gan 23h ago
Same here. I wanted to love it and I know people really adore these games, but something felt off to me. Almost like the game was ‘moddy’ or kind of undercooked - maybe it was the graphics style or just specific flavor of lore, but it just didn’t click.
4
u/earthedflourished6 1d ago
LOL! I love 'In your face' honesty like this. we're practically the same in the sense that this game is targeted towards me with it being Isometric and Roman-inspired. I might play it eventually
1
u/CoelhoAssassino666 7h ago
Felt the same about it. Also the game felt so rigid that it felt less like replayability and more like a bunch of different games stuck together. Like you can play it as a text based adventure, a weird stealth game, or a tactical combat game based on your build and any deviation is not really allowed.
2
u/A_ArZ 1d ago
Very engaging game that can be difficult but by no means do you need to save scum, even for your first playthrough. Meta play is only if you're trying to get specific endings or create specific world states (of which the game has many).
Definitely a bit more on the difficult side, so I'd recommend you lean heavily into specific character strengths, rather than trying to diversify into everything on your first playthrough.
2
u/treowtheordurren 20h ago
It depends on your build. Getting the True Best Ending or whatever requires you have a fairly exacting skill spread, side with the right factions, and overcome some pretty brutal combat encounters.
Playing the game normally, picking complementary factions, and keeping your nose out of any trouble your bosses aren't asking you to deal with head-on will make for a more palatable experience, although you might be disappointed with the ending you get.
I would save in advance of each combat encounter just because it's easy to fuck up (especially early on). The vast majority of mandatory encounters can be circumvented, however; it's important to bank skill points for these circumstances in case your build is too stinky to prevail otherwise.
Imo, Axe (1H) + Block + Heavy Armor is the best combat build for beginners. You can buy a unique steel Skeggox with very high critical damage at the Temple in the second city that should carry you through the rest of Act 2.
Backgrounds in terms of easy of playing on theme are as follows: Merchant > Mercenary > Thief > Drifter > Assassin > Praetor > Grifter > Loremaster.
2
u/ThreeHeadCerber 18h ago
The best experience you can have with this game is going in blind and learn from you own failures and use your own meta knowledge. This game allows for multiple playthroughs and is best experienced over multiple playthroughs.
To me to this day it's the only RPG that works for multiple playthroughs as different paths are really unique and not different custscenes between the same game content.
You will have to save scum combat though.
1
3
u/MechaReldio 1d ago
No need to save scum. Playing a 'meta' build is really only required to get like, a specific ending or certain events/situations to play out how you want them to. I'd recommend not looking at builds or anything until after playing blind.
All you need to do really, is pick a class/background you like the sound of, and focus your build on it. Don't spread your skills super thin or anything and don't try to be good at everything. It's a fast game to replay anyway.
4
u/T0lias 1d ago
Saving often (and multiple slots) is good sense for all old school RPGs.
Do you need to "meta" play? Depends on what kind of character you want. If you want someone that's good at everything (i.e pass all checks, win all fights, find all secrets, experience all endings) yeah you do need to meta... but I wouldn't recommend it for a first, or even second or third playthrough. The joy of the game is slowly discovering its secrets.
For a first playthrough, the only advice I'd give someone new is to pick one of each: one weapon skill, one defence (block or evasion), one diplomacy skill, one crafting skill. Focus your attributes and skills on what you want to do and don't try to spread yourself thin to succeed at everything. You'll go far this way.
1
u/Vince_IronTower 14h ago
Playing a talker/explorer (focus on speech skills, lore, alchemy, crafting) is the easy mode. Playing a fighter is the normal mode. Playing a hybrid is the hard mode, not recommended for the first playthrough. Think of it as dual- or multi-classing in 2E DnD - rewarding but not for the first time players.
On combat: if it's your primary skillset, it's unlikely you will have any problems. If you're playing a hybrid, your physical stats are lower and a third or half of your skill points go toward the non-combat skills. There are ways to compensate for this, but nobody starts a new game knowing the mechanics inside out.
1
u/DeadpanPancake 13h ago
I had a horrible experience trying to get into this one. Quite possibly the worst I've ever had in an rpg.
I start the game and it very explicitly tells me that combat is deadly and should be avoided. Okay, I can dig a game where I should find ways to avoid fighting. I go into the tutorial and... pretty much the only thing it teaches me is how to fight in combat. Kind of weird for a game that just told me to avoid it, but whatever. I go into character creation and it tells me I should be a combat specialist for my first playthrough. Again, kind of weird for a game that just told me to avoid combat as much as possible but whatever. I pick one of the combat-oriented origins and start the game.
In the origin's intro quest an NPC tells me I should look for work in another city. Said city never appears on my map as a travel option, so I can't follow this story hook at all. I wander around the starting town, finding and doing various quests. They either railroad me into combat or punish me with a bad result if I somehow find a nonviolent way to progress. Sometimes because my meathead can't succeed non-combat skill checks, other times just because. So I figure since I can't achieve anything without combat in this game that told me to avoid combat I might as well join the clearly combat-oriented faction.
I clear the first quest with no problems. It railroads me into some stupid decisions I wouldn't have wanted to make, but whatever. I clear the second one by the skin of my teeth after a couple of attempts. After that I find myself locked inside a building where I can only access a single shopkeeper NPC or start the next quest. The quest is naturally yet another combat that my character doesn't have the skills to avoid, except this time I have no chance of winning. So the reward for advancing in a faction questline was that my (admittedly inexperienced) character got softlocked. At this point I gave up on the game.
Am I venting because of a bad experience? Yes. Will I give the game another chance sometime in the future? Maybe. Should you skip it because I didn't like it? No. But depending on what your expectations for it are you may need to reassess them.
9
u/Mikeavelli Chrono 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm a little confused at the other replies. Yes, you need to save scum to complete Age of Decadence.
There are a lot of situations in the game where picking the wrong dialogue option or entering the wrong area will result in your death. Sometimes this is telegraphed in advance and you feel silly for picking the "kill me" option, but in other cases there's no way to know except by save scumming.
Combat is heavily dependent on RNG, so save scumming to win combat is also sometimes necessary, depending on your build. It is technically possible to do a pacifist run, though this comes with tradeoffs with regards to what content you can access.
There isn't really a "meta" in Age of Decadence. Rather, it's set up so you only have enough stats and skill points to reach maybe 70% of the content of the game on any given playthrough. For everything else you will need a new character with a different build. The game particularly supports this by making all the origin paths have their own unique questlines. Unfortunately, this does mean that if you spread your points around poorly, you will be locked out of even more content for that playthrough.