Thanks @zombiepie for putting out the spotlight every dang week. I think it's safe to say I wasn't alone when I felt a pang of dread and sadness during the tumult at the start of the week but a lot of that has been assuaged. Everyone seems to be in a better place, doing the kind of thing they want to do, and that's all we can hope for. I'm so stoked for this new age of Giant Bomb content and can't wait for the hijinks!
Welp I wrapped up the game yesterday and then watched the NoClip documentary about it. For those interested I liberated Hedwyn, Jodariel, Sir Gilman, Shae, Rukey, Volfred Sandalwood and Pamitha. I lost two normal rites, one to the Chastity and another to the Fate, mostly due to playing with the Titan Stars.
I am ultimately still left curious to see how the story plays out through multiple decisions, and overall a bit disappointed with how my personal story ended. I'm not sure if I expected more revelations down the road but after Oralech there wasn't too much that happened after that was surprising, especially with how dominant some of the rites went. The final choice was nice, and I'm generally happy with all the choices I made, since the others that were left behind still have a home and sense of belonging in the Downside.
I also never felt the supreme urge to fail a rite purposely, as narratively it felt like every Nightwing had a purpose and I would be robbing them of their freedom rather than freely giving it to another Triumvirate. Mechanically I felt a disconnect as I never super connected with the mechanics, mostly doing the same strategy over and over again until it worked. The Titan Stars, while somewhat interesting, didn't inspire me to use them past the first time just to unlock their chapters. If I failed while using them, I didn't get the XP, and if I succeeded, I would simply get more XP making my exiles stronger for next time.
This might also be different for others, but I felt the 'speedier' exiles to be much, much easier to handle and typically prioritized those when dousing. My quick-fire rankings stand as is:
Pamitha (Her legendary token sometimes worked, but regardless her flight and cast were top notch. I rarely dropped the ball with her if at all)
Ti'Zo/Rukey (Ti'Zo probably edges this out, but Rukey was my early game anchor. Again, the speed and rapid hops of Ti'Zo make these two extremely easy to skate or fly past enemies for a quick dunk. Ti'Zo's Inner Glory also make it so he is one of the more damaging characters while retaining his speed)
Stowaway (Her jump is bonkers and definitely secures her in the top half)
Jodariel/Hedwyn (I rarely used either for dousing and mostly as a rear guard. Both have some strengths but are typically outweighed by a glaring weakness or outperformed by a character above)
Bertrude (While one of the slower and clunkier characters, I did like how they moved and their cast was pretty strong paired with their legendary Talisman)
Sir Gilman/Volfred (I did not ever really get to grips with either of these, with Sir Gilman edging out Volfred slightly thanks to the increased AOE of his Slash. Volfred was mostly used as a defensive tool to quickly plant a sapling at the ball, but I never really understood how you could play them as effectively as the others)
Over time the gameplay fell to the wayside for me, with the rites spiking in difficulty sometimes, but never enough to warrant trouble. The Beyonder trials were some of the harder things to overcome in the game, but even then it felt like it was struggling against itself as sometimes the AI would grab the ball and rush over to dunk it in 0.5 seconds. Other times it would grasp the ball and just hover over my Pyre until I respawned, or stare at the ball on the other side of the map before I walked over to pick it up.
It's one of the main reasons (other than moving on to different games) that I won't be pursuing a True Nightwing playthrough. Even if the game was 'harder', the difficulty presented wasn't super interesting to me, so I think I'd just get more frustrated or go for a full failure run instead. The other problem is knowing what dialogue I've already read and what is new. Something the virtual novel series the Nonary Games do is give an option to skip through text that you know you've already read. Perhaps they give you that option right away, but if they don't, I'd find the entire playthrough to be tedious having to re-read blocks of text just to grab a morsel of new information.
I'm glad I went back to revisit Pyre since that was always a hole in my Supergiant knowledge. It was certainly enjoyable and I really enjoyed my whole party and many of the Triumvirates. I just wish there was a bit more polish around the edges and the gameplay itself provided more variety outside of what was initially presented.
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