Various Thoughts

Played through it three more times; once siding with the Disfavored, once siding with the Rebels, and once Independent (betraying the Disfavored at the start of Act 2).

Your choices matter to an extent, but that extent is largely what areas/sidequests you gain access to and how many enemies you have to kill. Maps and main quests generally stay the same regardless of what path you take, with mainly just what opponents you may face changing or whether there’s a possibility of a peaceful solution. Sometimes you get to see a particular quest from different angles though, with the Act 1 assault on the Citadel and the Act 2 Brotherhood assault on Lethian’s Crossing having the most variety.

Out of the four the Disfavored path seems the most natural. The Chorus side has a lot of railroading, and both the Rebel and Independent options have a lot of contrivance (with the Rebels having their fair share of railroading as well). That said, the Rebels have the most fleshed-out third Act and the Independents are the only ones that get to visit all four of the main areas. So, ultimately, I end up having to endorse betraying the Disfavored/Chorus alliance the first chance you get in Act 2. Why Act 2? So you can grab the quests and items from their base locations which would otherwise be inaccessible.

For difficulty I would suggest playing on Normal. Story mode is so easy it makes leveling and finding loot practically worthless, and Hard just makes the enemy do annoying things like deliberately break engagement to chase after your ranged attackers.

As far as bugs go I didn’t run into anything particularly game-breaking, the biggest one being that the court summons you get about halfway through Act 2 to update Tunon on your progress regarding the Chorus/Disfavored paths does not trigger on the Rebel/Independent paths (when you show up in Act 3 he gains Wrath and berates you for not showing up to the summons that never triggered). More minor ones would be Spire Library/Forge progress not progressing until you’ve visited Lethian’s Crossing, and abilities getting stuck in the ‘on’ position if an enemy dies at the wrong time (this only rarely happened when Story difficulty and Fast Mode were activated at the same time; switching to a weapon set that wouldn’t work with the ability fixed it).

Combat-wise Lore is the name of the game. Magic is so good here that I ended up having flashbacks to Dragon Age: Origins. So you’ll want to build the Infirmary as soon as possible to get access to the master Lore trainer and pick up the Selfless Magic Sigil. You’ll then likely want both Lantry and Eb, with their Lore-teaching skills learned, in your party at all times. At that point just fill up your slots with disabling spells and cast them as much as possible to watch the experience counter surge (I made it halfway to level 22 on the Independent run).

As far as equipment goes there’s not really any reason whatsoever to wear heavy armor in your non-chest slots. The armor boost from those slots is so small that it’s easily outweighed by the accuracy/precision/deflection/recovery boost light armor gives. Concerning weapons, either 2-handed or unarmed is the way to go for melee thanks to the Material Force class of spells. The higher your base damage the more bonus damage they’ll give you, and with 2-handers you may eventually find yourself doing 300-400 damage on a critical hit and one-shotting Disfavored guards.

Lastly, I’ll close this with some area accessibility and spell information. Note that I only started recording Sigil locations on the last playthrough, so you may find some in easier to reach places depending on your alliance situation.

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Area Accessibility
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Chorus
– Lethian’s Crossing or Burning Library
– Library/Crossing or Blade Grave
– Stone Sea

Disfavored
– Blade Grave
– Crossing or Library
– Stone Sea

Rebel
– Crossing
– Blade Grave or Stone Sea
– Blade Grave or Stone Sea/Library

Independent (Betray Disfavored)
– Blade Grave
– Burning Library
– Crossing or Stone Sea
– Stone Sea or Crossing

Independent (Betray Chorus)
– Same as above?

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Notable Sigils
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Expressions
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Guarded Form (Disfavored Camp, Merchant Sterling Hagnon)
The Illusion and Force versions are powerful support spells.

Chaotic Decent (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths, Lantry Lore Spot)
When combined with Focused Rain you get a brutal multi-hit spell.

Material Force (Mountain Spire, Merchant Revos)
Great for 2-handers or, with the Lightning version, characters with high critical hit rates.

Influential Domain (Burning Library Lower Ruins, 65 Lore Spot)
The Fire and Frost versions cause some pretty great debuffs, and the Life version is a solid support spell.

Proximate Action (Edgering Ruins, 39 Subterfuge Locked Chest)
Has a couple niche uses.

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Basic Accents
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Bounding Bolts II (Howling Rock, Upper-Right Hidden Cache)
Strength IV (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Brotherhood Camp, Lantry Lore Spot)
Timeless Form III (West Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot)
Cyclical Energies III (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths, Lantry Lore Spot)
Precise Action IV (Spire Library, Merchant)
Limitless Boundaries III (Spire Library, Merchant)

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Special Accents
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Selfless Magic (Spire Infirmary, Loot)
Drastically increases the power and duration of a spell in exchange for not being able to cast it on yourself.

Pride Magic (Gulfglow Runic Hall, Hidden Cache)
Drastically increases the power and duration of a spell in exchange for only being able to cast it on yourself.

Focused Rain (Spire Library, Merchant)
Massively increases the power of Chaotic Decent spells.

Stunning (Central Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot Beyond Lethian’s Crossing Torchlock)
Adds the Stun affliction to Lightning spells.

Volcanic Weapon (Lethian’s Crossing, Merchant Biotus)
Causes Material Force enhanced attacks to launch huge lines of flame every hit.

Killing Blows (Spire Library Research Scroll, Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths)
Modifies Lightning and Terratus spells to do large amounts of damage to near-death enemies.

Frostfire (Tripnettle Wilderness, Center Hidden Cache)
Can be attached to a Fire or Frost spell to combine their damage types and afflictions.

Volleys (Sentinel Stand Hall of Regents, Hidden Cache)
Two Distant Impact castings for the price of slightly more than one.

Spell Surge (East Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot)
Reduces Recovery time. Best used on a Focused Intent spell combined with Strength IV.

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Notable Spells
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Lightning
– Character Creation; Edgering Ruins (Merchant)

Distant Impact: Inflicts Stun.
Channeled Strength: Increases Shock damage by a base of 50%. With Strength IV it’s 85%.
Material Force: Deals additional damage on a critical hit.

___________
Frost
– Character Creation; Disfavored Camp (Camp Merchant)

Distant Impact: Does a ton of base damage (21-32).
Channeled Strength: Has armor-piercing and multiple projectiles.
Influential Domain: Penalizes recovery rate and inflicts Prone.

___________
Vigor
– Character Creation; Scarlet Chorus Camp (Camp Merchant)

Channeled Strength: Base +30% damage. Strength IV bumps it up to a 51% increase.
Proximate Action: Adds Hit and Graze Precision.

___________
Atrophy
– Character Creation; Echocall Crossing (Lower-Left Hidden Cache)

Chaotic Decent: Inflicts Poison.
Directed Force: Inflicts Weaken and Silence.

___________
Fire
– Conquest Choice; Lethian’s Crossing (Merchants Harchiand Bronze & Biotus)

Chaotic Decent: Deals fire or crush damage.
Influential Domain: Inflicts Fatigue.

___________
Illusion
– Scarlet Chorus Camp (32 Lore Spot)

Channeled Strength: Base +30% Graze/Hit Deflection. Strength IV bumps it up to a 51% increase.
Distant Impact: Inflicts Prone.
Channeled Strength: Inflicts Stun.
Guarded Form: A base of +100 Dodge/Parry for 45 seconds. With Strength IV, Duration III, and Pride/Selfless it comes to +255 for nearly 2 minutes for the cost of 180 Lore.
Directed Force: Inflicts Blind and Confusion.

___________
Force
– Vendrien’s Well Citadel Interior (30 Lore Spot)

Guarded Form: A base 25% reduction to Recovery Speed for 45 seconds. With Duration III and Pride/Selfless it ends up a 63% reduction for nearly 2 minutes for the cost of 130 Lore.
Proximate Action: Immunity to Prone.

___________
Stone
– Iron Hearth (Merchant)
– Stone Sea Halfgate Settler’s House (Dialog Reward)
– Stone Sea Jagged Maw Shrine

Focused Intent: Inflicts Petrify.
Distant Impact: Interrupts.
Directed Force: Inflicts Prone.
Chaotic Decent: Does pierce damage and inflicts Bleeding.
Material Force: Inflicts Prone on a critical hit.

___________
Emotions
– Cacophony (Merchant)
– Central Blade Grave Oldwalls (Loot Spot, Need Lethian’s Crossing Torchkeys)

Distant Impact: Taunts.
Channeled Strength: Inflicts Fatigue.
Influential Domain: Inflicts Sleep.

___________
Life
– Lantry Dialog

Guarded Form: Regeneration.
Proximate Action: AOE regeneration.
Influential Domain: Removes hostile effects.

___________
Terratus
– Eb Dialog

Focused Intent: Inflicts Paralyze.
Proximate Action: Useful against Bane.

Having just now finished my first playthrough of the game, I’m left conflicted. While the last Act is incredibly abrupt I get the distinct feeling I’ve missed a large chunk of content, which is supported by some comments I’ve seen elsewhere regarding getting artifact-hunting quests from the Assassin archon (which I couldn’t get because he refused to support me). I definitely missed some stuff in the second Act, as I was never able to do the Lethian’s Crossing quests.

After siding with the Chorus in the first Act, the Voices mentioned there being problems at the Crossing and the Library. But you’re only allowed to accept one location; either go to the Crossing or go to the Library. I chose the latter and then after returning was given another choice, this time the Crossing or the Blade Grave. This is the point I may have messed up, as after choosing the Blade Grave there was never an option to handle the Crossing situation (permanently locking the Oldwalls area there, meaning I was also prevented from fully exploring the Blade Grave Oldwalls since those have areas that require torchkeys presumably found in the Crossing). I hope it’s not the case that you’re actively prevented from going to all 3 locations in one playthrough, as that would would be a pretty dick move.

Speaking of, I plan to play this at least once more, siding with the Disfavored in Act 1 this time, to see just how much the choices you’re given actually do matter. The results of this playthrough seemed pretty haphazard and chaotic despite consistently siding with one side and even winning Tunon over. I’ll probably put the difficulty on ‘Story’ though, as when playing through on ‘Hard’ the battles weren’t so much hard as just tedious. At least until I hit 13th/14th level and everything just melted; Lantry casting lightning spells and enchanting weapons to launch huge pillars of flame, Sirin doing constant arcane damage and causing fear with her songs, Shadows ripping things up with a greataxe, and then my PC casting disabling Illusion spells and multi-striking with dual-wielded artifacts.

Some things to take note of for the early game:

• Avoid picking any starting magic skill, as the Core Sigils they grant are all found early (Atrophy is just to the left of the entrance of Echocall Crossing, in a hidden cache).
• Choose either Parry or Dodge to focus on, as there are Talents available that let you use one skill (Parry for the Agility tree and Dodge for the Ranged tree) to defend against all attack types.
• The maximum value you can raise an attribute to at level-up is 19.
• Expect to hit at least 13th level.
• The Forge and Library are the two most important upgrades, Forge trumping Library, with the Training Ground coming in third since it produces Hides for the Forge. The Infirmary just lets you make consumables.
• Different trainers can train you to different ranks, the Training Grounds ones being the best at training everything (up to 150) except magic skills. The Infirmary has the best Lore trainer.
• Due to the above, if you want the highest possible Lore rating the Infirmary ends up being the most important Spire upgrade.
• For the best returns, wait to train a skill until just after it’s leveled up (training resets its experience progression).
• You won’t be able to re-visit the Act 1 areas after the Edict is resolved, so make sure to have thoroughly explored them before attacking Ascension Hall.
• The Lethian’s Crossing and Blade Grave Oldwall areas contain some of the most powerful spell accent Sigils.
• You can only betray your chosen alliance at certain key points at the start of quest branches, if you don’t at that time you’re locked into supporting it fully until the end of the branch.
• On the Chorus side for instance, if you don’t attack Jagged Remedy the moment you first meet him you apparently won’t be able to do anything with Ashe’s daughter except kill her or give her to the Voices.
• Extra weapon sets are incredibly useful, as you can use the abilities of any artifacts placed in them without having to actually wield them (and those artifacts also gain renown).
• As long as the character has a valid weapon set in their secondary slots, using a skill that doesn’t match their active set will automatically equip the valid weapons and then switch back to your default set immediately after.

Tyranny is quite a bit like Pillars of Eternity, but also significantly different in some key ways. The similarities so far (just cleared the first main quest, annulling the timed Edict) are the combat system, visuals, and acquisition of a Stronghold. The differences are the leveling/class system, magic system, reputation system, and general feel of events.

The leveling/class system is the most striking change. For one thing there are no longer any classes, as instead the game goes the Elder Scrolls route. Your skills increase as you use them, those increases then progress you toward leveling up, and leveling up gives you both a Talent and an Attribute point to spend. You can select any sort of combination of Talents you want from up to 6 different trees (Leadership, Defense, Power, Agility, Ranged, Magic), with the more powerful Talents requiring a greater investment in a particular tree.

The magic system is completely independent of the leveling system, being a tiny bit similar to how Oblivion handles it. You can learn various types of Sigils (base spell type), Forms (target type), and Accents (sundry parameter modifications) by finding/buying them, then using your spell menu you can arrange those components into all sorts of different spells and assign them to any characters who have a high enough Lore skill (more complex/powerful spells require higher Lore values). Once assigned they can be used just as often as any other basic ability.

The reputation system is similar to Mass Effect 2‘s, unlocking new abilities/bonuses for the protagonist as your actions raise Loyalty/Fear with your companions and Favor/Wrath with various factions.

The feel of the game is relatively unique however. Rather than being a random nobody who suddenly becomes great, you’re an already important/influential official who suddenly becomes even more powerful. This has the odd effect of making you not feel very powerful at all… instead everyone else seems strangely weak. You have all these characters who are supposed to be incredible fonts of magical energy walking around and they’re squabbling like children, unable to capture a simple bridge. It’s an interesting choice to make what would be impressive mid-bosses in another game come across like easily dismissable minor bureaucrats.

I’m also a bit turned off by the narrative so far, as the climax of this first scenario came across as exceptionally forced and frankly I don’t much like either side. The Disfavored are your standard rigid knightly group and the Scarlet Chorus are New Vegas‘ Legion. The former seems more or less okay aside from their obsession with purebred lineage and their leader behaving like a child, while the latter is something of a mess whose members constantly want you to fight their battles for them. Neither side gives a particularly good reason to support it (nor for that matter do the rebels).

Well, we’ll see how things develop now that there’s no longer a countdown toward the player’s impending doom. Speaking of, don’t worry about that 8-day countdown. Unless you do something ridiculous like rest after every encounter you’ll only need 2-3 days to clear all the side areas before taking the Spire.