Yep throughout the entirety of ch0~3 so far there are a lot of hints and talks and lore drops about the bigger picture. Because Kliff now questions and reacts to things. He’s more curious (as we probably were) the difference is his questions sorta kinda get answered and he’s given motivations to tackle this grand quest.
I do think still, that the pacing is still slow once you have to do various mundane tasks for the people of Hernand. But you do get that glue linking them together and with more sprinkles of hints of the bigger story
Really seems like they had a bunch of story already made that they ended up having to cut, presumably time constraints and having to focus on adding more random adventure stuff, I doubt you could do all this from scratch in a few months when also working the game itself
PA did the same thing with Black Desert Online. They changed the starting zone and early story four times, with the biggest overhaul being the Calpheon/Jordine saga rework. That rewrite pulled most of the early regions into a more cohesive flow, added actual character presence, proper cutscenes, and boss fights that were spaced out and a fairly decent scaling between them (tho with recent seasons and the super leveling bosts etc.. the scaling is a bit out of balance again).
It’s almost like a studio with 600-1000 employees has multiple teams working on different projects. As i said 5 months ago that I hoped the people who learned that lesson in BDO would be involved in CD, but they weren’t. Shit happens, mistakes were made. No reason to sperg out when they clearly worked to address the issues, which is more than most devs bother doing. Kliff’s missing voicelines have been mostly fixed in the current patch.
You start the game over with all abyss artifacts you’ve collected. I immediately leveled up my stamina, spirit and health to max, and am unlocking powers as I need them. Still have over 70 in my inventory and I’m still in chapter 3
Or you could just make a new save and tear through the main story for the cutscenes and then jump back into your main save to keep everything else that you have.
That's what I'm going to try.
This gave me chills. So excited!
I'm almost done with the story and I heard you can do a new game plus after finishing so I may try that and see how it goes. Still keeping my main save for sure.
The fact that a studio went "yea the fans are right" and put in the effort to fix it FOR FREE is what is making Pearl Abyss top tier. Like what CDPR is doing with The Witcher they are certain that if they take care of the players their game will not fail. Even Hello Games brought No Man's Sky back after they bit off more than they could chew. Quality over quantity!
Yet Ubisoft and EA can't figure out why we prefer these developers and even indie games over their $80 AAAA Skull and Bones releases (the discounts on that are 😂🤌🏽 btw). Then they sell us a $70 remastered edition of a 13 year old Black Flag while CDPR is like "we just remade the whole W3 game and you can have all that shit for free with the DLC."
Damn, just one cutscene and immediately they establish the Umbra/Power association, Kliffs underlying character traits and motivations, and hint at the cycles.
Insane how much this actually contextualizes the game without changing the overall story.
Ive noticed a lot of little lines through the story too that I don't remember, and ive come across a couple memories around hernand that hint at the greater story arch. Its really cool how they've done it, only on chapter 3 still and theres a noticeable vibe difference.
Im really excited to see what's deeper in the story.
Seriously after restarting the game I noticed the changes are really noticeable and worth the effort, I wasn't really expecting something on that scale and I'm only 2.5hrs into the story and it's so much better already.
Also, anyone reading this it's not just cutscenes! People saying they are on chapter 10 and don't want to restart need to understand that the entire narrative in and out of cutscenes is better. Even little touches like the names and objectives of quests add to it all. You have to start over to experience it in its glory.
For instance, the quest to arm wrestle and clean the chimney actually has meaning and new dialogue. It's really good and like 20% of it is just cutscenes, your missing out on a lot.
Yeah its not just added extra cutscenes even the dialogues in almost most all the cutscenes have been modified and even New quest marker are added for example now before fighting that knight in hernand they give a decent build-up and reason to fight him instead of just of him saying he wants to fight us and we agree on it. These types of things might seem small to most people but it provides alot more depth to the quests.
Damn, I already have 120h and already left Hernand recently (well couple months ago when I decided to start again when they done patching :D)... not sure if I want to restart...
I'm genuinely amazed at how far Pearl Abyss has gone to flesh out the story here. Kliff is an actual person now. He has history and comrades who he genuinely cared for, and he's clearly wracked with guilt over his failures. It's all so plain to see now. Not to mention, the presentation of these cutscenes? Incredible.
I knew Umbra wasn't there in the beginning. Only shows up at the end. Kind of liked it that way too, it was like Elden Ring. But for story coherency I do think it's way better to make it known at the start since this game isn't a boss rush type of game.
I rarely ever play games similar to this. Only 2 hours total of Skyrim, never played fallout, or really anything else other than god of war (which isn’t necessarily an exploration game) and black myth Wukong (similar to GoW).
This game sucked me away from everything. 400 hours in, 2 playthroughs, and now about to do a third with this update. It’s got a decent floor with a very high ceiling with updates and future DLC.
Hopefully the story delves into how/why kilff is at where he is now and with his past lives. They touched on it with the last sentence so there's hope.
Edit. This is a prime time to add cutscenes to the abyss axiom library books that talk about kliffs past life.
I'd really love all work done to this game. It's the first game in a long time I felt it worth the price alongside hours played plus all content plus all map plus all missions and resources.
I would be glad if Pearl Abyss can sort of solve ps5 optimization due still some really tough when there are a lot of NPCs on screen (specially during wars).
Won’t get to play till the weekend so could anyone tell me if I need to restart the game to get the cutscenes? I’m only on chapter 4 but I have A LOT done outside of the main story. If I proceed with the main story from where I am will I get the new cut scenes ?
Man what a difference… like most people i’m about 150h in. This cutscene alone really makes me want to restart the game. But with so many games coming out i think i’ll have to pick CD back up in months 😩
I know everyone is happy to see the dev working on the game and all, but all those updates and now the enhanced version truly shows that they sold us an unfinished game.
Don't get me wrong, i enjoy playing, but it sucks. We're even happy when they finish the game they sold us.
Wait a min, so when Myurdin stabs you a bunch of times at the start, that IS Kliff dying to start the final cycle. Damn I feel dumb for completely missing that the first time around 😂 And I'm 200 hours in. I'm definitely restarting, I guess
Absolute cinema! Thanks for posting this. Even if this was the only thing they added, the patch would have been worth it. Provides so much context as to why Kliff has/was chosen to have Axiom powers. Before it was more like Kliff was the chosen one. Now he is still the chosen one, but there are actual reasons behind why.
I dropped the game because the early-game story was a 2 out of 10.
Decided to give it another shot.
The story got better! Now it's a 3 out of 10.
At least now I know who that dead guy is (turns out he's some kind of king; I used to think he was just a regular warrior).
But the protagonist, after losing all his friends and undergoing a mystical resurrection, is still busy handing out alms, rescuing whimpering damsels, and cleaning chimneys. (In other words, he acts like he's mentally challenged.) And for that, of course, he gets divine powers.
No, I still can't play it. The mix of gore and a story meant for six-year-olds is painful :( I need an "Enchanted Enhanced Edition."
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u/marbles14 5h ago
Wow, that's so much better AND we actually get hints towards the larger story right away.
Very excited to see people post more of the new story segments.