So in case nobody explained it, in arcanum, the fire rate of the bow and magic is only limited by how fast you can mash the attack button, the computer however is not limited by such human weakinesses. If this is a problem for the player, it can be resolved by going to settings and switching to turn based combat.
According to Tim Cain, the game was originally designed as turn based but the publisher made them add real time at the last minute, that's why it's unbalanced
9:23 Interestingly there is a very direct reference to Fallout 1 in Tulla. You get a quest to rid of a guy at the entrance of the place covered in Arcanum’s equivalent of power armor. Talking to him reveals he is a mage that was sent on a quest to find a water gem to help the school but is now being refused entrance for being ‘tainted by technology’. A reference to the Vault Dwellers journey in Fallout 1, which key members of Troika worked on.
The term “FANTASY EUGENICS PROGRAM” flashed through my brain when I saw Arcanum. Then I saw Pong, and said, “I want to see how he memes his way outta this one.”
Gnomes: the products of polygamy, incestuous breeding and coprophilia. It is no exaggeration or hyperbole that all evils of the world are endorsed and committed by gnomes. A gnome feels no empathy, no remorse, no common humanity that separates us from simple beasts. The only love a gnome can feel, if you dare describe it so, is that for money. A gnome would sooner sell his own mother for a pouch of silvers than do a single good deed in his entire gaping hole of an existence.
Man, that brought back some memories... did this as a tech guy. the last boss lasted 2 seconds. died before i even knew we were fighting and had no end cut scene. so weird and nothing for me to look up on the internet because it was 300 years ago.
You 3-waying Fallout Tactics was my introduction to you and yours. I have watched those videos multiple times with the 2 friends I still have as an adult. Your brand of shenanigans makes the days worth suffering through. Abundant goodwill to you and yours.
Classic jank. It took a self-crit knocking me out, breaking my arm AND scarring my face to make me realize the sword I was using was technically technological.
It's a wonderful piece of art, this game. Complex but surprisingly easy. With thick atmosphere, very interesting setting, distinct soundtrack - you can't ever mistake it for anything else. I love how coherent the world is and how behavior of it's society makes sense for the time period it's set in. It doesn't insult intelligence of players by inserting modern sensibilities where they don't belong. I know how it sounds but THEY DO NOT MAKES GAMES LIKE THIS ANYMORE. Troika, forever in my heart. Ehh... We could've had Fallout 3 from these geniuses.
If you play the soundtrack on repeat as you are falling asleep, it is said you will have fantastical dreams of magick and steamship, orcs and ogres, and gnome conspiracy theories.
legit my favorite game of all time, so much fun. If you pick this up for whatever it costs now (prob $1) def use the `arcanum fan patch`, it fixes a lot and adds some better graphical options like widescreen support but doesnt change the foundation of the game.
3:34 How dare you insult Sogg Mead Mug? Dude is an absolute unit and his strength and constitution will eventually out-scale the players while being an amazing pack mule.
"It is no exaggeration, nor hyperbole, that all evils in the world are endorsed, and committed, by gnomes. A gnome feels no empathy, nor remorse. No common humanity that separates us from simple beasts. The only "love" a gnome can feel, if you dare describe it so, is that for money. A gnome would sooner sell his own mother for a pouch of silvers, than do a single good deed in his entire gaping hole an existence."
TL;DR To max out your character in Arcanum without cheats, find a spot on the world map with those hopping about wererat-like monsters and keep farming them, they're glass cannons that give lots of XP. That spot on the map should be Morbihan Plains and around the big cat picture. - Man, nice chunk of my childhood is in this game, just like Fallouts. I remember randomly finding game magazine with discs attached with this game on them and since I read reviews of it like a year or so before I was like "YES!" and got it. Come home, bought dvd edition... disk was scratched in factory, installation failed halfway through repeatedly. I was like "k, fuck it", rushed B right back and bought the 2CD edition. It installed fine, no damage on any discs aaand.. I actually played the game next morning since I spent the rest of the afternoon just reading the manual. I got mobbed by wolves when I just fired the game up and had no idea how to control most of things. I vaguely remember picking pyromaniac backstory and insisting on having both explosives AND necromancy so I definitely had loads of critical failures in that first run. Eventually I progressed pretty far in the game, but kept getting killed in that ghetto location in Tarant(which I probably wouldn't experience if I knew how to use Arcanum's TB mode) so I started thinking on how to get more levels "quickly"... the obvious option which I did was running around in circles on the world map and farming random encounters. Which worked brilliantly but not for a reason one would think: in one spot on the map around where the picture of a large cat is IIRC(or entire Morbihan Plains area, not sure) you can often stumble on packs of huge rats or wererats. They're glass cannons that damage your armor when they hit you but you can kill them extremely quickly. And they give a lot of XP. And so.. about an hour later my character I played at the time got maxed out and after I wiped the Tarant ghetto I figured I start the game over since this character was extremely.. traumatized, I had like permanent curses and scars that messed him up and made it impossible to get certain stats to max level. But yeah, I figured out how to power level in Arcanum and that's what I did in every playthrough since. Although just running to this location from the beginning of the game(after you get over Shrouded Hills) is very painful since those rats hit hard.
There's easier methods. The quest you get from Blackroot to see what's happening with some guy out in the woods messing around, only to find he's somehow made a portal to the void and you've got to shut it. Or not, and instead just stand there murdering everything that comes through. It does eventually end but you'll easily get a ton of xp from it. Or just doing the optional crawls like the sewers in the cities. Even without trying it's very easy to hit the 50 cap, and playing with the cap off I hit 58 just playing through. Also the scars can be removed by yourself if you have the higher level white necro heal spell or expert tech healing. Or go pay a healer. Curses you get for doing something bad, like murdering the priest for the ghost in the starting area instead of talking to him and retrieving his artifact instead, or messing up the offerings of the gods (been so long I can't remember, either offering them the item their opposing god likes or seeking out their blessing while having their opposing god's blessing). Those are permanent. Usually though you can't max a stat because you started too low in it, you have to start with at least 8 in a stat to naturally get it to 20, the game only allows you increasing by 12 in a stat. Beyond that you have to use magic and items to go higher, but even then you'll cap out at 20 unless you started higher than 8 to begin with.
Whenever you have time you should give Pillars of Eternity a try. Write it into a list of possible future contents at least, cause both the first and the second game are worth it. They are relatively more recent RPG titles, but still fit into the classical ones library (the first more than the latter).
@@Pongsifu Yeah, they are absolutely on my top list too. If a PoE3 ever happens, set aside everything you've planned and go for it 😂. Thanks for your one of a kind content, and have a good time.
I've never been able to get more than 2 hours through a run in this game but god do I love the soundtrack.... I've probably spent more hours listening to it than actually trying to play the game lol.
Not sure why, but I know some of the tracks from a completely different game, the Hoyle Puzzle game compilation. You can find on UA-cam by typing Hoyle Games Music: String Quartet #1. I wonder if it's actually a classical music work, or if it's just a soundtrack that a studio owned and used in a bunch of its games.
When you uploaded Fallout Tactics video I knew "this Man has a fine taste", but now, after witnessing this, It is clear to me I've had the pleasure to find a true connoiseur on this platform
The guy who voices Payne is super prolific voice actor Michael Gough, most famous for voicing Deckard Cain, but here he’s using his voice that he’d recycle for Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodline’s Stanley Gimble
Art style of the top down reminds me a lot of a game I played on mobile called Kingdoms of Exile. It was a pretty fun DND like game about you trying to get your inheritance back after being robbed. If I remember correctly, you learn you are the child of a powerful Battle-mage and your inheritance was everything within his tower. That's as far as I got
Heh, my first playthrough on an unpatched version of the game. I don't know if there was another way to solve the problem, but I had "magick allergy" background and it prevented me from equipping an item to get somewhere (near end of game too) I think is needed to finish the game.
Everyone thought Sseth saying that all the evil in the world being traced back to gnomes was just a funny bit for his retrospective. How wrong we were, lol.
Or CPU speed. Either way. Even back on release it was still murderously fast, you learnt very quickly to switch to turn-based if there were archers around. Or pray your own archers would burn it down before it burned you down.
Fitting this game into one video wasn't easy so there will be a few more hours of this playthrough posted on the second channel eventually.
Release the Pongsifu cut!!!
No lies, those of us who grew up with this game would probably dig just unedited dumps of your footage.
Thanks for all your hard work, as always!
Love this game.... the classic RPGs are why I love this channel so much
after arcanum, do underrail, it will few both new and old (edit: did not mean undertale)
Pongsifu!! Good to see you!!
I only know of this game because I am a member of the merchant’s guild, lead by a certain lieutenant of the Congo.
Hey hey people
Hey hey people
@@MamulengoBR Sseth here
Gnomes - not even once.
Your member dues are behind, by the way.
In the beautiful words of SsethTzeentach when encountering _any_ Gnome in this game,
"Gut them, like a fish."
The only good gnomes is unalived gnome
So in case nobody explained it, in arcanum, the fire rate of the bow and magic is only limited by how fast you can mash the attack button, the computer however is not limited by such human weakinesses.
If this is a problem for the player, it can be resolved by going to settings and switching to turn based combat.
This is both insane and hilarious.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
(I installed an autoclicker)
According to Tim Cain, the game was originally designed as turn based but the publisher made them add real time at the last minute, that's why it's unbalanced
@@Valdishthesecond the game is meant to be played in turn-based system anyway
@@aca347 it was made for it, which is why it's weird that real time combat is the default.
4:14 well just so you know Pong we REALLY appreciate all the editing jokes and work you put into these videos. Thank you.
Agreed, the memes are the dna of the soul
9:23 Interestingly there is a very direct reference to Fallout 1 in Tulla. You get a quest to rid of a guy at the entrance of the place covered in Arcanum’s equivalent of power armor. Talking to him reveals he is a mage that was sent on a quest to find a water gem to help the school but is now being refused entrance for being ‘tainted by technology’.
A reference to the Vault Dwellers journey in Fallout 1, which key members of Troika worked on.
The term “FANTASY EUGENICS PROGRAM” flashed through my brain when I saw Arcanum. Then I saw Pong, and said, “I want to see how he memes his way outta this one.”
I'm insanely impressed by all your visual editing matching the style of the original game!
I love how the message of this game is that racism is justified, even righteous.
Based.
Gnomes: the products of polygamy, incestuous breeding and coprophilia. It is no exaggeration or hyperbole that all evils of the world are endorsed and committed by gnomes. A gnome feels no empathy, no remorse, no common humanity that separates us from simple beasts. The only love a gnome can feel, if you dare describe it so, is that for money. A gnome would sooner sell his own mother for a pouch of silvers than do a single good deed in his entire gaping hole of an existence.
Especially against gnomes.
@@sirshotty7689 except that Gnomes becoming monsters were a reaction to everyone trying to muscle out Gnomes.
@@HellecticMojo The Gnome will always tell you what was done to him, but never WHY
Man, that brought back some memories... did this as a tech guy. the last boss lasted 2 seconds. died before i even knew we were fighting and had no end cut scene. so weird and nothing for me to look up on the internet because it was 300 years ago.
When they said “You won’t last 2 seconds playing this game” they were talking about Arcanum
YEAHHHHHHH THIS IS THE ONE, FINALLY ALL MY FAVORITE UA-cam PERSONAS HAVE COVERED THIS GAME IT IS COMPLETED
Faguette.
@@Snakedude4life. good one man
You 3-waying Fallout Tactics was my introduction to you and yours. I have watched those videos multiple times with the 2 friends I still have as an adult. Your brand of shenanigans makes the days worth suffering through. Abundant goodwill to you and yours.
Will he understand why we must purge all Gnomes tho
Okay yes he did
Everyone does in the end......
YES YES, THE CIRCLE IS COMPLETE.
First Mandalore, then Sseth and finaly our lord and savior played it, i can die happily now 😂
Leaving out Warlockracy and Chris Davis. :c
Arcanum is wild I first learned about it through Sseths video only to then watch mandalore and realize
" Wait the gnomes thing wasn't a meme"
vergil plastic chair meme is one of my favorite
30:49 of Gnome hatred? Yes please
Ah yes, best social-racism steampunk suffer simulator, classical pongsifu❤
Jesus christ when the phrenology shit came up, my jaw dropped. 😅😂
@@praetor2997 It makes sense for the time period it's set in. It doesn't treat player like a baby. Good stuff.
The subtle racism, the not so subtle elitism. It's perfect
Arronax's story is a play by play of what would have happened to MacArthur if he hadn't had any supervision in Korea
Ah yes wizard fallout
Mad Lad played a turn-based game real time!
The archers having machine guns is not a glitch it IS intended. good luck.
I can't believe you attacked such a good-hearted person!
Classic jank.
It took a self-crit knocking me out, breaking my arm AND scarring my face to make me realize the sword I was using was technically technological.
You should really play Planescape: Torment one of these days, if you haven't. It's honestly better than I expected.
It is the best RPG of all time.
Starting off with that exact Key and Peele sketch of steampunk was fitting.
"You must find the boy" is giving me diablo 2 intro vibes with Marius
It's a wonderful piece of art, this game. Complex but surprisingly easy. With thick atmosphere, very interesting setting, distinct soundtrack - you can't ever mistake it for anything else.
I love how coherent the world is and how behavior of it's society makes sense for the time period it's set in. It doesn't insult intelligence of players by inserting modern sensibilities where they don't belong. I know how it sounds but THEY DO NOT MAKES GAMES LIKE THIS ANYMORE. Troika, forever in my heart. Ehh... We could've had Fallout 3 from these geniuses.
If you play the soundtrack on repeat as you are falling asleep, it is said you will have fantastical dreams of magick and steamship, orcs and ogres, and gnome conspiracy theories.
Actually, actual conspiracies ;P
legit my favorite game of all time, so much fun.
If you pick this up for whatever it costs now (prob $1) def use the `arcanum fan patch`, it fixes a lot and adds some better graphical options like widescreen support but doesnt change the foundation of the game.
I can't watch enough of these of crpg videos man. I love them so much.
3:34 How dare you insult Sogg Mead Mug?
Dude is an absolute unit and his strength and constitution will eventually out-scale the players while being an amazing pack mule.
They all lose to doggo though. Doggo best boy.
couldnt be happier seeing you make a video on arcanum
28:46 why is it always the stupidest joke that makes me laugh the hardest? XD
A new Pongsifu video?
Oblivion Beggar NPC: Thank you kind sir
"It is no exaggeration, nor hyperbole, that all evils in the world are endorsed, and committed, by gnomes. A gnome feels no empathy, nor remorse. No common humanity that separates us from simple beasts. The only "love" a gnome can feel, if you dare describe it so, is that for money. A gnome would sooner sell his own mother for a pouch of silvers, than do a single good deed in his entire gaping hole an existence."
I like how I'm lost 90% of the time cause I don't know the game or what's happening. Some times, being lost makes things funnier to me XD
UA-cam recommended your channel to me and I am really glad it did.
"I dont need a guide" and not playing with turn based combat. I shall sit and wait.
7:57 AHAHA DANCE! DANCE!
Great vid, Pong
the editing work in this video is top notch, the little hands clapping during the conversation with the skull scientist got me good.
You'll always catch me watching these vids ever since the fallout series of videos
The font is like a cherry on top.
The one RPG where being a condescending jackass is all part of the setting, too!
TL;DR To max out your character in Arcanum without cheats, find a spot on the world map with those hopping about wererat-like monsters and keep farming them, they're glass cannons that give lots of XP. That spot on the map should be Morbihan Plains and around the big cat picture.
-
Man, nice chunk of my childhood is in this game, just like Fallouts. I remember randomly finding game magazine with discs attached with this game on them and since I read reviews of it like a year or so before I was like "YES!" and got it. Come home, bought dvd edition... disk was scratched in factory, installation failed halfway through repeatedly. I was like "k, fuck it", rushed B right back and bought the 2CD edition. It installed fine, no damage on any discs aaand.. I actually played the game next morning since I spent the rest of the afternoon just reading the manual. I got mobbed by wolves when I just fired the game up and had no idea how to control most of things.
I vaguely remember picking pyromaniac backstory and insisting on having both explosives AND necromancy so I definitely had loads of critical failures in that first run. Eventually I progressed pretty far in the game, but kept getting killed in that ghetto location in Tarant(which I probably wouldn't experience if I knew how to use Arcanum's TB mode) so I started thinking on how to get more levels "quickly"... the obvious option which I did was running around in circles on the world map and farming random encounters.
Which worked brilliantly but not for a reason one would think: in one spot on the map around where the picture of a large cat is IIRC(or entire Morbihan Plains area, not sure) you can often stumble on packs of huge rats or wererats. They're glass cannons that damage your armor when they hit you but you can kill them extremely quickly. And they give a lot of XP. And so.. about an hour later my character I played at the time got maxed out and after I wiped the Tarant ghetto I figured I start the game over since this character was extremely.. traumatized, I had like permanent curses and scars that messed him up and made it impossible to get certain stats to max level. But yeah, I figured out how to power level in Arcanum and that's what I did in every playthrough since. Although just running to this location from the beginning of the game(after you get over Shrouded Hills) is very painful since those rats hit hard.
There's easier methods. The quest you get from Blackroot to see what's happening with some guy out in the woods messing around, only to find he's somehow made a portal to the void and you've got to shut it. Or not, and instead just stand there murdering everything that comes through. It does eventually end but you'll easily get a ton of xp from it. Or just doing the optional crawls like the sewers in the cities. Even without trying it's very easy to hit the 50 cap, and playing with the cap off I hit 58 just playing through. Also the scars can be removed by yourself if you have the higher level white necro heal spell or expert tech healing. Or go pay a healer. Curses you get for doing something bad, like murdering the priest for the ghost in the starting area instead of talking to him and retrieving his artifact instead, or messing up the offerings of the gods (been so long I can't remember, either offering them the item their opposing god likes or seeking out their blessing while having their opposing god's blessing). Those are permanent. Usually though you can't max a stat because you started too low in it, you have to start with at least 8 in a stat to naturally get it to 20, the game only allows you increasing by 12 in a stat. Beyond that you have to use magic and items to go higher, but even then you'll cap out at 20 unless you started higher than 8 to begin with.
Dude the amount of effort you put into editing each joke always blows me away. It’s so well-done
Whenever you have time you should give Pillars of Eternity a try. Write it into a list of possible future contents at least, cause both the first and the second game are worth it. They are relatively more recent RPG titles, but still fit into the classical ones library (the first more than the latter).
Both Pillars games were my GOTY for their respective years, but I wasn't recording playthroughs back then.
@@Pongsifu Yeah, they are absolutely on my top list too. If a PoE3 ever happens, set aside everything you've planned and go for it 😂. Thanks for your one of a kind content, and have a good time.
I've never been able to get more than 2 hours through a run in this game but god do I love the soundtrack....
I've probably spent more hours listening to it than actually trying to play the game lol.
Not sure why, but I know some of the tracks from a completely different game, the Hoyle Puzzle game compilation. You can find on UA-cam by typing Hoyle Games Music: String Quartet #1. I wonder if it's actually a classical music work, or if it's just a soundtrack that a studio owned and used in a bunch of its games.
11:02 oh no, he's fallen into the New York tunnel system
When you uploaded Fallout Tactics video I knew "this Man has a fine taste", but now, after witnessing this, It is clear to me I've had the pleasure to find a true connoiseur on this platform
My man your timing is perfect as always
Rush Hour moment caught me off guard
5:03 The Rudy x Sylphie jumpscare was a surprise, but a welcome one
Our Father uploaded, Once in a blue moon activity lads, enjoy it
Memes per minute on this vid is solid
Ayo! Funny duck man time! Now I have something to watch while I procrastinate on doing work.
omg those archers i think i watched that part 3 or 4 times
I can't tell you how much I needed a good laugh today. Truly blessed, thank you.
0:14 FOR ROCK AND STONE
ROCK AND STONE BROTHA
DID I HEAR A ROCK N STONE!?
ROCK and I can't stress this enough AND STONE
WE’ER RICH MUSHROOM
TO THE BONE
Pong posted my day actually got 30 times better
19:30 the rat was the leader of that group.
Imagine entering a fortress and seeing 3 archers
Archers: BRRRRRRRRRRTTTT
The guy who voices Payne is super prolific voice actor Michael Gough, most famous for voicing Deckard Cain, but here he’s using his voice that he’d recycle for Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodline’s Stanley Gimble
Superb editing, well done!
Playing this game outside of turn based is pure suffering. Though seeing a fresh video on Arcanum in late 2024 brings me joy. Thanks for that!
Right when I was diagnosed with a terminal deficiency of Pongsifu you come to my rescue and totally redeem yourself by posting this, thanks bae
Art style of the top down reminds me a lot of a game I played on mobile called Kingdoms of Exile. It was a pretty fun DND like game about you trying to get your inheritance back after being robbed. If I remember correctly, you learn you are the child of a powerful Battle-mage and your inheritance was everything within his tower. That's as far as I got
Babe, new pongsifu video just dropped
Thank you for sharing with the class
0:47 Goddamnit Bocchi, can't you even take a zeppelin?
Ah yes the epitome of: Thinking about playing Arcanum 😃 vs playing Arcanum🙁
please don't die, you're the best.
I REALLY appreciate the effort and detail you put into every silly little meme
Dear Mr.Pong i wanted to subscribe to your Patreon but then I decided to have some electricity or water this month
A poor choice
The virgil meme was amazing
omg i remember playing this game! it was great, im happy to see someone else discover it even now!
A dungeon named Blackrock? Oh we're answering the GQ with this one.
Man i'm 2 minutes in and I'm already crying, keep up doing God's work with these videos, Pongsifu.
Ah... it's Gnome Power Fantasy Simulator 1999. I love this game.
I can't tell if it's your playing style or just this game that makes it feel like an acid laced coke trip
Those edits are amazing! Be honest, you really did like this game didn't you :)
Cara seu vídeo tá ótimo ❤como sempre tô querendo entrar na saga dragon's age graças aos seus vídeo,can you Tell me If Is it worth playing?
Great choice.
More like POGsifu, amirite fellas?
Hey, hey, people.
2:03 My unmatched pers... 🤣🤣🤣
Its been 29 seconds, ive never been so early. Always happy to see Pongsifu in my subscriptions! Definitely needed the laugh today 😊
My halfling character who used throwing weapons sure did love spending time with the dominant half-orc woman at Madame Lil's.
Did you secretly have a crush on the throwing master?
my fav game, you sir got a new follower
Intro goes hard
Pongsifu Goin stupid hard with the thumbnail game again!
Heh, my first playthrough on an unpatched version of the game. I don't know if there was another way to solve the problem, but I had "magick allergy" background and it prevented me from equipping an item to get somewhere (near end of game too) I think is needed to finish the game.
"Gnomes deserve deportation" - Based Tim Cain
ty, great vid, game kicked my ass, good to know 😁
That wing flapping sound must've been very taxing to hear while playing, and again while editing.. haha great video though!
Everyone thought Sseth saying that all the evil in the world being traced back to gnomes was just a funny bit for his retrospective.
How wrong we were, lol.
Arcanum was one of the games that taught me "Sneak attack first is a TERRIBLE plan. You can't unlock chain backstabs if you are DEAD"
Pretty sure the archers fire rate are because of your fps, they used to code everything with the fps cap back in the day
Or CPU speed. Either way. Even back on release it was still murderously fast, you learnt very quickly to switch to turn-based if there were archers around. Or pray your own archers would burn it down before it burned you down.
Haiii pongsifu!!! I hope you’re day is amazing!!
1:12 - no, you're flashing back to your Fiona days.
29:10
Is this from the Nancy Drew detective series??
Pong is hiding something