Fun fact, at the beginning with the week long edict. Since it only specifies the Day and Month, if you laze about past said point before reading the Edict, you have like a whole year to do it instead, because Kyros worded it so specifically.
Yeah, just traveling back and forth plus using campfires before the edict of swords was pretty much the first glitch to be discovered, although I guess it might not technically be a glitch because, like you said, the wording doesn't specify a year, only a span and day.
Kyros be praised, finally someone showing that game some much-deserved attention. With you and Mandalore talking about it I can hardly believe people know so little about this. One of my favourite cRPGs out there and I am nitpicky, old and grumpy.
One of the best CRPGs of modern times. So much replay value, a great magic system in terms of mechanic and implementation into the lore of the world and even though it´s fantasy the setting isn´t based on the middle ages but the end of the transition from bronze into iron age which is rare. Seems like Obsidian owns the IP not Paradox, so I really hope they revisit the setting one day even though it´s not likely.
It really is a shame that this game fell under the radar, don't know if it was a failure of the marketing or people being put off by the setting but this really is a highly underrated gem of a game, kind of like what Planescape Torment was when it was initially released. Really would love to see a sequel to this game but I know the odds are highly unlikely at this point
Isometric real time with pause games just don't have mass appeal sadly. Even the fantastic Pillars of Eternity 2 was basically a financial disaster for Obsidian and it was a fantastic game.
I remember seeing it a lot on Steam at the time, so it definitely had good exposure to the people who'd be interested, although I remember being confused as to whether it was an RPG or an RTS hybrid type thing for a long ass time. I don't know if that was just me or a widespead thing though - the title and splash art just didn't feel very RPG like at a glance though. Mostly I think Pillars of Eternity was just a really long and exhausting game and everyone who played it was super burnt out from the genre around the time Tyranny dropped - which I think is unfortune, because Tyranny was much more concise with it's writing and storyline. I kinda wish more cRPGs would try similar things :(
I'd love a turn based Obsidian crpg, wasteland 3/xcom style or divinity original sin/BG 3 style. They'd probably sell better if done right. Not sure if Obsidian's into turn based though. I used to enjoy rtwp from BG1 to dragon age origins, not so much today.
I played Tyranny a lot to experience the various choices and endings. That choices come back to your character is extremely well done. The only downside of this game is that you want to play a magic user to experience most of the awesome and completely overpowered magic system, especially with the DLC. I fully recommend this game, especially if you want choices to matter and have impact
One of my favorite games, I just wish there was more because it's such an expansive, unique, well written setting. Also that prologue really is one of the coolest innovations I've seen that and really the one game really makes you live w/ your choices
loved this game always felt like this game was a hidden gem, I liked playing the "bad guy" and the art style was great ever since that first lvl with the statue and the blood coming out of the eyes I couldn't get enough of the game,
Seeing this give me so much nostalgia. I was sucked into this world when I first played it years ago. This is an underrated gem of a game, and seeing you describe it is giving me such good vibes.
this is also one of my favourite CRPG games - thoroughly enjoyed it and really dont understand why it wasnt popular. the whole premise that you are actually working for an evil overlord who has successfully conquered the world is also a major difference which was more than refreshing.
Neither Obsidian (the developer) nor Paradox Interactive (the publisher) did a whole lot of marketing, especially compared to similar games like Pillars of Eternity, so even though the number of sales is in the hundreds of thousands, it still didn't spread as fast as it should have for such a high quality game.
I bought the game after Mandalore's review, and I absolutely loved it, it's the game that got me down the CRPG rabbit hole and I am immensely thankful for that. Shame it didn't do as well as it should've.
4:18 - magic sigils mimic archon magic, there is no magic that hasn't come from an archon, they are the pioneers of all magic. For example the latest Sigil of emotions came from Sirin.
and probably from an earlier archon as well. if you let nerat interrogate the tidecasters during conquest, than you can learn the sigil of emotions from a blood chanter. the school of tides is much older than sirin. also, technically kyros isn't an archon and he has his own magic too
i fineshed the game junt once, but that was enough to convince me, This one of the best game i already played, side by side with divinity 2, the history is super creative, the spell creation is a good idea too.. The thing that i don't like is the character designe, but it's my personal opinion. Hope that they keep de history going...
For anyone else reading the comments and wondering what's wrong with character creation, here's a brief explanation. There are a lot of areas of customization, but all of your options are presets. There's no sliders or color wheels or anything like that, so it can feel limited if you're used to games like Ark where you can look like literally whatever you want.
I feel it is underrated a lot and deserves more attention. I hope for a sequel although I'm not finished yet with this one. Got stuck in a situation and maybe need to check out a guide even.... But I love the concept and playing a character, who is more like a villain rather than a hero. Also that here you need to decide rather which is the lesser evil or perhaps look at which decision brings you more benefit is great.
I too love Tyranny. I wish it had been marketed better. They basically marketed as "you have to play evil, how evil will you be?" That made me NOT buy it, because I don't play evil. It was only because I kept hearing positive things that I decided to give it a shot. You 100% do NOT have to play evil. I played it 2x and neither time was evil. Both were in support of Kyros, but different ways of doing that. Completely different outcomes and builds. It should have been marketed as, "You are part of a Bronze Age conquest. Will you follow the will of your emperor or will you forge a different path?"
Tyranny is one of my favorite CRPGs. The gameplay is great, the story is great, and the setting is probably my favorite out of any game I've played. It would be criminal if they never make a sequel after the ending we got.
This is probably in my top three favorite games ever. I have about 400 hours logged on Tyranny, and for context, a regular playthrough takes roughly 20 to 35 hours depending on what quests you accept, what path you take, how much looting and exploring you do, and whether or not you read all the dialogue. If you really go in depth and complete every quest you can, search for all the sigils, loot every box and corpse, etc, a playthrough could reach 40-45 hours, but that gets tedious real quick. Once you complete the game once, you unlock a new setting when starting a new game: New Game+, which lets you start the story with a character from a previous save file, so you can reach higher levels, make cooler and more powerful spells, min-max more efficiently if that's your thing, and probably complete the game in like 5 hours if you really try for speed, but more realistically 15-25 hours on average. Lots of potential for replaying the game for several reasons. First, as was mentioned in the video, there are 3 main paths you can take in the Conquest (character backstory creator), plus 4 main paths in the actual game, which immediately gives you about 10 unique, fun routes (some combinations of conquest and game don't make much sense, like going full Disfavored in Conquest then full Scarlet Chorus in game, or vice versa). Next, your choices in the Conquest and throughout the game, regardless of which main path you're taking, can change your relationship, and therefore all of your encounters and interactions, with each faction in the game. Some are kinda pointless like the Stone Sea villagers, but some like the Sages and Lethian's Crossing citizens have major ramifications on how any of the main paths might play out. Additionally, you occasionally get options to straight up betray your main allies, allowing you to mix and match game paths if you really want to, but that typically only makes any sense if you go from Scarlet Chorus to Rebels or Anarchy, or from Disfavored to Anarchy. Finally, when you combine those with "class" (spellcasting, heavy melee, light melee, ranged, hybrids), party build (there are 3 slots for companions and you meet 6 possible companions, and your relationship with each party member can change their perception of you massively), and just general RP aspects, you can replay the game easily over a dozen times and get a fresh experience every time. I would highly recommend this game to anyone down here in the comments section, and recommend that you recommend it to your friends as well tbh.
lol this video has about 220 comments rn and 40 of them are me replying to other people. I think I have a problem with Tyranny rn. Straight up, unless there's a speedrunning scene I've never heard of, I might have more hours of playtime than anyone except the developers/playtesters.
I hope there will be a sequel. There are so many open questions after the first game, the oldwalls, Kyros, the towers, etc,,,,I NEED a sequel to asnwer all these! I want to come back to this awesome low-fantasy, Early Iron Age world setting
I think this game is second to none if it comes to freedom of choice. Even if it‘s only 4 possible paths, it is a masterpiece how they set up the branching trees and the story in advance.
paradox murdered the game, they did not market it at all, i am a massive obsidian fan and avid rpg player and i only got to know about the game existence through noah cadwell review, which was months from launch there was absolutely no marketing, no talk of it, nothing, if i was obsidian i would sue them, but well, i guess that is solved now with them joining microsoft
though I, as many do, have a ton of gripes with Microsoft - for Obsidian, it's likely a great thing. They are easily one of the best RPG makers, imo, so having the backing of a company as large as Microsoft means wonders for funding future RPGs of Obsidian quality
Can't believe I haven't heard of this game before. It sounds awesome, thank you. Also, the longer this video went on the more it sounded like Kairos Fateweaver was in charge.
@@joesmith9920 for some reason it just flew under the radar. It’d be one thing if crpg’s were a dead genre, but that’s far from the case. Many crpg’s out there are enjoying a good amount of success and Tyranny is up there with the best of them. So it’s really difficult to understand.
Magic gets especially cool on subsequent playthroughs if you choose the New Game+ option. it essentially lets you start the story with your character from a completed game's save file, which means you can start the game with spells that were late game the first time, and keep building more powerful ones. Chaotic Descent, for example, takes so much lore that you can't put more than 1 or maybe 2 weak accents on it in your first playthrough, but with New Game+, you really get to customize everything to it's fullest extent.
This game came out at the perfect time for me, I loved it so much I played it three times in a row, doing each factions path, and I was just so happy with the experience. Such an interesting world, characters, setting, etc.
Trust me, once you play the game, it's all very clear. You get introduced to the various people and factions in an organized way, and you can learn more or less about them as you see fit during your playthrough(s)
Such an underrated game. Honestly, it's one of the best crpg's ever made. But unfortunately, it's part of a series that has yet to be continued and likely never will because it didn't sell as well as it should have. The things I would do to get a sequel to this game....
My first playthrough on normal I made my player character an unarmed fighter. This made even normal kind of a nightmare but very doable. My next playthrough on hard I went all in on magic and it was significantly easier. Magic is definitely king in this game.
Love your reviews. You are singlehandedly reigniting my love of crpgs. One thing im trying to work out is how easy they all are to play with steam deck. Playable doesnt always mean that you can play with a level of precision required to react quickly enough ect. Be interesting if you could do a summary of how they all play on steam deck. Im currently playing pathfinder wotc in between deck and desktop pc and whilst i enjoy on deck i can play about 3 times quicker and more efficiently on desktop but its still great to play in that format. Another hit is divine divinity 2 which ive been playing on ipad. Just got tyranny for £6 Too.
I really like the story / narrative / decision-making part of the game, but I feel it has too much tedious combat. Slogging thru the Old Walls and the Burning Library is such a chore.
Bought it, played the initial scenario, hated the setting. Tried it again, completely hooked for three weeks. It was awesome after I figured things out some and just got over being in an evil campaign.
I haven't played Tyranny but from the comments and the video I get a very Nethergate feel, which is my favorite RPG of all time. A closed story that doesn't overstay it's welcome in a very big world with tons of lore.
That being said, there is tons of unexplored lore. More than enough material to work with if they ever decide to work on a sequel, but presented in a way that never gives you more than you want, or in a way that might overwhelm new players.
Had both this and PoE in my account for years. Never really got into PoE, something about it I just don't gel with. Tried this, played it for 6 hours none stop on 1st sitting. One thing I will say, is the turns are so long, they might as well have added turn based and ramped up the difficulty a bit. Bow seems to really lag behind in levelling.
Imagine what could have been, had this game had just a couple more months in the oven. I love the genuinely compelling, intelligent perspective it takes on the themes of totalitarianism, the nature of power, as well as the moral dilemmas it portrays and the topics it makes the player consider etc., but it's just not finished.
if you mean the cliffhanger at the end by not getting to confront Kyros, that isn't actually incompleteness. It's a story about uniting the Tiers, not saving the world. And if it were to include a longer story line where you eventually get to confront Kyros, then that would A) make no sense at all if you choose to side with one of Kyros' armies all the way through, and B) take a lot longer than a few months.
@@joesmith9920 Oh no no, I wasn't referring to that aspect - I actually quite like that we never directly confront Kyros, as that elegantly feeds back into the theme of totalitarianism. The person behind the name is almost interchangeable as such, as the idea of what they are and the fear of them has become the greater issue - unshakeable fear of an abstract idea leading to control. I also didn't necessarily mean that I would have preferred the game's story to go on for longer. What I would have liked is for the details to get fleshed out more. More background information about the individual characters, more interactions, more detail to the endings we already have - that sort of thing. And hell, while we're at it, ideally I would have loved it had this game had more than a year of extra development time.
This game was clearly meant to be the first act of a trilogy and, since it underperformed, we'll never get the other two. Now, this game had plenty of problems, not only on the narrative side. But I believed it did poorly not due to its weaknesses but to its strenghts. This was a strange, unusual, unique game. One you got into without knowing for sure what to expect. It's always bold to make an rpg not ispired by medieval Europe, people crave the familiar, companies want safe investsments. Developers make the games people want to play not the games they want to make. And that, my friends, is why we can't have nice things.
I could not for the life of me think if a reason why this game didn't get as big as orginal pillars. Perhaps it was the abundance of new crpgs or maybe lack of 6 player party I don't know. But the game is amazing and I hope it gets a sequel.
Not sure why this vid was recommended to me NOW, but... I loved Tyranny. I have gone through it many times with different endings each time. I could never even finish the two Pillars of Eternity games. I don't know why, but I just loved the world of Tyranny more than Obsidian's other rpgs, such as Pillars of Eternity. I think it was just how you can't really be a steriotypical "good" person like in most all crpgs. At best you can be a "decent" person. At worst, you are downright horrible and not in a cliche bad guy kind of way. And how your actions do come back to you as the game goes on. It's just an incredible game imo.
i really loved the world they built here, kyros is such an interesting villain where i cant even tell if he or she is actually well intentioned or not.
I'm weirdly torn with this game. I was really into it when I started it, but the story felt all over the place and I felt I had missed another game, book, or something to make the story. I played it for 13hrs and was hit with a realization that I was trying to force myself to enjoy it and then just dropped it.
The setting and the 'edicts' in this game were really unique, I never finished it due to other commitments but it was super cool, and gameplay felt a lot smoother than the PoE1.
I really liked the premise of the game, played two hours, but I just hate the CRPG "real time with pause" element. Give me a grid and turns over that any day. Hopefully I'll get back to it one day for the story.
The magic system is hands-down my favourite out of all the RPGs I've played. I cannot overstate how much I prefer the sigil system to "spellbook and spell slot" vancian magic.
My heart weeps this game isn’t on consoles. I guess I could buy it on Steam or Epic and play it via Geforce Now but I don’t know anything about that service.
@@Blasted2Oblivion Yeah I just did it a few months ago and signed up for GFN. I never considered investing in a gaming PC to make financial sense so the streaming option has been working really well for me. Makes playing isometric games like Divinity and Wasteland more enjoyable. Game selection is a bit lacking, specifically wish the Souls series was on there but oh well.
I dont understand why this game is so much under radars. Its the most unique CRPG of our modern games, I say and it absolutely stunning. This and the Pillars Game really showed why Obsidian are the best in worldbuilding.
I had no idea the company that made KOTOR II ended up needing to crowdfund games. I'd have thought that game would have put them on the map. Just like KOTOR II sounds like the really did a good job at interesting villains.
I found difficulty curve of this game really weird. Normal mode was, for the most part, very well balanced for me, giving me just enough challange to keep me engaged without being frustrated, but then final couple of fight against the Archons were just... impossible. Like, genuinely impossible, I was incapable of out-DPSing their healing skills and fight dragged on forever, or rather until I inevitably run out of resources. I might have messed up my character I suppose and ended up with a build that was seriously sub-optimal, but if that was the case, then I shouldn't have been able to get to that point in the game with little difficulty. Overall great game, but the fact that I ended up switching to easy for the last two boss fights kinda robbed me of that satisfaction of finishing it.
I liked this game, but only once. Multiple path-playthroughs need really super-solid gameplay loop. I just couldn't bring myself to play it again. I wanted to see the different paths, but.... That's what youtube 'all endings'-videos are for.
I honestly like Tyranny better than Pillars and I am really sad it died a quiet death before it had a chance to spread its wings. Tyranny has a very unique setting in that the "bad guy" already won, and you deal with the consequences of that. It's also got that amazing magic system and I loved the way the story was told as well where it was basically like you were being read a story of what happened while playing it. Lots of CRPGs try the "narrated book" style of storytelling, but I think Tyranny does it better than most because it uses it to skip certain things that would be a poor game play experience but still gives you chances to make choices during those things, or during the intro where it skips basically all of the war and takes you to the end where you can make your own story rather than play through the story of Kyros' war. Great game it just needed more a bit more development, better marketing and to be given a chance with a Tyranny 2.
Honestly this game is so much better than pillars by miles, it's criminal that it didn't get marketed properly because it was the return to "formula" that people expected in pillars that it didn't end up delivering.
SPOILERIFIC THEORY: My own thought about this world is that true power of it is belief. When lots of people start to think someone has a power they start to get it. I base it on few things. One - you activate a pillar but after people start to think it's something only chosen one could do it starts to give you more power. Then Verse - after her companion-furies die and people start to talk how she seems to fight using their power she starts to get that ability and start to hear their voices. Basing on that I theorize that Kairos used to be just a tyrant but was so full of themselves they wrote edicts, delivered them to people and then followed upon them ruthlessly. Then rumor started "Kairos Edicts cannot be stopped and whatever Kairos declared will happen", add some imagination of people hearing it second hand and boom - you get world ending edicts.
I love the story, the world they built and the depth of the morality system, just amazing. I think it was let down by a mediocre combat system however. It's a shame it got canned. I would have loved to see a sequel with an overhauled combat system and skill trees.
Definitely on my rpg backlog list. Just need to replay New Vegas and Oblivion on PC, then play Outer Worlds , Divinity 2 and Cyberpunk. Starfield will already be out by then so hopefully will play by 2033
Ah, Tyranny. One of my favourite games. Shame it ended up being so unfinished. It has some of the best writing I've seen in an RPG, is probably the best depiction of evil I've seen in a game, and has some great ideas I wish more RPGs would use like the Conquest section.
I think the overall impact the player has on the story is very cool. That part of the game is made very well. However, the companions in Tyranny are just plain boring and uninteresting. The game is significantly more narrow than PoE - short story, limited combat abilities, limited enemy types. The replay-ability comes from switching sides which can extend your playtime, but eh, idk. The combat / world didn't really grip me enough to go through it again.
@@dudeguybroYeah it depends a lot on the person. I, for example, have over a dozen completed playthroughs and a couple I quit partway through, but the combat can seem repetitive and the lore seems narrower than it is because the game doesn't let you do anything outside of the Tiers, one small corner of a much larger complex world.
As cool as the pillars universe is and my potentially wasted excitement for avowed, I am infinitely more interested in the universe of tyranny and wish they were expanding on it
I never played this. I jave very little experience with CRPGS mainly a little classic fallout. I also have experience with Wasteland 2, Wasteland 3, Divinity original sin, and Disco Elysium. Also I've not beaten any of these sadly but very close on wasteland 2. I love Toment tides of numenara but its a big game haha. Disco Elysium is great as well but gotta go back to that.
Good review but you're mistaken about path of the damned. I just finished path of the damned + trials of iron with a 2h barik, 2h beastwoman, leadership + 2h main character and the scholar for a mage. Ran the rebel path.. was very enjoyable for me, which is what led me here. It was actually pretty easy for the most part because I am pretty familiar with the game, so, if you're good at the game you don't need a mage main character for path of the damned like you said.
I think you're misunderstanding me. My main character was 2h as well. My point was everyone has to use spells of some kind on that difficulty regardless of what they're doing. Not necessarily spending points into mage etc, but even a melee 2h guy has to use the appropriate weapon spells etc on PotD or they simply won't be effective until you start out leveling things
@@MortismalGaming I did not do that. I did, however, especially in the first act, do things like pulled groups back to choke points and generally pulled groups back, sometimes to split them up, because the first act is indeed challenging on PoTD. The absolute hardest fight I had was on the rebel path (I don't really want to spoil here just in case) there was a fight that I had to run up the side of a tower, as soon as the fight began, just to not be overwhelmed and, subsequently, I luckily managed to fight the group without aggroing the named character that was apart of the group. After that, the sailing was relatively smooth and I did not use lore-based spells on my characters except for a one-off self buff at the start of a fight (sometimes).
@@FearIsFriend Spells are just often used as a substitute for maneuvers. Rather than pulling back to a chokepoint, for example, one could just load the main character (and depending on who's in your party, maybe some of the companions) with AoE spells to use when enemy numbers are high. For example, I forget the name but there is one spell which puts enemies in an area to sleep (waking up after a timer or when they take damage, whichever comes first), so casting that following by something with either a limitless boundaries or bounding bolts accent, or just one of the aoe expressions, can even the playing field just as effectively as aggro-ing only a couple enemies at a time or presenting a smaller front. I agree though that PoTD is plenty doable without spells if you're familiar with cRPGs in general, or have done several playthroughs of Tyranny.
I always feel like Tyranny is the first chapter of a much larger story.
I totally agree. I beat the game and felt like I just got past the tutorial.
@@axelhopfinger533 I meant more in terms of the story of the world rather than the character you play.
Yeap, feels like the shell of a larger game. Unfortunate, because what is there is interesting.
@@axelhopfinger533 it does feel like the story stops before it gets going.
This game is not at all about what I thought it was about, I bought it awhile ago really want to play it now
Sorry I could not finish this video... you got me hooked on this game in around 8th minute and I just straight up went buy it and play it myself
Fun fact, at the beginning with the week long edict.
Since it only specifies the Day and Month, if you laze about past said point before reading the Edict, you have like a whole year to do it instead, because Kyros worded it so specifically.
Yeah, just traveling back and forth plus using campfires before the edict of swords was pretty much the first glitch to be discovered, although I guess it might not technically be a glitch because, like you said, the wording doesn't specify a year, only a span and day.
Does it change the story or just the timer?
@@EconaelGaming I don't know.
it's forshadowing the loophole abuse the edicts have.
Just the timer.
Such a shame this one didn't do better financially. Probably the game I most want a sequel to.
Kyros be praised, finally someone showing that game some much-deserved attention. With you and Mandalore talking about it I can hardly believe people know so little about this. One of my favourite cRPGs out there and I am nitpicky, old and grumpy.
Yeah it's a great game for sure
One of the best CRPGs of modern times. So much replay value, a great magic system in terms of mechanic and implementation into the lore of the world and even though it´s fantasy the setting isn´t based on the middle ages but the end of the transition from bronze into iron age which is rare.
Seems like Obsidian owns the IP not Paradox, so I really hope they revisit the setting one day even though it´s not likely.
I love the Bronze age aesthetic of the game, and the world is amazing. One of my favourite CRPGs. I would love them to turn it into a tabletop RPG.
It really is a shame that this game fell under the radar, don't know if it was a failure of the marketing or people being put off by the setting but this really is a highly underrated gem of a game, kind of like what Planescape Torment was when it was initially released. Really would love to see a sequel to this game but I know the odds are highly unlikely at this point
Isometric real time with pause games just don't have mass appeal sadly. Even the fantastic Pillars of Eternity 2 was basically a financial disaster for Obsidian and it was a fantastic game.
@@slipknotpurity00 deadfire underperformed to expectations as well, but it wasn't a financial disaster, they still made a lot of money from it.
I remember seeing it a lot on Steam at the time, so it definitely had good exposure to the people who'd be interested, although I remember being confused as to whether it was an RPG or an RTS hybrid type thing for a long ass time. I don't know if that was just me or a widespead thing though - the title and splash art just didn't feel very RPG like at a glance though. Mostly I think Pillars of Eternity was just a really long and exhausting game and everyone who played it was super burnt out from the genre around the time Tyranny dropped - which I think is unfortune, because Tyranny was much more concise with it's writing and storyline.
I kinda wish more cRPGs would try similar things :(
I'd love a turn based Obsidian crpg, wasteland 3/xcom style or divinity original sin/BG 3 style. They'd probably sell better if done right. Not sure if Obsidian's into turn based though. I used to enjoy rtwp from BG1 to dragon age origins, not so much today.
@@caelandemaziere7939 in fact they used most of the money made from PoE to fund Tyranny
I played Tyranny a lot to experience the various choices and endings. That choices come back to your character is extremely well done. The only downside of this game is that you want to play a magic user to experience most of the awesome and completely overpowered magic system, especially with the DLC. I fully recommend this game, especially if you want choices to matter and have impact
The other downside is knowing, short of a New Vegas 2 tier level confluence of fortune, we will never get a sequel :/
Steam has an awesome sale and I have been eyeing Tyranny for over a year.
Thank you for your efforts.
Buying the Tyranny bundle.
I really wish we got a sequel, but even if we did it's probably gonna be y e a r s down the line
Yeah, there's no way a single person finished the game not wondering when they would get to confront Kyros.
One of my favorite games, I just wish there was more because it's such an expansive, unique, well written setting. Also that prologue really is one of the coolest innovations I've seen that and really the one game really makes you live w/ your choices
loved this game always felt like this game was a hidden gem, I liked playing the "bad guy" and the art style was great ever since that first lvl with the statue and the blood coming out of the eyes I couldn't get enough of the game,
Seeing this give me so much nostalgia. I was sucked into this world when I first played it years ago. This is an underrated gem of a game, and seeing you describe it is giving me such good vibes.
this is also one of my favourite CRPG games - thoroughly enjoyed it and really dont understand why it wasnt popular. the whole premise that you are actually working for an evil overlord who has successfully conquered the world is also a major difference which was more than refreshing.
Neither Obsidian (the developer) nor Paradox Interactive (the publisher) did a whole lot of marketing, especially compared to similar games like Pillars of Eternity, so even though the number of sales is in the hundreds of thousands, it still didn't spread as fast as it should have for such a high quality game.
I bought the game after Mandalore's review, and I absolutely loved it, it's the game that got me down the CRPG rabbit hole and I am immensely thankful for that. Shame it didn't do as well as it should've.
4:18 - magic sigils mimic archon magic, there is no magic that hasn't come from an archon, they are the pioneers of all magic. For example the latest Sigil of emotions came from Sirin.
and probably from an earlier archon as well. if you let nerat interrogate the tidecasters during conquest, than you can learn the sigil of emotions from a blood chanter. the school of tides is much older than sirin. also, technically kyros isn't an archon and he has his own magic too
@@joesmith9920 Or Kyros is just an archon of edicts.
Great to have a review of this game now that the price's come down, and they've had time to patch it! Thanks for your awesome reviews as always!
It was even free on Epic Games store for a while, but obviously Steam is better because it's Steam lol.
i fineshed the game junt once, but that was enough to convince me, This one of the best game i already played, side by side with divinity 2, the history is super creative, the spell creation is a good idea too.. The thing that i don't like is the character designe, but it's my personal opinion. Hope that they keep de history going...
For anyone else reading the comments and wondering what's wrong with character creation, here's a brief explanation. There are a lot of areas of customization, but all of your options are presets. There's no sliders or color wheels or anything like that, so it can feel limited if you're used to games like Ark where you can look like literally whatever you want.
I feel it is underrated a lot and deserves more attention. I hope for a sequel although I'm not finished yet with this one. Got stuck in a situation and maybe need to check out a guide even.... But I love the concept and playing a character, who is more like a villain rather than a hero. Also that here you need to decide rather which is the lesser evil or perhaps look at which decision brings you more benefit is great.
Wow, thanks for this review! I’m one of those who didn’t know about this game, but am a fan of Obsidian stuff ❤️
I too love Tyranny. I wish it had been marketed better. They basically marketed as "you have to play evil, how evil will you be?" That made me NOT buy it, because I don't play evil.
It was only because I kept hearing positive things that I decided to give it a shot. You 100% do NOT have to play evil. I played it 2x and neither time was evil. Both were in support of Kyros, but different ways of doing that. Completely different outcomes and builds.
It should have been marketed as, "You are part of a Bronze Age conquest. Will you follow the will of your emperor or will you forge a different path?"
Tyranny is one of my favorite CRPGs. The gameplay is great, the story is great, and the setting is probably my favorite out of any game I've played. It would be criminal if they never make a sequel after the ending we got.
the story and music was so good.
This is probably in my top three favorite games ever. I have about 400 hours logged on Tyranny, and for context, a regular playthrough takes roughly 20 to 35 hours depending on what quests you accept, what path you take, how much looting and exploring you do, and whether or not you read all the dialogue. If you really go in depth and complete every quest you can, search for all the sigils, loot every box and corpse, etc, a playthrough could reach 40-45 hours, but that gets tedious real quick. Once you complete the game once, you unlock a new setting when starting a new game: New Game+, which lets you start the story with a character from a previous save file, so you can reach higher levels, make cooler and more powerful spells, min-max more efficiently if that's your thing, and probably complete the game in like 5 hours if you really try for speed, but more realistically 15-25 hours on average. Lots of potential for replaying the game for several reasons. First, as was mentioned in the video, there are 3 main paths you can take in the Conquest (character backstory creator), plus 4 main paths in the actual game, which immediately gives you about 10 unique, fun routes (some combinations of conquest and game don't make much sense, like going full Disfavored in Conquest then full Scarlet Chorus in game, or vice versa). Next, your choices in the Conquest and throughout the game, regardless of which main path you're taking, can change your relationship, and therefore all of your encounters and interactions, with each faction in the game. Some are kinda pointless like the Stone Sea villagers, but some like the Sages and Lethian's Crossing citizens have major ramifications on how any of the main paths might play out. Additionally, you occasionally get options to straight up betray your main allies, allowing you to mix and match game paths if you really want to, but that typically only makes any sense if you go from Scarlet Chorus to Rebels or Anarchy, or from Disfavored to Anarchy. Finally, when you combine those with "class" (spellcasting, heavy melee, light melee, ranged, hybrids), party build (there are 3 slots for companions and you meet 6 possible companions, and your relationship with each party member can change their perception of you massively), and just general RP aspects, you can replay the game easily over a dozen times and get a fresh experience every time. I would highly recommend this game to anyone down here in the comments section, and recommend that you recommend it to your friends as well tbh.
lol this video has about 220 comments rn and 40 of them are me replying to other people. I think I have a problem with Tyranny rn. Straight up, unless there's a speedrunning scene I've never heard of, I might have more hours of playtime than anyone except the developers/playtesters.
I hope there will be a sequel. There are so many open questions after the first game, the oldwalls, Kyros, the towers, etc,,,,I NEED a sequel to asnwer all these! I want to come back to this awesome low-fantasy, Early Iron Age world setting
I think this game is second to none if it comes to freedom of choice. Even if it‘s only 4 possible paths, it is a masterpiece how they set up the branching trees and the story in advance.
paradox murdered the game, they did not market it at all, i am a massive obsidian fan and avid rpg player and i only got to know about the game existence through noah cadwell review, which was months from launch
there was absolutely no marketing, no talk of it, nothing, if i was obsidian i would sue them, but well, i guess that is solved now with them joining microsoft
though I, as many do, have a ton of gripes with Microsoft - for Obsidian, it's likely a great thing. They are easily one of the best RPG makers, imo, so having the backing of a company as large as Microsoft means wonders for funding future RPGs of Obsidian quality
You never heard of this game before release? I remember seeing stories and watching videos of it before release.
It had no buzz.
Can't believe I haven't heard of this game before. It sounds awesome, thank you. Also, the longer this video went on the more it sounded like Kairos Fateweaver was in charge.
I so wish there was a continuation of this universe. It’s such a unique and interesting setting.
There isn't even a lot of fanfic to be found, sadly.
@@joesmith9920 for some reason it just flew under the radar. It’d be one thing if crpg’s were a dead genre, but that’s far from the case. Many crpg’s out there are enjoying a good amount of success and Tyranny is up there with the best of them. So it’s really difficult to understand.
Adding this to my wishlist. It sounds really good. I don’t usually play mages, but if the magic system is solid then I might as well try it.
Magic gets especially cool on subsequent playthroughs if you choose the New Game+ option. it essentially lets you start the story with your character from a completed game's save file, which means you can start the game with spells that were late game the first time, and keep building more powerful ones. Chaotic Descent, for example, takes so much lore that you can't put more than 1 or maybe 2 weak accents on it in your first playthrough, but with New Game+, you really get to customize everything to it's fullest extent.
This game came out at the perfect time for me, I loved it so much I played it three times in a row, doing each factions path, and I was just so happy with the experience. Such an interesting world, characters, setting, etc.
there are 4 paths. google it
Honestly man, your dedication and explanation is awesome. But my head is still spinning on who is who is this world. Keep up the good work.
Trust me, once you play the game, it's all very clear. You get introduced to the various people and factions in an organized way, and you can learn more or less about them as you see fit during your playthrough(s)
Such an underrated game. Honestly, it's one of the best crpg's ever made. But unfortunately, it's part of a series that has yet to be continued and likely never will because it didn't sell as well as it should have. The things I would do to get a sequel to this game....
My first playthrough on normal I made my player character an unarmed fighter. This made even normal kind of a nightmare but very doable. My next playthrough on hard I went all in on magic and it was significantly easier. Magic is definitely king in this game.
Tyranny was AWESOME! One of the few games ive completed.
Great review!!! Will def pick this up now that I know more about it. That magic system looked amazing!!
Love your reviews. You are singlehandedly reigniting my love of crpgs. One thing im trying to work out is how easy they all are to play with steam deck. Playable doesnt always mean that you can play with a level of precision required to react quickly enough ect. Be interesting if you could do a summary of how they all play on steam deck. Im currently playing pathfinder wotc in between deck and desktop pc and whilst i enjoy on deck i can play about 3 times quicker and more efficiently on desktop but its still great to play in that format. Another hit is divine divinity 2 which ive been playing on ipad. Just got tyranny for £6 Too.
I really like the story / narrative / decision-making part of the game, but I feel it has too much tedious combat. Slogging thru the Old Walls and the Burning Library is such a chore.
Bought it, played the initial scenario, hated the setting. Tried it again, completely hooked for three weeks. It was awesome after I figured things out some and just got over being in an evil campaign.
I haven't played Tyranny but from the comments and the video I get a very Nethergate feel, which is my favorite RPG of all time. A closed story that doesn't overstay it's welcome in a very big world with tons of lore.
That being said, there is tons of unexplored lore. More than enough material to work with if they ever decide to work on a sequel, but presented in a way that never gives you more than you want, or in a way that might overwhelm new players.
Thank you for this review, it was very helpful!
Had both this and PoE in my account for years. Never really got into PoE, something about it I just don't gel with. Tried this, played it for 6 hours none stop on 1st sitting. One thing I will say, is the turns are so long, they might as well have added turn based and ramped up the difficulty a bit. Bow seems to really lag behind in levelling.
The advanced hover tooltips in dialogue was honestly such a big thing for the genre and iirc this is the first game to do so.
Got this game on Epic, an absolute steal. I love this game. Thinking i might buy it on steam just because it deserves my money.
Never heard of tyranny. Glad you put this out
One of the best crpg ever made. Incredibly sad there’s no sequal.
brutally underatted, the magic system was very good
Imagine what could have been, had this game had just a couple more months in the oven.
I love the genuinely compelling, intelligent perspective it takes on the themes of totalitarianism, the nature of power, as well as the moral dilemmas it portrays and the topics it makes the player consider etc., but it's just not finished.
if you mean the cliffhanger at the end by not getting to confront Kyros, that isn't actually incompleteness. It's a story about uniting the Tiers, not saving the world. And if it were to include a longer story line where you eventually get to confront Kyros, then that would A) make no sense at all if you choose to side with one of Kyros' armies all the way through, and B) take a lot longer than a few months.
@@joesmith9920 Oh no no, I wasn't referring to that aspect - I actually quite like that we never directly confront Kyros, as that elegantly feeds back into the theme of totalitarianism. The person behind the name is almost interchangeable as such, as the idea of what they are and the fear of them has become the greater issue - unshakeable fear of an abstract idea leading to control.
I also didn't necessarily mean that I would have preferred the game's story to go on for longer. What I would have liked is for the details to get fleshed out more. More background information about the individual characters, more interactions, more detail to the endings we already have - that sort of thing.
And hell, while we're at it, ideally I would have loved it had this game had more than a year of extra development time.
thank you for all your incredible reviews!
This game was clearly meant to be the first act of a trilogy and, since it underperformed, we'll never get the other two. Now, this game had plenty of problems, not only on the narrative side. But I believed it did poorly not due to its weaknesses but to its strenghts. This was a strange, unusual, unique game. One you got into without knowing for sure what to expect. It's always bold to make an rpg not ispired by medieval Europe, people crave the familiar, companies want safe investsments. Developers make the games people want to play not the games they want to make.
And that, my friends, is why we can't have nice things.
I could not for the life of me think if a reason why this game didn't get as big as orginal pillars. Perhaps it was the abundance of new crpgs or maybe lack of 6 player party I don't know. But the game is amazing and I hope it gets a sequel.
Not sure why this vid was recommended to me NOW, but... I loved Tyranny. I have gone through it many times with different endings each time. I could never even finish the two Pillars of Eternity games. I don't know why, but I just loved the world of Tyranny more than Obsidian's other rpgs, such as Pillars of Eternity. I think it was just how you can't really be a steriotypical "good" person like in most all crpgs. At best you can be a "decent" person. At worst, you are downright horrible and not in a cliche bad guy kind of way. And how your actions do come back to you as the game goes on. It's just an incredible game imo.
i really loved the world they built here, kyros is such an interesting villain where i cant even tell if he or she is actually well intentioned or not.
Also if you're unsure about buying it, it's on xbox game pass for PC which is how i found out about it
I love this game so much, I'm glad to see it getting love and attention, it's one of my favorite crpgs in years and years.
Whoa sick, this sounds great! I'm going to check this game out
only problem I found in this game was the lack of enemy diversity (humans and ghost, a few beasts), the rest is excellent !
I really wish I could experience this game for the first time again
Bro im not even into crpg but i keep watching all ur vids hahah great content thanks!
I'm weirdly torn with this game. I was really into it when I started it, but the story felt all over the place and I felt I had missed another game, book, or something to make the story. I played it for 13hrs and was hit with a realization that I was trying to force myself to enjoy it and then just dropped it.
Easily my favourite Obsidian game of all time, absolutely crying out for a sequel to resolve those multi-cliffhangers at the end there.
A fanfic writer's wet dream lol
The setting and the 'edicts' in this game were really unique, I never finished it due to other commitments but it was super cool, and gameplay felt a lot smoother than the PoE1.
I really liked the premise of the game, played two hours, but I just hate the CRPG "real time with pause" element. Give me a grid and turns over that any day. Hopefully I'll get back to it one day for the story.
Tyranny was one of my favourite ever rpg
The magic system is hands-down my favourite out of all the RPGs I've played. I cannot overstate how much I prefer the sigil system to "spellbook and spell slot" vancian magic.
Accidentally did anarchist path the first time and it was such a blast, best path by far imo
My heart weeps this game isn’t on consoles. I guess I could buy it on Steam or Epic and play it via Geforce Now but I don’t know anything about that service.
That answers my question. As for Geforce, I cant speak for everyone but I haven't had any problems.
@@Blasted2Oblivion Yeah I just did it a few months ago and signed up for GFN. I never considered investing in a gaming PC to make financial sense so the streaming option has been working really well for me. Makes playing isometric games like Divinity and Wasteland more enjoyable. Game selection is a bit lacking, specifically wish the Souls series was on there but oh well.
Might have to give this another shot.
I dont understand why this game is so much under radars.
Its the most unique CRPG of our modern games, I say and it absolutely stunning.
This and the Pillars Game really showed why Obsidian are the best in worldbuilding.
just found you, i really like your stuff, hope you keep going with it
I had no idea the company that made KOTOR II ended up needing to crowdfund games. I'd have thought that game would have put them on the map.
Just like KOTOR II sounds like the really did a good job at interesting villains.
I claimed this game all the way back in 2017 or 18 when with Twitch Prime, then again from the EGS, guess I' ll start playing it!
The legendary guy, son of guy.
Guy Guyson
I found difficulty curve of this game really weird. Normal mode was, for the most part, very well balanced for me, giving me just enough challange to keep me engaged without being frustrated, but then final couple of fight against the Archons were just... impossible. Like, genuinely impossible, I was incapable of out-DPSing their healing skills and fight dragged on forever, or rather until I inevitably run out of resources. I might have messed up my character I suppose and ended up with a build that was seriously sub-optimal, but if that was the case, then I shouldn't have been able to get to that point in the game with little difficulty. Overall great game, but the fact that I ended up switching to easy for the last two boss fights kinda robbed me of that satisfaction of finishing it.
I liked this game, but only once.
Multiple path-playthroughs need really super-solid gameplay loop. I just couldn't bring myself to play it again. I wanted to see the different paths, but....
That's what youtube 'all endings'-videos are for.
I honestly like Tyranny better than Pillars and I am really sad it died a quiet death before it had a chance to spread its wings.
Tyranny has a very unique setting in that the "bad guy" already won, and you deal with the consequences of that. It's also got that amazing magic system and I loved the way the story was told as well where it was basically like you were being read a story of what happened while playing it. Lots of CRPGs try the "narrated book" style of storytelling, but I think Tyranny does it better than most because it uses it to skip certain things that would be a poor game play experience but still gives you chances to make choices during those things, or during the intro where it skips basically all of the war and takes you to the end where you can make your own story rather than play through the story of Kyros' war.
Great game it just needed more a bit more development, better marketing and to be given a chance with a Tyranny 2.
i love this game
i dont know why but its so much more fun as pillars of eternity
very underrated, same as your channel
Absolutely tailored my decision to give it a shot
completed it 3 times and to me it's way better story wise and combat wise.It's my favorite crpg.
By far my favorite cRPG! Bonus, get serious Malazan vibes when playing.
Got this for free as Epic Games store promotion. I played the hell out of PoE 1&2. Might as well give this one a shot.
what paradox meant by "tyranny underperforming" probably was them not being able to sell any dlc mind you.
Most of the vid I thought "eh looks worth a look at least" then the magic system came up. Just bought it solely for ziggy ball spell lunacy
Honestly this game is so much better than pillars by miles, it's criminal that it didn't get marketed properly because it was the return to "formula" that people expected in pillars that it didn't end up delivering.
Thanks for the review!
This needs to hit consoles... I don't own a pc, nor am I interested in gaming on pc but damn do you all have some great games.
Thanks for the excellent review.
Had a good deal of fun with this one and was very surprised by the abrupt ending.. I thought the game was just getting started 😪
SPOILERIFIC THEORY: My own thought about this world is that true power of it is belief. When lots of people start to think someone has a power they start to get it. I base it on few things. One - you activate a pillar but after people start to think it's something only chosen one could do it starts to give you more power. Then Verse - after her companion-furies die and people start to talk how she seems to fight using their power she starts to get that ability and start to hear their voices.
Basing on that I theorize that Kairos used to be just a tyrant but was so full of themselves they wrote edicts, delivered them to people and then followed upon them ruthlessly. Then rumor started "Kairos Edicts cannot be stopped and whatever Kairos declared will happen", add some imagination of people hearing it second hand and boom - you get world ending edicts.
Landry says that in game
I was playing this about 2 years ago. I have around 100 hours in iy and only 17 achievements. I don't remember why II stopped playing.
I love the story, the world they built and the depth of the morality system, just amazing. I think it was let down by a mediocre combat system however. It's a shame it got canned. I would have loved to see a sequel with an overhauled combat system and skill trees.
Definitely on my rpg backlog list. Just need to replay New Vegas and Oblivion on PC, then play Outer Worlds , Divinity 2 and Cyberpunk. Starfield will already be out by then so hopefully will play by 2033
Ah, Tyranny. One of my favourite games. Shame it ended up being so unfinished. It has some of the best writing I've seen in an RPG, is probably the best depiction of evil I've seen in a game, and has some great ideas I wish more RPGs would use like the Conquest section.
Tyranny is far better than PoE, both mechanically and narratively.
I think the overall impact the player has on the story is very cool. That part of the game is made very well. However, the companions in Tyranny are just plain boring and uninteresting. The game is significantly more narrow than PoE - short story, limited combat abilities, limited enemy types. The replay-ability comes from switching sides which can extend your playtime, but eh, idk. The combat / world didn't really grip me enough to go through it again.
@@dudeguybroYeah it depends a lot on the person. I, for example, have over a dozen completed playthroughs and a couple I quit partway through, but the combat can seem repetitive and the lore seems narrower than it is because the game doesn't let you do anything outside of the Tiers, one small corner of a much larger complex world.
As cool as the pillars universe is and my potentially wasted excitement for avowed, I am infinitely more interested in the universe of tyranny and wish they were expanding on it
Hey what's the settings you used for pause? I'm used to turn based games and so I'm having a hard time adjusting to strictly real time
Omg this looks amazing I wish it was on Xbox
I never played this. I jave very little experience with CRPGS mainly a little classic fallout. I also have experience with Wasteland 2, Wasteland 3, Divinity original sin, and Disco Elysium. Also I've not beaten any of these sadly but very close on wasteland 2. I love Toment tides of numenara but its a big game haha. Disco Elysium is great as well but gotta go back to that.
Good review but you're mistaken about path of the damned. I just finished path of the damned + trials of iron with a 2h barik, 2h beastwoman, leadership + 2h main character and the scholar for a mage. Ran the rebel path.. was very enjoyable for me, which is what led me here. It was actually pretty easy for the most part because I am pretty familiar with the game, so, if you're good at the game you don't need a mage main character for path of the damned like you said.
I think you're misunderstanding me. My main character was 2h as well. My point was everyone has to use spells of some kind on that difficulty regardless of what they're doing. Not necessarily spending points into mage etc, but even a melee 2h guy has to use the appropriate weapon spells etc on PotD or they simply won't be effective until you start out leveling things
@@MortismalGaming I did not do that. I did, however, especially in the first act, do things like pulled groups back to choke points and generally pulled groups back, sometimes to split them up, because the first act is indeed challenging on PoTD. The absolute hardest fight I had was on the rebel path (I don't really want to spoil here just in case) there was a fight that I had to run up the side of a tower, as soon as the fight began, just to not be overwhelmed and, subsequently, I luckily managed to fight the group without aggroing the named character that was apart of the group. After that, the sailing was relatively smooth and I did not use lore-based spells on my characters except for a one-off self buff at the start of a fight (sometimes).
@@FearIsFriend Spells are just often used as a substitute for maneuvers. Rather than pulling back to a chokepoint, for example, one could just load the main character (and depending on who's in your party, maybe some of the companions) with AoE spells to use when enemy numbers are high. For example, I forget the name but there is one spell which puts enemies in an area to sleep (waking up after a timer or when they take damage, whichever comes first), so casting that following by something with either a limitless boundaries or bounding bolts accent, or just one of the aoe expressions, can even the playing field just as effectively as aggro-ing only a couple enemies at a time or presenting a smaller front. I agree though that PoTD is plenty doable without spells if you're familiar with cRPGs in general, or have done several playthroughs of Tyranny.