BG2 Appreciation thread

[MetalCraze]

he's a male emo npc who cuts his wrists while you are not looking.

 

[Lesifoere]

Anomen is... well. There's something nauseating about the way he brags, pulls all that "chivalrous" shit expecting the female NPC to turn into goo for it, and combine that with the daddy issues plus the self-righteousness... It's Carth, only worse. To be fair, you can influence his alignment too! His personality changes dramatically after he fails his knighthood test (though he's still a prat).

On that note, has anyone tried the mod NPCs? I was actually quite fond of Xan, despite the fact that he out-emos them all. It's tongue-in-cheek on the writer's part, and as far as I recall, the other characters call him out on his silly doom-and-gloom attitude. I bet most Codexians hate his and Kelsey's guts, though. I think someone was making/made an Edwin romance at some point, though I'm not sure how that went.

The less said about Solaufein, however, the better.

 

[Amon Gesoto]

All that needs to be said about Solaufein as a party character is this: butt sex.

 

[Warden]

I appreciated BG 1 more. The feeling of openness (free exploration) is something I value a lot.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I don't even remember much of BG2, other than the talking sword. "Go find someone rich, and kill them, and take their money. Then go find someone richer, and kill them too! Hack and slash your way to fortune!"

I follow that advice in all crpg's where it's possible to do so.

 

[DraQ]

a lot of people here actually don't slam BGII, except for NPCs like Aerie.
Draq, be sure to get her in your party - to understand the whole awesomeness of D. Gaider as a designer.

Eh, apart from making me feel like a baby sitter half of the time she doesn't even annoy me - just a whiny, retardedly naiive and nauseatingly sugary crybaby elf chick.

I'm more annoyed by Minsc, partially because he has the most retarded voice ever in Polish version.

One thing I like about BG II is how it manages to be generic without sucking - a light rpg you can simply enjoy playing and seeing where it will take you - nothing of PS:T's caliber, but still fun. I'd class the latter as art and the former as excellent craftsmanship.

Don't get me started on BG I, though. This game sucked even harder than vanilla OB, or at least just as much.

 

[Kaiserin]

Anomen is... well. There's something nauseating about the way he brags, pulls all that "chivalrous" shit expecting the female NPC to turn into goo for it, and combine that with the daddy issues plus the self-righteousness...

This is why I always like having Keldorn and Anomen in my party at the same time. Keldorn, being the real deal, and Anomen, being the wannabe faker. Keldorn lays down quite a few proverbial bitch slaps, it's pretty fun. They'll even fight it out if Anomen fails the test.

I guess I'm the only person in the world who didn't hate Carth, because I don't find him at all like Anomen.

 

[Lesifoere]

I really liked Keldorn. He's a paladin without being Lawful Stupid. Granted, the whole Maria deal does put a chink in his armor, but we can't all be perfect. In a way, he's a Jolee prototype.

It's true that there're no solid similarities between Carth and Anomen as such, but I don't know, they give off a certain vibe that I find samey. Ah yes, it's that "This is what a male writer thinks female gamers want in a romantic interest" vibe. Both times--for me, anyway--Gaider was wrong (though I'm sure the hordes of Carth, Velen and Sky fangirls assure him otherwise. Maybe I'm just hard to please, or maybe my mentality's not sufficiently teenage).

 

[Radisshu]

I really liked Keldorn. He's a paladin without being Lawful Stupid. Granted, the whole Maria deal does put a chink in his armor, but we can't all be perfect. In a way, he's a Jolee prototype.

It's true that there're no solid similarities between Carth and Anomen as such, but I don't know, they give off a certain vibe that I find samey. Ah yes, it's that "This is what a male writer thinks female gamers want in a romantic interest" vibe. Both times--for me, anyway--Gaider was wrong (though I'm sure the hordes of Carth, Velen and Sky fangirls assure him otherwise. Maybe I'm just hard to please, or maybe my mentality's not sufficiently teenage).

Valen is pretty different from those other characters though, isn't he?

 

[Lesifoere]

Is he? I thought he's exactly like Carth: "RAR I CAN'T TRUST YOU" + "AAAA MY LOVER DIED BOOOHOOOO plz be my unpaid therapist."

 

[tunguska]

@Lesifoere: I think Bioware just realized that there wouldn't actually be any females playing the game. Maybe a few males pretending to be females. But they knew they wouldn't sell any more copies to them. Now things are a little different of course. Maybe 0.000000001% of the players are female, with about 1% pretending to be. So they have to cater to that 1% at least a little. Also, my understanding is that on the internet all of the females are actually male FBI agents, which really puts things in perspective.

I really hated the story and most of the writing in BG2, and yet I loved the game mostly due to the combat I think. Almost all of the characters seemed to be intentionally annoying, but particularly Imoen and Jaheira,who I usually tried to kill while still in the starter dungeon if possible. Imoen was annoyingly difficult to kill though. The good characters tended to be absolutely unbearable. The evil ones could be okay though. Edwin, Korgan, Viconia, Yoshimo etc. I also thought Jan and Haer Daelis were okay.

 

[Kaiserin]

Maybe 0.000000001% of the players are female, with about 1% pretending to be.

If that were an accurate figure, I'd be the only FBI agent that played BG2.

 

[Warden]

Imoen was annoyingly difficult to kill though.

Imoen can't be killed prior to the abduction... due to her special anti-slaying belt. :/

 

[Thalkirst]

BG II was fun to play, I agree with the OP. Especially when modded with Tactics mod. This made some battles insanely hard - easily taking up an hour sometimes with the tougher ones.

The story was not bad, either and Irenicus was a well-designed arch villain.

 

[afewhours]

The less said about Solaufein, however, the better.

One of my friends downloaded that mod and was inspired to change all instances of the name 'Solaufein' to 'The Gaylord Solaufein'. 'tis a pity he never released the modifications publicly.

 

[MetalCraze]

I remember I've downloaded one mod that should've made more interactions with party NPCs including the ability to start banter yourself. I've installed it - and unsurprisingly enough it worked only for Aerie. I won't say what options were there - except that the option that ended banter was "stop molesting aerie".
though the option that I've chosen was "delete this shit from hdd"

 

[mountain hare]

I adored BG II so much, I must have played it through from beginning to end a dozen times.

I was all excited when I finally got my hands on the 4 CD prequel BG I, and ended up sorely disappointed. What a BORE.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Saerileth is the best mod companion.

Saerileth is a 15-year-old human paladin of Tyr. She hails from Mount Celestia in the Outer Planes. She is young, romanceable (for good-aligned humans, elves, and half-elves), and beautiful.

It's as bad as it sounds.

 

[Castanova]

Keldorn rules cuz he can get that two-handed sword that gets upgraded to +6 later on. Ah, the memories.

 

[Lesifoere]

The less said about Solaufein, however, the better.

One of my friends downloaded that mod and was inspired to change all instances of the name 'Solaufein' to 'The Gaylord Solaufein'. 'tis a pity he never released the modifications publicly.

Iiiit's not even the gay aspect (and Solaufein is bisexual, I guess), it's more the poetry-quoting. Pointlessly litfag. The mod author probably thought he was being ~*sophisticated*~ or something. That and the Drizzt wannabeness. Ewww.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Saerileth is the best mod companion.

Saerileth is a 15-year-old human paladin of Tyr. She hails from Mount Celestia in the Outer Planes. She is young, romanceable (for good-aligned humans, elves, and half-elves), and beautiful.

It's as bad as it sounds.

And the portrait!

Looks like the author has been playing Final Fantasy too much.

 

[mountain hare]

Saerileth belongs on 4chan, not in Forgotten Realms...

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Saerileth belongs on 4chan, not in Forgotten Realms...

I thought they were one in the same with some "normal boards" being the above ground and /b/ being the Underdark with all the tentacles, mindsucking, and other shit.

 

[mountain hare]

You're thinking of /d/

 

[Black]

I wanted to join you guys but then I realized that there's actually nothing of importance to appreciate in BG2.