While I’ve not had as much time lately due to all the things I have to do in Final Fantasy 14 to help settle the community and situate some kind of new normal, I do really want to get back to playing Avowed. I’ve been having a great time as a Gun Mage and enjoying the sort of build/rebuild system of leveling up that allows me to effectively tweak how I do things every time I get to a new tier of power and should probably stop using weaker spells. I mean, I still have the drain life spell because that’s part of my “ultimately sustainability” maneuver, but really mostly because I have the bonus that locks down my target. It’s nice to have a panic button, you know? Freeze whatever moster or hulking man is charging me, looking to obliterate me in one hit because I’m a weak little noodle with only brainpower and determination to see me through the day. I’ve also gotten deep enough into the story that I think I know what’s going on (and have a suspicion that I might be shaping some amount of it? But maybe that’s just good writing to make me FEEL like I have more control than I do) and have only reloaded a save once because I had made a note to go do a thing, had to deal with my FF14 free company imploding, and promptly forgot in the hubbub that I’d made a note to go do a thing until after it was too late. Which I’ll give myself without any guilt. That was a wild, exhausting few days.

The weapon upgrading system in Avowed is interesting. So far, each area has materials that I can use to build up to the level of gear that is appropriate for the enemies I’m commonly running into. Thanks to my exhausting collecting and a few savvy purchases here or there, I’ve managed to basically be one tier ahead for most of the second and now third area. It’s getting diffcult to maintain since the good gear I want to buy is prohibitively expensive and I am not selling my rare gear that would be worth a lot so I can keep upgrading stuff. It’s a big of a self-created problem, you see. All unique gear is set to the power tier of your highest gear of that type (weapon or armor) when you encounter it, which means that upgrading early gives me access to a lot of powered-up gear I won’t use and can scavenge for parts. It also means the costs of unique gear I might find in a shop and want to buy is way more expensive than my current wealth pool can easily handle. So far, I don’t regret the choices I’ve made. My build is pretty simple after all and I don’t need super spiffy armor if I just kill everything before it can touch me.

Which my build is pretty good at so far. Currently I’m lightning-based, with a touch of poison and untyped force for special cases. I’ve got a spell to restore my hit points, another one that lets me restore mana or spell juice or whatever its’s called, a couple AOEs if I’ve got space and groupings, a multi-target bounce spell if I don’t, and a magic wand that is really good at stunning enemies so I can enjoy a few seconds of invulnerability for my stamina to recharge. It hasn’t failed me in a while, except for one time, but that was on me for not watching my hp and using one of my plentiful potions. I can pretty well power through just about any encounter, even if things are lightning resistant, so much so that I keep forgetting to give myself food buffs and restoration bars. Maybe because the game never explains it, but if you eat food outside of combat, it almost instantly restores you hit points and spell juice as advertised. So that’s what I did. Used it tout of combat. Only later did I learn that if I used it IN combat, it would provide me with slow but steady hit point and spell juice regeneration until either the timer on it expired or it had fully restored all of the points it could have. Which means it is in my best interest to eat a restorative food at the start of the battle so any little hit point clips heal up quickly and so my spell juice starts to restore itself immediately as I begin casting rather than as I collect the spell juice pouches people and creatures leave behind when they die. No, I do not know if that is their souls. Yes, I’d still do it even if I knew it was. This is a video game, after all, and I’m a wrecking ball of a protagonist who gives everyone ample time to get out of the way.

While the game hasn’t let me talk my way out of every fight, or even attempt it as often as something like Baldur’s Gate 3 did, I have been surprised and rewarded by how many verbal confrontations that will inevitably escalate into a fight (I’m not gonna lay down and die for the assassins or kowtow to the villainous factions) allowed me to attempt to talk people down. I think there’s only one I missed, due to an inadequate stat, but I’ve managed to avoid a few fights altogether by being reluctant to start fighting but absolutely murderous when the gauntlets are thrown. Rarely have I encountered a game that would let me do this. That would reward attempting to deescalate or talk people out of violence and then still allow me to be ruthless when the fighting begins such that I actually get a reputation for it. NPCs commented on it! It’s just very fun and very well thought out, like most of the game so far. It remains to be seen if I will still feel this way at the end of the game, when I’ve seen how they wrap up the narrative, but I don’t think I’ve had this much fun with this kind of action game in a long while. I mean, I’ve shouted things at my monitor and had NPCs or my character say them immediately after moving the dialogue ahead, so I am really enjoying the rare game that is so intune with my sensibilities.