The third game set in Eora of the Pillars of Eternity franchise that follows more of an action-RPG style gameplay very different from the original CRPGs.

My first impressions of the game were kind of sour. As were most peoples', it seems. It begins with very overbearing tutorials, very handholdy dialogue and quest options, and presents the game as something that is really at odds with the rest of the game as a whole. A lot of people didn't get past the bear, which I would truly mark as the end of the tutorial phase, and is where the game actually begins trusting you as a player to make decisions for yourself. That can be very long depending on how much you explore before following the main quest, as well.

Dialogue was by far the most fascinating aspect of the game. After the first few hours, when the game finally decides to be a game rather than an opening cutscene, it actually lays down some of the groundwork for your character and existing characters if you so choose. Not only that, but you actually are pointed with hard decisions that don't truly have a right or wrong answer, that often take a little more than just gut feeling to actually come up with a good solution. Not only that, but some are contingent on finding diaries, or going down only certain dialogue trees, or doing things elsewhere that would only allow for a thing to happen. In that sense it has a very complex story that seems far more reactive than it lets on. (Also, I love lore tabs. Just being able to cross reference in-game what characters are saying is such a nice feature that actually lets me follow along in a world I know nothing about.)
Companions were by far the shining aspect of the game. And I don't necessarily mean themselves as characters when they follow you around and such, but their specific quests are honestly some of the most real I've seen where it feels like genuine struggles with emotion that are actually portrayed in a mature and realistic way. Those quests make some of their more mundane dialogue feel a lot deeper the second time around. The voice acting, also, complimented a lot of the deeper dialogue that was happening in those moments. Much to my surprise, you can also be combative in these instances in a way that would actually show a far deeper understanding of what the characters are going through from your own character's perspective.

The combat is a hell of a lot of fun. Open class tree system with a lot of fun synergies, each 'class' has its own positives and negatives. Wizard has a lot of fun and interesting spells, Warrior is the generic melee (paired with parrying makes for some fun outcomes), ranger is your classic stealth archer with guns and a bear. The harder difficulty actually feels like a challenge and that I have to actually think about what decisions I make during combat. It ends up shining mostly because it likes to throw a lot of moving parts at you where you have to sort through the chaos rather than being pure strategy. Usually you just have to ko the healer, and take care of the rest, but how to get there is what makes that chaos fun. The drawback mostly being that you fight skeletons, xaurips, and beetles a lot. There really isn't that much enemy variety which is sad considering...you know, the setting. There are so many possibilities.

At first I thought the crafting system was a little underhanded, until I realised the entire game essentially revolves around it. Instead of using level as an indicator, you're using equipment. Your resources and therefore exploration actually matters in the game because you rely on a limited set of ingredients to actually finish the game. Enemies do not respawn and vendors do not change their wares often (as far as I noticed). There are a lot of good unique weapons that feel like a lot of fun to play, but unfortunately since loot seems to be fixed, there's no way of getting that unique item early to slowly build yourself around. Later on it just feels like legendary junk that I would have to completely respec for -- which just isn't worth the investment. However, for the most part the game has a very solid and dense crafting system within it that never feels like you can cheese the system and make yourself too overpowered.

The graphics are beautiful. I've taken quite a few screenshots of the different areas around Eora, the Living Lands are very full of life after all. Soundtrack was great in a vacuum, just placed awkwardly at times and didn't always feel like it fit (though that seems to be more of an implementation issue as I did like the OST). Some of the accents are a little forced, using different real-life accents to cover certain areas. Not sure how I feel about it, a little odd, but it was a footnote worth typing out.
The marketing was also terrible. Didn't even know the game had come out until 2 months later. Almost nobody talking about the game when it feels like The Outer Worlds 2 (receiving so much marketing hype lately) has learned from this -- yet Avowed just had absolutely nothing. I only originally knew about it because I decided to check Obsidian's website a year or so ago.

Probably not worth full price unless you're really into PoE and have a knack for ActionRPG/CRPG hybrids. It's not a perfect game by any means, and definitely not for everyone. I do wish more people would give the game a more fair shot, but not at the current $60 price tag. It's a little too steep and sets an expectation that the game doesn't really live up to. But, underneath the negatives, was a genuinely compelling story and a game I enjoyed my time a lot with.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467192227

Breath of Fire III was THE JRPG I grew up with. I had the PSP version, and the digital download version for the PSVita. My early teen years were entirely this game, so, colour me surprised when Capcom had released the OST on Steam but not a Remake/Remaster. Wild, right?

Either way, it was a genuine joy to re-listen to all of the songs I remember so fondly in high-quality FLAC.
The only downside is, Battle for Tomorrow (the boss music) is not included, instead the SE version was used. (An Alt version of the track that has in-game sound effects running over it.) It's...truly a baffling choice.
But...for £7/$8? Definitely worth it for the amount of songs you do get. A game and soundtrack that has gone on to inspire so many future titles since the 90's, and you can definitely see why.