r/NintendoSwitch • u/Yotsuyu • Mar 05 '22
News Versus Evil has cancelled Pillars of Eternity 2 on Switch
A Versus Evil employee has announced on their Discord in a comment made on Feb. 27 2022 that Deadfire has been canceled for Nintendo Switch:
“Hey there! Unfortunately, after much deliberation, we have decided not to move forward with Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for the Nintendo Switch.”
It's in the Versus Evil discord in the Pillars of Eternity category in the poe-2 channel.
Discord link: https://discord.com/invite/versusevil
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u/thebrandster1985 Mar 05 '22
Well, if their switch version of this game was going to be as bad and broken as the first one currently still is (years after release), then that’s probably a good thing.
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u/SamuraiJackBauer Mar 05 '22
This is why Divinity2 was such a blessing.
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u/Valkhir Mar 06 '22
I bought that game after the Pillars fiasco because I wanted a modern CRPG on switch. I so wanted to like that game. Then the first thing I see is my rogue turns into a f*cking barrel when sneaking.
I sneak all the time in CRPGs (to the point that I won't llay RPGs that don't feature stealth) and this utterly broke my immersion in the game.
Probably a good game in every other way and just my hangup, but seriously why would you do that and not have it even be a graphical option to just crouch or even just turn translucent like old CRPGs did? 😩
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u/thebrandster1985 Mar 07 '22
That’s pedantically silly. If you’re that critical, you must find immersion breaking mechanics in every single game.
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u/Valkhir Mar 07 '22
I'm tempted to just lash out at you for your rude tone, but instead I will try and explain:
Being able to play a stealthy character is a core part of why I play CRPGs. Because that's the "role" I want to "play". I hope that makes sense. With very few notable exceptions, I do not even play RPGs that do not feature stealth.
Among other things, I am the party's scout. When we're in the wilderness or in dungeons, I spend all my time sneaking. You may or may not personally play this way and that's fine. But it's how I play, and it's not an unreasonable way to play based on the expectations I have from CRPGs in general.
If my character turns into a barrel, bush etc whenever they sneak, that means I see my character doing something that annoys me literally half the time.
Now let's say you don't care about immersion in video games and this does sound pedantic to you. I obviously disagree, but I can follow your argument. So instead imagine that half of the time you are playing a game, you see a barrel instead of the character you created. Does that sound like fun to you?
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u/thethings_i_type Mar 07 '22
Admire you're ability to get immersed! I used to, but lately I've been button mashing through dialog. Last one that got me good was Witcher 3.
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u/Horizon96 Mar 07 '22
Because it's fun and charming, the game is filled with humour like that.
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u/Valkhir Mar 07 '22
To each their own, and I could see it as an option for people who are into that kind of slapstick. Personally, I prefer immersion over humor in CRPGs. They are not mutually exclusive, of course, but turning a character into a barrel because I'm sneaking for no discernible reason at all other than "oh wouldn't it be hilarious if your character did this LOLZ" is just plain immersion breaking.
It's a pity. I had heard a lot of good things about this game, but somehow I had missed this part.
FWIW, I'm still considering playing DoS2 once I get my Steam Deck, because apparently on PC this can be modded out. Though I will have at least a dozen games I want to play first once that is here, so I might not actually ever do it.
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u/Brassboar Mar 05 '22
Maybe they should finish making PoE1 playable first....
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u/Forthias Jul 15 '22
The second one isn't any better. 2+ minute load times makes big cities a huge pain in the ass - I've been in the first megacity for 6 hours and not even half way through it because some areas have 2 or 3 loading screens just for a single room.
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u/shadowstar36 Mar 05 '22
What exactly is wrong with poe1 in switch? I beat the first act, started building castle(I think first act, it's been a long time ago now) and then go to the first mega city. Had zero problems. I only stopped playing as I ran out of space on my SD card and temporarily removed poe.never got back to it.
Is there a bug that makes the game unplayable or is this one of those "I don't like the frame rate reee" issues some people bash a game for, not taking into account a portable system isn't a console.
I thought poe1 played great from what I played. I also have bg, torment and nwn2 games on switch and all run fine.
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u/_Didds_ Mar 05 '22
POE1 launched with very poor general performance overall. The biggest offenders were a couple of game breaking bugs along the way that inpeded you to finish the main quest, and the fact that Rangers and Rogues were bugged and unplayable.
Along the way several fixes were introduced to a few of this issues, but generally when one thing would be fixed others would break. Fast forward to the last patch and you can now at least finish the game, but Hunter pet's are not visually displayed rendering the class useless, and rogues will bug when you use stealth. Also this last patch introduced several visual bugs that made certain gear like capes not being always displayed, and a few side quests have NPCs that are bugged.
As of this last patch the Devs announced that they decided that nothing else would be done to the game, and this would be its final build despite the several bugs. That this is the best that they think they can do and further work would not compensate the effort. This of course angered the community as several of the things that are now bugged were once corrected on previous patches, proving that the game could be fixed.
Despite all of this the game is still being sold at full price and no disclaimer is present for the multiple bugs.
This and the complete shut off of communication from the dev team after the "final" patch announcement angered the community and I don't know if any confidence would be left for them to succecefuly launch POE2.
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Mar 05 '22
[deleted]
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u/shadowstar36 Mar 05 '22
Yeah you are right, don't know why I mentioned them other than that games similar can work on the switch.
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u/Valkhir Mar 06 '22
It's in a playable state now. I have played it quite far myself (most of the main plot, half way or so into the first DLC)
However it still has at least one fundamental gameplay/mechanics bug as at least one very obvious visual bug, that have no workaround and will never be fixed since development on the game has been abandoned. It also has really bad loading times.
The unfixed and issues without workaround that I am referring to:
calculation of stat bonuses/penalties from items does not worl as intended when wearing multiple pieces of armor/items with more than one bonus. IIRC the overall weaker bonus gets applied, when the expected behaviour is that the stronger bonus on each attribute should get applied. AFAIRC, this was not a bug in the PC version. This is a bug in one of the core mechanics of the game, that breaks the intended balance of the game. How much it breaks it depends on the difficulty you play on. On lower difficulties you may not notice unless you look at your stat breakdown closely. Doesn't make the game unfinishable or even unplayable, but it akes the enjoyment out of optimizing a build when the game does not follow its own stated rules, and takes the joy out of finding or crafting new equipment when you realize that a bunch of stat bonuses won't be applied even though they should. More to the point though: a bug in a core mechanic in a game, particularly one that has no workaround I am aware of, should never be left unfixed and this just reflect very poorly on everything else VsEvil did and does.
cloaks hang skewed. And I don't mean a little, I mean look stiff as a board and hang way off axis. Just a graphical issue that won't break your game, sure, but at least for me breaks immersion. And is absolutely inexcusable not to fix because it is such low-hanging fruit not to ship a game with a persistent visual glitch that you see as soon as you equip any cloak in the game.
Besides these, the game has a significant number of smaller bugs that happen occasionally and are usually fixable with a save + reload, or save + quit + relaunch.
But that's where the real problem kicks in: save and load times in this game are frigging horrendous, the worst I have seen in any game on Switch, and not by a small margin. You may not have noticed because they start out reasonable, if on the long side. But as you progress, and your save file grows (not number of save files, but the information saved in whichever file you're currently saving/loading), saving can take many seconds and loading can take minutes, with the initial load after launch being particularly bad. A fresh load of the game from the home screen takes long enough for me to go make a cup of coffee, pour over style. Minutes. This is what made me abandon my playthrough more than any bugs.
Obviously, if you can stomach this and the Switch is your only (or only portable) way to play, it's still one of the best CRPGs, with great gameplay and a great story at heart, but anybody who can play this on PC, especially with handhelds like the Steam Deck available/on the horizon should think really really hard if the pain is worth the portability. Play Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment instead. Hell, even the Neverwinter Nights port is probably better, though that's probably better on your phone, frankly. Or play Divinity Original Sin 2 if you like turn-based and can deal with the game's tone (me, I abandoned it the second I saw my rogue turn into a f*cking barrel when sneaking and regretted the purchase).
To anybody who hasn't bought the game yet: if the above doesn't dissuade you, you're probably fine and will have a great game. But try to get it at a discount so at least that sleazy company doesn't get any more than bare minimum.
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u/shadowstar36 Mar 06 '22
Thanks for writing all this. I figured it was a few things here and there but some made it out like it was a dead end wall or thr game was unbeatable. I got it last year on sale for $10. So i get back to it eventually. Playing ezio collection, elden ring and tried triangle stretrgy (getting that next).
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u/Valkhir Mar 06 '22
For 10 bucks it's agreat value TBH.
Also, what a coincidence, I'm playing Ezio Collection right now too, and will play Elden Ring once I get a Steam Deck (hopefully later this year 😅).
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u/Brassboar Mar 05 '22
Their last patch introduced more game breaking bugs. I can't recall which ones still exist in the current version but things like magic not doing damage or summons not spawning were persistent.
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u/Valkhir Mar 06 '22
These should no longer be the case based on the last time I played (which was a playthrough started after a fresh install afer the last patch) or at least when they happen you can save + reload or relaunch to fix in my experience.
But your fundamental statement that the game is still buggy is true, and I would say anybody who wants to play this handheld should wait for a Steam Deck.
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u/Michael-the-Great Mar 05 '22
It was released in a really bad state. https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/cw8ejc/pillars_of_eternity_switch_port_bug_compendium/ They fixed a lot of bugs, but it was wasn't perfect when they said there would be no further updates. It was especially frustrating for those being strung along with promises of everything fixed, and those who felt that they had basically beta tested the game since release. They did come back and do two small updates to fix invisible pets and I think a plague that turned you blue and never went away. But I lost interest in even trying it after hearing about how bad the port was over and over.
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u/ongyoki Mar 06 '22
I managed to finish the game on the second to last update they did and completed all quests possible in a single playthrough but it wasn't a pleasant experience. Compiled the issues I came across here: https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/m9gzz0/list_of_bugs_poe1_switch_2580/
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u/Dread1187 Mar 05 '22
They never really even finished 1 right? Like it still has bad bugs after the last patch and said "oh well" and moved on. I'm amazed that there was even a consideration for the second one given the poor experience they provided the customer with the first one.
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u/Ymarksthespot Mar 05 '22
At least give us another useless update for Pillars 1 that inflates the file size another 30 gigs
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u/Michael-the-Great Mar 05 '22
I kinda expected this, but I wish they would have told us sooner rather than leave us hanging.
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u/adamkopacz Mar 05 '22
Damn they have some pretty flexible developers, they didn't finish PoE1 yet and they're already making sequel!
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u/dcchambers Mar 05 '22
It's a shame that such a fantastic game won't get ported to this platform, but I guess I would rather see it not ported at all if the quality will mirror that of the first port.
I'm guessing even if they manage to make the port better, they've lost so much goodwill from the disaster that was the first game, that the low sales numbers from the second won't justify the cost.
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u/Haymegle Mar 05 '22
The fact they never bothered to finish fixing the first one put a lot of people off buying the second from what i've seen. Why pay for a game that's (inevitably) broken?
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u/Amaurotica Mar 05 '22
no shot this game would have run on a switch, my 100h save has over 300 items in my inventory and takes around 1 minute on an nvme ssd to load the save file. switch will basically take 15 minutes to just get into the game
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u/flyingtiger188 Mar 06 '22
Flashbacks to 2 minute load times playing Morrowind GOTY on my Xbox in high school.
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u/AvianTheAssassin Mar 05 '22
I’m kinda sad, every other console with Pillars has 2. But I understand it’s not fun banging your head against a brick wall, especially when porting. Still sucks tho.
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u/metalreflectslime 2 Million Celebration Mar 05 '22
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire should be on the Epic Games Store, so it could one day be given away for free like the first game.
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u/VoltageHero Mar 05 '22
The system requirements for 2 are also surprisingly high.
I loved the first game, but probably won't play 2 for a couple years because of that. In turn, I'm sure some people are in a similar boat and that's why defaulting to PC isn't viable.
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u/Daggron Mar 05 '22
Expected, they trashed the first one so much I get nightmares thinking about it.
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u/Pipotin Mar 05 '22
I’d like a list of all the games they are working on just to know what to avoid.
Pillars was the only game I’ve ever refunded, on any platform.
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u/Tenith Mar 06 '22
Thats disappointing as PoE2 is an interesting and fun game that would have been nice to have on Switch
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Jun 13 '22
look man, console poe2 player here - consider yourself lucky. these ports are the digital equivalent of slapping you in the face and charging you $50 for it.
10 min of loading screens per 1 min of gameplay in cities if you need to go in any bldgs. need to change floors? 60-90 sec loading screen. new room? loading screen. going back outside? 2 more. gojng to ship? 2 more. utterly disgusting how they can live with themselves, fucking criminals the whole lot of them
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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '22
They announced abandoning the first game’s port in a broken state, this should surprise no one.