I've been slicing and hacking my way through roughly 15 ingame days now and it has been a very mixed experience. The story I love, I like the world exploration, I dig the urgency (I'm kinda falling behind but I guess that is part of the thrill here). I initially also liked the combat system and went like "DAMN! This is so much better than TW3! This is gonna be great!" .... but sadly ... it gets old - like VERY fast.

This topic is not saying anything about the difficulty (I get some K.O.s but that's mainly when I fight enemies way above me). There sure is some real jank here during groupfights when the clunky character movement (slow like Gerald) and the lock-on camera do the whole system a disservice and the enemy variety also leaves something to be desired .... but no, I'm more talking about the length of general encounters. I have (what I think) is some pretty decent gear but still there are some fights that draaaaag on and it's always the same. In human form I use that whirlwind/weapon special move and a hex and otherwise I always perfect guard and retaliate and well vampire form is faster because mine has craptons of speed+ and crit+ BUT the fights still drag because enemies like boars and wolves and most common soldiers have WAY too much HP. I'm really getting pissed at fighting 4 soldiers on the road (while fighting with the target-camera) and then more often than not 4+ boars with no sense of self-preservation show up and add themselves to the enemy group numbers.

I really wished games would make auto-scaling optional again (TW3 did that finally) because it's so bizzare being this high level vampire at the end of the game and still hacking at small animals like a trapped peasent. It feels as if I had made no progress in character strength from beginning to end because the enemies still look the same and take roughly the same amount of hits.

Im on day 13 and I just can't be bothered anymore. Both me and enemies on duelist are complete damage sponges and it's impossible to lose but it takes sooooo long to defeat a camp. Strangely, it wasn't like that in the beginning of the game.

To preface, this is one of my favorite games of all time, but I really hope Rebel Wolves does a better job in the sequel with enemy scaling. The issue ultimately is enemies scaling with your level. What's the point of unlocking all these badass abilities if random guards get 1000% stronger? I did all this work to become a badass vampire just to get mogged by a wolf?

The point is we want to feel we've made our character super badass after all these quests so late game a wolf or random guard should be a walk in the park.

Edit: As you get stronger, the game does not let you feel stronger. Because everything adjusts to keep you challenged. But the way I think it should be handled is introducing new enemies types that are stronger, not making the wolves or guards 1000% stronger. I'm not struggling with the enemies, but I'm saying the proper way to do these types of games is when they introduce new stronger enemies vs scaling up the wolves or guards to your level. Late game you should be able to run through basic guards or wolves and there should be new classes of enemies to provide a challenge. Seems like people are having trouble understanding what I'm saying and think I'm struggling, let me put it like this:

What I'd want is

Early game: wolves, bandits, basic monsters
Mid game: stronger variants and entirely new creatures
Late game: holy shit, new badass monster?

vs what we got

Early game: wolf
Late game: wolf with 4× HP because you're level 30.

Think Morrowind

Spoiler Warning!!

First of all a question to you kind reader. If you had the choice to become a Vampire, would you take it?

I know that I would under cetrain conditions, first ís that I don't need to kill humans and can atleast live of animal blood or blood donations (even though the ladder would not be favourable).

Here is where we come to the problem I've teased in the title. Why are vampires reluctant to turn you even if you want to be turned?

The obvious answere is "to save your soul" or some bs. The real reason could be competition. Those answere were never satisfying, I'm thinking of "What we do in the shadows" where Giliermo had to beg and beg for season never to get turned. A far better answere is what BoD did. The turning process involves risks, you could become a full vrakihr, a Dawnwalker or even worse a blood thirsty mindless monster. It seams like the last option is that most likley one going by how many of these malformed vrakhirs we see in the game.

This creates an interesting dilemma, a vrakhir who has successfully become immortal can I either risk turning their loved ones into mindless monsters or live with them until they either cut ties or die of old age.

This aspect is so much more interesting and really sets the "curse and blessing of immortality" in focus.

Assuming they draw magic from the same place

Because when Anca made Coen a witch she said let it in (so there is magic that stays in them permanently) and it's been said that using witchcraft marks your soul permanently

Do you think witches like Vera, Leonica, Coen (besides being dawnwalker) are damned to Anachora like Vrakhiri?

I'll begin:

1. Lacra. Seriously, she makes me cackle every other sentence she says with how sardonic and unapologitically dark her sense of humor is. Exactly my kind of humor, 10/10.
2. Ambrus. He's so over the top in with his manners and presentation, a pretty interesting take on what a nouveau riche vampire would be like.
3. Coen. He's so sweet and sincere you can't help but smile and laugh at some of his out of the loop moments. They've struck a good balance between writing him as a decent village lad who's way out of his depth at first, but is smart and competent enough to figure out how the world works quickly enough to keep up. But he can also be a funny little shit when he wants to.

Apparently there's a debate that he looks like Willem Dafoe, but while watching some movie trailers this morning I finally found the guy I was thinking of.

He really reminds me of Ralph Fiennes. Great dark foreboding actor. I swear every time I see Brencis I see him, and it pisses me off because it makes me like Brencis lol.

Starting my second playthrough right now and seeing that cutscene from Coen's dream is so heartbreaking after seeing the epilogue :c

Edits: The part where Coen sees the ice in his dream... This proves you should almost always play a game at least twice