I returned to Amalur

Back in 2018 I played the original Kingdoms of Amalur and really enjoyed it. Most of what I said in my original review I disagree with now, except I still really like the world. 

Last time I played a rogue wielding faeblades. This time I started out with daggers and bow, but realised I didn't like how the bow handled. Yet I still wanted something ranged. So I picked up a staff and my character became a mage build for most of the base game. First staff and chakrams, and then sceptre and chakrams. Eventually this playstyle bored me a bit so I decided to spice things up by exchanging the sceptre for daggers, which later turned into faeblades, which then turned into longsword, which eventually had my robe-wearing sceptre-wielding mage turn into a heavy armor-wearing greatsword wielder who used magic as ranged whenever needed but usually just pulled enemies towards them with the tank chains. 

The game is highly customizable in playstyle and you can do just about anything and everything you want in a single playthrough. I think, in the end, that my favourite weapons were chakrams and greatsword, along with heavy armor and the frost attack spell. Mix and match to your heart's content! Most of the time I either forgot or ignored fateshifting. Generally I used it when enemies were annoying and I just wanted them to fuck off and leave me alone. Fateshifting is very good for that. Strong recommends for skills are Detect Hidden, Persuasion, Lockpicking, and Dispel. The crafting skills, in my opinion, are secondary and can be improved by trainers. If you attempt to 100% the game you'll have more than enough money for it. Max level is 50 and you'll have more than enough skill points to mix and match however you like with the skills, but those four are strong recommends for exploration, questing and completionism. 

Turns out I had forgotten most of the game in the seven years since I played it. I remembered the base game up until the fight with Balor. Anything else is just blank. I remembered the general settings of the two DLCs but no specifics about story or characters. The Naros DLC was way better than the Gravehal DLC.

The voice-acting leaves some things to be desired, but as someone who notices voices I kept hearing voices I recognised. Generic male Nord and Generic male Dunmer from Skyrim were common, but even more common was Cullen from Dragon Age. Felt like every other character had me saying "Hello, Cullen" at the screen. 

The new addition of the Fatesworn DLC was really good, delving into the consequences of your fateshifting ability and presenting a more definitive ending than what base game provided. I liked it. 

Unsurprisingly my favourite factions were the Fae ones. The House of Ballads did a good job of making me believe the stakes were very high. The House of Sorrows made me sad. The shattered remnants of the House of Vengeance just made me really melancholic. 

As for the other factions, the Travelers one was pretty cool. Warsworn was just a lot of Niskaru tbh and nothing really stood out about it (to the point where I had to look up the questline to remember enough to write this sentence). Scholia Arcana was cool but a bit predictable and way too short. 

Generally, the only thing I don't like about this game is the sheer amount of repeatable tasks that won't leave your journal. I like a clean journal, dammit! Let me clear it T_T