Avoid secret missions, it hides a huge consequence

Warning: This article contains the destroyers of Emerald Stair, Avowed's second area.

The tragic end of the second act. The small town of Fior Mes Ivèrno in the center of the emerald staircase area burned on the ground. As a result of the failed harvest, its people had been pushed to the brink of hunger and were driven away by the tyrannical steel Garotte, a large army of fanatical paladins from the invading Aidir Empire. When the flames finally fade away, the city is removed from your map, and its ruins are occupied by razed paladins.

But this is an obsidian game. So, as determined by the developer's branch storyline and player choice, there is a way to prevent towns from burning. However, unlike most choices support RPGs, this is not achieved by completing opposing task branches. There is no problem seeking to prevent this incident from happening at all. Instead, Galot Steel was hidden in the area, planning the downfall of the town, and you had to find them without guidance or waypoints. It’s a very organic way to change the process of avoiding stories, rewarding curiosity and real choices, rather than simply obedience following an objective list in the journal.

The journey to save Fior Mes Ivèrno begins with rumbles and rumors. NPC mentions sightings of mysterious figures in the wilderness. Attention and document theory holds that Galot Steel has established a foothold on the emerald stairs. This is something you might just be building in the background world, but it is actually the first bread crumb on the trail that is crucial.

These crumbs can be studied in a number of ways. By using intelligence to collect spies, development methods can be used. If you are a rash hand in manipulating conversations, you might encourage Elowe (a member of the Paradis Resistance found in the first area of ​​Avowed) to work as a spy. She isn't your only option; while wandering the forest of emerald stairs, you can bump into Kylecg, a spy to Ambassador Aedyran, who can also be sent to investigate those Gallotts (Garotte) Steel Rumor. Recruit these two spies and they will send you a letter until the Paladin’s plan is too late. Interacting with Avered’s character and pushing away the surface of the dialogue tree is a neat reward.

You don't recruit Kylecg or Elowe at all, though, and you'll be forgiven. Although they are easy to encounter on your journey, Avowed’s story doesn’t require them to be spies. Thankfully, their help is not a mandatory reveal of the hidden foundations of Galot Steel. In fact, you can do nothing at all by simply exploring every inch of emerald staircase. The perfectionist approach will eventually lead you to the unobvious name “The Waterfall Cave” and the gang of Paladins drawing inside. This is enough to stop them…the premise, that is.

It is the middle ring told directly through the letters and tripping the Paladin with a random chance, which is the most satisfying. An optional side exploration, Steel's determination will take you in the right direction and provide a satisfying story that connects with the grand plot. Originally starting with a common bounty contract to kill some local bandits – you usually consider the mission of an open world “filler” – becomes a pursuit that roots the traitors hidden in the emerald staircase queue. This is the classic RPG detective job, seeing you discover secret notes, tripping over fake prospects, and bounce from one suspect to the next while searching for a conversation tree that will force someone to crack. They did the cracks – you eventually discovered that Bucks Dorso was responsible for the jail of murdering one of her colleagues and another. Her confession of Inner Gui opened up the execution of her choice on the spot, but continued to push, and her story took a more interesting turn.

As mentioned earlier, emerald stairs are suffering from famine. People are hungry. Understandably, Dorso was so angry at the powerless leadership of the region that she decided that the Emerald Stair would perform better under the colonial rule of the invading Aidir Empire. She has been destroying the Rangers to soften them to minimize the resistance of Galot Steel. Asking the right questions, Dorso will eventually reveal that the Paladins orchestrate their takeover from a secret cave hidden behind the waterfall.

It's all good stuff, but what I really like about Obsidian is that the secret headquarters' revelation – through Doso or the letter of spy – did not trigger the pursuit of saving Fiore Mess Iverno. The “Investigate Steel Galot” mission was not added to the diary. For proper functioning, you need to pay attention and follow up on the information provided. It must be public video games RPG, but at this moment it best mimics the desktop RPG, where the dungeon master skillfully drops lead and can only unfold when the player notices it. And, like in those desktop campaigns, if you chase the bait, you turn the blooming bloom into something really special.

The locked gate in the secret cave is protected by two paladins, who form a very simple last-pass atum. Either it looks like another way or die with your hands. They are even willing to bribe. No doubt your choice will be influenced by your existing relationship with Garotte and his Darth Vader-sish leader Judge Lödwyn. While it's obvious that a “evil” faction is, the declaration allows you to express your support for the Iron Galot's fanatical approach, and anyone in the villain game wants to keep them undisturbed. Everyone else has some other options; you can guard the butcher, rob the keys from their bodies, use invisible spells and lock into unseen places, or make good use of Avowed's extraordinary level design and drag it into Secret tunnel to completely bypass the guard.

As you would expect, the Paladin is ready to cause chaos besides the locked gate. Lödwyn's teaching notes found their mission around the cave: Garotte's steel plan burns fiormesivèrno to the ground. These notes are your only insight into the future. Continue with the main mission without investigating caves and pyrotechnic displays, no warnings. But now you have the warning, it's obvious what it takes to save the city: Kill everyone in the cave.

Your bloody effort succeeded…ISH. Galot Steel still attacked Fior Mesivèrno, but the troops were far lower than the others. Therefore, the Paladin was repelled, rather than letting the city's defenders flood the city's defenders. Their failure means that Fior Mes Ivèrno is still open to business for the rest of the game. You can revisit its streets, continue trading with merchants, and complete any unfinished business you have there.

There is one Several threads On reddit Complaints that the claimed “no effort required” informs you how to save fior mesivèrno. It is in these complaints that the true magic of this story is revealed. The entire secret part of the announcement is more than just ensuring that the city is still accessible on the map. It's about encouraging real curiosity. It's about exploring the limits of unwritten video game rules. It's about knowing your ability to correctly understand and respond to information. This is a reward for taking action on something because you care about the outcome of the conflict, not because it checks a box in the task log.

With this task that is not actually a task, we see examples that avoid hidden depth. Below the surface layer of thick action combat, there is an admirable rpg full of intersecting options. The accompanying tasks overlap with the main tasks to adjust the flow of the story. Smaller decisions, such as persuading women in church to be your informant, can lead to significant returns many hours later.

Here is the magic that RPG builds – something that Baldur's Gate 3 loves – I hope more games are willing to trust their players to find more influential optional quests than simple collectable trinkets. Imagine if, in the upcoming allegory of the playground, pushing organic evil plays will take you to a thief study, if you just sit down and listen for a while, you can eavesdrop on a conversation that reveals the planned robbery, The robbery overlaps with the upcoming main mission. Or discovery in the future Assassin's Creed game, it takes you on the trail of a secret target that allows your death to allow you to enter an open power vacuum. Without any on-screen prompts or adding task logs, such activities become real discoveries, rather than video game “content”. They are a great example of the RPG gold standard: a response to the world of your choice. In the secret pursuit of saving Fior Mesivèrno, the declaration does capture the true spirit of the role-playing game.

Matt Purslow is an advanced feature editor for IGN.