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Thank you! Still learning to do reviews, slowly getting my video sea legs going. Gothic 1 is a timeless janky beautiful thing.

Once a corrupt abusive guard, always a corrupt abusive guard eh?

Well to be honest, not everyone has played Gothic 1 or Gothic 2 before Archolos. I am sure 99% of the playerbase of Archolos has played Gothic 2 at least once before installing Chronicles of Myrtana. Plus there's also that unknown factor, people might have played just Gothic 2 and Gothic 3 but ever the first game.

Pyranha Bytes at their peak!

Good to hear!

The first one and the Ezio games were the best imho. Afterwards it just became a soulless franchise, pumping out a game per year. Black flag was ok, but it was more a pirate game than an AC game. I guess Ubisoft embraced the bad definition of "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

It's a general design philosophy these days isn't it? Companies making huge open maps but they are just empty and lifeless. Besides some main questing hubs you just sort of enjoy the scenery and that's about it. It's why I kept coming back to the Gothic series throughout the years. Small map but packed with so much content! And that has an interesting psychological side effect, where you learn the map, become familiar with the paths and feels like a living world through each chapter.

They have their own artstyle and that's what makes them timeless. Kind of like games similar to Worms Armageddon or Hollow Knight. Artstyle > graphical fidelity. Good or unique artstyle makes any game eternal.

Thank you! Hope you enjoy the series. Archolos is a pretty neat mod.

That was intentional :D Gotta share snippets of the Romanian language from time to time hehe

In the works. My old SSD got friend and currently am waiting on a data recovery lab to tell me what can be saved or not. I might have to redo the archolos playthrough (off screen) so we can get back on track.

Hah! I've thought about that for a long time and honestly I'd probably do something along the lines of what Xardas wanted to achieve in Gothic 3. Aka neutralize the power of the gods and churches. Xardas had the right idea of seeing the war of the gods as endless, it spilled into the realms of men and orcs leaving a tide of suffering. So I'd work in tandem with him to neutralize that but take a few steps further. I'd strive to liberate the orcs from the power of beliar and shamans and give them their own path to choose. Same for humans. No more churches of Innos to tell them what to do and who to fight. Pretty much work behind the scenes to give people the right to choose their own destiny. Afterwards I'd probably find a nice island somewhere, look for a hot lady that loves books and retire there with her :)) Assuming that wouldn't be possible I'd probably be a mage. Seriously magic is so powerful in Gothic it just boggles my mind why they don't send in some "suicide units" equipped with fire rain spell scrolls behind enemy lines. It would cause havoc on the enemy. How about you? What would you do?

I was sure you had a good answer about that! I have always thought that ore had a lot of potential in the game, just look at the water mages and their plan to escape the barrier or the ancient ore armor in gothic 1 which in the game narrative was too powerful. I would like to be a kind of magician craftsman or blacksmith who can study beyond the properties of ore, I feel that it can have many properties beyond having a more powerful sword. I'm sure ore must have many more useful properties, maybe I would discover some new products, weapons, armor, I could be rich haha and with money comes girls

@@ElKyox Like Uriziel and the last armor from G1?

@@Adrians_Stories But what if you were not inclined to the magic arts, what if you were common folk: What profession and city/farm would you like to be apart of?(all dlc/games except arcania included)

@@cristian-iuliancomorasu8217 Probably one of Lee's mercenaries as a bowman / scout. Lee has a proven tactical mind, experienced general, knows how to lead and I'd gladly follow him. If that weren't possible, I'd probably try to apprentice to a trader that sells rare curios or magical items. That sounds like an interesting profession. How about you?

Hey soldier! Full list of mods used including texture pack is this: Gothic1_playerkit-1.08k Gothic1_PlayerKit-2.8 G1Classic-SystemPack-1.8 Resource Manager Texture Pack By Artemiano Gothic I RiisisGothic1TextureMixV1.1 Gothic Weapons Rebuilt-6-0-72-1637923833 Carnage_Graphics_patch Fixed_Carnage_Heads_Models_DrG GD3D11-v17.8-dev9 - G1_NP_UPDATE

Yep. Environmental changes and a reactive world. That's what I always loved about Gothic. The best games have such subtle changes in the world.

as possibly the only gothic player in Colombia because no one knows the game haha I give it a 9, it's what gothic 3 should have been, it's just that it's complicated to create such an interesting main story and it also has to be somewhat realistic since the main character It's not some chosen one of a god, it still works very well, it is compensated by a living world and many things to do and explore, as well as great mechanics

I love the game. For me it's the true spiritual successor to Gothic 2. The gameplay I'd rate as a 8/10 ( it still suffers from the jankyness of the ZEngine) and it's mostly easier than Gothic 2, difficulty wise. Gothic 2's gameplay I'd rate as a 6/10, mostly because it has the same systems (and issues) from G1. I love the quality of life additions like expanded cooking, more crafting recipes, the ability to make your own ammo, improve your armor, harvesting and all of that. The music is a 10/10, it sounds like it was made by Kai Rosenkranz himself, but it has its own accents, both at times epic but also with its own identity. I don't speak Polish but from what I hear the voice actors did a great job, they do put emotion in their lines which is actually more than I can say from the English voice acting in Gothic 1 and 2. The ingame economy and balancing is great, you never feel like you have too much gold, there's always something to invest in. I like how the story is basically Marvin's connection to all the characters, his choices, how they develop and the consequences of his actions. It's a breathe of fresh air instead of the classic "the world is ending" video game trope. A few minuses I have observed are: a) quest items that are no longer usable/ valid can't be sold b) inventory overload c) game seems to railroad the player at times to force him in a certain direction d) the main story is about Marvin trying to find his brother Jorn but the issue is that we as a player have zero emotional attachment to Jorn. This is a general issue to most games that follow this path. The best example I can give is the main quest in Fallout 3. There the main quest is about finding your father, a character that the player only interacts with for about 5 minutes. 5 minutes is not enough to develop an emotional connection to anyone. Archolos suffers from the same issue. We understand that Jorn is important to Marvin, but simultaneously he is not important to the player. We spend about 10 minutes with Jorn, get drunk with him and go fishing with him once and that's about it. If Jorn was kidnapped say, halfway through chapter 3 after we went through 100 different shenanigans and adventures with him, it would have hit different to the player. The Dragon Age series, especially Origins really hit the mark on how to handle character - player connections. We slowly start to love people like Alistair, Morrigan, Oghren because we spend most of the game with them. Jorn is Marvin's raison for adventure but not the player's. Which is why there's this dissonance between Marvin wanting to find his brother but we, as the player, want to explore the island of Archolos, do funny sidequests and get into all sorts of fights, completely unrelated to finding Jorn. One way you could potentially "fix" this issue is by applying a narrative or storytelling bandaid so Marvin starts to care about Jorn. There are two ways of doing this through a patch. a) Either add a series of flashbacks once every few days after Jorn gets kidnapped. These flashbacks can be naturally woven in as dreams when Marvin sleeps. Or perhaps nightmares. In the flashbacks we play regularly as Marvin, as a kid, getting into all sorts of trouble on Londram, with Jorn alongside us. It's basically character development in a different direction. Depending on how we behave in those flashbacks, Marvin can get different in game rewards when he wakes up. Either minor stat boosts, maybe even remembering an old friend in Archolos who owes Marvin's dad some favours. The best reward is if it's done right, we spend more time with Jorn and can develop an emotional connection with him. b) Add Jorn in the story as a ghost, but not haunting Marvin, rather, trying to protect him from an evil trying to stamp out everyone connected to Marvin. Maybe Jorn pissed off a necromancer, maybe he got recruited by the king's spy corps or the circle of water and someone is trying to tie up all loose ends connected to Jorn. That also means Marvin. This way, Jorn can act as a guide, brother, friend and we develop a relationship to Jorn as the player. Maybe you can even add Jorn as a summonable ghost character similar to the will-o-the-wisp. That being said, the random encounters are awesome and the easter eggs as well. There's a lot to say about Archolos but for me it's an adventure that I want to replay more than once and that is probably the best compliment anyone can give to a work of art. I hope Archolos hardcore mode comes out soon so I can get a challenge hehe. I take it you are from Poland, but not part of the OG dev team, correct?

That never happened to me, but is it possible it's a broken script on the steam version or the gog one? Did that happen on an L'hiver playthrough of yours by any chance?

​@@Adrians_Storiesit happens at around chapter 3, he always stabds near the pathway down the road, but after the seeker show up, he wants more company. I played the regular version a dozen times, my pc was trash 😅😂 Dont know about the lhiver version tho

@@trololorage3435 I usually let Cavalorn handle him so I never got that far. Next playthrough I'll let him live to see what happens.

+ 5 mana actually

Correct! Also a great teaching moment on the part of the game that there are hidden solutions to dialogue depending on inventory load out.

he gives you some gold, not sure about the xp though

no xp, only gold. you get xp however if you donate certain amounts.

Caught me with my pants down :) To be fair I use a lot of those shortcuts to save time on playthroughs, but usually I double check hehe. Blame the game for not giving us a sprint option! We're dirt poor and those speed potions cost money. Also my RL narrow timeframe to record, edit and upload them :D I am grateful though for pointing that out. It just made be to recheck all the videos (up to episode 59 included which is done) for mistakes. If you spot anything else please let me know. I can use the editor to remove the annoying bits.

hahahahaha I understand you and I forgive you

It's on the works! Been busy doing the Gothic Archolos Playthrough but I plan on finishing part 2 this weekend. If the gods are with us should be released next week.

Update, 50% done with part 2 of G2 Gold secrets.

Looking forward to it ​@@Adrians_Stories

Hey Paul! Yeah that chest in the sect camp is also a good catch. Yep the weapon drawing does abuse the AI of the NPCs and fortunately it's fixed in Gothic 2 and other mods.

Sounds like you had first hand experience with that?

@@Adrians_Stories Yes, was close for a second hand experience... *BADUMTSSS* . Jokes aside: no, I did not. Had other interesting things tho.

@@cristian-iuliancomorasu8217 Well I am glad you learned something along the way from shouldering such burdens * doubles down on the badumtss *

He was very fast at dying at least :D If he ran that would've been smarter.

Happy to share these with you guys!

Aye. They last posted on their discord on the 9th of April 2024 that it's still in the works. But most likely it will not release this year.

Eurojank in all its glory! They didn't keep their head on straight.

I actually released the wrong one heheh. But also released episode 27 just now. Good catch. I need to stop working at 2 am :)

What a hard-working man, take it easy

@@ElKyox No worries dude :) now I gotta check the rest of the episodes, see if they are in order. OCD time engage!

Yeah the game is weird. It makes a small narrative mistake that other games like Fallout 3 did. We're supposed to care about an NPC we only spend 5-10 minutes in game with but as players we feel emotionally disconnected from the main quest because of this. It's difficult to care about the main plot when 99% of the time what we do in game has nothing to do with the main plot.

Thanks Steve! Archolos is a great journey plus it has 5 times the secrets vs Gothic 2. LOT of stuff to explore!

Thank you Jozsef!

For thievery and night time activities? :)) of course

​@@Adrians_Storiesbloody thief!

You mean the one in their house? Did find that one!

Perfect

@@ElKyox Question is: do you know about the mighty alien dwarf's ship? :)

​​@@Adrians_StoriesI don't know about that! I just saw a picture of it but I have more questions than answers haha

Alrighty, will have to do a video on that towards the end of the series. It's a cool developer easter egg.

It was pretty weird she had zero reaction of performance when she got her finger cut off. Show was mostly ok but I felt her acting was non existent at times.

Small cave you say....interesting. DIDN"T KNOW! I am currently recording episode 44 so guess I'll check out that cave in that episode, thanks!

Let me know if you find it! Its actually behind de cementery

@@ElKyox Found it! Clever secret!

Oh man, get ready for more secrets than Gothic 2 Gold. There's 200 encounters in the game. I also found the secret on how the game secretly "rolls" for those encounters. The game rolls your current quest status (for example whether or not you've reached chapter 2 or not) and then it rolls for current time. Every 24 hours (or if you sleep a day) the game does some dice rolls to see if it spawns an encounter in a certain place or not.

How do you know that? It's very interesting

@@ElKyox I was playing a bit with marvin mode testing some stuff. I was in the marketplace and used the console to advance the time 24 hours in game to test something.Then out of nowhere an npc spawned in front of me trying to scam me. This indicated that the game spawns random encounters daily in a certain amount. The game has a database of encounters it can roll for every 24 in game hours.

I'll try. There are so many secrets in Archolos + 200 -ish random encounters. Would probably take me at least 1-2 weeks of work to find them all :))

@@Adrians_Stories How are the shorts coming along?

@@cristian-iuliancomorasu8217 Will make some with the random encounters I find :) Your comment just gave me that idea.

Hey man! Thank you for the sub and will be happy to have you on this Gothic journey of ours. This is a mage run while sporting a magic / 2 handed hybrid build. I will be doing an L'hiver Playthrough as a mercenary though after I am finished with Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos.

Design wise? I think the zombies in Gothic 2 and Archolos are awesome. The audio recording of them screaming when they die is so nicely done it actually sounds like a broken soul getting released from undeath. That and their attempt to get up one last time is a beautiful detail. Combat wise? Probably humanoid opponents because we have to time their hits and parries and it involves skill. Shadowbeasts are nice but often times you have to cheese them in order to win which leaves you to either use magic or climbing on a ledge to archer them to death. I take it the shadow is your favorite? They are pretty nicely designed as monsters, especially when you encounter a cave where a shadowbeast just ripped a troll's head clean off :D

Hey! Yeah here's the list of mods I am using: Mods used : Gothic1_playerkit-1.08k Gothic1_PlayerKit-2.8 G1Classic-SystemPack-1.8 Resource Manager Texture Pack By Artemiano Gothic I RiisisGothic1TextureMixV1.1 Gothic Weapons Rebuilt-6-0-72-1637923833 Carnage_Graphics_patch Fixed_Carnage_Heads_Models_DrG GD3D11-v17.8-dev9 - G1_NP_UPDATE Here's an alternative guide on how to install most of the mods on that list: ruclips.net/video/put8Ys4tq6Y/видео.html

I mean I never pre-order because .... * Points at the entire gaming industry why * But I am gonna play the gothic remake so might as well buy it ahead of time. Best case? It's decent. Worst case? It's going to make Gothic 1 or G2 look like the best games ever made and we'll enjoy those + their mods.

Absolutely agree my friend

There's dozens of us!

@@Adrians_Stories truly >:)

By boat? Teleported by Xardas the necromancer? Gothic was awaiting for you to reveal its mysteries? Or is this a trick or a whim of the algorithm to see the glory of RPG eurojank in all its splendour?

@@AdrianFTudor that’s some poetry I just read lmao. In all seriousness though what game is this?

@@adrianong3107 It's basically a full blown game modification for Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. The game mod is actually less of a mod and more like an entire game in itself that takes more than 100+ hours to complete. It's coded in the ZEngine, which is the game engine for the Gothic 1 and Gothic 2 games. These games for reference are 20 years old but they have a strong gaming and modding community behind them. This specific mod called "Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos" is a polish game mod, with complete polish voice acting + english subtitles. The story takes place during an orc war between the orcs and the human kingdom of Myrtana. We play as Marvin, a war refugee that sought shelter alongside his brother on the island of Archolos. If you want to play this game I highly recommend trying out Gothic 2 Night of the Raven (also known as Gothic 2 Gold) so you can wet your feet in the story and gameplay. Hope that clears up everything.

@@AdrianFTudor this is a very detailed explanation, thanks!