340 hours. That’s how much time MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has already invested in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous on Steam. And there will be a lot more, as the second playthrough has just begun and a third is already in planning. Why would one subject themselves to such painfully massive games?
Actually, I don’t play games more than once, mainly because most of my favorite games take a long time. And the pile of shame keeps growing. I still haven’t finished Cyberpunk and The Witcher 3 …
But Pathfinder has managed to catch me. This RPG is among the best role-playing games on Steam and I already played through it about a year after its release in 2021.
Now, I am in the middle of my second playthrough. Since Wrath of the Righteous is finally complete, I am completely hooked. Right after the release of the last DLC, I took a week of vacation.
Upon finishing my first playthrough, I had nearly 250 hours logged. Now, 2 weeks later, I’m over 350 hours. And I’m far from done: While I already know the story and the secret ending, several things totally captivate me.
Here’s the trailer for the last DLC, A Dance of Masks
:
The second playthrough is even better than the first – even though I know the story
Of course, the main story of Wrath of the Righteous doesn’t change. The same enemies, the same threats, the same plot twists. So why is the game pulling me in for a second time?
Spoiler warning, even though the game is a few years old: I will talk about some content that isn’t available to everyone and that is partially hidden. While these aren’t major story spoilers, the content isn’t entirely obvious either.
In Wrath of the Righteous, there are legend paths. You play something akin to demigods on the path to omnipotence and manifest your legendary powers as angels, demons, tricksters, or whatever else.
My first character was a lich, inherently inclined towards evil. Accordingly, the game developed:
- Some of the “good” companions left me or didn’t even join me to begin with.
- Others I completely corrupted, turning them into the worst versions of themselves.
- Still others cannot be recruited as a non-lich because… well, the people should actually be dead.
- The entire story and my crusade were focused on undead and the power of death. Even my armies ended up being replaced by cyborgs, skeletons, and zombies.
Now I am playing a lawful-neutral Aion, a kind of completely neutral judge who honors only the law and nothing else. So when I have to execute a drug dealer because the law says so – he just shouldn’t have messed up.
That now opens entirely different paths for me than when I was a lich. Other companions follow me, shedding new light on circumstances I already knew and my people look up to me very differently. It feels like a different story.
DLCs are great, but the patches are the star
Over the years, many DLCs were added, such as “The Last Sarkosians” and with it a new companion: Ulbrig, one of the legendary barbarians from a fallen empire. I didn’t have Ulbrig back then either, he brings with his class a new playstyle and some new comments on content that previously seemed somewhat empty.
While I have some new content to explore with the DLCs over time, they are not even the highlight for me. More important are the free patches that were released in the same timeframe.
Since release, heaps of bugs have been fixed, balance adjusted, and the quality of many contents improved. Still, not everything runs smoothly, but compared to before, Pathfinder is now playing really well.
Still, I occasionally help out with the Toybox, basically using “cheats,” because some bugs simply detract from the fun of the game or make battles unnecessarily difficult …
100 hours in and at least 100 more to go
I now enjoy my second playthrough much more than my first. Not only do I have an eye for the details that I missed before, but I also understand the terribly complex Pathfinder much better now.
Some rules and mechanics like combat maneuvers, group talents, and stackable buffs I had either neglected before or built around, because as a beginner, there was hardly any other way – except on very easy difficulty. And honestly: I don’t laugh at anyone who plays for the “story,” Pathfinder is really complicated.
Now I am creating my own builds and I am looking forward to everything that is to come. I know I still have easily another 100, maybe even 200 hours ahead of me. After all, I already know the end and can estimate what I still need to accomplish. Almost like a good book, where I can see exactly how many pages are still ahead of me. But I will also need that time because it will take a while until the next blockbuster arrives: For 10 years, I was worried about the next part of my favorite RPG – now it looks better than hoped
