Reviews for NPC and Quest MODs for BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE and IWD2

[Lava]

Glad you had fun

Hope you'll find even more mods you like! Cheers!

[xiaoleiwen]

Updated 3 Quest Reviews:

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Fading Promises

Overall Experience: B
Lore friendly: A+

Spoiler

This MOD is very short. It has added one ghost NPC that can be seen by your PC only, who will talk to you several times, which eventually leads to a minor quest. I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the lore of Netheril via this MOD. The writing style of the dialogues and the story itself are very lore-friendly and the minor quest is also integrated into the vanilla game seamlessly. 

I would say you may not realize it as MOD content if the talks are not triggered so frequently and in such an obtrusive way- the talks will be triggered after waking up from rest every day until the friendship talks are exhausted. There are several moments the PC is not in an appropriate situation for a lengthy conversation, but the ghost NPC may appear and initiate the talk, which may break the immersion of whatever you are doing at that time. There are some moments I hope he does not appear and want to avoid him like a real ghost. It would be great if more days will be required to start the next talk or he will not appear in certain areas.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

Dialogues:


Integrated into vanilla contents

Lore-friendly item

Enjoy the beautiful sunrise with your friend when someone is ambushing you

Back to Brynnlaw

Overall Experience: A
Lore friendly: S

Spoiler

This MOD may not have a surprising story but it is a professional quality one in terms of how it is well-written like vanilla content. It feels like something should be there in the vanilla game. I can’t even differentiate the writing style of this MOD content from the vanilla ones.

The reuse of an underused vanilla city to offer many minor side quests with a similar flavor such as those you may experience in BG1 is a good idea, and it is satisfying to see the follow-up small stories of some vanilla NPCs/quests in Chapter 4. 

This MOD also offers a lore-friendly reason for you to be sidetracked from your urgent objective in Chapter 6. The reward of this quest-line is also highly appreciated- you may gain back the stat that you have sacrificed in Chapter 4 with a plausible reason.

Each of the vanilla NPC also has one or two interjections.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Dialogues





Interjections:

Heroes, Thieves and Moneylenders

Overall Experience: A+
Lore friendly: A-
Area art: B+

Spoiler

Having a bank in BG2 is a good idea as I can save the money in the bank without triggering Bodhi's quest during Chapter 2.

The quests from this MOD that I have seen are quite well integrated into the vanilla game. Several quests such as the Beshaba's quest and those for Edwin and Aerie can be appropriately considered as the extension of vanilla quests. In fact, I may think some contents are from vanilla or the other MODs if the PC does not start to speak on his own (like a JRPG- and I hope this can be changed as it can be immersion-breaking). I also particularly appreciate the addition of a "personal quest" for Aerie with many reactions from her. 

Most of these quests have a very enjoyable "Detective CHARNAME" vibe. The Edwin quest has a riddle that could be too difficult for me, but still interesting. What I truly like is the investigation process of Aerie's quests. The storytelling of this quest is pretty good, as you have to investigate several clues to find out the truth, including some false leads, and eventually, when you think you have discovered the "truth", you will discover that the "false lead" is somehow related to the real story behind it. Some quests from this MOD are also full of reactions from vanilla companions, and I like Aerie's ones very much as they are really cute. 

This MOD has also added a lot of minor dialogues here and there that can add a lot of flavors to your adventure. The vanilla companions are also aware of these contents. 

This MOD also added something that I have underrated if I didn't encounter some bugs in Chapter 4 (fixed in the latest version) - additional interjections for vanilla companions. I thought all interjections I saw in earlier chapters are from vanilla without pondering why I feel they are slightly more talkative than what I remember. Their reactions added to the riddles in Spellhold have also provided me the motivation to read the riddles properly and try to solve them for the first time in 20 years. We understand the authors of this MOD are non-native English users, hence we may encounter typos or some unusual choice of words occasionally in the MOD quests. However, I barely notice this in the interjections added for the companions, and this shows that how much extra efforts have been spent in the writing of our beloved characters so that they are not out of character. 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Reactions to riddles:


New minor dialogues and reactions:


Quests:


Detective CHARNAME "talking"

Aerie is cute as always

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Screenshots of typos for HTAM will be sent to Austin later.

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I also replayed the White Queen MOD to see Viconia special content this time.

Spoiler

Surprisingly, it is just a short abduction scene, and it does not have as many content as I thought (because I remember I read somewhere saying there is, and even some consider the content controversial.

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by marcnivar

[xiaoleiwen]

Updated 3 reviews for the Athkatlan Grounds Series.

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Ooze's Lounge

Overall Experience: A-
Lore friendly: A+
Area art: A+

Spoiler

This small MOD has added a hidden community in the Slum District with a short quest that are pretty lore-friendly. The area art used materials from the vanilla game but it has been mixed beautifully and looks fresh and like the vanilla content. I also enjoy knowing more about some of the minor deities (from DND) that I have not heard before.

I also love the connections with IWD1 and IWD2. There are some NPCs and items that will make you smile if you have played these games before. It is also very surprising to see my beloved beholder again in BG2. I love his humorous dialogues in IWD1 (from a MOD from the same author), and it is great to see him as funny as usual in BG2.

This MOD offers many interesting items and I enjoy "shopping" very much here. Finally, I can spend so much money in Chapter 6 until I'm broke again like in Chapter 2. However, some items could be too powerful if you can purchase them in Chapter 2 (I'm not too sure about this, as one of the merchants looks like will only appear in the later chapter).

I should seriously consider rating this MOD higher just because of my beholder friend...

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Dialogues



Interjections


Must buy!

IWD2 reference

Dungeon art

Southern Edge

Overall Experience: A
Lore friendly: A+
Area art: A-

Spoiler

This MOD could be served as a textbook for how to make a good new MOD area that looks like it is in the game since the beginning. It has an appropriate story reason why most NPCs in the vanilla districts neglected its existence but it is still lore-friendly to have it in the game. There are some new NPCs added unobtrusively in the vanilla districts that are connected to this new district, either leading you to this new area directly or you may not know they are related until you have spent some time doing the MOD contents. Everything blends well naturally.

The dialogues of generic NPCs and the minor quests here have BG1's vibe and decent quality. Some of them will eventually lead to a "main quest" with nice new areas and a new boss monster. It is also great to meet some of your old friends from BG1 here, reminding you about some simple and good old times after the PC has experienced so much in his/her life.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Dialogues




Interjection

Tangled Oak Isle

Overall Experience: A+
Lore friendly: A
Area art: A+

Spoiler

This MOD is like the Southern Edge MOD, another great example of how to add a populated area to the Athkatla city in a less obtrusive way. This MOD introduces a more significant new setting to the lore of the city, but it is written in a pretty convincing and natural way, which could be something not easy to achieve by a MOD. This newly created isle still feels lore-friendly enough to someone like me, who could be too picky about the lore-friendliness of a MOD. 

This feeling of lore-friendliness is probably not just contributed solely by the overall good writing style of the dialogues and quests. It is probably also due to the improvement in the author's skill in making village-like area art. Some of his earlier MOD have populated areas with decent arts, but you can also see some compromises as it could be difficult to make a village area with the layout of settlement at the level of vanilla ones. This MOD improves significantly in this area, and the art of the main island looks really authentic. The hidden areas also look gorgeous.

I also love the humor displayed in several minor quests/ dialogues here and there. There are cute NPCs with unexpected character designs and I enjoy some wacky conversations very much, especially the golem who speaks love. The main quest here may not as epic as I thought initially (my impression when it was just started), but it is still quite interesting to see how the real story is revealed.

In my opinion, this is the best MOD of the Athkatlan Ground series.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Dialogues



Area art



Interjections:


Finally, I do not need to waste a spell slot for this nice spell.

Another interesting item upgrade

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I probably left:

- 4 reviews for SOA

- 6 reviews for TOB

I thought I will loss motivation to write so many things for this BG2 playthrough (because I'm lazy), but surprisingly, I still enjoy it and hope it continues. (I think the main motivation comes from how much I enjoy the new contents from the MODs)

To add to first page and rearrange some days later.

Edited January 3, 2022 by marcnivar

[Lava]

Thanks for the reviews! It's always nice to know someone had some fun when playing these mods.

Meanwhile I released the 4th mod from the series, but remember it's also the smallest one. This time I wanted to "squeeze" a little story into just 2 corridors and some rooms as I always felt Bridge District's wall / block could hace something inside and there are no doors to get inside! So it was more like a little project that gives you like 1 main quest and 2-3 mini-quests / encounters. So, as I said, the smallest mod from the series, but still something who like checking new Athkatlan grounds

Cheers!

[xiaoleiwen]

Bridge District is definitely a must install for my future game

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Replayed Sellsword with 4 vanilla companions this time and still enjoy it very much, probably even more than my first run. This MOD is one of the MODs with more interjections, something I like. I particularly like Viconia's one this time. There are so many NPC MODs I haven't tried, but it is probably a good idea to bring vanilla NPCs for MOD quests (in my future play-through as well), just to see the interjections.

Also keep up the hope day one day Solaufein may say something here, he must be really annoyed that the PC brings him to Underdark so soon 

[jastey]

1 hour ago, marcnivar said:

he must be really annoyed that the PC brings him to Underdark so soon

Oh, he'd definitely be. I guess he would grind his teeth, though. Crossmod for all the quest mods out there is on my list - but I need to finish several mods, first..

[Austin]

Thank you very much for your feedback about HTaM!  I will pass this on to our team.

Also, of course, I will be very grateful for information on typos and translation errors. The text of the translation was proofread by several people, but they did not do it during the game, but simply by reading the tra-files, so they could miss the context of some of the phrases(

[ahungry]

Great post(s)!  I'm about to start a big replay with a lot of story/npc/quest/item mods, so this gives me a good shopping list, so to speak.

[mademan2]

Im sure I played some of your Lava's mods specifically but in general a huge thanks to the modders everywhere, I only replay BG with mods nowadays and they added hundreds of hours into my playtime of it, it always feels like almost a new game with a new companion team and new quests here and there, I hope they never stop coming. So yea, HUGE thank you modders, bless you.

[far7070]

Excellent post!! Thanks for your effort to introduce all these mods!!

[xiaoleiwen]

It is not a review, but just some own thoughts on why I gave up the previous run and plan to start a new one...

I didn't expect to return and start another playthrough so soon this year after burning out when I finished SOA around a half year ago. The main reasons are:

- a natural thing to happen before any TOB run

- I spent too much time in SOA due to the tremendous amount of QUEST mod installed, while I enjoyed most of them, I don't really like the last one that I cleared all of its quests before finishing SOA...my motivation reduced at that time, and I probably won't write a review for that. I also got jaded with end-game fights with SCS insane difficulty, the mage chess is fun for my first BG2 with SCS playthrough, but slightly less this time.

I still feel bad to be honest, because again, I gave up the opportunity to play my first Ascension version TOB, and I quite like to see the story of my female PC with Ajantis in TOB. I would probably still find out my draft and screenshots to see whether I can still write something for him. I truly like his SOA part, as I feel that it is probably the most enjoyable romance MOD that I have experienced in BG series so far. I would rate it A- for my own experience if I write a review.

I remember I wrote a review for Eilistraee's Song, should find it back...

I should also write a general review for the Mazzy Mega MOD... There are many enjoyable moments but some make me cringe...

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Anyway, currently, I am simply interested to start a no unrealistic precast playthrough with SCS and Spell Revision MOD and see how far I can enjoy it. 

I will also reduce the quest MODs significantly, for example, I have only added romantic encounters (never use it before), BGQE, Seatower, and Endless BG1 for my current BG1 run. This is the first time I use vanilla NPC solely (with BG1 NPC MOD) and I kinda enjoy the strong vanilla feeling. Generally, they are more relatable compared to a completely new NPC.

I'm also very interested to try a BG2 playthrough that is more connected to SOD with some of Lava's newer MOD. So far I have tested and consider using the following:
- Khalid
- Skie and her brother
- Hephernaan

I'm still considering whether I should bring Imoen with Imoen Romance MOD for this playthrough... If anyone uses this MOD before, I would appreciate it if you can share your opinion on whether it will be compatible (story-wise) with the Khalid MOD, as I am afraid she will talk about dead Khalid.

I have considered Nalia Romance MOD, but I heard Skitia is writing the TOB part now, so probably I should wait.

I have considered Branwern BG2 MOD, but I don't really like her romance part in BG1, so I hesitated.

I have considered to bring Solaufein again, but my last impression is he is too talkative in a very short amount of time after leaving Underdark..

The only quest MOD that I would probably use is the BG2 Romantic Encounter MOD (never use before), try to minimize the quest mod this time. I'm not sure whether Khalid, Skie, and Hephernaan will have interactions in some of Lava's quest MODs. If yes, I would probably include it.

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Thanks again to the modders, my BG series restartitis is hopeless  and I always enjoy planning a new playthrough

Edited June 26, 2022 by xiaoleiwen

[jastey]

3 hours ago, marcnivar said:

I quite like to see the story of my female PC with Ajantis in TOB. I would probably still find out my draft and screenshots to see whether I can still write something for him. I truly like his SOA part, as I feel that it is probably the most enjoyable romance MOD that I have experienced in BG series so far. I would rate it A- for my own experience if I write a review.

Aww, I'll take this as a short feedback, thank you for the kind words! I'd be curious as well what you'd think about the ToB part if you liked the SoA part (I spent quite some time designing a loving, loayal, panicking paladin) but I understand your reasons not to go into ToB with this setting.

3 hours ago, marcnivar said:

I have considered to bring Solaufein again, but my last impression is he is too talkative in a very short amount of time after leaving Underdark..

Heh!

[xiaoleiwen]

On 6/16/2022 at 1:53 PM, jastey said:

Aww, I'll take this as a short feedback, thank you for the kind words! I'd be curious as well what you'd think about the ToB part if you liked the SoA part (I spent quite some time designing a loving, loayal, panicking paladin) but I understand your reasons not to go into ToB with this setting.

Heh!

 

I still keep this installation because I know probably I will still return to it one day, probably a speed run, after finishing my first ascension playthrough (hopefully don give up again in this latest run).

 

[xiaoleiwen]

Not really a full review, just sharing the though on the Endless BG1 MOD.

I think this MOD did a very good job to relate BG1 with SOD. Most of the added stuffs are for utility or flavour purposes, which enhances the gameplay experience from a role-playing perspective. I enjoy seeing some minor dialogues here and there hinting the imminent events in SOD, and the writing is quite similar to original. Having the opportunity to do the quests from TotSC and MOD that are not connected to BG1 main quests later also allows me to focus on the main story without feeling being derailed for the Durlag Tower or Werewolf Island....

Yes, I'm sure everyone know about what I mentioned above...

The only thing that I didn't expect is...I feel like I lost the motivation to do the remaining thing in BG1 because after beating the most difficult battle (with Sarevok) in BG1, I feel like I don't need anything else unless I'm going to play SOD....

Edited June 29, 2022 by xiaoleiwen

[jastey]

2 hours ago, xiaoleiwen said:

I feel like I lost the motivation to do the remaining thing in BG1 because after beating the most difficult battle (with Sarevok) in BG1, I feel like I don't need anything else unless I'm going to play SOD....

Fait enough, I think. I mean, there is no reason PC and friends couldn't just settle into the Palace, enjoying their title as heros for a while.

Thanks for the feedback!