The Chronicles of Myrtana Archolos Review - The Best Gothic Game

[@lilsos6892]

In my opinion, the ending of the game where Marvin becomes Scar is quite believable. After all, this is not a story about a character chosen by the Gods, but the story of someone ordinary. He did his job, was finally betrayed and ended up in the Colony, by the way on the ship meeting Gomez. That's the end of the character's story. And whether you played as a saint or a thug - rather irrelevant. At the end of the day, you were betrayed anyway, and how could you not want to indulge in luxuries when you are already in prison anyway; after all, nothing you would do would change that. By the way, great review. There is also an ending in which you rescue your brother Jorn (but you have to complete only the quests necessary for this, not one more because technically - instead of saving your brother then, you waste time on side activities that have nothing to do with saving him). I also recommend playing again, because the number of side quests and their wonderful quality is positively overwhelming (and their endings). If the combat system doesn't appeal to you that much, try a build under dexterity and bow, after all, it's very easy to get arrows. I myself have played Archolos over 4 times, I am currently waiting for Archolos 2.0 to come out. Cheers.

[@RiotNoobs]

Why are you spoiling a game ending in a game review...

[@NeravarSneed86]

13:53 prison changes a mf. trust me.

[@Crobian]

Great review and agree with your conclusions. Just finished it this week, huge Gothic fan and this is easily the best one. Absolutely loved it and was blown away, couldn't believe modders made the best game in the series. Like every other PB game, the modders even stayed so faithful to the formula that they also rushed/botched the last 2 chapters after what was a fantastic Chapter 1-4 lol.

[@Proximity94]

They made the last two chapters shorter by design. Someone said in discord they didn't want to drag the story right before it was about to be concluded and I think they made it work just right.

[@Sandro_de_Vega]

I think that Marvin being Scar has sense. Marvin was... trying to be heroic and defeat evil idiots. And he was betrayed by people that he saved. That is rather good reason for change of heart. And if he was thrown to colony with Gomez then they had time to knew each other. And when Riordian and rest make barier Marvin decide to rule over with Gomez but not being at the top. This has a lot of sense.

[@DatLJGuy]

My point wasn't that it didn't make sense, it was that it didn't make sense for MY Marvin. Since Marvin becomes Scar no matter what your choices are, it makes them useless in determining Marvin's future. MY Marvin forgave the kidnappers of Jorn and chose to be a "good" person throughout the game, so ideally the ending would show Marvin stray away from being Scar, but it doesn't. Of course, this is assuming that Marvin will become Scar no matter what after Archolos' ending. This could've been solved if the devs accounted for your decisions and added a couple more ending pictures showing Marvin as still Marvin or as Scar.

[@SaDMSOfficial]

@@DatLJGuy I mean it kinda still makes sense a lot of good people end down a different path. If anything Marvin adapted to the colony probably being treated like 💩 by the guards for years and finally getting freedom would change you as a person, especially knowing you were innocent and shouldn’t be there. There is also the mob mentality, when you’re with the boys you act different than for example when you’re around your family. If the most influential man in the group makes a decision most people will follow and Marvin ended up being one of Gomez’s closest men so it makes sense why he would switch up. Loyalty, peer pressure, status all of these would change the way you see and think about things.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@SaDMSOfficial Of course anything could happen in life, but should that logic be used in a video game, especially one where choices are supposed to matter? Imagine if at the end of mass effect 2, you save everyone on the suicide mission only for them to die out of nowhere at the beginning of 3. People would be pissed. You can use the logic of anything could happen in life, but is that fun? The example you gave applies to Marvin if he stayed in the old camp but he could go to the new camp to the mercs or even join the monks. Again, all I'm asking is for the devs to include a pic at the end that reflects my choices for Marvin and not a hard path down the Scar route. But since they didnt include that, I felt that my choices didn't matter. That's my point. Give me something more concrete instead of making me think oh he's evil no matter what now since Gothic 1 comes straight after.

[@SaDMSOfficial]

@@DatLJGuy no I get that and honestly I do agree with your point. I think they shouldn’t have included all the different endings but using mass effect 2 and 3 is a completely different comparison. Most people going into this game know scar from G1 or know he is scar so we already know what Marvin will turn into regardless of our choices. It’s a prologue game they can’t change who scar is but they can let you shape Marvin into who he was. Should they have done it better with Marvin falling onto a darker path? Maybe, I still think it’s cool though that they gave you the option to shape him into a good guy. To have a bit of sympathy for him knowing the Marvin you play has a good heart deep down and knowing he only got shaped into scar by some unfortunate events. It makes him more of a tragic and relatable character rather than just an ass hole. It gave scar a lot more depth as a character which I personally appreciate. Especially with how they stressed the fact that scar wasn’t a chosen like nameless he was just a guy trying to survive. At the end of the day we hear stories all the time of great people falling down a dark path due to certain events in their lives. Edit: in my epilogue Marvin was still a good guy he ended up living in the house he bought in archolos and after a few months ended up being framed by people weary of his influence. They claimed since he worked for Volker and Ulryk he should be sent to the colony as the law stated anyone that worked with either of the men should. At which point Roderich’s hands were tied and riordian was away in the capital working on a project meaning he couldn’t save him from the sentencing either. The guy who worked for the king got fired from his position for not realising there was going to be a revolt so he couldn’t speak up for Marvin either. That’s when it fades into Marvin on the boat revealing the story to Gomez who was being sent along with him.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@SaDMSOfficial I was trying to compare Mass Effect with Archolos in the way that it would make sense still that the characters would just die even if you save them just like how you said Marvin could still go down the Scar path. They are fighting a war against doomsday robot aliens after all and people die in wars so it's natural, but having a choice focused game only for those choices to not matter wouldn't be fun. Having Marvin be Scar was one of my criticisms of the game that adds to the choices not mattering argument. Having a character that you make choices for only for them to not matter in the next game is not fun. I understand the tragic hero route but that undermines the choice focused nature of these games. I don't know, but at this point, we're just speculating and making shit up about what could happen. We're on the same page about having the ending be more flexible and have your choices matter. That's the only point I'm trying to make.

[@sinenomine3449]

I love it how they pulled a psycho mantis right at the end of the game lol

[@sjoerddondersteen1337]

New DatLJGuy review on Archolos? It's a christmas miracle! Respect the dedication to the grind, Qing drip clad king. Nostalgia for the OG Gothic titles aside, completely echo your sentiment on the improvements. Pretty much every strength from the original Gothic I+II has been elaborated & makes in indeed the best Gothic title to date, as the proper spiritual successor to be genuinely considered as Gothic III for a proper trilogy. The best balance of increasing the scope, while not compromising on the fundamental strengths of the immersive experience. Hands down, the best main quests, side quests & consequential changes to the world throughout the chapters of the entire franchise. The ending 'summary' contributed even more to the replay value by doing more quests to see an different ending a la Fallout: New Vegas. For an stand-alone 'mod', the quality of the soundtrack is staggering as well & a perfect continuation of the original OST for Gothic I+II. All the respect for The Chronicles of Myrtana Team for perfectly understanding the essence of the franchise & their outpouring of dedication & love for the source material. Sublime. Simple as. Going back to Gothic I+II during the quarantine days & being fully immersed with the proper spiritual successor Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos was the first time that I've genuinely enjoyed playing games since 2015/16. The nostalgia was crazy & it got (surprisingly) even better thanks to the Polish madmen. (sorry, went a bit of the deep end with this comment) Cheers & best wishes in advance for a merry christmas & a happy new year, ya absolute madlad! ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡° )

[@vinoirma8225]

There is a guide of technical issues to fix most errores, in my case it crashed like 5 times during the whole gameplay and i did explored every corner, 80 hours that i enjoyed totallie.

[@aligmal5031]

me confused about some criticism in this video also this video : playtime 41 hours when my playtime was 153 hours me : oh now i understand

[@DatLJGuy]

What are you confused about?

[@aligmal5031]

@@DatLJGuy that some of the criticism i disagree with because my run was 153 hours yours was 41 so i feel that you would have better view of it if your playtime was longer

[@DatLJGuy]

@@aligmal5031 Any examples? A longer playtime doesn't mean everything. Someone could have 200 hours in this game just walking around sightseeing and won't be able to comment on the combat or story. Or if you're someone who likes to replay games a billion times, you could discover some secrets, but mostly, you're just doing the same things you did the first time. I've beaten the game and have done a bit of everything so I'm at least qualified to review it. I mean, I guess if you wanna quantify qualification, I can't stop you, but I've done a lot of reviews and played many other action RPGs including the Piranha Bytes games so i would like to think I know at least a little of what I'm talking about.

[@LegaultTV]

Quick question, you mentioned you hating Gothic 3. Did you play it with the community patch? It's my favorite of the 3 give it a chance to pop off.

[@DatLJGuy]

Yes. I gave it 20 hours and made a video about it. Planning to go back and do an actual review though.

[@backcenter2]

Ppl dont realize that what made gothic good was the voice overs. The immersion drops heavily without

[@Premislao89]

"the game get's worse with time" - just like every other gothic game xD the beginnings are cool af and it ain't easy to keep that level throughout.

[@swede7581]

Gothic remake this year 31st dec 2024 yeeeessss....This game myrtana i played last year n just loved it sooo much,tried gothic 1 but just couldent play it due to graphics n other stuff that just made me sick n cant describe how i felt during the 1st game last year(so i had to stop playing it w no return) Thanks 4 video of a great game(w some fixes n mods that is needed to make game better)...

[@columbo47]

“It’s the definition of PS1 graphics” You did not play PS1. There is zero chance the PS1 could handle Gothic 1 or 2.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@columbo47 I'm talking about the aesthetics, not the performance. If you compare the character models here to the resident evil ones, they look similar in polygon count, no individual fingers, limited facial expressions etc. Even performance wise I can kinda see Gothic running on a ps1 if you reduce the resolution, textures, draw distance, and limit the fps to like 20, but again, that wasn't my point.

[@columbo47]

@@DatLJGuy I think it looks way, way more early PS2.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@columbo47 If you take performance into account, sure.

[@Amonny]

For me , it sits on 4th place, after G1, 2 and 3. The story is quite fan fiction, with plenty of plot holes, and the quests are 70% mundane. The locations are OK, but nothing memorable.

[@MHGooseMH]

GOTHIC this, GOTHIC that why dont you GO get yourself a THIC girlfriend??? jk i love u great video as always, ring elden when?

[@DatLJGuy]

I think I'll play Sekiro instead.

[@MHGooseMH]

@@DatLJGuy NOOOOOOO

[@DatLJGuy]

@@MHGooseMH I wait til dlc.

[@MHGooseMH]

@@DatLJGuy honestly fair enough

[@nemezc]

You know there's an alternative ending, if you focus on the main quest.

[@DatLJGuy]

The one where Jorn lives? Yup lol

[@haosheng12]

The true Goth GF

[@DatLJGuy]

One can only dream.

[@uchenna8885]

must u play gothic 1 and 2 before u play this

[@DatLJGuy]

I think so. Edit: While it's a prequel, I think playing the prior games will ease you into Archolos' gameplay better.

[@LLLAAABBB]

No you absolutely dont have to play G1 and 2 before playing this. Storyline in Archolos is not sequel to Gothic series, but rather standalone game

[@Skoshtwo]

The definition of PS1 graphics? Are you on drugs my son?

[@DatLJGuy]

Based on aesthetics, yes.

[@Skoshtwo]

@@DatLJGuy Gothic 2 was a PC game that came out post mortem of Playstation 1. It is also vastly superior to the generation of consoles that came afterwards such as Dreamcast and in a lot of cases Playstation 2. There is nothing on PS1 that looks even remotely close in terms of visual fidelity.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@Skoshtwo So when you look at the character models in Gothic 2 you think it's better than the ones on the dreamcast and ps2? Better than Resident Evil Code Veronica or Dead or Alive 2? Those games have animated faces and articulated fingers and definitely higher polygon count and they're from before GOTHIC 1 even came out. Even at the end of its lifespan, dreamcast games look better than Gothic 2. You can argue that the Gothic games are open world so of course it won't be as detailed as those more linear games, but then look at the GTAs on ps2. They have animated faces in cutscenes and the open world map is full of moving pedestrians and cars unlike Gothic. You can also argue that Gothic is not a triple A game, and at that point why are you even trying to compare it to the best of the best from the dreamcast and ps2?

[@Skoshtwo]

@@DatLJGuy You are basing most of your arguments solely on character detail and animation quality, both of which are Gothic's nadirs. However, when it comes to the immense size of the world, population density, texture quality, world detail and view distance, I don't think a single game apart from maybe some of the Rockstar products comes even close. In any case, comparing it with PS1 is going too far. On that console, you can literally count polygons as they spawn in front of your character as you move.

[@DatLJGuy]

@@Skoshtwo I admit that saying it's the DEFINITION of ps1 graphics is not accurate, and back in my first reply, and also my replies to another comment, I'm talking mainly about the aesthetics. Take away the detailed textures, view distance, density, and look at the characters and environments, that's a ps1 game without the pc enhancements.

[@baka1984]

Starfield review when?

[@DatLJGuy]

My review: is aight i guess.

[@Tottokamm]

I don't understand why you made this video. just annoying, not worth watching, it seems forced.

[@DatLJGuy]

What do you mean?

[@Tottokamm]

the whole video. no specific point in the video.@@DatLJGuy

[@DatLJGuy]

@@Tottokamm The point is I like the video game. What's there not to get?

[@Tottokamm]

yes, it seems you were forced or persuaded to "like it" and randomly say something about the game. But I immediately notice that you don't understand the game, gameplay and overall experience of this gaming topic.@@DatLJGuy

[@DatLJGuy]

Forced? By who? I admit I'm not a hardcore fan of Gothic but I still like what it's trying to do. Did you expect me to do an in-depth analysis of the game? That's not what I do. I just point out what I like or don't like about a game.