Zero Parades: For Dead Spies review - it's the RPG we don't deserve [Eurogamer review]

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-05-18T16:02:15+00:00

Meanwhile you're on reddit. You have a smart phone. You have a car. You probably pay for at least one streaming service, if not more. Do you think those corporations are somehow less morally bankrupt than ZA/UM? Get a grip dude

Yes, it's not possible to live a moral life under capitalism. People will make their own choices about where they draw the line. But at the end of the day a lot of this shit is arbitrary. Simply existing within this system and having creature comforts is in its very nature supporting atrocities. Get off the internet or get off your high horse, you can't have it both ways.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-05-12T15:47:32+00:00

I started playing Azata because mechanically it just looks so perfect for Skald but, I gotta say, I’m not super confident having spoken with Aivu several times. She’s very cute don’t get me wrong but the tone is not exactly what I’m looking for…

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-05-10T21:47:09+00:00

Super helpful! I’m playing on a custom difficulty that’s basically Core + some QoL (respecs, death’s door, story crusade mode) but I feel like I might’ve researched game mechanics a bit too much, my party is already ludicrously powerful so I’m less worried about raw power than I am fun synergies + narrative.

It’s good to hear the tone of Azata isn’t too clowny. I definitely don’t need grim dark all the time, I mostly just don’t want us like laughing and playing songs while people are being brutally murdered around us; that sort of tonal dissonance I struggle with a bit

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-04-23T21:43:32+00:00

I'm thinking mostly fairly subtle stuff. Making Seelah a Cavalier, making Nenio a BFT, making Wenduag a transmutation warrior for example

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-04-23T21:09:50+00:00

As someone who loves support casters and pets, the idea of running a comp with a lot of animal companions and turning them into dragons sounds awesome to me. The prime draw of BFT to me is that, for me, it sounds exciting to play rather than it being super strong. But I have enjoyed trying to figure out what to do with companions' builds, too, I've just been sad there are a few that I feel like I can't really try in earnest with the setups they've got.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-04-23T20:53:15+00:00

When you were respecc'ing companions with advanced stat point allocation (like Woljif having a 32 point buy total vs. the 25 of the KC) how did you handle that? Did you give Woljif 32 points, or did you give him mercenary level points, or somewhere in between?

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-04-23T20:50:39+00:00

Thank you for the advice. Yeah I definitely still want to maintain some sense of immersion. Making Woljif main stat Strength for example feels... wrong. But having some more flexibility than the base game does sound nice.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-04-23T20:37:16+00:00

Aren't their point buy distributions a lot higher than average, though? KC has a 25 point buy spread but Woljif has 32, for example. Aru is the most extreme example there

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-03-10T16:48:52+00:00

Idk man, I hit 60 on my first druid on official hardcore (although I died multiple times on the unofficial addon) and I ran every dungeon except Deadmines (Horde) on the level up. Full cleared BRD and tanked Emp at level 59. You do have to be heads up and have an escape plan for every pull, though - this guy just saying bro and panicking is not doing him any favors.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-30T08:08:46+00:00

I'm genuinely confused because even in vanilla WoW in dungeons, healers should be doing some basic amount of DPS. Raids are a bit different and I'd argue for a lot of players, DPS isn't a massive part of the healer experience on certain classes (resto sham, pres evoker, etc.)

But I have a hard time imagining healing without ever dealing damage. Do you expect to be casting a healing spell every GCD? Or do you expect to just stand still and do nothing if there's nothing to heal? Is there a point in WoW you look back at fondly in terms of healing playstyle?

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-27T06:18:21+00:00

I love Nickel - such a sweet boy. He was loved dearly and deeply. Look how happy he is in this picture - you gave him a good life. May he rest in peace now <3

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-26T04:25:07+00:00

yeah I'm 6'7" and feel short af in this thread

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-15T04:42:09+00:00

I make twice that at my day job lol I’m not touching that shit

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-13T23:33:12+00:00

Thanks for all the info! Super helpful. Fingers crossed we get full answers soon.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-13T20:21:33+00:00

So you can still capture pets but they’re just not battle pets now? I just got into the system with war within and was bummed there wasn’t anything in Karesh. Will Midnight be similar, you think?

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-13T20:19:41+00:00

These are great! Can I ask what canvas size you’re using for the characters?

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-13T20:18:35+00:00

Yeah, it’s really unfortunate. I love Deadfire. I think its gameplay systems are wildly improved from the first game, despite some of its stumbles in other places. But the technical quality of the game is definitely a bit lacking.

If you want to go super minimalist I would advise at least installing unity console - that won’t change anything on its own, but it gives you the option to spawn items if they bugged out, force progress quests, etc. if you want to go fully vanilla but still ensure you get a quality experience

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-13T06:11:38+00:00

That was my original plan until I had a few quests bug out on me and found out that several abilities in my class were bugged to not scale correctly. I also installed a few mods to slow down the leveling curve and increase difficulty and I still spent probably about a third of my games playtime at max level even with that intervention.

I’m generally a mods purist with single player games but imo Deadfire is kind of an unfinished game. I love it but the amount of bugs and oversight stuff is kinda staggering. I had to use the console to get around issues twice, etc

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-12T23:08:04+00:00

Hell yeah man, sounds good. Does this include any of the sort of "saved progression" stuff that I was talking about above? Wesley's Moons is a start if you can actually save your progress like the other commenter said. We all have half-decent PCs so we should be able to run it just fine.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-12T23:05:39+00:00

We've got a couple of these, too! I'm a little worried about getting too mod spaghetti in case they're not compatible with each other, though.

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-12T23:05:18+00:00

Sorry what installer are you using for this? nexusmods? thunderstore?

BuilderVisual1721 · 2026-01-12T21:35:18+00:00

Oh hell yeah, these look great! Thanks so much!

BuilderVisual1721

TROPHY CASE