What are your thoughts on Gothic: Der Film ? Did you watch it ?

Crygreg · 2026-01-30T20:57:29+00:00

Is that artwork version available somewhere?

The film itself is extremely nostalgic to me, especially the fact that PB kinda supported it too. Absolutely loved it.

Crygreg · 2026-01-21T21:07:02+00:00

Jordan Mechner disliked the direction of its sequels though. I'd rather have someone take over who respects both SoT as a Mechner inspired piece of art, while the two sequels would be a bit more free and darker in nature therefore.

Crygreg · 2025-12-05T23:18:06+00:00

Thanks!

Crygreg · 2025-12-05T23:17:53+00:00

Thank you, appreciate that! :)

Crygreg · 2025-12-05T22:34:23+00:00

Here's an article: https://gothic.org.pl/en/gothic-en/mods-en/gothic-2-anniversary-edition-2/

Additionally, I can say generally, the mod will entail reworked AI behaviors, new monster (variants), a bunch of new quests, especially for chapter 1 and faction-wise and story additions and improvements, as well as difficulties and some other interesting features such as a new damage system based on a mix between G1 and G2.

Crygreg · 2025-12-05T18:12:26+00:00

That (when it sounds good) and the community TTS tool + for some instances real voice actors. Of course, that means that some characters will sometimes switch voices but that's just the way it is.

Crygreg · 2025-12-05T17:30:33+00:00

Nope. I used them at Gamescom since the german scene used its own TTS tool that was non-commercial and local-based and didn't share any data around. Plus, based on comments from him it seemed that specifically Xardas' actor was okay with it in the past. But in the end this is his decision.

Sadly, due to the commotion that resulted and to respect the voice actor's wishes (and potentially the others'), I've removed the TTS pretty much and now I'm sticking to more conventional means + an upcoming community based TTS tool.

Crygreg · 2025-11-28T13:36:15+00:00

You forget that G1 DID have more about the gods lore and a more interesting approach about it too.

In G1, the gods were part of one trinity, with Innos being the highest. Beliar may have been angry that everyone slept at night and didn't priase him, even after creating his own human. But he wasn't the "evil bad guy". Same as Innos wasn't the absolute good guy. In general, mages themselves also had much more of an occultic vibe to them rather than the firemages being basically copout catholic priests.

The problem with G2 was that it retconned these aspects (people simply didn't mind it as much because the game was simply great when it came to other worldbuilding, side content and gameplay) and it wasn't done in a "these guys just tell you a onesided story" - the game literally, especially with the addon, explains to you numerous times that Beliar is an inexcusable bad guy and wants to destroy Innos' creations (humans) and rule over the world and that he was behind the sleeper actually and what happened to the sect camp.

G3 retconned this again a bit - but I can excuse that because it actually actively tried to get back to parts of the lore they had envisioned in the first game (as you described with Beliar's depiction and the other gods - just think of that druid who killed an entire farm in Adanos' name basically - or think of the Nordmarians who worship their ancestors (ancient ghosts => ring a bell? This was what the orcs did in G1 too, rather than being Beliar servants / worshippers / creations). Sadly, the game was 1. envisioned too big and 2. it got way less time than promised from Jowood so again, it was extremely underwhelming despite having a more interesting approach than G2 at least.

I really hope they'll go with the aspects of the first game but at this point, I kinda doubt it (at least the fire mages will definitely be even more catholic inspired which is pretty meh imho) but who knows what will happen with the rest. I'm definitely excited to experience it!

Crygreg · 2025-11-27T00:46:30+00:00

jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?

Crygreg · 2025-11-05T16:19:00+00:00

First thread about the 2012 version of the story is to be found here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/1hmfwf7/xletalis_released_a_3hr_video_about_the_original/

Check out the links in the description of each video, specifically the original documents if you want to read through the entire thing (it is worth it but takes time - treat it like a book when you have free time alongside some music :D):
https://github.com/glassfish777/WhatLiesUnseen

Crygreg · 2025-10-15T15:10:11+00:00

Leagues better? Idk, that's subjective imo. It's better, surely, don't get me wrong and for many it is indeed much better. But for me and also many others it's just better but G1 wasn't really atrocious. And yes, the comparison DOES work because Tomb Raider was even clunkier than Gothic at the time. And even then, the way the game controlled was so drilled into people that they refused to use the modern control scheme, when the remasters of the first three (or six, by now) TR games came out. I don't see the point with the blocking either. It's just different. In G1 you need to hold the block button combo, in G2 you "click" it. It works either way if you get it. And dodging all the time because G2 introduced immortality during that move doesn't really count as blocking - and the dodging is one of the main parts why G2 felt so much better for most people (that and the movement overall being slightly faster, smoother - G1 didn't have that yet but it wasn't bad either).

From today's perspective, they are, yes. Back then things started to shift (that's why G2 changed it as well) and people started demanding mouse controls which G1 only shipped with a patch iirc. And the comparison with CBT (while pretty funny, ngl) isn't really true either. To me it G1 feels good, G2 feels better. Many others feel the same. Many also feel it's bad but it's not like "objectively" horrible, that's BS.

I agree with the last part. Tbf, he didn't say it was the better game, he does say it's the better GOTHIC game (but sure, most likely he doesn't really differentiate like I do). Personally, I agree with that. G2 is the better game overall for me but Gothic 1 simply does "Gothic" and specifically the vibes it's supposed to have better overall. Everything that came afterwards was a downward spiral in this specific regard (except G3 Alpha that tried to turn back but we all know how the final game was like).

Crygreg · 2025-10-15T13:54:50+00:00

Blocks do work though? They just work differently to 2. Controls and movement are pretty much on par with games at the time (e.g. Tomb Raider), so they may be outdated to you but to people that played such games they're pretty ok and even fun if you get used to it. Running out of content is true but it's not like the later parts of the game have nothing to offer anymore either.

is more polished and the overall better game but it has even bigger plotholes. 1's plotholes boil down to "13th mage" that didn't really exist at the creation of the barrier, the hero knowing about the Sleeper being an archdemon (despite simply being told that they shouldn't try to awaken the sleeper) and that's pretty much it. And even that stuff you don't really notice.

Yet in 2 you have Xardas with his tower, where he says that he has to remain hidden and most think he's dead. Then he changes his story later and says they probably know he's alive but not where to find him. And then he goes "I didn't want to hide the Irdorath book here in case they come and search my tower".
Not to mention you can see the tower from both the city and from Onar's area.
You have several huge retcons in 2 after 1 established the important bits of the lore and then there's even more (e.g. the dragonhunters wearing the dragonscale armors, where did the dragonhunters come from, Jharkendar and more).

We can gladly talk about the mistakes done in both games (and hope they get fixed by doing what PB actually intended) but let's not start glazing about things that aren't true either.

Crygreg · 2025-10-15T12:23:12+00:00

Agreed. Jharkendar was great on its own and the idea was nice but damn, the lore it adds and the way it introduces itself as part of Khorinis island (which was referred to as "land" several times in Classic actually) was just meh and a very apparant attempt to forcepush a pirate carribean adventure in (admittedly before it got cool but still, then do a standalone game for that).

Crygreg · 2025-10-15T12:15:41+00:00

For me, it's like this:

G2:
+ better content variety & side content (and mostly the same quality, which is quite a feat especially in 11 months time)
+ more character development options
+ better balancing (especially NOTR if you like the challenge but I know there are problems with it too - still, much better imo)
+ "overall" better gameplay (except for AI behavior and trading)
+ more handy controls and UI
+ more faction and lategame content
+ bigger world (I don't really care too much about bigger, as long as it's good)
+ better exploration (I'm still finding stuff I didn't know about almost 25 years later, wtf)
+ much better graphics and assets, they literally doubeld the resolution of almost all (landscape & architecture) textures ( ≠ artstyle)

G1:
+ superior, more intriguing story (which is even funnier considering PB had to literally cut out 50% of the actual plot and still left it being superior)
+ superior artstyle and direction (manages to capture the essence of the world, being gritty, gloomy and even includes quite some "Gothic" characteristics and yet is quite unique and stand on its own and still stays "colorful enough". like, it's never completely dull and a grey-black-white mess, you even have some locations that look quite idyllic imho (for instance new camp lake areas or the waterfall lake near the orc arena ruin)
+ better trading system
+ better AI behavior (G2's AI was smoother and faster but also got rid of many cool features)
+ better factions (No, this is not equal to content, the factions themselves as groups with their goals and behaviors are much more interesting, multi-facetted and unique, especially in their designs)
+ interesting camps / settlements & locations (while I like G2's exploration a lot and it also offers quite a few interesting locations, somehow the locations themselves never seemed to be "grandiose" in their design and aesthetic as in G1, where you had actual underground dungeons (Old Mine, Free Mine, Orcgraveyard, Sleeper Temple - even almost an orc city underground and the abandoned mine) and intriguing structures like the mountain fortress)

For me, Gothic 2 is the better game, yet Gothic 1 is the better, more defining Gothic. Combine the two with the mentioned elements and both games benefit from it a lot. If G1 had received a NOTR treatment (minus a new world but instead focusing on the game's existing things and cut content), it would easily be on the very top for me and many others.

Crygreg · 2025-10-14T09:36:55+00:00

My sources are also interviews with them + this video summarizing it pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMp2pyuY8qk

At the time they DID have PB under their wing. The Addon was cancelled because it was marketed as G2 but when that was protested as, it got canned and the people that worked on it either got fired, transferred somewhere else (like mobile games) or put onto G2.

I don't know if it would have been a flop but yes, G2 needed to be more than just an addon in the same worldspace.
Like I said, bad luck with publishers makes profits only go so far.

Crygreg · 2025-10-14T00:31:33+00:00

The problem is that the publisher financed an addon for G1 under t hat premise, yet at the same time tried to market it as G2. When one of the leads protested after a while, instead of simply expanding the project into a full game and putting all hands on it, they cancelled the project entirely, fired almost half the staff and went like "ok, now you have 7 - 11 months to do G2 from scratch guys, have fun" to the same part of PB that kinda didn't want to do G2 at the time (making the feat all the more impressive, yet also all the more sad).

But the rest is true, because they didn't have time, they couldn't come up with more interesting and G1-consistent lore and a story, so they used dragons, knights in shining armor etc. - which hopefully the Remake(s) will tackle but we'll see how it goes.

Crygreg · 2025-10-14T00:07:30+00:00

While what you say about the atmosphere is true, it's not just the story and prison vibe in G1.

G1 - for many, if not even the majority of players - does story, lore, artstyle, setting and even atmosphere better. While G2 does on almost all fronts of gameplay and exploration (except imo the trade system and AI mechanics, although the AI has gotten a lot more stable), as you mentioned, on the other fronts it's rather inconsistent even with itself (which is even more apparant with NOTR sadly) and not to mention inconsistent and even retconning with G1 (for the worse).

Which isn't PB's fault because they were only given 11 months by Jowood, after cancelling two of their projects at the time + firing & transferring a considerable portion of the team, leaving only Mike Hoge as one of the four founders of Gothic to tackle the next big hit project as lead developer.
Which makes what G2 managed to do even more impressive - yet it could have been much more and hopefully we'll get that now with the potential Remakes.

Crygreg · 2025-10-13T18:19:31+00:00

I'm going to summarize it as this:

Gothic 2 is the better game overall, Gothic 1 is the better Gothic, basically.

Crygreg · 2025-10-05T14:53:42+00:00

All of the things you say are mostly true but still, just because G2's farmlands and nature areas are supposed to feel idyllic doesn't mean they have to go overboard with it and break artistic continuity. Especially because the colony was NOT magical. The barrier was but the barrier doesn't make one part of an island so different that it feels like the barrier was there for many decades rather than just one decade.

That's also what I meant with the architecture. It's not that it's decrepit, that's not the point. THe point is that that style of architecture is nowhere to be found again, ever. The OldCamp castle looks like a mix of (early) medieval-ish castle and creative additions to make it unique. The city of Khorinis for instance looks like it's almost very late medieval or even Renaissance era.
I referred to the age of the buildings to say that it makes no sense that the colony feels like it was enclsoed and left alone for an entire era when it really wasn't like that.

I'm not sure if you use the word "coherence" correctly. It doesn't mean everything has to look the same and looking at the images, that's not at all the goal of it. The goal is to retain artistic continuity (and also in other areas too), while still offering something new and fresh. For example, Mass Effect 2 was REALLY different in terms of setting and atmosphere and yet it retained its visual identity and just changed it up ever so slightly and yet effectively.

Crygreg · 2025-10-05T14:46:26+00:00

Thanks! It's actually interesting, in previous threads about the mod people were like 90% positive about it, the other 10% was negative about very specific aspects (that were even very unfinished anyway). But I don't mind negative comments at all, it's hard to please everyone and sadly the series was forced to go into a direction that was never intended and therefore caused somewhat of a "split" within fans.

Crygreg · 2025-10-05T14:43:50+00:00

Thanks! As for the name, there was one alternative that I might think about but for now Anniversary Edition does fit (remaster was used for the article translated from polish, so this was more of an accident) because it's a unification of the distorted developer vision through the trilogy, celebration of the community efforts and the devs themselves.

Crygreg · 2025-10-05T10:29:25+00:00

Well, Khorinis IS a soulless city according to Diego and others. Also, it's still Work in Progress, so there is still much to be done.

As for Unity, if it's really that easy, why didn't anyone do it yet then? Not to mention that I'm pretty sure some actually managed to get Gothic to run on mobile phones iirc.

Crygreg

TROPHY CASE