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Welcome back to Amalur! Things are going to be done a tad differently for this update, and other similar ones.

NPCs in this game are nothing if not chatty, and it's rather difficult to get a word in edgewise when you have less than 30 seconds between conversations. So Shlapintogan and I decided that a different tactic was the best route.

At first it was going to be a subtitled video like I teased earlier. However, I really didn't feel like re-learning how to use Aegisub. I'm also a creature of habit and can (relatively) quickly throw together a sceenshot LP update. So instead of a subtitled video, have something completely different. Note that all these images were resized from 1280x720 to 960x540. They do not look particularly good, I realize. However, it's a lot better than 90-something 1280 pixel wide images.

However, in case you absolutely must watch this in video format, you can also do that by going here. However, before you run off and click the video, realize that it's the crappy version that I upload for commentary, so it doesn't look very good at all. In fact, as you can surmise from the title, it was only encoded at 750kbps.

Personally, I'd just stick with the screenshots. If this goes well, I'll probably be using with them for all the sidequest roundup videos. As annoying as it may seem, trust me that by the time we get to the big cities in the game, they'll save so much time.

Without further ado, let us begin!



We start off approximately where we left off last time, though minus the freaky graphical glitches.



The blue and green blob on the ground is an injured fae, and she keeps moaning and groaning the entire time you're nearby.









Despite what the game is implying about the monks at St. Odwig's, we never actually find out who injured the fae woman.







Fantasy racism at its finest, folks. He acts concerned for her, but calls her a creature in the same breath. Gorhart Village is full of assholes.

























Believe it or not, I'm actually cutting out a lot of unnecessary conversation in this update. Like we mentioned in I think the first video, NPCs will tell you everything about nothing. So much time and money dedicated to paying voice actors to do work that no sane player will ever hear.



The well here is hiding some chest armor that we'll never equip. Yet more instances of detect hidden being the best skill in the game!



This. This here is the prize for the update. This unassuming little chest tucked off in a random ass corner of Gorhart is full of DLC weapons and armor.



We also get our first Twist of Fate card for just looting an item from out of the chest. Twists of Fate are bonuses you get for doing different things in the game, usually for obtaining collectibles or finishing major quest lines. This particular one is a reward for playing through the demo way back in 2011.

By the way, you guys should totally play the demo if you haven't played the main game. It takes you through all the territory we're covering here in the first part, including the tutorial dungeon. After you get out of Allestar Tower, the game turns you loose and says "Okay you have an hour and a half to mess around before the demo ends. HAVE FUN!"

That demo did more than anything else to convince me to buy the game. To this day, I still do not regret that decision. If you take away nothing else from this LP, I want you guys to understand that Amalur is an incredibly fun game to play.











We looted the Running Man armor set out of the chest, which is pretty decent medium armor. As you can see, we get quite a bonus to crit damage while wearing it, as well as some minor resistance bonuses. This will serve us well for the time being!



The rest of the DLC items are all similar. Either set items (yellow) or items of incredible power (purple). Really, just mentally use the World of Warcraft item color system and you'll be golden. Purple -> Blue -> Green -> White, in case you're somehow not familiar with that system.





We also grab a couple sets of daggers and a bow out of the DLC chest. The Night is not a very good weapon, but that's fine. We won't be using it for very long at all. The Hunter, on the other hand, is pretty great. A source of poison damage, no matter how minute, will be immensely useful!



There's a random note in the graveyard. Not really sure what purpose it serves beyond worldbuilding, but it's still kinda cool that it's there.

Those are some pretty serious charges, so let's get St. Odwig's side of the story. Also note that this guy is a pious monk who eschews violence and such. Mr. Beefcake McLargeHuge there is probably more ripped than some bodybuilders.













This entire village is full of assholes.











I'm not sure exactly what the game's trying to show us here. The camera decided to show the gate of the mission instead of something exciting, like Mr. Universe over there.















Anyway, our next stop on our trip around Gorhart is the inn. What better place to find a sidequest than in here?



This dude has the exact same build as Muscles McGee back by the mission, though I don't care. Why? Because this dude is wearing heavy plate armor and is part of the game's version of the fighter's guild. It makes sense for him to be built like a brick shit-house.



















The dude drinking the mug of ale in the background of that last screenshot is the owner of the inn. He doesn't have anything worthwhile to say, but he is still important.



You see, he's the first trainer in the game. He will train our detect hidden skill for the all time low price of 15,000 gold. Each skill in the game has trainers throughout the world, some offer better training than others. Each one, however, will give you a permanent additional point in that skill! I believe by the end of the game, you can have up to three extra permanent points in each skill, though I'm not entirely sure.

I almost never use the trainers because of how easy it is to respec anyway. Plus they are incredibly expensive starting off, so they're the type of NPC you will not use very much at first. By the time you have enough money to throw around like that, you'll be running into advanced and master trainers, who are even more expensive and require more of a commitment to that particular skill.

It's kind of a vicious cycle that left me not really interested in ever training skills up.



Anyway, the woman behind the bar is one of the first merchants you're likely to see in the game. Most of the weapons are pretty expensive, and are almost never as good as stuff you can make yourself. Though you should still carefully look at each merchant's inventory. Some of them have special items like backpacks or keys. Backpacks are especially important, because they're a permanent upgrade to your carrying capacity!



You can also hit a button to sell all the junked items in your inventory, which is incredibly useful. It's a feature I really wish more RPGs implemented.



Across the road from the inn is the blacksmith's shop. If the bartender lady wasn't your first merchant, then it was almost certainly one of the two in this building.



The building is also where you can find the most important place in Gorhart. The forge lets you create your own equipment.



To make an item, you need the two base pieces for it as well as any extra pieces you want to add. The frost rod we found in the last video is one such item, and we need it to make a scepter. Higher levels of the blacksmithing skill lets you create more powerful items, and eventually lets you add a gem to the item. The extra pieces you can add are things like health bonuses and such. We'll find several in the next video.

Now if you will, I want you all to picture something for me. I want you to imagine a gem, alright? Now I want you to imagine that this gem is enchanted with a powerful health regen effect. Now I want you to imagine that you're creating a full set of armor and weapons to go along with it, and can add those gems to those items.

What happens when you equip all those items with their powerful health regen effects?

The answer is that nothing in the game can damage you before the regen effect heals you to full.



The last building in Gorhart is the alchemist's shop.



Nanne here is actually the sister of that gnome we saw in the previous video, the one that was tending to the wounded from Allestar Tower.









Nanne also has a severe case of "I'm better than you"-itis.



























And that ends the update! Next time, we talk to the fae Aery and start tracking down what happened to Nanne's formula.

As a final thought, as of the time of writing this (approximately 2PM on Friday May 30th, 2014) these were the player stats on Amalur's page on the web storefront for Steam:



611 people were playing this amazingly fun game while I typed this up. Pretty cool, huh?

See y'all next time!