Gedonia 2

Oh boy, I wonder what interesting new playstyle I'll start with in the sequel to the first Gedonia! Just kidding, it's the exact same stat spread I started with in the first game. I'll be trying out a wide variety of characters and playstyles over time but I want to get a good idea of how the game works overall before going that way. Combat is similarly janky in the sequel as the first game. Sometimes enemies attack with no animation. Basic attacks with daggers are worse for locking yourself into attack sequences even if I'm not pressing or holding the button to keep attacking. There's a few times where my character lunges or leaps into an enemy that I'm trying to pull away from, especially if I'm trying to move around to reach a non-melee enemy, but the game forces me to walk face-first into that enemy's melee attacks. Dodging in this game is rationed instead of unlimited which compounds all shortcomings of how effective the agility dodge works. There are times my character dodges while staying stationary, but I'm trying to roll to the side to get around an enemy for both evading the attack and repositioning. Instead my feet are glued to the ground, I probably still take the damage, and my effort feels wasted. The most success I have with dodging is if I rapidly tap the button and then hold the button to sprint and try to run off as if I'm trying to run away from the battle entirely. This was also the case in the first Gedonia where the agility dodge is less useful than sprinting away, but in the first game I could also jump over enemies to avoid dealing with an enemy that keeps walking into me. I don't expect my complaints or feedback to result in changes to the game but a rogue can dream.

How does an underhanded agility build excel in combat? Enemies walk onto the hill in the middle of the arena until a player shows up to walk into and throw things at. I try to make daggers work. I try to make use of the agility dodge. I don't bother with either of those much longer after this video because in practice they're not only both incredibly ineffective, but compared to the alternatives they're actively more detrimental to myself than beneficial. As of April 11 2025, the agility dodge was improved. I'll make a video dedicated entirely to showcasing how the agility dodge works later.

The first dungeon in the game feels spacious and gloomy. I get lost a few times but I edited it out to make it look as if I know what I'm doing. I hope no one notices... Climbing up on things is great for an archer. Sometimes my arrows have weird collision, but the rest of the time there's enough open space and terrain to combine strategy with power. What happened to being a dagger bandit? Originally I wanted to make this character use a mix of archery with daggers, but in practice there's not only no benefits to using daggers but most of the time that I try to use them I'm taking more damage than I'm dealing. I'll try it on a different character but it doesn't work on a character whose main base stat is agility.

I crave experience. I'd like better equipment, but that's level-gated. Quests give big experience numbers. Take long time. Me want experience. Fight big enemy. Small experience. Wait, I have 2 intelligence, I don't have to speak that way...on the outside. I can keep doing it in my head instead. I'm gradually figuring out and improving my playstyle on this character. I never want to be in close range, but I have the wide multishot for those emergencies even if I keep forgetting to use it. I'd like to take skill points out of banditry and put those somewhere else. I'll have to either start over or edit my save a little to do that since the skill point respec doesn't work on that part of the skill talents.

Escorting a slow-moving NPC is a staple in the genre but thankfully it's not too long and hopefully won't be a recurring requirement. At this point I'm still figuring out how to get more value out of my character. I want to be mainly an archer, but I also want to get some benefit out of daggers since I don't want to rely on entering arena mode to pick up tons of free arrows. Archers should be able to produce enough arrows to supply a reasonable rate of shooting without needing to dedicate time and effort to harvesting wood and ore to craft arrows. The system to produce arrows through the archery talent is decent early on but doesn't scale up with my level or higher level enemies, but this is only the first area so it's going to get worse later on. What about sticking with using daggers? I'm trying to make it work, but the only value I can get out of them is through skills. When I use direct attacks with daggers my character becomes self-stunlocked with continuous stabbing attacks, sometimes as long as two seconds after I'm no longer pressing the button to attack. In terms of melee combat, having your character be stuck in this sort of loop for more than half of one second can result in death. The risk and threat against myself is greater than the power I'm exerting against enemies. I'm taking more damage than I'm inflicting onto enemies.

The grappling hook skill is amazing. This makes having 3 agility worthwhile, even for characters that aren't archers. Especially for characters that have poor mobility. Especially for mages that don't have much use for stamina, but want better mobility.

What am I doing? Where am I going? I don't know, but these enemies keep showing up. I think I'm dealing enough damage to defeat them. I want to use the grappling hook but I keep misjudging the range. Huh? I'm supposed to be on a quest? Sure, whatever, but first I need to climb up a bunch of ledges for no particular reason.

As of April 19 2025 this video and the earlier ones showing archery are no longer accurate! A recent balance change improved important functions of archery. I've been playing an archer most of this time but I haven't tried using most of the skills. I wonder what I'm missing out on? Playing as an archer after a recent balance change makes the arrow economy very manageable. A brand new character can manage to supply yourself with arrows at a high enough rate that you won't run out unless you're missing all the time or are spamming the skills that burn through arrows such as the Rain of Arrows and Multishot groups of skills. Archery can still be useful as one of very few non-magic methods for attacking from a distance. Archery can also be used to shoot down cache bags in the overworld which respawn and can be looted every time you pass by. How strong is archery going to be compared to other playstyles? My guess is more consistent but less powerful compared to mages, which is fair. Both will probably be less risky and less powerful than melee builds. Archers have a much easier time storing up ammunition to use during combat in case it takes a long time. Archers also have more flexibility since a character that's invested in archery can also be a bandit, and banditry is a strong close range talent but has more risk because you have to get in close range without being very tanky. Archers also get a lot of benefit from the non-attacking bandit skills, so any decent archer is going to want to have skill points invested in those anyway.

As of April 19 2025 the archery playstyle was improved significantly! This video and the below analysis are no longer accurate. An episode dedicated to showcasing how archery works in Gedonia 2 after the recent update will be coming soon. When I first played the first Gedonia, I saw the option to play a dual wielding dagger rogue and wanted to do that. This first character later became an archer instead because it was a more effective playstyle for both that character's base stat composition and in the first Gedonia game in general. When I first created a character in Gedonia 2, I wanted to reattempt that character and anticipated needing to rely on archer at certain points again. At first I was reliant on archery because I didn't understand how the banditry skills worked and I didn't put in effort to find out. I clung to archery because I thought Gedonia 2 made the same mistakes as the first Gedonia game. I now realize my mistake. Playing as a dual wielding dagger rogue is great in Gedonia 2. What are the differences between playing as a rogue versus an archer on this character? The weakest part of the rogue is not making effective use of the tools in my arsenal to evade or negate enemy attacks. The weakest part of the archer is staring at the cooldowns of my skills for half of the battle. The strongest part of the rogue is chaining Eviscerate to quickly eliminate foes one at a time. The strongest part of archer is the safety of running and hiding far away. Rogue is high risk with high reward. Archer is low risk with medium reward. I'm not abandoning or ignoring archery in Gedonia 2 completely. I'm the sort of fantasy RPG player that makes many different characters to try all, or almost all, the different available playstyles.

A dungeon that's outside instead of in a cave or building. A boss that you can't attack, but can damage you. Steep ledges and ramps. Gaps in walkways. Traps on the ground. Agility builds are perfectly suited for this area. If you don't have 4 agility, I think this dungeon would otherwise be most effectively handled in co-op by having one player lead the captain away, one player carry the crystal, and at least one player eliminates enemies. If none of the players in the team are an agility build this would be difficult but still possible. I think it'd make for an interesting challenge. I pity whoever has the job of distracting the captain while having low agility. The dungeons in Gedonia 2, especially the second area, are designed well. They're not too large. They're spacious and have plenty of terrain to make agility very useful. There are puzzles. There are secrets. Even after figuring out how to complete a dungeon or area, I want to try it again with a completely different character so that I can experience a different perspective.