Rathir and Mel Senshir are twin cities, on either side of a strait that separates the lands of mortals and Fae from the land of the Tuatha, fallen Fae who seek to destroy the mortal worlds.
Mel Senshir holds back the evil horde, but just barely. Like Minas Tirith, everyone feels the fall of Mel Senshir is the will of Fate, and after the bulwark falls, the Tuatha will cross the strait to Renthir, and then their victory will be assured.
The High King of the Fae, though, has told my character, the Fateless One, that she has been given the power to break the chains of Fate and forge a new destiny. It may have been what she was working on before she was betrayed… by a gnome…
That was the discovery I made while following threads to the gnomish city of Adessa. Unfortunately, the people who knew the answers about my previous life were hardly inclined to answer questions about it while they were trying to do the same with my current life.
An epic battle along the walls of Adessa proved little but the guilt of my attacker. I wouldn’t find any answers there.
Time is short, though, so I’ve decided to leave the side quests on the mainland behind for now, and move to Mel Senshir. All I have are my friends, my bow, my blades, and an army of Mel Senshir refugees.
The last time I blogged about KoA:RR, I was still trapped in Gallows End, working to find a ship to return me to the mainland and dodging Dead Kel, the re-animated pirate who owes his cursed existence to the deadly mistake of the island god Akara, who revived him when all he wanted to do was go out in a blaze of glory.
By offering to sacrifice myself to become a Scion of Akara, I gained the god’s blessing and Dead Kel’s enmity. He sent his girlfriend, the Witch of Whispers, after me, but I saw through her ruse and defeated her. Then it was his illusion master friend whose name escapes me. I entered the Avatar state and took down his duplicates and then he himself.
I followed Akara’s call to a vast, underground cavern where the god was revealed to be an ancient tree that was home to a dozen spirits from an earlier age of the world who had fled the mortal realm hoping for some peace, but who were then forced to care for the mortals who nonetheless found themselves on Gallows End. They’d made a mistake with Dead Kel, and were hoping that their new Fateless Scion could undo that mistake and set them free from the burden they took on to protect the inhabitants of the island from the dead pirate.
It was an epic fight for the ages.
With Dead Kel gone, there was nothing stopping Captain Brattigan from attempting to sail his ship back to the mainland, aside from her own legendary incompetence as a ship captain. Also, she requires me to meet her needs. Of which there are many.
Once free of the island, I checked back in with Idylla — still bugged for me, I can’t get through a barrier. I worked on some more side quests for awhile before deciding to focus on the main quests and work toward the end. My time in the two DLC have outleveled and outgeared me for a lot of the side quests.
My list of Steam achievements say that only 6% of the players have finished the Adessa part of the main quest line, and I’m significantly beyond that. Based solely on that, I think a lot of people pick up the game, play for a few hours, and then set it aside before the story really gets moving. This game’s reliance on cookie cutter MMO-style quests in its early hours definitely gave me the wrong impression of the game the last two times I played. “A fun game, decent combat, but I think I’m pretty close to the end of the game, 20 hours in, and it’s still the same old stuff, so I guess I’ll go play something else.”
Bugs aside, the two DLC are top notch. The main quest line really ups the quality once it knows the player character has gone far enough to have a wide variety of abilities and decent weapons. (The overpowered Blacksmithing skill helps with the gear. I made myself armor that regens both health and mana at an incredibly fast pace. I also respec’d to put a focus in Detect Hidden objects, an ability that gives me a lot more money with which to keep all my powerful gear repaired and provide the necessary raw materials for smithing.)
So with the trip to Mel Senshir done, I’ve left behind the middle of the game and am starting on the end game. I have two areas left; Mel Senshir and the final area of Alabastra, Amalur’s version of Moria. (If my earlier talk about Minas Tirith didn’t warn you, Kingdoms of Amalur wears its Tolkien influences proudly).
I expect four or so good nights of playing brings me to the final boss. I’m already scoping out my next game. I have 40 hours in this version of the game so far. I’m still not sure where I left off in my first playthrough. I still have the, perhaps false, memory of quitting just after I started on Mel Senshir. I’ll know once I see the landscape outside of the city.
If that’s true, I’ll be a little surprised, as I have no memory whatsoever of the gnomish city of Adessa. But, I know what I’m looking for on the way to defeat Balor, the boss of this next section of the game. If I don’t see it, then I’ll know I’ve never been here before and am thinking of a different game.
I’ve made clips of some of the high points for YouTube, but I am streaming my entire playthrough on Twitch, so if you want all the dirty details on how the game plays, follow me there.
