BG2 - Saerileth NPC Mod Review

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What about lifespans and medicine?

FR is a quasi-mediaeval setting. In a mediaeval setting, first of all, there would be no magic.

That's not exactly true.

Marriage is possible in some countries of the world between people of those ages and the last time I checked, Saerileth wasn't into premarital sex... not sure about marriage being there or not, though, at some point.

 

I purposefully left this out of the review since I believe it's a non-issue. I'm not going to hash out the reasons for this as it would be way off-topic and probably too philosophical for most to care about anyway.

However, the romance is optional and Saerileth is clearly an adult, whatever her age. That's enough for me.

It's my hope that people will play the mod and form their own opinions, both good and bad, rather than form an opinion based off one specific (and unimportant in this case) aspect. Indeed, that is my hope for any mod I review, regardless of the rating I happen to give it.

 

I am currently playing a run though with the Saerileth mod installed and I just had a few comments.

This is one of my few complaints of the Saerileth mod. IMO the mod is *very* well designed and built, but her voicing stands out like a sore thumb. It's not that it's annoying, it's just loud! Sure, it's not as loud as the Yasraena mod...but it's still quite loud. Also, her voice sounds *much* older than a 15 year old girl.

It seems that every single NPC mod that has voicing I have ever tried, has had horrible voicing...save for one. Kelsey, is the epitome of mod NPC voicing. His voicing volume is in perfect tune with the other Bioware NPCs, there's no ‘popping’ sounds before and after each line he speaks…like the Kitanya mod, and his voice fits his character.

The one other compliant I have is the area where you fight Saerileth's main boss, you can't use any special abilities, no magic, and no items...save for the Wand of Spell Striking and the Wand of Lightning. My characters were fairly low level, and none of my weapons could hit him...

Other than that, the mod is perfect!

I always get a laugh when she refuses to wear a certain item... Not even the Bioware NPC have *that* good of a continuity.

One possible thought though...her romance needs to be spiced up a bit. Sure, she a paladin...but I think the lines used in the NPC Flirt Packs would do Saerileth good...(remember the 'Bathe with Aerie' or the 'Bathe with Jaheira' options from the Flirt Packs? )

 

I recently gave a shot to that mod...

Ehh, frankly, I'm not too crazy about it. First I don't dig sugary sweet, holier-than-thou paladins (you guessed it... Chaotic Evil here.

Another thing I REALLY disliked is the fact that it's either Charname or Edorem who gets romanced. Kinda feels like "Oh, you don't love me? That's okay, I love someone else anyway". Major points lost here. Oh. Almost forgot that you can kiss her when you first meet her. What the f***?

The soundset... not bad, but I quickly ended up listening to Megadeth rather than her.

I nontheless painfully carried the romance through SoA into ToB... to the point where I got fed up of being a do-goody-two-shoes and zapped in a helm of opposite alignement. Pow! Back to Chaotic Evil. Then, she left with no further rhyme or reason (I couldn't help but to breathe a sigh of relief). And the ending? She is happily married and has a bunch of kids with Edorem. WOW! I didn't seen that one coming at all!

So, to wrap up... this mod is very well done, and I hail it's maker... but it's just not my cup of tea. In all honesty, I am looking foward to Thorium Dragon's Valen Expansion. Valen. Now THAT'S a babe with an attitude. And who never gets on my nerves either.

Y'know, it would be interesting to see a mod similar to that one, but for evil parties... I would definitively dig a blackguard chick in my party.

[ June 18, 2006, 07:10: Message edited by: Disciple of The Watch ]

 

Perhaps the user should try a program such as http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to normalize the volumes of speech files. I would guess that they're typically within the 89 - 93 dB range.

 

I just gotta chip in my utter hate for this mod. Lots of spoilers for the mod in this post.

Not only are the creators self-indulgent jackasses banning anyone who speak ill of the mod on their own forums but the mod itself is horrible. It's a perverted fantasy of a freaky married couple and honestly; it creeps me out. The writing is atrocious, the sounds are horrible, and as some mates as Something Awful says; "it changes the game from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn to Saerileth's Gate: Saerileth of Saerileth." The creators feel that she has to chip in at pretty much EVERY SINGLE ENCOUNTER. She almost has as many lines as the bloody main character!

Personally, I don't have much of an issue with the age thing, 15 years being the age of consent in Sweden and all that, but they deal with it HORRIBLY! The character is a walking trainwreck who blushes as every single ****ing thing.

Oh, and get this. If you have sex with the Drow in Ust Natha; she *dies* from heartbreak. The creators are so full of themselves it isn't funny anymore.

Then we got the horrible balance issues. When you finish SoA you get a wedding ring that's only useable by Saerlileth and the main character and not only do they buff her stats to make sure nobody else can use it but the ring is effectively a ring of protection +3 except you can carry it together with other magical items.

All in all; it's a horrible mod and I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone.

 

What?!? Are you serious? LOL, I HAVE to unearth my BG2 ISOs just to try that!

 

DotW: You should take a look here, unfortunately it's rather long: at gamespot

 

Haha, I reinstalled BG2 with this PoS and made a speedrun (with the trusty console to accelerate the suffering, of course), and I banged the Drow in Ust Natha... she indeed died from heartbreak! Damn, this is PURE GOLD, a chick dying from HEARTBREAK!!!

 

Wow. Just wow.

 

As I said, the mod is horrible. She also dies of heartbreak if you decide to become a God in ToB. She can die from heartbreak a few more times IIRC.

 

Ah yes, Saerileth. There's really no way to describe the whole extent of my hate for this particular pile of failure. There are few mods this aggravatingly horrible IMO. She's a perfect little flower, and horrifyingly written, too. And that stupid, stupid Ye Olde English. Anyone familiar with the term "Mary Sue"? It fits quite well in this case.

Oh, and another great part: at one point during the romance, a demon comes and tries to break it. Not via clever plans or dark secrets, but by TAKING AWAY ALL THE CHARISMA-ENCHANTING ITEMS ON CHARNAME. If his Charisma is under 14, that's it, it's all over immidiately. Screw love, you have to be handsome or that's it.
Yeeah, it's a great mod alright.

 

Haha, yes, I do remember that part. And when that happens... she goes to plan B - Edorem. What a shocker.

Think I'm gonna do a special run to try to find all the ways I can make her die of heartbreak - this is just too much fun to miss out.

 

Screenshots, DotW, screenshots! I demand ocular proof!

Okay, I just installed the mod. It's horrible. The voice acting sucks, the ye olde English sucks, the fact you can flirt with her and tell her you love her FROM THE MOMENT SHE JOINS sucks. The fact that she doesn't spawn at all if you're evil sucks, and makes no sense. The fact that she can only join at the first encounter and never after (not even if you kick her out) sucks, and just points to bad programming instead of "personality".

In general: a pile of Mary-Sue suck.

 

Her dying of heartbreak when banging the Drow would be rather easy... just need to check if I have a save that's close to this point - I haven't saved very often, if at all.

As for the rest, when I do make the heartbreak death runthrough, there's gonna be screenshots galore. that's for sure.

 

Hmmmmmm... no. Or maybe. Or maybe not. Not sure yet.

And get off your knees, will ya? I don't like having a man on his knees in front of me.

 

Now there's an image!

This mod doesn't sound like anything I'd want to download, to be honest. Then again, I don't like characters who are overly goody goody or overly evil. And she sounds horribly Mary Sue.

 

I had her in party for a whole 2 minutes before i killed her. I just couldn't take it anymore. I would love to be able to keep her until she dies from me sleeping with the drow but i just can't do it. heck, i can barely make it out of the temple district without killing her! Like others have stated, just horrendous writing.

 

Imagine the pain I felt when I went all the way through SoA with this little biatch. I totally lost it at the start of ToB, and zapped a helm of opposite alignment. Pow! Chaotic Evil, then some pathetic break-up dialog... and then she gets the living hell pounded out of her miserable carcass.