Get Yahaha studio for free here: mtchm.de/ctgsd Edit: I got the part about the DLC wrong. Risen 2 and Risen 3 did have some DLCs, although they weren't big by any means. Especially compared to Night of the Raven. What did you think about Elex 2 in general? Better or worse than Elex 1?

Your video made me think of how much of a gem THQ is as a publisher. They always have their eye out for niche games with smaller audiences, building their portfolio with average sales numbers. Keeping a foothold in the AA game market while the bigger publishers focus on AAA titles.

Legitimately didn't know Elex II had released and I really enjoyed the first game. Dropping it a week after Elden Ring is worse than even releasing Kingdoms of Amalur when everyone was still playing Skyrim.

I found elex 1 because I love trying strange RPGs, like gothic, and two worlds. Elex 1 and 2 are now my favourite RPGs, if I compared it to Skyrim I'd say the factions in elex are much more involving and eventful, great companions, and a very difficult learning curve, it took me so long to get out of goliet in elex 1 because I weren't used to the game and didn't have confidence to explore too much but I reached the clerics and went along with them and I saw why elex is such a great game

to be honest, after 50 hours of playing, I love this game. Maybe as much as I love Elex 1 and maybe even more! By the way on my PC directx12 works very well, only start take more time to load.

Absolutely love your retrospect videos, keep 'em coming. Uživaj, burki!

So i was excited for this and really liked the 1st one, but I feel off of this game pretty quickly. I think I just didn't get grabbed by the story the same way I did with the first.

I have not played this game myself... I watched The Revs play-through and loved it! There is something about Pirhana bytes games thats really hooks you, and they have always done it! So much atmosphere!

The last skit where you show the Arcania game, reminds me of durmin paradox. Nicely done

Hi , what stats should i invest into if i want to play with plasma rifles and alb magic?

thank you for all your awesome content. I am a big fan of Piranha Bytes and THQ Nordic games and especially the two most recent Elex I and Elex II. bought and played Elex II on launch and enjoyed it much more than Elden Ring which also launched then.

Although I liked the first Elex - I never finished for some reason. Reached maybe the half of the main story line and got tired.

Yeah, the timing of the release is a big part of why I still haven't purchased Elex 2 even though I really liked Elex 1 when I first played it on Xbox and bought it again on PC to play as preparation for Elex 2. I was legitimately excited for Elex 2, but then Elden Ring completely stole ("spoiled"?) my focus for a couple months. And then I saw the reviews for Elex 2, and I kinda just decided to let it sit on the Steam wishlist until a good sale comes along. Honestly my backlog of games is already getting out of hand (22 started but not finished, 33 never played), and I'm almost finished reading the Witcher books for the first time, so I plan to replay all 3 of those soon (super excited for Witcher 1 remake as well, even if it's several years away). I really do plan to play Elex 2 eventually, but it's just not my top priority as far as games go right now. I guess I also need to finish the mess that is Gothic 3 and get started on the Risen series. I hope G2 and 3 get a second chance with THQ because they need it way more than G1, IMO.

Still playing elex 2 A lot in it that makes you want to keep going back on it.

Loved Elex, loved Elex II even more. Played them both on PS4. If they make Elex III, I will buy that too! I think they are highly underrated and deserve more attention. Never played Gothic, but the remake looks awesome, cant wait. I just hope they release it on console.

Hi, just got into your channel and I love your focus on these games :)! I've seen conflicting opinions on the matter, but I wanted yours. Would you say it's worth starting with the first Elex game, as someone who's been interested in the studio but has never played one of their games?

I put it on hold about 7-8 hours in, there were just other titles this year that have captured me more. I'll try to finish it in a few months, but it wasn't as fun as the first to me.

Has the recent DX12 update significantly improved performance ? There are some reports about it introducing some visual glitches (and somewhat lower image quality) and also much longer loading times.

is it worth the price if im diehard piranha b fan?

It's like PB doesn't care. It's just adequate on many fronts.

Love your videos and share your passion towards Gothic! I hope Piranha Bytes goes back to fantasy after ELEX, even if it's not for a Gothic game.

the PS5 version is still unplayable in the Ice-Region even Peformance mode is like 20 FpS. I have to say after Elex 2 Piranhas Gothic Bonus is gone for me

I've been wanting to play this for so long

Ciao, still inside the city the framerate has issues?

I wonder how many good old Gothic veterans you have following your channel and how many have never played the old games. Would be interesting to see the different review scores for Elex in a side-by-side comparison.

10:00 Aged like milk

I had a lot of gripes with the game, but still enjoyed it. I definitely picked it up at launch while everyone was on Elden Ring. My performance was all over the place and I spent a lot of time tweaking it. In any case I look forward to more from PB

Small technical correction to a statement you made - Gothic 2 was NOT their only game with DLC. Risen 2 & 3 also had DLC with extra islands to explore. However, in those cases the DLC came out at launch, so I'll grant you that Gothic 2 is the only one with DLC that was worked on after the game was released, which is the point you were making (post-release support).

Despite everything Elex 2 is one of my favourite games in 2022. There is something gripping about it that made me invest 100+ hours. It was the same situation with the original Elex I think I spent 120 h playing Elex. I really hope we see Elex 3.

As a Gothic fan who got burned out on Piranha Bytes' newer games a long time ago, I was mildly interested in Elex 1 because of the new setting (didn't end up buying it though), but never considered touching Elex 2. So I'm not surprised at those Steam peak player numbers.

I LOVED the first Elex and was really looking forward to the next one. But the E2 was a huge disappointment to me mainly for two reasons: first - the optimization and bugs - It is unacceptable to release the game with outdated graphics, poor performance and graphical glitches A YEAR AFTER it was supposed to release when they had a whole another year to optimize and bug-test the thing. The game was even unable to start on a couple of older graphics cards! And the second reason is the simple story and illogical events - I don´t want to spoil but there is one important character that died in the end and the rest of the crew completely ignored the event, like it never happened. That was too much for me. This game taught me to not preorder games. I have no desire to play this again (I forced myself to finish it).

I completed ELEX II four times and today I started playing it again I have played all the Piranha Bytes games and for me the best is Gothic 1 Gothic 2 Gothic 3 and Risen 1

I just started watching the vide, but right off the bat I just wanna say: Elex 2 vastly disappointed me. I did finish the game, but it just did not hit for me. IDK why... so let's watch your video so I can hear more! lol

8:59 I believe Risen 2 got a few short story DLCs.

Really looking forward for your Archolos review 🤞

nice vid bud, subbed

Loved Elex 2. Finished it 4 times. Here's hoping they come through with Elex 3.

I plan on buying elex2 at the next steam sale. I own elex on ps4 but I've been having alot of fun with Mt steam deck and I'd love to play elex 2

This is already out?! Lmao, I didn't even realize it had released! I enjoyed the first one well enough, I need to pick this up soon.

I have 25h in Elex 2 and i love it for now, maybe more that first one. Am in chapter 2 and I'm playing like Berserker just like in first one but this time Ranged Combat-Bow. I love PB games, thay have great atmosphere and world building, as well as well-written characters and quests.. And I love the Jetpack, it made exploring the world more interesting and fighting more fun, especially if you choose to fight from a distance.

Coming to mac this summer!

Most people were curious about ELEX 1, so they checked it out. It was something completely new from PB. So I think curiosity was the driving factor for the first game's success. As for the 2nd - it seems pretty much the same as the 1st one. So all this curiosity goes out the window. The ones who liked ELEX1 will buy ELEX2, the ones who didnt - wont buy it. I personally didnt get to play ELEX1 myself, as I dont have a good PC. But even I, upon hearing that they were apparently planning to do for a whole ELEX trilogy, let out a big sigh. What i saw from videos on ELEX 1 didnt really impress me, so hearing that PB is going to spend another 4-7 years doing more ELEX games wasnt exciting at all.

I liked elex a lot but I’ve only recently stopped playing elden ring as my main game and it’s been 15 months. Now that they released elex 2 on ps plus for “free” I’m finally getting to playthrough this game and I am really enjoying it.

It kinda seems like Piranha Bytes has a knack for disappointing sequels at this point tbh

I never played any PB game, but from all those videos about them I got the feeling that they're happy with their production model and don't try to increase their ambitions with each game like Spiders or CDproject back before witcher 3. I'm not sure they're even trying to increase their audience. It's probably a good thing, for fans of their style of games. Don't jinx it by wondering what a triple-A gothic would be like ^^

Will there be another gothic or elex or risen soon? We all need one:)

I will get this game , just waiting for it to be cheap as I have a huge back catalogue that needs playing, I'm looking forward to finally getting around to playing it 😁

What's the best camp to join if you want the best guns?

They should partner with Spiders studio , they both make great budget title rpg that almost play the same.

Just discover this game and WOW i love it..I don't understand that I haven't heard of this game. ♥️♥️♥️

Wow I had no idea that Elex 2 came out. I’m a huge Gothic fan and had no clue.

I put 4 hours than just gave up cause everything just felt so messy, I’m thinking of trying it again anyone recommend it ?

I forgot I still have to finish this. I think I'm around halfway done

This game is an acquired taste but once it clicks it really clicks.

elex isnt particularly my cup of tea, but great video nonetheless. got a question for ya. when do you think bleak faith is gonna drop their release date trailer? do you think they got a slot in the video game awards? that teaser was damn epic

Thoroughly enjoyed both one and two. Desperately want a third… just hope they don’t go for the filler ending with kill 10-40 of x, y and z. I love the world, the characters and I’m invested into it.

Kinda have to correct you about DLCs from PB. They made DLCs for the Risen 2 and 3 games under Deep Silver though by publishers demand. But those where day-One DLC for pre-order and CE buyers ranging from a reskin of late-game-armor with high stats and some "cut"-islands and temple maps that are not essential to the main story but feel like they have been cut out just to market them as DLC.

After i finish my first playthrough as a cleric I'm jumping straight into this game

Finished both games and I have to say I liked the second more than the first. It has not had the novelty of the first, but improved on a lot of things that it had on a mechanical/gameplay level. Kind of like Gothic 2 did to Gothic 1.

Overall, Elex 1 was the better game. Elex 1 kept me engaged while in Elex 2 the last 20 hours was a major grind, I finished it but only because I have finished every PB game. The story was pretty bad, I didn't care about the kid and the reveal at the end was meh so I'm not really excited for the next game. Quests were often weak, many of them didn't make any sense and people didn't respond to your choices. Also, the camera made the game absolutely unplayable until modders fixed it. Next time I'm waiting 1 year after release to buy.

The morkons didnt really appeal and the city hubs were made so big I never really learned them. The companions were just a bit meh and cleric armor changed. Looked a lot better visually but art direction in some areas was a bit off, mainly companions. Shame because i loved elex 1!

Played the game for about 30 hours. Elex II is a continuation of the first game on the same area covered in the first game but it's obviously different.Once I got over that I could enjoy it. Lot's of choices you can make in the vien of Fallout New Vegas.

Night of the raven was before DLC became a thing on PC - we oldtimers used to cal them 'expansions' :P

I'm gonna have to check this out...I loved Gothic so I'm hoping ill enjoy Elex2

My biggest point of contention is the dialogue, everybody are such assholes to each other for no reason and it felt like they were talking at each other

I was interested in this game, despite not too fond of the Hank and wonky combat I’ve seen, until I found out there was no character creator. Huge deal breaker for me when it comes to RPGs. If even Japanese console developers can sort themselves out when it comes to that stuff(Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Dragons Dogma), I don’t see why I still have to put up with it from PC devs. I barely put up with it for Witcher. If they put in a character creator for part 3, I’ll check it out, if not I’ll just play other RPGs with character creators.

There are also the Elex 2 first timers that wanted to play Elex 1 and bought it.

Pretty sure Elden Ring is what happened. I still haven't bought Elex 2 bc I simply don't have the time to play it. (Haven't even finished Elden Ring). I hope I can get to it around Christmas or so, I do love PB games.

Risen 2 had DLCs as well. Adding sets and new adventures.

You should review Archolos, the gothic 2 mod of the year, its truly amazing

You got yourself a like for that massive biceps Bro. Strength Build?

I beat Elex 1, and was super hyped for Elex 2. Admittedly, I bounced off it after like 3 hours and never came back. I should go back and try again.

I never managed to complete the game- still working on that. Overall good game- no real complaints here.

Personally as a die-hard Piranha Bytes fan I found the first Elex to be very underwhelming and just overly reliant on their formula for making rpgs. They need to move on and by that I don't mean scrap all they were doing so far completely,but just develop it in some direction. Like Rockstar did for example with their concept of a sandbox game. From missions bound to specific,clearly marked locations in the open world,through random strangers,appearing on your radar only when you were in their close proximity,to random scripted encounters,that often play out "in-game" rather than force you into cutscenes and all activities being much more mechanic-based and immersed into the world rather than instantiated. And I know Piranha is no Rockstar,but I didn't want to draw this comparison scale-wise,but rather approach-wise

Svaka čast nastavi samo tako

I'll probably buy it when it's heavily discounted.

jeez didnt even know pirahna has a sequel to a new series already... I'm still living in the Risen era lol!

I'm playing now the enhanced edition of Gothic 3 forsaken gods and now is completely playable

Titan Quest is not forgotten bro, they are making TQ 2.

i enjoy elix 2, well yes it is kind to similar in many points. But i still enjoy it. Piranha Byte is one of my fav Studios. You know what you get and somehow i still love the awesome immersion and hand build world.

One thing that really bugged me was I played as Outlaw faction, as I did in E1 too, and PB just shoehorned the Outlaws into the Berserker quest line. What was the point? armor had same stats, outlaw weapons were found and crafted, Crafting stims was pointless as I was already OP with shotguns. Lost opportunity IMO And I think they shoehorned Alb faction into Clerics. Dumb

I would chose consistent FPS I don't want to play a game in 720p. Only will give up on better resolution if there is no other choice, my eyes are killing me in low resolutions.

Just finished it... I really enjoyed it overall.

This is kinda my point whenever someone brings up Embracer buying up beloved IP's, especially from studios that were put into a toxic abusive relationship with their overlords like Eidos Montreal had with Square... So far Nordic has kinda been exactly what you want from a large publisher, or at least the best case one could hope for with the bar as low as it has fallen... Unlike the former namesake for THQ... Nordic has been surprisingly supportive and as the embracer conglomerate goes, they have thus far not been anything other than creepy by name alone(1). Funny though the Company buying the namesake of a massive publisher that went all in to bankruptcy on a preverbal Etch A Sketch(2) and thus far have been bout the polar opposite in operation and financial responsibility... But I can't think of any real standout AAA publisher conglomerate moments, which again, a low bar, but just that they have been super chill and let the sublets do their thing... so far for real... you know like every hungry conglomerate says they will after a good gobble, like EA or Activision in the late 90's or just anyone in corpoland.... before gutting the studio or converting them to indentured franchise support staff. Thus far I think THQ Nordic just as a standalone(3) has done what no one else is doing in that investment in the mystical unicorn of ol', the AA game... and while no one is perfect and they are still a publisher, like the bar is low... and the kinda support and whatnot they seem to offer and the projects, ect... like it would be reasonable by the older standards before AAA, nowadays, it's downright saintly... at least thus far. Feels odd, praising a conglomerate for going above the bare minimum, or not being outright misanthropic as a business model, but thus far I feel credit is due where it is, and will call it all out should Embracer Nordic Q whatevermajig live up to the dystopian namesake they branded their company(4)... But Ever since the last big roundup that re-negotiated Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamic's indentured servitude, people have been acting like this is a bad thing... cause the passive aggressive and abusive relationship that Square Enix had with it's studios was workin out great right? Well now they got a publisher that has a proven track record of... actual... low... interference publishing... and even better, they have more than a few forays into the whole medium budget affair... which that alone is a better sign than many would really understand till you look at the landscape of modern AAA and how that budget and scale and manipulation to justify it to a speculative market that lives in an infinite feedback loop and has nothing to do with it... well... Dunno... Gonna go reflexively vomit now for putting this many words into cooperate shillery lol... hopefully that's just reflexive, but again... with THQ big hugs edition... they kinda have for a while now actually done the thing they said, and with little notion to call attention to that there of... Which whenever a large corpo entity starts waxing bout the things... is always a really bad sign bout anything they are up to lol... and all of them do it endlessly like they don't seem to comprehend humans don't speak PR marketing. (1)Maybe it's a Swedish thing... I mean... they are kinda... well... lutefisk... (2)You would think they coulda seen the writing on the wall... HA! Man... no one get's that joke, but THQ died in one of the most RCA-esque manors, but instead of apathetic and too little to late, they did it with pride and oblivious vigor... good riddance. (3)There are two, but the THQ branding is more core Embracer group, as opposed to it's other sublets... SO both do different things, but... well.. ehh... nvm... (4)On purpose lol... like they were Under THQ Nordic as an over all listing... and were like... this is better... not creepy at all... Sweeds...

Hi. I am likely to get Elex 2 this Black Friday. Is it better with controller or mouse/KB with a shooty hero?

I just started the game after 100+ hours in ELEX. First impressions.... different button pads, more or less upgraded version of the same I enjoyed in the first game. This means I will like the game enough to play at least 100 in game hours.

Elex was a very hard game. The devs said Elex II was even harder, for those of us that got frustrated at the game difficulty of the first game were never going to buy the second game, like I didn't.

I bought Elex on PC but the PS4 version of Elex 2 to play on PS5 as I have not updated my PC in a while and the PS5 version was broken on launch.

Nice video, made me want to play Elex I again. I liked Elex I. Liked the arty graphics in it and gameplay. Played it just before Elex II was released. Elex II felt more like a shell compared to Elex I. The open world was generic and repetitive compared til Elex I. Don't get me started on the character art, and the story was a bit meh. I am still going to buy Elex III when it comes 😄

Elex just didnt do it for me. Cant they go back to gothic formula? For example why dont enemies drop their weapons?

Elex games is actually really interesting, like the gothic was kinda funny and the magic system is amazing tbh

08:59 Thats not Quite right, risen 2 had some lackluster dlc implementation, according to Björn they were forced to do it this way from deep silver , their former publisher. Night of the Raven is more of an addon in my book As well, i am not aware of a downloadable Version of it ^^

9:05 youre wrong at that point tho, PB also made DLCs for Risen 2 and 3. So not a very long time ago.

I love PBs style of games and I appreciate them sticking to their strengths, although I'd not be opposed to them finding ways of increasing the production value in some ways. Even after 60 hours of Elex 2 in my first playthrough I could never get fully used to the character models in dialogues - they felt like a step back in some ways? Some uncanny valley type stuff I'm sure. Still gearing up for another playthrough now and already looking forward to zooming around with the jetpack :D Your point about DLCs is not quite accurate I'm afraid. There were some DLCs for Risen 2 (one for some bonus starting gear, Treasure Island with Patty, and some Storm Island thing where you smack some gargoyles). They were enjoyable enough, although more simplistic in their scope compared to Night of the Raven which really integrated and completed Gothic 2 at the time. The reason PB never stuck with making DLCs for their subsequent games is that, according to Björn Pankratz, they received a lot of criticism along the lines of "omg you're cutting out content to sell it to us after" even if that wasn't really the case. You're also right that the limited ressources of the small development studio are another reason - Björn also said that they would rather concentrate on making new games rather than worthwhile DLC, as the effort required would be comparable but the money made would be much less. He likes to compare it to Witcher 3s Blood and Wine in that regard.

I don't often "finish" RPG's and end up stopping halfway through to go to another game. I finished Risen 2: Dark Waters. I think it's truly one of the best pirate games ever made. It nails the aesthetic, arguably, better than AC Black Flag and SoT. I consider it the VtMB of pirate games, if you will.

Still haven't played Elex 2... I did finish Elex 1 twice, shortly after release too! But Elex 2... eh... I don't know. Playing the remaster of Kingdoms of Amalur with the DLC right now, maybe after that...

Is Elex 1&2 worth it , never played them ?

I wanted to get Elex, but I was waiting for Elden Ring more. Only reason why I didn’t get it is because of Elden Ring.

ELEX is a game that centers on story and conversation. If you didn't focus on the story, of course you can't focus on the game. If someone blames motion and combat systems for being clumsy, that person is not qualified to evaluate ELEX. It is technically impossible to build an Eldon Ring combat system in an ELEX interactive open-world game engine.

Pyranha Bytes never learn from their mistakes.