Prophet - Chapter I - By the Will of Kings and Mortals

Quite good module with a lot of content, solid plot and a few well-designed companions.

The story begins in a small village.  You have a gift - you can see the future events(or past) in your dreams. Will you able to change the future? Who knows.

It will be a huge mistake if i wrote something more about the story, because it's very linear (in a good way) and full of twists.

Well, i think Baldecaran shows a good reflexion on what could be the meaning of having "gift" like that in this module. And that's why it could be easily called a masterpiece. The only flaw i think it's the fact that you have to play a good-sided character, for obvious plot purposes, and even if it's perfectly understandable, sometimes it could get little boring, especially for someone (like me) who hates being a sort of do-gooder.

I am at a stand still right now. I am trying to speak to the 'Pale Woman' on the castle tower, but getting no response. What is amiss?

Nevermind. I was able to start the convo with her, so all is good in the Universe. I am really enjoying the flow and storyline.

Masterpiece!

Having continued the Baldecaran modules with the same character has been a charming experience...

Absolutely fantastic series! Everything about the story, the setting, the scenes was superbly crafted.  The author put a ton of very hard work into this, as Aquarius above said, Masterpiece. This is one of the "must plays" on the Vault.  This whole series is a 10!

So far it's pretty disappointing. People praise this module like it was some masterpiece but its not. filled with trash combat, from spider caves to swamps full of trash mobs. so far the pale lady was only interesting plot. Does it get any better eventually? Also, it's not light but heavy HnS, the story itself is on "teen" level, couldn't bother with it too much longer.

I have to agree with fallander69. I have found this module to be overrated as well.

The module is labeled as roleplay: medium and hack&slash: light, but my impression was exactly the opposite. There are interesting tidbits of story here and there, but for the most part it is just repetitive, grinding hack & slash. Such design would not be a problem in itself - Icewind Dale (which the author borrowed some music from) shows that even a combat-focused game can have an intriguing story and amazing atmosphere. But for that to work combat has to be both challenging and varied, none of which is the case here.

I have played this mod with a level 5 wizard on hardcore difficulty, got as far as the elven city, and encountered exactly three memorable battles, one of which (the big spider) was bugged. The rest of the encounters were repetitive and lacking challenge. Unfortunately, neither were the non-combat areas that interesting. I finished my playthrough in the fabled elven city, which consisted of few houses with even fewer interesting NPCs to talk to.

Prophet Saga [COMPLETE Let's play]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NosgBi0XAaA&list=PL2mVwWymK5NNenPJ_MGV8n...

I liked Baldecaran's take on the nature of man. I liked how he tackled Cruelty, Shame, Remorse, Hatred, etc. in this Module

Currently playing Chapter 1 on "Very Difficult" settings; the elven town you visit is visually most amazing elven town I've seen in any NWN module. Canopies, towers, waterfalls. Even before I assess the module, I already know the design of areas is comparable to if not better than Aielund Saga. 

pro
an excellent story with a serious philosophical background
a very nice area design

con:
There is much h&s and trash-mobs, not  related to the story. Well, this doesn't bother me.

MINI REVIEW:

Chapter 1 of “Prophet” is SPECTACULAR, amazing, 10/10 and the series  seems to be getting better as I progress…. And mind you, having played almost all best epic series on the vault (a detailed list with my recommendation on my profile info) I do not say such things lightly.

Don’t be fooled by the title “Prophet” which may be suggesting some flat, trivial story of someone predicting things (this is precisely what I feared before reading some convincing reviews). No, it is a deep story worthy of a novel. In principle, Prophet is apparently somewhere in between the greatest epics on the Vault: Aielund Saga and  Dance with Rogues. As you might already know AS is an epic, finely crafted, colourful novel-like story, with meaningful companions, whereas ADWR, also a novel-like story, is very dark, burdensome, ethically challenging and frequently forces you to choose between lesser and greater evil (not to mention profound interaction with NPCs ;)). Basically you feel moral guilt after finishing it. So Prophet is somewhere in between, retaining colors and medieval, epic scope of Aielund Saga and gloomy, ethically-heavy climate of Dance with Rogues, while adding a deep philosophical undertone related to the issue of free will, predetermination and a centenary problem, a torment of philosophers called Laplace’s Demon(link is external) (really, one guy apparently declared he is preparing a PhD in Philosophy related to this series!). if you are into reflection about meaning, solitude (no romance, what a pity ;)), responsibility without guilt and guilt without responsibility, then play this. Ok it is linear, but novels about fate are linear as well ;)

Also, your henchmen develop an uneasy, profound relation with you as they are becoming gradually more creeped out by the events that unfold (try raising Meredoc by the end of the module and see what happens!). If this is not enough, the areas are artfully chiselled: I am not sure how about previous versions, but the last version I play (VII 2017) is a genuine work of art: the mountains ARE mountains, storms, high peaks and true Lord-of- the-Ring-esque sense of march towards fate; and the tranquil elven city is the best elven city I have seen in NWN module.

I will write a longer review after finishing the whole. For now: don’t even pay attention to the baddies that rate the module lower than 8 or 9, they must be kids who cannot comprehend the meanings this module tries to convey.

This will be a review for the full series (parts 1, 2, and 3 as well as the prologue), so there might be some hinted-at spoilers in here...nothing explicit, though, so hopefully it'll still be useful to first-timers!

I'm really conflicted about this one--I'm not sure I've played a module so polarized between its strong and weak points. First, the positives: I think this module accomplishes what it was trying to do with flying colors. The storyline is brutal and engrossing, and there are some truly gut-punch twists in here that caught me off-guard. I don't know if any modules have been able to leave me feeling as despondent and helpless as this one, which is a compliment in this case as that's what the author was going for. Alternately, one of the few times my character actually got some sympathy in this module (from someone who had previously rejected them), I was legitimately touched and grateful. The henchmen in this module and some of the NPCs feel like legit characters with their own conflicts and feelings toward the player character, and their choices make sense and have a profound impact on both the plot and the player. There was a lot of set-up in this module, and I think the payoff was perfect.

All that said, there were some issues with this one. First, the storyline was relentlessly dark and depressing, so you may want to avoid this one if that's not your thing. Second, combat in this game...I hesitate to say this, but at times it was actively worse than that of the OC. Even late into the module, you'll find yourself hacking through hordes of low-level enemies that give you 4 EXP a pop, and it's even more tedious than normal because the enemies would turn and run after taking a certain percentage of damage so that you have to chase them around the battlefield. A few boss battles are a lot of fun, but the combat was generally pretty boring to me. Third, I did encounter a few bugs that really hurt the module, one of which rendered forward progress completely impossible and forced a reload.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that the game really felt like a railroaded D&D campaign. It's 100% linear (usually you can't even go back to previous areas) and the whole module is actively designed so that the player/player characters choices don't really matter. I think this was unavoidable given the theme of the module ("What is destined cannot be denied" and all that), but at times, particularly in Part 3, I felt like I was effectively directing my character through cutscenes. Add to that the walls of text needed to explain the module's themes and philosophies, and I barely felt like I was really playing a game at some points. As good as the story is, the NWN engine isn't really built to make these infodumps any fun, and I definitely found myself getting bored as I clicked through conversation screen after conversation screen. These frustrations had the benefit of making myself feel my character's pain, immersing myself more into his tragedy, but that did nothing to reduce the tedium I often faced.

So...a split decision from me. The storyline was as good as any module I've ever played, but I couldn't help but feel that it would be better in a different medium (TV or novel) rather than one that's not really suited for telling great stories. The atmosphere, like all of Baldecaran's mods, was on point, and I really felt immersed in my character...but on the other side, I can't say I had a ton of fun actually playing the module. Given that I was pretty relieved to finally be done with it, I can't rank it among my all-time favorites (anyone comparing this favorably to Aielund is crazy in my mind)...but if you're interested in a dark, philosophical module with some good twists and a focused storyline, this one's worth a whirl.

Starts well but has at least one area that crashes, thus ruining the module.

An incomparably good series.

There is only one word to define this series: A MASTERWORK. 

I think that the last time that I found myself emotionally shattered like this was when I played Planescape:Torment and considering that I am probably talking about one of the best RPG ever made it should give you the measure of what you should expect if you'll decide to play this wonderful series. One of the most powerful, original, gritty and depressing story that I've seen. Ever. I think that Prophet Series can be really considered a piece of art and that it deserves a place in the history of gaming. 

Frankly .. I was blown away by this, it was incredible .. the story the tilesets .. everything. Thank you so much for your obvious hard work!

Alot of crashes with nwn: enhanced edition. Especially in the mountain part. Almost unplayable. 

So, I'm EXTREMELY frustrated with the ending of this particular module, enough that I'm not sure I'll finish the series...

SPOILERS, though I'll try not to be too explicit.

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Why is there literally no choice to stay, at the end??? I tried going through diaglogue a bunch of different ways, even, and can find NO way to avoid the conversation with one companion where my character is forced to say he intends to escape. After everything, especially the choice involving the werewolf guy, I was loving how my character was developing and what he was learning about his morality and everything...and then there's NO option to have him even TRY to follow through with that, so what was the point. If he just decided he did believe it could be right to sacrifice someone to save others, an option the game literally just emphasized he can make, in fact a MAJOR THEME of the story until now, why is he suddenly being railroaded by dialogue options to not be able to do that?? Especially when sacrificing yourself is probably way less dubious than sacrificing someone else, and the question of whether the character would stick to their decision when it was their own life on the line is a pretty interesting one? You presented a GREAT difficult choice with the werewolf thing, and then threw the impact it could have on the player character in a RP sense out the window...?

Like I get that yeah, hypothetically it would just end the game and you wouldn't get the rest of the series. But maybe it should still be a choice, to send your companions away and end there? But also...it doesn't seem hard to let the character make that choice and then have something else negate it externally--off the top of my head, one of the companions just pointing out that hey, since you have the OPTION to leave, maybe it's your decision to STAY that makes you responsible, and then oops either way could be a mistake so you better go try and find out more! That other companion could still disagree, and the fight could still happen, even! For someone that made what has been a pretty good module until now, I'm sure finding a way to continue the story wouldn't be hard.

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end spoilers

Anyway, sorry to be so critical...the main reason I'm so frustrated by this IS that I liked it a lot until this moment. I was very invested in the story and the way it was making my character develop in interesting ways.

Like, am I being unreasonable, or missing something? Did anyone else feel this way? It's realy hard to imagine I'm the only person that had this problem, it seemed like it would be a pretty natural choice for a lot of characters...