Various Thoughts

The game’s final area is notably smaller than the previous ones but makes up for it with less dead space. There is a slight issue with reused assets though where the caves and mines are concerned and it’s actually possible to skip like 75% of the area by heading straight for the crown instead of bothering with the tribe quests (which I’ll probably take advantage of on any future playthrough). The quests are pretty well done though and should be checked out if you’re at all interested in the roleplaying aspects.

Reached the point of no return at level 74. Attributes ended up at 32 Per, 20 End, 10 Str/Dex/Spr, and 5 Pra with the highest substats being One Handed (100), Athletics (72), Evasion (68), Light Armor & Theft (58), and Handcrafting (53).

Weapons were still the same as earlier (+10 is more than enough for a critical-focused build) but I mixed up my armor choices a bit. Since I was already mostly 1-shotting enemies I decided to slightly compromise between effectiveness and appearance and ended up with: Crow’s Mask, Ashen Veil Cloak, Perceval’s Tunic, Winged Cavalier Gauntlets, Tainted Priestess’s Leg Covers, and Sir Gawain’s Weathered Sabatons. While for accessories I’d been using Amulet of a Novice Ogre Hunter, Swordsman Amulet, and Poison Ring for ages.

Skill selection ended up being the entirety of all three Perception trees (this was completely unnecessary and only done for completion’s sake), all of the Statuses tree and Armor’s Inner Strength node in Practicality, all levels of the Parry tree’s Parry King along with the Movement tree’s Athletic Build node in Dexterity, and finally one point in Strikes of Luck, Invigorating Dance, and Symmetric Combat in Strength’s One Handed tree. Pretty much nothing survived two charge attacks.

Final thoughts would be that the epilogue slide presentation is surprisingly robust, if a little buggy, and I think I want to do at least one ‘evil’ playthrough on the Kamelot side to see if there’s any notable reactivity to the ending sequence. Will likely be magic-focused to gauge how effective it is compared to critical dual wielding (stealth ranged is obviously overpowered without my having to do a full playthrough).

Fall of Avalon‘s Act II down now with, I think, all quests except Perinde Ac Cadaver and Unholy Matrimony (which didn’t fit this character) completed. It’s hard to be sure because several are linked to completing earlier ones and you won’t know if they’re available until talking to the questgiver again on a later day.

Level 55 with highest substats at 100 (One Handed), 80 (Sneak), 62 (Athletics), 55 (Evasion), 51 (Light Armor & Theft), and 50 (Handcrafting). Wielding mostly the same equipment mentioned earlier except the Smuggler’s Knife is at +10 and I went with Fledgling’s Mask and (the Act II version of) Duel Knight Trousers instead of Lancelot’s stuff. Attributes are at Strength/Endurance 15, Dexterity 8, Spirituality 3 (from consumable items), Practicality 4, and Perception 21.

I’m thinking of replacing the Keeper’s Boots with either Sir Gawain’s Weathered Sabatons or the Swiftfoot Boots once I hit level 60 since the extra Critical Chance will be useless by that point with all the Perception. Will probably redistribute my attributes in general then since I won’t need so much Str and End, though I think I’ll keep the two backstab points. While it’s true there aren’t many enemies you can sneak up on in melee, when you can it’s quite satisfying and I’ve already gotten basically all the other useful skills.

As for the chapter itself, it’s mostly on par with the first. There’s perhaps a bit more backtracking where quests are involved though (I’d suggest focusing on the main questline first since it doesn’t overwrite any areas) and the northeastern area feels notably unfinished. It’s just a barren, empty expanse for the most part with a large amount phantom terrain lacking collision along the border over by the Wickerman location. This of course raises some notable concerns regarding the upcoming third Act.

At the end of the game’s first act, having sided against Galahad and cleared all the available quests, I ended up at level 30 with my highest substats at 79 (One Handed), 72 (Sneak), 46 (Athletics), 44 (Handcrafting & Theft), 40 (Light Armor), and 33 (Block).

While I went for a melee-stealth build… that seems to have been a mistake. There aren’t really many opportunities to backstab enemies and it’s more efficient most of the time to just rush in with a charge attack, dodge back, then repeat. Stealth seems far more useful for ranged characters and fortunately there are a decent number of respec potions so I can get back the couple of wasted backstab skill points if this remains true in the next act. Both parrying and critical damage are great though and I don’t regret putting points into those two trees at all.

Attribute-wise I’m currently at 10 Per, 8 Dex, 7 Str/End, and 4 Prac. The odd spread is to wear Bald Cait’s Tunic, with the Keeper’s Boots, Parrying Gauntlets (to be replaced with Duel Knight Gloves next Endurance point), and Duel Knight Cape. For head and legs I’m planning on eventually using Lancelot’s armor (wearing Hatchling’s Mask and Traveler’s Pants at the moment), which means I have to get up to 15 Str/End. For weapons I’m using Spine Splinter +10 (its ability scales off melee critical chance) and Parrying Dagger, though the latter I plan to replace with the Smuggler’s Knife next act.

The Spine Splinter in particular is worth mentioning because it can only be acquired through the randomized identification system. Basically, anything you kill at night has a chance of dropping one of six unidentified items. You then spend webs at an upgraded bonfire to ‘roll’ on each item which rewards you with one to three random items. While most of the possibilities aren’t very exciting, there’s allegedly a chance of getting permanent stat-boosting items (I’ve never gotten one) and it’s the only place certain weapons will appear.

Moving on to the magic system, the Wolf’s Call spell is amazingly useful for a melee character even with no points spent in Spirituality or the Summoning skill tree. While many bosses can take them out in one or two hits, the wolves still give you plenty of time to take off a chunk of their health unopposed. Or let you retreat and heal/re-buff. I haven’t bothered trying any offensive spells so can’t speak as to their effectiveness.

As far as completely useless things go, the main two would be housing and the horse. The former serves little point considering the outside stash access, since you can’t display anything (although you can buy furniture if you complete a specific questline), while the latter seems to be slower than sprinting and gets caught up on even slightly uneven terrain. I’d suggest completely avoiding both of these features.

While I had heard Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon was similar to an Elder Scrolls game, only being familiar with Tainted Grail: Conquest before (which is a tactical deckbuilder) I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

As it happens it’s essentially a hybrid of Skyrim and Elden Ring. It has the exploration, quests, skill system, crafting, and lockpicking of the former along with the attributes, leveling, equipment, encumbrance, and aesthetics of the latter. Combat is basically Skyrim‘s, with the added ability to both dodge and parry, while enemy variety and scaling is more like Elden Ring.

I’ve only cleared around the post-Tutorial fortress area so far… but it’s looking like I’m going to be dumping quite a bit of time into this game.