Amazingly, I think I may change my mind about Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
I've tried to complete this game twice before. The second time I actually got to the very end, and quit because of some really horrendous design decisions that ruined the experience.
But I've always felt bad about not completing it.
This time around, I tried to do a few things different.
Changing my mindset was the #1 thing.
It's not a party-based RPG.
It's a Timecard Simulator.
The primary game loop in Kingmaker isn't the adventuring. It's actually based around completing as many tasks as efficiently as possible in a given time period.
In a way, it's exactly like TETRIS.
Events come at your kingdom just like blocks in Tetris, and because only certain Advisors can deal with them, then you have to be selective about where you put them. And just like Tetris, a bad start can snowball. Likewise, doing everything correctly makes the latter stages easier.
Once I realized that the game was really about time management, I set aside my adventuring mindset and adopted my work mindset. Tasks on a spreadsheet, each one taking a different length of time, each one with a different priority, each one with a different benefit or drawback if I succeeded or failed.
The objective: Cross as many tasks off the list as quickly as possible while ensuring each outcome ends in a positive result.
The only difference is I'm playing a game instead of writing code.
Playing on what is effectively "Core" difficulty (because Kingmaker doesn't have a true "core rules" mode like Wrath of the Righteous does) I've managed to get quite far into the game and everything - both adventuring and kingdom management - has been fairly easy to handle.
It's almost enough to make me want to do a guide for it.
But it's an old game.
And I'm still worried about that ending.
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