"...Out of money. I should take another job. Blood for gold. 4000 eons have shaped the Way that I might kill men for liquor and other unsatisfying pleasures. Well, even a dog must eat. Now where is that letter...? Ah. From the Order of the Veiled Sky...the head of the sorcerer Van Eisen. Huh... I thought he ran that gig. Useless magi can't handle their own business. Sounds easy enough. This shit never goes as planned, though."
- Seiji
The errant Master of the Way, Seiji, is retained by the Order of the Veiled Sky to murder their deposed leader, Van Eisen. Seiji journeys to the Ironwall Mountains of Sigmar in search of Van Eisen only to be waylaid by the Sigmar troops. Seiji must then travel to the Brass Empire in search of a wanted woman and return her to Sigmar. But the realm of Sigmar has little regard for its pawns...
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Disclaimer
Vis et Virtus is not a normal Neverwinter Nights module, nor is it intended to be. It is, by design, a mostly linear adventure with a heavy emphasis on story and character development. It was designed to be a fusion of game genres combining elements from traditional Japanese console RPG games like Final Fantasy, with computer RPGs like NWN, along with devices that are unique to VeV.
If you are looking for a game that uses a non-linear approach with lots of dialogue options through which you can create a character of your choosing, featuring standard NWN systems, I encourage you to look elsewhere. There are plenty of excellent games out there that do an excellent job of this. I would also encourage you to look elsewhere if you don't have the time to allow the story and characters to develop. Like a great novel, the story gets better as it goes, and many questions remain unanswered until later in the series. In the beginning, you will not know the full history of each of the characters nor have a full understanding of their motivations, but over the course of the game these elements will become apparent. Finally, in order to add to the depth of the characters, Vis et Virtus uses pregenerated characters. If you are uninterested in games involving pregenerated characters, please do not waste your time downloading VeV.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a game with a truly epic story, strategic battles, engaging party members, unique systems and stunning custom content that make you feel like you're playing an entirely different game, you will enjoy Vis et Virtus.
If you are still uncertain as to whether Vis et Virtus is the sort of gaming experience you like, I encourage you to read our reviews. QSW and the Vault Review Team have written excellent, detailed reviews of the last three chapters of VeV which will likely give you a good idea of what to expect. You can find them at Link, Link, and Link.
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For more information on Vis et Virtus, please visit our website at Link
Pros: - Probably the most customized series on the Vault: custom items, music, classes/abilities, world and some adsitional stuff like a world map handed out separately. - Characters with a strongly developed personality. The story is totally epic too, though you won't see most of it yet. - Very good (and long) cutscenes. - The author is polite, extremely fast to help and doesn't shy away from doing yet another truckload of work to improve his series, even though there weren't many players at first. In fact, the last two overhauls have greatly reduced most of the criticisms I voiced after my first playthrough (see post before this). Cons: - Areas are a bit too large and empty. - Style can be hard to get used to. As the author pointed out, this game makes use of eastern RPG style and a (custom) midi sound. Which wasn't a problem for me, as this is the style I fancy anyway. Altogether: A unique experience with some great heights (mstly when characters open their mouths) and some drags in between, though the latter has quite improved since this series was first posted. _________________________ One feels inclined to say that the idea that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "creation". - Sigmund Freud
Posted by Libita at on12/12/10
Pros: - Probably the most customized series on the Vault: custom items, music, classes/abilities, world and some adsitional stuff like a world map handed out separately. - Characters with a strongly developed personality. The story is totally epic too, though you won't see most of it yet. - Very good (and long) cutscenes. - The author is polite, extremely fast to help and doesn't shy away from doing yet another truckload of work to improve his series, even though there weren't many players at first. In fact, the last two overhauls have greatly reduced most of the criticisms I voiced after my first playthrough (see post before this). Cons: - Areas are a bit too large and empty. - Style can be hard to get used to. As the author pointed out, this game makes use of eastern RPG style and a (custom) midi sound. Which wasn't a problem for me, as this is the style I fancy anyway. Altogether: A unique experience with some great heights (mstly when characters open their mouths) and some drags in between, though the latter has quite improved since this series was first posted. _________________________ One feels inclined to say that the idea that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "creation". - Sigmund Freud
Posted by Libita at on12/12/10
Alright, I have finished this chapter in the new version. This is what came to my mind: - Having map pins is good, though it wasn't always clear in which direction to go in a city. A suggestion would be to also include street signs or being able to ask the guards or peasants for directions to the shops, docks and/or city gates. - The areas still have a bit too few elements in them. There were some corpses to be found, and a named bandit, but otherwise it was mostly identical enemy groups. Which is the case in most games, but I wanted to point it out nonetheless. It is still a nice touch to have the identical-looking enemies being slightly different. - Cutscenes are awesome, but it would be nice to have - either a possibility to skip them or - an autosave after them when there's a fight directly afterwards. I had to run the cutscene with meeting Xian several times because I died directly after it. - The universal map was GREAT in speeding travel up. - The dialogue is still awesome, particularly Xian's take on what happened to him rendered me speechless. I think, the main difference between the earlier and the later chapters is that you have yet to collect most of the awesome people to have dialogue with. Some nitpicks: - Seiji lost its focus on Rika every round, getting sneak attacked in the process. Is that intentional? - The HAND OF PAILITH can be taken away. - Henchpeople give you their inventory when they leave, but not the equipped items, I think. - What's the matter with the damaged goods? If it's to showcase Azura's state of mind, I shouldn't be able to take it away. In fact, Seiji automatically got it when Azura parted ways. I will post an updated vote separately, so that the reader gets a full review, instead of just a review of the update. _________________________ One feels inclined to say that the idea that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "creation". - Sigmund Freud
Posted by EthernalWanderer at on10/10/10
I enjoyed it sooo much, I'm even getting fond of the Monk class. Pewpew! :D
Posted by flamingninja at on09/27/10
This series is the reason to reinstall NWN on your computer.
Posted by bombsaway at on09/19/09
i really like the story. one of the best on the vault.
Posted by shuurai at on09/10/09
Kinda torn about this one... I like the story so far, but frankly that is the main thing keeping me interested at this point. As some others have mentioned, you're basically railroaded through the story at a pace that makes it impossible to really have much character development - which is odd considering that the authors seemed to consider character to be central to their effort. Some of the areas are just too big. Ridiculously big at times. And for the most part, it's generally wasted space. I understand not having side quests, but throwing in some variety in the landscape, maybe some interesting features here or there would have made a huge difference. Even having the various NPC's say something interesting once in a while, give them conversations, etc. I found the combat to be very easy in most cases; the only difficult fights being the ones you're essentially forced to run away from. Much of the fights are repetitive - the same creatures over and over again. The cut scenes are well done, and do a good job of moving the story along. But the dialog in general could be a bit more clear at times. For example, at one point your character is supposed to "go to the mountains" but there really isn't any indication of where these mountains are, what direction to go, etc.
Posted by Pailith at 2009-05-3007:41:18
Yeah, the contest is over, but hey, thanks for the attempt! I appreciate it.
Posted by Libita at on12/12/10
Just found it. Jeez, I'm so stupid. I'e always noticed the awards somehow, but it seems this year I was a bit blind. Sorry. _________________________ One feels inclined to say that the idea that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "creation". - Sigmund Freud
Posted by Libita at on12/12/10
When I use that link, I get: "An Error Has OccurredInvalid View Specified (View Does Not Exist)" I don't see anything on the front page either. Was I too stupid to see it in time and it's already finished? _________________________ One feels inclined to say that the idea that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "creation". - Sigmund Freud
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