Bound By Flame

Please look at the post by Phobos711 - it worked for me and now plays perfectly in English. In fact his workaround prompted me to buy this game and took me about 5 minutes to fix.

I bought this game after playing and enjoying Greedfall. I thought the game was fun and interesting all the way to the end. The last fight was way too difficult. I ended up just watching the ending battle and closing sequence on you tube. This is only the second game out of hundreds that I have had to do this. Thankfully, Spiders did much better with Greedfall. Despite being a short game at around 20 hours, I did enjoy it right up until the end.

Went in not expecting much because the low reviews. I'am giving it 5 stars not because it's perfect, but because it's fun. At the end of the day that is what matters. I like the story, combat is challenging and it's the first game I was looking forward to playing a ( bad ) guy. Catch it on sale and give it a go. I will be getting other games from Spiders studio to help support the little guy

Bound by Flame is one of those games that reminds you of a football team that sets out to win the Champions League, but only manages to win their national championship and a cup or two. It's ambitious, but falls well short of all the buildup and setup of its atmospheric and well-written world. The type of RPG you'll play when you feel more like a quick bite rather than a headfirst dive into a time-consuming 100+ hours fantasy world. Which isn't to say that it doesn't do many things well. Combat is unforgiving and dynamic, but you'll get the hang of it and it becomes satisfying as your (generous from the outset) amount of options become more viable and powerful. Sound effects are good, even if sometimes amateurishly lacking during cutscenes. The music doesn't always fit the mood and is, in a word, dissonant, which is best represented by its main theme, a brassy, chanting call to adventure that is overtaken by what seems to be a female-voiced random JRPG bonus track. Graphics are very much 2014, but nicely detailed and with a very idiosyncratic aesthetic that gives the world an identity all of its own. Speaking of the world, it's fairly run-of-the-mill fantasy fare, but mature and with a somewhat arch and oh-so-French sensibility (the bit about an elf talking of dragons and dwarves in mocking fashion as the stuff of fairytales was a slow burner that made me chuckle for a good half an hour, for example). Your companions are well fleshed out, even if their questlines feel abbreviated and the relationships you can develop are somewhat less than compelling, but all of them do a good job of embodying their world through their unique perspectives and leave you wanting more, like characters of a short story that ended a little too early. All in all, Bound by Flame doesn't really bring anything new to the table or use any unheard-of ingredients, but the dish it cooks up is no less tasty for it. Très bien!

I have played now five Spiders games and I enjoyed most of it, with Greedfall the newest and best. Bound by flame is not bad, and I played as a rogue with the crossbow and two daggers, stealth killing and some skills from the flame skill tree. I had read that playing a warrior can be difficult, so I chose otherwise. It is crucial to get a feeling for dodging because the time window for evading a hit and starting a riposte is narrow and it's not always easy to avoid being hit. So I played on easy and it was difficult enough sometimes nevertheless. Later, I could have switched to Normal for most fights but facing the same kinds of enemies all and again was kinda boring, so I left it on Easy difficulty. This also made the boss fights easier. Letting your ally do the melee and using the crossbow and some traps was a good strategy for boss fights. The companions were not so vivid and interesting as in Greedfall or The Technomancer, though. Everything good until the last boss fight (The ice lord Blackfrost is not the last one!). This was ridiculously difficult and even on easy I stood no chance. I read that it makes things easier if you bring dozens of traps and crossbow bolts, and I had a lot of the latter but very few traps left. There are many players who cannot beat the last boss. It is a pity you can't finish the game because when I play on Easy, fights should be easy, as a last resort if harder difficulty levels are too difficult. I refused to follow the demon and finished the game as a human with no possession but then the flame skills are rather weak. It is more an add-on really but very helpful against some opponents. I don't think I will play a second run as a fully possessed demon but who knows. Romancing is weak and felt more satisfying in Greedfall.