I kickstart very rarely.
I absolutely refuse to preorder games from big studios, but when it's a company that would not have been able to make its own games otherwise I make an exception.
Obsidian is one of those studios, and the fact that they are creating their own IP in isometric RPGs these days is a minor miracle of its own.
And to fanboy for a bit they are so cool you guys you don't even know. If for no other reason than their history with fallout they have my undying devotion.
So I am in the bag for Obsidian for sure, just to be clear.
FromSoftware I'm more lukewarm on, honestly. I mean I never played King's Field, and while I did play Demon Souls and then eventually Dark Souls it was long after they came out. I'm not really much of an action fan in general, so while I do enjoy the games I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to get to them. Oh, and they're mega depressing to me. My particular trigger for existential horror is the ultimate heat death of the universe, so these games really strike home.
So, anyway I'm playing Pillars of Eternity 2 right now, and I'm also playing Dark Souls 2 right now.
During the day, when I need to be able to pause and walk away to play legos* I play Pillars. At night when I have the luxury of being able to not pause, I play Dark Souls 2.
Honestly they're pretty similar in a lot of ways. I mean ok they are mostly incredibly different but in a couple ways . They are both fairly un-revolutionary entries in old-school series. Both of them are hard as hell, if you want them to be.
I've not gotten deep into Pillars yet, but so far I like the inclusion of multiclassing (no idea if any of the characters I've created are remotely viable, though Chanter/ranger for life) and the story is as ever great.
They have begun to bleed into one another in weird ways in my dreams though. The giant statue rising from the earth, crushing first my fortress then me as a hopelessly roll around and try to stab it in the foot.
The story of the statue is actually a really sad one (spoilers here for POE) a man lost his son and spent the rest of his life trying to build them a new body. This is of course in a world where souls have been proven to be real, and while this is thus far more reasonable a thing to do than it would be in our world, it's still pretty nuts.
I mean, honestly, who would want to be a giant statue? Was he going to build a second giant to keep him company?
My point, I guess is that despite the massive revelation that there is life after death, the souls in POE are eventually going to lose themselves. Trying to hold on to what is just leads to madness and despair. The heat death of the universe is coming. There is no stopping it forever. There is no being forever. There is no forever.
So, yeah, kinda similar if you think about it.
*I have a kid. I don't -just- like Lego myself.