Avowed dev Obsidian didn't expect everyone to hate one of the Xbox RPG's biggest systems — "That frustration came through loud and clear"

While most elements of Obsidian Entertainment's 2025 Xbox RPG Avowed were generally well-received by players, one pillar of the gameplay that grinded many gears was its crafting system, and how critically important it was to engage with since it's what allows you to make very necessary upgrades for your weapons and armor.

The game often drove you to search for upgrade materials exhaustively. They were far too scarce in the world, but because you'd struggle to progress effectively without upgrades, the grind wasn't something you could just ignore. That really frustrated many of Avowed's fans — and Obsidian was completely surprised by the negative feedback.

"When the game first launched, there was a strong community sentiment that the economy was way too tight. Players felt like they were bouncing off the content too quickly, not enough unique gear variety, equipment prices in stores felt too steep, the upgrade system required too many resources, and the world wasn't providing enough to keep up," gameplay director Gabe Paramo told RPG Site.

"We were definitely surprised by how many people consistently bounced off the upgrading experience. We were trying to create a tight gameplay loop. The player completes content, upgrades their gear, and faces harder content," he continued. "But because the game is open-area, players who really wanted to explore were getting stopped in their tracks in ways we didn't anticipate."

Ultimately, Paramo says, the difficulty of the enemies themselves wasn't the problem; the way "the upgrade system wasn't keeping pace with their curiosity" was the true issue. "That frustration came through loud and clear. We've since addressed it and made the experience much more gradual and less binary," he added.

With recent gameplay adjustments and tweaks, Paramo notes that Obsidian was "able to address all of that," with players able to "engage with the progression systems the way they want to." He says "The friction has been smoothed out significantly, and the progression curve feels much more gradual rather than heavily stepped."

Overall, difficulty spikes in new areas should now be far less sharp than they once were, and things like shop prices and upgrade costs should feel less daunting to contend with, too. Thank goodness.

Avowed may not be open world, but it is open-ended with large areas to adventure through in a non-linear fashion. That kind of structure encourages players to explore, but gating that exploration behind steep upgrade requirements is antithetical to that encouragement, and often made the game feel rather disjointed at times.

Thus, I'm very glad to see that these improvements have come to the Pillars of Eternity RPG, and may go for a second, full playthrough soon now that they're here. Now is certainly a good time to check out Avowed again, what with the new Anniversary Update having dropped earlier this week.

In addition to highly requested features like New Game Plus and Photo Mode, the big patch also brought Avowed to PS5, making it the latest Xbox Game Studios title to arrive on Sony's console. Of course, it's also playable on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, with Xbox Game Pass availability too.

What's your opinion of Avowed?

Have you played Avowed? If so, are you a fan, or did you bounce off of the game? If not, are you planning on checking it out at some point? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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