This product has had somewhat of the Wratih Cruse to it. It has had plentiful delays, issues with the health of the developers and even a couple instances of art integrity problems. These issues aside, this is probably still the best edition of Exalted so far.

Setting For the setting, what stands out is a very strong return to focus. The way the wrold is described and much of how things are written try to call back to a lot of what Exalted stated as its original source material: anime and manga, yes, but also classics like Homer and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as well as fantasy inspiration like Chronicles of the Flat Earth and Black Company, Howard's Conan and real world works on history and economics like Debt: the First 5,000 Years and Seeing Like a State. THis creates a world which feels exotic and strange, but also tries to give grounding to things which might have been as focused on before for the game. The Realm feels like the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, the lands feel far away and exotic and a lot is done to make it feel focused and flavorful.

I think that the game has a very clear vision of what it wants to be in how it presents the world and focuses its comments on it. The fiction and art help in this as well. It is clear on what inspries it and I think does well in trying to emphasize what it feels are its roots.

Mechanics The mechanics reflect this want for feel as well, wtih combat, while not fast, having a nice dynamic element that results in cinematic events and good tactical depth. Social mechanics do a good job of creating things to leverage on for powerful and heroic characters to leverage on besides stabbing. And systems like Craft, projects and Lore show interesting genre-related takes of the way the world is presented above.

There are some mechanics that will not be for everyone, as has been hotly debated all over the web. I'm not going to dismiss that there are places I wish writing was tighter or that the arrangement of some things is bizarre. However, most are simply quibbles compared to other editions of Exalted or even most White Wolf products, I feel. And soem issues I think are thsoe of taste. I myself like how deep and complex Charms are. But I also think that such maximalist design might not be for everyone.

Art and Design Aesthetically I quite like the look of the book a lot. With the updated final art, I like how colorful of a book it is. Many RPGs I find tend towards a lot of use of brown, grey and dark colors about. I don't feel there ar emany pictures in this book that don't have at least one bright color to it. I love how even the pictures with lots of undead in them tend to have bright reds or deep purples to them, giving things a nice "lighted" look. My only personal complaint is that this edition probably has the least manga/anime style. I was a fan of that style and would have liked to see more of it.

I do also think that some things again, feel odd to me. Headers could have been more distinct, for instance. And I find the character sheet unispiring myself. Also, despite all the work and delays, some typos and layout mistakes seem to still be in the final product. This is unfortunate and probably reflects what should be more communication with art directors in the future if anything.

Conclusion All and all I'm quite happy with this product. I have already ran a campaign using the preview rules and have had great success with players both old and new to Exalted. I find people greatly enjoy the world and I greatly enjoy both playing games and exploring siad world through its mechanics. It is by no means perfect, but I think that for what I want out of a game, few quite match it.

I really like the vinettes about, and the emphasis on "ground level" stuff in Creation, while still having cool supernatural things about to chew on and spur some ideas. I also think there was some great story hook stuff, especially in the West and South parts of the directions, and the stuff on the Guild's interaction with mortals. I also really liked the stuff on the Underworld, raksha, and the Sidereals in all of it.

I think there are a couple criticisms. I still don't quite understand the discussion on why the Guild doesn't do long-term stuff instead of breaking a region's back wiht swing-monopolies (the paragraph seems almost to cut-off, but I might be misreading it). The secretary who used to be dream-eaten has to of risen really fast in just five years to get to her job if it was a Defiler that gave her a soul back. And I was sort of surprised to see Bren Marst downgraded from hierarch. I also am a bit confused as to whether hierarchs are actually replaced or not. The section on elections and their validity implied to e that sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.

Still, very solid book, and something to get me amped to run Exalted again, which is always something that I think a good book needs to do. Creation-Ruling Mandate is also very useful seeming and I have to do some playtesting and organization-sketching with it one of these days, I think.

And stuff.

Very solid book. Probably the best PDF-first book for the line so far and one of the best Compass books. There's a lot of care so far to make sure the themes of the setting are covered, we get good idea of life in the bizarre place, and adventure hooks all over ot play in it.

To boot, it looks pretty (good cover, good comic), with no recycled art and a good design asthetic to make it unique. Its clearly written and well done. It feels like very much of the wording is clean, clear, and able to say a lot without dragging things out.

Really liking it. Glad I got the whole set and love to see what else is coming up for it!

A very solid product. Filled with many useful game elements, ranging from hearthstones, a Background that helps Infernals play like they feel like Rock Stars and of course, a wide range of Charms to flesh-out, distinguish and customize one's own character.

The Charms themselves continue on the high note that is the Infernal Charmset mechanically adn thematically. In addition, adding Kimbery and Heretical Charms gives characters more room to grow in new, interesting directions and help STs create interesting and frightening antagonists.

Its also very well-done. The way it looks on the screen surprised me, and I like the use of filters, coloring, and appropriate (albeit recycled0 artwork for the various scenes. Very solid work ashtetically and including a B&W version for printing purposes was also a very good design choice.

Its worth the five bucks. I think WHite Wolf has shown to be quite awesome on their eBooks and I'm glad with each one I buy.

And stuff.

This book got me hooked on the first two paragraphs of the Preface and kept me reading through from there. The first half is very flavorful, itneresting and will add a pile of plot hooks and great setting elements to flesh-out Exalted characters and games I feel.

The second half continues this with a compilation of great errata, lots of cool new Charms which give the Dragon-Blooded a solid Charmset and very coherent and interesting theme.

And it all looks good, with the easy to read and Spartan ficitonal bits to the very nicely laid-out and color Charms. Really highly recommended and required for anything for Terrestrial Exalted in a Second Edition game.

Great resource for Sidereal fans. Their patrons, new Sidereal Charms (yay!), three new Martial Arts, a great tying of the goddesses into teh setting. Very useful and full of plot hooks.

Only gripe may be that I could of liked more Sidereal Charms and errata. But awesome otherwise.

The best of the set. Luna is very interesting and now feels part of the setting. Gaia gets coverage we never thought we'd get. The Moon itself seems like a great place ot try and visit for games. New Charms and Knacks are awesome. White Reaper Style is great.

Main gripe is recycled artwork and I noticed a couple layout errors with bolding or font, but those are minor quibbles. Excellent product.

The Sun is quite awesome, tons of new Solar Charms, new Artifact sand even some cool misc. stuff.

My main gripe is the lack of Charms for some specific Abilities, namely, no Charms at all for Archery, Thrown, War, Larceny and Sail. But what we get for other Abilities is a lot of good and great stuff to take into account for balancing custom Charms. Still very worth the five stars, though.

Arcanoi themselves are just not well-balanced, poorly playtested if at all, speed-bump ridden and not well thought-out. Pretty much needed to run ghosts, but I think they build issues with the actual Roll of Glorious Divinity II Arcanoi still prevail.

The styles are cool, but some seem to not be as well-balanced as they can be a few years after. Still, I think the Virtue styles are some of the better ones in Second Edition, the fluff is cool and I would suggest it strongly.

Its a module for Exalted, and so you have to do some railreading to get it to work. But I think with some modifictions and a liberal use of what's here, its a great cournal to start a game with.