Interview Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga Interview

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

<p>Swen Vincke of Larian Studios took some time to answer our probing questions about <a href="http://www.larian.com/dragonknightsaga.php" target="_blank"><strong>Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga</strong></a> and future Larian titles.<br /><br />&lt;blockquote&gt;Another rather nifty idea in Divinity 2 was the mindreading. In my opinion the *thank god no one knows the location of mah trezure*-kind of application was a bit overused and in FoV it was a bit too expensive XP cost-wise but it was a nifty mechanic nontheless and enabled some nice unique quest solutions. Can we expect to see this or a similar mechanic in future games or was it an one time thing for Divinity 2 only?<br /><br />I&rsquo;m glad that one received so much positive attention. It was quite a lot of development work to put it in there, and I&rsquo;m pretty sure many people in QA wished it wasn&rsquo;t there. I remember when introducing it, the team looked at me as if I&rsquo;d been taking drugs. Already they were overloaded with work to get all of the content in, and here was this madman telling them that every single dialog should get a mindread path because of this new cool skill. Considering the amount of dialogues in the game, that really added a lot of work to their plate, so you can understand that on occasion they took a shortcut, but there really are some very cool mindreads in there. And yes, we&rsquo;re thinking of similar &rdquo;small&rdquo; things when it comes to our next RPGs.&lt;/blockquote&gt;</p>

 

[Roguey]

I like how he admits to their mistakes, though his vague RPG design philosophy and newfound focus on people who "just want to go through the experience" is kind of worrying. Thanks for the interview.

 

[Ruprekt]

TBH, no RPG released this decade gave me the feeling I got when playing the Ultima series, so I’ll have to pass. I don’t have a favourite RPG this decade

 

[commie]

As Ruprekt says, this quote alone sets him apart from about every other developer(including official Codexian Gods) who seems to have compromised enough to find the new shit, the equal of the old.

 

[phanboy_iv]

Larian are good guys. One reason I buy their games.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Larian are good guys. One reason I buy their games.

Another reason I can think of - they make good games. Apart from the obvious misstep that was Beyond Divinity, both DD and now Div2 / DKS are bloody great.

I just got my battle tower in DKS and am currently cutting a swath through the Orobas Fjords with my lvl 20 Ranger/Mage/Fighter hybrid. Having an absolute blast.

Game's got a little bit of everything. Interesting world to explore, good char progression, fun (if a bit twitchy) combat, ok story (with a scence of humor), nice graphics (bit shiny in spots), some really good quest design with multiple ways to solve, great interface and yes, even an arcade flight sim.

Tons of content for a $40 game, best fun I've had all year.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS ACTUALLY A RELATIVELY BULLSHIT FREE INTERVIEW

THE ULTIMA INFLUENCE REALLY SHOWED IN DD

 

[Phelot]

Nice interview VoD! Good to see the Codex producing articles

 

[Tolknaz]

Yes, great interview. It is sad though, that Larian, primarily an ARPG developer is now one of the few "good guys" left amongst the top dogs. There was certainly some dumbing down in Div2, but the game was still relatively free of handholding. It's kind of funny to see their forums full of kids, who lament the lack of quest compass and being lost in the game all the time. And Divinity 2 is a linear game with relatively small maps and an abundance of map markers.
Edit: Some fine examples of superhuman geniuses populating the forums there.
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads ... Post423957
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads ... =2&fpart=1

 

[Sceptic]

Awesome interview VoD

"System has less depth than in DD"
Larian: we’ll try to fix that in future games.

"Combat was too hard in ED"
Larian: We introduced Casual.

"Combat became too easy in DKS"
Larian: we're patching in a nightmare difficulty.

"Level-dependent damage sucks"
Larian: Yes, this has been removed completely, and it was a terrible idea.
These guys are amazing. Will buy

 

[DalekFlay]

Good interview... he's a real good guy on their forum and I am glad to be a supporter of theirs.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Good Interview, that guy doesn't sound like a retard although he could be smart enough to say those things just to gain more popularity here.

 

[Cenobyte]

Thanks for the interview. It's nice to see him admitting some design errors and problems, that's always the first step into improvement.

Even with all this criticism, Divinity 2 is imho a pretty solid game. I had a lot of fun playing the game.

 

[MicoSelva]

Finally, a developer who sees the in-game combat as a mean to achieve goals, not as the goal itself. Buying.


Good interview, btw.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Finally, a developer who sees the in-game combat as a mean to achieve goals, not as the goal itself. Buying.

Heh, well said, MicoSelva. I think you won't regret buying this game. At least I don't have any regrets now that I finally bought DKS.

 

[Ultar54]

My hat is off to the interviewer and his subject for a rare but terrific review. Thank you for asking questions we all wanted to ask without any ass kissing and also to the subject for direct truthfull answers. For the record I like DD2 DKS alot.

 

[thesisko]

There was certainly some dumbing down in Div2, but the game was still relatively free of handholding.

I've been meaning to buy DKS and am pondering whether to play DD/BD first. In what ways has DKS been dumbed down exactly?

 

[Stalin]

i'll buy it for the xbawks when it hits the bargain bin its already half price atm

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

man i wish whomever did the interview (ventlator of rooms?) wouldn't have been so negative. this is one of the few current game developers that i would have said encouraging things to.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

at least the soundtrack got its deserved bit of praise.

 

[thesisko]

So what is improved/dumbed down in Divinity 2 compared to Divine Divinity? From the interview I gather there are less skills, so I guess that's one area that was dumbed down? Anything that is done better in Divinity 2?

 

[Stalin]

have you actually played divinity? It was a text adventure

 

[thesisko]

Looks like an ARPG to me.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

man i wish whomever did the interview (ventlator of rooms?) wouldn't have been so negative. this is one of the few current game developers that i would have said encouraging things to.

I don't think I've been overly negative. I just asked the things that came to my mind. Maybe I should have spent more time discussing how awesome!! the ladder-climbing animations were, a technology not every RPG developer has mastered yet *cough* Bethesda *cough*. Or how every female in the game has the same head with different hair only. Oh wait, that sounds a bit negative, so strike that. Cloning must be ignored in all games but The Witcher.

So what is improved/dumbed down in Divinity 2 compared to Divine Divinity? From the interview I gather there are less skills, so I guess that's one area that was dumbed down? Anything that is done better in Divinity 2?

It has less skill and less spells. You could learn and upgrade spells from tomes, not only with skillpoints, resulting in a wider array of options to choose from. I'd wager one of the main reasons for cutting down on spells and abilities was that they thought they could balance the game better. Despite the number of spells/abilities in DD a lot weren't really balanced well. Some were quite powerful (Frost, Curse), others were way too powerful for their own good (Poison Weapon and this scorpion summoning thing) whereas others were pretty much useless.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

I don't think I've been overly negative. I just asked the things that came to my mind. Maybe I should have spent more time discussing how awesome!! the ladder-climbing animations were, a technology not every RPG developer has mastered yet *cough* Bethesda *cough*. Or how every female in the game has the same head with different hair only. Oh wait, that sounds a bit negative, so strike that. Cloning must be ignored in all games but The Witcher.
.

It's a solid action RPG with some mildly original feautures, something i haven't played for years and years. i'm not sure what you're on about with the witcher, i haven't criticized the witcher for having cloned female heads.