Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Citizen]

Its a good game, I really enjoyed ultima7-style of world interactivity. I don't mind the unserious writing (actually I even prefer it to "mature" writing of games taking themselves too seriously, which is mostly a grimdark loredump overload a la PoE)

It has it's share of problems, the combat is botched by stupid armor and initiative systems and kinda - but overall it's still one of the best modern rpgs, that really captures the spirit of a tabletop roleplaying with friends where you enjoy a lighthearted atmosphere, come up with original ideas, funny encounters and just have a good time, instead of pretentious "muh deeep philosophy, muh mature plot" spirit of modern cRPGs

 

[Strange Fellow]

DOS 2 was actually p grimdark, I thought. In the first game you help a cat find a shiny locket to impress his lady friend, in this one he's tortured and made to watch his friend die.

 

[Bohr]

It was Jan

 

[Harry Easter]

It was Jan

Makes sense.

 

[cruel]

I like how this game rewards creativity while playing.

- item prices are based on attitude and bartering skills. Because of level scaling, you will need to shop a lot, hence you want to minimize the amount of money spent. If you do the math - for most shoppers (Driftwood, for example), giving them 6 gold worth of goods for free improves their attitude by +1. If you start with attitude 10, you need to give them 90 x 6 = 540 gold worth of goods for free, to improve their attitude from 10 to 100. By investing 540 only once, you cut item discount from 28% to 42% (if I remember correctly). So basically, by buying two epic items you are getting your investment back, and a lot of money saved in the long run (the more you shop, more money saved).

- when trying to steal, and getting annoyed if the NPC is moving too much: split the group, start talking with the character you want to steal from, and at the same time approach him from the back using the character you want to use for stealing. This way the person is engaged in conversation, and you are free to steal stuff without time pressure. Fun.


And yeah, this game is much darker than the previous one. You can find an undead feeding on a child corpse, or severed leg belonging to a 9 year old who went swimming. Even meeting the 'lamenting abomination' is far from lighthearted. DOS1 was pretty annoying with silly stuff, this one is not.

 

[Bohr]

Ok, not as prestigious as a Dex poll, but encouraging for those at the coalface nevertheless

 

[Darth Canoli]

This game is really a seller, it still surprises me. Currently it's #20 in global top sellers on Steam without any discount, just below Cyberpunk 2077.

Why would you be surprised, the masses like this kind of shit, the system is extremely simple, yet, it seems complex (a lot of possibilities, yet, armors blocks it all and, there's two of them so you're left with dumb elemental combos), you have to change weapons equipment every 5 minutes, just like in the diablo series : Yeah! I just got my level 10 butter knife of agility ... A MA ZING ...

 

[Lacrymas]

This game's mainstream success and popularity continue to baffle me. Is it some sort of "first time" thing mixed in with a bit of elitism? As in "mainstream shooters are too obvious, we need something different to show that we aren't shallow or going with the trends/the normies" and this is the first RPG that got any sort of mainstream attention in the last ...pfff, 10 years.

 

[Neerasrc]

It is an independent company and doing crpg. Even this is a success. one number? I appreciate.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It is an independent company and doing crpg. Even this is a success. one number? I appreciate.

Of course, that's a good thing.

Still, DOS2 is a piece of shit.

 

[Lacrymas]

While it is a victory for RPGs, it isn't a victory for those who disliked the degenerate mechanics it introduced. Even though Swen himself is already denouncing armor for instance, there is no telling how many people are going to copy it in their attempt at an RPG. The thought is horrifying.

 

[Neerasrc]

It is an independent company and doing crpg. Even this is a success. one number? I appreciate.

Of course, that's a good thing.

Still, DOS2 is a piece of shit.

:D

 

[Murk]

I like how this game rewards creativity while playing.

- item prices are based on attitude and bartering skills. Because of level scaling, you will need to shop a lot, hence you want to minimize the amount of money spent. If you do the math - for most shoppers (Driftwood, for example), giving them 6 gold worth of goods for free improves their attitude by +1. If you start with attitude 10, you need to give them 90 x 6 = 540 gold worth of goods for free, to improve their attitude from 10 to 100. By investing 540 only once, you cut item discount from 28% to 42% (if I remember correctly). So basically, by buying two epic items you are getting your investment back, and a lot of money saved in the long run (the more you shop, more money saved).

- when trying to steal, and getting annoyed if the NPC is moving too much: split the group, start talking with the character you want to steal from, and at the same time approach him from the back using the character you want to use for stealing. This way the person is engaged in conversation, and you are free to steal stuff without time pressure. Fun.


And yeah, this game is much darker than the previous one. You can find an undead feeding on a child corpse, or severed leg belonging to a 9 year old who went swimming. Even meeting the 'lamenting abomination' is far from lighthearted. DOS1 was pretty annoying with silly stuff, this one is not.

I had really hoped they built on the original premise a bit more. The idea that the world is being invaded by nigh-unstoppable otherwordly monstrosities and even the very child of an ascended-god decides to take an extreme action, like collaring and concentration camps, in order to try to at least contain the invasion is an interesting concept IMO.

Too bad it kind of stopped mattering. Same thing with 'source attracts voidwoken' -- how great would it be if the source powers actually could attract them, with stronger more source-driven abilities having a higher chance to do this. Perhaps not just spawning monsters, but going into CC and status effects as well.

But then it seems the game was severely reduced in scope from what they planned -- the idea that the entire game takes place in one consistent map would have potentially been amazing and would allow for the pearlier parts of the game world to change based on what happens later, and to have more long-term quests that don't all basically fizzle out once you enter the 'exit stage' portal.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

there is no telling how many people are going to copy it in their attempt at an RPG.

Haven't heard of a single copycat thus far

 

[Valky]

Swen was a false messiah.

 

[Lacrymas]

Haven't heard of a single copycat thus far

We'll see, but there's the possibility to copy all sorts of other mechanics or aesthetics, like the random items, initiative order, the over-the-top JRPG-style environmental SFX that cause your eyes to bleed, etc. etc.

 

[Modron]

there is no telling how many people are going to copy it in their attempt at an RPG.

Haven't heard of a single copycat thus far

There is at least one RPG with D:OS aesthetics on the way for sure. Ninja: searched for Looks like Divinity in our forum search and found it kek https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ld-sandbox-rpg-with-turn-based-combat.126813/.

 

[Ismaul]

DOS2 >> Infinity Engine games and clones (PoE) except for Torment, but the reasons Torment is good have little to do with its system.

Glorious TB, Classless system, Great world interactivity, All around fun. We got a Narrator in the game, 3rd person PC dialogue instead of putting world in our mouths, great music unlike those Inon Zur abominations. The skill system is all about experimenting with different combinations of powers. I could go on.

All those crying about armor exaggerate way too much. It's a good thing you can't CC everything right away. It's a good thing that there's a tactical element where you try to do physical dmg against low phys armor, and magical dmg against low magical armor. The execution could've been better, but that is true of the mechanics of all classics out there.

The good wayyy outweighs the flaws. Great incline!

 

[Lacrymas]

All those crying about armor exaggerate way too much. It's a good thing you can't CC everything right away.

This could've been avoided by either not handing out CCs to everyone like candy and/or CCs having a cast time. The physical/magic armor split incentivizes specializing in one damage type or the other. Let's say a mob has 500 physical, 500 magical armor and 500 health. You hit it with a physical ability for 500 damage, then hit it with another character for 500 magical damage. That second turn is wasted and has done nothing, you would've killed the unit had that second damage been physical. This is the same regardless of how much physical vs magical armor the target has. It fundamentally wastes turns that are in theory successful. It's a cheap way to hinder you.

 

[Ismaul]

It's rare that enemies' physical armor = their magical armor. Sure, you can specialize in one damage type. But you can also diversify. And if you do, you aim your physical damage vs weak phys armor, and your magical damage vs weak magical armor. The cost of diversifying is offset by having an easier time penetrating enemy defenses.

And you can build characters that can help out in both types of damage. Take Rogues for example, usually physically oriented, but you've got Chloroform and Gag Order that do magical damage, you've got Sawtooth Knife that does piercing and bypasses armor, and you can gain some utility to support magical damage dealers if needed, for example Decaying Touch so your Hydro caster does physical. Rangers are the same, they have piercing attacks with Marksman's Fang and can mix and match damage types with special arrows. Summoners can choose their damage type. Casters can use some Necro for physical damage, Bouncing Shield from Warfare if they use a shield, Chicken Claw for physical CC, and even Battle Stomp / Battering Ram for more physical CC if they use a melee weapon. Physical damage dealers also have easy access to magical CCs with Love grenades, Chloroform again, Medusa Head. Etc. The tools are there to be used.

It's obviously inefficient to use magical attacks against an enemy from which you've stripped the physical armor. You shouldn't do that unless you have no alternative. But usually there's not just one enemy.

 

[Lacrymas]

Like I said, it doesn't really matter how much magical vs physical armor a mob has. If a single character can't do both damage types in a group in which all others can, then their turn is essentially wasted. Let's say a mob has 10k physical armor, 500 magical armor and 1500 health. You hit it with character A for 500 magical damage, with character B for 500 magical damage and with character C for 500 magical damage. However, the last character only does physical damage and does 500 physical damage to the mob, if that damage was not physical, it would've killed the target, but it didn't and it essentially wasted their perfectly viable and set-up turn. It's arbitrary in that context, there are much better designs than this.

You will say "well, make all characters do both damage types", but that only forces you into a different kind of specialization for the whole party. You have to base your character building choice around this, just like in PoE2 you have to base your character building on Accuracy or Penetration, and you really have no choice since status effects don't work if the target has armor on and only damage matters. It gets worse if 2 characters deal magical damage and the other 2 physical. It's not that it doesn't work, but it "works" in a very technical sense and a better system could've been in its place.

This is a very surface-level issue that comes with armor, there are a loooooooooooot more.

 

[Ismaul]

1- There is more than one enemy. You don't waste turns if your physical attacks focus one guy and the magical ones another.

2- You don't need all characters to do both damage types. CCs against the type of armor a character is not specialized against are easily available. So are support skills. Both do not require you to build a character that scales both types of damage with Attribute and Ability points. You just need 1-2 points in the Ability, which can be had on gear, that's it.

 

[Lacrymas]

But that strips you of the ability to focus-fire a particularly dangerous enemy, even if there are other mobs, it hinders you in a very cheap way. You can also check out Luckmann's post on the issue here.

 

[Ismaul]

But that strips you of the ability to focus-fire a particularly dangerous enemy, even if there are other mobs, it hinders you in a very cheap way. You can also check out Luckmann's post on the issue here.

Oh noes a game where the tried and true boring strategy of focus fire doesn't work perfectly! What will I do? Change tactics? The horror!

But in fact, you can disable enemies with all characters. CCs against both types of armor are available for every character and do not require you to scale your damage with Attributes and Abilities. Your magical attacker can CC an opponent with no physical armor with a simple Chicken Claw or something similar. Your physical attackers can strip the physical armor and your magical attacker can CC / support them. There's no need to focus-fire until death, only until CC. And everyone can have CCs.

Take a look a Geomancy for example. It does Poison and Earth damage; magical attacks in other words. But some of its powers have CCs against physical armor. Impalement cripples, Earthquake knocks down, Corrosive Spray atrophies (prevents use of weapons and weapon skills) and does acid (destroy an amount of physical armor if any). With the Torturer talent, Worm Tremor entagles and it bypasses armor.

It's the same for all Abilities. You've got CCs up the wazoo. You've said it yourself:

This could've been avoided by either not handing out CCs to everyone like candy and/or CCs having a cast time.

So don't tell me you can't manage to use those handed out CCs to build some synergy between your physical and magical attackers. But if you really can't into gitting gud, well you can still build a one-damage-type party and brute force through everything.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-gallego-mora-1b33aa175/

Team lead comic artist
Company Name Larian Studios
Dates Employed Sep 2018 – Present
Employment Duration 3 mos
Location Remota

I work as a Character artist, Colorist and Team Lead Artist in a comic adaptation of thevideogame "Divinity: Original Sin 2". I am in charge of planning the layout composition for thecomic, pencil art of the characters and elements, inking those characters and elements, leadingthe rotulation artist and the background artist and colouring the characters, elements andbackgrounds.

So last year's advent calendar comics was not enough...