Decided to give it another go after dropping at the start of Reaper's Coast, now I'm at the start of Nameless Isle and thinking about dropping it again. While I'd struggle to call it *bad*, it's a game that constantly leaves me wanting; its are peaks memorable and noteworthy, yet they overlook a sea of apathy.

To start with where it peaks, the combat is great! An engaging and thoughtful combat system compounded by character-building that affords some really stupid combos and gives you so much freedom that I'm surprised I only dipped into *six* different skill types.* Combat being a seamless part of the world paves way for some interesting consequences; a fight with a group of gatekeepers could easily spiral into fighting the whole encampment if the fighting moves too close to them, or you could send a lone party member in to a group to initiate a combat, and give your others freer room to sneak around and get their own pre-emptive attacks in while the combat encounter hangs on your turn. And while most pre-fight setup wasn't all that exciting for me, I do have one particular fond memory of blocking off a ladder with a chest I was hauling around for the past 10 hours and huddling at the top of it, while all the melee enemies sat at the bottom and growled at me (until they remembered they could attack it).

But while I enjoyed the combat, I felt that just about every other aspect of the game fell flat. For one, I found that the world, its story and my place within it was just so incredibly bland, and I couldn't get invested in it in any real capacity past the escape of Fort Joy (the very first story beat!). The Magisters are bad in such a generic "evil guy" way that's as uninteresting as the actual 'cosmic evil' Void beings, and these two are near-exclusively the only antagonistic forces I've run into. And while there's been some intrigue offered by the idea of chasing Ascension (nothing more than intrigue yet, though I can live with that for now), I don't exactly feel compelled to save this world that's struggled to offer me much more than generic bad guy types. To illustrate my disappointment in the nuance of the world, I was quite looking forward to seeing Beast's story with Lohar unfold, this multifaceted story between, Lohar's anger towards the Dwarven Queen, the Queen's attacks on the Magisters, Beast's comtempt towards both, and my own interests in this whole conflict - but it was solved as soon as it actually started, as Lohar is actually on your side and the Queen's side also pretty unequivocally the baddies in the conflict. There do still exist secrets and quests entirely detached from the tedium of the standard generic evil guys, but you have to do a lot of exploring to find them...

...which leads me to my other major issue, the one that's more actively antagonistic, exploration. Or more aptly, searching; searching and scrounging the world for every drop of exp you can find, lest you risk hitting a difficulty spike that exacerbates this very problem to a point that makes progression far too frustrating - entering Reaper's Coast at level 7 and only hitting level 9 before every quest I had seemed impossible was the reason I quit the first time. I use the word 'searching' because 'exploration', to me, implies doing it for its own sake, where the process of discovery is more of a motivator than the discoveries themselves. Feeling forced to scour the map top-to-bottom or fall behind the level curve destroys the organic feeling of exploration as I already have an explicit reason to be doing it, one that's both extremely important and, to be honest, rather boring. It also makes the discoveries themselves - usually quests - less engaging by proxy; regardless of how interesting they may or may not be, I'm doing them primarily for the exp, and it's just much harder to get into a quest when I've been conditioned to see them as exp dispensers.

I think I get why people like this game, but I'm not entirely sure what makes people love it. It's a great combat system, but one that's embellished with an RPG world that I find wholly unsatisfying, and the combat alone can't pull me the whole way through a game like this.

* Post-note edit: I like the freedom a lot, but I felt that customisation was too 'wide' and not 'deep' enough - the game felt extremely coy about giving me new tools for my *preferred* spell types (when I checked the wiki for what I was missing at the start of act 3 when I quit, there was barely anything left!) meaning I struggled to fit into any class fantasy I really wanted. Great for making the actual combat more fun, though

Great CRPG, certainly one of the best even among the "golden classics" on the Infinity Engine. It is also an improvement over Original Sin 1, which I enjoyed in terms of battle system (those elements combination and interaction with the scenery never get old), but it didn't click with me in other aspects. There are more interesting lore elements, plot with more fun twists, way less bland dialogues (some of them genuinely made me laugh, which is an achievement for a video game writing), more appealing area design. As an overall package it is pretty hard to think of better game in the genre (except, potentially, BG3, but I will check it later). If you compare it story wise with other games, there are better alternatives for sure. The story is relatively straightforward, but still was pretty entertaining to follow.

As cons I will mention several things. DOS2 can be dragging sometimes in terms of pacing, especially in the last act. I expected a bit more with "pre-made" characters story quests, they do make experience more engaging, they are still a bit lacking (I still recommend everyone to start the game with them, you can customize their builds however you want anyway). The game sometimes seems a bit restrictive due to necessity to find areas more appropriate for your current level. Also some fights can be too frustrating without cheese tactics.

Nevertheless, still amazing CRPG, which helped to revitalize the genre (I remember everyone being doomsayers during Mass Effect days, these are in the past).

After recently experiencing my first D&D campaign by a mediocre Dungeon Master, I feel like I am still missing that D&D magic. Luckily Divinity II is an ideal game of D&D, but in a video game format.

Divinity: Original Sin II has straight-forward combat mechanics as an RPG, although the number of intertwining systems in this game is overwhelming (sorry for setting you on fire, I forget sometimes). Focusing on elemental spells and status effects as a Cleric did make every encounter unique and thrilling. The game is filled with content, enabling you to upgrade and cast even more spells. This game has that freedom. That's all I can say, I remembered there were things that really bugged me, but I don't remember. Can't wait for Baldur's Gate 3

Also, my former Dungeon Master ended up being the guy to handle saving & loading ;_; You have no idea how many times they failed to save before a difficult fight

I've spent the past several months playing through Divinity 2 with a good friend and it has been one of my favorite gaming experiences in my life. The entire world is remarkably interactive and responsive, with so much freedom to play through its story. We had an absolute blast trying to solve quests and win combat encounters with off the wall strategies. Building our characters was also a rewarding experience, especially since it was so easy to reset any of our attributes. The combat itself is an absolute blast. I loved how strategic the encounters were, requiring genuine thought and some creative play to win. I know I'm several years late to this game, but this holds up as an all time great.

A contender for greatest CRPG. DOS2 has a fantasy setting which manages to feel unique in an era where it feels like the fantasy genre has been wrung dry which in and of itself is a feat. On top of that, the game features a combat system which has tons of depth and gives you lots of tools which allow you approach encounters in any way you deem fit. The game would be a bonafide masterpiece if it were not for the encounter design sometimes neglecting the emergent gameplay aspects inherent to the combat system and forcing you to deal with annoying gimmicks and that combat often places too much of an emphasis on environment control.

I recently completed Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition after pouring over 100 hours into it. I started with a dual lonewolves build but eventually switched to a 4-party setup with Ifan, Lohse, Sabille, and Fane. The game proved to be challenging yet addicting—I played on classic difficulty but switched to explorer when Fort Joy became too daunting. The game heavily relies on player creativity, offering countless ways to overcome challenges, whether through strategic planning or clever cheese tactics like collecting oil barrels for upcoming fights or abusing teleportation.

One of the game's strengths is its freedom for respec, allowing me to experiment with different builds and synergies between party members. However, the equipment scaling issue—where finding gear appropriate for my level was a struggle due to random drops—and the flawed implementation of the crafting system were notable downsides.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game's lore, especially revelations about the truth behind the seven gods, the God King, Fane, demons, Lucian, and more. The morally gray characters and their desperate struggles added depth to the story, surpassing the original Divinity: Original Sin in my opinion. However, the game's narrative suffered due to limitations imposed by the player character's choices. For example, being unable to hear Fane's conversations with other Eternals within the same party felt like a missed opportunity.

The need to replay the game multiple times due to missed storylines related to non-party characters killed before Act 2 was frustrating. Additionally, the endings felt flat, reminiscent of Fallout slides but lacking the impact.

Despite its flaws, Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition captures the essence of old-school RPGs with improved writing and storytelling. Its gameplay shines as one of the best in the turn-based genre, even if the narrative feels lacking at times.

This one is a huge step up from the first game in the story and dialogue department. I enjoyed it much more and actually finished it. I am still not 100% sold on the series. I can see why people love it so much, because it‘s a min/max-players dream come true. There are so many crazy things you can do and try to break the game balance. It's certainly an El Dorado for creative players who love to optimize their parties to the max. Unfortunately I am not that kind of gamer. I usually enjoy deep characters and battle systems, but it can get frustrating here if you are not 100% into the systems because of some insane difficulty spikes or just plain unfair encounter designs.

So I decided to play on easy, which was the right choice and made the game much more enjoyable for me. To be honest, I don‘t like the rather slow turn-based-battle-system with the constant status changes and physics that much. It can be confusing and unclear what happened and the controls and camera can get a bit fiddly. Another problem is that the last act really falls apart. Quest lines become super-unclear and there are some overly hard and frustrating battles. I also don‘t like how the game is divided into acts and how you can‘t go back to former acts and areas. Missed some quests on that island? Well, that‘s your problem. And they really need to overwork the user interface. The inventory system is a huge mess. Nevertheless I enjoyed my time with the game. Especially the first half of the game is great.

A really, really wild ride.

Classes are vast and highly customizable, quests can be completed in a variety of ways and the main cast of characters each interact with the world in such a unique way that it feels really fulfilling to replay it. Experience is limited (once you kill an enemy, it's gone for good), so the game encourages you to really go out of your way to explore and find every sidequest that you can get and trust me, you will need every single XP point you can put your hands on.

DII can be punishing and straight up unfair at times, those specific story points are something that once you have the knowledge of you can prepare accordingly, but when you're experiencing it firsthand it can get frustrating really fast. Keeping multiple saves indeed help if you find yourself in a point of no return, there's also a mirror on your main travel vessel that you can use to respec your characters at any moment. It really helps you to rebalance your party if you're having difficulties with any encounter.

Overall a great experience and a must-play for all the Tabletop and Tactical RPG fans.

OBS: The PS4 version of the game has a decent amount of bugs (two reported quests that can become broken and a flickering shadow issue that can drive you insane at times). If you can, I'd reccommend opting for a PC version, it's also waaay easier to interact with the game using a mouse and keyboard.

Melhor rpg d turno q já joguei!
História super envolvente;
Personagens carismáticos;
Trilha sonora linda;

10/10