Completed the campaign on Normal difficulty. Did not obtain all achievements.
The game is an interesting experiment of adding Reigns style politics and Dragon control from Divinity 2 into an RTS setting, and I think that Larian managed to do a decent job of doing it. The game has interesting units, abilities, and characters. However, the RTS part is a bit lacking. More often than not, I had to use the cheapest units, because the fights would usually have unfavourable odds, thus causing the enemy to rush you during the battle. The idea of sending generals seemed interesting as well, but they are just too expensive to use, so I either fought enemies myself, or auto-resolved without the generals. The politics aspect is also interesting, but the issues seemed stretched if I can call them that.
Overall, this is a fun game worthy of being a Divinity game, an interesting spin-off that didn't have the best execution. And I wouldn't mind Dragon Commander 2 if they made one.

(Written at 13h mark)
For now I just don't understand the game. I have played it for 13 hours, but couldn't see why people call it a hidden gem. The pawn AI is terrible, the enemy scaling is awful. The world feels bland, quests are mediocre and story nonexistent. Where is the "hidden gem" that people talk about? I will try again later to understand it.

Edit: The game is just not for me. I gave it a second chance, but the negatives just overweigh the positives too much, so I will not torture myself any further than 20 hours. After reaching the capital, I have started clearing the surrounding areas, but the game just didn't manage to make me want to play it anymore.
The good (kind of):
+ The battle system. It is a definitely unique approach to how combat goes, with how you can experiment with various attacks and attack allignments, and how you use your pawns to try to find your enemies' weaknesses, but I would not really say that I liked it that much, but it's more because of other aspects of the game rather than the combat itself. It certainly had potential to be better, but as it is, it just feels unpolished, slow and unresponsive.
+ Pawn system. Again, it is a unique and interesting approach to transform typical JRPG style parties into real-time ARPG format. Ideally, it would work well, and the ideas are there, but in my opinion the execution is lacking.
The bad:
- NPC AI and Pawn AI in particular. It's just awful. Pawns LOVE to suicide themselves by standing around doing nothing while the enemies are running and attacking close by. Often times I found myself getting annoyed by how they cast powerful spells that take a long time to cast on singular goblins, and then strike giant bosses with weak attacks and spells. The Pawns also love to stand and walk in your way when you cast your spells, blocking them with their bodies. And the comments that Pawns leave are just annoying, they say the same thing over and over again, making me wish they didn't talk at all. The enemy AI is not that much better. Enemies also into you and behind you doing nothing, bosses sometimes also are just standing if you strike them from afar.
- Story. Just nothing interesting going on, the story is vague and almost non-existent.
- Enemies. Same types of enemies everywhere, nothing interesting about them.
- Enemy scaling. That is one of the bigger issues that I have with this game. You are never on par with the enemy - it's either you one-shot them, or they one-shot you. There is almost nothing in between. Perhaps some people love grinding a boss for 10-20 minutes, but I just don't see the point. Even the enemies from the same group could differ significantly, with one shotting you, or you one-shotting others.
- Lack of clear progression. There are only two weapons in the shop in the region - a bit more expensive stronger one and a cheaper weaker one. You can upgrade them 3 times for a tiny boost in damage, and that's it. Apparently, some of your stats grow depending on your alignment as you level up, but it is very implicit and you don't know about it. I've seen how people call it a "great RPG", but the stats and skills system clearly shows that this in fact is not an RPG.
- Performance issues. The game stutters and runs poorly overall on a modern (5800x, 6600XT) system. Even though it is a game from 2013, that doesn't have anything impressive in terms of graphics.
Overall, this is a unpolished game with some interesting ideas that aren't implemented properly. It is not an RPG, but more of a Monster Hunter styled action-JRPG with a pseudo-fantasy-European style in it. And I can't say I am a big fan of it.

Completed the main game (Ego Draconis) + DLC (Flames of Vengeance), with all side quests. Character was Female Ranger + some skills from other classes. The review contains no story spoilers.
Pros:
+ Writing and humor
The game manages to keep up the high level of writing and humor set in previous two games. All dialogues are written in the way that manages to balance seriousness and humor, and makes you both engulf in the story and then make you laugh when needed, The characters are not bland, each having their problems and personality.
+ Story
The story initially seems like a classical "you are the chosen one and only you can prevent the bad guy from winning" type of story. However, as the story progresses, you face many challenges and twists, making you sometimes feel wary and unsure, and sometimes you feel like a higher being that obliterates its enemies. Some perceive ending of Ego Draconis as disappointing, although I liked it. The add-on Flames of Vengeance of course goes through a safer route, but I didn't find it as exciting.
+ Side quests
The side quests are not mandatory of course, but completing them all feels necessary to understand and perceive the true nature and atmosphere of Divinity games. They are done very creatively, and in my opinion much surpass the ones in likes of Skyrim (a la go to the arrow on the map, kill the highlighted enemy and go back), You will need to properly read dialogues, ask around people, read books and notes, use your memory and creativeness in order to solve many mysteries that lay in those quests.
+ Soundtrack and sounds
The soundtrack by Kirill Pokrovsky is just as incredible as in previous games. He truly managed to make something so beautiful that fits the game and gives it such an incredible atmosphere.
Neutral:
= Gameplay
Unlike the previous two games, which were 2D isometric games similar to Diablo, this one is a third person ARPG. It is definitely a different approach to the Divinity series. but not necessarily a bad one. Obviously, being able to roll and jump, look up and down and rotate your camera adds to the immersion, but it also kind of gives a different feel of the game, and I am not sure if this style fits better than previous one.
= Progression
As in previous games, you complete quests and slay enemies and get experience points to level up your character. If your level is lower that enemies', you get more EXP, if yours is higher, you get reduced EXP, or none at all. Similarly, for every level you get attribute points and a skill point. Enemies mostly do not respawn (except in the add-on), but them respawning would not really be of use for the reasons above. However, unlike in previous games, most enemies do not drop items, and given that there are not that many treasure chests, your selection of items is much smaller than in previous games, where you could hoard hundreds of items.
The aforementioned system removes the need to grind, which I like, but also limits the player a bit, and given how those limited items drop based on random values, you will have to save scum in order to get a desirable item. Or don't, because the dropped item will be mostly useless anyway.
= Enemies
The enemies are not that diverse, but diverse enough to not get bored. Typically, you get a mage enemy, two or three ranger enemies, and some melee enemies, which have very similar stats, and don't belong to that class strictly. Mages can throw a projectile, and then teleport and attack with melee weapon for example. For some reason mages get a hitscan spell that doesn't damage you a lot, but interrupts and stuns you a little, allowing you to get encircled and almost killed. Also some enemies get a Polymorph spell and a Stun Arrow, so that can be annoying, because there are typically many of them and one of you, so you can die easily if unprepared. But the enemies feel the same with different skins - you can imagine Black Ring humans are the same as skeletons, that just look different, but they have similar abilities.
= Game world
Apparently the game world was cut a bit during development, and because of that, you get the feeling that the game is not the original vision of developers, and how some areas should have been more than what they are. Nonetheless, I think that the current regions are not too big to get lost and not too small to get bored, just good enough for exploring.
Cons:
- Poor optimization for modern PCs
Unfortunately, if you just download the latest Steam version of the game, you will face many issues and terrible stutters. There is a patch, however, that fixes most of them, and having installed it, the game ran at 120 fps without any issues, besides two or three crashes during my 35 hour playthrough.
- Difficulty curve
Since I have played as ranger, the game was easier, because other classes are less powerful. However, somewhere at the middle of the game, the enemies abruptly became much stronger than me, so I died quite a bit, and had to save-load a lot, and had to optimize my build and get the best equipment possible to even barely get through. Often times I found myself dying very fast, while I dealt miserable damage. However, at about 80% of the game, having unlocked Ranger Strength, Way of the Ranger and critical hits passive ability, the game became easy again and I dealt thousands of damage, so that even bosses died from several hits.
- Console-like feel
The game was made for Xbox as well, but the PC version has a bit of console-like feel. With how the abilities work, how you move in game and how you automatically aim at enemies and switch by a button - it all feels very unnatural on PC with mouse and keyboard. Luckily, the interface and inventory is not as bad as in Skyrim, so I can't complain much here.

Overall, the game is incredible, and easily became on of my most favourite games of all time despite its minor flaws. It is a worthy continuation of Divinity series, and should be played even by those who don't know anything about Divinity.

Edit: Played until the servers closed on 8 April 2024. It is a good game, and a shame that Nintendo moved on from free online service.

Completed Octo Valley with all scrolls, reached Level 12 in multiplayer mode. Couldn't play any ranked game due to low player count.
A very fresh and interesting approach to multiplayer session shooters. The single player part was a small and fun experience with different puzzles and enemies. Unfortunately the multiplayer was often low populated so I had to find specific time slots to be able to play it. The games were usually dominated by high level players with fine tuned equipment, but I could hold my own even with less skills and experience. Some weapons are overpowered, but generally the game was balanced, and I could see a variance of weapons being used in the game.
Overall, I liked it, but it is just lacking in content and support and there is no reason to play this over Splatoon 3 at the moment of writing this. Maybe to experience the single player part, but Splatoon 3 is just generally better.

Completed the game, did not get all the magic and equipment possible. Completed without guides, used info from the internet a couple times.
Overall, I enjoyed it. The game was suffering a bit from slowdowns, but I am not sure if it is expected or because emulation on PSP is underperforming.
The game is strong in its atmosphere of hopelessness and not knowing what to do and where to go. But as you play the game and explore the island, you get the sense of accomplishment and everything starts to make sense bit by bit. At first, you will die to squids, but then you learn to circle strafe and become stronger both in terms of stats and in terms of your skill. In a sense, this is a predecessor of Dark Souls as much as it can be in the year of 1995.
Unfortunately, as much as the game tries to explain how to play it to the player through notes and NPCs, it doesn't always succeed, and I often found myself stuck in endless labyrinths, or trying to find certain places, and I wish I could leave notes on the map so I could navigate better.
Having many "secret" doors in the walls in style of Wolfenstein3D, where you have to press every wall to be sure to not miss a secret passage or treasure without any indication of them being there is quite annoying as well. I have at first missed Flame Sword, for example, which was hidden behind a wall mounted enemy, and I would struggle a lot later in the game without it.
The difficulty curve is a bit uneven. It is very high in the beginning, goes down in the center, but then spikes up in the end, because the enemies are dealing a lot of damage and tanking quite a lot of hits even with the best equipment possible. The final boss took several tries, because the game was laggy, he was casting a flame spell that was taking half of my health, I was shot by his flying minions and he kept knocking me out into the water, because he was standing on the bridge.
But all in all, it was surprisingly a much better experience than I could expect from a game from 1995 on PS1.
Apparently this is the second game in the series with the misleading title, so I will have to beat the actual first game that was released in Japan with English patch to be able to compare it to.

Completed the campaign on LASO. Got almost all achievements except for Co-op and some multiplayer ones.
I really liked the game. The campaign was amusing to play, I liked the story, graphics, sounds, music and weapons. Completing the game on LASO was a fun challenge, even if a bit hard. Some characters in story were annoying and could be done better, and the concept of the open world approach is a turn-off for some, though I personally didn't mind.
The multiplayer is fun as well. Almost all gamemodes are interesting, especially the BTB with vehicles. Unfortunately, the multiplayer is just too tight, and you really need to tryhard in every match, because otherwise losses are becoming just too frustrating. I don't know what it is, but it only happens in Halo Infinite, while when playing BF3 or original Halo, I didn't get frustrated as much.

Completed the main quest, almost all side quests, did not finish Act 4 Battlegrounds. Some quests could not be completed due to bugs. Both characters were melee, mostly two-handed crushing, slashing or shadow (depending on the weapon I could find).
Pros:
+ Soundtrack is on par with the previous game, some music is reused.
+ The story is interesting, and I would say I like it more than the more straightforward one from Divine Divinity.
+ Even though I like most quests , both main and side ones, I got stuck quite a bit and had to search in the internet the solutions, because the game obviously was rushed and unpolished, so many items that could help with solutions are absent.
Neutral:
= Combat was allright, a typical relic from that time, not too outdated by modern standards, very similar to the one from previous game. Again, the game is unpolished, so it has issues with balancing.
Cons:
- Battlegrounds. They are supposed to be a fun addition to make the game replayable and allow to use it as a hub for leveling up and purchasing equipment and consumables. However, you can level up just in the main part of the game without touching BG, and still be at the same level by the end of the game, because you don't get XP from lower levelled enemies, so it makes BG kind of pointless. The dungeons there are the same dungeon with different spawning points and textures - you go through 2 same levels and then fight the boss on the last (or find an item or nothing depending on RNG). I didn't bother finishing BG on Act 4 because of that.
- Bugs. Yet again, so many bugs, but this time there are so much more crashes. Also has a save corrupting bug when submitting an amulet in BG of Act 4, and when reloading a save during the final fight.
- Voice acting. It's mostly terrible. Both how actors are acting and how the engineers applied filters are very bad. Sometimes, the voices could change even mid-dialogue. Maybe the Death Knight's voicelines could be allright sometimes, but other than that it's horrible.
- Compatibility with the modern systems. The game simply does not run on the modern systems, and has significant slowdown in some areas even on modern PCs. I had to use DDraw to get a decent experience, but even then my CPU (Ryzen 7 5800x) was overheating, which is absurd.
In conclusion, the game is a good side story for the Divine Divinity, which also needs a proper remaster or a remake. It has its flaws due to being rushed and its age, but it can still be an enjoyable experience especially if you like the genre or Divinity as a series.

The game has some good ideas, but the execution is lacking. Completing this game felt like a chore, but had some interesting moments. Had two playthroughs, 76h48m not completed and 56h39m completed. Did not get 100% because requirements are insanely difficult. Played solo.
Pros:
+ The world and setting. The idea of surviving in a miniature world is quite appealing, and is a break from typical fantasy worlds, that this genre has abundance of. Surviving in a backyard of the regular (not really) house that also manages to have different biomes is a very interesting idea on paper, and this implementation of the world was done quite good.
+ Enemy types and locations. They have also managed to do quite a good job of making regular boring insects like ants and spiders into varying enemies with different types, making them diverse and interesting.
Cons:
- Combat and game balance. Even with Tier 3 weapons, mutations and buffs applied, the game is quite difficult. You are forced to carry several weapons with different types in order to even be able to handle most of enemies. Ranged weapons are very inefficient, and you are forced to have a mixed build to survive. Armor bonuses are mostly miserable, and even with all molars applied, you are very squishy and vulnerable to enemies in the upper yard.
- Game optimization and graphics. The game runs quite poorly, and on a system with 5800x and 6600XT, the CPU and GPU are struggling and overheating, which they don't in most modern AAA games that are more graphically impressive. But even with poor optimization, the graphics look quite bland. They did not implement the most modern version of FSR2, only having outdated FSR, which shows their negligence and laziness, given how long ago FSR2 came out.
- Progression system. Most Tier 1 and Tier 2 weapons and armor suck. Most mutations are useless. The actual useful resources are immensely hard to obtain, and the difficulty slope goes high very fast after obtaining Tier 1 equipment, and the jump to Tier 3 is much harder than that. The only somewhat useful weapons are obtained at the endgame, which doesn't make any sense. Molars are they only way to increase your stats in the classic RPG sense, and finding them is a chore, not something you like to do.

Completed the game on Normal difficulty.
Pros:
+ Gameplay. The game actually manages to impress in how Gameloft tried to translate the original game experience into the limited DS hardware. It utilizes the features of DS, like using microphone to uncover chests, or stylus to precisely navigate in mini-games, and it does so in the way that I consider to be good enough. However, the key features of Assassin's Creed are there - parkour, jumping on buildings, stealth, assassin's weapons, discreet assassinations and the way Altair uses weapons in combat - all of these are reminiscent of the original game. Surely, like most modern mobile developers they could have just made a lazy and boring 2D scroller for example, but they actually made this game believable to be a spin-off of the original.
Neutral:
= Graphics. The graphics are surely dated, but they are as good as they get on DS.
Cons:
- Bugs and glitches. The game just feels rushed and unfinished, the main character does not feel responsive and often moves not in the way intended. Often times have I found myself teleporting, passing through walls, etc. The sound also is quite janky with bad cuts, noises, etc.
A good experience overall, could be played if you want to play every single Assassin's Creed game for its story, or you want to have it on your DS, but you won't miss anything if you just skip it.

Completed the main quest, almost all side quests, did not obtain Dragon Armor and Treasure Maps. Some quests could not be completed due to bugs.
Pros:
+ A really nice soundtrack. Just a very fitting and good sounding music, which I really like and have added it to my watchlist to listen to on YouTube.
+ Good story and humour. The story is a typical your-are-the-chosen-one tale, with some humourous remarks here, which makes it seem as the story should not be taken too seriously, but still interesting enough.
+ Quests and interactions. The game really makes you think of how to complete the quests, and which approach to choose, which is, unfortunately, a lost concept in most modern "RPGs" (Witcher 3, Fallout 3-4, etc.). Some interactions, where you have to move objects like barrels, paintings, boulders was also something I liked, since it made me want to explore the world.
Neutral:
= Combat and overall balance. Enemies are either complete pushovers and die easily to your attacks, or they have insane resistances, and barely take damage from fire, electricity, spikes, poision and don't get frozen. Skills seem to be implemented poorly, most skills are completely useless, and even Divine skills, which are supposed to be your endgame tools, are absolutely useless too. Also, some bosses are completely broken, and require immense amount of reloads and potions to beat.
Cons:
- Some dungeons are just too big and boring. This can be especially seen in the endgame, where you just have to cut through same enemies through 5 maze like locations. Or you can just use a transformation spell or statue and run past, which I did.
- Bugs. Some quests are bugged, making them impossible to complete because you completed them in the wrong order. Also I had some rendering issues, but it's probably because of compatibility, and simple restart of PC resolved that.
- Compatibility with the modern systems. I had to use community made tools to run the game, which is not that big of an issue, but still took me some time to figure out.
Overall, the game is really good, despite its flaws and age. Hopefully Divinity 2 will keep up the level of the first game.

Completed the game, did not get the ultimate Persona.
A very interesting story and characters, really good soundtrack. The game's main drawback is its age and some poor realisations of game mechanics. Feels like, the encounter rate and experience gain balancing could be adjusted to not feel annoying, from which the first game suffers as well. Overall weaknessess and strengths and what Personas get which spell could be rebalanced as well. Hopefully we will get a proper remake, because the story is too good to be missed by most moderns Persona fans, who only played 3,4 and 5.

The game is obviously unfinished and lacks balancing and proper story.
The combat, which is supposed to be the main focus of the game is quite difficult even on "Normal" difficulty, and even though I managed to fight most enemies in close combat without losing much health, the enemies with the guns are very unfair. Sure, you can knock it out, but when there are many of them, you can't sneak past and have to fight them all, they just shred you to pieces, since it takes a long time to kill even one enemy. The player can try using the guns, but will always get damaged and when trying to dodge and shoot one enemy, all others shoot you with high precision. The combo system is interesting and creative, but to me, it seems like enemies are too tanky, and can even handle their necks being snapped.
The story is nothing special either, just a generic plot with predicable twists. The art is mediocre at most, except the cover image, all characters aren't that well made.
This is another relic of the past that may have seemed to be okay when released, has some interesting ideas, but should be properly remade in order to be enjoyed in the current year.