Divinity Original Sin 2 Catch-All

dejanzie wrote:

For the record: I'm not that interested in the main storyline, as I highly suspect it will be some flavor of saving the world/galaxy/universe. I do like character arcs, interactions between (N)PC's, interesting dialogue, etc.

The character side stories are incredible.

I'd suggest picking 4 pre-built characters for your party as they all have their own origin stories and quest lines.

Red Prince, Fane and Sebille are often cited as the strongest narratively.

My party was Red Prince (main), Ifan ben-Mezd, Fane, Sebille.

@ dejanzie
Your last paragraph of inquiry, plus the fact that I really dug the combat and crazy build possibilities, defines what I loved about D:OS2.

Seeing as you already own it, perhaps play the "Fort Joy" section at least. It's got nice starting punch, a more 'personal' story before all the 'blah blah' stuff comes down the pipe, and your faceoff against a certain someone makes for a satisfying chapter close.

@Aaron D's remarks --> dejanzie
Yeah, odd as it seems and like Aaron D said, I'm going to recommend [that if you do load it up] that you play one of the story characters instead of rolling your own. I ran close to what Aaron suggests, but swapped out Fane for Lohse (I really liked Fane, but his VO was similar-ish to The Red Prince and I wanted a more rounded representation of women in the party). I also had Ifan Ben-Mezd as main as his 'grudge' is more immediate to the starting island...

Also, I feel that Ifan has more latitude in how you can play him (personality wise, and then later growth-wise) whereas I feel The Red Prince shines best if you play him to the hilt as... how he first comes off, to avoid too much spoilery talk.

I would play with one of the pre-defined characters because you'll miss out on so much of the interplay between all the characters and each of the story arcs if you don't. I also thought that Loshe was a better arc than Sebille's, but each to their own. They are all good, but the Red Prince and Fane (the undead guy) are standout.

Thanks guys! I decided to do a Red Prince run in Explorer Mode, I'll see which party members I pick up. I'm also trying to arrange another co-op game with the friend I played D:OS 1 with. We had loads of fun with the combat system, but missed most of the storyline. If that comes through we would probably play it on Classic mode.

I'm currently playing this with my cousin and brother. We made a pact to see it through to the end together (my cousin had completed it before but we haven't).

We've put about 15 hours in so far (split over several months) and I'm not totally in love with it yet. I don't know what I was expecting but the (admittedly very small) part I've played so far hasn't really hooked me.

Its interesting how some games can instantly pull us in, others say all they have to say in a few hours, while others can take dozens of hours to even really get started.

I know I’ll love D:OS2, but 5 hours and still stuck on prison island resulted in me bouncing off of it for a bit.

Truly, to not feel like major progress happens in that time is really challenging as a Dad gamer and with a full time job. If I can’t put in the focused, long-term commitments to “get through to the progress”, I’m going to be lost pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, Bioshock Infinite pulled me in pretty quickly. Gave me lots to look at, explore, feel uncomfortable about, and destroy within the first hour so so.

If anyone was wondering, so far — roughly two hours in — the game seems perfectly fine on the Switch. Some visuals do look rather blurry in handheld mode (haven’t tested it docked yet), but the texts are readable (not worse than Fire Emblem’s at least) and the few battles I have encountered so far were pretty okay frameratewise.

Zoso1701 wrote:

I know I’ll love D:OS2, but 5 hours and still stuck on prison island resulted in me bouncing off of it for a bit.

Truly, to not feel like major progress happens in that time is really challenging as a Dad gamer and with a full time job. If I can’t put in the focused, long-term commitments to “get through to the progress”, I’m going to be lost pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, Bioshock Infinite pulled me in pretty quickly. Gave me lots to look at, explore, feel uncomfortable about, and destroy within the first hour so so.

The game is not hand holdy at all, just like the original. If you want to give the game a go, you're likely gonna have to commit.

Personally, that's the only thing holding me back from picking up the Switch version. I know I want to play it, but I just don't have the lifestyle for it. I get much more out of a few runs in Slay the Spire in an evening than I do a week playing Pillars or Divinity.

I love me some massive RPGs, but there's an evergrowing realization that my retirement days will consist of: (1) Airstream time and (2) all the big RPGs I never finished or content completed pre-retirement.

Recreational Villain wrote:

I love me some massive RPGs, but there's an evergrowing realization that my retirement days will consist of: (1) Airstream time and (2) all the big RPGs I never finished or content completed pre-retirement.

YYYuuuupppp. I just don't have the time sit down and get lost in a massive RPG anymore. Only reason I was able to enjoy Battletech was I was unemployed last year. I tried DOS2 and got a decent chunk into the second act and I just ran out of steam. Too much going on in my life and not enough time to sit down and commit. I kickstarteed PoE 2 and it's expansions and haven't even touched those.

This was on sale over the weekend and my brother, wife, and I picked it up to play. We were really surprised about how well we can co-op, about how much it felt like we really were playing a live tabletop RPG with a personal GM for each of us. I'm instantly interested in Baldur's Gate 3 now, assuming it has a similar feature set.

My only regret about committing to playing with them means I end up only being able to progress a few hours a week.

One thing that really impressed me is how strong my character, and all of our characters, felt right out of the gate I had great tactical options and strong attacks immediately. Since I was itching for more good CRPG, I compared this to the first hour of Pillars of Eternity II and was really disappointed in how weak my starting character is. I basically can only play rockem-sockem-robots with the badguy using my one skill vs their one skill till one of us falls down. Im sure that gets better but Divinity did a far better job.

Any other CRPGs I should check out? I've tried both Pillars of Eternity, played through all of the infinity engine games, Numenera, Im sure Ive missed a gem like Divinity, which I resisted purchasing for years.

Oh, I should have posted here earlier, but if you're just getting around to the game or are thinking of playing, the CRPG Club has voted Divinity Original Sin 2 as its April-September game. A bunch of us have just started playing.

Thread is here.

Come join us!

Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin both came out around the same time and were missed by quite a few people if you have not played either of those. I only played Shadowrun Returns, but I heard the later ones were also really good CRPGs. See if any of those are a good fit for you.

DOS2 is kind of a stand out though because they really dove hard into the tactical combat, making that a selling point of their game. In addition to the co-op focus they adopted, nothing else is really going to have that.

polypusher, have you tried or looked at Tyranny?

Vector wrote:

polypusher, have you tried or looked at Tyranny?

I got it a while ago and didnt give it much of a chance. Should I go back?

polypusher wrote:
Vector wrote:

polypusher, have you tried or looked at Tyranny?

I got it a while ago and didnt give it much of a chance. Should I go back?

I loved it and it's less of a commitment (30-40 hour full campaign) and has far more replayability.

Malkroth wrote:

I only played Shadowrun Returns, but I heard the later ones were also really good CRPGs.

I wasn't as keen on Returns. I loved Dragonfall, though. Perhaps playing the latter first give Returns an uphill struggle. Anyway, I cannot speak highly enough on Dragonfall.

I really need to play through Returns, Dragonfall, and Hong Kong. I got bored of Returns after a bit. I do want to go through all of them.

I really need to play through Returns, Dragonfall, and Hong Kong. I got bored of Returns after a bit. Still might try and play through it.

Diving into this for the first time. I chose to play Lohse because she looked interesting. I talked to a sheep that bit my ankle. Then I put a bucket on my head.

strangederby wrote:

Diving into this for the first time. I chose to play Lohse because she looked interesting. I talked to a sheep that bit my ankle. Then I put a bucket on my head.

Hey there! We need you! Come join us! Here...
GWJ CRPG Club: Divinity Original Sin 2

This is on sale, and I might be nearing the end of the AC Odyssey DLC, so I'm thinking about picking this up. Still debating Switch vs Xbox One. The option to play handheld would be good with kids and a really long playtime. But the Xbox version has all the 4k/HDR pretties, and I'm not sure how well my brain will mesh with playing this in the short bursts that handheld mode would be for, so maybe it's fine just on the big console?

The campaign is really long, right? So I'm probably only going to get one run, if that. I want the pre-generated characters? Can I see the story arcs for more than one (all?) of them in one run? If it's not all, which ones are the "good" ones? The undead guy seems interesting mechanically.

I'm sure handheld mode is nice, but I would go with a full screen on this one. Its a great family couch game, and you can have up to four people in your party so you can see most of the pregen stories. Fane and Lohse are good choices. Sebille is voice acted by Alex WIlton Regan, who played one of the female inquisitor voices in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

My partner and I clocked about 120 hours, but we went slowly. I would estimate around 100 for a normal playthrough.

Chaz wrote:

This is on sale, and I might be nearing the end of the AC Odyssey DLC, so I'm thinking about picking this up. Still debating Switch vs Xbox One. The option to play handheld would be good with kids and a really long playtime. But the Xbox version has all the 4k/HDR pretties, and I'm not sure how well my brain will mesh with playing this in the short bursts that handheld mode would be for, so maybe it's fine just on the big console?

The campaign is really long, right? So I'm probably only going to get one run, if that. I want the pre-generated characters? Can I see the story arcs for more than one (all?) of them in one run? If it's not all, which ones are the "good" ones? The undead guy seems interesting mechanically.

I would say that, given the ungodly amount of text in the game, you want to play with the BIGGEST screen you can possibly find, so I would personally not play this handheld.

As for the campaign, yes, it is very long. I am about to start Act IV (the last one), and I have already put dozens of hours into the game. I am playing with a pre-generated character as my main character because it was my understanding the story would be better. Since you have three other companions, you will get to see their story arcs as well, but I think you don't get as much detail for those as you get for your main character. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but that's been my impression so far. And regarding who the good ones are, if you do a Google search about it you will find that every character has their ardent defenders. I like all four characters in my party, so I have a feeling the other two I didn't choose would have been good too. In other words, just go with the ones you like best!

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Finished. Loved it. Now doing an undead, unmasked playthrough.

I'm jealous! I haven't been able to play for the past two weeks, but I'm hoping to go back to the game next week!

Larian have released a new gift bag for the game, "The four relics of Rivellon" which includes some new quest and characters for sets of mythical armour.

Out now, if you own the game you'll get it included.

I apologize in advance..

I feel SO STUPID, useless and silly but.. I HAVE tried to make my character and EITHER I dont get it, or i am confused but how can I NAME my character? I am suck with this Ifan Ben-Mezd. Is this a title, a race? I am new to this game.

Can I do something that is nor an origian story? Am I shackled to this name? This is so so so so frustrating guys!

Fret not, Darkhaund! We're here to help! Let's see...

You don't have to play an origin-story character, but it is recommended for narrative reasons. If you do, you cannot rename them. Ifan is one of the 6 origin characters, and that is his name. I think his race is human, but I'm not 100% sure because I didn't use him in my party.

If you make your own, I think you can make them any race you want to, and maybe even give them whatever name you want to (not 100% sure on this, but I think you can). For you to make your own, simply keep swiping either left or right, and after the 6 origin characters have shown up, you will start seeing different "base models" you can modify. At least, that's how it is on the PS4, which is the version I played.

All that said, even if you go with your own created character as your main character, you will end up with three companions in your party, and those three will be origin-story characters, but you can choose which three you take, and you can change their class, but not their name or race.

I hope this helps!

Edit: If you need more help with that, just go to Youtube and search for "Divinity: Original Sin 2 character creation," and you will get a bunch of videos that will show you how and what to do.

Thanks.. i have it on PC via Steam. Definitive Edition
For story purposes..... is the origin story much better? Will my lore and story and immersion be hindered If i CHOOSE a custom character?

Thanks... this reduced my stress... I felt overwhelmed and got frustrated that I FAILED to understand something that should be so simple... I guess technology / games are starting to surpass me? lol