D:OS2 Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Playthrough, Discussion… (Spoilers)

Divinity: Original Sin 2
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bellweather

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I have finally found the time to start playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, after finishing the first one last year.

I'm going to post about my run in this thread, comment on my impression of the game and might occasionally add some screenshots and a bit of storywriting. Some screenshots will be put into spoiler tags for easier reading and loading times.

Anyone is welcome to join and discuss or post their own game, and suggestions or advice are always appreciated.

I decided to choose one of the origin characters, because they have unique content in the story, and although some might prefer a custom character tailored to their preferences, I want to experience as much of the story as possible.

Difficulty setting is Tactician.

Meet Lohse!
screenshot-34-_li-jpg.13

"All my life I've been a performer, a musician; beloved and celebrated by all. But I have a secret: I'm also a playground for sprites and spirits and… worse. The voice that rings inside me now is darker than any that came before. Almost caused a bunch of my fans to rip each other to pieces… But you can trust me: I've got this under control. Step one: Find out who - or what - is trying to take control of my mind. Step two: Make it sorry it ever tried."

I've made her an Enchanter, because Hydrosophist and Aerotheurge were the abilities that I found most useful in the first game. She has the tags of Jester and Mystic, and those (same as her being Lohse, and human) can offer unique dialogue options beyond the usual replies.

I have only played the part on the ship and seen a bit of Fort Joy today.
My first impressions:
Amazing voice acting! From the narrator to the possible companions and minor characters, every dialogue is voiced, and they sound great!
Same as in the first game, there are little details to pick up or interact with in every room, endless ingredients and possibilities for crafting (which seems a bit less complicated than in DOS 1), and surfaces, barrels or other items to use to your advantage.
A fire surface between you and your escape and no rain spell learned? Throw a water barrel and walk through a steam cloud without getting burned.
Your enemy is standing in poison or oil? Throw a fire spell (or just pick up a candle) to ignite it.

I can't really judge all the possible recruitable companions yet. The Red Prince is hilarious in his arrogant nobility, but I'm not sure if I want to keep him as a companion. Ifan has a secret and doesn't talk much yet, but seems reliable, trustworthy and has a voice I could listen to all day. Sebille tried to kill me on sight, but I have an impression there's more to her than that and her skills are useful.
The others I have met only on the ship, Beast and Fane. Beast seemed nice enough, but Fane has a fascinating background story, so I hope I find him again soon.

I was a bit reckless picking my fights at close range when I was still going solo on the ship, so I died twice already. Stupid. Now that I have more people and skills to use, I hope to face the coming fights on my feet.

And, same as in the first game, I love the humor. The Jester tag gives Lohse the opportunity to answer with occasional quips, the special situations of Fane and the Red Prince lead to comical moments, and there are things that I haven't quite understood yet, like a squirrel with a bone helmet riding on a skeleton cat and following us around. I'm curious what's the matter with these. Ifan has the Pet Pal talent and can speak with animals, but they're not always willing to explain.
 
Have fun, I really liked that game, hundreds of hours into it. Fane has two things going for him. His history is closely involved with the lore and he is immune to death fog. For those reasons I ended up taking him as the PC even though I don't particularly like the undead aspect.

Take your time with the first chapter, a lot of lore and mechanics are explained there.
 
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I didn't care for this one at all, you can search here and likely find my thoughts on the subject ad naseum. I'll never replay it, though I've played the game prior twice to date. I hope your experience is better than mine was.
 
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Origin characters were fun for me. I hesitated a few times to include Lohse but at the end I didn't even pick here once in the group. I kept it for a replay that I never did, this game is way too long for me. :)

PS: if you want, there is a specific sub-forum here for D:OS2 where you may find more info.
 
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The OP was a spammer, but I've cleaned up the thread and moved it to the proper forum since it did spark a bit of a discussion.

Hi, I'm new.
The OP on this forum was a spammer indeed, but I'm not. I guess I should be honoured a spambot decided to copy-paste my thread. I had started posting it on another forum almost a year ago, and someone pointed out to me that it had been copied here.

I thank you people who replied constructively to it anyway. I finished the game very recently (took my time, busy with RL, and took a 3 months break to play something else between Chapters 3 and 4) and can say I quite enjoyed the story, the humour, the combat, and playing as Lohse gave it a very special note (pun intended).

screenshot-2022-09-23-191327-jpg.3089


(I don't see an option to upload an image file directly, only as a link?)

I would always recommend using an origin character as main, it gives a unique and more immersive experience. Fane and Lohse especially. I chose her because I have a mischievous streak too and liked her attitude of finding something to joke about in the darkest times, but I like Fane a lot too (my Lohse ended up romancing him), and of course his story has the most dramatic ties to the background lore.

Red Prince and Ifan completed my party, and I don't regret those choices.

The most difficult fights were definitely Lohse's demon and the final battle, I'd say, but wow, even if a lot of fights were a struggle and took a long time to solve, I enjoyed the challenge, like a colourful 3D chess or a puzzle.

There were so many choices to make and differences based on main character, race, gender, group mix, that it would be cool to play again some day (honor mode!), but yeah it's a very long game, so it won't be any time soon.
 
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Yeah, I'm playing it now with a friend (first time I play it co-op, but third time in total), and we've been at it for months. It's massive. I almost wish it was a bit shorter, so I could replay it more often without sinking an incredible amount of time into it.

That being said, it's a very good game. Glad you enjoyed it as well!
 
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Same here @Maylander. I finished it with a friend and it took us like 8 months or so. It was enjoyable, but a bit too long and it was hard to follow the story throughout, although that may be because we spend such a long time on the game.
Although we enjoyed our play through and I intend to play it again solo I understand that people weren't happy with some design choices (to me namely the jumping /teleporting all over the battlefield which made positioning quite obsolete and the randomization of the gear).
 
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Same here @Maylander. I finished it with a friend and it took us like 8 months or so. It was enjoyable, but a bit too long and it was hard to follow the story throughout, although that may be because we spend such a long time on the game.
Although we enjoyed our play through and I intend to play it again solo I understand that people weren't happy with some design choices (to me namely the jumping /teleporting all over the battlefield which made positioning quite obsolete and the randomization of the gear).
I wouldn't agree that teleportation spells made positioning obsolete, in fact I found positioning one of the key differences between winning and losing a fight at Tactician difficulty.
1. All those skills have a cooldown
2. They use AP.
3. In boss fights, the first turn decides a lot, especially if you're outnumbered. So having high initiative and good positioning means using those AP efficiently to bring down as much armour as possible and apply some disabling status effect to whichever enemy moves next. Even a teleport skill that consumes only 1 AP means delaying another action until next turn. To me that made a huge difference, unless you don't care how often you reload.

Randomization of gear isn't bad per se, in my opinion, but I agree they didn't handle it the way I would have liked, I spent far too much time running around visiting every trader when they restock.
The good thing there was that if you found a better item but with the wrong skill points, at least you could adjust the new results with the free respec.
 
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