Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Enhanced Edition,writing going to be more serious?

I know the game is getting a pretty big rewrite, but is the tone of the writing going to be less goofy and more serious? Can a dev please comment on this?

Also, if someone wants to be super nice and do a fellow Div fan a favor, can you ask this question for me on the Enhanced Edition thread in the steam community forum for the game? I know a staff affiliate there named Rave frequently answers questions from fans.

Thanks in advance

I believe you mean Raze, and he posts here, too. Why did you start another thread, instead of continuing the one you already created on this topic?

I felt this thread title was more likely to let a dev know a fan was hoping to have a question about the EE answered. I wasn't sure they went through most threads that aren't specifically trying to ask them a question.

Fixes where quests could be more clear, added banter, etc would be more serious. Things added are likely the same. Overall, the writing will probably be a little more serious, but AFAIK there was no concerted effort to change the tone.

I am aware of some additions and changes, but have not played through the EE yet (other than to check if a couple reported issues for D:OS were fixed in the EE). I'm waiting for a certain build to be done to start a 'blind' playthrough in the harder difficulty mode (others have already been testing and given feedback on the current balance).

I hope not, although more sarcasm *evil* is always welcome

I hope the damn combat balance is fixed. I finally completed the game and the Void Dragon was so easy it was pathetic! Which did little justice to art development team on how amazing the battle looked.

The hardest part of the game was Luculla Forest and the difficulty started getting stupid easy by the time I executed everyone in Hunters Edge.

On a positive note, the Enhanced Version does have the potential to surpass Divinity: Sword of Lies (Divine Divinity as new customers know it). I still regard that as your most successful game and one that I play threw about once every two years.

I also hope "I'll take my leave" is totally removed. Such a stupid way to end 95% of the conversations. I'd love to see "Are you done your annoying babbling yet?" as a ending option after a boss gets done gloating the evil plan?

A few more suggestions to replace "I'll take my leave now" with boss dialogs...

"*Sigh* I'm kinda sick of listening to how you want to end the world, lets just end this now."
"This plan sounds just awful! Thank the Gods I'm here to stop you!"
"I've got friends in that town, I can't let you do this!"
"You're clearly mad, I have the perfect cure!" <fight>
"I really don't have time for you any more, so please stand still while I dispose of you."
"Well I think I've had enough of your eccentric babbling for one lifetime."
"My (weapon on hand) is taking confessions now, please kneel"

I'm sure with all the skilled writers, you can come up with hilarious ways to end boss conversations. The lack of books found with humor in them was also disappointing.

*spoilers*

Oh, I like those ideas for ways to end boss conversations. I like those quite a bit.

The best ending of a conversation goes to that one boss in Divinity 2 where you keep yelling "MAXOS" until the fight begins. The boss there hurls a ton of fire balls if I remember correctly. That is where I originally came up with the idea.

The most comical boss battle (which I wish the game had a lot more of) was in Cyseal after the trap house where you fought that undead king. The undead ministerial was my favorite.

We should probably fill this thread with a ton of suggestions in how to end conversations... and see how many make it into the game. At the very least, we can humor each other...

Got a few more...
"There will be nothing immaculate about them mess I'll make out of you!"
"Time to beat you the way your mother should have!"
"I'm not afraid of any ghosts!" (Ok, got this one from Ghostbusters)
"I've got a real bone to pick with you..."
"What can a bunch of tiney goblins possibly do to stop us?"
"I heard that if you hit an orc hard enough, they talk like goblins."
"I heard that if you kick an orc just right, they sing like elves!"

IMO the best Divinity 2 end to a conversation goes to Hallorn, in the Derelict Tunnels (bounty hunter quest). He basically says 'your money or your life' and you can talk through a philosophical debate about that choice, which increasingly confuses and angers him, until he attacks.

I'd forgotten all about that! I loved that conversation, it was so wonderfully silly.

How has nobody mentioned the philosophical skeletons in the first dungeon of DD

That set the tone for Larian forever

Seeing that in the DD demo made the game a must-buy-on-release for me (it was already an eventual buy based on the world interaction and quest design in Aleroth).

But seriously, I thought D:OS had a good balance of humor and hope the EE has the same feel.

Not every RPG needs to be grimdark.

The skeleton conversation was on-par with the "arrow to the knee" from Skyrim. Something added that was a little chuckle in the office which ended up being much bigger then anyone could have imagined.

Honestly, if Larian were to recreate something as awesome as the 2 skeletons, they won't realize it until the forums exploded with compliments.

For me I was sold on Divinity Sword of Lies once I realized that there was more to explore in the game other then the dungeon. The demo felt like Diablo, but exploring the area outside the Aleroth made me realize this is just the beginning. Then there was the bug to go past the troll bridge in the demo, even though most of the graphics were glitched or non-existent.

I guess my favorite part of D:OS is when you come up to the goblins guarding oil and one complaining that all it would take is some mage to toss a fireball at them. Of course, you can only imagine what I do.

I hope not... RPG's who just are too serious are already too common, a fresh breeze among them is so welcome.

It's like developers fear adding humour rather than "edgy" fake dark mood you just got bored off playing another game like it.

would not be a Larian game if too serious. thats one of their many "unique selling points" and i am loving it (tm)!

I agree completely with the OP.

The only reason I'm really interested in the EE is the chance that the storyline will make a bit more damn sense, instead of being soooo clownish. It's like the writer thinks he's Yahtzee or something, and takes it to extreme at every opportunity.
The small dialogues being funny is fine while the general story is kept to some extent sane, but the over-plot is so insanely goofy and gamey that it was just ughhhhhhhh..
It's not that it's "somewhat 'zany'", which is fine I guess... It's that it's completely over the top ridiculously stupid on pokemon levels.
The problem really starts when there is no longer any human motivation in the story --- it's all the ridiculous plots of emotionless god beings or whatever. A story is engaging when there are human motivations in it, when the enemy is human.

I really hope the story is changed such that it feels serious.


My best moments with this game was the first act, where the writing was a bit more contained, the mystery was interesting, there was a murder case, and though some writing was silly, the enemies around you were hard enough that you felt like it was a serious situation.
Then it devolves into ridiculous cartoonishness which made me completely lose all interest. The only thing that kept me going was the fun combat and how awesome the first chapter was

The tone is perfect imo - would be a tragedy if it was changed

The one most consistent criticism of DDOS, if by professional reviewers or by forumers (steam and here), is that the tone of the game is comparable to a Yahtzee zero punctuation episode.
It happens that this was my personal criticism of it as well.

I think it's important for Larian to note threads like this one, because if they're changing around the story, especially the ending, and if they care about making the perfect RPG (which they're so damn near to!!!!!) and not just about money/product, then changing the tone of the story a little bit would be ideal.

Not the actual conversations and dialogues etc necessarily, but the plot itself.


Again, I think the first episode is a hallmark of excellence. There are human beings in it, with human motives. it's not all fantasy gods and super magical holy mcguffins bullshit. It's actually relatable to some extent. Also, combat in the first act is so well crafted and tending towards the difficult that it gives more oomph to the seriousness of the game, as it makes the town feel that much more in trouble.