After playing Original Sin 2 I decided to replay this hidden gem of a game. I got the developer's cut version free as I'd purchased the original Divinity2: Ego Draconis and the FOV add on. I never got round to playing it and didn't even notice the developer notes, design documents and videos included with the game until now.
Interesting video - so it was to be a much bigger game and you could attack ground enemies with the dragon in the original version; a major omission in the final game. It's a shame about those cut areas but it fell to publisher deadlines and technical limitations of the Xbox 360. There were high ambitions for this game some of which ideas ended up in Dragon Commander but the end result of the cut down version of Divinity 2 was a little disappointing in the wasted potential for the dragon combat. I had a mess about with the developer console and saw that there is a large area below Aleroth; is this part of the area that would have been playable before the game was cut down? What is that city below Aleroth? Is this the original and / or unfinished version of Aleroth and a newer version was created above the map so the 'old' part would serve as a backdrop?
Anyway here are a couple of screenshots showing what I mean and where I also managed to fly around in dragon form in Broken Valley before it was destroyed.
Story wise it's clear that this follows on from only one of Original Sin 2's endings and I've seen a few threads that there may be a possibility Divinity 2 will be retconned as Divinity: Fallen Heroes is the direct sequel to Original Sin 2. However thinking about it logically that game would follow on from the same ending that will lead into Divinity 2 so I guess this game will bridge the gap between Original Sin and Divinity2: The Dragon Knight Saga.
I hope that Larian's next game after Baldur's Gate 3 will be Divinity3 as Divinity2:DKS should have been. After all Damian was defeated but not killed at the end of Divinity 2 and the chaos demon is free to gain strength within him. That opens up the potential for a whole new storyline where Damian has recovered several years later and meanwhile the Dragon Knight has recruited humans to become dragon knights. The return of the Patriarch would play a role as well I guess as he would be the only one who could create more dragon knights. The multiplayer part of Divinity 2 could be a good potential here; co-op dragon fights anyone?
With Larian growing in size it's doubtful they would be only working on one game at once. It seems they have been working on Baldur's Gate 3 for some time and that would be their main project now but surely they are planning the next game after that? Thoughts?
I hope Divinity: Fallen Heroes does not retcon Divinity 2:DKS. Is there any hint from the developers that this is not the case? I mean in another thread it was said by Raze after the release of Dragon Commander Larian would be releasing another game finishing off the story arc of the Divine, Damian and the Dragon Knight. It didn't say when. Original Sin and Original Sin 2 came after Dragon Commander & now that they have the rights for Baldur's Gate 3 it will be some time if we see Divinity 3 if at all. But confirmation from the developers that Divinity2:DKS will not be retconned would be enough to satisfy me at this point.