Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis Why such a drive to punish the player?

Phewww! I'm not even up to the Dragon stage yet, and I gotta say I haven't seen a game this harsh since Ninja Gaiden.

Just curious, what is up with that? Why the design decision to make every encounter that isn't below your level a desperate, tooth-nail-and-claw fight for your life? Multiple +1 enemies are a 50/50 chance of survival, multiple +2s? Boyy-howdee, hope there's some geometry abuse available in the room (as in, a nook or a cranny to wedge yourself in and hope the enemies lose the aggro), and the game LOVES tossing multiple +1s/+2s at you in tight spots (Laiken's study, I'm looking at you). What's worse is that there's no forewarning: I had the misfortune of going into Maxos' Temple at level 9, and got my arse walloped seventeen ways from Sunday. If not for good ole' geometry abuse, I'd be stuck in the "Eternal Maze" with no way to fight out of it, and no way to go back to the open world to level some more...

For that matter, why the choice of a sarcastic dungeon master? In certain places, the narrator voice seems to snicker at your misfortune under his breath.

It's almost as if the devs wanted an ego contest with the player, or at least wanted to make us pull a handful of hair out every single play session. Don't get me wrong, challenge is good in moderation, but does anyone else feel that the designers went a touch overboard here?

I didn't have any problems that couldn't be solved with a bit of strategy or by trying a different area first, and was never tempted to lower the difficulty setting.

A good general rule of thumb for RPGs is to always put off doing the main quests as long as possible. Periodic saves mean you can never get stuck somewhere with no way back, even if you do rush into an area too much above your level.

Battlesystem just a bit sucks, yeah, but we got a promise it will be fixed in FoV.
Also, 1.01-1.02 versions is MUCH easier.

Yeah, Divinity II: Ego Draconis was definitely hours and hours of insanely harsh grinding to get to use your dragon form for good. I got to many points in the game where I wanted to give up. Then I'd find some way to exploit the system and make the insanely ridiculous difficulty only mildly ridiculous. But after every battle, it all felt very rewarding. However, I'd still prefer Divinity III have a better ramping up of difficulty. And make 'easy' actually somewhat easy, lol.

hmm I thought dragon form is pretty easy to use
I learned all the tricks in about 15 seconds

maybe there is difference betwen PC(mine) version and Xbox 360...

I play on Xbox, a very intuitive way to play with a gamepad and Xbox (I find!) !

I must say I first play on "easy/low" and now play on "hard/high" and I find it not so much more difficult!!
And in dragonform I haven't had any problems with the first battle (just after killing Laiken and take the Dragonstone)! Comparing with my first play, I die at least a couple times with that first dragon battle, ON "low"!!
I needed more time to handle the dragon and learning all the tricks like Raven said not just 15 seconds, but at least 15 sec X 1000 ... but now I can say I CAN it !

Part of the balancing issue is tied to the open map system; it's easy to wander into areas that are too tough. In that respect, it's not so much balancing as it is a non-linear map that, while flexible, also allows you to enter areas that may be too difficult.

Once Tamara is in your head, she does give some warning if you may be out of your element. Before then (and critically, while the player is still learning game mechanics), there is no such hint system and the newbie is left to the try-and-die method.

That said, my overall impression is that the pacing from one combat to the next could use a bit of fine-tuning. There does seem to be a sense that, while battles are survivable, you are fighting tooth-and-nail each time. It's fine if some battles are like that, but those should be part of elite encounters, "special" and challenging. However, when the player is battling generic grunts, this is a good time soften the difficulty, allow the player to shine and be the heroic Slayer that the story alludes to. Fine-tuning the pacing like this will create a sense of ebb and flow in the hero's life, moments where he is mighty and cuts through pathetic hordes, interspersed with desperate epic battles against champions and their minions.

Fin

P.S. The "wet behind the ears" type text under Stat mouse-over descriptions feels out of place. Even at lvl 1, NPCs are treating the player as an elite warrior, inducted into the elite Slayers. Yet according to the text, frail ladies beat you at arm wrestling. Necessary?

I find the game not TOO difficult at all, even on "high". And I'm not a hardcore gamer!

But I find it boring the game begin to be too easy at the end of the game, expect the final battle.
But from the time I become around level 30 all enemies I can kill very fast (on "low") and now I play on "high" I experience the same (if a enemy is 3 levels (or so) lower, it isn't a challenge anymore !
But I hear (read) something that Larian make in the Addon the "level-based" thing a better balancing, so if a enemy is for example 3 or 5 levels lower than my hero, it can still do damage to me! I hope they do it fine

But I love this game very much!! Especially the Quests, the Skills, the battles like a Dragon, the loot, the Humor for sure(!!), the music and so on ....

In my experience, Tamera made things worse rather than help. After every side quest completion, she'd pipe up with "All right, all right, you rescued a kitten out of a tree, HAPPY NOW?! Let's go to Maxos' Temple already!" After the third/fourth time, I thought that the game is steering me towards advancing the plot, and went to the temple way earlier than I should have.

Would've been better if there was a "minimum level check" somewhere, and instead of pestering you to move on, your imaginary girlfriend would say something like "Hm, OK, you kind of still suck and might die. Let's go practice some more before you get us both killed."

The open map I'm fine with, mostly because if I run into trouble, I can also run away from the said trouble... in most cases, anyway. Not quite the case when you are locked into a tiny room with several +2 mobs.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE open world and non-linearity (I just wish there was daytime and nighttime, too...). Despite all the hair-pulling moments, right now Ego D blows Dragon Age out of the water, and makes the latter feel like an arcade rail-shooter. That said, I would love to see somewhat more forgiving difficulty curve in the future, and fewer "no escape other than reload" situations.

You mean "Talana" ?
I laught with her comments and mostly I think Larian put her comments in just for making "a joke" + also for the storyline and give the hero the "feeling" Talana is unpatient(ly), for a reason SHE knows only ....

I love it to be free to kill enemies I wish to kill and it is a challenge try to kill enemies they're higher levels:
some kind of enemies I can take down, even if they are 3 levels (or more, on low difficulty) higher than me! But some kind of enemies are to strong for me, even if they are the same level or 1/2/3 levels lower!

PS:
Playing as a ranger enemies in a small room are mostly more difficult to kill (luckely I can later on activate a skill like "Firewall", Bleed, etc ... and find better melee weapons!
Always before I go IN a cave, dungeon, room, I SAVE (or make an extra temporary savegame).

Oops, yes, Talana.

And the game as a whole is a lot of fun. It's also a very ambitious game with complex elements, and complexity creates many opportunities for imbalance. For as many posts as there are "the [beginning] game is too hard," there are as many that say "the end of the game is too easy." There's a pattern there that points to balancing...
Fin

I play it on hard difficulty and it was easy
Died few times but its not really challenging game

I wish there is some mod that increase difficulty

Difficulty depends a lot on class & skills. As a mage & archer, I had a pretty easy time the entire game. As a warrior... not so much, until I had some ranks in Life leech & Regenerate.

Anyway, Divinity 2's gameplay is not really unforgiving. It's rather typical for the genre... most action RPGs (Diablo, Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege) have level-based gameplay.