Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Enhanced Edition Thoughts: Pros and Cons of the story [SPOILER]

I replayed the finale yesterday and I have to say, that I actually liked the story, even with it's flaws (which it has, I will not deny it). I would like to start a discussion about it's good and bad sides.

Spoiler-Warning for everybody that hasn't finished the game yet!

So let's start the discussion around a few questions:

1) Did I like the story? If the answer is yes/no, why?

Answer: Yes, I liked it. I think it was a solid narrative, that good better with the Enhanced Edition. It gave us clear goals(find the bloodstones and how they are connected to you) and the story made at least sense for me. I mean, in this world exist talking shells, so why shouldn't two people rescue the world/the universe?


2) Where there a few storytelling devices they uses well/didn't used well?

Answer: I really think the bloodstones were a good macguffin and explanation for opening rooms on your home plane. This story is more a mystery where you have to find clues about you in and your role in the story. But they also had their advantages gameplaywise (healing/experience) so it also made sense for you to find them. The more you were involved in this cosmic treasurehunt, the better you got forward, so gameplay and story were combined with each other. I thought this was good idea to tell a story.


3) Had the story a highpoint (for example a fight or a good buildup and solution for a quest)?

Answer: Besides the finale in the EE I found that both versions actually had two highpoints:

1. The whole story in Cyseal: I really think that Cyseal is one of the best starter regions I have ever played. Everything is connected and the story around the resurrection of Braccus Rex is a solid standalone tale and would have been the end in many other games.

Braccus Rex as a big bad was also fun and he was a nice symbol of what to come in the other two thirds. He also was such a fabulous overacter, I could read his lines all day.

2. Hiberheim: This was actually my favorite region in the whole game, because it was so otherworldly and felt epic. I liked that we travelled trough the realms of the elemental lords and saw how Leandras actions even effected the cosmos itself. But would have liked it, if this regions would have been the last region in the second act, because King Boreas is an approiate powerful enemy and also because I felt that the story stopped a bit after completing Hiberheim and rescuing Icara.

Which brings me to my final question:


4) What should the writers change for the next game/ shouldn't have changed compared to the Original game?

Answer: I think Leandras earlier introduction in the EE was a mistake, because it puts her more in the foreground and makes her the bigger bad of the game. Granted it is her doing, that gets the world into danger, but she has no personal reason for hating us. Besides all the drama between her, Icara and Zandalor she could have been swapped with any other servant of the Void.

I actually think that it was for the better, that we saw the Trife first in the original game. We had a history with him, he taunted and hated us and it was his doing that started it all. He also had an excuse for not killing us right away (being entrapped in the homestead and all that). In the EE he became only a sidevillain, but on the other hand the story became way more darker, because it showed that Leandra was doing all this on her own free will.

I also didn't like the solution of the diaries we found in the House at the end of time. The story has a good build-up, but ending it with just a single conversation with the third general is a bit ... weak. Maybe Leandra and Icara could have been the reincarnation of the third general. Leandra as the "pure" side of her soul that holds back killing her old comrades (which would have explained why she doesn't kill us right away with her level 20 powers) and Icara the "tainted" half, that still hates us for leaving her to the void dragon (which would have explained her slightly antagonistic approach towards us).

Or something like this. Well that's all I have to say about the story, I'm curious what you have to write about the story.