Hello, I just made this account to post this feedback here.
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One of the first things I noticed when I started playing the Definitive Edition was the new journal system. I haven't played very much of DE yet, so my feedback is limited to the first hour or so of gameplay.
I really enjoyed the old journal because it felt like an actual journal, partially due to the timestamps with each entry and the lined paper, but mostly from the perspective it was written in: it felt as if your character was actually documenting your travels him/herself. DE's journal has quest tips in bold above some entries, which kind of ruined immersion for me, as I thought they were too direct, at least coming from Divinity. For example, when the journal advises you to look for a weapon on the starting ship, the old journal reads
[i]"It might be wise to find weapons in case there's more dangers ahead,"[/i]
as if your character might have had this thought themselves, while the new one sort of bludgeons you with a
[b]"Find a weapon."[/b]
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A thing I like about the new journal is the way it breaks quests with multiple paths, such as Escape From Fort Joy, into sub-bullets. I think this really helps clean things up compared to the old journal, which lumped everything into one long quest entry.
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The "Chronicles" section of the new journal, replacing the previous "My Story so Far", is what bothers me most. I'm not sure I've played enough DE to ascertain it's actual purpose, but so far, it seems like an overarching summary of the plot, similar to the old journal. This section of the old journal had a very dramatic tone, with long, flowery sections of lore or story. I feel as if the "Chronicles" in DE's journal have been simplified a bit too much, especially for a section of the journal which seems to be more dedicated to lore compared to the section concerning questlines. For another comparison, here's the first lore entry telling you about Lucian's death and the current state of things.
The old journal reads:
[i]"Lucian the Divine—champion of the Seven Gods, and saviour of Rivellon—is dead. He sacrificed himself to defeat the forces of the Void, leaving his son, Alexandar, to preside over the next chapter of Rivellon's history. But Lucian's sacrifice did not buy peace—instead, the years that followed were plagued by the menace of Voidwoken. These beasts were drawn to Source magic, and left death and destruction in their wake."[/i]
Perhaps that's a bit long-winded for the first entry that a player might read, but I for one liked the writing style better than the new entry.
[i]"Lucian the Divine, champion of the Gods, sacrificed himself to save Rivellon from the Void. His son Alexandar now leads the Divine Order.
The Divine's sacrifice did not buy peace. The rise of the Voidwoken brought the world death, destruction and fear."[/i]
The concise nature of the bullet point entries and prose makes the text far more digestible, but I feel as if there's some cost to the artistry of the writing.
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Thanks for creating the best game I've ever played, Larian Studios. Sorry for the long post; I just felt like I needed to give some feedback on the journal since I haven't seen any other discussions on it yet. Again, I haven't played through very much of DE yet, so maybe I'm just misinformed about the journal. Thanks for reading!
