I almost forgot the most important point: How does all this relate to BEyond Divinity.
Well, obviously I´d like to see a main storyline that is abit more structured. Personally, I don´t have a problem with visibly dividing the game into chapters (ala Baldurs Gate II)
And I´d also like to see a travel map, to spread the different locations apart geogrphically.
If you followed what Myrthos wrote on his interview to LS you would have discovered that LS implemented a better “linearity” for the story in BD in comparison to DD.
A storyline is a line by definition. It is a concatenation of interdependent events that lead to one another.
In modern story writing, some writers defy the rules by experimenting with different story structures.
Take for example a movie in which you follow three characters totally unrelated but we see them and what they do in time steps until they all come together to be trapped inside an elevator or a bank robbery etc.
In case of DD the last episode in which you face the demon of lies is more of a conclusion to the story but you cannot reach the black-ring dungeons if you do not learn how to cross the lake from the black dragon.
You cannot be there to learn anything if you did not hit the gong in the council of seven, whom you need to gather and each of the seven branches make a separate short story that converge onto that critical event.
Naturally there would be no meaning in rescuing Mardaneus if he was insane and possessed and that is how the story begins by a quest to restore the sanity of Mardaneus.
This story structure is classified as shallow linearity, but it is compensated by deep hierarchy.
It certainly leaves you with a feeling of the story being shallow, but that is precisely what the writers intended to do (experimentally). It is neither a lack of abilities nor a mistake of amateurish writing, but it does have merits and lightly psychological attachment that is somehow unfulfilling to some of us.
Story linearity is good and it was never a defect in a storyline that is supposed to be a line.
However, once we have a strictly linear story an RPG founded on such a line can be too much restricting and makes the player feel being imprisoned not to mention that it kills re-playability completely.
The remedy is to have such a well built story line then open gates at every stage for side quests or even side stories with complete story-body structures. The hierarchy of the side stories / quests can be as deep as three levels at most because deeper than that would distract the player completely from the main story line and leave a feeling of ridiculousness or an uncalled for complexity.
Hopefully, this had been taken care of in beyond divinity.
Kind regards.
