Playing on Classic via co-op, mix of skill levels. First part of the game, all of Fort Joy, felt pretty well balanced. Some fights erred a little easy, a few a bit tough, but we're still figuring out characters and game mechanics and all, so it's to be expected. All in all though, pretty fun.
But then comes Driftwood.
All at once it feels like the balance curve was thrown out and the numbers thrown on their head.
Why do the last enemies of the Fort Joy part of the game hit for 40-80, and immediately in Driftwood enemies hit for 150+? Why does enemy health double? Why does enemy armor double or triple abruptly?
We slogged through a few fights and also noticed a lot more issues with dialogues and quests - NPCs wouldn't recognize knowledge we had, responses got buggy (one character can't initiative conversation with any magisters anymore, another "took a bribe" from a beggar despite walking away.) and sloppy.
All of Fort Joy was the most fun we've had in a game in a long time and, on Classic, the difficulty felt about right. I dunno what happened with Driftwood, but enemies suddenly one-shotting every character's armor pools (yes, with up to date armor) just isn't fun. It's really poor balance, and it's so very frustrating because the game has been SO unbelievably fun up until that point.
Edit: Just to be clear, this isn't a "waah too hard", there's no "git gud" here. This is a frustration with a significant issue with the curve of difficulty on Classic mode - Fort Joy on Classic is WAY too easy, or Driftwood on classic is WAY too hard.
