* WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS INCOMING *
Well, after making a great effort to shop my way to the end and hitting my head against a wall in order to upgrade runes and inserting them in my items, I finally managed to beat the game. I must say, the final fight was rather dissapointing. Let me explain...
The first time I chose to give away my source and fought Braccus for the first time, with everyone as my allies. As soon the fight started, my party was, like pretty much every other encounter in the game, all stacked together, and got decimated by the insane amount of AoE - almost all of them ended up disabled somehow, and it only got worst with every turn. Reload, try again...
This time, just to check it out, I chose the other option, the one to reject their offer. So I fought them and actually owned their party quite easily; I almost had Lucian killed when Braccus went all crazy and phase 2 started just the same, but this time my all companions were almost dead so you can guess how it ended.
Reload, try again...
So, knowing that regardless of my decision the fight would've ended the same, I picked Lucian and co as my allies. While the fight was hard, Lucian focused on Braccus and took him all by himself while I was cleaning up the place of the rest of the baddies. When Rex fell the fight was over and I was all like "WTF just happened?". I never scored a hit neither on him nor the kraken. The Doctor battle was far, far more challenging, although I would say the first encounter against Alexander was the harder fight for me.
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So anyways, I think I've covered most of my takings on the game. Here's another post of mine where I cover the NPC part of it...
I have to admit that the companions system is awesome and reminded me a lot to BG2. In fact, the only reason I would ever play this game again is to experience each of the storylines from my point of view, check the rest of the stories, and experiment with weird combinations.
Yet, what buggers me is the inconsistency that happens sometimes. At first we were all like just prisoners, but sometimes we treated as friends. Eventually, Sebille became my sweethearth, and it was very well done (a little too sexual for my taste in medieval fantasy, I would rather have it more like Aerie or Jaheria, but it was very good nevertheless), and at that moment, every time I talked to her, she responded with a "Yes, my dear?" or similar lines. Then, in the following chapter, she went back to the "What is it?" cold lines, and never mentioned our encounter again... why? Was I
that bad?
The Red Prince is another example. He always acted like a spoiled brat, and that's ok. But eventually he learns to treat me as an equal, with respect, yet his lines transform when arriving Arx and again he's all like "Mpf, you want an audience?". Not to mention, in the part where you find the Red Princess, I tried to prevent him from going to the cart with her, revealing that the whole thing was in fact a trap. Yet after the fight he left the group and had to reload... excuse me, what? I just saved your royal ass, wtf.
At one point, after Lohse said that she was very lucky of meeting me and Sebille cried in my shoulder, all the NPC talked in group after an event and assured that we were nothing more than random people who didn't cared about each other. Lohse even said that she didn't cared about our fate at all. I was pretty sure that that particular event should've happened eaerlier, when we were strangers still, and that I just completed it too late, therefore making it weird. But still, come on...
Overall, the system has flaws, but I still consider it the strongest point of the game, and it really gave me an old school vibe. Congratulations to the team behind that feature.
By the end of the game everyone acted like before, as if sudden amnesia attacked their minds when arriving Arx. The journal is hilarious: it's so bugged that I can't believe it actually passed testing. After saying goodbye to the Red Prince and admitting that was an honour to fight alongside each other, the journal recorded that "he fought me for Divinity". Yeah... what the hell...
There are many, many more examples like that, but I'm sure most of you found them already. Not to mention, every time I reloaded the game, the journal just went ape shit and stacked all lines into one, making it impossible to read until I reopened it a couple of times.
Anyways, I still had a final question about the epilogue: as I said before, Sebille was my romantic interest, but it doesn't say anything regarding that relationship. Regardless of the outcome of the game, it always said that she "wandered the world". I've read somewhere that there are some bugs with the epilogue (in DOS2? impossibru!), so I wanted to know if there is actually a different story about "us" in there.And while I'm here, I would like to adress Malady. She's probably one of the worst characters I've seen in a long, long time. She's a walking deux ex machina, existing only to fix things with powers that are never explained and make zero sense. Even in the ending where I sacrifice my source and turn into a silent monk she somehows manages to solve everything. I was actually expecting that to be the "sad but honourable" ending, yet it ended as pretty much the best of all.
And speaking of bad designed characters, what the hell happened to Arhu? In DOS1:EE he chose to be a cat forever, did he changed his mind? Why is he such a whimp here? Literally the only time he shows up is to die.
Oh, and Braccus Rex, really? It was the most Scooby Doo ending I've seen in a game. I was actually expecting him to twirl his mustache and said "I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling Godwokens!". Awful, awful antagonist, and totally uncalled for.
Aaaand a last thing: while the music of the game is bland at best, the song that Lohse sings after killing the Doctor
simply blew my fucking mind. I almost cried while listening to it. Probably the best part of the game for me.
I'm not kidding.
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Looking forward to the Enhanced Edition so I can play the game again with Fane, who seems to be a vital piece in the whole story. My character talked him only one time, yet at the ending we were like pals for some reason - even after fighting me in the Acadamy and insulting me for betraying him.
I have to admit, I had no clue WTF he was talking about, and I still don't.
