Yep, that "small indie dev charm" went away in DOS2 for me. Felt like a tripple A product, fully polished and perfect in every way. Why I dont think thats a good thing, I dont know. Is it comparable to something hand crafted and something massproduced?
It is the transversal from "design by artistic process" to "design by sales expectations". The same thing happened with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The reason it didn't resonate was because Pillars 1 was a work of art, whether you liked the combat or linear balance or not, it was a crafted experience. Deadfire was a backer driven mess of schlock romances and pointless ship combat.
You see the same parallel with DOS to DOS2 where DOS, despite some flaws like the dialogue system and the barely 2-tier paper-rock-scissors combat, was a crafted work of passion. DOS2 was an ego trip... it just so happened to also be a successful one, which is why there is so much of that fan momentum pushing BG3 forward. Egos need to be stroked.
