What do you mean by narrative design and weak companions?
If you want my full thoughts, click here In short: what is D:OS2 about? Every coherent adventure has a core around which everything revolves and D:OS2 is all over the place. Then there are more...hmm.. technical issues? Character motivations making no sense, people being unaware to what is happening 5km away from them, characters aren’t immersed in the world around them - they don’t react nor speak in a way that would make sense.
Same with companions - I described it in my post as “twitch” writing. Things a snarky coop-player would say, not a character existing in the moment. I blame that (as well as lack of identity, motivations, personality, reactivity, lack of interactions with the player and each other) on coop design - after all “companions” are empty vessels to be possessed by fellow player, not a full-fledged character to interact with the player and possibly reflect and resonate important aspects of the story and world. D:OS2 companions come with a plot, but not personality - who is Red Prince? He has a short backstory, and objectives to complete but other then that he is an empty shell. And unfortunately, if no one controls Red Prince and defines who he is, he remains empty for the rest of the game. The fact, that companions usually have the same line to read should be a warning sign.
D:OS2 has good bits, but those are short and barely explored. And I also think that what D:OS2 did with companions is brilliant - if you play the game in Coop, which unfortunately I am not quite able to do nowadays, but I would kill for D:OS1&2 in college. And now we get to BG3 - an IP which figured how to focus story around protagonist and create cool characters to surround him. Something that’s been expanded and improved upon in RPGs that follow. And it’s something Origin system simply goes against.
