These are some of the comments that I would point to as well, specifically as being misleading. A company can wiggle and wheedle and say "Yes well, saying 'utilise' is not the same as saying we're actually using that system", but that's not how it reads, or comes off. It comes off as saying: "Hey, what rule system are you suing for your game?" "We're using D&D 5e!". And that is not the reality... it may not have intended to mislead, but misleading it is. I will speak from the perspective of players, and payers, who read that, felt it said something very clear and quite specific, and then were upset when that turned out not to bee the case, and felt strongly misled.
This doesn't feel like it's based on D&D 5e at all - or at least it does not seem to be so - It feels like it's based on something more personal to Larian, with 5e being worked into it and mapped over it. It feels like it would have been more honest to say "We're excited to see how our Divnity style gameplay and mechanics can make use of a 5e framework".
Here is where I have to step away from pure analytics:
Quote
We took the D&D fifth edition ruleset, we ported it to video game format, and we saw the things that didn't work.
I've seen this quote plenty. I simply do not believe it. I cannot accept it as an honest statement of truth. It looks, smells, tastes and feels in every way, and with all evidence present, as a dishonesty. There is no feasible, believable way that they started with a faithful implementation, and then rolled through design process from that, to what we have now - something that in it's earliest patches was almost a majority built out of D:OS2.
At very best... at very best, what I can see in this statement that I could actually believe, is that they set out the rules for 5e On Paper, looked at them, and then said "Well, we can't do that and that with our engine, and the probably wouldn't be fun, I don't think, I want to do more than that... Let's do it our way, start with what we've got, and try to see how much of this 5e we can work in as we go." And all without much actual contact with playing 5e or D&D in general.
I'm sorry that I'm so cynical about that... I just cannot buy it.
