Originally Posted by mrfuji3
This seems more like your personal preferences of Larian's games, which is different than the impact Larian had on the crpg genre.
Yes, absolutely. It is merely my opinion, just like everything else being said in this thread is also some individual's personal opinion, except that some are trying to say their personal opinion is somehow representative of attitudes generally. So I'm thinking, if that's how some people are going to frame things, well, I can do the same, right?

As to D:OS2's popularity, I will say here what I've said before and which I will always say about that issue, which is that the reason D:OS2 was "popular or sold a lot was because it appealed to a LOT of non-cRPG fans. So it had cross appeal between both cRPG fans (who are a very tiny niche group) and gamers who are most certainly NOT cRPG fans and who actually don't like cRPGs. For me, that is exactly what is wrong with D:OS2 (and also with BG3), in that it merges a lot of things into the game I don't at all consider to be a part of what makes a cRPG a cRPG, while also diluting a lot of things that are core to a game being a cRPG. But Larian has done a great job of being able to walk that line of moving their games away from being true cRPGs so as to appeal to all those other gamers even while still holding onto many cRPG fans (but not including me, obviously). And that makes complete sense from a business standpoint, as a business always wants to expand its customer base. It is exactly the same thing Bioware did by moving away from true cRPGs to making games like Dragon Age, which also had cross-appeal between cRPG fans and non-cRPG fans.

The D:OS games and BG3 have a lot more in common with Bioware's DA games than many in this forum will be willing to admit to, but that's the truth of it. Being isometric isn't what magically makes your game a cRPG. Both D:OS2 and BG3 are NON-cRPGs that are trying to pretend to be cRPGs, and that's what ultimately really irks me. I assign a lot of value to honesty, even when that honest reality doesn't line up with my own preferences.