I don't really get this, Blizzard has always been known for their art high standards, the only time I remember that it was put in doubt was in Diablo 3, but it looked really good anyway.
Now, Diablo depends on art and gameplay, everything else is pretty bad, I could give a pass for the story but so far only Diablo 2 had a somewhat solid story, in Diablo 1 is almost non existent and 3 is kinda bad.
If your game depends in two aspect, you better knock one out of the park.
Why this should be important to Larian? I don't think anyone that likes games like BG3 gives such high regard to graphics... The strengths of this games are other:
• thousands dialogue lines we get to choose and enjoy. Just in Early Access we probably have more than all diablo games combined.
• Choices, the things we choose change the story and give us a lot of possiblities.
• Diversity in the approach we get to play, we have a party, each member can have it's own build and synergize with others. Diablo is a game with multiplayer that has all characters just doing damage, no synergy whatsoever.
You could go on listing differences that amount to crazy numbers in man hours, but it just doesn't make senses because those two games have almost nothing in common.
Larian, I feel, is insecure by comparison. Instead of ‘being themselves’ and putting their own mark on the BG franchise, they are looking toward Marvel and pop culture and ‘trends’ for guidance.
They should take a few notes from modern Blizzard, and grow some balls.
And, what is wrong with you that you assume they take inspiration in Marvel and other trends? If they did, they would be making action games, like God of War, Diablo, Overwatch...
Also, wtf. You haven't even played Diablo 4....
