I used to prefer previous Larian titles too, especially the two early titles Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity. The dark fantasy was strong with those, unlike titles that came after (including BG3 that was a bit too clowny to feel like proper dark fantasy to me).
My main problem with turn-based games is that there are too much useless easy fights, and we cannot avoid them. A problem that doesn't exist in RTS, RTwP/Autobattler (which are almost the same) as you can safely do other things without having to micromanage the fight. The lact of autoresolve is, to me, the main let down for many turn-based games. An AI could solve the issue and allow us to only fights meaningful fights.
A secondary concern is that even with Honor Modes or roguelike features, turn-based games remain very unsatisfying in term of strategy-tactics. Everything is far too obvious to solve, even with RNG. RT games introduce our own motricy within the equation as "time is of the essence" and therefore add a lot more parameters to consider.
Overall, it breaks immersion for story based RPG with strong roleplay elements.
I hoped Larian would compete on Blizzard's turf or Bethesda's after its big DoS2 and BG3 success, but I guess we'll have to wait. I mean, those two genres need a refresh from ambitious companies, even if Path of Exile is doing a great job and KCDII is more than satisfying. I really thought Divinity would be the prequel to Divinity II and feature the same kind of gameplay (and then be more on Bethesda's turf than Blizzard's one), but my excitement was quickly turned down for this title and I'll pass it, again. There're better designed turn-based games around for fighting and strategizing, as I don't play those for the story but more for those that are designed like die&retry (roguelikes mainly). And plenty of excellent RPGs that suit the game design I enjoy the most for them.
Anyway, best wishes for the studio, and enjoy Divinity for those who enjoy TB design.
I wholeheartedly disagree with the above. "Motricity" spoils combat for me. Tactics and strategy and planning all come to naught if your fingers can't switch fast enough among keys. How is that immersive ? I'm playing expedition 33 now, and am driven on by the beautiful story, graphics, OST and visuals. But hate the combat. No planning, no strategy. Only frontal assault and then tapping keys to try to parry or dodge attacks so you can live till the end of the battle. Fortunately they made a very-easy setting that greatly diminishes damage from enemies, so people who can't keep up with the tapping can take a big beating and still get through the battle. Of course a lot of battle options are excluded, basically I can only dodge successfully. Parrying is just too hard, which makes counterattacking impossible, and a lot of other options and abilities are unreachable because of this. And it's not because I don't understand the combat system, but because I cannot always continually look at the screen and the keys at the same time.
Well, the super easy mode worked for act 1, but getting in act 2 i find myself confronted with 6 hostile rounds against 1. Every hostile round has multiple attacks that I must dodge, let's say it works 2/3rd of the time, but even with the "low" damage, my PC can never survive long enough to destroy the 3 opponents. What's the fun in that ?
Thank god there are at least still a handful of games that rely on real tactics and planning and then let you execute it within the fantasy world you're playing in, without RT interference, be it from eyesight, fingermovement,hardware etc...
