Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion Letter from an old Larian fan

Hello to everyone at Larian,



I do not even know how active these forums are these days. Never had time to follow or post here much and that is more true than ever lately. This seems like the best place to post this even though I have no idea if this will reach the people I hope it reaches.

I have to start with the fact that even though Divine Divinity was absolutely a game I would have played back when it released, when I was a kid, it simply didn't come up that time in my life. As such, I played it relatively late and it ended up being in my top 5 games ever at the time. Due to how immersive it was, to me, it felt like an isometric version of the RPG I DID grow up with and has been my favourite game ever for a long time: GOTHIC (1/2). It also made me fall in love with Kirill's music and boooooy, I do miss the man a lot!

I never got around to finishing Beyond Divinity and it is something that I want to fix at some point, but life makes it pretty hard to play games in general nowadays.

Divinity II: Ego Draconis - the one that changed everything!

I first saw a trailer for this game and got extremely hyped as I absolutely love dragons. At some point, I think a version of the german build of the game leaked or some such. Of course I did everything I could to get my hands on it and try it: I ended up joining a (mainly at the time) piracy forum and had people there help me get it working by patching in the english localization from the released console version I believe. The game worked, it was full of bugs and ran like shit, but I couldn't put it down. I played through a large part of the game like that and regreted none of it. When it finally released, I started over and finished it, of course. When the expansion was released I did the same: started over and finished it again. Boy was "Flames of Vengeance" a fantastic expansion, one of the best for any game in my eyes.

After the Dragon Knight Saga was over, I started following Larian and Swen religiously, desperately waiting for their next game. I used to read Swen's blog every time he posted.
I was pretty excited for Dragon Commander, but ended up playing it very little as games that lean into strategy elements just aren't for me most of the time. I still think it's a very cool game and I'm glad the team got to experiment with it.

Divinity: Original Sin 1/2 - the ones that changed everything, again!

Larian changed again, for the better, going by many people's thoughts! However, for me, this is when I lost interest in games made by Larian. Again, I used to read Swen's blog, so I know very well that this is the type of games he and the studio have been eager to make for so long. They just aren't for me as I'm not a fan of party-based RPGs generally. The combat going for the tactical turn-based style didn't help either. Still, I was very happy that Larian was finally getting the recognized they deserved for so long.

Baldur's Gate 3 happened a while after and as the internet blew up talking about how good it was, I once again felt... nothing. I had no interest in playing it and I haven't touched it to this day. I'm still very happy that Larian is one of the most appreciated companies in the industry now.

The Game Awards 2025 night came along and the trailer for the new Divinity hit us all. I absolutely love it! Love how confident Larian is to show something like that on the biggest stage this industry has. I was excited that it was a new Divinity that was not Original Sin. I was excited at the idea that it might finally be another Divinity that's going to move towards what it used to be. A more personal and immersive action-RPG. A Divinity III if you will.7

I recently saw the news that it is in fact not going to be that and will be the culmination of what Larian has been building towards for so many years, but still in the style of studio's more recent games. I am once again losing that excitement and drifting towards indifference towards Divinity again. Looking forward to what the game will be like still and maybe it's going to be different enough that it will click with me unlike the previous 3 games. I don't know, honestly.

I am not mad at anyone for where Larian is still going. I am still very much rooting for this studio and am very happy the people there get to do what they do.
I am however, still clinging to some hope that something more action-RPG oriented, in the vein of Ego Draconis, will grace Divinity once again in the future! Because I do love and miss this universe a lot!

I'm not even sure what this is for in the end and I'm sorry for the long read. I wish Swen and everyone at Larian all the best and happy holidays! Keep showing this industry how it's done and build towards that RPG that will dwarf them all! I always believed in you guys!



Signing off,
An old Larian fan with a draconic heart

PS: I think I may have the only video on Youtube with gameplay from "The Lady, The Mage & The Knight", being mostly me just goofing around in it because I was excited to get my hands on the one that started it all

Larian may in the future do another game with action combat again. Considering that they are working on two games at once, the other may fit the bill. However, basically all their early games were released under publisher pressure. It was basically their money givers going like: "Make this more like Diablo or we won't fund this." So if they do another, it may look and play very differently to what they released way back. Even about Divinity 2, Swen Vincke wrote in his blog: "in truth there are only a few gameplay moments in there that come close to the reason I set up this company." https://rpgwatch.com/news/larian-studios--the-inspiration-behind-project-e-19696.html


So long, I heavily recommend Drova! Even if pixel art isn't your style, try it. The game started out internally with the project name "Gothic 2D" -- and boy, did they nail that. There's even a day/night cycle, simple NPC schedules (NPCs working/sleeping, patrolling) etc. Plus, same as in Gothic, you start out as a total nobody and have to climb the ranks to earn respect. NO STUPID MAP MARKERS EITHER. Same as in Gothic, you may BUY a map of the areas. Else it's all exploration bliss. My GOTY 2024, and I am not kidding.

Oh, I love pixel art games and I've had my eyes on Drova ever since I've heard of it, just haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I do intend to!

I do know of the remarks in regards to their older games. I always understood that side as well, but it is those older games of theirs that I love at the same time. And I can only imagine what can come out if they gave that style of game an honest try, on their own terms for once.

if you liked Gothic and Drova keep an eye on Of Ash and Steel.
It' currently broken beyond belief, but the day they manage to patch some of the most egregious bugs there's going to be something genuinely good there. I played it for several hours before putting it on hold waiting for a decent update.

Also, any Gothic fan should give their full attention to Archolos, but that should be old news at this point.

I am glad I am not the only one still thinking about the Divinity 2 DKS. I played it a long time ago but never finished it. I returned to it this summer and it was immediately high in my top 10 and this is very hard to tick all my check boxes of preferences in video games. I understand that Swen might personally feel that this part was forced into such shape by third parties, but still for me it was a great game. I am not a big fan of turn based games, so I really hope that sometime Larian might decide to experiment with the DKS gameplay style again and give us some Dragon Knight protagonist.

Yeah I have played through that 3 times with each release. Ego Draconis, dragon knight saga, developers cut.

With all this AI controversy I animated some of the official artwork for that game as an experiment. https://x.com/i/status/2001792160547639428

It would be good if we can see these characters in the next game along with the Patriarch even if it's briefly.

Divine Divinity remains my favorite Larian game to this day. I've played all the other games and enjoyed them, but none of them quite matched the original.
I hope the new Divinity at least comes close to the first game in terms of story and immersion.

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...

This is to say nothing about the fact that RT systems have much less choice because players cannot take the time to process choices and think strategically, when combat devolves into APM.

Which is evinced by the person comparing RT combat to "Autobattlers", the genre that is quite literally devoid of tactics and strategy because it's just the game playing itself.


I suppose the immersion is that in actual combat, you're not able to just pause time and take turns whacking each other.

RT is more "Immersive" due to being a more dynamic affair more closely matching real world engagement.

Though immersion is beyond merely mimicking real life. It's about fitting into the setting as a whole. The immersiveness of TB/RT combat will depend a lot on how its implemented and how much it sticks out based on your own personal preferences (Which is generally the backbone of "Immersion", it's a lot to do whether it gets in the way of your enjoyment or not. Which is why many things that would be "Realistic" get cut from games because it's not immersive to, for example, have to go to the bathroom with your characters in a game constantly)


Ironically, I hate E33's combat for the entirely opposite reason.

I am very much capable of hitting parries. Which is the problem. The entire combat system, character's having unique mechanics, choices in character building... All of it simply melts away under the thumb of "Stack nothing but damage stats and just parry everything lmao"

Like, there's no reason to improve health or defenses when Parries simply make you take 0 damage. All these unique mechanics characters have, most of the time don't come into play because enemies die to parries before they become relevant. All the traditional JRPG systems in place? Irrelevant since 90% of the time it just comes down to parry everything the enemies do (Though it's not like JRPG's have been traditionally great about their systems... Like, most of the Final Fantasy games are just spam Attack on every character until a boss fight)

It's why I much prefer Shadow Hearts: Covenant's active combat system for a TB game. Since you still actually use all the mechanics of the game, you still plan out your actions like a normal JRPG. You just have the (Customizable) ring system to use when taking actions. So even if you take out trash enemies by just spamming regular attacks, you still actually engage in the game (Unlike when I replayed all the Steam releases of FF where combats I just flipped onto 5x Speed and toggled on auto-attack and then just tabbed out while combat resolved)


Ironically, this is actually a showcase of E33's combat being a "Worst of both worlds" affair.

The TB nature meaning that enemies always get turns and always are engaged in pre-determined groups. Unlike a proper RT action game where you have the option to reposition to limit enemies ability to attack, as well as techniques like luring enemies out one by one.

Then the RT nature is adding on that fundamental need to use active defenses to survive. Unlike a proper TB game where most things are designed for you to be able to simply face tank (There are exceptions like specific fight mechanics or old school FF games where bosses took double turns and if they decided to randomly attack the same character twice they'd die)

In any dedicated style of game, such an issue wouldn't occur. But the melding of 2 antagonistic styles creates these situations. Which mirrors a lot my opinion about RTwP and how it takes on the worst aspects of TB and RT to create an overall worse and less fun system than either style would normally present.


Aye. Though there's a prevailing trend for a lot of games (4X Strategy games especially) to take on the shallow and awful HoMM style combat which sucks. It's such an absolute garbage system with so little tact or nuance and absolutely ruins games. Like I couldn't stand playing Age of Wonders 4 because this combat system is just not fun at all (And unlike say, Endless Legend where the auto-battle function is pretty cromulent and just adds a smidge of tedium for having to select it every combat. AoW4's auto-battle was utterly useless, it literally would lose every single battle as a total loss, even against tiny armies that I'm 20x more powerful than)

I would prefer if they had better systems with more depth if they choose to shoehorn in manual unit combat.