Divine Divinity 2 Ending

[Roi Danton]

I don't know if any of you have already played and finished Ego Draconis. I just did and have to make one comment:

That was a bloody awesome ending. Whoever thought of that is bloody brilliant. Oh yes, I can see a lot of people bitching about the ending but I love it.
Bloody brilliant.

[Thoth]

I haven't finished it, but have heard how it ends. I've greatly enjoyed the game, but I was very disappointed with the fjord section and being a dragon is a bit too arcade like... and not a very good arcade at that. Also, I was hoping to go to at least Rivertown, but it's blocked by one of those fortresses... despite being a dragon and presumably being able to fly over things like mountains, but whatever.

I got the feeling that the game was a giant advertisement for a third installment, but the game is none the less very good. I enjoyed all the things you can do with your battle tower and the great humor.

Has anyone else encountered "Dragon Terror Force?" I haven't laughed that hard from a game in awhile. Great stuff.

[Roi Danton]

Has anyone else encountered "Dragon Terror Force?" I haven't laughed that hard from a game in awhile. Great stuff.

Yes, those guys were awesome.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The ending has ignited a MASSIVE discussion on the Larian boards ... Most people were just outright frustrated to dissatisfied.

I'm keeping away from the discussions about it, because I don't want to be spoilt too much (and I have been spoilt more than I wanted to already).

I could answer here only by directly jumping to the last replay here of wghich I assumed it would contain no spoilers. Sometimes, my intuition knows what to do.

[JDR13]

This game can't reach the US soon enough....

[HiddenX]

I finished Divinity 2 - Ego draconis, today.

I like the ending - a good cliffhanger for Divinity 3.

+ good story (very good in the first part of the game)
+ much humor
+ exploring is fun and rewarding - some interesting places are very hard too find
+ difficult puzzles are in the game, too
+ good character development - you can learn things from all classes, but you have to chose wisely, because there are not enough exp-points in the game to learn everything -> my end level was 35
+ good armour & weapon enchanting/enhancement system
+ good alchemy system
+ unique weapons & armour and sets
+ interesting quests, often with more than one solution

- bad balancing in the end -> if you are 5 levels above your enemy he can't damage you at all, that means at the end of the game you can go through some dungeons without a scratch -> this is v e r y bad because it makes all the good character, wepon and armour building meaningless in these situations.
- in dragon form you can only fight enemies in the air, ground attacks are only possible to buildings NOT to enemies !
- too much clicking to death in the second part of the game
- second part a bit too linear
- the dragon attacks on enemy flying fortresses vary not too much, so you feel like doing the same arcade action all over again
- in the game are choices and consequences, but only on a very local/personal quest level -> no path is blocked forever, no faction banish you, there's no reputation system

[decoderm]

My first reaction to that ending was a smile. It's not what you expect and i can understand some people are frustrated, but you can't have your way every time :).

[JuliusMagnus]

This type of ending is becomming old. Bioshock was heralded for it. But to be honest it's a typical story element.

It takes advantage of gamers who are used to getting instructions and following them (wether in the good path or the bad path), but then the developer tricks the player and the only time the player can get the truth is when it is too late and the ending cinematic is already rolling. It might have been cute with Bioshock, but I'm kind of annoyed when there is no way (especially in an RPG) for the player to find out ulterior motives, even if they were in a side quest.

The ending is one large Deus Ex Machina and things are revealed by the god (in this case the developer) for which one has no way of finding out in-game.

Anyway it's a good game but the ending is far from brilliant. And in the way it leaves everything hanging up in the air, reminds me of that 10 commandments article that was posted recently.

[Madigan]

I don't know if any of you have already played and finished Ego Draconis. I just did and have to make one comment:

That was a bloody awesome ending. Whoever thought of that is bloody brilliant. Oh yes, I can see a lot of people bitching about the ending but I love it.
Bloody brilliant.I Too thought it was an epic ending, but like you said, some will hate it.

[human_male]

It certainly was a downer, especially after that horrendous final battle.

I guess it's fine as a lead into Divinity 3, but if there is no part three it's certainly a sucky outcome to end on.

I don't exactly have a feeling of satisfaction when I look back on it, and I think all that my character went through, and it was for absolutely nothing.

And it does feel like the whole thing was just a lead in to the next installment.

[human_male]

I haven't finished it, but have heard how it ends. I've greatly enjoyed the game, but I was very disappointed with the fjord section and being a dragon is a bit too arcade like… and not a very good arcade at that. Also, I was hoping to go to at least Rivertown, but it's blocked by one of those fortresses… despite being a dragon and presumably being able to fly over things like mountains, but whatever.

I got the feeling that the game was a giant advertisement for a third installment, but the game is none the less very good. I enjoyed all the things you can do with your battle tower and the great humor.

Has anyone else encountered "Dragon Terror Force?" I haven't laughed that hard from a game in awhile. Great stuff.

I was disappointed at the settlements, or lack thereof. There is only one smallish town, and two tiny villages. I was looking forward to Aleroth through the entire game, expecting a big town to explore with new shops, and quests to do and whatnot, and it was such a let down when you get there.

I thought the attempts at humor were just pathetic, like the dragon terror force, and Tom, Dick and Harry. And not to mention Damian. As in the name, Damian.

[rotciv]

good game, but the ending is too hard to complete - i feel like smashing the disc to bits.oh well i will just have to watch the end on you tube.

[rotciv]

hey can anyone tell me how use those scrolls/formula things?.

[rotciv]

hey i just finished the game, i was on level 37(fighter) -- and i just destroyed that stupid Divine and Zandolor, man it was great killing that Divine guy.

[Tweaks]

LOL Dragon Terror Force were awsome dude !!! sneeky

hehe

[Madigan]

Has anyone else encountered "Dragon Terror Force?" I haven't laughed that hard from a game in awhile. Great stuff.The best laugh i got was the fixing the well quest in the Fjords. Dragon Force was funny but the well quest was just a riot!

[Maylander]

Yeah, the Power Rangers made me laugh outloud.

In any case, having finally completed it, I now understand why "Talana" was often being annoying, sarcastic and downright rude. Oh, and why she was so desperate to get going to the Hall of Echoes.

Still, I am somewhat dissappointed - not because it's a bad ending, but because I have to wait a long time untill I get to see it resolved. I can't wait to get my hands on Ygerna and Damian...

[Cm]

I finally finished the game a week or so ago. RL always gets in my way. The first thing I thought when I realized what had happened was "The only way I could have beat the game was not to play." Brilliant twist IMHO. :lol:

[Corwin]

That's just because you're Twisted!! :p :)

[chaositic]

Late reply I know but I only just finished it. I was a bit taken aback by the ending but did quite like it, it fit in well with the quirky writing and story lines through the rest of the game. I did, however, expect there to be a shot of you going berserk inside the crystal and break it while the Divine was telling you your whole life was spent helping Damian's evil wench.

[mojokabobo]

This isn't my text, taken from somewhere else... but I agree with it completely so here it is:

Divinity 2's Ending is stupid and (something that rhymes with Hull Quit).

There, I said it. I don't know who on here has played through the game, but boy howdy, did that ending completely vaporize the replay value.

I've been looking around online, thinking maybe I was had - that this was the "bad" ending out of a pair, but no. It's the only one. And it is completely, mind-blowingly, pants-on-head retarded.

And people still defend it! "Well," they say, "at least it's not a predictable ending, like all those other good games."

An ending with closure, you mean? Or just one that makes a lick of sense? It's not that I don't like twist endings, and it's not that I hate any ending that isn't happy and flowery. I'm particularly fond of bittersweet endings, actually. But one thing that I do demand from them is that we don't abruptly segue from J.R.R. Tolkien to Samuel Beckett in the final act.

So now I should probably provide something to back up my assertion, huh? Well, here's some things we can infer from the conclusion of the game:

1. Everyone in the world is wrong. Everyone. Dumbledore Zandalore, Commander Rhode, You, Marius, everyone at Farglow, the entire population of the Orobas Fjords, Sassan, Zandalore, Damian (and by extension, the entire Black Ring, including all those generals you kill at the flying forts), Ba'al, Laikan, Zandalore, Razakael, Commaner what's-his-face, the island spirit, Zandalore, General Augustus, Deodotus, the Patriarch, Zandalore, zombie-Sassan, and Zandalore for good measure. Did I mention Zandalore? Some of these people are supposed to be the sharpest tools in the shed, the wisest people on the planet (like Zandalore). Damian was in on this plan from the beginning, but still spent 99% of the game trying to kill you. And then at the end of the game The Divine chews you out for screwing everything up, conveniently forgetting that there was NO WAY for you to know better and that this is all his fault for not tossing Damian down a well when he was still in diapers. What. The. Heck?

2. Ygerna has power like the world has never known, power that exceeds that of everyone in the game combined, with the possible exception of the Patriarch. Maybe. In order for the ending of the game to be remotely feasable, she has to be able to:

A) Reach out across space, time, and planes of existence through a barrier that the most powerful mage the world has ever known (Maxos, remember him?) could barely get through while he was alive, without any of the four artifacts of awesome that you needed to cross the barrier, and imitate a dragon. And when I say imitate a dragon, I mean BE a dragon, complete with being able to turn into a dragon, grant dragon-powers to someone else, conjure a magical axe through sheer force of will so that she can drop it a short distance from what's-his-face's tower, spoof your mindreading abilities, register as a dragon on Commander Rhode's dragon-radar, fool the patriarch (Remember him? The guy so powerful that thinking about his name causes mutations in the local flora?) and presumably have little dragon babies.

B) While doing all of that, she has to maintain the personality and affectations of a dragon perfectly, lest you see through her disguise. Of course, it helps that everyone in the world is unknowingly helping her maintain the illusion, but you still would think that she'd have slipped up sooner or later. I mean, if it were me, the knowledge that the wisest man on the planet is going around telling everyone that the key to the world's salvation is resurrecting me so that my bald lover and I can destroy the world would eventually wear down my psyche to the point that I would have to laugh maniacally or explode.

C) She has to do all of that while dead. Yes, dead. Not undead, not sorta-dead, but dead and wasting away in the Hall of Echoes.

D) At the end of all of that, she's so strong that reality is rewritten and she's resurrected because, essentially, she forgot that she had been executed.

So we can clearly see that Ygerna has power that could best be described as 'godlike.' So knowing that, we must also infer that...

3. Ygerna is just not that bright. Yeah, I know that she's supposed to have that Magnificant Bastard vibe going at the end, but all I could think was, "What a senseless waste of time and resources."

Knowing as we do that Ygerna has godlike abilities even while dead, why didn't she just reach out and give Damian a huge power boost, and let him rock face on the world until he forced his way into the Hall of Echoes to do the job himself? "But Jade," you say, "the Divine said she was looking for a weak mind." Humbug! With Damian she would have had a willing mind. Surely that would have been easier. She would have been starting with an epic level warlord instead of my scrawny level 7 punk. What's that, you say? The patriarch wouldn't have opened the portal? Big deal! Ygerna can disguise herself as whatever she wants and take mortal form wherever she wants. She could just disguise herself as Zandalore and ask the patriarch then.

Or if that isn't possible for some reason (Damian allergic to dragon spit, maybe?) she could have just given her boyfriend a call and taken 90 seconds to explain her plan to him so he could maybe not lose so many troops trying to stop her. For frak's sake, I killed all his generals! The Black Ring corporate ladder looked like a pair of chopsticks by the time I was done with them, with Talana Ygerna cracking Bond One-Liners the whole way. The real twist ending was that he had anything to attack the world with during the game's ending face-slap of a cutscene.

Come to think of it, how the heck did the Divine manage to kill her in the first place? Why didn't she just mind control him then and there and take over the world? Why not reach out of the video game into our world to stop this crappy ending from being written? It. Makes. No. Sense.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Just for your information, most of you might already know this anyway: http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=407857#Post407857

[Cm]

Thanks for the link to the info! I imagine this will hit the news page or has and I missed it. ;)

[Undying Reaver]

This isn't my text, taken from somewhere else… but I agree with it completely so here it is:

Divinity 2's Ending is stupid and (something that rhymes with Hull Quit).

There, I said it. I don't know who on here has played through the game, but boy howdy, did that ending completely vaporize the replay value.

I've been looking around online, thinking maybe I was had - that this was the "bad" ending out of a pair, but no. It's the only one. And it is completely, mind-blowingly, pants-on-head retarded.

And people still defend it! "Well," they say, "at least it's not a predictable ending, like all those other good games."

An ending with closure, you mean? Or just one that makes a lick of sense? It's not that I don't like twist endings, and it's not that I hate any ending that isn't happy and flowery. I'm particularly fond of bittersweet endings, actually. But one thing that I do demand from them is that we don't abruptly segue from J.R.R. Tolkien to Samuel Beckett in the final act.

So now I should probably provide something to back up my assertion, huh? Well, here's some things we can infer from the conclusion of the game:

1. Everyone in the world is wrong. Everyone. Dumbledore Zandalore, Commander Rhode, You, Marius, everyone at Farglow, the entire population of the Orobas Fjords, Sassan, Zandalore, Damian (and by extension, the entire Black Ring, including all those generals you kill at the flying forts), Ba'al, Laikan, Zandalore, Razakael, Commaner what's-his-face, the island spirit, Zandalore, General Augustus, Deodotus, the Patriarch, Zandalore, zombie-Sassan, and Zandalore for good measure. Did I mention Zandalore? Some of these people are supposed to be the sharpest tools in the shed, the wisest people on the planet (like Zandalore). Damian was in on this plan from the beginning, but still spent 99% of the game trying to kill you. And then at the end of the game The Divine chews you out for screwing everything up, conveniently forgetting that there was NO WAY for you to know better and that this is all his fault for not tossing Damian down a well when he was still in diapers. What. The. Heck?

2. Ygerna has power like the world has never known, power that exceeds that of everyone in the game combined, with the possible exception of the Patriarch. Maybe. In order for the ending of the game to be remotely feasable, she has to be able to:

A) Reach out across space, time, and planes of existence through a barrier that the most powerful mage the world has ever known (Maxos, remember him?) could barely get through while he was alive, without any of the four artifacts of awesome that you needed to cross the barrier, and imitate a dragon. And when I say imitate a dragon, I mean BE a dragon, complete with being able to turn into a dragon, grant dragon-powers to someone else, conjure a magical axe through sheer force of will so that she can drop it a short distance from what's-his-face's tower, spoof your mindreading abilities, register as a dragon on Commander Rhode's dragon-radar, fool the patriarch (Remember him? The guy so powerful that thinking about his name causes mutations in the local flora?) and presumably have little dragon babies.

B) While doing all of that, she has to maintain the personality and affectations of a dragon perfectly, lest you see through her disguise. Of course, it helps that everyone in the world is unknowingly helping her maintain the illusion, but you still would think that she'd have slipped up sooner or later. I mean, if it were me, the knowledge that the wisest man on the planet is going around telling everyone that the key to the world's salvation is resurrecting me so that my bald lover and I can destroy the world would eventually wear down my psyche to the point that I would have to laugh maniacally or explode.

C) She has to do all of that while dead. Yes, dead. Not undead, not sorta-dead, but dead and wasting away in the Hall of Echoes.

D) At the end of all of that, she's so strong that reality is rewritten and she's resurrected because, essentially, she forgot that she had been executed.

So we can clearly see that Ygerna has power that could best be described as 'godlike.' So knowing that, we must also infer that…

3. Ygerna is just not that bright. Yeah, I know that she's supposed to have that Magnificant Bastard vibe going at the end, but all I could think was, "What a senseless waste of time and resources."

Knowing as we do that Ygerna has godlike abilities even while dead, why didn't she just reach out and give Damian a huge power boost, and let him rock face on the world until he forced his way into the Hall of Echoes to do the job himself? "But Jade," you say, "the Divine said she was looking for a weak mind." Humbug! With Damian she would have had a willing mind. Surely that would have been easier. She would have been starting with an epic level warlord instead of my scrawny level 7 punk. What's that, you say? The patriarch wouldn't have opened the portal? Big deal! Ygerna can disguise herself as whatever she wants and take mortal form wherever she wants. She could just disguise herself as Zandalore and ask the patriarch then.

Or if that isn't possible for some reason (Damian allergic to dragon spit, maybe?) she could have just given her boyfriend a call and taken 90 seconds to explain her plan to him so he could maybe not lose so many troops trying to stop her. For frak's sake, I killed all his generals! The Black Ring corporate ladder looked like a pair of chopsticks by the time I was done with them, with Talana Ygerna cracking Bond One-Liners the whole way. The real twist ending was that he had anything to attack the world with during the game's ending face-slap of a cutscene.

Come to think of it, how the heck did the Divine manage to kill her in the first place? Why didn't she just mind control him then and there and take over the world? Why not reach out of the video game into our world to stop this crappy ending from being written? It. Makes. No. Sense.

I agree with everything. end of.
however i will be looking forward to what they will do with Flames Of Vengance so i may get some BLOODY Closure! grr

[fatBastard()]

Like Reaver I totally agree with what Mojo posted … the only ending I can remember that was equally bad (in the sense of disappointment) was Mask of the Betrayer, but I've ranted enough about that one here already :x

[harveyjerry]

The deletion could have made more sense, but personally, I am happy, finally a RPG has the balls to make you lose. It seems to be an unwritten assumption in most RPGs, the hero will be ultimately victorious - its something that I think is wrong. In most role-playing all the way that you will inevitabily will lead you to victory, a game where the same is going to defeat this problem.

[wildstar]

I liked the ending of Divinity 2, simply because it was different. People have grown too accustomed to "Hollywood" happy endings. Frankly, I completely welcome it when video game and movie makers take a chance and do something original.