Divinity II: DKS - Interview @ RPG Codex

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RPG Codex caught up with Swen Vincke to discussthe Dragon Knight Saga post-release. A bit on the RPG-focus of the Flames of Vengeance part:
Having played ED and FoV I had a feeling that with FoV you were pouring more R into your ARPG, considering that the questing/combat ratio was shifted a bit in favor of questing, quests had some choices or multiple solutions, combat areas were intense but rather short and less tedious. Do you plan to continue down this path?

The formula of any Divinity has always been to mix various gameplay styles with one another, and in ED this was no different. You got RPG intensive parts mixed with action intensive parts mixed with the occasional puzzle or platform bit. We thought there was already sufficient action in ED, and that’s how we came to putting a very RPG intensive part in there, which is what we thought was missing there.

To be perfectly honest, we actually wanted to put in another area that featured more action, but during production figured out that it would take us too long, so we cancelled that. One of the things we also did in DKS was make the combat part in the middle shorter, at least for those who rushed through the game, because we felt that for them the action bit might be a bit too much without too much interesting things happening. But in the same breath I have to say that the middle part can be quite rewarding for those that really explore – there’s a lot to be discovered there and I think that the lesser focus on action there encourages that exploration.

As to what we want to do in the future – we have a nifty little plan that we’re putting to execution now, but it’s a bit too soon to talk about it. The team is quite excited about the design, and I hope all the ideas in there will work, but we’re taking some risks with certain things, so I hope they’ll pay off in the end.
More information.
 
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I like this guy as well. It's always on the other side of the ocean where I feel they aren't trying to bs me.

One thing I really liked was "but we didn’t necessarily make the best design decisions when it came to things like specific types of damages or resistances. We actually wanted to change that when we were busy with DKS and had quite some design/coding meetings about it, but just didn’t have enough time/resources to do it. That said, judging from the player profiles we see, people are coming up with quite some varied builds and strategies, so it’s not as if the system doesn’t have depth. But less so than the original game and we’ll try to fix that in future games."

So maybe in the future they won't be streamlining the skills like in Risen (freaking 3 spell catagories still urks me a bit) and add in a few more to make some interesting character builds. There still were quite a few skills to choose from considering, but I'm glad to hear they won't be focusing on thinning them down even more.
 
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+1
I've been a fan of Larian's stuff since the orig DivDiv release. The guys are quite determined to blend action and rpg, and I like very much what they do.

Also, I have a soft spot for companies who actually thank me, the player for buying their game, hoping that I'll like it.
Humble understanding what the player wants and what a company can deliver, sharing the same dream of greatness - hats off, gents.
 
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One of my favourite interviews in a long while. Generally not a fan of Codex, but their interviews are generally awesome.
 
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What I like most of them is that they are rather straightforward. Larian I mean. No PR-speak I always have this feeling of Authenticy about/around them.

But please keep in mind that I'm biased, since I'm in their forum since their split from Attic. And that was about 1999 or 1998, I think. (Edit : One of the first archived topics I have from there says 19-10-99.)
 
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I like Larian too. I hate that they're SO slow to develop their games, but I generally like them fairly well. I'd love to see another expansion or two to ED versus a 5-6 year wait for Div3.

I just had a thought. I'd love to see one of the older European crpgs converted to GoG. That'd be Amberstar and Ambermoon from Thalion. I'm not sure if there is enough interest for these two titles though.
 
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As far as I know, only 1 of both Amber-games was available for the PC.
 
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Good interview. I really appreciate Swen's honest and straightforward way of speaking, like admitting their mistakes and the limitations of a small company. No PR bulls**t, how refreshing. Kudos to Larian!
 
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