RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin Preview

On the other hand, in this particular case the co-op considerations might actually enhance SP positively - like party dynamics (for example, since the pool of responses exists for both protagonists, the game could pick the non-pc one´s responses randomly to some extent, to maintain unpredictability) or quest solutions (non combat, I mean) where player has to switch between the characters

O. I had not thought of an AI making the choices for the second player in case of SP… Why would they do that? Now they've got the possibility of making party play a whole lot more interesting for SP and then they would not use all the extra lines of text written out in the design? No no, that would be a missed chance. And a boring outcome.

On lar.net Marquess Cornwallis popped this question BTW (i.e. does the player control one or two characters in SP) and Farflame added something to it, so hopefully we'll get an answer of Swen soon?
Sorry, I seem to have problems copying the actual text, so here's the link:

http://www.lar.net/2012/05/29/divinity-–-original-sin-revealed/#more-385

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Yippie!

Swen has answered:
Marquess Cornwallis said:
Swen, one thing I am curious about that I haven't seen confirmed explicitly about the dialogue system so far: playing in single player mode, is the player given control over both of the main characters' dialogue choices or do they get to control only one of them, with some sort of AI planned for the other character that might occasionally contradict you (much like another player would in co-op mode)?

Either way, best of luck with the game.


Swen Vincke in reply to Marquess Cornwallis said:
@Marquess - so the idea is that in single player you can select a character type for the AI in which case the AI will answer in line with his character. Alternatively, you can opt to always have it your way, in which case the AI will not interfere. It's really up to you personal preference, though putting the AI on random will give you the most fun imho.
 
though putting the AI on random will give you the most fun imho.

I'm so going to do this. :)
 
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I'm so going to do this. :)

O yes me too - but not until after I have played a couple of games where I myself made all the choices. :)
I want to explore every outcome.

Highly replayable game, so it seems. :)
 
Several sets of "responsive AI" would be great ! ;)

And the player could chose between one of them ! ;)
 
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As Arkadia7 has brought up before me, the art style is too bright, too much like WoW, too cartoonish, but I guess that's too late to change. As a matter of personal taste, I much prefer the darker, more realistic art direction in The Witcher or Planescape Torment. The only positive thing about the recent trend to make games look like children's cartoons: I am not tempted to play so many computer games any more ;-)

Anyway, I hope they have the best of luck with the game, since in all other aspects it looks quite good.
 
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It is not too late to change. The game is still at least a year away from being released. Swen Vincke mentioned that they did not invest too much time in tweaking the graphics settings yet, which is something they will do in the coming period.
 
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In that case, another vote for a more sombre graphics style from me ;)
 
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As Arkadia7 has brought up before me, the art style is too bright, too much like WoW, too cartoonish, but I guess that's too late to change. As a matter of personal taste, I much prefer the darker, more realistic art direction in The Witcher or Planescape Torment. The only positive thing about the recent trend to make games look like children's cartoons: I am not tempted to play so many computer games any more ;-)

Is that really a trend? I would say the current trend is in the opposite direction actually (Witcher, FO3, Skyrim, Risen, D3,... the announced Dishonored, Cyberpunk, Wasteland... to an extent even AoD and ME series - all rather grim, mature-themed games. Just ask Alrik, he complains about it endlessly! I don't particularly dig the art style myself, but I think some variety in styles is actually good.
 
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As a matter of personal taste, I much prefer the darker, more realistic art direction in The Witcher or Planescape Torment.

There's too much of that style for my taste already. I'm drowning into it.

The current fashion is that colourful, bright graphics are considered

- immature
- childish
- outright stupid
- not "Fantasy", at least not "right" Fantasy
- etc. .

Me, I'm beginning to believe it might be a backslash from the Blizzard games : Popularity -> taste settles -> ALL games have to be like that !

I'm just waiting until board games get "dark & mature" graphics as well … But wait, gamers don't play board games … ;)

Is that really a trend? I would say the current trend is in the opposite direction actually (Witcher, FO3, Skyrim, Risen, D3,… the announced Dishonored, Cyberpunk, Wasteland… to an extent even AoD and ME series - all rather grim, mature-themed games. Just ask Alrik, he complains about it endlessly! I don't particularly dig the art style myself, but I think some variety in styles is actually good.

Yes, that's what I see as well.

To be honest, we can see that -

- either I am using "this is becoming too dark !" as an argument to get everything's brighter - which implies that I'm "seeing" an non-existent "trend" or "fashion" that makes everything dark,

or

- others are seeing an non-existent "trend" / "fashion" in "things becoming too bright" to get EVERYTHING darker.

This way, it's a question of instrumentalizing things. Is there really a fashion/trend there or not ? Are both sides instrumentalizing it or not ?

Fact is that those who would love everything to be as bright as in King's Bounty would like to instrumentalize a current fashion of "everything becomes too dark !" into their favour [wording ?],
but on the other hand those who love "Heavy Metal Fantasy" would love to see everything that looks like a Smurf to be eradicated, too, to put it cynically.

I think we are at some kind of crossroards here now : Which way will the Fantasy genre in terms of gaming go ? Or even not only in gaming, but also in literature ? TV ?

My personal impression is that the way into "darker Fantasy" has already been taken - despite those who love "dark, mature Fantasy" claiming the other road has been taken.

But fact is : The art style that is liked by the majority is going to cement the art style for at least a whole decade, if not even longer.

And I fear that Blizzard already planted it 10 years ago with their dark & bloody looking Action-RPGs, which were in all of their "bloodiness" a novelty back then. Nowadays they have rather become the norm. A relatively bright-looking Action-RPG like Sacred 1 would not be possible nowadays. Sacred 2 was already becoming more dark than its predecessor.

I repeatmyself . We stand at some kind of crossroads, I believe, with in my opinion the road into "Dark Fantasy" already being taken. Since several years already.
 
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Well Sven cites Ultima VII as an influence, lets hope he sticks to a similarly bright world :)
 
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I rather believe he cites it for its … layout. Object interaction, NPC schedules and such. You could have it within a dark and mature setting, too.
 
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I rather believe he cites it for its … layout. Object interaction, NPC schedules and such. You could have it within a dark and mature setting, too.

hehe I know. But Ultima VII was alright despite the brightness of the world..
 
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I once tried to play Ultima VIII and Ultima VII via Exult … They are very interesting games, but I didn't quite understand the mechanics …

And yes, I have some of them here, transferred from Disquettes ... Not everything got translated into German language ... Only the main Ultima VII game and I think Ultima VIII, too ... And of course Ultima IX, which I have here somewhere, too ...
 
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Alrik's wall of text, which will not be quoted for obvious reasons.

I agree with Alrik on this one. I believe the "dark fantasy" setting has set the stage for everyone else. Companies realize that this is what the mainstream "modern rpg" crowd wants (even though they're not truly "dark" in my opinion). The word "dark" is thrown around too loosely these days, and it's an eye catcher for the modern day gamer.

Personally I think it's all rubbish. If I find a game interesting, it's because I, alone, show interest in it (whether that be art style, game mechanics and design, etc). I couldn't care less to play a "dark fantasy" game because everyone else is playing it, or because it's described as "dark".

So to me, this is a refreshing sight indeed.
 
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