This review contains spoilers
(spoilers for DD1 too)
This game is so fucking weird
DD1 was a diamond in the rough but the fun as fuck gameplay, ESPECIALLY of the 4 archer classes, and the massive variety of bosses (admittedly thanks to Dark Arisen, but even the base DD1 was more solid in that regard than DD2) and solid dungeons carried it hard
But it had extremely obvious areas of improvement, notably the story which actually even had pretty interesting lore in the postgame, and the characters were kinda shit
And guess what DD2's story and characters are EVEN WORSE!!!
I honestly can't even tell you what happened in this game's story, DD1 had some memorable moments in its main quest like the entire expedition to hunt the griffon is genuinely incredible, the cult was an antagonistic force that somewhat worked (DD2 has none of those???), and the king and his death were genuinely good moments, and the Grigori fight was fucking awesome (the DD2 dragon is so bad lmao), here there is NOTHING
My female Simple pawn voice 5 has way more personality than all the characters in this game. Pawns do have more character here which is great (aside from one thing), though the simplification of inclinations isn't
Character creation is definitely better and I feel like armors overall look better too, people complain about simplification with removing stuff like gloves but I think I made my character and pawn look better than in DD1. It's also really good that they got rid of the "stats you get at level-ups depend on your class" bullshit
I actually had hope for a bit because of the unmoored world, i genuinely popped off at that scene cause it looked like the elaboration on the seneschal storyline of DD1 I dreamed of, and while I do think that sorta-postgame is cool, it's way too short, is too little too late, didn't make me care about the characters, locking the map out is still kinda fucking stupid, and it ends on a massive whimper with a scripted fight. The worm dragon fight in elven woods was cool at least
And it does feel like the game is kinda fucking easy, enemies do no damage and getting ganked by multiple goblins with insane hitstun is a much bigger threat than any boss (except the Dullahan which is JACKED for some reason, this guy is actually super cool to fight). The poor chimera got gutted so hard from its DD1 version where you could destroy the individual body parts. Removing the zoom-in on whenever bosses become vulnerable with pawns saying an amazing line for each boss "It's fallen, now, ATTACK!" "THE GOAT IS SILENCED!" is really weird given how fucking awesome that was, and DD2 Imminent Triumph is MUCH worse I mean listen to that shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTNfuztCMgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNaV-rEo67Y
the new song that plays in the same contexts (Reversal of Fate) is pretty cool though. But in general the soundtrack is super generic, which sucks when you're a DD1 sequel
Quest design in this game is also really bad, they really just make you run around a ton around the massive world with often no fast travel and nothing interesting happening on the way. Ferrystones being so expensive and in 1 per shop until refresh is a terrible, TERRIBLE decision and makes you run around for no reason far too much, I spent a massive portion of my playtime on this boring traversal
But the worst problem by far, remember how I mentioned the 4 archer classes in DD1? None of the classes in DD2 even compare to that. These 4 with the dagger and bow/magic bow combo (and sword/bow for Assassin was really cool too) are some of the most fun action rpg gameplay out there and none of the DD2 classes have that kind of versatility. Even Sorcerer is worse, throwing out the support spells was definitely a good decision to still give Mage something to do, but they also have less offensive spells, especially the incredibly fun tier 3 ice spears and thunder dome, no status ailment spells and holy might as well not exist and dark doesn't, lightning feels useless, and they are hurt BADLY by the 4 skill slots, why are they so much less versatile too? At least Warrior is much better in DD2 lol. Magick Archer is pretty easily the most fun class in DD2 but I still vastly prefer the DD1 version that had some magic dagger skills. Mystic Spearhand has super underwheming damage against big enemies and Trickster is the most boring shit ever made LMAO did they think anyone would want to play this
Physical bows were especially gutted, equipping explosive arrows midboss in DD1 and destroying it felt amazing and even made inventory management deeper cause they were heavy as fuck, here explosive arrows are tied to a skill wtf
Dungeons are also really disappointing, they definitely sacrificed quality for quantity and it's a huge shame. If we go back to the DD1 main plot, there was this one moment where you explore catacombs and encounter the cult leader at the end who turns his goons into zombies, those catacombs are an infinitely better dungeon than anything in DD2 and that encounter, even though it's really not that great, is more memorable than practically everything in DD2's plot
Anyway yeah DD1 still unfortunately clears and it really sucks to say this. If a Dark Arisen style expansion came out it probably wouldn't fix a lot of the problems. Instead of a polish or fully realized DD1 it feels like a repeat that created new mistakes and made good parts much worse, it's a massive step back. Shit thinking about it I'm way more dissapointed than I initially thought
also the microtransactions literally do not matter stop being dumb
This game is so fucking weird
DD1 was a diamond in the rough but the fun as fuck gameplay, ESPECIALLY of the 4 archer classes, and the massive variety of bosses (admittedly thanks to Dark Arisen, but even the base DD1 was more solid in that regard than DD2) and solid dungeons carried it hard
But it had extremely obvious areas of improvement, notably the story which actually even had pretty interesting lore in the postgame, and the characters were kinda shit
And guess what DD2's story and characters are EVEN WORSE!!!
I honestly can't even tell you what happened in this game's story, DD1 had some memorable moments in its main quest like the entire expedition to hunt the griffon is genuinely incredible, the cult was an antagonistic force that somewhat worked (DD2 has none of those???), and the king and his death were genuinely good moments, and the Grigori fight was fucking awesome (the DD2 dragon is so bad lmao), here there is NOTHING
My female Simple pawn voice 5 has way more personality than all the characters in this game. Pawns do have more character here which is great (aside from one thing), though the simplification of inclinations isn't
Character creation is definitely better and I feel like armors overall look better too, people complain about simplification with removing stuff like gloves but I think I made my character and pawn look better than in DD1. It's also really good that they got rid of the "stats you get at level-ups depend on your class" bullshit
I actually had hope for a bit because of the unmoored world, i genuinely popped off at that scene cause it looked like the elaboration on the seneschal storyline of DD1 I dreamed of, and while I do think that sorta-postgame is cool, it's way too short, is too little too late, didn't make me care about the characters, locking the map out is still kinda fucking stupid, and it ends on a massive whimper with a scripted fight. The worm dragon fight in elven woods was cool at least
And it does feel like the game is kinda fucking easy, enemies do no damage and getting ganked by multiple goblins with insane hitstun is a much bigger threat than any boss (except the Dullahan which is JACKED for some reason, this guy is actually super cool to fight). The poor chimera got gutted so hard from its DD1 version where you could destroy the individual body parts. Removing the zoom-in on whenever bosses become vulnerable with pawns saying an amazing line for each boss "It's fallen, now, ATTACK!" "THE GOAT IS SILENCED!" is really weird given how fucking awesome that was, and DD2 Imminent Triumph is MUCH worse I mean listen to that shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTNfuztCMgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNaV-rEo67Y
the new song that plays in the same contexts (Reversal of Fate) is pretty cool though. But in general the soundtrack is super generic, which sucks when you're a DD1 sequel
Quest design in this game is also really bad, they really just make you run around a ton around the massive world with often no fast travel and nothing interesting happening on the way. Ferrystones being so expensive and in 1 per shop until refresh is a terrible, TERRIBLE decision and makes you run around for no reason far too much, I spent a massive portion of my playtime on this boring traversal
But the worst problem by far, remember how I mentioned the 4 archer classes in DD1? None of the classes in DD2 even compare to that. These 4 with the dagger and bow/magic bow combo (and sword/bow for Assassin was really cool too) are some of the most fun action rpg gameplay out there and none of the DD2 classes have that kind of versatility. Even Sorcerer is worse, throwing out the support spells was definitely a good decision to still give Mage something to do, but they also have less offensive spells, especially the incredibly fun tier 3 ice spears and thunder dome, no status ailment spells and holy might as well not exist and dark doesn't, lightning feels useless, and they are hurt BADLY by the 4 skill slots, why are they so much less versatile too? At least Warrior is much better in DD2 lol. Magick Archer is pretty easily the most fun class in DD2 but I still vastly prefer the DD1 version that had some magic dagger skills. Mystic Spearhand has super underwheming damage against big enemies and Trickster is the most boring shit ever made LMAO did they think anyone would want to play this
Physical bows were especially gutted, equipping explosive arrows midboss in DD1 and destroying it felt amazing and even made inventory management deeper cause they were heavy as fuck, here explosive arrows are tied to a skill wtf
Dungeons are also really disappointing, they definitely sacrificed quality for quantity and it's a huge shame. If we go back to the DD1 main plot, there was this one moment where you explore catacombs and encounter the cult leader at the end who turns his goons into zombies, those catacombs are an infinitely better dungeon than anything in DD2 and that encounter, even though it's really not that great, is more memorable than practically everything in DD2's plot
Anyway yeah DD1 still unfortunately clears and it really sucks to say this. If a Dark Arisen style expansion came out it probably wouldn't fix a lot of the problems. Instead of a polish or fully realized DD1 it feels like a repeat that created new mistakes and made good parts much worse, it's a massive step back. Shit thinking about it I'm way more dissapointed than I initially thought
also the microtransactions literally do not matter stop being dumb