Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga follows the adventure of a young Dragon Slayer as he or she completes the Slayer's right of passage. Things don't go as planned, however, as a wounded Dragon Knight (the sworn enemies of the Slayers) takes advantage of the young Slayer's inexperience and transfers her draconic powers into the youth, effectively changing the Slayer into a Dragon Knight. With the combination of her powers with that of the Slayer's comes the ability for her conscience to speak to the newly changed Dragon Knight. Through this method she explains that she has been on a quest to rid the world of a growing evil. An evil which has spewed lies about the Dragon Knights in order to distract capable warriors from its ever increasing power. This evil comes in the form of Damian, a Dragon Knight who has completely opened himself to evil, and in becoming a conduit of darkness, has gained tremendous power.
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| You can tell he is evil from all the spikes on his armor. |
The young Dragon knight then sets off to explore the world of Rivellon, helping the citizens and combating evil anywhere it rears its ugly (usually spikey) head. While the Dragon Knight is seen as a hero to some inhabitants of Rivellon, not all are so ready to give up on old hatreds. Along the journey the Dragon Knight will encounter former "friends" from the Dragon Slayers and will have to choose how to respond to their seemingly endless, blind hatred of Dragons. These encounters and many other situations pop up throughout the game in which the player is asked to make choices that will shape how the game world plays out. None of these choices radically change the game, though they do change quest rewards and which other quests may be available to the player later on.
There is a large number of side-quests in The Dragon Knight Saga in which the player can invest time as well as the main story quests. Most of these quests are standard RPG fare such as fetching a rare plant for an alchemist, or killing goblins and selling their hearts. Some quests, however, have very interesting mini-stories that play out through completing them. Overall, it's highly worthwhile to look into completing many of these side-quests as they add a lot to the game.
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| I know you're busy saving the world and all, but could you please help me find my lucky spoon? |
The Dragon Knight Saga's gameplay will feel very familiar to fans of PC Action RPGs. The character can move normally around the world as well as jump and attack. Eight mappable quick-slots are available to the player in which different spells, skills, attacks, and items can be equipped for easy usage during fights. There are a huge number of skills in which you can invest skill points for your character. While you choose from three classes in the beginning of the game (mage, ranger, and warrior), you are able to put points into any skills you wish on the tree regardless of class. The large number of options for character skill sets makes a great opportunity for customization. Similarly, weapons and armor only have level requirements, meaning that you can wear whatever armor you wish as long as you meet the level. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from being a mage that wears heavy armor and fights with a giant axe if that's how you wish to play.
I feel that the best thing about Action RPGs is the feeling of having your character visually grow in power. Divinity II does a great job of always giving you new, cooler looking pieces of armor and weapons as you level up. Stat increases as you level are completed by choosing which main stats you would like to increase as well as which skill you would like to bump up. Interestingly, there is a limited amount of experience points that you can earn in the game as enemies, once defeated, never return. Additionally, one of the abilities gained through becoming one with a dragon is mind reading. When you choose to read the mind of a character, you do so by spending an amount of your accrued experience points. These factors just make questing for experience even more important for the proper development of your character.
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| You there! Big Guy! Give me some of that sweet, sweet EXP! |
The world of Rivellon is very nicely sized in that it gives the player plenty of areas to explore without becoming overwhelming. There are many, many fun things to find throughout the world that aren't a part of any quest. There are many humorous references to other games and films strewn throughout the world as well, keeping things light and interesting (I dare you to kill as many rabbits as you can, I DARE YOU). Exploring becomes even more exciting as half-way through the game you gain the ability to transform into a dragon. Yes, that's right, you get to fly around as a dragon. Fire breath, flight, fireballs, and everything you could want all are a part of the game. Interestingly though the developers chose to have normal land-based enemies disappear while you are in dragon form, leaving only other flying creatures as combatable. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't fly down and breathe fire on a bandit camp...
While the graphics and framerate have been improved in The Dragon Knight Saga from Ego Draconis, there are still a number of problems. The world as a whole is visually pleasing, though when scrutinized more closely, bad textures and models can be easily seen. To be completely honest, even with the graphical improvements, Divinity II has the graphics of a very early current generation game. The graphics are easy to get used to, but other problems are more troubling. Screen tearing is an issue throughout the game as is stuttering in larger fights. As with most games, the more mages shooting off spells you have onscreen, the worse the game is going to perform. The game's controls actually feel pretty solid once you get used to the mapped keys layout. Jumping is rather awkward in the game, even though they supposedly worked on it for the game's re-release. Luckily, there are only a couple times in which jumping from platform to platform is necessary. Load times when going from an interior area to an exterior area are pretty long, up to 40 seconds even when the game is installed. Add in the unskippable cut scenes, and the game can get pretty annoying after dying without saving. It's incredibly easy to do as well, since the game only auto-saves when you enter new story-related areas. You really have to make yourself remember to manually save your game every so often to avoid huge frustrations.
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| Na na na na na na na na DRAGON MAN! |
Other small glitches in the game include freezing, AI problems, and the occasional walking-speed bug. Most problems can be easily dealt with by saving frequently and reloading previous saves. All the problems with the game are made worth bearing by the mass amount of exploration and adventure offered. The main game, Ego Draconis, will last players around 30 hours while the expansion, Flames of Vengeance, will last around 10 hours. The two parts can be seamlessly played using one character.
While Divinity II obviously lacks the polish of other, better funded games, its gameplay really shines. I had forgotten how much I loved this sort of game before I recently played through it. The exploration, treasure, enemies, and many little stories throughout the game make it a great adventure that RPG fans (who can look past the many problems) shouldn't miss!
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