Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga Review!

By: Kei Beneza (Dividelife), Onrpg Journalist

 

 

If you like Dragon warriors, Dragon eyes, and particularly everything Draconic, then you will definitely enjoy this game. Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga is not really a new game overall, but rather a remastered version of the original game ‘Divinity II: Ego Draconis’ and its awesome expansion Flames of Vengeance. Since the first game got a lot of major criticisms regarding bugs and other graphic issues, Larian Studios decided to give it another shot, especially since the game has a lot of potential as an action RPG. Ego Draconics played in an extremely bad manner, and most of the other reviewers deemed its Xbox360 counterpart as ‘completely unplayable’. Funny though, since the REMASTERED game still had some issues shortly after being launched. The PC version seems to have encountered some frame rate issues, even if your PC meets the required standards on the box. The game however was patched, allowing players to set their desired frame rate capacity (silly, I know). Anyway, enough build up, and let’s get down to the real content.

 

Epicness Told

After creating their character, players start out as a newbie Dragon Slayer who is about to be welcomed into the order. Honestly I was enthralled by the overall concept of Dragon Slayers in this game where they forget everything about their past, gain mind-reading abilities, and the best part, get glowing white dragon eyes. The story starts off very slow, meaning you will be doing a lot of irrelevant tasks such as listening to gossip and scaring people to pay their debts; however, the game will be pretty hard to leave the computer once the story picks up. You encounter a dragon which at the time is your target, who will tell you that Dragons are not really the threat to the world and are currently fighting for a bigger cause. Sadly, tis all I can tell you, for you have to discover what happens next on your own.

 

 

The Flames of Vengeance Expansion takes place immediately after the Eco Draconis campaign and revolves around the land of Aleroth (the last area of the first game). While players may be tempted to start with it due to the darker and much more attractive character screen, I would advise you to finish the first campaign before pushing through with this expansion. In this expansion game, players are given level 35 starter character, which by far will be a half-baked character without proper skills provided that you did not finish the main game. Just another reason to make your way through the chapters in order!

 

Action ARPEEGEE

 

The game is more of an Action RPG rather than one that requires simulation and strategy. Once you enter combat, you just continue hacking and slashing or using Slayer abilities to kill your opponents. It’s not really such a bad thing since the characters move exquisitely, but it may get a little repetitive since this IS an RPG, and far from a hack and slash game. As players level up, they gain points that must be distributed in the skill selection menu in order to gain that particular power. There are tons of skills to choose from, and trying them all out was always a treat.

 

 

DRAGON UP!

At some point in the game (just to not spoil you) players will gain the power to transform into a dragon, which does not really look much like a dragon and more of a scaled bat. The good part is that you can fly, breathe fire, and take out enemy artillery as you do your quests. While you can’t transform into a dragon in tight places like dungeons, it’s always a treat to fly around and explore knowing that you are a lot stronger than everyone below you. Also, aside from having unique dragon skills, players also get items and equipment that can only be worn in their dragon form. It’s not really as diverse as Human armor sets, but I’m glad to know that the developers put in the extra effort to give the dragon form some RPG depth.

 

 

Graphics And Sounds

 

The graphics, in my opinion, are mid ranged by today’s standards. They are not really as breathtaking as Dragon Age on the PC, but it looked marvelous despite the comparison. The armor sets look great, the characters look dashing, and the areas look diverse and colorful. The game suffers from a bunch of graphical glitches at times, such as clipping and frame rate issues. The frame rate option is actually a good add-on, but I would advise players to not boost it all the way up, unless they want to suffer some intense motion lag and weird bugs. The soundtrack on the other hand is most appealing, and really emphasizes the fact that you are on this epic adventure where the world is against you as you work your way towards your goal to save the world.

 

 

Verdict

 

Overall I would say that the game really had a lot of potential. Too bad the bugs really annoyed the hell out of me. One time I was fighting monsters, and the next thing I knew, I went through the floor and fell forever. The game really had a lot of bugs, but the expansion was pretty flawless. It’s great that Larian studios decided to remaster this epic story, even though the remastered version felt like a rebugged one. Anyway, I still believe that people would have oodles of fun playing this, as long as they stay away from the original Ego Draconis and buy this bundle instead. You won’t regret it.

 

 

The Good

-Epic story

-Great characters

-Tons of voice acting

-Good looking graphics (it looks good!)

-Dragon mode

 

The Bad

-Tons of bugs

-Glitchy graphics, even for a supposedly remastered game

-Drags on at first