Divinity Original Sin 2, is a game that was made with love and passion, but it isn't a masterpiece like everyone says it is due to some major shortcomings in the game design side of it.


+ The combat and RPG mechanics work extremely well. It was a bug-free experience. The only technical problem with the game is the extremely long loading screen.
+ Very well-done voice acting
+ Beautiful, colorful graphics, the finest of all CRPGs.
+ An awe-inspiring soundtrack, even though some music may get a bit monotonous on some maps due to uneven playtime around the maps.
+ Visually diverse maps and different biomes


THE BIGGEST SIN OF DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2:

- In Divinity Original Sin 2, you can create your adventure, make history, and select your path! The game tells you to do whatever you desire and emphasizes freedom, character creation, dialogue, roleplay, etc. At least that's what the advertisement says. In reality, this is a gigantic lie. In fact, you must play EXACTLY as the developers intended you to play if you want to succeed. You MUST follow the path designated by the developers at every step. That means finishing as many quests as you can so your level is high enough for you to be able to win fights on your terms. So the optional quests are in fact mandatory. You don't like some quests? Too bad, since you cannot grind because the mobs don't respawn. But that's not the whole story about quests. The maps are wide open, giving you the illusion of freedom, but when you discover a map for the first time, you'll realize that most of it are gated by high-level mobs that are going to kill you outright if you engage in combat against them, thus restricting the exploration the game strangely emphasizes. If you try to do quest B before quest A, you will die because of how much a one or two-level difference with your opponent means. That's not to mention the fact that some quests are gated behind a perk/stat/item requirement. Due to these game design choices, the game is a constant session of seeking XP around the map. By using guides and other resources, you can learn where to go in order if you don't want to waste time checking each enemy encounter level one by one. This could have been prevented by leading the player little by little where to proceed, or a better way to do this is to design the game for it to have level scaling.

- Considering the way armor works, it is much more rewarding to set up all your characters to deal the same type of damage (physical or magical) in order to finish fights less frustratingly. For example, in my playthrough, I chose a ranger (physical damage), a fighter (physical damage), a rogue (physical damage), and a wizard (magic damage) but because of this non-sense armor system my wizard was so weak and I had to transform it into a supporting character because he couldn't do any damage to the enemies. This way he couldn't do much either, because now he had to get all the support abilities from different skills like Geomancer, Hydrosophist, Summoning, Necromancer, etc. I got the skills but as XP is very limited throughout the game, I was not able to upgrade them all to a decent level. This armor can be defensively viable 50/50 depending upon the enemies' attack style (physical or magical). Very frustrating RNG for sure.

- A key feature of the game are the items placed in the world that the player can use during encounters. Since 90% of the fights start with you being ambushed, you can't plan your attacks in advance. You also need to save spam because you don't know when you will get ambushed.

- Another highly praised part of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is that there are so many abilities to use. However, because the game is so stingy with XP, there is no way you can use most of them in one playthrough. If you unlock all of them, you won't be able to complete the game because you will be underpowered that way. I don't think many people will replay this extremely long game again and again just to use more abilities in combat. The imbalance of the skills is also a thing. Some are too powerful (like most summoning skills) and some are comparatively weak. I have also considered the AP costs of the skills in this comparison.

- I think most people can agree that the most important part of any RPG is the story and the way this story is presented to the player. The story here is very cliché, predictable and boring to be honest. Our companions all have much of the same backstory and their purposes are very similar. Not to mention their personalities are very edgy and boring. Because our companions do not talk to each other mostly, they do not form any bonds between them. Do not expect enjoyable companions like in Persona or Final Fantasy games. There are also no well-written side characters or NPCs in the huge world of Divinity. As with the plot presentation, it is unnecessarily complex, tiringly long, and full of unnecessary dialogue to lengthen the playtime.

- As a player, I wish persuasion was not just a stat thing. It would be great if the player had to convince NPCs by what the sentence options say.
- I love it when games just let you explore freely and reward you accordingly. Hollow Knight is a great example of this. But when it comes to DOS2, as the game is overly cryptic sometimes, you have to pause the game and look up what to do in order to advance through the quests. You will probably miss a huge chunk of the content without searching the wikis. Why did this game have to be so cryptic? Eventually, the player ends up spending hours on a puzzle or breaks immersion and looks it up on the guides. Either way, it hurts the overall experience.

- The game is almost 90-100 hours long. This is for the main storyline, but since the side missions are mandatory, you could consider it for the whole game.
- Because every fight had to have some gimmick, and this gimmick always showed itself at the end of the fight, the player almost always had to reload the fight. This is also very immersion-breaking and annoying.

- SPOILER: The final boss was a huge disappointment. It was neither a well-designed boss nor did it have that final boss feeling. It was as if 10 guys had gathered and they were in a battle royale. They fought themselves and later the survivors of their battle attacked me. Kraken's extreme power is also ridiculous.

- Why did this game have to have so many barrels and crates? As I checked all those crates and found nothing in most of them, I think the developers also intended to lengthen the game's play time with this.

- I expect at least some reactivity in this game. For example, if you slaughter half a village, people will still sell you stuff and treat you as if nothing had happened.

- Quest items should have been marked. If you accidentally sell a quest item, you will be screwed.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 isn't a terrible game for sure. I can say that at some points, I enjoyed it. But as I played more and more, I noticed many shortcomings that ruined the experience.

BRONZE MEDAL

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There is no doubt that Persona 5 Royal is the best Persona game ever. The gameplay is the most enjoyable it has ever been. The dungeons, the mechanics, the style, gameplay variations, and everything else game-wise. But it definitely does not deliver the best Persona "experience". It doesn't even come close to Persona 4 Golden's way of making me feel. I have to say that I have been so hyped for the PC release and have been waiting for it for years.

Even though Persona has excellent gameplay compared to standard JRPGs, the series has always been primarily about its theme, story, and characters. That's what I adored about Persona 4. In Persona 5, the characters all feel so bland, one-note, and simply without any charm. It's awful how P5R overexplains everything (especially with Morgana) and has no respect for the players' intelligence. There is a tremendous amount of unnecessary dialogue everywhere. Particularly the text messages between members of the group, which increase as you play and it gets even more tedious. Not everyone has to comment on one minor point, Atlus. I mean who would prefer to text with your friends rather than hang out with them very often? (Like how it was in P4G)

The lack of relationship development with many cast members is also an issue. Our "friends" feel like a group of kids who don't really care about each other. You don't hang out with the group much other than when planning with them in P5R. Not like in P4G where they actually enjoy spending time with each other.

I think the Kamoshida arc is well written, but after that, the gameplay loop is a repetitive drag where all you do is target random "evil" 5-6 celebrities one by one to gain people's approval by stealing their hearts, which none of those villains have nothing to do with your squad on a personal level. The main villain is also horribly portrayed. No murder mystery like in P4G or a personal story to feel connected. This theme could have also worked with better storytelling but that is not present here. It's a repetitive drag after the Kamoshida arc, which I enjoyed.

I find it ridiculous that you still do not have options that matter in the dialogue. Whatever you choose to say, you will get the same answer 90% of the time. It is all scripted dialogue. It is needlessly prolonged.

At the 50-60 hour mark, if they had just wrapped up the story, it would've been less tedious and a much better experience overall. Choices are all illusions. By the way, what's up with this difficulty? Playing Persona 5 on normal difficulty has been a breeze. They should have come up with some counter against the passive skills you get by leveling up your confidants. Royal part is better than the vanilla part, but the same issues continue here too. I can say that the antagonist and Akechi (who was dislikable before) are presented better.

+Very qualified music, but not on the same "masterpiece" level as P4G's music.
+Best dungeon design in the series.
+Most varied and fun combat system.
+Iconic art style
+Life Will Change

Despite thinking Persona 5 Royal is a quality game, I think it is highly overrated. I don't care if the gameplay is the finest in the series. That's not what I look for in Persona. If there is no good storytelling, theme, or characters in a Persona game, that's just a generic JRPG.


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