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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9295797" data-attributes="member: 18">I had a long response to this but when the thread got merged it got eaten. Let me make it as short as possible.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rivellon is a bad setting, that's generic, sophomoric (at best) grimdark and was holding Larian back.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">BG3's early EA showed this - it launched with unpleasant, edgelord-y companions like DOS2, a grimdark take on the FR, and situations full of lose/lose or black/grey as the only possible outcomes.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">BG3's early EA also had terrible DOS mechanics slathered all over it, to the point of overwhelming the D&D mechanics.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">These points only changed because of massive negative feedback from the EA, where people were expecting a D&D/BG/FR game, not DOS3. If there had been no EA, or the game was DOS3, the negative feedback wouldn't have been there, and we'd have got a drastically worse (and far less financially successful) game.</li> </ul><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swen Vincke expressed the opinion in video interviews, shortly before BG3's release, that Rivellon was a better setting than the FR, and DOS2 had much better mechanics than BG3 - this actually attracted some controversy among the few people who watched the video interviews, indicating certainly he had learned absolutely nothing at that point. He actually seemed slightly peeved (in his charming way) that they hadn't made DOS3.</li> </ul>Re: bolded bit, I pray that's true but I really doubt it, given Swen's comments and general attitudes.As for DOS1/2, both were simultaneously extremely impressive and disappointing:DOS1 - Basically a Terry Pratchett fanfic written by a 14-year-old Dutch guy (not literally) with a poor sense of humour, a poor grasp on English and a significant misogynist streak. Rescued by fascinating mechanics and an Ultima-esque approach to the world which made it very fun to play at times - but entirely despite the story and characters.DOS2 - Basically a Joe Abercrombie fanfic written by a 20-something Goth guy with a slightly better sense of humour and grasp on English but still not a good one*. Wildly overrated at release, to the point where I would say that a lot of reviewers are extremely lucky Larian kept patching hard and the Definitive Edition happened, because otherwise they'd be getting called liars for the rest of their careers. It was a buggy and totally incomplete mess at launch (Act 4 barely even functioned). The mechanics this time were far less fun, and only barrelmancy still working really saved it, that and multiplayer chaos. The Definitive Edition corrected much of this, but couldn't rescue it from being sophomoric grimdark.* = Larian did at least kinda own up to this - With DOS2 they re-wrote huge parts of it for the Definitive Edition (like, most of the game), with primary English speakers and hired huge numbers of writers who went on to write BG3.</blockquote>

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