Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Gameplay Journal - Part 14
When I last touched Divinity - Original Sin 2, I thought I was done with my seafaring shenanigans aboard the Lady Vengeance. I was away from Fort Joy on course for Driftwood, but my journey got interrupted. This entry deals head on with this interruption, as the magisters intercepted me and wanted to bring me down.
As it turns out, the magisters came prepared. This combat encounter documented in the first video of this post is definitely the most challenging Divinity - Original Sin 2 has been to date, to the point that I failed it a couple of times before devising a strategy that allowed me to protect the NPC tasked with devising a magical escape from the fight. This is to say the fight is designed not with victory in mind, but rather one that tasks you to hold out for long enough before being whisked away further into the story. Had it been a more straightforward fight I probably would have had an easier time with it.
In any case, the events that follow that fight up the stakes of your adventure in Divinity - Original Sin 2. In retreating to the realm of the gods to flee the magisters, you learn that the gods have been slain and are under threat from the void, and that only you have the power to stop it. Exciting stuff! It's very much cliche video game protagonist stuff, but delivered in a novel way, as you can choose to accept this task or not.
From there, I got ripped back to reality aboard the Lady Vengeance where we find ourselves safely removed from combat with the magisters. There was a lot to catch up on with my party members and the other characters aboard the ship before disembarking for Driftwood, the first impressions of which I'll be saving for the next gameplay journal.
From a gameplay perspective, Divinity - Original Sin 2 still seems fine though a bit overly clunky. I made some combat maneuvers by mistake in my fights with the magisters that should have been avoidable and spent some time trying and failing to use identifying glasses on some of my accumulated gear. None of this is ultimately a huge deal since the game is turn-based and you can save at any point, but it should all just feel easier, especially after so much time with the game. It doesn't, but I guess that's part of the compromise that comes with bringing an "uncompromised" experience to iOS.
I'll keep playing, and will likely have another entry soon, since Driftwood finally seems within reach. We'll find out together in the next entry!