Let's Play: Divinity II

[HoonDing]

If you found that first dragon part hard, I am sure Zagan must've caused (or will cause) a lot of raeg...

[sorophx]

Oh, Gandalf Dumbledore!

ha, this sums up the whole game's design, it looks like

[HoonDing]

It's true, Zandalor is pretty lame in Divinity 2. In Divine Divinity, he had a much better voice actor and he was pretty badass as well, saving your butt a couple of times.

[Tigranes]

Please remember to take your daily dose of Manny! Prevents testicular cancer.

 

So we are sidequestin' all over the Orobas Fjords, and I've juggled the chronology a bit to keep areas / quests together. Taking up the Champions' request to look in on some of their soldiers, we visit the remote, anti-dragon-zoned village of High Hall to find that they're dealing with a crazy wizard and his trolls. Apparently they made fun of him one too many times. We respond with some killing and pillaging of children.

 

When we encounter the mage, he seems pretty angry. Apparently there is a way to pacify him, but Manny is too badass for that, and mindreads him instead.

 

We get, and use, the subsequent option to destroy the rune, making the trolls smack the wizard and themselves to death. We gain 5 renegade points.

 

With the end of the Magic Tantrum Crisis, the villagers crawl out of whatever holes they were hiding in, and start generating new sidequests to kickstart the local economy. Remember, the right way to help your country is to ask for assistance on every personal problem...

 

...by allowing fake adventurers such as these to also earn a living, stimulating consumer spending. Everyone knows that adventurers are the most impetuous spenders around. The farmer is frightened by a ghost and this 'descendant of the Divine' promises to rid it for a hefty fee.

 

Manny, however, offers to do it for free. Is his subversive pinko nature breaking through the veneer of the Capitalist?

 

Sorry, Casper.

 

We will return to the village of High Hall presently, but for now, we move on. Remember that our primary purpose for being here is the 4 MacGuffins that will open the Hall of Echoes - where we can then try to revive Ygerna, killing Damian. One of the MacGuffins leads us to three ancient trees who all speak in third person. These upstanding citizens provide riddles where there are no personal troubles to be found, thus doing their part for the economy.

 

With the seeds from the three seeds, we open a certain gate and jump some fire-traps...

 

...and stumble across the Patriarch, the first really badass dragon in the entire game (Manny excluded). Centuries of solitude has allowed him to sharpen his diffident aristocratic wit razor-sharp.

[Tigranes]

We can't mindread a zillions-old dragon, silly. But reading powerful NPCs such as this one often gives us skill points, as levelling up becomes harder and harder.

 

And so the dragon gives us the required macguffin. Next up is the Red Goblin Tribe - another quest from the Champions, if you remember. But approaching their valley we meet a barrage of flaming rocks. Try dodging them at 6fps..

 

Everything you see there are structures to be burnt down. Right-clicking gives your dragon a quick burst of speed, which I only discovered here; very handy for going in, burning up, then getting out.

 

Our carpet bombing is soon complete, and appears to have impressed the goblins. Their fiersome leader requests Manny's presence.

 

He looks like several zombies grafted together using second hand S&M accoutrements, but speaks with the wisdom of a true Capitalist. We are suitably impressed, and agree to double-cross our Champion questgiver, poisoning him with a fake, envenomed head. I figure that the Champions seem to be cahoots with Damian anyway...

 

In the cave, we also meet a kindred of our great nemesis, the Magic Glowing Ball. This one attempts to fool us by claiming he is 'Groth the Storyteller'. A likely story, Magic Glowing Ball. I know your kind.

 

He claims that he needs a human who can speak goblinese so the orally transmitted goblinese tales can be written down. I told him to do it himself, but the lazy bastard kept saying he had no arms. Highly unusual as it is, we might as well help the MGB before destroying him.

 

We found our man in the form of Gwyn back at High Hall, a man who believes he is a goblin. He even had goblinoid huts and decorations where we found him, you can spot the goblin war drum behind him here. One wonders how he learnt goblinese and acquired all these items, though...

 

We also take the time to follow up on that double-crossing business. The venomous head hurks the Champion. He draws his last breath and collapses to the floor, even as the golden question mark fades away along with his soul. His quest shall never be fulfilled.

 

About time someone realised Manny's greatest talent.

[Tigranes]

We return to the goblin leader, triumphant. Unfortunately, he's learnt the Second Law of Capitalism: if you don't have to pay, don't.

 

The leader is surrounded by a dozen or so goblins and this makes the battle quite a challenge. We use our usual charm, summon up our Creature, then jump around like a maniac lobbing fireballs, using rush attack to close down on enemies with low HP. At this point the XP gain for kills is enormous, but after a couple of levels it quickly declines - XP is scaled a la 3ed D&D, though enemies are not.

 

The leader flees the cave once all his minions are dead, then uses his wings to try and flee.

 

Look, I'd understand you doing that if you hadn't seen me destroy your entire valley as a Dragon an hour ago, but that was pretty stupid, wasn't it? And so, short-term memory loss dooms the greatest goblin lord in the Orobas Fjords.

 

Finally, we return to High Hall to mop up. In one last quest, the villagers tell me that their well seems to be blocked or some such and needs investigation. Of course, then their 'well' turns out to be a labyrinthine multi-level cave full of demons and lava, and finally, a magic glowing ball. We blame the MGB, really.

 

The little birdy tells us that he's been taking human sacrificies from the village for quite a while now. You know, there were soldiers here a few days ago fighting the troll infestation, and they couldn't take care of this? Inefficient governments are the worst

 

Zagan turned out to require over a dozen reloads. In contrast to all other dragon battles so far, this one is inside a cave, and thus you keep running into corners and walls a lot. You must handle two nest towers that keep spawning little wyverns as well as the powerful Zagan - and obviously, with the lava, we're playing at 5fps trying to dodge multiple projectiles. It was pretty hopeless until we discovered that there's an alcove up the top we can flee to, land on our feet, and chill. We are rewarded with some nice loot - loot is randomised mostly in Div2, though there are pretty strict limits on how good/bad an item you get.

 

We return to the villagers with the news that their 'well' is now unplugged. You're about to find that plumbing is very, very expensive, woman.

 

I don't know what these malachite gems are for, but everyone keeps saying they're valuable. Like a good capitalist we are, we trade our righteous anger for some solid assets.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

We will need one more update to get through various places in the Fjords, then begin heading towards the conclusion of the main game, I think. Stay tuned!

[sorophx]

they really went wild on the monsters' appearance.

[Majek]

Level 10 enchantments use Malachite gems. You know +100 damage and such

[Pidesco]

Seems nice. I'm waiting for it to come out in a bargain.

[Tigranes]

Gentlemen, we are not far from the end. This is the penultimate update before the end of the original game, after which the expansion pack remains. Forward, Manny, Forward! You will get your paycheck as soon as our hedge funds make a return.

 

Amongst the cliffs of the Orobas Fjords, there lies yet another settlement, and another population of primarily insane people.

 

Apparently a Dragon Knight named Orobas was defeated by Dragon Slayers, and sealed himself in underground; to free him, the blood of another dragon and a couple of Macguffins are required. So, how long has he been in there? A few decades. Should have thought of the fact that there aren't any dragons around now, I guess.

 

The key Macguffin to grab is a sacred chalice held by the Dragon Slayers in their no-dragon zone. Manny discovers his favoured method of entry.

 

We trade Macguffin A for Macguffin B in a heartwarming episode of barter.

 

He actually says all that out loud. I salute you voice actor Now we shall meet Orobas, the Dragon Knight, trapped underneath but now free!

 

...apparently dragons need to eat, too.

 

But Manny's quest was not in vain, oh no. In the depths of the cave lies a comely damsel in distress, awaiting a great hero to open her up and plunge into her

depths.

 

All we needed to do was a couple of memory riddles. If only they were all that easy.

 

Back outside, we tell the dragon worshippers that Orobas is dead, and they decide to worship Manny instead. Which is nice, except for a marked lack of tangible benefits for being praised by a bunch of moronic hobos. We also have to deal with a team of wannabe dragon slayers.

 

Look out, they have chreographed group battle stance moves!

[Monte Carlo]

Tigs, seriously mate, you deserve a medal. You'd have to pay me real money to play this PoS.

[Tigranes]

Exhibit A: Manny and The Dragon Slayers. In this piece, the artist achieves, in his typical laconic style, a seemingly lackadaisical but carefully arranged juxtaposition of the humorous troupe, the embattled Manny and the oblivious worshipper. By positioning the latter in the foreground, this piece offers a searing commentary on the futility of ambition and the blindness of man. Ink on canvas, available in poster form for 249.99.

 

After the battle to remember for the ages, we continue mopping up the Orobas Fjords. We finally encounter the craziest of crazies, Bellegar, who sets upon us a moral test of sorts - think the good/evil test in Hell of BG2:SOA. Only, Bellegar tells us that the dilemma of these people are real.

 

First dilemma: do you let a robber rob the robbed, or do you helped the robbed not be robbed? We stop the robbery and so the robber cannot rob the robbed who is no longer to be robbed.

 

The dilemmas branch out after your first choice - you can keep pushing for the 'good' route or try and steer back to 'bad'. Here we help the cone-hatted hobo by giving him a small amount of our power, so he can survive the war and return home.

 

We also give this dying man a little of our energy so he can last until his son can come to see him. Sadly, the sacrifice required is rather small at this stage of the game, a common flaw in many such dilemmas.

 

Bellegar rewards us with some nice loot, and then shoots off once again.

 

Now all that remains for us, both in terms of sidequests and the main quest MacGuffins, are the Flying Fortresses of the Black Ring. This part really wore me down - definitely the point at which, with 80% of the game done, it starts falling downhill. Even at a blind run missing a lot of things, our character is pretty damn powerful by now with gold running out our arses, but essentially we're presented with several flying forts equipped with dozens of towers for our dragon form to shoot down - then when we land, even more Black Ring / demon / skeleton mooks to smash through. Later on I was getting 0 xp for them.

 

So let's blaze through this. First we taken down the towers/etc (which isn't even necessarily, since when you're in human form they can't get you). Then we choose a good spot to land, so that we can check where the enemies are before dropping down. Then we chop them all up.

 

Most areas inside the flying fortresses look like this. Pretty nice, but also lags like hell for me. These are the homes of the Black Ring lieutenants...

 

...who complete the Crazy Census of the World, Manny Davidson, 2011. Specimen A: thinks Manny is a plant.

[Tigranes]

Specimen B: Megalomania and inquenchable thirst for evil.

 

Specimen C: Fills dungeon with lava, complains it's too cold.

 

Specimen D: The Great D.E.S.E.X.

 

Having cleaned them all out, Manny the Restorer of Sanity visits one final cave - containing the demon lord, Ba'al, the holder of MacGuffin 92.

 

This is one of the toughest fights in the game - the first few times I died within 3-4 seconds without knowing what or why. Ba'al is ably complemented by a variety of demon mooks and packs a punch himself both melee and in the distance. You can see 4 potions quaffed in the top right - with our alchemist in the battle tower, potions are now a staple of difficult fights. They can raise your attributes by as much as 30 at a time - consider that you only get 4 points to spend each level up.

 

Our general tactic doesn't differ too much - jump around like hell, fireball groups, rush in and Thousand Strikes on Ba'al when we can.

 

Luckily, we outfitted our Creature with Fatality level 9 - the skill which lets you instantly kill enemies when their health is low (I think for l9 Fatality, something like 25%). Ba'al cops it.

 

One last point of interest before we approach the end; in the destroyed remains of Broken Valley, atop a tall tower, we find none other than Doctor Needleman. Yes, the guy wearing the giant mechanical hat to protect against mindreads before. It seems that he has lost his hat in the uproar, and with it his sanity.

 

Obviously, the correct course of action is to mindread him, learn his secrets, and then go pillage his secret storage for loot.

 

Not even his clever trick of hiding a key behind some barrels will deter Manny, Raider of Storage Rooms.

 

-------------------

 

And with that, we are ready for our final update, where we reach the troubled city of Aleroth, find the final macguffin, then journey to the Hall of Echoes. Our goal is to revive Ygerna, Damian's lover, thus breaking the Soul Forge and destroying Damian. Join Manny, Finder of MacGuffins, in our exciting conclusion tomorrow! Four-digit donations are welcome.

[sorophx]

that was a short trip, at least it seems that way.

[Azure79]

I can't read this because I'm started playing myself.

[Tigranes]

I left out a lot of going back and forth and beating down hundreds of mooks in the Orobas Fjords. I've just started the expansion pack part, Flames of Vengeance, and it is so, so much better - big town with lots of quests and lots of wacky things happening.

[sorophx]

oooh, sounds good, can't wait

[Majek]

that was a short trip, at least it seems that way.

Just 10 hours.

 

And i do wonder if he'll spoil the ending since he's already in the expansion. ( and Tigr you better mention Arnold )

Edited February 20, 2011 by Majek

[Tigranes]

(Isn't Arnold the guy way back in Broken Valley? Did I miss something again? )

 

We arrive in Aleroth, the Healer City, traditionally protected by ze Champions. It's a bright and cheery place, reknowned for their yearly pumpkin festival. Temperatures range from 5C to 20C; the population is predominantly white anglo-saxon, and contains one of the largest concentration of insane people throughout the world of Rivellon.

 

One should also watch out for periodic zombie/demon invasions that can catch the hapless visitor off guard.

 

Having arrived at Aleroth for the very final MacGuffin we find it pretty much gutted by demons. And of course, our old boss is here 'helping out'. Just like you told your subordinates to kill me then chickened out, eh? She rats us out to the Champions and wants us captured.

 

I like this guy's style. He's also got a totally spiffy hat.

 

Boss gets her panties in a knot about it, and eventually, the Champions are forced to imprison her. In response to the town's great vote of confidence in us, we totally ignore the demons, the villagers protesting, and go straight to see Gandalf and grab the macguffin. (Actually, there are no sidequests available here and most of the city is sealed off.)

 

Dumbledore, I don't think "a dimension full of hellish demons" was a great place to safekeep something in the first place. Just so you know.

 

We beat up some mooks and close the rifts to hell. At this point, we are just too powerful, even though we surely missed some nice loot as our first run. On our Hard difficulty, the early game was pleasantly brutal, the mid game occasionally challenging, but at this point Manny is a whirling whirlwind of doomy doom. Part of it is that we've decided to keep Myrthos, one of the best 1h swords in the game, instead of returning it to Hermosa, our skills trainer, as part of the quest. Again, it's nice that Div2 makes quest macguffins actually tempting items to keep most of the time.

 

All macguffins gathered, we open up the Hall of Echoes. It's climactic confrontation time!

 

The place is full of dreary architecture and the occasional dragon combat. The primary challenge comes in the form of an arena, where ghosts of foes vanquished will return to try and take us down. I suppose that's one way to recycle voice actors.

 

First up are our Dragon Slayer buddies. Hey guys, your boss is still kicking it up there, refusing to fight me.

[Tigranes]

Next is the Undead Sassan Replica. I don't think I SS'd her much before, because she's pretty much your standard ARGH KILL YOU, but she kept cropping up trying to stop us killing Laiken. Sidenote: this game has the best battle cries. Every single one of them are different and they're all about squeezing you through demons' intestines or something.

 

Our dear old autistic dragon friend, still looking like a 12 year old in plate mail.

 

Laiken himself appears, too. I'm not SS'ing the battles themselves because, well, single-enemy fights tend to last about 4 seconds for Manny. We rush them, then use Thousand Strikes (which makes your character slash them really fast with +% damage). Usually I only have trouble when I"m completely swarmed, against archers (due to our low DEX = low ranged resistance), or disabling spells such as Polymorph. I can't believe I never showed me getting turned into a ladybug, but I think usually I was too busy trying not to die.

 

Finally there is Ba'al: The Remix. As usual, not as tough as the original.

 

And at last we reach our long presaged destination. We are in Ygerna's memory of her own execution, by The Divine, the great hero now presumed dead (is he your hero from the first game, or something?) and Gandalf. The fight is quick, very quick, and I missed SS'iing it. I was just going to reload to get some fight shots when...

 

Eternity? That doesn't sound good.

 

We learn that Talana, the Dragon Knight who gave us our powers right at the start and sent us on our quest to revive Ygerna, was in fact a manifestation of Ygerna herself: trapped in death, she was trying to find a vessel powerful enough so that, manipulated, it could help her return to life and join Damian.

 

The Divine tells us that both he and I are now trapped in this pocket dimension, powerless to stop Ygerna and Damian.

 

That be the happy couple. Awwww. Can you feel the love?

 

No? OK, maybe now you can feel the love, as they destroy their opposition into tiny crisp packet sized debris.

 

So, that is the end of the main game of Divinity II, before the story picks up where we left off in the expansion pack, Flames of Vengeance. I understand that a lot of people felt shafted by the "You Lose" ending - personally, I didn't think it was very well done, but I didn't mind too much, either. Probably because this is such a silly game that I just enjoy the silliness and don't really care about the world itself, which, as far as I can see in Div II, is boring as all hell. The story would have been terribly boring if the dialogue was all serious. I also love the fact that they were brave enough to go with the You Lose ending.

 

That said, I think it was really poorly done, because everything happens in the ending cutscene. Everybody, including Gandalf, is completely fooled. I don't think you need cliche ominous moment of DUN DUN DUN, but it would have helped if you were able to explore the idea that there is some doubt as to whether the revival of Ygerna is a good idea / that it would work. The DIvine also explains at the end that Damian was trying to stop you because he though tyou were going to kill her - again that could have done with some exploration in the 17 times he shows up to threaten you throughout the game.

 

That said, Div II was a really enjoyable game, and in the remastered Dragon Knight Saga version, the adventures of Manny are far from over. So here we go straight to the xpack, Flames of Vengeance.

[Tigranes]

Oh, my name is Guy, I love to fly, I'm free like a butterfly...

 

Spectre: Greetings, Manny. I am Deus Ex Machina, Ph.D., LLB, MBA, FBI. You might have seen my work from other video games such as Jade Empire and Fallout 3. I am here... to help you.

Manny: That's an awful lot of degrees you have, Mister Machina. I know an alchemist that would probably want to meet you. Shake your hand, and all. Do you do book signings?

Spectre: What? No, listen. I am here to help you. Specifically, the whole trapped-in-a-glass-prison-until-end-of-time business. I'd have thought that was pretty high up on your agenda here.

Manny: Oh, I don't know, Mister M. I kind of like it here.

Spectre: What?

Manny: Well, the view is quite nice.

Spectre: You are gazing out at a vast horizon mainly composed of ominous clouds, floating rocks and the reminder of your inglorious end. You can't even turn your head in there.

Manny: Well, that's true, but while I've been here I've had a lot of time to think about my life, Mister M. You know what they say about prison. It changes you.

Spectre: You've been here for two days.

Manny: I'm a quick learner.

Spectre: .... So what have you learnt from a 24-hour panorama of supernatural geology?

Manny: Well, you see, I killed a lot of people in my old life. And undead. And animals. And other miscellaneous things. I think I chopped apart about three hundred crates throughout Rivellon. Once found a turkey dish inside a barrel.

Spectre: ...And?

Manny: I was also a bit of a capitalist, Mister M. I loved profit. I would rob magic hot dog carts owned by merchants for twenty-five gold. I would not turn in quest items if they were more valuable than quest rewards. I would mindread people just so I could get cheaper prices at shops!

Spectre: Don't tell me you're treating this imprisonment as some sort of divinely ordained punishment. I've had it with self-deprecatory retcon justifications of failure, I got enough of that talking to Aribeth at the ****tail party last week.

Manny: Oh, no. What I mean is that if I got a second chance, I'd be a different person, you know? Help the poor. Protect the weak, and all that. I'd be a champion of justice! A justice of champion!

Spectre: So you would like to get out of here?

Manny: Oh, sure.

Spectre: Very well. Here's the deal, Manny the Adventurer: I will return you to Aleroth, now besieged by the forces of Damian, if you will promise to find a way to free me from this dimension as well. You will return with all your equipment and knowledge, previously accumulated.

Manny: You can do that?

Spectre: Oh, sure. I do have a Ph.D, you know.

 

Manny: I'm back, baby. Not that I've ever had a love interest in my life, so the 'baby' is rather ambiguous in its-

Spectre: MOVE!

 

General Augustus: Manny! Where have you been all this time!

Manny: Oh, um, just... here! Why, I'm surprised you haven't noticed!

Augustus: Well, I generally don't inquire as to what people do for days at a time in secluded bushes. Anyway, Damian is hot on our arse and we need your help, Manny.

 

Augustus: You see, we have learnt of the Giant MacGuffin To End All MacGuffins, or as we call it, the Big Mac . Your old boss, Commander Rhode, has gone off to look for it, but now you're here, you could look for it too!

Manny: Well, I promised to change my ways and become a hero for good, Auggy. I accept your quest and shall set out forthwith!

Spectre: Actually, that... Big Mac is also the key to freeing me from here, as well. So you are in fact questing out of sheer selfishness, paying back the price of your own freedom.

Manny: For Aleroth, and for all the crates whose lives I have callously taken in my past life!

Spectre: Oh, bloody hell.

 

Spectre: Aleroth, by the way, is full of people and sidequests now. You should look to pick up some cash on the way.

Hansel: Please, good sir, please find my diary!

Manny: Never fear, my good man, Manny is here to save the day! I shall set out for your diary forthwith and prove my good intentions to the world.

 

Manny: I will also help this ghost clear his old residence of evil abominations that took his life!

Spectre: But he's already dead. His assets would probably be seized by another party, most likely the city authorities. What does he want to do that for?

Manny: Question not the deeds of Good, my friend! It is not our place to question, only to do hero-y things.

 

Manny: What is that you say, man lying on his deathbed? You would like a memento from your home to ensure you can find your wife in the afterlife? But of course! Manny is here to help.

 

Manny: We'd be delighted to help you recover your stolen food, Bernard! Such is the life of Manny, Do-Gooder Reborn!

Spectre: You know, I'm beginning to think I've made a mistake...

[HoonDing]

It's nice to see how much Aleroth has grown since Divine Divinity... when there were only six houses.

 

Have you played Divine Divinity? Rivellon is a much more interesting and fleshed out world in that game, actually.

[Majek]

Tigr You entry into Aleroth in the beginning of the expansion is Arnold-like, you know Terminator. :D And there's a important switch right there as well. If i don't tell you about it know you'll probably spend too much time looking for it later, when i actually comes into play.

 

And make manny read THAT diary!^_^

Edited February 22, 2011 by Majek

[sorophx]

oooooh, I like the new direction

[Tigranes]

Enthusiasm wanes a bit as I've finished and gone to Gothic 2, but I won't be a quittah! Update will come after sleeps.