In a recent update to Divinity: Original Sin 2‘s Kickstarter page, the folks at Larian Studios detailed some of the changes that went into the development of Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition. We learned earlier that Bandai Namco would be bringing the Definitive Edition to consoles on August 31, 2018, so console players can look forward to experiencing the “definitive” experience soon. You can also check out the dev update in the video below if you’re so inclined.
For starters, Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition will be available for all original players. PC players are already capable of toggling between their original purchase and the added Definitive Edition as they so desire if they want the original experience.
Additionally, the developers went into some of the “thousands of changes” that the complete edition of the game adds. First, they talk narrative, noting that players felt the third act of the game was largely the weakest. Almost 150k words of text have been changed, tweaked, or improved, and over 130k new words have been added, fixing some voices and text that had hiccups in the original. Additionally, the personal quests for each of the origin characters have been polished.
They have also added to the tutorial of the game with a new deck and characters in the starting ship. Combat has been smoothed out that reworks certain encounters or adds some surprises, and brand new fights have been added. A new mode called “Story Mode” has also been added, which promises to be easier than the Explorer mode difficulty. You can freely switch between difficulties during the campaign as well if you feel you need more or less of a challenge. Performance has been improved, and musical scores have been added, as well as a new character…who is a Squirrel Knight.
Additionally, some other changes include:
- Economy changes – We’ve updated the prices of many items in the game. Unique items were usually too valuable, while armor prices now better reflect their utility in combat and the cost won’t vary so heavily.
- We slightly reduced the damage on some of the three Source point skills. (Skills like Arrow Storm and Meteor Shower will still be super cool, but not an ‘I win’ button.)
- Totems will now gain intelligence as they grow in levels. This will help their damage output scale better towards the end game.
- Lone Wolf abilities and attributes will now be capped at the normal cap levels. Currently, Lone Wolves can increase their abilities and attributes past the soft caps of 40 and 10 respectively. In Definitive Edition, this will no longer be possible – you will only be able to double your points to the cap and not beyond.
- The Torturer talent will allow you to apply status effects through magic or physical armor.
- The difficulty of persuasion encounters across Arx have changed. Most of these encounters were unproportionally hard compared to the result.
- We buffed some underused skills. Petrifying Touch, Sucker Punch, and Infect are getting increased damage. Mosquito Swarm will have a shorter cooldown and and Door to Eternity will last longer.
- AI will be more likely to attack players with Damage Reduction abilities. These abilities usually resulted in the AI avoiding you rather than ever doing damage to the AI.
- High quality wands will create surfaces.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition will be coming August 31, 2018, for Xbox One and PS4 players while PC players should already have access. Original owners of the base game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, will be receiving the Definitive Edition at no cost.