Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga

Overview

Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga is a third-person action RPG developed by Belgian game developers Larian Studios. It contains a remastered version of Divinity II: Ego Draconis, featuring additional content and updated graphics, along with the Flames of Vengeance expansion. The most crucial improvement over the original game, however, is the removal of the myriad of bugs and glitches that plague the original Divinity II. As in the firsts version, players assume the role of a Dragon Slayer trainee who is forced to become a hated Dragon Knight and combat Rivellon's greatest enemy; Damian, the Damned One.

Gameplay

The game is a standard third-person action role-playing fare with hack n' slash combat and loot. It takes heavy inspiration from Blizzard's World of Warcraft with a "choose your own quest rewards" system. It also contains a tradition items hierarchy indicated by color.

In the beginning you can choose three main classes; Warrior, Ranger and Mage, each with its own unique play style. Once you have chosen a class, though, you can mix and match your skills from each of trees, much like the first Fable game. In addition to these classes, you can also spend points in two others as well: Priest and Dragon Slayer. The Priest focuses on summoning creatures and curses, while the Dragon Slayer focuses on passive skills, like different weapon masteries, lock picking and the ability to gain experience faster.

The Warrior class mainly focuses on strength and up-close skills for hack n' slash game play. The Ranger is the archetypal archer. The Mage uses magic to shoot fireballs, charm enemies, and heal. Much like Oblivion, the game allows you to train across disciplines in order to suit your play style.

Concerning loot, each item takes one slot in your inventory and can have the following color-codes; White (Uncommon), Blue (rare), Green (Magical), Dark green (Heroic), Light green (Legendary), Indigo (Elder), Red (Epic), Dark red (Unique) and Gold (Named unique and set items). Scrolls and books with an orange text indicate that you can interact with them.

One unique aspect of the game is the player's ability to read anyone's mind. Through mind reading, the player can gain new endings to various quests, learn of question that were not previously available or simply learn where buried treasure might be. This ability is gained at the beginning of the game when the player is infused with dragon memories, the reason Dragon Slayers have silver eyes. During conversation, the player has the option to read an NPC's mind at the expense of XP. The greater the expense, the greater the reward.

The most unique game play mechanic in the game is the ability to play as a dragon. The dragon morph ability is attained through the course of the game's story when the main character becomes a Dragon Knight. At this point, you will be able to morph into a dragon at any time and kill other dragons and wyverns scattered throughout Rivellon. The form has it's own inventory, allowing the player to equip better armor for the dragon. It also has it's own skill tree.

Another unique game play mechanic in Divinity II is the acquisition of the Battle Tower. This tower contains an alchemist, a weapon's master, an enchanter, and a necromancer. At the battle tower, the player can enchant weapons and armor if they have the correct supplies, craft a creature which they can summon on demand, raise level caps on skills and brew potions. In the player does not have the correct supplies, they can send runners to bring back the desired ingredients.

US Release

Though Ego Draconis' release was handled by DTP and CDV, Atlus announced in January 2011 that they would publish Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga in the US.

Atlus is proud to announce their partnership with Focus Home Interactive and Larian Studios in bringing Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga for Xbox 360 to North America!

It was released in North America on April 12, 2011.

Demo

A demo was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace on December 23, 2010 in Europe. The US demo was released on March 28, 2011. The demo was quickly pulled because two files were missing on the live image. It was then re-posted on April 4. The demo contains the same content as that of the demo for Divinity II: Ego Draconis, which was released in December 2009. The Dragon Knight Saga demo contains better game play balancing, graphics, animations, performance, as well as the ability to save and customize the main character. Both of the latter improvements were original features of Ego Draconis, but they were not in the demo.

The same demo is also available on Steam.

PC Requirements

Minimum System Rquirements

• OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.8 Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+
• Memory Ram: 1 GB
• Hard Disk Space: 15 GB
• Video: 256 Mb @ nVidia GeForce 7600 / ATI Radeon X1600
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ (or better)
• Memory Ram: 2 GB
• Hard Disk Space: 15 GB
• Video: 512MB @ nVidia GeForce 9600 GT / ATI Radeon HD 3870 (or better)
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9