Divinity_ Original Sin 2's Director Wants The Game To Kick Players' Asses
By Alex Chen | January 01, 0001
Today on Kotaku Splitscreen we’re talking to the director of Divinity: Original Sin 2, one of the best role-playing games we’ve ever played First, Kirk and I talk about Nintendo Labo and The Leftovers before getting into the news of the week (18:37) on Counter-Strike’s co-creator getting charged with commercial sexual abuse of a minor, a Subnautica developer losing his job, and the controversy over Toad’s head. Then we talk to Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios and director of D:OS2 (36:53), about staying independent, developing RPGs without filler, and much more. Finally, Kirk and I reconvene to talk Rise of the Tomb Raider and Monster Hunter: World (1:07:17).(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Plus: NEW LOGO!!!! https://player.megaphone.fm/PPY1444384226 Get the MP3here, or read pg123 an excerpt below: Jason: What makes [Divinity: Original Sin 2] feel so special to me, and why I think it’s one of the greatest RPGs I’ve ever played, is that it feels like there’s no filler. Every single time you do anything, you’re always either making an interesting decision, fighting an interesting battle, making choices that have consequences. I didn’t even think it was possible to make a game that was 100 hours long with no filler—was that something you had in mind as you were going? I apologize, I haven’t played any other Larian games, but is that a pillar for you guys? Swen: Yeah. In our history, we sometimes had to rush games to ship them. That’s where filler comes from, essentially. We try to avoid it. We hate it ourselves, and I think if you see us moving forward, you’ll see less and less filler. Production’s a reality, so sometimes you have to cut corners, but we always feel very unhappy about the corners we cut. Jason: So what’s an example of a corner you had to cut on Divinity: Original Sin 2? Swen: *laughs* There are some combats that I think we could’ve done more extensively. You don’t know the narratives we cut, but we did cut quite a few of them. Sometimes if you’re unlucky you might fall in that particular pathway, and you feel it, and you say, ‘Ah this is not as cool as what I expected there to be.’ That always hurts, but on the whole, there’s really a lot of stuff to be enjoyed when you play D:OS2 Kirk: I’m curious about something related to filler but a little different, and that’s the notion of grind in an RPG. There’s really no grind in Divinity: Original Sin 2. One of the things that strikes me as very interesting about the game is, there are areas where you can go and areas you can’t. There’s a really steep differential between each level. If I’m level 12 and I’m fighting a level 13 enemy, they’re gonna really kick my ass, where if I’m level 13 fighting a level 12 enemy, I’m gonna have a significant advantage. There’s really no point at which you can say, ‘Man I really wish I was level 13,