Dragon Knight Saga

[ManusDei]

(Careful, fanboy inside)

So, I wanted to talk about this awesome game I played this year, which has been the best rpg I played this year (I didn't play many of them, truth to be told).

So what is it ? First, it comes from a small Belgian-German studio, larian studios, who already made Divine Divinity, which is a kind of Baldur's Gate (story wise) with Diablo-like combat (but classless, same as DKS).

Dragon Knight Saga is a package that contains Divinity 2 : Ego Draconis and Flames of Vengeance (extension of Ego Draconis).

Story is nice (usual thing with some bad guy only you can stop), with loads of references in secondary NPC (I killed Mortimer the Killer Rabbit a few days ago, met a seeker called Richard, a useless mage called Gondolf, and so on...). You can mindread NPC, which often helps solving quest, start other quests, find items and other stuff. It costs XP though to mindread, though, but there are skills to lower that cost.

Many quests can be solved different ways, and refusing a quest from a NPC may trigger another one from another NPC (in correlation, but not necessarily opposed to the first NPC). In many case you may have to choose between 2 NPC/quests, not really knowing the "better choice" (if there is any).

Gameplay is 3D and real time, characters are classless. You can make a warrior that throws a fireball and invokes a demon before jumping in the fray with his 2-handed sword (my favorite).

Oh yeah, did I mention you can transform into a FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON after the first 10-20 hours of game (about 1/4 of game) ? You can't attack ground enemies while in dragon-form (they tried but couldn't put it in the game), but it's far from being just a means of transportation (like Epona in Zelda). Game and places were designed around the fact you can transform into dragon, so it really brings something more to the game.

Last good thing, there is a demo for Dragon Knight Saga (game is buggy on many configurations, so try it first)

There is a lot more I could say about this game (like your battle-tower, your necromantic creature, enchanting items, potion-making, Bellegar, and so on...) but I'll stop here, I have froth on my lips.

[llew silverhand]

thanks for the writeup! this is on my Steam wishlist, and I will most likely pick it up next time they have a big sale, unless I find a physical copy cheaper somewhere first.

[Evnissyen]

I'm still not sure, but I might end up getting this game next, over the $6 Divine Divinity I've been thinking over for a while but never gotten. Based on the demo, Divinity II really doesn't look bad at all, though a little limited in combat options. I also don't like the mechanics. (Keyboard movement only, though I suppose I could sacrifice my mouse buttons for forward and backward movement, if I really wanted to (haven't tried it), and then resort to the keyboard for, say, attacking -- no idea at all why I'd do that . . . point is: the normal Move-Mouse-up-to-Go-forward-and-back-to-Go-backward mechanic does not appear to be an option -- somebody please let me know if I've missed something.)

Can't save-game in the demo (again, am I missing something?), which is too bad because I'd like to go back to it but don't feel like going through all that stuff I already went through, all over again, just to see what more there is. You know... seems to me that if you've bothered to expend the effort to create a demo for your product, I should think it'd make sense to you to allow the player to save, so they can see more of the game and get hooked.

It's really the mechanics that bothers me. I'm wondering if maybe after a little while I'll get really tired of using the keyboard to move.

Of course, then again... maybe if I were able to save my game, in the demo, and then go back and explore more, then I'd eventually decide that the writing & exploration are so awesome that the mechanics aren't really all that bothersome. Who knows?

Is DD keyboard-control also?: I wish I could find a site that would let me download a demo without signing up with their awesome webservice. C-Net has the demo in their catalog, but it doesn't download... .

I'll have to look for a Beyond Divinity demo as well. So far I've only been searching for the DD demo.

[ManusDei]

As far as I know, you can't use the mouse to move, only the keyboard.
And you definitely can save in the demo of DKS (I tried it for the bettered engine), not sure what went wrong with your demo. If you try it again and you still can't save, ask on larian forum.

DD is an old diablo-like, its mouse-control, not sure you can use the keyboard to move.
You can download the demo there without signing up for anything
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/jeux/telecharg ... vinity.htm
website is in French, but demo is in english. It's the old graphics, they did a new version a couple months back.

And so far as I read Beyond Divinity sucks.

[Jumping Jack]

Oh yeah, did I mention you can transform into a FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON after the first 10-20 hours of game (about 1/4 of game) ? You can't attack ground enemies while in dragon-form (they tried but couldn't put it in the game)

Bah, I'll just stick to Dungeon Crawl.

[Evnissyen]

Thanks, Manus... I'm downloading it now.

[kdar1987]

I am thinking about getting this game too.

How does it relates back to Divine Divinity?

[ManusDei]

Same world, some decades later (but Zandalor is still there, alive and kicking), most non-human are gone. Aleroth got big.

It's 3D, story and quests are as fun as in Divine Divinity.
The demo should give you a nice insight for the game (even if you won't get to transform in a dragon in it).