I brought this after reading a couple of favourable reviews and because i want a good long rpg to play and because it was cheaper than normal. I don't believe it's out in the states. I have it on 360, hence the comment though i believe it's on the pc.

Simple question: is it a classic rpg, or is it just arse.

I can't make my mind up. There seems to be a lot of content (two full campaigns on disc one after the other, each about 50 hours long apparently), and you can turn into a dragon, eventually.

However, I just can't make my mind up. On one hand, the backgrounds are very pretty. On the other the characters (it's 3rd person) seem very small. There's a weird scale to it that I just can't get used to: it's like watching someone running in front of a screen and having the screen show them the running track so it looks like they are running along the track, but it feels slightly out of kilter. You move very quickly and it feels floaty.
Combat again is fast. It's third person hack and slash. Not button mashing, the buttons manage your mana-fuelled skills all with cooldowns whcih can encompass spells, swordplay and even ranger arrows (which i don't think are up to much), as well as some other stuff. You can also do a basic swing/shot and the RT lets you roll/dodge/jump. But again the disconnect; you are so quick when you move that it feels again floaty. Combat isn't bad, and can be quite hard as the game has weird spikes where large groups will attack you and nowhere seems to sell healing potions.

I just can't make my mind up. Has anyone else played this? I'm tempted to start again (have oinly played a couple of hours) as choosing ranged attacks seems rubbish. Again it's the age old problem: you shoot at them, they just run toward you really quickly and bam! Even though you can actually fire at close range and quickly (just like a non ranged attack) it's not that effective imo.

I played it on the PC, had lots of fun, and yes, turning into a dragon (and getting your own stronghold) is pretty l33t.

I went the 2h weapon line, it's just more fun to just kill all up close and personal. You might want to go online and get some spoilers (especially for skill books, which are ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' place, but easy to miss if you don't know where to look, amongts a ridiculous load of easter eggs and "miss it once and it's gone forever" stuff).

So, try again or retrain if you can, and just be a big melee dude, I know you can be brutal that way, and I don't remember reading any ranged weapon users guides.

Good luck!

This game has some ridiculous difficulty spikes. There are points, very very early on, where you are just mobbed by creatures way above your level. It baffles me why games do this. There also seem to be next to no places to buy healing potions. The only place is that village  with the the chapel and the ghost you have to kill who's extremely overpowered - you are told to fight him urgently then find he's massively too powerful for you! The priest in that village that sells healing potions is regularly out of stock and having to run back and forth to buy them isn't convenient. They are never found as loot for instance.

Hrm, it's been a LONG time so I'm hard pressed to help.

I didn't find many fights to be tough in particular. Combat can be very swingy, you can be beaten by low level creatures, or slaughtered by high. Save and reload a few times...can't even remember the ghost, so I guess it can't be that tough.

The dragon-guys on the island were tough, this one goblin near yggdrasil was brutal, so I do remember some tough fights...but just try different tactics, if nothing else the AI wigs out every so often, and that's a win-button.

I really can't get into this. Combat is horrible; it feels floaty and the pace is terrible. It's also a real grindfest due to the level disparity between player and enemy.

The quest design is really lacking and the constant underlevelling has done my head in. For example, a priest has disappeared into a scrying stone and i have a quest to find him. The quest simply tells me the guy is in the 'vault of anguish'. No clue as to what or where that is, at all - plus this guy is the only vendor of healing potions! There is nowhere else i can get any! Or the quest to find a notable npc where a servant asks you 4 questions about him you have to answer to pass - you have no way of knowing these answers since you are never introduced to anyone or anything that passes on this info!

Oh yeah, I remember those.

There are books all over the place, detailing the world history and stuff. You really do have to read those books, since, as you can tell, there'll be a quiz later.

You don't have to complete every quest, and there really is MUCH that you'll miss without a strategy guide, tons of stuff is very well hidden, along with a a number of "miss it and it's gone" events.

The game opens up much once you get your own fortress, focus on the main quest line, some quests seem impossible until you simply stumble over them (seems like the priest you mention isn't far, but I really don't recall).

Bottom line, this is a European RPG, which is as different in outlook for the player as Eurogames are different from American boardgames.

Haven't played the Divinity 2 Dragon Knight Saga (360) that you are talking about so sorry I can't help you out here!! I am quite happy with my usual games and am not the adventurous type to try out new ones unless they are that good!! But I am sure that'll you get some opinion from the forum!!

I'm not sure if your saying that you like the game or not, but I will give you a heads up that, most RPG's are 3rd person games and its hard to level up to play through DKS. I do like the game, but, there are hardly any enemies around to fight, you gotta search everywhere for them. the mind reading skill is garbage due to the amount of experience cost to use it. Honestly, I think England should leave RPG's to Japan and America because between Fable, which never held up to expectations like everyone was told, and Divinity, they are just not up to par with everyone else. Send of your tech over to other countries who know what their doing before you experiment is all I'm saying.

Mind reading is awesome.

In the early game, it's minimal, but after a few levels, you'll start getting insanely good bonuses for mind reading. "You can read my mind? Oh, in that case, here are 2 skill points."

I'm not saying it's implemented well, but mind read everyone you can, the payouts are huge...save and reload for the rare cases where mind reading doesn't apy.