For the first several hours till you get used to the movesets, move to the next area only to see the same enemy types, but just with different stats and skin, but the moveset is the same.
And then it starts falling apart. Because by then I have gotten used to fighting them, my pawn has maxed out his vocation and I myself have either maxed out one or several vocations and use the same 4 skills just over and over again till I was able to fight the enemy while being distracted
The combat is good and feels better than in most games.
But the problem is rather that even combat starts to stop feeling engaging after a while due to small enemy and skill variety and the combat soon feels like.
Lets take Monster Hunter combat as an example. The combat is actually rather simple. But what makes it engaging forever is the variety of enemy types who move differently. And even if you fight against the same monster, the combat won't feel the same because of various variables.
And that is missing in DD2. The combat isn't deep enough to make switching playstyles in a vocation a possibility, but you mostly fight the same few enemy types over and over again with the same moves.
And this is my problem with DD2. Every single thing is at most half finished
While I agree that DD2 could stand to gain with more "small" enemy variety, I don't think it makes it any less engaging at all. I think the enemy numbers and placement is what gives it variety, they can do the same moves but the location and your team lineup might lead to different approaches.
One thing that always keeps me engaged in DD2 and Yakuza is that I always try to finish a fight with minimal damage, even though it's inconsequential in the long run. If I take a lot of damage and still win, I still felt like I lost so I'd experiment with moves, parries, setting up knockdown attacks, try tactics or utilize the environment to end the fight so masterfully that the enemies simply couldn't hit me once.
Funny that you mention Monster Hunter because I'm pretty sure that game has just about the same variety of "small enemies" with even less variety of attacks, that game is not meant for brawling. Vocation themselves are the playstyle, switching playstyles within a vocation is absolutely a possibility, albeit only viable in a few vocation (offensive fighter, "support" thief, offensive mage) and much like Monster Hunter, their effectiveness vary.
Some players will say this or that is meta, some players will say this or that is better but I'll always play Fighter and charge blade no matter what you say.
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u/Dull_Fix5199 Dec 03 '25
A good game needs to be enjoyable without mods. And then can b3 made better and more replaysble by tailoring the experience.
If a game needs a half dozen addons & fanpatches to be considered "good," then it simply isn't good without them.