Divinity: Original Sin II was a substantial improvement over its predecessor, Divinity: Original Sin, with enhanced storytelling, richer character development, and refined gameplay systems. The narrative became a darker, more cohesive epic focused on divine ascension, moral ambiguity, and the far-reaching consequences of power, supported by fully voiced dialogue and complex companion backstories. Combat shifts from heavy reliance on crowd control and chance to a dual-armour system that distinguishes physical and magical defenses, removing percentage-based resistances and fostering more reliable, build-diverse strategies while maintaining the series’ hallmark environmental interactions. Before Baldur’s Gate 3 blew the doors open for Larian Studios, gamers could see how they smartly innovated on CRPGs, making the experience more streamlined and accessible, yet still maintaining complexity. It was a beloved yet flawed release on Nintendo Switch, but how does Divinity: Original Sin II – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition hold up?
Set in the medieval fantasy world of Rivellon, the story revolves around a major crisis: the death of a god-like protector known as “the Divine”, and the encroaching threat of the Void, a destructive Lovecraftian force. Players assume the role of a customisable Godwoken, a Sourcerer with the potential to ascend to divinity, who is imprisoned on Fort Joy Island by the authoritarian Divine Order. This is because it’s believed that Sourcerers attract the Voidwoken entities.
Character creation expands with the introduction of new races, including lizards and undead, alongside “origin” characters whose personal quests are intricately woven into the main storyline. Exploration becomes denser and more responsive, though slightly more structured, while quality-of-life enhancements improve inventory management, pacing, and overall polish, culminating in a longer, highly replayable experience that cemented Larian Studios’ standing in the CRPG genre.
The possibilities are endless, whether crafting a custom character or choosing one of the origin characters, who conveniently come with well-defined traits, rich backstories, and fully realised voice acting that gives the quest a strong sense of authorship. It’s awesome that gamers can create any character they can dream up, but the origin characters are so well-crafted and intriguing that it’s tough to resist playing as them, especially when one happens to be a talking skeleton with a snobbish personality. All of the origin characters are closely connected to the main plot and can be recruited as party members, responding to the player’s choices and actions in ways that make the game feel dynamic and full of life.
The adventure kicks off with a daring escape from captivity, followed by assembling a party of up to four from six unique origin companions, each with rich backstories, or custom characters from races like humans, elves, dwarves, lizards, or even the undead. The world is sprawling and open-ended. There are always multiple ways to go about anything in Original Sin II since the gameplay is very systems based, or adhering to a consistent internal logic.
An isometric, party-based adventure unfolds across reactive environments, where skills drive puzzle solving, hybrid abilities are crafted from skillbooks, and players manipulate the environment or engage in civil actions like persuasion or lockpicking. Upon spotting an enemy, the game seamlessly shifts to turn-based tactical combat, with initiative determining turn order. Each character starts with four base Action Points per turn, boostable through talents, gear, or buffs for movement, attacks, skills, or items, with up to two unused AP carried over for strategic advantage.
The beauty of the system is that combat plays only a minor role in the gameplay, with every skill offering utility and creative potential. Sometimes, players can skip a required skill altogether by thinking outside the box and using logic to solve challenges. For example, instead of unlocking a stronghold’s door, you could teleport or use telekinesis to move party members in from the back. No fire spell to ignite a puddle of oil? Just grab any lit candle, toss it onto the slick, and watch the laws of physics work their own brand of magic. Original Sin II is packed with clever Gordian-knot solutions, with rarely just a single way to accomplish whatever the imagination dreams up.
The variety of builds and possibilities is practically limitless, and players won’t always be battling to advance their character. XP can be earned in countless ways, and in such a vivid setting, solving problems without relying solely on brute force feels far more authentic. Though combat is impressively thought out, it’s user friendly enough that most JRPG fans will probably take to it like a fish to water.
The queue system clearly shows whose turn is next, and positioning plays a role much like in a tactical RPG, all while keeping the same logical, systems-based consistency as in regular gameplay. This means that if enemies are standing in water or blood, it can act as a conductor for a lightning spell, and if the party is on fire, summoning rain will put out the flames. However, be cautious, as this could create steam, which might backfire if someone casts an electric spell or weakens any fire magic. Original Sin II dives into absurd depths, constantly keeping players on their toes as they weigh every action and its inevitable reaction.
The Switch 2 edition of Original Sin II is impressive. This was always a pretty good-looking game that leans heavily into Tolkien-esque fantasy with a surrealist bent. The character models are impressively detailed, with each piece of armour and every weapon equipped featuring its own unique design. The world is huge, and interiors are fully realised to scale, with different races mingling, and NPCs with their own stories and routines.
The level of detail has been faithfully preserved while implementing a user-friendly control scheme that makes sense for the Switch 2 controller. Surprisingly, there’s no mouse mode for the Joy-Con 2, which feels like a huge missed opportunity since it could make things run more smoothly. Original Sin II’s gameplay is already quite drawn out due to its complexity.
On a technical level, Divinity: Original Sin II impresses with a mostly consistent 60fps when docked, minimal pop-in, and high resolution throughout the experience. Occasionally, there are a few bugs that might require restarting the app, but losing progress isn’t a big problem since autosaves happen often, and you can save almost anywhere. Load times are generally manageable, except for the initial boot-up, which can take about a minute. After that, it’s smooth sailing with just a few minor load times between larger areas.
The online multiplayer with up to four players has been retained, as well as several DLC mods and cross-play features. Most of the shortcomings are forgivable considering the vast complexities and freedom available to users when interacting with the world. It’s a massive game created by a large team with countless moving parts, so the occasional glitchy AI is to be expected in a scope as massive as this.
