u/Hentai-Is-Just-Art

I recently finished my first replay of DOS2, after I first beat it around 6 years ago, I played on Tactician, and used no build guides or anything. Initially, this meant I was having a brutally difficult time, in Act 1 there were some fights that took a damn long time, like the Alexander fight.

Of course, the game became progressively easier as my build came together, but there were still some challenges going into the endgame, however, when I got to Lucian, I was expecting the fight of my life, as I thought I remembered it the first time I played, I had prepped large potions, various scrolls, the whole kit and caboodle.

Then I killed every enemy within a single round, of a single character, without even having the time to use a single scroll or potion, and that was it? I have to say I feel tremendously duped here. Wasn't there a separate area, and loads of BS to deal with? Wasn't Dallis a dragon or something? And what was the fuss with Vredeman? I didn't even get a chance to remember the weapon supposedly needed to kill him.

I played DOS2 a little after it came out, I can't remember whatsoever why I was so excited to play it, as it was a game from a genre that I was entirely unfamiliar with, but whatever led me to it, I'm thankful for. DOS2 basically became a top 3 game of all time to me, and still is probably top 5. I was quite excited about BG3, because I knew it was made by the same studio, was based on something I'm quite interested in, and had a similar look to it as DOS2. Lo and behold, it pretty much became my favorite game of all time.

Between those 2 games, and after, I have tried to recapture that feeling, not too hard, truth be told, but what I tried didn't really connect with me.

Does Larian just do something that little bit different that's just in the way that I like? Or am I simply missing the other games of this genre that will totally scratch that same itch?