Original Game and Director's Cut comparison

[Kira]

Having just completed the original game (after already six play-throughs of the director's cut) I want to share my experiences for anyone who ponders which version to play.

I will try to mark spoilers appropriately, but please be aware that there might be spoilers depending on how much you know about the game. I played the game on Legendary as that's what I'm used to in DC.

TL; DR

The Director's Cut is the "bigger, better" game, it has more content, fewer bugs and it seems to run smoother on newer computers.

I wasn't able to run OG on my own computer, it kept crashing, but I did manage to get it to run fairly smoothly on an older computer.

Content

The obvious biggie is the Haernhold area not being in the OG version. It is a high-level area with tough fights and strong loot. There is also the additional element of the altar in Haernhold, which opens up some late game respec options.

I noticed a handful of minor changes, some containers were placed slightly differently, mostly cosmetic changes but the DC felt better, I felt they tried to make stuff more visible and more accessible.

I did notice that some areas had bigger changes. Two areas in Alguin's Tower were reworked, not necessarily for the better. In one case removing an intricate block puzzle with a "run fast through a trap and then fight some goblins". I noticed at least one more Fairy Golf puzzle in the forest and the Mathan's Glade entrance used to require you to solve the big block puzzle to get the key - which was scrapped in DC and the block puzzle is now optional (it unlocks the altar, but the access to the glade is now free). Especially Alguin's Tower felt just better in OG, the rest of the difference felt like a wash.

Game Balance

I had a handful of "aha" moments finally playing the OG after being intimately familiar with DC. It feels like DC "grew too much" in terms of content, and the balance didn't always keep up.

For example, in DC I was always struggling with not having enough Bluebell seeds... (and a particular offering shrine that requires one felt like a clear tourist trap) In OG the seed dynamic is different. You cannot buy any seeds from vendors, however they drop much more frequently from enemies. What this means is that Elven Weapons are going to be weaker in OG at the start of the game because you will simply not have any seeds available; but towards the back half of the game, you will have enough to unlock everything you fancy, and have seeds to spare.

Another biggie is the item quality. In OG the highest item quality is gold ("Adamast"/"Oakheart"/"Mageweave"). In DC you have higher grades (blue "Masterwork" and rainbow "Dwarven"). In my OG play-through I was able to buy items from late game vendors including one overly friendly vendor during the end sequence. In DC the late game vendors always felt more like ornaments... 😃 On a sidenote, many of the unique items felt top-tier in OG and underwhelming in DC. I mean things like The Silver Circlet and Tortuga's Shield, they have better stats than the best gold items, but do not compare well to blue items.

One difference that looks small but is actually quite significant is how in OG some enemies have the Bloodless trait, which makes them immune to bleeding, which doesn't exist in DC; however, there is a corresponding status used for the same enemies, Dauntless, which makes them immune to Poison and Burning as well. Consequently, skeletons and similar monsters are much more difficult in DC because they are immune to all of the damaging statuses, whereas in OG they could be poisoned and burned. At least with my play-style, the Isle was *much* easier in OG than it typically is in DC.

Some skill passives that boost stats offer bigger boosts in DC. Overall, between the items and skills, I had higher stats in DC than in OG. The end sequence and also the bossfight was much harder in OG compared to DC mainly due to the lower character stats. When I did the Challenge Seekers achievement - I simply reloaded my last save before the end sequence, and picked three of my characters to do the achievement and replayed the end sequence - I was actually struggling at first to get it right. I had to respec my characters because unlike how easy this achievement had been in DC, it was actually a challenge. Melting was nerfed for DC (from 3 to 2 damage) and rightfully so. It's still strong in DC, but it was bonkers in OG.

Oddly, I finished the game at a similar level in OG which is comparable to how I typically finish in DC, so the XP seems to be slightly more abundant in OG despite not featuring the Haernhold area; my suspicion is that the small bonuses from the respawning stone totems add up to a fair bit over the course of the game, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I kind of liked the idea of being able to get slivers of XP just by getting around.

Quality of Life

There are some QoL improvements in DC that made me wonder why they weren't in OG to begin with... 😅 Things like the inventory filter. I spent probably up to 5% of my playtime in OG just sorting through my inventory, to find stuff to equip, which the filter takes care of with one click. Like the extra character slots when managing the party with Mercy. In OG I had to talk to her three times to get down to 3 characters when I was going for the achievement, because there's only one empty roster slot per conversation.

A grievance I had with OG was how larger health pool monsters had their statuses blocked out by their health bars, which was neatly addressed in DC visually. DC also has a nice audio effect when looting, and I got so used to it that I was sometimes reopening containers in OG because I thought I didn't loot them... A small annoyance was how in OG items didn't auto-de-stack when being put into offering shrines.

The save game system works very differently in the two games, or rather the DC is much more transparent about what is a totem save and what is an autosave. Also, some effects in OG were translated into statuses in DC, like retaliation; in DC you can always see which enemies strike back, in OG it was a little bit of a (nasty) surprise sometimes.

There are twice as many standing stones in DC, which makes traveling easier. Even through many of the new stones are essentially one-shot, as in you might use them only once and then have no reason to re-use them later on, because they are so far away from a hub or entrance.

A thematic change, one optional character, Bryan of Dorn, is a level 13 Fighter in OG and is a level 15 Paladin in DC, which is thematically much more appropriate I think.

Vendors only have 3 pages of inventory in OG and 5 in DC. It doesn't make a huge difference, but if you sell cheap stuff their inventory gets clogged much sooner in OG... I like the DC approach more, as this is not something you want to worry about.

I also found some bugs in OG that didn't exist in DC (though bear in mind that DC has some different bugs that didn't exist in OG 🙃). Like off-hand items being deleted for a Vanguard when re-speccing or re-adding to the party. I assume the stone totems re-spawning is also technically a bug, but that's one I didn't particularly mind... 😂

I also couldn't get summoning to work properly in OG (I think some start-of-turn effect sequencing screwed it up) which is a pity because I used it a lot in DC, and never found the altar for Acorn's Flight. I'm sure there are other bugs worth noting, though that particular Steel Gate bug in DC is still towards the top of my annoying-bugs-list... 😆

[Cursed Life]

Nice

[svdp]

Originally posted by Charmed Life:

Nice

Indeed. It was very nice! ;-)

Kira, I'm going to respond a bit more in-depth in the DC forum. I know it makes some sense to post something of the OG in this channel/forum, but it's pretty dead around here, and chances are, even the more seasoned BT4-players (like chil) won't even notice, otherwise.

[Turncloak]

I played the DC first then played the original. Original felt way better on the performance side, the default graphics settings felt more stable, maybe to do with my system than the versions of the game, but I experienced no stutters in Kylearan's tower where as I did with DC and many people have said they did with DC.

I experienced a load of different bugs in DC also where as I didn't with the original, I experienced multiple times that opening crates would launch my character into the air, funnily enough I experienced this within the first few minutes of the game and it launched me outside of the map of Skara Brae, could see under the town. I was also able to continuously duplicate items somehow without intending to.

Haernhold trivialized the rest of the game for me since the weapons are just ridiculously good, the peeler and that staff from the final boss. Excellent dungeon though really fun.

[Kira]

Originally posted by Turncloak:

Haernhold trivialized the rest of the game for me since the weapons are just ridiculously good, the peeler and that staff from the final boss. Excellent dungeon though really fun.

I think Haernhold is really the pinnacle of the game. I feel it is a bit out of step with the rest of the game because it's the hardest area by far so if you can beat it, the rest of the game won't be much of a challenge anyway, yet it gives some of the strongest items in the game that trivialise pretty much everything; and you would probably want to leave this area for last (which would be supported by it having the only standing stones that work after you start the end sequence), yet due to the dwarven strongboxes you want to complete it before the finale.

That said it's loads of fun to find different ways to beat the guardians and the redcaps each time!