>>15918364
For example the skills points/attributes/specialties were great, but the 2 hybrid classes were trash.
The commune with the death spell and ghosts scattered throughout the game left you expecting a lot, like new hidden locations and mobs, but instead just talking to the ghost gives you the reward and they fuck off. Sending you on a collect them all quest.
The shrines with enchantment incantations left a lot to be desired, mostly because you never really used them due to how uncommon they were and how the enchantments lasted far too little.
The yellow-colored item sets idea were interesting were you had to gather the whole collection from a set to get bonuses.
I found the enchant item/crafting system really useless. You had to buy the highest magic materials and fit as many as possible into a few tiny slots. Only thing I ever used it for was to give myself +500% luck through 4 rings 1 amulet.
The Aman'lu Arena was good, a decent little addition which doesn't take much time to add. I was disappointed with the secret level, which pales in comparison to the chicken level. Even the method you use to get there isn't as amazing.
The pets also were a nice little addition, but ultimately useless compared to getting a sapient character. The way you unlock new pets was alright, you had to kill tons of mobs coming out of a portal.
The class level-requirement doors were boring.
The mana/health bushes were completely useless for me.
Almost all of the secondary quests from the party members you pick up were boring as shit, especially elf Spock which I was expecting much more out of, because just like the ghosts, those magic mushroom circles were all over the place and I was hoping they'd do something interesting. Most of the quests while more interesting than DS1, were just exceptionally short, mediocre and creatively bankrupt. Each quest you'd do in small increments and wait long periods of time to complete parts 1 & 2 which would end in a disappointing elite mob fight.
The trade/fetch-quest cliche was boring and at time a pain in the ass to figure out.
Finala, the elf engineer, opened up some extra locations which added some replayability, but again, not that much.
Most of the DS2 quests felt like that 1 quest in DS1 where you talk to an NPC in the first town and to finish the quest you just talk to another NPC in the next town.
A lot of DS2 quests tooted their own horn too much and ended up blowing in their face. Too dispersed and too little content. Especially because if you had +4 lvls over the enemy then you'd instantly beat the crap out of them, elite mob or not.
It seemed like they were trying to make the newbie areas replayable for the older levels, but beyond returning for a few select areas with high lvl mobs and a few quests there really wasn't anything worth coming back to. The assassin quest was especially a let down. DS1 had the advantage that the side quests could be finished on the spot, just like the DS2 quest with the blacksmith guy which gets his tools stolen and you have to fuck around through an optional dungeon full of high lvl enemies to get them back.
Mobs weaknesses/triggers were just there.
They tried to add a lot of dynamic stuff and replayability, but ultimately it felt stale.
The total of 4 boss fights were fun and were actual boss fights, not just elite mobs.
Tons and tons of ideas, some sticked, some didn't. Not because the ideas were bad, but because they dispersed the content too much for how little content there was and how little effort they put.