I really loved the first game a lot but I do think it was both a bit more grindy than necessary and super long to get through. That can definitely appeal to some peopleand ill say I did a regular playthrough before radiant mode (speeds things up, a bit easier, less grindy) and 1 playthrough with radiant mode and i preferred radiant, even if it was technically easier.
Now dd2 on the other hand isn't very grindy at all. Like sure there is permanent progression and unlocks and shit you work towards, but I've done maybe 12 full runs now, beat act 4 (1 left) and I've never once felt like I'm grinding or just doing a run to unlock stuff. Like I've been trying to beat each act boss every time, that was the main goal, always.
They greatly improved the animations, the art, the atmosphere in some ways but most importantly I think they improved combat which is like the main appeal and mainly what you do in the game. They've made a lot of things less "rng" in a way, there is still is dice rolls, as there should be for this type of game, but they've made it much more coherent in what can happen and what you can prepare for. I like it a lot.
The game is still going to have content and shit added, but it's both a complete game right now and worth the $40 or $30 if you own dd1 already (you have to buy the bundle package on steam to get the discount, idk why.)
It's still a tough game, and it isn't for everybody but I think it can appeal to even more people now than dd1. An average run can last like 3 or 4 hours i think. I'm sure fitgirl will have a repack of it soon enough in case you don't want to buy it, or just wanna try it first, since she rarely ever updates her torrents to include new updates
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yeah i absolutely vibe with that first part. the stagecoach is just alright to me, like i do think it's cool they tried something different with it all, i just have played at least 4 or 5 games now who do the same type of slay the spire map thing and it could be better. but im not going to fault them too much for it cause it isn't a bad method of doing things. but it does feel weird how they've kinda removed the dungeon feel to it in a few ways. they felt like they had to do something different i guess.
PD feels like the best overall pick. I have to force myself to not take her tbh cause she is just so good in so many ways. I'm really sad the occultist isn't on her level, he needs some love imo and the vestal is solid but she doesn't cover as many bases i think as PD does. Flagellant is straight up like the best character in the game i think, at least personally (and until you run into his certain uhhh unique fight lol). Flag is fuckin awesome in so many ways. At first i was kinda bummed they changed him to be a blight type character cause I had felt like the bleed for him made perfect sense. but after playing it a bit and understanding more of him, i get it now lol. some of his barks are goddamn hilarious. i run that same team comp quite a few times, but tbh ive always had a huge crush on hellion so i've been using her quite a bit too and she is solid, she isn't like the best at anything but she does a lot of cool shit i think, so i use her quite a bit.