Origin characters are ready-made characters that have their own base personality and backstory. These characters include Beast, a dwarf who led a failed rebellion against the queen, Fane, an undead human who woke up with the world he knew long gone, Ifan ben-Mezd, a human who was a crusader who lost his faith and has become a Lone Wolf mercenary, Lohse, a star chanteuse whose body is now host to a mysterious entity who makes its presence known at inopportune times, The Red Prince, a brilliant warrior general who was exiled for cavorting with demons, and Sebille, an elf slave turned assassin who hunts her former master. While certain classes make more sense for these character's history, the player is free to change their build into whichever one they wish to play as. The Origin characters can also be recruited into the player's party, and their presence will activate origin events the player can engage in specific situations and they also open up certain dialog options. When recruiting them, changing their class is worked into the dialog so the player has a lot of customization options in their party. The player can also split up the party if they want to have someone do some sneaking around alone or divide the party into two groups of two, which is easily done by moving the portraits of the character in the upper left hand corner.

Divinity might not be the biggest name in the gaming world, but when the sequel to the critically acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin was announced on Kickstarter, it met its funding goal in under twelve hours and eventually went on to vastly exceed it. One can only imagine the reaction Larian Studios had to this quick and enthusiastic reception to the SLG Game Building Guide announcement. On one hand it showed amazing support from the fan community, since this support is saying that they loved the game so much they can't wait for the follow up. On the other hand, they loved it so much and are waiting for a sequel that will match or exceed its quality, so no pressure. After two years of waiting and an unlucky launch day thanks to a power outage in Ghent whose timing was so bad it was comedic, Divinity: Original Sin II has graduated from Steam Early Access and is now available to everyone in its completed form.

The amount of freedom and impact the choices have during character interaction with NPCs shows that this Original Sin II was not just influenced by great video game RPGs, but also by great table top RPGs. An homage to this is game master mode, where a player can create an adventure for a group of their friends to play. This mode is made to be as accessible as something of this nature can be, but does take a bit of time to figure out the finer points. There is a ready made campaign players can use to sample, but this is where someone can design a dungeon layout including a narrative story, various effects, vignettes and enemy placement and have their friends play through it. This mode is analogous to running a successful tabletop gaming campaign, where the game master takes the time to put together a well thought out campaign and has some interested players this can end up being a very rewarding mode. The inclusion of a mode like this is very ambitious, and could almost be its own role playing game but oddly enough this came about as a Kickstarter stretch goal.

The player is free to create a custom original character to fit their own design as was the case in its predecessor, but the option of selection a premade character with an origin story is available. These characters come with their own unique background that are closely linked to the main narrative. Origin story characters not selected by the player can still be encountered as NPCs and possible join the character's party. The origin story will be an evolving element of the character that is shaped through completion of origin story quests. The specific origin stories will influence how the inhabitant of Rivellon react to the player and will provide additional dialog options. There are currently four origin stories available in the Early Access with the plan to add more as the game continues to develop. To give an example of what makes origin stories unique, the character Lohse has an entity that communicates with her, something akin to demonic possession mixed with schizophrenia. It is possible for Lohse to enter a state of temporary insanity if she fails to win a challenge against this thing that dwells within her.

Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get some hands on time with Divinity: Original Sin II at PAX . That experience only gave a brief glimpse into what is offered in this build and I imagine I will feel the same way about the Early Access build when the complete game is released. The predecessor was a massive choice-driven RPG that was in the vein of classic computer RPGs. The bar was set high by Divinity: Original Sin and everything that made that title so great returns here and then some. Making any definite declaration about a game's quality prior to its final release is impossible and I do not want to over hype this title to the point of having expectations it can not reach, but anyone who enjoyed its predecessor needs to keep this one on their radar, regardless of whether they want to wait for the final version to come out or if they want to dive into the early build right away.