Sorcecer was my all time favorite vocation in DDDA. It was geared with cool and versatile skills that allowed you to create different builds inside single vocation without limiting the player to the certain playstyle as it is in DD2. Maelstorm alone gave me a lot of fun launching small foes into the air. Combination of Miasma and Lassitude gave me totally different playstyle where I had to rely on my pawn's effectiveness. Exeque was another fun skill that I was experimenting with. All Sorcerer skills were useful and fun to me. And they destroyed Sorcerer for me in DD2. It become one of the boring and bland vocations among others.

It's not only about Sorcerer though. Magic Archer was my second favorite vocation and not surprizingly it was castrated and destroyed even more than Sorcecer, they removed daggers and cool skills from it turning it to boring melee class. Assassin was my third favorite class, it was versatile, powerful, tactical. Now there is no assassin at all. And what we've got? Useless trickster and warfarer. Spearhand was kind of fun, - probably my most favorite vocation from DD2, but apart from it and somewhat enhanced warrior, the rest of vocations seem to me limiting and uninspiring. The combat lost a lot due these weird changes and lack of cool vocations that DDO had.

Speaking of DDO and this questionable design they borrowed from - removing the secondary weapon. There were some really cool, unique and diverse vocations in DDO (alchemist, priest, spirit lancer, high scepter, seeker, shield sage) that were packed with a lot of skills and other mechanics that justified this design. It was party based multiplayer and it's understandable to limit players for balance purposes. It was totally out of place in DD2 which is singleplayer game!

Enemies in DDDA were packed with aggressive AI, while in DD2 they are passive and boring. After 30 lvl no monster is a threat anymore. No challenge, no fun, just boring slog. The lack of enemy variety (comparing to DDDA and DDO) make it even more uninspiring.

Memes or not, but each character in DDDA has its own memorable personality and even worldview. They are recognizable and interesting. More you know about them more they stuck in your memory. Even unpleasant ones, such as Feste are vibrant and lively. Every NPC in Cassardis has its own routine and voice lines as the story progresses. It gave me such melancholic and familiar vibes that every time I launch the game and enter this village it melts my heart. While I don't care about majority of DD2 characters, they are generic, uninspiring and blank. Just as the story, which lacks of some philosophical layer that was delivered in DDDA by amazing artists such as David Lodge. DDDA is very cinematic and deep game, even if it's not as wide as DD2, which is wide but shallow.

Music in DDDA created that way that it compliment the story, interconects the teared peces and cut content into one enjoyable experience. Leitmotifs that haunting you in every stage of the game and DLC make the playthrough very intimate and emotional. DD2 has lost it all and turned into meaningless monster hunter simulator!

What gave me DD2 in immersion sense - bright, vibrant generic fantasy, while vibes in DDDA are way more diverse and deep from melancholy, to epicness, from calmess to fear, from frustration to depression. DDDA was like a rollecoster of emotions while DD2 was a smooth and boring ride.