Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian just recently launched its acclaimed previous game, Divinity: Original Sin II, on Switch 2, and studio boss Swen Vincke said he tried hard to cut one element in particular for the new release.
Speaking to Mein-MMO, Vincke responded to the interviewer saying they are a big fan of the game’s squirrel NPC, Sir Lora. Vincke hates the little critter and wanted him gone for the re-release.
“It’s funny that you like Sir Lora. I hate him. If there is one thing I regret about Original Sin 2, it’s bringing Sir Lora into the game,” he said.
Vincke went on to say that he “tried to remove him from the Switch 2 version,” but Larian’s QA team informed him that it was “too late.”
“I really tried to get rid of him,” he said.
Vincke added that his Head of QA informed him that the team undertook efforts to cut Sir Lora and the team “almost succeeded.” But the problem was that removing Sir Lora led to an issue where “it works in one region and not in another.”
“We couldn’t figure out why. Sir Lora just wouldn’t die. We lost several days debugging to find an answer to that. Now it’s too late, so we have to keep him,” he said.
Vincke also shared some Sir Lora lore, saying the publisher behind Original Sin II wanted to have free DLC for the game, so Larian created the squirrel NPC “as a joke that doesn’t really add anything to the game.”
“Later we regretted bringing Sir Lora in because it only happened due to publisher pressure. And now we just want to get rid of him. But it’s okay; it makes me happy that you enjoy him. There are people who put a lot of effort into creating him,” Vincke said.
Original Sin II just launched for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, with a free upgrade available for people who already own the game on PS4, Xbox One, or Switch.
Larian’s next game is a new Divinity title, which will not have any AI-created content in it. The developer used generative AI to create concept art and to help with other development processes, however.
“It’s something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone’s working day better, not worse,” Vincke said, attempting to address the concerns raised by developers.