Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [HUGE spoilers] Story Analysis/Criticism (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

To begin with I would like to say that I really enjoyed the game, but I found that a lot of important things were ignored and not explained. Other times I have come across illogical decisions and ignoring obvious facts.

01) Karlach
Karlach has the least content of all companions. Other companions have special abilities, their own dungeons, game-changing decisions, special items and a lots of unique npc's.
Karlach has one blacksmith that you will talk to in act 1, then again in act 2 and finally you will shout at one duke. This is extremely low content when compared to other origin characters.

02) Devil's engine (Karlach once more)
So Karlach has an evil engine instead of a heart, which overheats because it is unable to work effectively outside of Hell. Damn, too bad we were never able to meet any devil who could tell us the details. It's not like Mizora is Zariel's direct subordinate, so she probably knows all about this, or is capable of finding out. It's not like Raphael should be able to handle the whole situation on his own. It's not like after Raphael's death we have his House of Hope as our own mansion suite (with a cute but slightly mentally unstable dwarf maid) to which we have a direct portal and where Karlach can travel every few weeks to stabilize her engine. It's not like there is such a thing as a heart transplant. And I don't just mean a human heart, as a demon/devil heart transplant is a very real thing in the D&D world. Again, we have at least 2 candidates who could arrange something like this. Or they could become involuntary donors...

The whole Karlach storyline is simply ill-conceived.

03) No epilogs
In games this long, players want to know what happened to their companions after your adventure is over.
The lack of epilogues for individual companions is a HUGE disappointment.

Is it really that hard to show a picture of a companion's face and write a paragraph or two about them?
That would be enough for me.

04) Minthara
Companion that is barely more than a Hireling.

No personal quests, no proper romance, very little dialogues, virtually no response to quests and absolutely minimal interaction with other companions.
As this was the most attractive companion to me, I am VERY disappointed. Dataminig also revealed that Minthara has a huge amount of cut content.

05) Viconia
I'm sorry, but doesn't Larian know how aging works for Drow?
Drow live for around 8 centuries and show no physical signs of aging until they are over 500 years old.
They are not considered fully mature until they are at least 100 years old.

It was clearly stated that Viconia left the Underdark as a young priestess.
So her age should be between 100-200 years old.

1297 DR = Viconia left underdark
1368 DR = BG1
1492 DR = BG3

So Viconia has been on the surface for 200 years.
Her age is somewhere between 300-400 years.
She is still in her prime. Definitely too early for her to look old.

And I also have comments regarding her storyline.

One thing was most important to Viconia. They wanted personal freedom and she didn't want to be controlled by anyone.
This is in direct contrast to her fanaticism shown in BG3. A big disappointment to destroy a character like this physically and mentally.

06) Evil is not advantageous
Evil should be tempting. It should provide additional benefits and rewards.
Players would be tempted to be evil, but it should go against their moral values.
BG3 completely failed in this regard.

Side with tieflings VS side with goblins

Side with tieflings = You will lose Minthara.
Side with goblins = You will lose Halsin, Wyll, Karlach, tons of NPCs you would normally meet in act 2 and 3 and tons of experience and items you would get from them in those acts.
That's a HUGE part of the game you're missing out on. Even if Minthara were the best companions of all (she's the worst) it wouldn't be advantageous.

Being evil is just a stupid and disadvantageous decision.

07) Evil ending is joke
MC sits on the throne, says "All hail new king."
Roll credits.

You can't be serious...
After more than 100 hours of gameplay, you couldn't manage more than a 15-second ending?
That's just... sad.

08) Good ending does not answer the main question
Ok, the tadpools are destroyed, great! But what exactly does this mean for me?
My brain was already fully evolved and I was half-illithid. Have I lost all abilities?
Or have they remained, but now I am no longer in danger of becoming a complete illithid?
This was the main thing I wanted to know!

09) The obvious solution is not an option
Balduran's behavior makes no sense.

At the end when the final decision has to be made there should be an option to suggest to Balduran that we free Orpheus and join forces with him in defeating Netherbrain.
After all, you can always tell him that if Orpheus turns out to be hostile, then Balduran can always eat his brains and continue with the original plan.
This is a completely obvious solution that came to me before I even saw the options. It's not about whether we trust Balduran or not.
It is simply about what is the most advantageous.

10) Jaheira, Sarevok, Viconia, Minsc
I was very disappointed to find out that the original voice actors did not return.

In the case of Jaheira, Larian did a good job because I was practically unable to recognize that it was a different voice actor.
But the other three characters sounded completely different. Gray DeLisle, Jim Cumming and Kevin Michael Richardson are still alive and VERY active.
I'm sure it wouldn't be THAT difficult for Larian to contact them and arrange the recording.
Beamdog had no problems with that when they made a datadisk for BG1:EE a few years ago.
And Beamdog is a much smaller studio with a much smaller budget.

So on karlach I would add this.
There is no buildup to it, we are told she will eventually die then it is never brought up again until the end where its basically "hey guys we won, oh look karlach is dead"? Can we get some scenes prior to this to let us know she is having problems? It really just came out of nowhere.

I agree with that.
How that happened is rather illogical.

From what she told me, I understood that this is a condition that will gradually worsen.
Not something that can kill her out of the blue.
She should definitely "feel" that her time is coming.

Maybe before we face Netherbrain for the first time she could say something like:

"Guys, I feel like my engine is running hotter than usual lately. I don't know how much time I have left, but it's not much."

I have recently had the second conversation with Dammon (in the Last Light) and as far as I remember he said K's ticker would eventually just blow (if she stays on the material plane). I didn't get the impression that the heart would start to deteriorate towards the end.