Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Astarion Graveyard Scene Glitched ;_;

So by all rights it seems like I'm not the first one to encounter this issue, and all the threads I've seen on here and everywhere else have mostly ended with "Welp too bad. Guess it's glitched :(" and no further info, but over 100 hours into my first play through, and frankly having gone into the game with the express intent of seeing Astarion's story, I'm not really satisfied with that as an answer.

After killing Cazador, when you sleep there is meant to be (or so I've heard) a scene in a Graveyard where Astarion's story wraps up. Apparently he takes you to his grave. That scene never triggered for me. I spoke to him at camp (with the "!" indicator. "Thank you for stopping me from going through with the ritual", ect.), slept, and there was no scene.

I thought nothing of it and continued playing for a good 10 hours. During said 10 hours, I caved just a bit and looked up some ways to get approval, getting his affection to what looks to be the highest level (up to "character is thrilled with avatar") assuming that that must be a trigger for finally FINALLY getting some additional scenes to talk with Astarion. (His affection had been fine but not amazing most of the game. Given that I didn't go out of my way in the first two acts to meta game/min max it, and just let the experience ride. It resulted in a bevy of disapproval points early on for my Tav being a decent guy, generally. Now Wyll on the other hand? That man was all over me from act 1 on.)

Said approval didn't trigger anything.

So I go, "alright, I cave. I'll look it up". I find out about the graveyard scene and think "okay, the scene where Orin kidnaps a party member DID play the very next time I ended the day, maybe that event was messing up my ability to see Astarion's final scene?" So I reload to before I killed Cazador. About 10 hours ago. Given that the very first thing I did when I got to the city was end the little shit.

I'm hardly happy about it, but sure, if that's what I have to do. I reload, get the kidnapping scene out of the way, and for good measure spend a few hours collecting a few approval points around the city that I'm now redoing, because I figure "if I don't get the scene right after Cazador this time, I'll stop there and try and figure out what the hell is happening. Doing a handful of side quests won't change that one way or the other". After a time, I head back and kill Cazador again, making an abundance of saves on the way, of course, because damned if it hasn't been made clear that things can go weirdly sideways timing wise, rather than playing out as intended.

I head back to camp after stopping him from completing the ritual again, freeing the spawn, talking to the waiting Gur, taking the elevator, and walking out of the mansion before going back to camp, and, well, this thread wouldn't damn well exist if the graveyard scene had triggered this time, would it? I go to camp, end the day, talk to Astarion, sleep, and no scene plays.

I reload, I try not talking to him when he has the "!" over his head then sleeping, I try talking to him then sleeping several times. Nothing seems to be triggering it.

So here I am, I guess. And posting here specifically because I figure there's the best chance of genuinely informed responses here, as opposed to guess work about "Oh, well, you didn't do a triple backflip summersalt in act 1 then click X twelve times so I guess you're locked out forever" (speaking not in hyperbole, something like "well you didn't sleep with him after the Teifling party, nor get lucky enough to trigger any romance scenes till, now so I guess that means you can't get a final one, nor see his ending proper", which I doubt is a prerequisite for the graveyard scene.)

This game isn't exactly light on the time commitment it asks of it's players, and if I wanted to resort to watching youtube clips rather than having the experience of playing it myself, of being invested in my own journey through the story, I wouldn't have bought it, nor put in literal hundreds of hours into getting here.

This won game of the year, surely this is a glitch. And even if it's not, surely someone can at least tell me what specific triggers apparently warrant me being locked out of the climactic scene of the one and only character I went into the game with an interest in getting to know.

What do you think? What in the actual shit is causing me to miss this scene?

It's a romance scene, unfortunately. So you do need to get the previous romance scenes to see that one.

I've romanced Astarion twice, once as Tav, once as Dark Urge. I have also finished origin Astarion on Tactician mode.

I play a good Tav, and you do not need to bend over backwards to romance him. I actually feel if you messed up the romance the first playthrough, play the game again as Dark Urge. Astarion x Dark Urge, is a beautiful match. You'll see a side of him, where he's very worried about you and cares for you.

Here are the important things for Astarion Romance. I am going to mark things as "Mandatory" and by that, I just mean it will increase his approval the most. Things I mark as "optional" will increase his approval faster than one-liner approvals, but are not necessary.

Most important: Make sure you long rest and speak to your companions! Even if they do not have exclamation marks over their heads, sometimes they have other things you can speak to them about.

I'm doing an Honour mode run right now and am trying to romance Gale, but I have gotten Astarion exclamation marks and cutscenes back-to-back for the past 3-4 long rests. So far I've gotten the scars on his back cutscene, necromancy of thay cutscene, "You will come to my bed tonight, won't you" dialogue, the mirror cutscene, the shallow praise/"I love you" dialogue and I'm still in the underdark :|

I'm very glad to have an actual answer for this. But I won't pretend I'm not a little peeved that going into the game with the sole intent of romancing him can fail so easily. It does feel like I needed to meta game just to make sure I hit the proper targets tbqh.

Like, I GET it, there's obviously a lot of value to be had in a character that requires you to work hard to earn their trust before opening up to you or getting involved, but re: the whole "you don't have to bend over backwards" thing... I mean, clearly you do. It requires at least two playthroughs, and/or managing your party so that Astarion isn't literally present for any good deeds despite you doing them anyway, a knowledge of when certain cut offs happen, or a bit of meta gaming and save scumming (to figure out WHICH sassy or self serving options out of all of them will net approval, because it certainly isn't every time you snipe at someone, or ask for a reward, or similar) or, barring any of that, playing an entire second round of a 100+ hour game.

I DID check right after the Teifling party by the by. (Like, "haha can you imagine if I'd already locked myself out of it? That would be a questionable choice. ...better just make sure".) Tried to look very quickly into the Astarion romance to make sure there were other opportunities to romance him and see his full story (I have feelings on that idea in rpgs in general tbh, though needing to have a romance specifically, in order to see his full story is especially relevant with Astarion, and more understandable then usual, given that sex, bodily autonomy and romance are actively vital to his character and past, and you miss out on digging into it if you're not personally involved) if you didn't immediately start one up super early in the game.

Obviously I didn't want to look too deeply into it because of spoilers, but I came away with the understanding it could start later (and thought it might, honestly, since through cultural osmosis I knew already that past abuse and a complicated relationship with sex was a significant part of his character.) but apparently I could have looked harder. (And I can't say I have even the first clue when specifically a romance would have triggered in act 2. Didn't occur to me that I was missing starting anything there. Lol.)

Like, this game IS amazing, but I stand by my conviction that you DO have to bend over backwards to romance Astarion. The question for me is more " whether or not that's intentional, does that choice work in a 100 plus hour game, or is it more frustrating than it is a worth while statement about the character?" to which I don't have an easy answer. Personally older folk I've worked with in game design myself are always on about what a fools errand it is to build any content that assumes the player will be doing more than one playthrough of even a 15~20 hour indie. So that's colored my opinion on it, for sure, even if I don't generally agree with that sentiment.

Ah well. My experience isn't universal, obviously. To me at least, it feels like the game is asking for either meta gaming, or a time investment of multiple playthroughs in order to make his romance possible, whether intentional or not. Even if you've gone into the game with that express purpose. I'm not saying it's a game killer, obviously! And I wouldn't even bother nit picking this deeply into it if this weren't literally game of the year.

If anything, imo, it opens up a really interesting discussion about how the whole thing is handled from both a game design and character writing stand point that I'll probably be having with other people for years to come at least, which is very valuable in and of itself. =o But I'm still a bit disappointed.

He's very easy though and you really don't need to bend over backwards. You can take him everywhere. I played a stupid good cleric once, he was always with me rolling his eyes at my choices, and still wanted me at the party. All you have to do is be a decent person to him in his own scenes and help him with things, and he'll like you well enough.

The long rest advice Lilith gave is probably most important as a lot of his scenes trigger in camp, otherwise I hadn't any problems with him either. In my first play through, I was somewhat impatient and didn't rest nearly often enough and missed things as a result.