Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General New Baldur's Gate 3 Teaser Trailer

You don't get to speak for "everyone." And the game IS BG3 and NOT D:OS3, so feel free to take it up with Larian.

This is more than Forgotten Realms, it is a sequence to BG which was darker and in, many other ways, more realistic. PoE 2 and Witcher3 are more believable than this, so it is nothing impossible to achieve.

There were other high fantasy D&D games like Neverwinter but BG is not the case

I sympathise with game developers everywhere, trying to cater for the wildly different likes/dislikes of their potential customer base.

That said, this trailer does seem to suggest that the Larian engine is from the Nigel Tufnel school of design - all the settings go to 11. I won't mind that if I can choose to dial back to, say, 8, or if they manage to implement HDR or some other pixel compression scheme that prevents the sort of over-exposure evident in much of the trailer.

I generally like the BG3 character models, except where they stray too far into renaissance styling, and the spell/status effects are OK, since most of the game will be pretty static turn-based, they won't become a visual cacophany. The animations are a mixed bag, as you might expect; spell-casting looked decent, archery remains poor.

A big unknown is the built-environment. The gameplay in trailers has revealed only generic building styles that would fit happily on the Sword Coast, inspired as it is by Western European tradition. The depiction of Yartar ( not a gameplay trailer ) was less convincing, with its seeming mix of Babylonian and Italianate styles. I'm not against decorative buildings, but personally don't feel its a comfortable fit for renaissance and later building techniques being in wide use.

No doubt others disagree. There have been many different artistic interpretations of the Forgotten Realms over the years, not infrequently following real-world fashions and sensibilities.

The animation of the statue goes off of the pillar looks unnatural.

Haha I totally agree... This is SOOO cheap.
Can't understand they choose this for a trailer
(+An arrow in a rock statue can't broke that statue... Seriously this is ridiculous...)

I really don't like the colors and general artstyle.
This is too childish, "too fairy" and unnatural.
Don't like what I see again...

And the music... It looks like a cheap mobile game pub you see on youtube.

To be honest the only thing that bothers me is that the statue is unnatural , from what i noticed the statue was previously a broken archway and they swapped it . If you see the background you will notice that this place is from the starting area that they showed us in the pax gameplay reveal .

As for me I LOVE the artstyle and overall visuals. I guess its a matter of taste. The game looks beautifull, environments and the world look extremly beautifull. I can wait to get lost is these magical wildernesses. I also LOVE the character models, faces, armores ect. The only thing that needs more time and work is animations. They are bit rough around the edges, but animations are the aspect of the game that gets better over time so I am not worried about that. Overall I LOVE the game so far and its #1 among my upcoming anticipated games.

Could not agree more there. I absolutely despise Renaissance styling as far as the aesthetic of the attire. Utterly hideous and ridiculous looking. To each their own of course, but yeesh, people looked like walking doilies.

Honestly can't stand what I'm seeing here. It's like a good friend died 20 years ago and someone says "Don't worry, we're going to bring him back!" and then this mutant monstrosity walks in without any resemblance except roughly humanoid form..."aren't you glad we brought him back?" Well, no. Not in the least. And then people are saying "well it has the right number of limbs so what are you complaining about?"

I don't mind technical and graphical updates as those are inevitable and even desirable. I could get behind mechanical changes like turn-based combat even though I prefer the alternative, if the game's feel was right (although so many departures from the originals strongly imply Larian have vastly prioritised pushing out what is essentially DOS3 instead of giving even the vaguest nod to the predecessors). I feel like The entire essence is missing. It's got a lot to do with the visuals but I think it'd be an oversimplification; the feel is just not right and as a consequence there's no connection. It'd be like making a LotR game in the right setting, with the right creatures and peoples, but getting the flavour completely wrong somehow. You'd feel it immediately.

I don't want to come across like I'm mindlessly hating here because if what I'm seeing didn't have a BG label to it, it'd be great. There's a lot to like in general but in my view it's just not good enough for something that's meant to occupy a very specific space. I just don't get it.

Maybe I was a bit too harsh on my graphics comment it does have a cartoonish look to it but my point I was trying to make was it's the story that really matters I mean lets face it the graphics in BG1 and BG2 was not great to begin with

To be fair, the art of the D&D5e Forgotten Realms is what I assume you call "cartoonish" (Just make a search online) so I do not think Larian is to fully blame here. It would be different if the setting is Eberron or Ravenloft, I suppose.

If you are making a game based in a franchise, It´s usual to follow the design guidelines of the franchise, like in Mordheim and W40k. Mostly because WOTC will want his brand to be recognizable.





I suppose It´s a matter of tastes. I kinda like it the comic vibe.
And as I said, the videogame versions of the creatures really look like the D&D5e counterparts.

I don't really like the color palette or art style either. It is too colorful, vivid and cartoony for my taste. It should be more Baldur's Gate-like and less D:OS-like, but alas, that is obviously a lost hope.

Well, as stated before the game uses the same palette as the designs in the manuals and artbook of D&D so technically it´s a very accurate (official D&D5e) Baldur´s gate.


All that the devs showed us pointed out that they are following the guidelines of the modern version of D&D so It´s improbable that they are going to change in the middle of the race.

Not really. It looks what one would expect from Larian, which is a D:OS-like art style. Even the art style in Dragon: Age Origins is vastly superior to what we have seen IMHO.

I vastly prefer the art style in the Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which is a recent CRPG. That said, thank goodness Owlcat Games did not copy Pathfinder's official art style, which is really lame IMO.

Firstly, I want to thank you and a couple of others like you who are responding to what we critics are actually saying instead of making up stuff about us wanting twenty year old graphics. As you correctly identify, it is the art-style we are talking about here, NOT quality of the graphics.

That said, I also am glad you posted those 5e artwork above. I am a 3.5e D&D fan and have not looked into 5e much. And apparently for good reason, because those 5e D&D artwork images look absolutely hideous. Clearly Larian is following that artwork style, and styling their character models based on that 5e artwork. So you're right. The blame lies with the hideous and horrible nature of 5e D&D art-style, which is not Larian's fault if WotC is forcing them to use that hideous and horrible style.

What can I say, @kanisatha, BG is a WoTC product, so it is what it is... ┐(´ー｀)┌



Pretty sure Amiri in Owlcat´s PF: K and Seelah in PF: WoTR has the exact portrait and same character artwork that in the Paizo´s Pathfinder1e&2e material. And all the portraits have the same design (and several of the lead designers) of the original Paizo team. Google it, man.

Facepalm : People complain about the art style even though the game uses exactly the style of the source material.
Larian said they work closely together with wotc and both sides check everything if it makes sense. Looks like they really do this.

What do you want?
That a new game looks exactly like a 20 year old game?
Just import your favourite portrait from BG2 and create a char who looks as close to this as possible.

Regarding the look of characters:
__ I think there is some disharmony to put grassy-wood, blue sky, red demons (tieflings) in the same picture.
They could adjust colors, so they mix well with the environment, or make different kind of tieflings to different area.
The characters and monsters you meet, the armors they wear are also part of the artwork and should match with the scene, so it feels right. Matching them with the lore is secondary.

It was an early stage version, so probably they will change coloring till release.
At character creation window the characters are still incomplete and "pretty" like dolls,
but origin characters look way better, so probably they will still adjust the "faces" and make them look cooler.

Players of the original game would like to recognize some of the essence of BG1/BG2 in the new one.

This can be anything, from previous BG games:
more consistent art theme+color palette, dynamic fast pace combat, music, style of storytelling, focus on protagonist and antagonist, portraits, less flashy animation, item icons, UI, some reference to the old games on gamplay presentations or at least in new teasers...

Despite of these things I will play it. I think it will be a great game and I think it looks great and some stuff are better, than I expected, like the cinematic treatment of each conversations.

Exactly the point. The environment and art design don't match the characters and the colors. It just looks like a funny carnival.

I really hope they do, this trailer has so many flaws that I don't know why they showed this.

I don't even think this is at the level you would expect for an Early Access in a few months.

Looks like the game will need at least a few years for a truly satisfactory final product.