Finally, a smaller party makes the party selection/character build decisions matter more. Larian has got this.
I don't understand how this statement leads to that conclusion. I mean I do, but I don't. That in a smaller party selection/character build matters more? To me It matters less because you already know exactly what the rest of your extremely limited party is going to be. Arguably I would tend to say anything other than a fighter/paly/barb/ranger is going to be in essence a handicap. Unless you have no qualms about resting after every fight to regain your spells but I always saw that as terribly unrealistic for the story although in most games it doesn't matter. The smaller your party is, and the less companions there are to choose from, the more limited in choices you've been given, the less flexibility you have... how does that add up to you? All of that is less options, not more. More limitations. Sure you could argue that makes your character choice matter more (but it really doesn't as the more limited everything is, the more obvious your choice becomes out of necessity) and that is not what previous BG games have been which have all had plenty of choice on your character composition and six characters allows for a more diverse and colorful group than 4. Why not just make it one character then and make it a super painful choice so it really, really matters? Because it's silly and it's not BG and the same goes for 4 imo.
Its just not going to feel like BG to me without a six character party. It's just not. And a lot of other people seem to agree. And I know for certain there are a lot of other older gamers out there like myself that are usually silent but will feel the same way. D&D lore / world etc yeah but it's going to feel like DOS II with BG world skin. I mean, it's literally almost the exact same game, just change the story / setting. (Which is a lot yes, but I mean mechanics wise and how it will play.) And I'm not always one of those people that necessarily wants to see changes in a game. They could make 15 games just like DOS II with different or continuations of stories and I'll probably love the heck out of them all. They could be D&D games too and I'd enjoy them just as much or even more. But were talking about BG here... It SHOULD be similar to the others. Just because 4 characters is easier and they can probably use a bunch of the same net code etc doesn't mean that's what they should do. I'm frankly sick of co op games always being 4 players now, like some unspoken rule.
For those who want 4 person because they think turn based with 6 would be too tedious - the solution could pretty easily be able to choose max party size at the start.
And it seems just as many or more want 6 as there are that are fine with 4. So why not at least have the option then.
A lot of people like to make their entire party from scratch anyway, the game might not have that option but a few more characters even if they aren't fully voiced or have hardly any interaction is FINE with me, I just want options for characters and more than 4 characters for my party. (Even DOS II had more than 4 characters with a story) I guess if you can only make your main character from scratch that's better than nothing. And adding more characters with only dialog and not necessarily putting them into the cut scenes is again fine by me. I wonder if unfortunately they might have gone so far with a lot of the cut scene stuff that it's painted them into a corner and thus they don't WANT to add any more characters because that means voicing a sh**load of more stuff and animations, where as in an older game it would have been easier as the voicing wasn't as much and adding the text dialog wouldn't have been very difficult. Even in Divinity II though my gf & I greatly preferred to use a mod that allowed 6 character party and also scaling monsters up a bit. I actually enjoy the combat, so more of it is just fine by me and actually a good thing! Combat didn't feel repetitive to me in in DOS II or grindy which was a very good thing. Baldurs Gate I & II had a ton of different party members you could pick up which would be fantastic to have in BGIII even if not all of them were voiced etc entirely.
Can you get by with a 4 person party? Seems just as many people think so as do that six is what it SHOULD be. And sure, obviously if they make the game for 4 it will be doable, but I don't WANT to just get by with 4. I long for the flavor and combinations possible with 6. And not just there are 6 total characters here you go, deal. Like, there SHOULD be MORE as there was in BG I & II.
And I don't give a h*ll how long a game takes, I never want a rushed game and would always prefer the creator take just as much time as they need/want to so that's a silly argument I think, that it will take longer.
Summons won't be like they were in DOS II, they will be weaker and much more temporary rather than summoning 4 things literally every fight which was exactly what I did in DOS II because the summons were just that good and you could bring them in every fight so why not. D&D is not going to be summon city like that so again I see that as a weak argument. And again, making the option to choose at the start solves the issue of people who want a smaller party, just like how they had lone wolf mode to pare it down even further if people wanted super streamlined combat. But again, lets not forget the flip side of that in that some people will enjoy the combat and larger fights with more characters taking longer will be just fine with some people, like me, and many others. I can understand the abandoning of real time with pause for the turn based for the way they are doing the game and the environments, camera etc everything like that but to limit the party to 4 characters and there not be any other options, well that's just not going to be cool. And if there aren't more characters to choose from to add to your party as well, again that just seems super limited and again not really in the BG vein since both games, especially the 2nd had a ton of extra characters to choose from that you could add to your party.
And again one more time, just because you CAN get by with a 4 person party you can make the same argument for even smaller parties too until you are only playing the main character and your other party members if any are just uncontrollable NPCs. But would that game be BG? Not really. Would a 4 member party game be BG? Not really. Would a game that doesn't have a plethora of party members to choose from like the previous ones be BG? Not really. But would a game with a 6 character party and lots of different characters to choose from be BG? Well yes it would! Ding ding ding, we have a winner.
