I would say that the presence of annoyingly stereotypical characters is precisely that. A Priestess of Shar absent depth, a Gith warrior who is unsurprisingly chaotic evil to the point of behaving as a monolith, a vampire spawn who creeps about in textbook fashion. I can go on, but my point of contention with the supporting characters is that they behave so woefully generic, that it's as if somebody just pulled them out of the sample sections for the PHB (or MM, depending on what character you're referring to). Maybe individual quirks will be better exhibited later on in the game? Who knows? But at its current state, that is a point of concern I have regarding the characters, as they sit. This is a feedback section, after all, and this is the feedback I am providing.
I would actually say Shadowheart has the most depth out of any of the companions. But she takes a while to open up, probably why a lot of players are missing out on her story beats. There's a lot of potential in her for a complex storyline.
As for playing an evil playthrough, yes, the devs were wanting feedback specifically on evil choices, according to them players prefer to be good and that results in less data than they'd like on evil companions and choices.
https://screenrant.com/baldurs-gate-3-release-good-evil-playthrough-differences/ From what I've heard, there's 12 writers each working on a companion, 2 have 2 companions, so 14 companions in all. We got the evil/neutral characters first because in a build that includes the good companions, they would probably be left in camp and not get feedback. A dataminer's already found 3 new companions in the code.
As for your rather general feedback, I want to ask what exactly would make the story more compelling to you, or more refined? What story beats are pushing you away? How would you change the companions, or what sort of companion would you want? Not to be rude but a rather generic "The story isn't compelling" isn't very helpful feedback.
Fair points, though I’ve kept Shadowheart now through both playthroughs, and find her generally underwhelming, even when taking the time to engage her as frequently as possible. Is there potential? For certain, but I’m tired of tropes. Between books and video games of every nature, I generally dislike defaulting to the easy stereotypes. For a character who brings to mind excellent depth and intrigue while still being evil, Viconia DeVir from Baldur’s Gate comes to mind. There was significantly more to that character than the simple “I’m a Drow, and a cleric, and evil. So, I’m going to do evil drow cleric things”. Likewise, despite being evil, there was significant engagement and dialogue with her from the very beginning, and that being from a game from years ago. Is Shadowheart the most palatable evil companion? Definitely, but she still strikes me as a walking stereotype.
That said, thanks for the link! I honestly hadn’t seen that come up in my feed previously. With that in mind, working from an evil start makes more sense. I still don’t
like it, but that’s a personal preference in how I like to play characters. Being evil doesn’t excite me, and I generally only do so in games for completionist purposes. Still, that’s personal preference, so I’ll happily defer on that issue.
Following along with that, I like the questions, honestly. To answer, though, I would refer back to my mention of Viconia, as an example of what I’d hope to expect from an evil companion. Sarevok in Throne of Bhall also made for an excellent evil companion who never strayed from being evil, but likewise refrained from succumbing to the typical “BURN EVERYTHING” chaotic evil stereotypes, or the “I’m going to rule it all” lawful/neutral evil. Both were examples of deep, evil characters, who retained personalities beyond their alignments. I just generally don’t get that vibe from the current characters. As I said, they feel rushed. I’m hoping, in the realm of the story itself, that later cut scenes which are better refined do better to make the story itself more enticing/intriguing. At its current, the scenes feel generally underwhelming, and with nothing to really connect to beyond “I’m Tiefling with a
spoiler warning tainted tadpole in his head.”
