Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Lack of Forgotten Realms Ambiance / Depth

First of all, I'm a fan of both Baldur's Gate and Divinity series and I was very excited about that Larian is the company that makes BG 3.

But, It's not BG 3. Not because of the mechanics, but soul. Let me explain this a bit.

This article consists of

intro: Forgotten Realms Mythos and Game Scenario
1. Story Telling/Scenario
2. Examples and Comparison between BG 2 and 3
3. Content

Before I start, I want to say BG 3 is really promising. And I wrote this because I got still hope that future content and Arcs, at least expansions might be more profound.

Intro: Forgotten Realms is a Mythos and that is the main thing

BG series are legend. Its because of story, profound psychoanalytical and ontological theme and most importantly, MYTHOS. Baldur's Gate series, and generally Forgotten realms lore is actually a myth and the primary function of a myth is to construct a reality scheme about the existence, universe, self, ego, reality, etc. For example, I remember myself thinking like "Ok, let me pass this umberhulks quickly with a cloudkill, then see what creature/phenomena will come afterwards!" So combat in BG series was even just an obstacle sometimes, not the main point of the game. As you know, old school RPG's was not about combat, but the profound fantastic experience, as we can experiencen a very "unreal" reality.

I manage a software company, so I am completely aware that on a project of this scale, It's too hard to see the big picture. I think you did a great job at game mechanics (It can be polish to be smoother, but still great!), story telling, cinematic experience but; what is the story behind the mechanics and story telling? It's a very regular scenario. Goblins threat druids, there are migrant problem, childs in danger and we got heroes. Oh, sure, we got strange things in brain so its complicated? I'm sorry but its not like that. I'm going to delve into this a bit with examples from BG 2.

BG 2 Exp 1: Rielev, Dryads, Bedroom of Ellesime, Dungeon: We start to know about Irenicus, our captor with Rielev. He "awarded" Rielev with an oath to make him immortal for his loyal service. And he "sustained" him. But in the end, he always experimented on different subjects, and he did not want to remember him. Why? Because he fears the truth, he cannot fulfill that wish in a meaningful way (Because he fears the possibility that he cant do it on himself too) so he forgot him. And a promise of immortality, sustained experience of self reduced Rielev in a shadow. Thats what İrenicus do to people. On the contrast, we learn that İrenicus lacks the "self" experience. He tries to creat it again and again (Dryads, aesthetic bedroom, memory of love). Thats how we start to know of our captor! And when we inspect our dungeon we got the impression that: "Oh ok, an advanced mage is trying to solve mysterios about Ego, Life, Death, Essense, and he experimented on things we cannot grasp of. We are very far of understanding our captor". İn dialogue of Imoen and Irenicus, its stressed again: "Torture? sily girl, you just dont understand what am i doing, do you?"

BG 2 Exp 2: Dreams, Psychoanalytic approach, emphasis on experience: I do now want to write an article so long, so i'll try to make it short. Remember the dream İrenicus started with "Life is strength". He tackled the subjects: Life, Pragmatism, Teleology, Power, existence, choice in mere 1.5 minutes. So if your divine self is your Id, murder (in a freudian sense) if you let it consume you to make you immortal (By making you effecting everything, thus make you infinite) is it worth losing your ego? Or what will you become then? The game asks you this questions. What are you? What make you, you? What are you working for, really? The great part is, the game uses and alternate reality, where people like İrenicus can make experiments on the fabric of reality and game tries to drag you into that, different multiverse, reality.

Divinity 2, BG 3: Oh man, I played many of the combats on divinity again and again. It was so fun, profound tactical experience and many things to do. But when we delve about philosophy, reality? It is just flavor. Good flavor i suppose, for it did not disturb me. But it was not Faerun. That world is CONSTRUCTED FOR THE GAME. BUT BG 2 IS CONSTRUCTED FOR US TO EXPERİENCE THE FORGOTTEN REALMS AND ITS MYTHOS. Because the reality in forgotten realms is different from our daily life. Where our daily life existantial problems and ontological things are just philosophy, in Faerun, its a reality in a mythological sense.

And that is the i think, most important part. If you inspect the phenomena in BG 2: its a burst of content THAT IS FOCUSED ON PROFOUND LORE EXPERIENCE. NOT FLAVOR. What i meant is: In BG 3 there is stereotypical hero advanture of any regular game. But, characters and monster are from DND universe. And thats it. I cannot experience what Silvanus is. What he represents (We did in BG, we UNDERSTOOD what Amaunator is, what is the importance of life, its contrast to "shadow begins, what is the function of Helm and it represents by keeping chaos, madness and evil at bay, we saw a cult of mass hysteria (Cult of the unseeing eye) started by a creature from a "crazed" reality (far realms). ) BG 2 was bursting with Forgotten realms lore and phenomena. Instead, we got a statue of an animal, and if we insert the correct rune, gate opens? Man, come on! Is this shooter FPS with "open the red gate with red card" concept? Think about the mad mage at watchers keep, liches that even forgotten theirselves, planar prison, PERSONALITY of demons, contrast of many different cultures. I EXPERİENCED A DIFFERENT REALITY, FAERUN PROFOUNDLY, in BG 2. But BG 3 is a 5e DND game with fine combat mechanics, also got forgotten realms flavor, its just flavor and monster types (Can you tell me what would be different if there were no elves, goblins, druids, in the game but just bad guys, good guys, mobs? Answer is: nothing)

I mean, BG 2 opens with prophecies, philosophy... Where are these things? I repeat, main thing in Forgotten realms is not the mechanics. We played different tabletop rules as community always, but main focus on the Fantasy roleplay, dont forget that please.


You might think that "Ok, we know these stuff but that would make the scenario really complex and we need to sell it to average players". But then why is this game BG 3? People that loved and played BG 2 is generally RPG players who adores profound RP experience. Your storytelling is the BEST! But story and itself is too weak.

Good thing is, mechanis is hard to change, content is not! So i still got hope!