For the tieflings:
Being a refugee doesn't mean you come from a poor background. When my family had to flee war, they were wearing all the jewelery they possesed, because it was the most valuable thing they owned and therefore shouldn't be left behind.
I do agree that the clothes may look worn down, that would improve the impression in my opinion.
Idk if the tieflings are supposed to be poor or wealthy. What I do know is that they’re supposed to be trapped, stranded, and embattled. They’re preparing their children to be sacrificial lambs in a fight to flee this place. This is a great narrative tactic to show how desperate they are. Yet, the first tiefling you see has the cleanest and most elaborate armor I had seen up until that point.
If you walk into a camp of refugees training children to fight their way out of a bad situation and their leader looks beleaguered, wearing armor that’s falling apart and stained with blood, he might be just a very desperate person.
If he’s wearing a spotless $6K Armani suit and loafers he’s clearly a POS.
That’s how what you see influences your understanding of the narrative. It’s important, it’s insurmountable. To just throw it out for a ‘ultra-high fantasy aesthetic’ where everything looks elven is a creative mistake.
Actively ignoring the role the graphical component of a video game plays is a mistake. The systems, the story, the gameplay, and the things you experience in this game are all leaning one way, and the decision to go with this aesthetic undercuts all of it.
For most parts, I didn't feel like people were wearing the wrong clothes given the situation.
The intro of the whole game is mindflayers abducting people in Baldur's Gate as they go about their day. Why shouldn't Astarion wear his posh clothes that he likely wears every day?
Well 1, key word being day, so unless he sleeps in that...
It’s not that it’s implausible he’d be wearing that, it’s that we can’t suspend disbelief that he’s a vampire when he’s wearing that and has obvious teeth.
The nautiloid attacked during the day. There’s no reason for people to be transported with their clothes. There is no strict continuity reason he should or shouldn’t be wearing a vampire outfit.
There is a pretty big narrative one. It makes it implausible that anyone would invite him in, and undermines the ability to develop a relationship with him later. This is true if nearly all the characters but Gale.
