BG1 and 2 Characters were nothing super special. I am found of them but let’s look at them for what they were. In BG1 there was no character development for any of them. Some amusing dialog here and there but aside from Minsc and Boo, none of them were that amusing. I absolutely hated Khalid and would suicide him at the first opportunity.
Most of the characters had a reason to be friendly with you. EG Imoen grew up with you, jaheria owed gorian, saved Dinaher (sp?) for Minsc etc. also Minsc will attack you if you take too long.
BG2 tried harder with more dialogs but it’s still pretty shallow. Each companion has their quest where you get to know them better. Some changes to alignment etc, but nothing major. They are written well enough to be entertaining but aside from yoshimo no true surprises. All of them are pretty one dimensional with no shades of grey.
The only character with any form of a redemption arch is saravok. This is not to say it was bad but the companions are just fluff. I guess if the story is the Bhaal spawn saga that makes sense.
This is not the story Larian is telling. So far from what I have gathered the mystery is what do you have in common, why were you all picked, why isn’t the tadpole doing its thing.
Then the sub mystery and did plot. Shadowheart- are you connected to the village, will her memory come back, is she a true follower of what, etc.
Asteroin- obviously a fight is being telegraphed with his master, also will he want to remove the tadpole. He makes several comments (hags house for one) where he is happy with his new abilities.
Gale-is he telling the truth about mystera, or did he just attempt and pay the price. What is going to cost me to keep the wizard. His now obvious side quest. Also what happens if I leave him dead.
I am on my first play and doing a fighter so I am classic fighter thief cleric mage.
These are at least interesting characters so far with hooks that leave me wanting to know more. They are even very friendly at times depending on my decisions and opinionated if they don’t approve. The subtle code talking by the monster hunter had me chuckling. This is exactly what I want in a fleshed out NPC.
The characters also act how you would expect. For instance, A cleric of shar will not be a friendly open person. The moral struggle she is going through will create hostility and confused feelings. There is obviously some bugs not tracking exact progression, but overall she is being foreshadowed and small clues are being dropped. This is better writing than most games. We will see where it goes in the final version but it has great potential.
No one is more hostile then expected.
Also small point to the person, I’m on my phone so going back to quote just isn’t happening, that said hostile inconsistent reactions are not scientifically related to trauma, you need to read more studies especially surrounding ptsd. I had so many briefs in identifying PTSD symptoms when I was in the army it was ridiculous. Inconsistent and withdrawn behavior to hostile behavior is a hallmark. One minute the person can be normal and almost happy, and then all of a sudden withdrawn and hostile depending on the situation. Hell half of what were are talking about is the assessment they ask me every time I go to the VA.
