- You find all, except one, of your companions straight off the bat and they are all also playable characters with backstories. When I was thinking about BG3, for some reason I remembered The Red Prince being in it. This sucks. I always thought it was cool to find new party members along the story. Even ones that you may not realize the first time you meet them. Also need mercs! What if I don't like any of the possible party members, but I need a cleric, so if I'm not playing one I need to take Cut-Myself-Emoheart. For a moment I thought Halsin was going to join the party, and I was really excited about it! Camp site advisor! He gets to hang out with Lazael and Astarion all day. I'm sure by A3 you find him swinging from one of the trees in camp.
This will only get worse when Minsc, Karlach and Helia are all shoehorned into Act 1 as well. Unless Larian plans to make complete alternate Act 1 paths for these characters then 6-8 tadpoled people will be casually hanging around the crash site for vague reasons.
Halsin was originally intended to be a Dekhard Cain type old man until he was redesigned to be swole. Due to the massive positive reaction to his character I predict he will be a companion some time down the road.
The way you meet them is also super lame. Like such that it makes me even question their competence. Lazael is caught in a cage, Shadowheart can't pick a lock (also clearly lying about killing all those brain thingies), Astarion... you can approach him head on, so that's all I gotta say about that one. Gale is just waiting inside the waypoint plane or whatever. The only companion that feels cool to meet is Wyll. Coincidentally he is also the best companion - good natured with a dark side that are both visible, already had a bit of history with the environment and the other inhabitants of the zone, is a defender and fighting instructor. All the other companions seem brain damaged and their predicaments of being cast out/sent on mission but need memory wiped type of thing suddenly makes sense in this context.
Gale was originally intended to be introduced in Baldur's Gate but the devs liked his VA so much they moved him up to Act 1. I agree with you on Wyll, but I think it is meant to be conveyed that his carefre attidute is irrational because he is banking on aid from Mizora, whereas Shadowheart and Lae'Zel's whining is seen as rational.
Party members reactions in dialogue are incongruent with player choices in open-world environment and resting system. For example, Lazael is a massive jerk, she cares nothing except to ASAP get to the creche and fix this problem. There are many dialogue options where she judges the effort to be a waste of time. This fits her. However, if you are simply spending days and nights long resting running, combing the wilds every nook and cranny, etc., she says nothing. IMO the player should begin losing opinion after a certain amount of long rests or actions such as never talking to the NPC in the grove with the info, or if you are exploring and doing quests in a different direction from the creche. Otherwise her entire character is completely undermined and you are only in the party with her in dialogue. Like b*tch please, we just snaked all through the swamp, up and down cliffs, a whole bunch of other tangential 'time wasting' roaming, and you never had a SINGLE comment - or more importantly - any opinion shift of my PC! Every single playthrough I've had with her in my party I've thought that she should have left ages ago if she had any self respect. What a wimp, I knew she's super weak and can't hack it on her own. Powerful Gith Warrior my a**! Anyways, companions need more compelling and immersive reactions to the player's choices in the game besides dialogue. Also can those companions left at the camp NOT change opinion from dialogue choices? Which one of my 3 companions is that one that literally tells everything said in conversation over the day to those left at camp? Most of them don't even like or trust each other.
Please no. I understand what you are going for but in practice this would make Lae'Zel a character I would consistently shoot on sight. The approval system needs an overhaul for sure, but it needs to be nuanced and to measure positive and negative approval separately like in Tyanny / F:NV, but to be made even more punishing.
Romancing before A1 even complete and also when it's available when, from my perspective, I've just been acting compassionately, not romantically. Is everyone in the party such an abused wretch that the first sentient being to treat them with compassion has them fall in love? Granted we had 122 nights together before we found Halsin, but mostly I was petting and playing fetch with Scratch. OK, some members are a bit more obvious than others. Nevertheless, it's just so quick that it feels more like Larian is a madam lining up her selection and asking which one you'd like to bang.
I'm on the fence whether or not I should embarrass myself by writing a diatribe on the value of monogamy or to just chalk this one up to poorly implemented design. Not only are all the characters playersexual but they all make advances on you at the same time. In my first playthrough I could have had a gay orgy with Wyll, Astarion and Gale if the game had that option. These moments need to be spread out more across the Act or even removed entirely in exchange for scenes like the one with Shadowheart.
