Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Murderous Horny Companions

while i get the desire to have 'meaningful' and well written romance storylines within an rpg, i do wish that larian toned it down with some of the dialogue and how quickly it seems the romances progress - it may just be ea, but the fact that we are able to progress so far in current romances while still in act1 makes me wonder if these romance 'scenes' are supposed to trigger later on in the bg3 narrative. idk its just my personal opinion, but i also feel like the amount of romance content we have got so far actually runs into the *spoilers* territory where i wouldve liked to have explored more fully at launch going in blind.

im also concerned that larian may devote more attention to the romance interactions (which apparently can happen with every origin character/recruitable npc to the point where its almost meme-worthy) at the detriment of what i would consider higher priority feedback items (ie combat balancing, more immersive/significance of custom characters, party management controls, camera controls, act/narrative pacing, short rest/long rest cheese, moving camp location, additional content for launch [classes, races, etc.] etc.), but i suppose that is understandable and even expected given that one of larians big updates was almost entirely romance/rp focused (even if i still think it may not be the best use of resources at this stage of ea).

idk, its hard to describe, but i also think that the way larian has implemented romance hooks, writing, and how quickly things can escalate (even tho we still dont have any clear passage of time mechanics with day/night or camp rests really - even the tadpole is taking a break apparently) something is kinda lost in terms of a realistic story/narrative progression and that it can detract from npc companions in and of itself where they move from being able to stand independently as their own unique npc with their own goals and motives to just becoming a 'sidepiece' to the main character where their only significance to the story is now as the players love interest.

this very well may be toned down at full launch given some of the ea feedback noted here, and i would also say that if more companions are introduced after the act1 companion/map locks (still not a fan of btw) then that may work to alleviate the current concerns, but tbh i dont have high hopes. i anticipate that the additional recruitable npcs that the devs are creating/writing currently will all likely have potential to be romanceable and the merits of each romance will likely fall to the dev and how the studio finally implements it in game, whereas i think having npcs that you cant romance, even if the minority, would be a better application and avoid the dating sim comparisons.

(last comment - i hope we get more than just the 12 or so npc companions that larian has intimated, as respectfully, the recruitable mercenaries we are alleged to be able to recruit comes off as a lazy compromise/fix to replace companions the player may not want to use - im pretty sure we still dont have the details as to how this will be implemented? I also wonder why anyone would use a 'lesser' mercenary recruit instead of a more fleshed out dev written companion, unless the companion gets 'locked out' and isnt available or the player just really doesnt like the dev's origin/npc character [which may be more of a dev/larian writing issue]. this doesnt even take into account larians apparent preference for four companion slots which i would argue only works to further exacerbate these issues as the player is working with limited party choices at the onset and if players are opting to use mercs over the dev-npcs then that doesnt really speak highly of our companion choices.)