Okay, I understand the irony of myself making this thread, considering how certain factions of this forum may feel about my highly critical posts and may have lumped me in with the 'doing nothing but doomposting' crowd in recent days. But I understand perception is different among each member of this forum, and ultimately the best choice for me is to simply choose not to care about said irony.
I think before the advent of D:OS2 and this game, cRPGs were largely a niche genre, restricted to isometric viewpoints that were seemingly lower budget in comparison. And BG3 *is* doing its job at attracting new attention to the genre in general, for a game series that had been dormant for the better part of two entire decades. (Okay, some people can argue about exactly how valid that is and that cRPGs were in a resurgence regardless of whatever impact Larian's recent games had, but I struggle to think of any other cRPGs that have sold as much as D:OS2 and BG3 did in a short amount of time. Pillars of Eternity didn't exactly light the world on fire, even if I've seen some arguments leading up to PoE2's release try to credit it for an earlier resurgence, usually in some weird ass RTwP VS turn-based spat to detract from D:OS2's impact on the gaming community at large.)
I have a friend from FFXIV with zero cRPG or DnD experience that I legitimately never expected to get into BG3 let alone any serious cRPG, only because one of his favorite streamers began playing it on a whim and the introduction sequence hooked him. Now he asks me questions about how the systems work, he's deep into the lore, and that his greatest wish is for Paladin to be implemented because he recognizes that the flavor of it is almost like his own Paladin in FFXIV (and also realizing that DnD is basically the progenitor of all modern RPGs in some way). Granted, adapting to something like this would have probably been too difficult for a newcomer like him and many others, if it weren't for some of the adjustments Larian made such as all of the bonus action healing sources, which is why I quite frankly consider that to be an acceptable concession rather than an actual balancing problem.
The game is also quite gorgeous. Most games of any genre would struggle to look this good, and it's probably one of the only games I've played where facial features didn't dip straight into uncanny valley territory no matter what. Though of course, the increased graphical fidelity makes it harder to program things in general, but that's something everyone should already know and understand in regards to feedback. The devs' commentary on the whole generic Tav stuff was pretty funny, though admittedly my own character kind of looked like that too, only because he was meant to emulate my Bard from FFXIV. (Zero guesses as to what class I want to be implemented the most.)
The companion writing is also quite good. I have grievances with some of them, but they are a matter of personal opinion on their viewpoints rather than being legitimately poorly written. I came into this game thinking I would hate Shadowheart because she seemed like some edgy evil big tiddy goth cleric, but it turns out she's just practical and has actual standards, and she's probably the only party member out of all the ones introduced so far that I would consider permanently keeping in my party once the full game is ready. (Honestly, I never understood why people thought she was initially too negative with her approval.)
Field effects *are* a rather novel tactical idea and I would argue that they do have a place in DnD-based gameplay in some way, though I would personally disagree on the specific ways it's currently implemented at the moment. Most other games would simply not try, and it means a lot to even make an attempt. I've noticed the recently announced Square-Enix game Triangle Strategy is actually incorporating elements of that, in a way that is clearly direct inspiration from D:OS2 and BG3, and it can only mean a good thing for the future of tactical RPGs at large.
Last edited by Saito Hikari; 21/02/21 09:28 PM.
