25:06 is when I start explaining why Nettie's dialogue boss works for me, and why Raphael's doesn't.
I wanted to drum up discussion about how BG3 handles it's dialogue boss battles, and dialogue options in regards to what they do right, and what they do wrong. I think Nettie, post patch 4 is fantastic, and brilliantly done, atleast from the perspective of a druid (I have not replayed it as a warlock, yet), but I think Raphael's is pretty terrible for the reasons I talked about in this video (I really lucked out when it came to them being in the same part, that wasn't intentional). Hopefully in a future patch/final game Raphael, and all the other dialogue bosses will be of the same quality as, or even better than Nettie's.
Nettie: She has essentially 3 different versions of her boss battle. One where you know what the bramble is, another where you don't know what the bramble is, and another where you let her poison you, and you need to talk her into giving you an antidote. All the pathways are interesting, and let you learn more about the overarching situation, and can end with you succeeding or failing to get what you need out of there. The instant conversation ender of attack Nettie is always present.
Raphael: You learn nothing new outside of the fact that Raphael exists for doing his dialogue boss battle (which is mandatory). The player's actions and dialogue responses do not determine anything about the flow or pace of the conversation. Nothing you do in the scene has any bearing on anything outside of companion approval.
In regards to the dialogue options in each scene, I and many others, found that the dialogue options have be lacking, and I've been editing in options as examples in my BG3 patch 4 critique series (part 4 onwards https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxWy16HPPmeH5KYFEBbO2o73hHpsCFj3F), that I think should be there. The problem with alot of BG3's dialogue options currently is that there isn't enough variance in tone and intent, at some points the game only gives two options to choose from (which hurts a players ability to roleplay), and sometimes all your dialogue options are terrible and not something a sensible person would say or do.
