The other nice thing about alignment systems is that they can provide a useful guideline for writing different types of dialogue. I’ve seen some complaints at the way WoTR split good/evil and neutral/lawful/chaotic, but so far I enjoy the way it diversifies dialogue options. Although a lot of the evil options don’t seem terribly well-written. BG3 has that issue too but it’s pretty easy to play as evil without necessarily siding with the goblins.

The tadpole has interesting implications because it’s a fairly obvious metaphor for power—much like the angelic powers you receive in WoTR. But, because using the tadpole isn’t necessarily tied to certain paths the way using your angelic powers are (aeon, devil, hero, etc.) it can open up some different role playing angles on how a character approaches power and at what point they’re willing to justify using something to service either a form of altruism or their own personal survival. It has potential and hopefully Larian can make it work.

Two other things about WoTR:

I can’t believe I tried to romance the gay guy in yet another rpg. My gaydar is seriously whack. (And you can’t just give me the fantasy equivalent of ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ and expect me not to pick that option, wtf.) On a more serious note, I do wish there was a black romance option available for a female pc. It would be nice to romance a black dude that’s not freaking Jacob from ME. Or even a girl, hell, I’m fine with playing a lesbian. Just give me something.

And also, something I like about BG3 is that it ties dialogue not necessarily to alignment but to class and race. In WoTR I picked a dhampir expecting some interesting new dialogue akin to playing as a drow or githyanki in BG3. And so far I’ve got an animation for inflict wounds at the start and not much else. Which is a cute detail but not all that narratively compelling. WoTR has a lot of depth to its class system but it seems almost entirely rooted in the combat (yes, there are persuasive dialogue options but that’s a flat stat dump with zero connection to your background) as opposed to social situations. And as someone who doesn’t mind combat in rpgs but isn’t all that invested in them either, this is a tad disappointing. My main character is an aasimar and I’ve had maybe two characters note this in some fashion.

“But his mind saw nothing of all this. His mind was engaged in a warfare of the gods. His mind paced outwards over no-man's-land, over the fields of the slain, paced to the rhythm of the blood's red bugles. To be alone and evil! To be a god at bay. What was more absolute?”