I really get what you mean. This all seems a bit overblown. Not because of one single thing but because everything seems out of what you think would be ordinary, or normal. I am with you that less is sometimes more. I wonder if our PC gets some special backstory, since why would Mind flayers abduct a totally ordinary character with all those oddballs .
If you have been around D&D an AD&D since 30 years, you are about the same as me. My first game beeing "pool of radiance" on the C64, where our party ended in the bowels of the dead god moander in space. So those overblown stories existed back then too. They started off a tad slower i guess. BG3 is a lot for new 1st level chars, and even more for people that are new to forgotten realms. Be that good or bad.
and if you read the realms novels of the last 20 years, the realms have changed quite a bit. We have earthmotes now (and i have not seen those in BG3 till now, nor spellscars).
All in all i agree on the fact that it may be a bit much for 1st act 1st level. That could have taken a bit longer
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