Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Explicit decapitations and Disney squirrels

And I disagree with your disagreement The earlier BG games ( particularly 2 ) were stuffed full of comedic lines, pastiche, and general silliness. I have never understood why some players consider the games dark/gritty, as so much was obviously tongue-in-cheek.

The quality of the humour was different though; BG1/2 were definitely more Monty Python compared with BG3, which is more Benny Hill

great now I just have the image of Shadowheart Chasing Lae'zel who is chasing Nere who is chasing a Duegar who is casing a Deep Gnome all set to this music

Yeah...no. The comparison is preposterous because the humor is wildly different both in quantity and quality.

Yeah I replayed BG1 not too long ago and just about every dialogue selection has a sarcastic, funny or silly response. Far moreso than BG3

The two games aren't comparable in tone...not by a long shot.

The keyword here seems like "response," as in "possible response for your character to make"...? If so, then I wouldn't say that makes the game humorous; it just gives you the ability to roleplay as a silly PC.

It definitely makes the game more humorous, whether you pick those responses or not. In my opinion it would have had a lot to do with the success of the franchise. In the same way that the characters in Critical Role face unfathomably difficult situations but certain characters in particular use humour to keep things light and relieve the tension. To me, that’s a staple of D&D and something I feel is largely missing from games like the Pathfinder adaptations.

I actually had that music going round my head so much with the original games when my squishy characters attracted aggro and ended up kiting around, followed by ogres, followed by my fighters. Not just those games of course, there was definitely more than one major dramatic fight in the Dragon Age games that had me in stitches as it descended into a farcical Benny Hill chase. For all the flaws of the BG3 combat system, at least that's one thing that doesn't happen!

That aside, I'm not sure I'd describe the humour in BG3 as Benny Hill, though definitely agree it's not Monty Python either.

Just experienced a cut scene for the first time where Astarion laughs at something I said in an extremely disturbed way. It was quite entertaining. He really sounded nuts.

I'm going to guess this was after helping Mayrina with her problem. If so, yes. Our blood enthusiast is a bit disturbingly disturbed.
A walking train-wreck. I hate it and I love it xD What a mad man.

Yes indeed it was

What I'm picking up from fishing funny scenes from the old games is that pixelated isometric presentation, where characters are tiny and voice acting is much more limited, is much for forgiving for silly things.

When the silly is rendered in your face in photorealistic ultra HD 3D, and everything is 100% voice acted, you see and hear every nuance, every detail. Nothing is left for your imagination to tone up or down. There are no blanks to fill.

In conclusion, BG3 and modern games in general should be much more careful and tasteful in their presentation compared to games from 20+ years ago.

I agree that BG3 probably couldn’t effectively ascend the heights of silliness sometimes reached by the original games for the reasons you give. It’s going to have to find its own balance and I’m sure there are still many improvements to make.

But I’d be sad if taste triumphed to the extent that the game became one note. For me, one of the things I loved about the original games was the way they mixed horror, dark themes, broad and sometimes questionable comedy, fond parody of fantasy archetypes and downright absurdity. Of course it meant that they could be a bit muddled and hit and miss, though some people’s misses might be others’ hits. But there was enough there that there was something for everyone and selective amnesia or ignoring certain companions went a long way to making it possible to experience the games in the way we wished. BG3 can’t realistically do this in the exact same way because of the factors you identify, and I agree it needs to be more professional and less slapdash given the evolution of gaming over the last decades, but personally I’d rather it still took risks with tone and retained the elements of absurdity and humour even though I can guarantee that means there’ll also be other elements I find irritating and unbelievable. For me, that’s more Baldur’s Gate than a straightforward dark fantasy.

I haven't read a lot of this thread, so this may have been mentioned, but I felt I should mention it again. Talk about Disney squirrels...

As a bard, I talked to the squirrels by Alfira, and now they dance and such, and you have the option of putting lyrics to their song. I can't say I hate it, but it is definitely Disney-ish and just a bit cringe.

But is it just the right amount of cringe. I'd feel sad if it was taken out now, it almost qualifies as an easter egg for me anyway.