It was a cute little video intended to show off Larian in a human light. One of the things they're most praised about online for BG3 is the way they've given the player so many avenues and choices. Plenty of players like that they can skip Shadowheart and see her show up later at the druid's grove.
This video showcases that work. It does so in a somewhat humble and humorous way, illustrating the size of the workload they've tackled while admitting that they still have to rely on the occasional clumsy and heavy handed scene if the player actively ignores every other obvious path.
But. That. Is. Not. A. Choice.
My initial response was precisely response to what you have written. Does Larian think this is some kind of amazing reactivity? My issue isn't with it that Sven made a bad call (those happen) but that they seem to use it as advertising? Again, maybe Sven is indeed honest to a fault, and I can respect it, and he is just sharing an anecdote of unintentional consequnces of a decision they made just because he finds it interesting.
My only two main point against "the box" are as follows:
1) it is "anti-reactivity" - the game retcons player's decision to ignore/not recruit. It doesn't REACT to players actions, it attempts to rectify them.
2) It's expensive and inelegant. "We give player freedom but need them to do something specific" isn't a new problem. It's as old as gaming. Box example isn't giving player freedom, it's Larian poorly scripting mandatory story bit. And yeah the problem originates from giving a story critical item to a companion, who is by design skippable. Creating branchig paths depending on player having access to the item or not - that would be reactivity.
I suppose my reaction is that negative, because that was precisely one of the issues I had with D:OS2. "You can do anything but nothing narratively matters".
Edit.
I am not terribly offended by the content of the video BTW, in case I am coming off too negative. "We have made a poor decision, and am sinking resources into subpar solutions to the potential problems" - I just find it an odd content to see prior to release, as I mentioned in my initial post, that is something I would expect to hear in Post Mortem. In defence of the design, the most extreme situation will be hard to get without someone intentionally trying to avoid Shadowheart - as such, a clumsy cutsene might be a reward in itself.
That said, I must say that I found artifact teleporting to PC to be unsatisfying narratively. So NOW Shadowheart is fine with us having the artifact "because it chose you". Why was she so protective of it, when the artifact has a seeming power to pick whomever it wants?
