I could see it being kind of neat if player character death meant rerolling a new character inserted in to the narrative at the same point like playing at a table, but otherwise the ergodic nature of player agency within a videogame negates that possibility. When playing at a table, agency is shared with the whole party; when playing at a computer, agency is entirely in the player's hands, so it is far more practical to have a save system than a reroll system.

I never liked Larian's approach to "origin" characters for the very reason mentioned above: it's not Tav's story, it's not MY story as a player. I really have no agency over the narrative.

Warhammer 40k Darktide does something similar where the story is actually about the NPCs who send you off on missions, and you're just a reject prisoner doing grunt work for them. Doesn't work there very well either.

I know it's been said to death ... but BG2's companions are a platinum standard that have yet to be matched in any game since. We've all been seeking that level of interaction since and it's not there.

Last edited by pachanj; 01/02/23 05:17 PM.