I don't have much to say. There's only one "make your own character" game I really disliked this choice for, DA: Inquisition.
Breaking this down:
-- despite of how open it was who you were before, you get shoved into a hard role. You might as well have hatched from an egg a fully fletched Inquisitor. The few [...] lines don't make up for it.
/We have no such role except group leader so far
-- despite everything, the main character feels hollow. A self insert puppet for the player rather than a character.
This arrives part from the prior problem, part from the plastic doll look and uncanny animation, part from being Big Boss and little else.
/The animation not fitting 2/3 characters is a major problem. The backstory and diversity of classes makes it easier to work out your own backstory in Bg3. What will happen once in the city, however...?
-- the villain has negative personality and we're only opposing him for being Evil.
There is no conflict of values or moral ambiguity. It's a guy who was somewhere at the wrong time (protagonist) vs. guy who wasn't at this somewhere (antagonist). Give me my magic powers back! Grrr! I'm evil!
/We were seemingly chosen for a reason and have a motivation of revenge. The true enemy is yet mostly veiled in shadow... still fighting an evil shadow cult
-- the lineup of companions feels incomplete.
Sera and Blackwall should have been replaced with companions that do more. They're near useless in terms of story telling.
Compare to DA II: Aveline, our connection to the guard, Anders who pushes us towards the mages, Fenris who pushes us towards the templars. Varric, who tells the story and Merrill the innocent blood mage. Even Isabella kick-starts the making of Hawke, -- there is no waste! Not even really with either potential sibling. They all shape Hawke and the story.
The only companion in Inquisition this truly applies to is Cassandra, /maybe/ Iron Bull and Vivienne. No, instead, /we/ shape Solas for DA 4! Surprise! Thanks, I hate it?
In parallel to Bg3:
- Lae'Zel pushes us towards removing the Tadpole
- Astarion is flourishing thanks to it (both fair enough)
- Gale explains the lore
- Wyll pushes us towards the goblin camp? He has [spoiler] connections to the story in Bg. Maybe he'll be nudging us towards more smaller plot points
- Shadowheart has the artefact and probable future impact thanks to netherese magic
- Minsk seems just a buddy in revenge
- Karlach is leading us to the hells?
Theory: most companions are plot hooks. There is no overarching value conflict (mages vs templars). I'm concerned some may fall short in shaping the story beyond that.
If Bg3 is invested in resolving each plot point with the absolute as a vague end goal, however, it might not be such a problem. It depends how much of the game is "Absolute this, Absolute that".
There's currently a lot of non Absolute content. We're really just a party of adventurers. This doesn't matter to Gale, Wyll, perhaps not even Minsk and Astarion, though Shadowheart and Lae'Zel are unconvincing until they realize they've been duped. Might as well travel as your early mid life crisis, right? Karlach, I'm not sure. I guess she's a little lost in the world. Might as well adventure when you're on the run.
I'm curious how long Lae'Zel will complain in the full release, hah. Let's just hope our companions aren't merely slightly less optimized Tav dolls who talk.
