I seem to vaguely remember (maybe from Panel From Hell 1, or some similar pre-Early Access communication) Larian saying that, compared to BG2, BG3 would have fewer Companions but each would be more developed. I never bought into this argument, as it kind of implies that Larian has the same budget as Bioware.
I don’t think that follows. Larian aren’t saying that they’ll spend the same amount on companions as BG2 but put it into depth rather than quantity. I’m sure they’ll be spending far, far more. But most of the BG2 companions didn’t have much content, flexibility or reactivity to events, were only partly voiced and sprite animation was pretty standard and basic. It wouldn’t surprise me if the work that goes into creating a BG3-type companion were orders of magnitude greater.
As I think someone said earlier in this thread, the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games are probably a better indication of what’s likely to be feasible for a title with the ambitions of BG3, and those range from six companions in ME1 to ten core companions plus two DLC in ME2 (not including Morinth or Liara in LotS). DA:O had ten, including DLC companion Shale, a dog and another companion only available in the end game (plus temporary characters for each origin story, I guess).
I’m trying to temper my expectations accordingly, though of course I’ll be delighted if there are more companions than I predict.
