Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What's you biggest fear about the final BG3 release?

I completely disagree with your suggestion that an epic start is a bad one. Many other games had such an introduction in the past and it worked really well, for exemple Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, even WotR is up there... It hooks the player and establishes the stakes in an elegant way. Starting as a weak nobody in nowhereland where nothing happen is also a valid trope but objectively not a better one.

I don’t think this is an issue for which there’s any proving right or wrong, just matters of opinion and preference. I know there’s been discussion about pros and cons of playersexual romances before though can’t lay my hands on it right now. I’d suggest, though, that if anyone wants to discuss it any further now that they start a new thread (or resurrect that old one if they can find it) as further debate here would derail this thread.

I think your point is sound, but I would argue that BG3 doesn't do a good job executing on its opening. I'm gonna push aside ME3 because I think that game doesn't belong in this discussion for one specific reason; it's the final game in a trilogy. The series has been escalating since the first game so of course the start of 3 is gonna start off more high octane. BG3 may also technically be a sequel, but it's not like it's a direct continuation. It's starting from scratch with a new story and has to build it's stakes from But looking at the other two games they do something important that BG3 fails to. They start you off, right off the bat, small. Skyrim? You start off as a mundane prisoner being taken to execution and you get to give a sense of why you might have ended up that way. WotR? You start off being revived and then getting to talk to folks in a simple festival. You get the vibe of the world you're living in, you get to get your bearings. In Skyrim you'll also probably see a regular town within your first couple hours of playtime. In BG3 you literally don't get to see anything approaching normal for the first third of the game. You have no grounding, no context, it's all just a lot of weird, wild stuff getting thrown at you all at once.

That's a pretty odd selection, as neither of the titles are acclaimed for their story telling - especially Mass Effect3, where you could have picked an entry that wasn't a complete dumpster fire.

Final Fantasy 10 is acclaimed for its story telling. That game starts of with your game of magical, underwater rugby in an impossible metropolis in the middle of the ocean being disrupted by giant Godzilla-Cthulhu-whale.

Final Fantasy X after the epic start you wake up on a beach too if I remember :), after that the pace and tone are pretty slow. Opening with a big set piece is considered good storytelling because it sells your story early, and will get people invested.
I think when people talk about big bombastic storytelling as being bad there really talking about a story that doesn't have any breaks in its pacing or tone, all climax and no tension. For BG3 people have complained about how there is a lot of tension from the opening, because of the tadpole, but the story doesn't follow that tension, or at the very least doesn't connect well a lot of the sidequests with it.

Skyrim intro is so popular it became a meme at this point and I would argue that its story telling is effective. It is there to exposes the two most important conflicts of the game which is the war and the dragon threat. Mass effect 3 "dumpster fire" part is its ending, the intro is pretty solid.

I would disagree. Ending was just a cherry on top. An insult to injury. But that's not really relevant.

I think that's a good point.

Big opening isn't necessaily good or bad - it all depends on how you want to open your game. And as openings go, I don't think BG3 has a bad one - it did fail to get me invested through. Opening cutscene has a lot of spectacle that still means nothing to me. And the entire drama presented in the opening set up, is a red herring a bit too easily seen through.

Gawd, what a nightmare scenario <shudder>

making pansexual is the correct approach. hated many games that i'm forced to romance xxx and need to be either male or female. its a win-win. why do you feel exclusive that this character in game should and must be exclusive to only your gender? you get to romance her/him anyway. just care less about what are the companions sexuality.

I agree with you, but I'm more afraid that with all the Tav romance focus, possibly romances between Companions and / or Companions and NPCs have been neglected.

Technically you are not forced to romance anyone.
Playersexuality cheapens the npcs as you can never reference their orientation and sexuality in their story.

As I said above, if folk want to discuss playersexuality again please create a new thread rather than derail this one.

My biggest fear... nobody will make me a homebrew Thri-Kreen race mod. Their leap ability with Larian's maps would be fun and they have 4 arms. I'm not holding my breath on this one though.

Next biggest would have to be Larian releasing a limited modding toolkit. I cant mod myself but have been using mods in games for decades. There is already a good amount of modding work being done for BG3 without official tools yet. I really want Larian to give the modding community as much access as they can. Nearly everything I'm not really a fan of gameplay/mechanics wise I hope to just mod the way I want. Hopefully someone can figure out a way to add true vertically, real flight/wall climb and 3D space representation/manipulation.

More books

Abdel is the Absolute… 😨

That they won't have fixed the need to use long rests in a particular sequence to trigger most camp conversations, and that certain companions "cancel" each other's dialogue out.

And on topic of annoying dialogue triggers, that they'll keep Astarion's (hidden) need for Tav to progress to True Soul in order to progress romance post-party sex scene.

I thought the game year is supposed to be several years after his death?

Death is more of an annoying inconvenience in the FR.

See Volo, Minsc, Elminster, Edwina… lol for reference!

Now Imoen she can be the Absolute…. Hi YA! Time to die