First of all hello to the forums! First post here. Came here looking for some constructive discussion after being burned by the official Reddit sub, where anything even remotely negative about the game sends you straight to downvote hell. Hope it's better here!
As for my biggest fear, it's this: I dread that the game will be as combat oriented as it is in the EA. I hope it isn't and EA is so skewed in that direction because Larian wants to test the systems, but their previous games don't inspire much positivity in that regard.
Now I'm not saying that BG1/BG2 weren't combat heavy. They could be and sometimes were. But playing those games, even nowadays, I never feel like *the combat is the game*. Sure it's part of it, but exploration, dialogue, plot, etc. - all that seems to be more important and combat is just something to gel all those things together, add some stakes and make the world a bit more dangerous.
In BG3, at least currently, I feel like the balance is in the opposite direction. Combat *is the game*, and other things are here just to add flavor to it. I don't know if it's the turn based system making encounters needlesly long or Larian insistence or making each encounter "meaningful" (which isn't a bad thing in itself, but - maybe I'm in minority - but I also like some "trash fights" to just play with my skills, learn them and become ready for the important ones - in BG3 every one is an important one and I feel it takes away something from the game or at least make it a bit more "turn based strategy" than RPG).
I really hope that once we get to BG3 the game gives us more quests that are not only about killing a bunch of mobs in an hour long exhausting combat scenario that I have to reload once or twice to get the hang of. Investigative quests, decision-based quests, quests about aligning myself with various factions and seeing how they think and operate.
I hope I'm not alone.
Actually, I don't entirely agree. In BG3, you can solve many quests without even fighting, and in general, there are numerous dialogue moments with companions and other NPCs in the world. From this perspective, I find it balanced. It seems that your criticism actually stems more from the length and difficulty of the combat. Regarding the length, there's not much that can be done since it's inherent to turn-based combat. As for the difficulty, I must say that currently (as an experienced player of BG and BG2), I find the combat extremely easy or at least much less complex. It's simply a matter of understanding how to position your companions and how to utilize terrain and heights. Furthermore, since it's based on D&D 5E, which is a simplified version, the combat is much easier compared to what happened in BG2 (when enemies had many defensive spells to neutralize and, most importantly, you had no idea what defenses or immunities they had, whereas in BG3, you can simply hover the mouse cursor over to find out everything).
