He reminds me of David Bowie's Goblin King, honestly. I like the look, even if it screams 'should not be relied upon to provide security for your city'.
Anyways, I assume the voice work will be stellar. But we have had Larian choosing to showcase *three* big-name voice actors pretty much in succession. Meanwhile I look at that trailer, a month and a half from release and see stuff like that Larian still hasn't figured out how to have hats and hair interact on a level better than NWN2. What I *don't* see is any more news about stuff like companions and origin characters, or playable half orcs or monks etc.
So I'm starting to wonder how much of Larian's budget was spent chasing down celebrities to VA in their game, and how much the final product will be affected. I *Know* Larian can write a damn fine game, but they have been giving ample reason to worry at this point in development. I honestly can not be sure this game is going to be a masterpiece or an unfinished overambitious janky product that bit off more than it can chew. When we reach BG is it going to stand alongside Athkatla in how lovingly handcrafted it is or will it be Arx 2.0? I don't get much feeling of what Larian's Baldur's Gate is going to be like from these teasers.
I am less concerned with this.
Having someone like Matt Mercer, whose job is a voice actor and actually knows the games and cares deeply about them is a huge plus if anything. He's as big as your Nolan North's or Troy Baker's. While it's not a "selling point" for me, I think it goes to show how much care went into casting. An integral part of any game that is trying to be taken seriously.
As far as JK Simmons and Jason Isaacs, neither of them are strangers to voice acting and while I'm sure all 3 command a higher salary than several others, I doubt half the budget is going to them. Let's not forget, Larian is probably not funding this entirely by themselves. There was undoubtedly money from Google that was received, as well as milestones from Hasbro/WotC to consider, between that an the millions of copies of EA that have been sold, I'd say they probably know what they are doing.
While we can't say for certainty that the game won't be perfect at launch (what game is?) It will certainly be highly polished. Larian supported DOS2 for years. And provided tons of free content for, and reworked the entire last act, something they did not need to do. Everything they have done and learned has lead to this point. I don't think WotC would have given the license out otherwise. I could not imagine Beamdog or one of the many other devs that inquired about this IP handling it.
I hope this game does gangbusters numbers, Larian makes all their money back and then some and continues to support the franchise for many years. Hell, if they aren't planning an expansion, I'd be shocked.
