Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Please bring back Karlachs Old Face!

Well ,that would be the same version I posted few days ago, except without hair and with flat lighting:





I have honestly NO IDEA of how anyone at Larian could even begin to think the new iterations are better.

Did you see the personality and the VA they gave her? No way the old badass look could merge well with what we have now.

1- The old VA was worse and even more of a mismatch.
2- Nothing you couldn't get over with a bit of getting used to it. I would love to see this BEST version animated and voiced for a round of test, but I'm confident I would STILL like it more than the updated one.

I disagree; you can be a lovely person with a larger-than-life full of joy voice even if you have gone through massive trauma and scarring.

Regardless of what you think about the features and voice actresses, the pristine, almost plasticky skin on her face doesn't match the rest of her body or the story. Either she, as a an Avernus firebomb barbarian, had total immunity to fire and acids (and then her body should not have all those burns from scarring), or she did not (and her face sustained the same damage as her horn, neck and upper torso). It is a big detail that makes you go ????? and breaks immersion, by bringing meta considerations like the perceived attractiveness to the target audience, and the princess classic trope "beauty is never marred" to the forefront of a game known for its commitment to action-consequence and gorey grit.

Maybe there is an in-game story reason for that baby-skin face, and maybe Astarion has a couple of lines asking for beauty tips for his crows-feet, but right now it seems like a marketing decision, not a story-driven one.

Karlach began to heavily grate on me with the new VA. There was this scene where she reconnected with an old friend in Balgurs Gate and she sounded so histrionic and fake that I will just kill her in every playthrough to spare myself the headache that is her voice.

Anyone can have anything. Doesn't mean that it can work well in a conventional sense.

LOL well said.

I like Karlach as is. Just throwing my 2 gold in there.

Imagine a scene where you get close to Karlach. You've been romancing her, and the two of you are in love, and then she reveals...

...her actual face. It's scarred and burned, drooping in places.

The whole time she's been using a minor piece of magic to give herself a plastic, fake looking face, but now you're seeing the real her.

*

What is with her personality!?!?! Oh my goodness.

I strongly agree with the comment above about her sounding fake and histrionic.

And that date. You could not get me out of that date fast enough.

I don't know if I'm going to like her so much. Not because she's mean or anything. Just. She almost sounds more like a character on a tv show than she does a real person, if that makes sense. All so fake. A socialite is what she sounds like. An urban socialite who spends too much time online, checking tweets.

I don't know. I'm probably being unfair. I'll have to give it a chance.

I had a somewhat similar feeling.

It's not just a voice problem (they should have pick someone like Claudia Black) but her personality just doesn't fit her body and backstory.
She sounds and acts like a completely normal teenage girl. It's definitely not a fear-mongering demon slayer.
It all just sounds and looks unnatural and fake.

P.S.
Karlach is the only one of the companions where I have problems with her voice, all the others were a great pick.

+1

You are right, she does have those vibes. I couldn't put my finger on what was bugging me about her at first.

The first incarnation of Karlach had much more African features. I realise she is a teifling so not African or even human, but it seemed a little.. wrong to lose that from her character in the revamp. The latest face is much better than faces 2 and 3 though.

After watching the Karlach part of PfH, I agree, that the older face (with or without hair) looked better on her. I probably will still like her a lot, but it doesn't make sense, that she has scars everywhere and a broken horn, but her face was somehow spared.

Karlachs current face is million times better please dont change it back

They won't change it simply because that would require some work and extensive testing.

But that doesn't change the face that you are wrong, either.

The new face is remarkably worse. Not even just a matter of personal preferences on what one may find attractive. it's just lower in quality as a 3D model.

And it doesn't really seem to fit the body imo.

I believe what Mushroomo was trying to say is that she is prettier now ...
Wich is true, on certain point of view ... it just dont seem much relevant for the topic. :-/

Let me dip to "let everyone have what they want" a little once more.
Its ben a while.

Lets presume this topic have some meaning and Larian would have option to swap the head back ...
I understand it cause problem we can see on Disney ... if they call Star Wars sequels "not canon" they piss off people who liked them (feel free to read as: have no taste, sory not sory) ... if they dont, they piss off the other group.
There is no good way to go, so they leave it as it is ... at least can stay true to their own decisions.
Same situation is here, there is no corect way, you can only pick wich group you will make angry.

Since people asked for option to change our haircuts in camp ... presuming Larian would be willing to alow it ... would there be anything holding them back from giving us option to swap her head for our liking? O_o

I prefer the older Karlach but I'm more annoyed with the one broken horn - I hate asymmetry.

There's a mod on Nexus with the datamined head available
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/508

I rather like Karlach's new look. I am slightly uneasy about it replacing an African facial structure, but if we get past that, I like it the best of the bunch.

Her voice-over on the other hand is a whiney London accent, which means she will never be in my party.