Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General So who is the game ultimately trying to appeal to at this point?

Fans of the originals? Pretty much wrote them off during the earliest days with the turn-based combat, 4-man party and other details, though the densest ones (as in, those who couldn't see as to why some changes were made) would occasionally keep asking "why turn-based?" ever so often even now.

Those who wanted a faithful adaptation of the ruleset? It's been almost 3 years of EA and a month prior to the release we hear of significant changes to the ASIs and multiclassing that are meant to be in line with the "newer" vision of the ruleset but from the outset it seemed like the PHB was the aim. Not to mention that there are still explicitly homebrew things present, there's no attunement, no tools, no languages, and Paladins are all wrong. At least we got Stealth to its somewhat accurate form (but still with the vision cones...).

Classic CRPG fans in general? Things seem to be getting much too streamlined and dumbed down, at least from an outside perspective. It really feels like the mindset of "no choice is a wrong choice" is being pursued here. It's an extreme that's just as unrewarding in the end as "there's only rigidly right and rigidly wrong choices" like in Owlcat games. And the game's cinematic focus may just take away from the cosier storybook-like feel they're supposed to embody. And speaking of Owlcat games, and Solasta - the lack of customizable difficulty settings feels like such an obvious oversight that I am surprised it actually happened.

With how the last PfH and the trailers and now that Kotaku interview look, it really starts to seem like the target demographic has been reduced (or, rather, expanded?) to the least pleasant Bioware fans and not in the least bit perpetually aroused shippers to whom RPGs are glorified dating sims, now complete with an ability to make a futanari they always wanted (because - perhaps I am narrow-minded, but - what other excuse except for a blatant fetish would one have to plaster opposite-sex genitalia on their character whose body is clearly anything but androgynous?) and with an array of pixel blobs to lay at their leisure, including an ability to be a sl... ahem, to be polyamorous.

It's not like it wasn't clear from the outset that the game will have some raunchy content in it, but it's now seemingly being used as the main selling point, because there was barely a different point apart from it and from how the character creator is so powerful as to allow making any kind of self-insert or sexual frustration expression outlet the players want (...while still having a handful of faces per race and no finer customization options for body (apart from what's dangling or not down below) or head...) in the latest promotional material. Why not detail the backgrounds for custom characters? What about being able to pick the city of origin - will everyone still be from BG like in Early Access? What about the Origin characters getting unique backgrounds?

Are those boosted sales really that good of an achievement when the demographic (and the potential future target customers) are going to drag the genre back into the muck it was in during the early-to-middle 10's?