Have to disagree, unfortunately. I wasn't a big fan of Wyll in EA but it didn't have anything to do with his character -- he was just the straight guy in a team of wacky characters. I liked him and was interested in seeing where Larian was going to go with his arc and development, especially with how he was a hypocrite and a fraud.
In release, though... He's just bland. The new VA is less interesting and he's less interesting overall. They brought all of his 'interesting' plot beats forward, it feels like. To such an extent that you learn his whole deal as soon as you meet him, and then there's just nothing else. I'm into Act 3 and he's absolutely the character I find least interesting, and his drama with the Duke is falling flat (and his big choice is really flat compared to, say, Lae'zel or Shadowheart.) It's like they brought all of the interesting stuff forward, and had nothing to replace it with.
Tying him into Karlach was an interesting choice, sure, but Wyll isn't nearly compelling enough to make the 'Kill Karlach' option anything other than a gimmick. It's probably a good thing that he's not so 'important' in the goblin village and camp, as you don't feel like you need to bring him along... but that's about the only thing I'd say is better. What they did to Wyll feels like if they had some of the mid-late character development stuff for, say, Gale or Lae'zel take place soon after you meet them because they got spooked that people thought either of them were jerks or whatever.
I gather that Larian did it because people were engaging less with Wyll than the other characters, and they have metrics to back it up, but I don't think that is because he was written badly. I think that was because of the aforementioned 'straight guy' role, the fact he was a sub-par build, that he can just die in his opening scene, that he's the last character you can recruit in EA, and... uh, what we might call the Jacob Effect.
I genuinely think it was a mistake to rewrite him as they did, and I feel like the 'Daisy' rewrite is similar. As I've been getting into Act 3, I'm really not sure why they did that, either. I think both of them demonstrate why you might want to stand by the original vision.
I kind of agree. I actually think most of the story change they made were for the worse. I still remember the days shadowheart was actually a dick and at least then she was interesting and it felt like a challenge to earn her trust.
Wyll never was a particularly interesting character but at least he had this whole fraud thing going on for him. I think the original "goblin beat the shit out of me and took me eye" was a bit silly and lame, but other than that I felt like a more grey character that wants to be a hero but is actually very concerned about how people see him is cool. And I think that if they have kept these aspects it would have been better
