Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Here is why companions in DOS2 were more endearing than in BG3

Until I stopped playing this game due to Larian removing the ability to recruit Minthara and Halsin together I couldn't help comparing the other companions to the ones in DOS2 and how shallow the ones in BG3 felt in comparison.

At first I thought it's because of the writing and voice acting but I think it's more to do with the way they are introduced.

In DOS2, you encounter the companions as normal npcs that you cannot recruit initially. Then you encounter them again multiple times thereafter and each time you can choose to recruit them, do quests for/against them or just ignore them altogether. They 'live' in the surrounding world and feel part of it.

On the other hand, in BG3 it doesn't seem like the companions exist beyond the point of being your party members. You don't get to know anything about them before you recruit them and even after you do, they treat you with disdain until they flip to desperately wanting to suck your d***. There's no foreplay, instead it feels like a passive aggressiveness that you have to constantly deal with in order to find out anything endearing about them.

Shadowheart and Lae' zael are a little more nuanced because you get to know them a little in the prologue but it's brief, and besides being companions, it doesn't feel like they belong in the story.

Minthara and Halsin are an exception however since you get to learn about them for a significant part of Act 1 and Act 2. You can work with them or thwart them, even decide on their fate. Which is why I grew attached to them before I could even recruit them.

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And having got so fond of Minthara and Halsin that manner, I still can't understand why Larian doesn't want us to have them both in the same party.

Wyll's sole motivation in life appeared to be to kill Karlach, but he doesn't mind her joining the team. He will happily work with her without batting an eyelid. Karlach didn't care that Will wanted her dead either.

On the other hand Minthara has absolutely no idea what a Halsin is. She just seems to have a problem with furry animals. She doesn't even know where the grove is so the idea that she would have worse reservations than Karlach and Wyll for eachother is weird. Halsin seems angry at 'the leaders' but given Minthara can redeem herself, and taking consideration of the Wyll/Karlach thing above, why doesn't Halsin react to that redemption arc accordingly?