The VAs carry much of the reason the companions are likable. But some of their stories break if you pay attention to them specifically (Karlach especially). I agree wholeheartedly that the story needs proper QA. If devs played their game with focus on story problems (also as origins) they’d catch on many plot breaking moments that need rewriting.
As others pointed out, the urgency and epicness of the mess the player is in at the start (dragons, nautiloid, the actual Hells) kind of abruptly stops and you’re searching for an archdruid’s assistant to try and pry the tadpole from your eye. It does not really feel like it’ll work… but I might be being picky - Act 1 is much more put together narratively regardless of that.
I felt things start to go wild and the narrative fall apart in mid Act 2. I believe we all pay more attention to the characters we grow to like and keep in our party, so in my case I noticed the glaring narrative neglect to Karlach (which is well documented in other posts). Regarding the main quest, it falls kind of flat. You have
the Emperor to remind you that you’re on a quest to destroy the Absolute and there are tadpoles all around, but the entire thing does not draw much appeal. I ended up caring more about helping my companions find their redemption/resolutions than saving the world. As a player, I was more concerned of getting the larvae out of my brain asap before I transformed. Not so much into the end of the world - but I assume that list of priorities depends on the players personal preference.
I feel that there was the potential of making the main quest/saving the world kind of quest much more believable and epic if we had all parts of the story tied together, including those who were implied but not put in the actual game.
I miss having a chunk of the game play in the Hells, for example. It could show us how certain parts of disconnected plot tied together, and also the stakes of the fight against the netherbrain crossing planes and affecting the existence of things beyond our comprehension.
All in all, some QA, some devs and/or volunteers even playing the game
while paying attention to the ‘big’ narrative, as well as personal narratives of characters making notes of plot contradictions, mistakes and gaps could guide a rewriting and restructuring of the story where it falls short the most.
I’m pretty sure good writers at Larian can find a way to link and re-craft the narrative where it fails if they have the time and resources put at their disposal. I assume it’s impossible to make it 100% at this point (or any tbh), but the main story and some of the more lacking sub-stories in the game could be made a LOT better still.
