I actually think the PoE lore is great, but the problem is that there's quite a bit of depth to it and you really are thrust right into the world right from the get go. I didn't find it too bad, but I can see how some people would feel confused (actually, it's the feeling I get when I play a lot of JRPGs and they throw you right into a really weird world.) I think in Deadfire they had a good band-aid for this, in the form of dialogue links for lots of things that would come up with a small pop-up window and a brief description of what the person was talking about. But too bad Deadfire didn't do so well.
Deadfire is one of the reasons why I am a bit concerned. Here is a good YT video on what something like full VO could take from a CRPG (timestamp included)
That is Josh Sawyer from Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Note, Divinity Original Sin 2 was where the idea for full VO came from and when he thought it was too late to really build that in, he was overruled by the owners who insisted. Critical Role was also involved in voicing characters. Even Disco Elysium had to raise extra money after the fact for voice acting. This is more than just VO. You want mega interactivity? You need a game engine for that, which means building your own. You want a massive 3D world? You gotta spend the money for those assets. IIRC Larian has an owner capable of putting their own money into the studio to prevent bankruptcy when gambles don't pay out.
'Genre defining' has to be feasible for the genre. This is not a case of having a system or features that everyone uses going forward because BG3 doesn't have any special systems or formula or even game design like that. If DoS1 or 2 didn't do any genre defining, the same thing with more money is not going to do it. It is not feasible for every other company in the CRPG space right now to even attempt to be copycats, because the only thing they can copy is....roleplaying more? Or money.
EDIT I did read the OP @Warlocke
Even the sex concerns were about how others would be marketing their game going forward or how it's getting too much hype from thirst. I also read the moderator's note that being myopic on sex could not be the end all be all of the thread. So, your personal scoring on games you like and how other people's opinions don't matter is not relevant either way.
