More feedback based on Discord. Please note that I rephrased most feedback a bit and took other posts into consideration to summarize them.
Halsins development and story flawsFeedback:Halsin doesnt get a lot of development within the story and especially not within his romance. Both parts are mostly just a fetishization of his sexuality rather than deep insights in his thoughts, his past and his values. Also there are some strange questions in what he says, e.g. Halsin doesn't recognize Ketheric when the player clicks on a portrait showing him. Given that Halsin and the Harpers already went to battle against him, this makes no sense.
Suggestion:Use the huge pool of Halsins experiences as an adult wise archdruid and let him be a mentor to the party. Show more of this good manners from EA, his charisma and his caring instead of just plain sexualized interactions. Also please either fix his comment on Ketheric or give an explanation later on (maybe Ketheric wore a mask all the time).
Halsin has no click voice-oversFeedback:So far, it seems that Halsin is the only character who doesn't speak if you order him to do any action via click.
Suggestion:From what dataminers found, the lines for this are already in the game files, so please add them to have a more living Halsin.
Suggestions for content improvementFeedback:It would be nice to have more interaction with the plot, characters and the world. As I already said, Halsin has lots of experience and could easily be a good mentor for the party. His knowledge could be a big advantage to the party.
Halsin is one of the characters that doesn't share much about his past beside past lovers and traumas, which is also due to him not having his own questline.
The interactions we can have with him are mostly driven by thirst and physical pleasure. This leads to him being creepy and weird - which is contrary to the way he was introduced in EA.
Suggestion:Add a questline for Halsin or at least allow us and him to have more interaction on other topics like the past, the surroundings, maybe even asking for advices (making use of his experiences).
Allow us to help him adapting to the civilization, we are Baldurians, so who could help him more than us?
Remove all the creepy thirst comments from him (read this as: stop the horny bear meme) and give us back more of his EA personality traits. Let him be the defender and protection the Tav might need.
Halsins true feelingsFeedback:If you push aside the memes and jokes around Halsin, you can reflect on how a relationship with him might look like.
Halsin is very grateful for the company the Tav offers him, he really shows his true feelings in minor yet deep moments like when we share the campfire with him or when the Tav wants to learn more about him or sympathize with him because of the death of his parents. In his regret about not having a family, he shows a true fear we all share: loneliness. It seems to be hidden deep inside him.
Suggestion:Those feelings offer a good way to start a relationship. If not directly, he shares his thoughts and feelings with the Tav and with time, this could get deeper and he could open himself more. Seeing the Tav as someone to free him from the shadow curse that haunted (not only) him for such a long time, could open his eyes and his heart. He is really passionate and sensual, as shown in his "bed scene" that only lacks another scene in the end that shows us looking into the stars. It would be nice to see this added. All of this could make up for a great romance, if you also remove the unneccessary jokes that cause discomfort.
The lack of a personal questFeedback:Halsin lacks interaction with the plot, characters and the world. In act 3, he doesn't even have a personal quest.
Suggestion:Add a questline to act 3. This could be something like a conflict between a local druid circle and the authorities from Baldur's Gate over something. The druids react by blocking some parts of the city with huge vines or something. Maybe this druid circle could even include someone who knows Halsin back from the past and could tell us more about him and maybe even commenting on how much he changed (at least with the shadow curse being lifted). It could also be that there is someone else pulling the strings in the background who wants the druids to be driven out of the town. Or w/e you writers could come up with.
This could also be a chance to add more romance lines, just like Astarion had on his personal quest.
Halsin's caring personalityFeedback:Throughout the game, caring for others, especially for children, seems to be something thats important for Halsin, but yet he isnt giving lot of interaction with them. We get to know Arabella and Yenna, children in need of someone helping and caring for them - something, Halsin is perfectly made for.
Suggestion:It would be lovely to have more interaction between Halsin, Arabella and/or Yenna. Halsin is someone, who regrets not having his own family and there is Arabella, a girl who lost her parents, is alone with no one to take care of her, she is connected to druid magic and we just send her off into the world? This seems nothing like what we'd expect Halsin to do. Give this man a family, give the Tav the opportunity to go with Halsin and one or both girls, let us be the second parent. This would be the perfect ending - not just for us players, but for an archdruid with feelings deep hidden inside him who is looking to make the world a better place and was never looking for his own heart.
Personal noteI would like to thank everyone who wrote feedback that I could use for the posts, especially Nika, Merrin, Cowoline and Filia.
Also I would like to add a few links to a really detailed analysis that Nika made - a must read:
https://www.tumblr.com/nika-vincent...ther-my-thoughts-also-based?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/nika-vincent...tions-on-the-development-of?source=share