I am burned out playing BG3. Pretty much done. Waiting for more mods or companions (?). Really tired of these same ol.
Cinematic dialogues are now tiring. Narration is tiring.
That is far from the case for BG2. Even 20 years later. Having the flexibility of 6 party members and a roster of 18 characters + a dozens more playable characters mods that work great into the story...well. The limitless potential for modding, is frankly beyond anything BG3 could ever be.
Oh I feel you, I haven't touched BG3 in almost a month now. It might just be me but when it comes to Larian games I just can't see myself playing them more than once or twice. (BG3 I finished 3 times which was a surprise)
Might do another run when DE comes out tho. (The game has potential but again I don't know why, I just lose interest faster than other RPGs)
Wyll's kind of an egregious example of how late things were still getting altered because most (if not all?) of his voice barks are still his old voice actor's. And then we have the artbook still mentioning Daisy.
As for the characters in general, my main gripe is the sheer extent to how much of their personalities just boils down to sex. Maybe that's just human condition and it's actually a realistic portrayal or something, but I am kind of spoiled by the crews from PoE or KotOR2 or NWN2: MotB (there's a game that handles romance EXCEPTIONALLY well and weaves it naturally into the main story!) where you may have a designated sleazeball or two but it's otherwise an adventuring party, a band of (not so) misfits who have enough on their platter to fall head over heels for the PC after a compliment or two.
Meanwhile here we have Halsin, who I am worried got hit hard with a flanderization hammer after Larian saw that most of the discourse around him was about how desirable he is. I guess they got what they asked for, and everyone has to suffer for it. Then there's Shadowheart who makes it seem that Sharrans spent more time on one-night-stands than their cult activities, Lae'zel and the "hot githyanki girlfriend" line of dialogue which I still can't really believe got okayed, Gale with his ex-related angst, Wyll who's... ever-so-slightly dull, Karlach who feels like an isekai self-insert, and Minthara who is blatantly unfinished and is also primarily seen as an object like Halsin. I would usually blame Bioware (and still do), but this slips into JRPG territory, except westernized so it's neither wholesome nor pervy in a sometimes amusing manner but instead a bad romance novel/fanfiction.
Loved this post, agree pretty much with everything you said.
I like romances in games, they are not that important to me but are a fun little distraction/addition to the story and its companions/npcs. But I do agree that the focus and over the top sexualization has lead to stories suffering and companions turning into waifus/husbandos.
As for KotOR2 and NWN2 (I like both OC and MotB), I never romanced anyone in those games because the story never felt like it needed them.
Although, I am very interested to see how Rogue Trader fares with reviewers such as whether or not they suddenly care about bugs or gliches and especially because it's going to be compared to a game that, frankly, doesn't exist.
I think that BG3 being successful is going to be a double edged sword for the RPG world. It will probably lead to more RPGs being developed but games like Rogue Trader that are more classical in their design are going to be criticized and treated poorly compared to BG3 for their lack of full voice acting, animations, spectacle etc. As for bugs, lol its Owlcat. Maybe RT being their 3rd game the bugs wont be as bad.
