Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Please fix ascended Astarion romance scene

I'm going to give a ticket too, for the scenes and the abs. I hope, I sincerely and heartily hope, that the abs thing didn't happen because some guys were intimidated by Astarion and Gale's physique (with the resulting crying threads). I sincerely hope that everything is a failure and will be reversed shortly, otherwise someone might start asking for things like: cellulite, sagging tits, stretch marks...

For an Elf that has 200+ years of sexual knowledge, it better be a HOT AS THE 9 HELLS sex scene every time with our beautiful Vampire. This IS an 18+ mature game. Make every time with him be worthy of a Vampire, ffs.

Another patch, another sneaky censorship of the romance scene after a lot of negative feedback and restoration of some details in patch 5.

I think I'll best express how ridiculous this is with pictures.


NSFW (sex scenes comparisons - hopefully edited appropriately enough):



Seriously Larian, what is your problem with this romance scene? What is so offensive about it that you keep messing with it? Why leave Minthara and Karlach scenes so explicit while censoring an already mild one with Astarion?

I don't understand censorship, why do they invest time in this? You couldn't see anything explicit before in Astarion's scene, nothing! Just two people making love in the most traditional way. Who has complained about that scene? it's ridiculous xd

good job with image's comparison btw.

Sadly, I don't have a personal recording of the patch 4 version, so I could only imitate it with the footage from patch 3, and use the previously linked comparison vid from this thread for reference. Censorship of a vanilla scene while leaving the raunchiest scene untouched is one thing. But changing it every damn patch? It's like they have a personal vendetta against this scene. I won't be amazed if they use fade to black as soon as they lie down on the bed in the next patch, seeing the trend. In patch 8 they'll probably end the scene when they kiss while still standing and in patch 9 scrap the whole scene altogether.

Wth, I never knew the scene used to be so much better! I only picked up the game after the full release, so I'm a late comer compared to a lot of you in here. It did always seem a little short and traditional to me. I actually thought the scene was for both Ascended and Unascended Astarion the first time I saw it, with the kneel scene added for Ascended.

@Amertris Good work showing the differences. They are inexplicable, that's the only word I can come up with for this. I simply cannot understand the reasoning. There are so many things in the game that need fixing or that could be expanded and instead they chose to spend time and money on censoring a fairly tame sex-scene.

With patch 6 I find myself getting a little nostalgic for the days when you bought a physical copy of your game and there was no option to patch because so few people were on fast internet. It sucked when you got a game with bugs (amazingly rare occurance), but at least the product wasn't altered after purchase.

I am beginning to wonder what is going on with Larian. It feels like someone there has an issue with people romancing an 'evil' male character. They put him in the game and gave the player the option to romance him, but now it feels as if they didn't really want us to that and are actively trying to make the experience less fun.

I'm taking the game off auto-update long before I let them do that. In fact I'm planning to keep it offline if they patch the latest disasterous kisses so I don't get suprised again.


I know right? I still think it's nice that we can get updates on game after release, but this latest patch for Astarion really was like someone taking a black marker and scribbled over the best pages in you favorite book.

The original version was the best, there was no good reason to change it and censor it when Minthara's scene exists at the same time.

There are actual things in the scene that need fixing and they still haven't been addressed (again NSFW):

Thanks, great visual comparison!

I just don't get it, why constantly degrade that scene given what other players can do with their romantic companions? Mintara is a perfect example. Spending time and effort to censor a perfectly decent scene - something the players have never asked for and will never ask for, something no one needs, when there are so many real problems in the game (even in that same scene, as seen in the screenshots of your last post) Who needs it, after all?

Sigh…

I’m well past the point of being surprised. Larian really do hate AA.

Larian, please fix Ascended Astarion's romance scene so that is not censored. If the other sex scenes are not censored, then AA's scene should also not be censored. Also please expand spawn Astarion's graveyard scene so that we actually get sexy time, that would be great. Thank you! <3

Sigh, again really? I already hated the "candle censorship " and now is done again??? Why??

Really, I'm starting to think there's someone that DO hate this route at the HQ. I'm so tired of all the drama, to be "seen" as a psycho but enjoying this fictional route.

At this point Larian just delete the route all together, I'll mourn my beautiful Lord but I rather have that than see it become another case of "the crazy Dayneris from GOT" ,YOU ARE RUINING THE CHARACTER!.

What's the point of having the nudity censor button thing in the settings then? LOL. This has happened ever since Neil won that nomination I think, someone at Larian is definitely upset about that!

@Ametris you're always so good at showing the difference with your images, I hope you keep it up, Larian HAS to realize this is NOT okay!!

Similar opinions here why ?
Why censor 1 character so much and the other is left untouched ?

Its an 18+
You already censor it for other audiences - Japan
Western Media doesn't really need censoring GoT is an excellent example of that people don't mind sex scenes .
You have a nudity control setting if people are offended they can use that.

Again you seem to be picking on 1 character in particular You get a full frontal Astarion in act 1 however you seem to screw up the Act 3 Astarion scenes.

You had intimacy coaches working on it :
the graveyard scene with that cheeky leg hook on free camera is so much better than it's current camera angle.

You have these dom kisses coming out of nowhere for a basic consent scene "Can I kiss you "
get on your knees first and let me strangle you if you're going to play that card for just casual chat/actions but the one scene where it's 1 on 1 gets ruined because dark blurry images though you'll kneel and submit in the brightest scenes in Baldurs Gate the consistency isn't there.

I just don't like the mistreatment of a character that was written so beautifully prior to patch 6.

(You = Larian )

Thank you!

I agree, someone definitely has a problem with Astarion.


This! And they even added jiggle physics in one of the patches, lol. You can also fully undress him, have his naked statue but then you have a candle shoved in your face during a romance scene that's a culmination of his arc and was supposed to depict crazy sex, as people have mentioned here before.


I've finally seen a freecam version of the ascended scene and the leg hook is there too. It's a shame we can't see it in any of the scenes.

The angle where Tav is bending over is also awkward because you can't properly see that Astarion is planting kisses on Tav's back.

Why oh why do they always choose strange angles and awkward ways to show animations? I do not get it nor will I understand their cluelessness on this. It is just weird. Also, why only the ONE character? Attempting to understand the justification of these choices, when there is the Minthara sex scene.

The newest hotfix brought back the patch 5 version of the scene! Now if we could get the original one back and had the things I mentioned on this page fixed...

yep