Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Was BG3 overly sexualized?

This is something that happens while you travel (though it’s hard to catch when you’re playing with a translation, because many of the dialogues are invisible when your companions walk behind you). But it’s always one-on-one interaction, not group-interaction. Which may be an intentional choice because it limits the complexity (doing personalized group interaction with every possible set of three out of 8 characters would cause algorithmic explosion of the possibilities).

My issue with those one on one dialogues (other than it being pretty easy to miss them) is that they all feel very shallow. It doesn't feel like we get good insights into how they interact with each other. And I definitely would have wanted more moments where the group as a whole could bond or interact with greater depth.

I never considered this before but it's a good point. Even with certain characters interacting with each other inside or outside of battles, you need to meet strict requirements for them to happen which depending on what you choose to do in your playthrough you might never see. If a few dialogues could happen without those restrictions and including the whole group (e.g. during camp after ending the day and everyone huddles around and just chats about without necessarily needing to chat with every single one of them individually) that would be interesting to see.

the answer is no , the marketing and fandom probably over sexualise it though making it seem its all about sex.

If we break down a couple of romances you get big bits of nothingness which falls into the story arc of that character

Astarion will come on to you super early sometimes even before you've even spoke to priestess gut which is like the 5th thing you do , you get scene number 2 fade to black shortly after then nothing until you trigger either araj or Yurgir near the end of act 2 then nothing unless you complete his ascension as the cemetery scene is fully clothed.

Gale: he has his freak out super early if you kiss wyll in early act 2 and you hadn't even realised you'd triggered Gale's romance status " the weave" threw me a fast ball and one of my games has no romance what so ever even at very high with all thanks to Gale putting me off and I like Gale . his waterdeep date is sweet the astral sex umm not sure what to think there , the bed in the woods all fully clothed .


Shadowheart so far I've just triggered the first scene it's a mild chat and good morning kiss .

Lae'zel is a fight and a kiss on her first trigger.

Halsin should of been utilised as a romance choice once you save the grove because leaving him till act 3 seems like he's making up for lost time.

I know the fandom want more and I know large number of the Astarion fans are throwing a hissy fit with the latest patch including me AAstarion was my evil choice from the start of my durge run I'm beyond unhappy that my evil will be Bhaals chosen is looking like a scared sex doll at his hands I am fine with the aggressiveness but not that submission narrative forced on me by animators.

I am all for adding a bit more of romance or adding in a few extra tidbits I'm pleased that the new added lines to Gortash with Durge makes it an interesting bit of bait and the Durge X Gortash fans scream for joy though we'd love to actually see it animated.

So No it's not over sexualised there is plenty of vacuous space between romance scenes and if you hadn't hooked up at act 2 with anyone you're forever alone unless you take the one offs or Halsin.
I'd rather see a second chance hook up party in act 2 as I want to see the others personal arcs but 35 save spaces suck.

Hehe

But then again, this is Larian's homebrew Realms, where drow and "happily ever after" *can* go together, I'm guessing. LOL

Or maybe you simply missed the point of the comparison

OK, I have seen the scenes, and they are a joke.
Who are you kidding?
That wouldn't turn anybody on.
It's laughable.

yep, she really lacks of race restrictions
something like raven from arcanum would be infinite times better

Apparently the tumblr standards are that low. And the mainstream journalism ones, what with how this is supposed to "re-invent" RPG romances both from the structural and the cinematographic perspective. Andromeda of all things looked and worked better than this! And the actual romantic/narrative aspect still remains unmatched in Mask of the Betrayer. All the JRPGs are out there as well for the actual romantic build-up and proper interactions with the LI.

My main gripe is how low-poly everyone is with how close they are willing to place the camera in the scenes (not just the sex ones). And how poorly the bodies handle any pose except for the spine upright ones.

In reply to your query OP, I'm finding it hard to settle on a simple 'yes' or 'no'.

In my first playthrough I wanted to romance Astarion but alas, he had 'standards' and Tav didn't meet them. Everyone else propositioned her though and later Withers mocked her for being alone. It felt a bit to true to real life there, having the one person I was interested in being totally disinterested in my character. :P

I think the romance options are great and I'm really happy they are in the game and that there is no restriction on who your character pairs with. That said, I feel the relationship side of things is rather neglected.
Being propositioned by characters Tav had hardly spoken to felt off and the speed with which it happened felt a bit too quick. I wasn't really sure how much I liked them at that stage.
Friendship between the companions felt undeveloped. I miss a lot of the banter in the open world due to characters being behind me and having hearing issues in RL. By the time I've turned Tav round, I've often missed at least a part of what was said. I'd love to have the option to have that dialogue written bottom screen. More important I'd like to see more interaction when we rest.
After act 1 the interaction just seems to drop off (maybe I'm bad at picking up cues).
In act 3 it's particularly noticable that our companions are just standing by their beds doing very little. You have a nice big fire in the Elfsong that is completely unused.
"Sit by the fire? Nah, I'll just stand by my bed and look bored."

So, in conclusion I don't think the game is oversexualized, but I do feel the romances are badly paced and I can understand people feeling they are being pushed into them.
It feels like the game is saying relationship = sex and that's the only option.Tav's relationship with the characters she is not romancing could really do with further development imo.

You can see the banter between companions in the combat log. I also have to check this all the time because I miss half of what's being said.

@ Ido58 Thank you so much for telling me! I never realised.

Maybe they are not meant to turn you on, but instead to show the development of the partnership between the characters?

Ok, I've asked this in another thread but I see Arnes quote so its a perfect time to ask.

Lee you say that those sex scenes wouldn't turn anybody on, so my question is why would they need to?

I can't count how many times I've seen people in this fanbase bring up the need for fully animated sex scenes, and my question is why? Every response to this question I've seen was always something along the lines 'you're a prude etc.'

Are fully animated sex scenes really necessary in video games? Are people that sex starved in their actual lives? (I know this last question is a bit inflammatory but I'm just baffled by it.)

I think a common response is "To justify the choice to implement genital options in character creation"

Though a more realistic answer would be immersion. Wierd fully clothed grinding on each other or disappointing fade to black sequences for such an act during the relationship can be jarring or outright turn an intimate act into something comical.

Sex can be a major point in character interactions, for some relationships it can be an incredible show of intimacy and skipping over such an interaction and thus not doing an important moment justice is terrible for characterisation.

Even for less intimate sexual encounters there's something to be shown there, where it's characterization that the people involved are merely looking for self-gratification which can contrast against the more intimate encounters.


Are they necessary? No.

But can they add to a game? Yes.

Not everything about a game is "Really necessary". But it's still included because it enhances the overall product with its inclusion. For example, depictions of violences aren't necessary, BG3 could easily have it so when you go and attack a goblin there's just a fade to black and then there's a satchel of loot where the goblin died.

Fully animated sex scenes can add to a video game. Are they needed in every game? Of course not. But some games that may have a focus on deep characterization and romance might opt to include them to better portray an intimate act and how characters develop because of it (Without creating an antithecal effect of comedy from above mentioned poor representations)

Essentially, there's a lot of characterization that can be shown through sex scenes and it's a disservice to the medium to obscure or pervert the act which can significantly reduce the impact it otherwise would have, for what? So ignorant people don't claim "Porn game" when they are completely oblivious to the nuances in character development such scenes can provide? (Yes, I'm aware of other factors involved with fully animated sex scenes - Revolving around age ratings and censorship laws which cause such things to impact video game marketability. But pussyfooting around these things won't ever create cause for the repeals of such arbitrary decisions regarding sex in media)

My belief is that the big difference here is that the person gets to feel like they're involved in the scenes, that the "sex," such as it is, is interactive. That's the difference, and that's the draw. They're not just watching a video; they are a part of it. Or at least, many people *perceive* it this way, even though the person's participation is actually not real.

You might as well ask why porn is such a massive industry. You can't honestly be baffled by people enjoying sex in media.

Cinematic in-game visuals sex in games such as BG3 makes the RPG experience even worst. Simply because it looks bad, its badly acted and its sometimes just plain weird and out of touch in the Faerun D&D world.
That people find this amazing and amazingly directed is just beyond me. Or people THAT naive and sex taboo and deprived???

Its silly at best to my eyes. And mostly hilarious. Adds nearly nothing to the game; with a VERY FEW well done romantic exceptions. Are people actually in awe at these scenes and crying ??
The issue here is HOW IT LOOKS and acted. It derails the entire RPG experience and turns it into a Leisure Suit Larry moment. I am sorry, I don't have all of your imaginative views of how it is...I see stupid naked computer model clumsy moving, its silly. Its funny.

And being able to SKIP NEARLY all of them, makes it even more hilarious because YOU KNOW, you just KNOW behind EVERYONE's smirk...there is a wild wild thing waiting for you in the woods. And hell yea they are thinking about it, no doubt about that. Just say the word...
So hell yea BG3 is overly sexualized, to a point it ruins the entire game for me. They should of focused more on FRIENDSHIPS.

Let's focus on our opinions of the game, and try to avoid sideswipes at those who don't share our views!

I found sex a bit too easy to get to - maybe that was before that patch , but I didn't want that experience in my "baldur's gate" rpg, a beloved franchise which harks back to a more innocent time. The game often equated being nice to people to wanting to get into their pants. That is very off putting an irritating. Everyone's mileage will very on this front - but I found this this most sexualized RPG I have played, in the sense of unwanted character advances. Other games are more subtle, or just did a 'fade to black'. I really don't need pixel sex in my life (if I want porn, there are better options, seriously) . I have played the witchers, cyberpunk, Dragon age etc - and none of those left the same impression on me. The Wicther1 had those stupid sex cards etc, but I just ignored that - and *no hard feelings. no one felt slighted* In BG3 sex could happen way too fast too. Sex != (friendship | strong feelings of loyalty/platonic love). Can't you care about someone without needing sex? That doesn't seem to be what the game wants you to do. Also, it is *highly* unlikely that a githyanki would every consent to mating with a lowly being like *your* character (unless you played a githyanki). It would be nice of there were some consequences to your character construction choices, but Larian erased all of those already so hardy a surprise.