Every time I'm reminded of this, I'm heart-broken anew.
Why can't we have both? Why can't good aligned players push npcs to be good, while evil aligned - push them towards evil? It's more fun this way, everyone gets what they want, and npcs are deeper for it. As it is, both Wyll and Karlach feel so shallow and boring, and it sucks, because I like them on a concept level, I like their acting, but they are so milquetoast
I completely agree.
I truly miss Early Access Wyll, he was fascinatingly interesting and actually carried a ton of weight along the journey. He was in fact so integrated within ACT I that I always had him with me, unlike full release where he can stay at camp and literally nothing is lost. He was essential in Early Access and was made shallow with full release.
Karlach on the other hand I have to admit, she pleasantly surprised me. I truly love Karlach as a character, but the fundamental mistake Larian did with her was tying her and Wyll together and by doing so both ended without a meaningful personal quest. Her personal quest is just two infernal irons and that's it, job done.
If they combined her Early Access personal quest motives with her full release personality, she'd be perfect and have an actual weight along the journey. As it is right now, unless the player is romancing her she also doesn't carry any essential weight along the journey. Unfortunate.
How I wish now I played EA. I bought the game months before launch, but I didn't play it to avoid spoilers, and when I changed my mind shortly before the release, my PC broke down and I couldn't fix it on time. From what I heard earlier, Wyll was a much more interesting character than what we got. The way you describe Karlach also sounds fascinating, in comparison to what we have now. Sigh...
Oh definitely, Early Access Wyll was a whole other league from the full release Wyll, exceptionally well integrated with ACT I to the point he felt essential to have around.
He was the kid from the burning village and its only survivor, that's when Mizora came to him through the burning pile of ashes and how they got together, as he swore vengeance upon the wicked. That's also how he lost his eye, as Torturer Spike was the one to cut it out and during Early Access Spike even had his eye in inventory.
His personal quest involved tracking down Mizora, who was actually already in an illithid pod on the Nautiloid and abducted by the goblins after the crash to be carried off to Moonrise. The illithid pod underneath the bridge between the Grove and the Blighted Village is actually hers and Wyll even had a unique comment about smelling sulfur and then you could Insight check him to find out he's tracking Mizora.
He was so hateful and merciless towards the goblins, that he'd ruthlessly execute Fezzerk in the Blighted Village and Torturer Spike at the Goblin Camp. And in his off-time he was still trying to do good by everyone naturally, but he knew he was no hero he wanted to be. That's why I always had him with me during Early Access, he was incredibly well integrated and interesting with a lot of nuance.
Also because I read your posts about Astarion (btw I sympathize about those dreadful facial animations during his kiss, they're awful), I think you would've loved Early Access Astarion too. He was incredibly well nuanced, far more than full release, and I will never forget my certain interactions with him which I wish were in full release.
He was a very mistreated and distrustful broken person, always on edge and assuming the worst, but given time his layers would slowly come to reveal his soft genuine side. He was pretty much like an abused dog who was never shown any kindness in his life.
Back then when the whole Dreamer thing was completely different and each companion's Dreamer was unique to them, his dreams were shaped to torture him through visions of Cazador. Because of this he would be extremely uneasy each night and he'd often lash out at the player as a defense mechanism if they tried to show him kindness because he's not used to it. I'll always remember how if you tried to hug him after telling you about Cazador, he'd snap back and threaten to kill you. But then the next long rest he'd cool down and slowly start opening up.
It was a very interesting slow relationship build up that really felt like us dealing with an abuse victim and slowly earning their trust to let us in as we peel away the layers. Quite beautiful overall. Naturally most of this is still in full release, but a lot of intricate nuance he originally had was lost in translation.
