Spirited! hehe
I think these boards are pretty reliable when it comes to sussing out the potential pitfalls and all the various reasons that a BG4 will probably never get made now (at least not to my satisfaction, or in a timely fashion.) It took what, 6 years to make this one? With 2 of those years in the oven before we even found out what was cooking. A long lead time there. Especially if they gotta re-pour the foundation again, instead of using the one that was just built out.
I guess I'm mainly just reflecting on my own sour grapes and sorta grasping here, because what I wanted was another game in this same series.
Not in the sense that BG3 was a continuation of BG2 (it's clearly a completely different game, even if I do find the vibes similar) but rather in the sense that BG2 was a continuation of BG1. Coming hot on the heels such that both games stand together in my mind. The whole import character, continuing adventure thing, same system - new campaign.
I would like a BG4 to be a continuation of BG3, in that sense. The BG2 campaign is almost entirely disconnected from BG1 in terms of the story. Aside from a handful of returning characters, the story of BG1 and the story of BG2 are each distinct. So it's easy for me to imagine a follow up campaign to BG3 that uses this formula, but which has nothing much to do with Illithids or the Steel Watch stuff. They could just move it to another locale in FR and pull another thread, and I think I'd happily charge into a new story. I mean I didn't really need all that anyway, I just wanted Durlag's or an interconnected dungeon anticlimax to ice it, but also something with professional production values and a coherent aesthetic. Just so it would harmonize and feel like it was building on the same style of play, but it's harder to imagine how another studio could step up when the engine here is proprietary. Like the Wizards own the setting and all the IP, these characters and such are theirs now, but the engine is Larian's. I almost wish they had spun off a team just to do an expansion and have that as a focus for whichever devs and tech artists didn't feel totally burned out on it already. It's hard to picture everyone in the studio all of the same mind, all breathing a sigh of relief in unison at not having to follow their own showstopper. There were probably at least a few peeps though, who were still excited by the prospect of an Expansion or Sequel for the most popular D&D computer game to date. Instead I think we will probably end up with a BG4 eventually, but where we won't see that for another age. It will be so different by then that they no longer really connect in a meaningful way for the gameplay.
I just wish they didn't have to bail on it, because I think the game has legs. Did they do things I didn't like? Sure, there's always room to improve, but they also did many things right, in particular somehow capturing the trance state of BG restartitus and zen replay. On the whole this is the best Baldur's Gate game since the year 2000. Like for 20 years I'd play BG1 or BG2, at least once or twice a year, always the first game installed on a new computer. Just like that I anticipate playing BG3 for many years as part of the same ritual. It scratched the itch! Somehow they did it, for me anyway. I have trouble returning to EEs now, too special edition-y for me. BG3 has eclipsed BG1 or BG2 as my go-to now. I didn't think it could ever happen, but somehow it did.
That's not to dismiss the jank or the disappointment, cause I feel all that too. But it's still the best in show, and I'm still surprised that I ended up loving BG3, instead of hating it, which I worried might be the case for most of Early Access. I credit Jaheira with a lot on that front, she did some serious heavy lifting for me here. In that sense I could see myself still caring, and do hehe. Good points though
Last edited by Black_Elk; 27/06/24 10:58 PM.
