I think the reason the potential story I mentioned never saw the light of day is simply due to a lack of time and resources to be put into developing it. There was clearly entire years put into the story of Act 1, which is polished to the point of perfection after being available in EA, but I think they put so much effort into this that they couldn’t put as much work into the rest of the game. Theres still some vestiges of what likely would have been the “evil path” visible in Act 2, as you can infiltrate the cult and do things like help Marcus and Balthazar, but those choices ultimately funnel you into the same climax of fighting Ketheric that all the other choices do. All these ideas probably just got scrapped because Larian realized that based on EA, evil playthroughs were of course much less common, so they consolidated their efforts into one straightforward heroic path that gives some wiggle room for you to make individually evil choices. Their need to rewrite the later parts of the game seemingly bled into the earlier parts as well, as we lose the original tadpole power system and it became a more neutral mechanical system as opposed to an integral part of the story. It even looks like some of the ideas of taking over the cult and joining the absolute were recycled into the story of the Dark Urge and their connection to the Elder Brain and the chosen’s plot.
I really wish there was some way for the community to band together to tell Larian that more BG3 is what the community wants above anything else. Theres so much that could still be done with this story that it feels like a waste for Larian to wash their hands of it permanently. People online complained enough about the Justice League film that the Snyder Cut was released, but the problem we face is that the version of BG3 we received was already praised instead of hated. I don’t want to keep going on and on about my disappointment to the point it bothers other people, but I feel like I’ll never be able to drop this subject because I’m so passionate about the game that I would sell my soul to see it at it’s full potential.
I think there would have to be a concise and consistent list of criticisms. I truly hate "petitions" for things like this because they feel so cheesy and silly. And while Larian is mainly going to be seeing (deserved imo) praise right now, after the hype has died down critical analysis of the game might become more common.
