Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Warnings in the game - necessary or not?

My issue is more with how the game treating situations as disturbing and harmful in one scene and as a joke in another.

The coercion scene that can happen with Astarion has always been taken seriously. On the other hand if you took romanced Gale to the brothel pre patch 6, almost the same scene was taken as a joke to make fun of Gale. (The change to player dialogue has made the general situation much less horrible now - if you leave Halsin out of it.)

The Haarlep scene was only ever a reason to say "No" for me. It's an affirmation of my autonomy - especially when play as Avatar-Astarion. I did take a look of it on yt though and I suppose it is treated as a bit of kinky fun, which I think was a bad call. A mate recently had the ogress be out of reach for Z'rell when asking for an example of her new powers, so instead of a demonstration of pain, they got a demonstration of pleasure. Which my friend said was a description of an orgasm which they found very disturbing. Something like that would have been better for Haarlep too because narratively it should not be fun.

But yes, like you, I like horror. Not because I find it pleasurable (in the "rivers of blood are so cool!" kind of way) but because I experience a moment of anxiety and survive. I have no problem with disturbing scenes being disturbing, I want them to be. Aylin's rage is perfect because it's not gratuitous but terrifyingly brutal. The same goes for Ketheric's introduction scene, you are supposed to be terrified of this sad old man and I feel, after his introduction, most players are. Where I have problem is when there is a disconnect, and the medium can't decide if it wants to be serious or a nsfw cartoon. And that's not something you can really put up warning screens for.