Originally Posted by Elly
It's rated for mature audiences. If it had required a different rating or a warning because of the kisses, that would have come with Patch 6. (One of the kisses has also been in the game for even longer than that, in Karlach's Origin route, including the expressions.)

BG 3 is rated M (mature 17+) by ESRB on Steam. Why not A (Adults only)? Maybe because Larian management themselves wanted to truly make a Valentine's Day gift for the D/s audience, but something went wrong and there was a mistake? Quality control didn't look into it, for example.

Originally Posted by Elly
That wouldn't make the kisses a relative thing. It would still be decided for players who don't ask for kisses a lot that their Tavs would be ecstatic at being kissed that way. Even if someone would only choose them once and then never ask for them again, that would still be part of their story.

Is it really worth it for the sake of it for developers to take on all these problems with a game's program code? Romance in a game is generally designed for fans of the character, who love them and want to interact with them often. I certainly wouldn't get particularly worked up over a scene that I'll only see once. After all, I don't like how lustfully Halsin looks at me in the epilogue, but I still think it makes more sense to ignore it or skip dialog with him with a spacebar than to demand that his expressions be changed for the sake of a scene that I'll only see once.

Originally Posted by LiryFire
Goodness it really wasn't in the game, it was fanon, personal interpretations (like that he won't listen to Tav\Du like they like even though the intimate scene contradicts that), often ignoring that Spawn is as dangerous, as all of Astarion.
But that's the game.
So priority is given to the power couple, and all angst is limited to 3-4 lines, which lead to a breakup.
In Tav-Freedom line. Astarion pouts that he's not fun to be with and his love wants to destroy the eternal bond, he's trying to get back Tav's consent with gifts and all he's can now, that's all he does.
I criticized this angst line. It's almost impossible, Astarion is immoral all 3 acts, Tav cuddles him. Fanservice to make Astarion hiss and find out his tactics if Tav's eternal bond agreement changes abruptly. Written as a variant where Tav can leave Spawn Astarion, after all they've been through together.

To be clear, I don't mind others scenes where it can discuss, the night, the reaction of all the companions about Tav's vampirism. But putting fear into kissing as an opition, so that the character can enjoy Tav's suffering, well. Zero original idea - the balance of dark and fun, engaging, in the character.

Forcing the player to watch the fear on their character's face as they kiss, that's completely inappropriate. Good thing Larian will fix that.

Originally Posted by Elly
I think it's a bit disingenuous to say adding a dialogue flag to keep something that already exists in the game would definitely be too difficult or time consuming, after six months of asking for three entirely new animations to be created and implemented for Tav.

Mirmi has already explained in this thread why it would be technically difficult to make a way in which two different kissing options are possible for Astarion. To avoid repetition, you can go back a few pages and read that. Why other animations were needed for Tav (for those players who love Astarion, and don't just want to watch a scene they dislike once) - tons of text in different threads. I'm being completely sincere. 1000%.

Last edited by Marielle; 18/08/24 09:00 PM.
One life, one love - until the world falls down.