Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Disappointed in Larian

I don't think it's a bug. Ascended Astarion is definitely not very attracted to the Mindflayer Tav, but he is willing to cooperate, he says, we are both Monsters. He accepts such a Tav. So it's not surprising that they end up together. Unlike Spawn, who says, I'll try to get used to it, I love you, but in the end he can't come to terms with the Mindflayer Tav. This is just in the character of Ascended/Spawn Astarion. The fact that you find this wrong is another matter. This is not a bug, but your unjustified expectations. The same with other aspects of the game, are you sure that these are bugs and not how it was intended?

AA straight up INSULTS Midflayer Tav and doesn't even want to see them. Also AA will always break up with Tav he can't control, like when they refuse to be turned into his spawn. So of course he doesn't want to stay together with a mindflayer, because he can't control them. He is the one who breaks up without any suggestion to try to make it work, it's Spawn who says he doesn't want to lose Tav.

- Why does Minthara feel like she was put together by a single developer without any QA testing only a few days before the game released. She's got barely anything to do once she joins your party (just one example of how the so-called "evil path" was seemingly abandoned and left in the dust) and the things she does do never work properly, with a huge chunk of her dialogue having been bugged for a whole year since the game released. That's ridiculous. Even Mr. Halsin, who is only there because bear sex is a funny joke, has things to talk about, and has a fully functional romance arc in the third act.
- Why is pretty much every "evil" choice you can make in the game just a slight variation of the good path but with blatantly less content. You want to raid the grove and infiltrate the cult of the Absolute instead of playing the part of the heroic defender who stands up for refugees in need? Congratulations, you're going to go to the same place and do the same things as the good guys, but you miss out on several recurring npcs and lose multiple members of your party. Larian really liked to talk about how evil the game lets you be before it came out, but it seems like most of the uniquely evil content ended up on the cutting room floor as they realized their vision for the game was too big and needed to be narrowed down.
- Branching off of this, why was the very interesting and fully written storyline of the dream visitor just thrown in the trash can before the game's release and replaced with the messy story of the Dream Guardian and a tadpole skill tree instead of the complex system of gaining illithid powers that was present in Early Access. Back then, you were able to really roleplay being evil and being seduced by the lure of power that the tadpole offered you, which would organically steer you towards the evil ending we currently have in the game of dominating the brain and becoming the absolute. This whole story was just replaced with the dream guardian showing up regardless of what you do and just saying "Please trust me and eat the tadpoles. They'll make you stronger and have no consequences to them at all." That of course also just leads into the silly reveal of the emperor, who is a character that doesn't make any sense. There's really no possible way that he could feasibly be Balduraan based on established lore, and that important part of his story is never even going to be seen if you're playing an evil character (the ones who are more likely to join his side) because for some reason the reveal of his identity happens as part of Wyll's personal quest.
- Finally, there are just so many issues with reactivity in Act 3, showing how little time it had to bake in the oven after the developers spent years adjusting every detail of Act 1. The companions go from having something new to say every ten steps at the start of the game, to suddenly being completely indifferent to the world around them and having no reactions to anything unless you're actively engaging in their personal questline. They just kinda stand there and watch as The Dark Urge either dies and has their soul brought back or willingly chooses to become the chosen of the murder god. Also, going back to the Emperor for a moment, he is constantly present in Act 3, but adds nothing of substance and is so inconsistent with his own words. He'll constantly tell you "Hey, don't do that thing you're doing. It makes me angry and we need to remember to work together" but when you do it anyway he just ignores it the next time you see him and speaks as if you've been following his every command to the letter the entire time and are his best friend.

Trying to side with the evil parties; Sazza, the Duergar, Nere, Kar'niss, Marcus, Dark Urge's gnolls, Balthazar, Ketheric, Gortash, Absolute... all vanish permanently, leading absolutely nowhere.