BG3 needed a year more of development to get brought up to a proper state.
As someone who experiences any game as an overall artform rather than systems upon systems, it's truly a shame when wonderfully ambitious works of art end up mistreated due to poor development management and then never reach their full potential they were destined to reach. There are unfortunately so many unfinished aspects in BG3 that could've easily been corrected with just a tiny bit more time and care, which are now going to become a permanent stain on this wonderfully ambitious work of art, something that as a player who participated since Early Access hoped would be addressed either through regular development or the Definitive Edition... but ultimately now won't be addressed by either, which is even worse and will make BG3 go down for me as just an alright RPG (great overall but terribly unfinished).
I'm sure whatever Larian ends up creating next will be an even better game overall even if it doesn't end up as big or as widely successful, because it will be coming from their heart. Something that's truly theirs, something they'll be truly passionate about and be able to shape however they envision it. There will not be pre-existing fanbases to appeal to, no pre-established lore to adhere to, no restrictions on what they can and cannot do. They will have absolute control over the project and I'm looking forward to seeing what that project is because they've grown as people and hopefully learned what and what not to do when it comes to development management. Because when something is truly yours, it is a completely different creative feeling (and pride).
And although I respect Larian's decision to move on, unfortunately the mistreatment of BG3 affected my perception of them as a player who wants nothing but the best for the game. I tremendously loved my time here during Early Access and even at launch, because it is their overwhelming passion, ambition, devotion and potential that initially drew me to BG3 and their enchanting DOS series despite never having played a turn-based game before. But as time went by it gradually became more and more obvious that their passion was slowly diminishing with each passing month just by reading through the patch notes alone, to the point of eventually even announcing it to the whole world themselves during the game's peak.
As someone who played Divinity Original Sin 2 for so many consecutive 100% playthroughs precisely to see how every miniscule detail is addressed throughout the game for every major and minor character and still intends to play even more in the future because I LOVE that game, I would never imagine such a passionate studio that created that wonderful work of art ending up with poor rewrites, forgotten details, abandoned plotlines, rushed parts, contradicting additions and so much more in BG3 to the point of even uncaringly having two companions not registering each other at all at camp along with so many other narrative issues... when in DOS2 even a tiny 'insignificant' crab on a beach ended up having an amazingly satisfying storyline.
Although I have no doubt the next game will be great precisely because it'll be their own love child, I'll be staying away from it because I've no faith they won't repeat the same development mistakes yet again with Early Access and post-launch due to community demands. After seeing what these two periods ultimately did to BG3 overall, all I can say is I hope they trust in themselves, their narrative vision and do not budge from what they envisioned. To finish the foundation of the narrative first and then begin Early Access only to improve the game's existing aspects like story reactivity, fluidity, additions, safeguards, gameplay and so on... so they don't end up yet again with poorly rushed mistakes like Karlach, Wyll, Halsin, Minthara, the Dream Guardian, the Emperor, the illithid parasites, the entire evil side of the story, the majority of ACT III and the drastic imbalance of content (like giving their most overdeveloped character even more camp interactions yet again with Patch #7, when there are numerous suffering aspects in dire need of development attention).
What I would truly love to see is for Larian to elevate themselves with bigger, richer and more intricate stories like the iconic trilogies Mass Effect and the Witcher. To come up with a beautifully enchanting franchise that so mesmerizingly establishes a wonderful sense of belonging within its vast immersive setting and ends up creating personal bonds equivalating that of a close family by the time we're done with it.
I wish them luck, will be too busy trying to finish what they started here.
