The game is very theatrical. I think by hiring all those theater peeps and leaning way into it, they were able to tap into something that I haven't really seen before in video gaming, like where the whole ensemble just elevated the material. Just about every bit player nailed it, hitting all their marks, so when even the rando NPCs are coming like it's their big breakout role, that makes the entire production just feel pretty next level. Pitstop did a lot of heavy lifting I think. I mean I fell for this game based mostly on the Strength of Lae'zel hehe, but they're all pretty great! Then you add into that mix the vibe of EA, which was sorta like checking out the band at a smaller venue, before they go launch off into the stratosphere with stadium shows in later days. I don't know, but it feels vaguely like that, or what I imagine that to be like.

The Art direction was also very solid. They gave me a lot to hold onto there. I mean there are scenes in the second act of the game that just threw me right back to stuff like this that I grew up on...

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]

It had that vibe for sure. But I think it also worked in part because, rather than trying to be whatever a D&D thing typically is, or was, it instead drew from the things that D&D always draws from to come at it obliquely. Like a pastiche on the swords and sorcery or film fantasy genre with the broader strokes. It's more like a pop riff on the D&D cultural touchstone, blended with like netflix and chill, the inside jokes and all that, which is what BG did too, except that then it would have been more like night at the movies, or sitcom/saturday morning cartoon callbacks. BG just had a different angle than some of the other entries I can recall, which preceded it in my mind, in that it was already tapping into the recyclotron thing that would come to define the spirit of the age at the turn of the millennium. Like what if we took the B plot from Highlander 2, but with doppelgangers? Also, Newhart somehow, and then just ran with it across the board? Every random Hobgoblin barking like the best of og warcraft hehe. The new one came especially clutch with the Goblins doing something pretty similar. I also thought they did a nice job with the Gith and Tieflings, which for a novelty still in FR player species, felt pretty well executed.

The game feels simultaneously solipsistic and communal somehow. Like Arcade Game accessible, aimed at all comers, but also a total black box that's really hard to unlock or climb inside solo. It has a similar sort of paradox to it that I can remember from old arcade fighting games when those first dropped, necessarily more social, cause like you have to learn the moves by watching other people play right? Or maybe your friends tell you how to throw a blue fireball or handcuff or whatever, and then apply that on your own time and your own dime/quarter/token. BG3 takes random ass stuff from D&D mechanics/lore and applies that same sort of Street Fighter 2 special move or super combo concept to FR, which is very sticky. Like it's just sticks a different way when games take that approach, where it's a communal discovery and you feel like an insider while playing. Like 'hey maybe I'm the first to actually see this play out exactly this way? crazy!' even if some of that is funhouse mirrors. I don't know it's like if you were in the parking lot before a Dead show, waiting on a miracle, and then bam, suddenly you're in the front row. You want to share the experience, or share in it, and then the game sorta leans into that by making it fun to be pedantic about D&D stuff and teach the game while playing the game.

I don't think this one achieves anywhere near the popularity it did without D&D. People have suggested that, and Larian moving on would seem to suggest the D&D/BG legacy isn't really the special sauce here, but I still think it is. I'm only here because Larian made a Baldur's Gate game. I'd have no clue who these people were, were it not for that. Game could have been called DoS 3 like some said it should have been, or was masquerading, but I'd have slept on that for sure when it came out. I wouldn't have put in hundreds of hours on the upswing, or swooped a thing on spec just hoping it might hit the high notes. There was an expectation that, because it was Baldur's Gate, that it would have to kick ass, or die trying, and anything less would have been a real letdown.

For the Bear stuff, to me that signaled that the game would be sex positive and just generally more self aware of it's moment in time, like in the comedic way that I appreciate when the humor is timely and self deprecating and all the things. It's a send up, clearly, and a way to say something like 'See, we're not uptight. We can throw an alright party. See! Every Bear gets laid!' Whatever, it worked. The actual game isn't really like that, it's much more saccharine and way less tawdry. Like even in that very scene, to watch it vs hearing a recounting of it, pretty different takeaways. I don't think the game was particularly high octane sex driven, like is that what makes it cool? Cause I'm more into the Squirrels, and all the little 'awwww, isn't that adorable' moments with the Dog and such. They made it just sweet enough to play at being a fairy tale, while also being a psych horror slasher flick at the same time. Way to thread the needle there lol.

Hard to say though why it worked or caught on. They'll probably be trying to figure that one out for a while. Like years maybe

Pretty wild