Shadowheart now basically pours her heart out after a few nights and you are her instant bestie. And her cottage core tradwife ( exaggerating here, but you know, what I mean) ending when romanced is just too much for me. I would have preferred her more complex personality from early access.
Astarion: same as with Shadowheart. I don't look for rising his approval, I play the way, I picture my characters and I usually have the bite scene in the third night and I hate it. In EA he was more careful and paranoid for a longer time. Granted, he doesn't do a 180 like Shadow, but I still think, his reveal comes too soon. Yes, we all can see, he is a vampire, I still loved to find the clues and him trying to come up with excuses ( for the bloodless boar for example). Same with Shadowhearts reveal, that she is Sharran: both are big things. Most people in the Forgotten Realms would not trust a vampire or a Sharran, so I would love to see both reveals a bit more of a big deal. Though at least, Astarion stays somewhat paranoid up to the drow encounter in Moonrise, which is a nice touch.
That fits with Astarion in my first playthrough. If he was able to feed off animals, it was stupid to try to feed off the party leader who had just kicked him out of the party. I can't remember about my second game, but maybe I wasn't resting as much and so missed a few night time cutscenes due to conflicts. I certainly didn't try to raise his approval, but my second character is seeking power and doesn't care about hurting people unless he can get something out of them, which chimes with Astarion's attitude.
As a player I was wrong about Shar's goals in my first game - I knew she was evil, but not "end the world" evil. Maybe I wouldn't have kept Shadowheart in the party if I knew.
Gale: in EA it was possible, that he makes a pact behind our backs with Raphael, if we don't give him magical items. That was kind of cool and it gives a sense of dread and more motivation to maybe break into the House of Hope to destroy the contract, Gale might have made on our behalf. He is ambitious and takes care, to not kill others, plus he is not opposed to dealing with Raphael, so for me, it is sad, this story element is gone.
Ooh, I like that idea. Presumably that's instead of him leaving or exploding? I've still not played with Gale, because I kicked him out of the party in the first game because my character couldn't know that he wouldn't explode at any moment; he left in the second game because we were too evil.
