Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Clownery

There is more and more humor in the game with each patch. Don't you think that in this way you will ruin the spirit of the series?

What are your particular observations on the subject of "clowning"?

I've found encounters like the tied-up depth gnome at the windmill or the philandering between the bugbear and the ogre to be fine so far. And I guess these scenes will dominate Larian's recent call for videos with fun gameplay experiences, etc.

But I can't stand it when the banter of the party is reduced to humor to compensate for a lack of good character writing. In BG II there was just one particular companion well known for good timed jokes Jan Jansen but if all companions act like Jan Jansen it's too much and also devalues a character like Jan. Larian should try to create a companion like Jan and / or to limit jokes at all and avoid jokes at encounters like I descripe below.


Humor in itself isn't bad, especially in dark times, but I agree if you overdo it, it's not good either.

Imagine a setting like the Bridge District of BG II with the BG 3 engine, where you'll find two of the sickest serial killers. Especially Riejek's basement with all the gruesomely disfigured corpses and body parts stinking to the point of retching. I imagine the whole thing much more brutal than the encounters with the gnolls towards Tollhouse. And then a little later at another location humor remarks come from the party, which seem simply out of place, because one has just gone through a horror. That would also kind be impious.

I was interested to read this (having not played in 2 years) but personally I'd say the spirit of the series has was dispensed with a long time ago.

I would be also interested in what humor each patch bringed. O_o

To quote Timmy Lee Jones: “I cannot sanction your buffoonery.”

Joking aside
Yeah, I don’t get what was supposed to be added that wasn’t there at release. The biggest offender I would say is combat that is mostly focused on creating looney tune slapstick.

Then there are animals that aren’t as much as humorous as they are distractingly sentient.

This, more or less.

Well, I think the comedic encounters are entirely intentional. The A.I. hopping around like rabbits, throwing healing potions, and shoving for little reason give the combat an air of hilarity. When the A.I. begins to exploit the broken stealth system by hiding right beside one of my characters for advantage, I'll stop playing entirely.

Honestly sometimes I feel like BG3 is really more of a twitch meme generator then a roleplaying game. They are leaning more into making it a something good to watch others play.

I greatly prefer serious games, but am not sure exactly what you are referring to that has been added.

Definitely

I can't even call that hilarious, it is ridiculous, eye roll inducing, and entirely not fun for me.

This seems to be a sad result of the instant gratification era and the streamer cancer, can't really blame Larian for going where the "popularity" is even though I hate it. It feels like a lot of games aren't created for long lasting play anymore, more like they are made to be as eye catching as possible, so the streamers (and their groupies for multiplayer games) spend money to engage with the game for a short while and then move on to the next flashy thing as soon as they get bored. The easily swayed herds purchase the games that their overlords are playing, get bored as well because they are all showy and without content, then idiotically do the same with the next game that they are told to play. Game companies get their money and "everyone" is happy. The rest of us that actually want to play games with actual content instead of wasting time watching something shallow get left behind.

The spirit is ruined. Even if they cut 50% of clownness from the game. Which would mean they cut ~30% of the game...

So the only way left is to enjoy the ride. The funnier and sillier the game the beter. It's build like an amusement park, (each major location is one) you go from one attraction to another and try to get fun or get scaried or surprised.