Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General A Question about Sexual Content in BG III

I’ll almost always take the “romance” option, but when it comes to animation, it’s probably a good time to put the kettle on.

Prude

Normally I agree, but the sex scene with Fane in DOS2 was hilarious, so if that were animated I would be fine.

Ideally, I just want to see the dialogue leading up to the scene and then just fade to black. I never need to see anything like the God awful Dragon Age sex scenes ever again.

Fading to black is lame, I wanna see some action!

I prefer it as unrealistic and as graphic as possible. Hehe.

I think people are already expecting heavy romance options, if you take into account some articles.

Hehe. I KNEW it!!

I think the moral of the story truly is, "just don't Dragon Age it." Dragon Age took itself very seriously while having really awful animations and expressions and cheesy music for their sex scenes. The whole thing didn't work, but nobody seemed to have the heart to tell anyone the Emperor had no clothes there. Such a shame. Somebody really needed to say "this is ridiculous" and everyone else needed to listen. That did not happen. Major mistake. The Witcher's stuff was both better animated and more tongue in cheek, so it was more successful, albeit still... not always equally so, and not so pleasing for the male-attracted for the most part.

Pillow talk lying down in a tent would've been both easier to do AND 100x more intimate-feeling. Shadowheart's hair clipping through Astarion's hand gave a tiny whiff of that, so probably a single finger stroked down the cheek or throat or shoulder would be a better idea in the final version of the game. Caresses only work if you're not distracted by glitches. DA2 did it so much better than DAO, but it was too sparing. I still would prefer some pillow talk rather than all the upright clothed conversations in convenient underwear, however; why can't we just show everything from the armpits up and imagine they're naked still? Sigh. I never understood these things in games. If you don't have incredibly good animations that will work with all character models, then just rely on voice actors and writing to carry the scenes. Bad sex scenes are really sad and embarrassing for everyone... Inquisition did it so much better it's insane, but even then it was a bit sparing and didn't feel so spontaneous as it might have been if it had happened when you were out and about, being driven somewhat by plot rather than just "you cleared this mission, so more content is available at the Keep." More like in the novels where you have a forbidden union during a long excursion in the DA equivalent of the Underdark, all gloomy and compelling for its hopelessness and danger.

Give me a boatload of sexual tension and sensuality sprinkled throughout over a scene with awkward boning animations modeled after porn any day. Give me unrequited feelings on the player's side or on the companion's side where someone's constantly trying to convince you they're better for your PC than someone else. God, that would be amazing, actual longing and wary tension and personality conflicts rather than just petty manufactured drama for drama's sake. Imagine a quiet PC pining for Astarion, probably without knowing all his flaws, with Gale noticing and constantly pointing out that your intellect would be wasted on him, peppering in barbs and flirtations, maybe even letter it boil to a fever pitch where he finally takes you aside and makes some impassioned plea for your affections, after which you can crack his poor heart and have him suffer, or just give in and sleep with him, after which you can either stick with him or still be drawn to Astarion and have to leave Gale with that one pity lay, which might leave him still carrying a torch or telling you to go to hell depending on how you let him down. (If you prefer, trade names for Lae'zel or Shadowheart or Wyll, of course, with circumstances adjusted per character.)

I understand that in Ye Olden Days of Yore, it would've been too sophisticated in terms of coding... but if someone could do it in the modern day, the inevitable binary confrontations simply not happening would be amazing. I like that Lae'zel won't care, but I also would hope to see less open characters becoming infatuated or even outright falling in unrequited love like that. It would be so much more interesting than those interactions where you could just feel the code happening. A more sophisticated, mature brand of romance would be so amazing, and would make any hopefully-classy touch animations feel like they mean something.

Ideally, I just want to feel like I'm living in a good fantasy novel while playing D&D. I know that's a big ask, but after DOS2 I would say Larian can do it if anyone can.

I just wanna clap some mindflayer cheeks.

Exactly.

*fist bump* I agree 110%

I hope there are booty call options and brothels, or should I say Feasthalls given this is the Forgotten Realms, for characters who don't want a commitment.

Hell yeah!

Do you think we will be able to masturbate in-game? So as an alternative for sex, we can make our main character masturbate?

This is an interesting point. If the goal in an RPG is player choice, it is a good question why we are being shoehorned into "romances" and "relationships." Seems very contradictory that on the one hand we are told "romance" in games needs to be diverse and inclusive (and for the record I am fine with this), but on the other hand certain alternative preferences such as just no-strings sex with multiple partners and no romance, or even such things as romantic poliamorous relationships, are not included.

What generally bothers me, ususally, is lack of courting. Which I imagine is rather difficult to do, as it takes time, and nuance. I think that's why I started to dislike romances as more options were presented. It makes everyone look like horny idiots. Be it Mass Effect2&3, Dragon Ages or Pillars of Eternity2, everyone just seems to want to have sex with PC. Which I find distracting, disingenuous and somewhat distasteful. It's one of those: you can ignore all or most romance options, but you can't stop NPC to get aroused when you enter the room for some reason.

To be honest... I can't remember this problem being in D:OS2. I triggered one romance, as was intended, and I don't remember other characters hitting on me.

Yeah I agree completely. As demands for more options became ever-increasing, the offsetting result was a huge dropoff in quality, nuance, and depth.

But then again, isn't this (what you describe above) the millennial way? Everyone has sex with everyone else? It's what we now get in movies and TV shows.

LOL

Thoughtful post, Wynne. *Hat tip*

I think my feelings about this sums up with : Romance, sex, brothels, one-night-stands, epic love stories? yes, but if it makes sense or add something to the world and the story.

I remember the "night lady" of the gothic game included a short dialogue and cutscene and all that stuff but it made no sense for her to be there and she offered nothing more than a nude cutscene.
In other games like tyranny, DoS2 or PoE 2 you can chat with the ladies and gentleman in the brothel, learn their stories and some of them are part of a quest, something that adds flavour to the city itself. I hope BG3 goes in that direction.