NPCs coming and going as part of the main narrative or their own character arc is great, but committing to and preventing from changing up one's party after only the first act is yet more evidence (to me) that Larian simply is not up to the narrative task this game set before them.
Honestly, swapping out party members throughout the course of the game is a staple of the BG (1&2) games. Certainly one has favoured party members that rarely, if ever, are changed out...but this? I'm sure it's not the end of the world or anything, but this only erodes my confidence in Larian even further (which I hadn't thought possible). I mean between this, making this game look like Dragon Age (seriously, the art looks like it's recycled from DAI), a studio completely unproven in their narrative design abilities (which this party commit thing post-Act 1 further demonstrates)...I mean I get it's not enough just to copy what came before and they need to also add new things and their own spin....but c'mon.
Larian talks a good game, but it's becoming more and more clear to me they have little idea what BG actually is (granted it's many things to many people), but they seem to lack even a core understanding of what made BG1 & 2 such absolute successes.
