No obvious time pressure in act one? You have Druids performing a ritual that will seal off The Grove, goblins have found at the Grove and are going to attack soon, and yeah you have a tadpole in your head that everyone is saying that you need to get out as soon as possible before you turn into a mind flayer. Even those who say that it is not acting normal will tell you that you could still at any moment. Add to that that Zorru saw Gith just recently and they ain't gonna logically wait around all week for you and Halsin was kidnapped and the goblins aren't gonna keep him alive forever and the cult is searching for you...
Sorry. I have to disagree when you say that the story is not time-sensitive. In fact one of the biggest things I have a problem with is that the story seems very time-sensitive. Everything about the story is you have to hurry before the tadpole takes you over, The Druids kick everybody out, the Goblins attack, Etc. Your party members even nag you a lot about getting your butt moving. Besides reminding you a lot about the tadpole Lae'zel also reminds you a lot that you need to find the Gith creche. Then, once you find out about Gale's condition you feel even more like you have to race against the clock before he explodes.
But then, the game designers make it so that you have unlimited rest. That doesn't make sense with the story then you should be able to just end day all the time. It is like The Druids are going to take 2 weeks or something to finish the ritual and everyone else is just waiting around for you to do what you need to do. So go ahead and take your time, that is what it seems to me that the designers have done. The game says hurry hurry hurry but the game designers say take your time it's okay. On top of that the game designers encourage you to rest a lot in order to get all the dialogues. It just makes no sense to me.
Totally agree with this.
There are a lot of inconsistencies between writing and game design. GM4 gave very good exemples related to the rest mechanic but it's something that is in many aspects of the game.
When I say there is no obvious time pressure, I mean that nothing ACTUALLY happens if you ignore the game's imperatives. Obvious time pressure is when you have a little countdown on screen somewhere and/or something horrible happens should you not follow the game's imperatives ( example, Garrus dies in ME2 if you don't follow the game imperatives ).
In common with many games, BG3 gives you the narrative reasons to behave in a particular way if you want to, but does not force you to play the game that way.
You can choose to feel time pressure in BG3, because there are many cues that you should, and play the game at speed by following only a main path, and feel satisfied for having resolved the narrative in a manner that appeals to you, and is "as designed", if that's what you like.
But not everyone wants to play games that way, and as a result, many games will allow you to work through them at the pace, and in the way you choose. Usually I play an RPG according to narrative cues on the first run, then in a different manner on subsequent playthroughs. More often than not, ignoring the narrative cues, to some degree, provides me with a more enjoyable game overall.
This isn't wrong, and isn't a design fault. It's a recognition that the potential audience has many different desires when buying and playing the game. Many of the aspects of the game that Larian are criticised for are like this. Their changes or additions are designed to appeal to the widest possible player base, often following industry common practice, while still providing their core game vision.
If anyone chooses to criticise Larian on the basis that there is only one "right" way for an aspect of the game to work, then honestly, that person has no understanding of the videogame industry.
