Can we please stop debating the writing of 20 year old games and focus on BG3?
The criticism was about BG3 not knowing what it is at it's core. We have storytelling with mature themes, explicit decapitation and eye stabbing in photorealistic presentation, and then we have cutesy talking Disney cartoon animals and goofy Super Mario -like gameplay with lots of jumping and videogamey elements in an adult RPG.
It's not about having lighter elements or humor here and there. Even horror needs those to be better horror. It's about mixing different styles and genres to the point where the game just feels like a mess without an identity.
I think it's more accurate to say that you don't know what it is. If characters couldn't jump, people would complain, characters can jump, and people are complaining. In some games, all this jumping around is known as parkour. It's implemented better in some games, AC franchise springs immediately to mind, but it's far from the only series where it's included, and ironically, some of them are pretty successful franchises. The last I heard, Uncharted was pretty popular, and then there's the Tomb Raider series, original and the recent reboot. I seem to recall that Horizon Zero Dawn was pretty popular as well. I played it on PC, and it was pretty fun. Is it ironic that nobody is complaining about jumping around in those, when they don't even have a Jump spell, and yet, here we are? Is the Jump spell unique to just the video game? It's not? Then why is it suddenly an issue, and how is it "videogamey"? If we didn't have the Jump spell and action included, would you be complaining about that?
Despite your claim here, that's exactly what it's about, otherwise you wouldn't point out some comedic elements in your "dark" game. I'm left wondering, what is it that you expected a dialog with a squirrel to be like? My forum name is based on what I was doing in real life when the internet first came out. I travelled around a lot within a hundred miles or so of my current location, playing guitar at Renaissance Fairs, and charity events. I even have a piece featured in a 9/11 memorial in a NWN module. I would rehearse in my back yard, and you'd be surprised at the amount of wildlife that would hang out to listen, including squirrels. Seeing them around Alfira didn't even phase me, because I've actually seen it happen. I've never talked to them though, it wasn't an idea that I found attractive, figuring it'd be focused on how they needed to find nuts, or something similar.
I'm analyzing BG3 as I see and experience it. And I think you're off the mark here and thinking in weird extremes.
No one is asking to take jumping away from the game as you seem to assume. There's simply a difference between jumping over a gap or out of a fire (as you can do in D&D) and jumping 20 feet high to reach a high ground platform (like you can do in BG3 but cannot do in D&D). And the Jump spell is a completely different thing altogether because it's supposed to be a superhuman magic jump. You are only looking at the big picture while I'm talking about details.
Same with the talking animals. No one is saying they shouldn't communicate when you cast Speak with Animals. But again, there's a difference between animals speaking like they are characters in a Disney cartoon with human-like intelligence and animals communicating in a more primitive way like.. animals would.
And what does this list of action games have to do with a turn based D&D CRPG?
They are all video games, with "videogamey" stuff in them. The horror, right?
Yes, I am looking at the big picture, because the big picture is what matters. I want the whole game to succeed, not a conversation with a squirrel. I don't care what happens in a TT game, I'm not playing in it. I didn't go "Ooo, it's 5e, I have to buy it", I went "ooo, it's BG 3". With the caveat that "it's also early access, so things are subject to change". They could have run with 3.5, and it wouldn't have mattered to me, the edition doesn't matter, the title, and it's legacy do. If it fails to live up to that once it's released, I'll be right there, stating that in no uncertain terms, but it won't be because I didn't like an optional dialog with some squirrels, or an implementation of Jump.
Why are you arguing over details that don't matter to you, then? Seems like a waste of time and space. Larian asked for feedback and trying to shoot it down isn't useful to anyone.
