Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@BearsEatBeets Good to know.

Yeah, some of the early game interactions that came to mind as I was typing that response to Maul was when you meet Barcus Wroot, I think is name is or something similar, the little Gnome guy attached to windmill. The first time I came across the situation I said or did something that tossed him off the windmill to his certain death. I reloaded simply because I didn’t like that outcome and unknowingly opened up his entire storyline which spans all 3 acts and resulted (in my case) of him taking over as leader of the Ironhand Gnome group and becoming an end game ally. It’s crazy how such and early simple interaction on the windmill could completely lock out that storyline. Another thing I did early was make some poor dialogue options and ended up in a full-scale war in the Grove fighting off all the druids and getting all the Tieflings killed. I reloaded from there mainly because the combat scenario was really difficult that early in the game and I felt bad for the Tieflings and decided I didn’t want things to go that route. So I reloaded and made sure to take the peaceful path, got the Tieflings out, cleared the Goblin camp instead, etc. And knowing if I wouldn’t have done that then I would have lost access to many characters, such as Dammon, and I’m not sure how that would have affected things with Karlach and her heart engine being unable to be temporarily fixed. She ended up being my romance partner so it’s mind-boggling that things could have taken an large turn in the opening hours and made me go a separate way. There’s a similar watershed event (I think in Act 2) where Shadowheart and Lae’ Zel fight at camp and SH killed LZ and was like “oh no… I can’t have this happen” so I reloaded.

The game is just full of so many tethered threads and I am still in awe of what Larian accomplished here.

@Th3solution Congratulations on beating the game man. Very happy for you. I'm impressed, I know it's been a long haul for you so I'm glad that the journey has come to an end at last. Feel free to tag me if you feel like posting some post-game reflections on the experience.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Thanks, buddy! I’m really chuffed with myself for completing the journey. There’s immense satisfaction in finishing a long epic.

I know your true passion is for the From Souls and Sekiro style games, so putting it in that context, the last time I was this deeply invested in a game was Dark Souls 2 last year. BG3 has almost nothing in common with the Souls games, but in its own way it immerses the player and makes the player devote a lot of metal energy and time into tweaking skill points, strategies, exploration, and failures teaching you to try different approaches. So in that way, it scratches a part of my brain that enjoys that puzzle of making a build and leveling a character to maximal effectiveness for my playstyle.

The barrier to entry is high also, just like with the Souls genre, in that you can’t just pick up and play and expect to be successful. To survive you really have to understand the mechanics and systems, or else you quickly find yourself on the losing end of a battle that gets out of control. Although the game is much more forgiving than a Souls game due to infinite saves at nearly any point in the game, even mid-battle. But there’s a lot of trial and error and reattemtps at bosses, like in a Souls game.

The game is truly a wonder and even though I’m satisfied with how it ended and ready to move on, I’m also sad to see it over.

@Th3solution I think I felt the same way when I beat DS3 for the first time, like you say, those games are where it's at for me. But, yeah, it's still cool you got to experience it in that way, and, yeah, maybe it's a distant cousin of the Souls games in some sort of way.

@Th3solution i'm interested, as Karlach was your partner, what her ending was like for you (and also some of the other "side quests")

I think these aspects were a big part of why people fell in love with the game. But also, there is something undoubtedly satisfying about strolling around the world and getting into fights and finding more weird npcs to help along the way, as you say. It's proper questing bliss. And how does turn based combat actually feel so good to us usual action gamers? All of these things are also why I accidentally put another massive bunch of hours into Divinity II before stopping myself 😂 it's like gaming crack! Larian really know what they are doing, for sure. But other games do exist, right? Right? 😬😬😬

The fact you finished 300 hours and do still think, "well maybe I go again, one day" kind of makes me think you felt a lot of the same things I did when playing. And your desire to try and do everything and anything pretty much matched my first playthrough, too.

If you find yourself in a year or so thinking nothing quite scratches the same itch, then Divinity II is literally the same recipe, but with maybe less intensely deep side arcs. Everything is familiar as a game, but also very unique.

Luckily you have all-time great games like TW3 or Elden Ring still to come, so the itch can be scratched in other ways. But, I think like me, you have certain games that are in a tier of their own that almost make other games pale in comparison, and the wait or search for the next one on that level is always tough, as even very good games just won't cut it, sometimes.

@Th3solution pretty similar, overall.

@Ravix So as for Astarion -
I did get the rage stabbing sequence when he kills Cazador, and the relief he feels. I didn’t talk to him much beyond that and so I may have missed some of the full impact. I don’t remember it being difficult to convince him not to ascend and take the power, so perhaps I had a higher relationship with him that I realized; I don’t think I had to save scum to convince him.

For Gale —
You know he was one of my favorites and I had a really good relationship with him, even though I let him down easy when he wanted to become romantic. But when we got to the end and he said he wanted to go find the netherstones and reforge the crown for his own use and not give it to Mynstra, I warned him that we’ve spent all this time fighting gods and why would he want to grab the power and become corrupted and become the thing we just had to defeat. He got angry at me for the first time, saying that he knew he could handle the power, and why didn’t I have faith in him to use the power wisely, or some conversation to that effect. So finally I said, “ok, do whatever you want” and ended it that way thinking maybe it would salvage our relationship in the end. But when he shows up at the reunion he has silver skin and has become a god - “the god of ambition” and that he was gathering followers and helping people with their ambitions and kind of came across like “see, look at me — you thought I couldn’t do this and I’m now a god and you owe me an apology” He was a little snarky like that, and I just let him revel in his new godhood and left him alone. I think there was even a dialogue option to ask him for favors and keep me in mind as a disciple or something, but I chose to just let him exist in his hubris. It was a sad fall from grace for him, and I think it would be a great arc to follow (perhaps in the TV show sequel) his descension into corruption by the power in a follow up storyline.

@Th3solution Welcome to the post BG3 void

I had to play a few small indie games to go for something completely different afterwards before committing to another big game.

I hope the final battle lived up to expectations though. That final sequence is quite cool and it was fun being able to call in for support as well.

Interesting to hear some of the different endings from people as well, especially your Gale ending. I messed up the romance in the game a bit so I sort of had a fling with Lae'Zel for a while and Will but binned them both off. I didn't recruit Karlach until after the tiefling party (I was worried about taking on a devil in the early game..) so seemingly missed out on her. The horniness in the camp at the party is quite something though!

@Thrillho Good to know I’m not alone in the post-BG doldrums. 😄

And the indie idea is a good one. I have one of those going already. And actually, I’m feeling more comfortable to open a new AAA game now, but it will be something tonally and mechanically different.

And as far as the BG3 romance, that first party is definitely a jolt to advancement of relations, but it’s amazing how many of the characters are so easy to romance anyway. I had Lae’ Zel, Gale, Astarion, Minthara, Halsin, all proposition me, not to mention Mizora, and the Emperor as well— and none of those did I really try to flirt with really, I was just nice to everyone, and tried to respond to them with dialogue that I thought they’d like (for Minthara it’s a little tricky to get her approval when doing a “good guy” playthrough because a lot of the responses that she likes are the evil ones) I never intended to romance any of those other characters yet they were throwing themselves at me nearly from the start. In the beginning I had targeted to romance either Karlach or Shadowheart, the latter of which is probably the toughest one to do and takes the longest, so like I mentioned I got her to step 1 with SH, but Karlach was so much faster that I’d gone that direction early enough that it locked me out of the next step to advance the SH romance. I was happy with it though because Karlach was so fun to romance she really comes across as both shy, submissive, and sweet and also aggressive and an alpha at the same time. She really sells the relationship well of her being head-over-heels in love. When you fix her heart so that she can be touched without burning yourself, it’s such a great moment as the first human contact she’s had and it was so sweet. Then after entering the relationship, if you chat at camp with her and ask for a kiss or a hug her eyes and heart get a blue glow for a while instead of her fiery red glow. It was all really emotionally sound. That’s why I was a wee bit disappointed with how things ended, as I noted above.

Oh, and I did actually try to see if I could romance Jaheira as I found her fun to talk to and tease. But apparently she’s not romancable and has a husband in the old Baldur’s Gate lore already, as I guess she’s a returning character from the former games.

@Th3solution Stupid, sexy Jaheira (yes, I also wondered if she was romanceable).

I'd heard that the Karlach romance was a really sweet one so was interested to try and pursue it but I missed the boat I think on my run. Kind of wish I hadn't ditched Lae'zel but whatever. I did decide to get jiggy with Halsin just cuz (and to see the infamous bear scene for myself!)

And speaking of Jaheira, did you recruit Minsc at all? I don't remember seeing you mention him and he was a great character who I did mess around with using multi classing towards the end of the game but given how late he joins the party, you don't really have the emotional connection you have to the other party members, even if it is worth it to have Boo join you

@Thrillho I would have liked to see the Lae’Zel late game partner scenes too. I kept a good relationship with her, after letting her down easy when she wanted to get physical, and I saved the egg for her and I think I saw somewhere that if you romance her then you can get an epilogue scene with her being the mother to raise the child from the egg and I would like to experience that, because her arc is a really powerful one in how she changes from early game to late game. Similar to Shadowheart’s arc in that regard.

But yes, I successfully recruited Minsc but as you say, by the time I did it was so late in the game and I was flush with party members so I had limited time to get to know him. It’s too bad though because he’s a great personality and Boo is adorable. At the point he joins I had a solid rotation of characters that I was using as a primary party and I would only switch out and use the others when it made sense narratively. Unfortunately after you recruit him there’s not really any story points that are specific to him, at least not that I found. And mechanically to learn a new class was not as efficient as getting better with learning the late game skills and strategies for the four main members I was already using. I would still check in and talk to
Minsc at camp though. Is he romanceable?

@Ravix

At dawn, I woke up
In the blistering light of the sun
Gladness in my face
Before me, sat my only son

Come hither, my chil--

Attention! Tjuz has been removed from the premises. Our pub does not condone... checks notes... children! We are an adult establishment (allegedly).

How's that for the start of what will no doubt be a hit song for years to come? I can already see our careers booming! And yes, you have warned me of weird conversations, and no, I cannot stop myself either. 😝