1y ago

Baldur's Gate 3 is 'romance for games 101,' former Dragon Age writer says

www.pcgamesn.com Baldur's Gate 3 is 'romance for games 101,' former Dragon Age writer says

Love and romance have become an integral part of Baldur's Gate 3, but former Dragon Age and BG2 writer David Gaider says BG3's romance is "too overt."

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It seems like he said this before Larian said there was a bug making romances happen too quickly, so I wonder if his opinion would change after it’s been fixed.
- Ooh, is that for all romances? I was rather shocked with the progression. Basically had the ability to start almost all of them in act 1, then no progression through act 2, and come act 3... well I assume they continue, I just stopped playing at that point.

Am I taking crazy pills or something? BG3's romances are way better than DA's, at least DA1+3.
- Everyone in this game was mad horny for me from the get go. Yes, I know it was a bug, but that was the game we've had for the majority of release right now, and the version of things most players experienced. Give it a month and another play through, and maybe we can talk, but so far, this game's version of "romance" is just overt horniness.
  
  It was really weird having people in my camp I never talk to or have in my party fawning over me. Just started my second run so we'll see how different it is without the bug
- This is the same guy that dismissed AI being able to write for video games in the future.
  Both this and that commentary struck me as someone with a bit of an overinflated sense of their own ability.
  BuoWare stuff was good, but not the best writing I've seen in games, and certainly not the best writing I've seen in media at large.
  The biggest accomplishment was doing branching dialogue well in an AAA game. (Something automation is going to do incredibly well at aiding).
  
  you talk like someone who never had to work with dialog
  AI is completely garbage at doing anything like this well unless your standards are at asset flip tier

I was trying to romance Lae'zel and was a bit taken aback at how blatant and easy it was. It didn't seem particularly realistic or well done to me. We were basically just traveling companions and then a single dialogue option was enough to initiate romance. I've basically never talked to her before so this seemed rather sudden. Perhaps the games assumes a lot of hidden dialogue that travelers would engage in, but when the rest of the game feels realistic it seems out of place. Maybe she is just the type of person that is really open romantically, but considering others have felt the same way about many of the other characters I suspect this is not the writers intention. Then after having intimate relations it seemed to have no relevance to the story and the character didn't even care that it happened. The intimate scenes themselves were also rather lackluster and didn't show anything explicit. I'm not sure why the character creation had you so vividly pick what type of genitals you wanted if it was irrelevant to the intimacy scenes.
- That was confirmed to be a bug, I believe it is fixed as of the last patch.
  
  Good to hear they may have changed it. I probably won't get around to a 2nd play-through assuming I manage to finish my first play-through.
- Laezel doesn't care about romance at first as far as I understand it. She wants the sex. Which is something normal for travelling companions, especially when they have a killer parasite in the head.
  I can't tell for the scenes though.
  
  I can kinda get behind the friends with bennies angle, but there's a lot of "yours and mine" chatter too. Like, don't make our lizard frog sex weird, Laez!
- Lae'zel is something of a special case, but I understand where you're coming from. Her romance essentially starts with "Wanna be friends with benefits?" and doesn't develop from there for a while.
  
  And then having what I considered to be a casual one night stand with her then basically locks you out of most other romance options, which is stupid
- I actually had fun with the romance options triggering so easily, because it cemented my Tav’s personality, lol. The poor thing is horribly social awkward and has no idea why all these weirdos she’s stuck with keep trying to get into her pants while she’s failing so hard with the one person she actually likes (Halsin). Her only plans now are to find a way to run screaming back into the woods once this shit is done and never deal with people again (she’s a ranger). Playing a character having to fend off everyone as she strikes out with the only one she’s into has been hilarious af.
- Gay sex with Lae'zel on day 1, let's go!

I don’t know… I put on a toga and a squid, demon, and a bear all tried to suddenly bang me (despite me being neutral or friendly to all of them)… I’m not sure this is romance…
Side note: was it a coincidence that the toga looking outfit seemed to trigger three separate encounters? The flavor text does say that it’s for seducing.

I couldn't agree more. If a bug, I'm curious to see what the intended behaviour is. I disliked Mass Effect for that same stuff, and it takes away from the immersion. By which I mean, it's fine for it being in RPGs, but make it convincing by subtleness. The first act was a sudden dialogue options of "wanna fuck?", or "awh, seemed you wanted to fuck X instead".

Here's a link to the actual interview this quote is from: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/david-gaider-interview-romanceable-companions-and-his-cancelled-planescape-sequel
The most interesting thing I learned from this is David Gaider wrote Carth fanfiction in response to KotOR feedback.

I was really hoping that romances in games would be a fad. AAA games are now shipping with shipping being a main draw of fans.
Sad.
- In the Witcher I was late to a windmill to meet some bitch with a bottle of wine and just uninstalled. It's just not much fun for me. I did have fun turning the dong off and on in cyberpunk to watch the jiggle physics go ape shit, though.
  Lasers and fireballs not titties and, well, balls.

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