One of the reasons why we trimmed the epilogue is because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long and would detract from the epicness of the experience.
Deception check critical failure. Larian pls.
I was willing to grant them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to some disjointed writing/quests in Act 3 if they were pushing for a quicker release, but now they come out and say
It’s just important to know that what ultimately shipped was planned long ago, in function primarily of making Baldur’s Gate 3 fun to play, not for us to close development quickly.
Well… more power to you I guess, though I really, really hope they’re just bullshitting and will make a Definitive Edition in a year or so.
Because some Act 3 content was scrapped in a way that leaves hanging threads with no resolution, awkwardly pointing you to things that were changed/removed, such as:
spoilers obviously
Cazador’s Mansion entrance is through some kind of ramparts in Lower City. You only learn about Cazador from Astarion’s quest (and those Gur people I think), then you most likely kill him right after meeting him in his dungeon. This quest doesn’t tie into main story whatsoever.
Based on some speculation (of course there’s no way to find out what were Larian’s true plans for this character), Cazador was meant to be a politically important figure in Upper City, and possibly had more related quests. If devs dropped this idea, that would explain how Cazador became a random boss enounter that doesn’t really have any impact outside of Astarion’s quest. It also makes sense why entering his place is so weird.
Gortash’s coronation takes place in Wyrm’s Rest, a military fortress of the Flaming Fist and not, you know, High Hall where the parliament and other members of Baldur’s Gate upper crust (ahem Cazador) plot their political intrigues. Also Gortash doesn’t even get a Chosen’s form like Orin or Ketheric during their fights.
Omeluum’s ring, which was supposed to protect you from Absolute’s influence, has been at some point turned into an anti-charm item. In EA it used to block your illithid powers, but they’ve been reworked since. The dialog doesn’t really reflect that.
Kithrak Voss gains some battle scars and loses a part of his ear when you meet him later. AFAIK this is not explained at all in the game. Apparently it’s a relic of a now removed fight between Orin and Githyanki in the creche.
That Iron Flask quest with a trapped spectator has a lackluster resolution, possibly because it was related to Upper City at some stage of development.
Edit:
Infernal Iron, Enriched Infernal Iron, Soul Coins that have very little use
Gold, Silver, Bronze bars and a bunch of other items that feel like they should be useful for crafting
All the talk about ‘consequences’ of using tadpole powers. No, actually there are no consequences.
Personally I think in Act 3 general pacing is a bit wacky, also the amount of quests there are in Lower City is overwhelming. Is this a result of moving a bunch of quests that were originally intended for Upper City? No way to find out.
Of course it’s perfectly normal to cull content that seems too ambitious, time consuming etc., Larian just didn’t properly cauterize what was left after removing all that stuff, which made the story flow really weird in some cases.
Also in the release Panel From Hell (timestamp here) it was mentioned that Crystal, the associate writing lead spent 6 months working on various ending permutations, and now we don’t get to see most of them because they’re too long. Oof.
I didn’t follow the game in early access before this year, but this is the first misstep I’ve seen from them on messaging so far. Having a large section of the game ship with scripting issues and following it up with an abbreviated ending wasn’t what was “planned long ago.”
If I’m being totally honest, this reads like someone high up was annoyed (or embarrassed, more likely) by the cut content discussion and felt the need to respond. The rest of the paragraph is where they should have left it, because they’re right: there’s enough content, and every game has cuts. The number of loose ends that weren’t tied up makes it a little more obvious than usual, sure, but that’s the game that was shipped. Developers usually don’t comment on this sort of thing, and for good reason.
They’re doing everything right with what they have at this point in the release cycle. That doesn’t need to be accompanied by a ham-fisted attempt to spin the cut content discussion into fixes for Minthara, or borderline arrogant messaging in general. Just lay out what you have planned. People will be happy.
Deception check critical failure. Larian pls.
I was willing to grant them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to some disjointed writing/quests in Act 3 if they were pushing for a quicker release, but now they come out and say
Well… more power to you I guess, though I really, really hope they’re just bullshitting and will make a Definitive Edition in a year or so.
How do you know those quests aren’t the result of events not triggering?
Because some Act 3 content was scrapped in a way that leaves hanging threads with no resolution, awkwardly pointing you to things that were changed/removed, such as:
spoilers obviously
Based on some speculation (of course there’s no way to find out what were Larian’s true plans for this character), Cazador was meant to be a politically important figure in Upper City, and possibly had more related quests. If devs dropped this idea, that would explain how Cazador became a random boss enounter that doesn’t really have any impact outside of Astarion’s quest. It also makes sense why entering his place is so weird.
Gortash’s coronation takes place in Wyrm’s Rest, a military fortress of the Flaming Fist and not, you know, High Hall where the parliament and other members of Baldur’s Gate upper crust (ahem Cazador) plot their political intrigues. Also Gortash doesn’t even get a Chosen’s form like Orin or Ketheric during their fights.
Omeluum’s ring, which was supposed to protect you from Absolute’s influence, has been at some point turned into an anti-charm item. In EA it used to block your illithid powers, but they’ve been reworked since. The dialog doesn’t really reflect that.
Kithrak Voss gains some battle scars and loses a part of his ear when you meet him later. AFAIK this is not explained at all in the game. Apparently it’s a relic of a now removed fight between Orin and Githyanki in the creche.
That Iron Flask quest with a trapped spectator has a lackluster resolution, possibly because it was related to Upper City at some stage of development.
Edit:
Infernal Iron, Enriched Infernal Iron, Soul Coins that have very little use
Gold, Silver, Bronze bars and a bunch of other items that feel like they should be useful for crafting
All the talk about ‘consequences’ of using tadpole powers. No, actually there are no consequences.
Personally I think in Act 3 general pacing is a bit wacky, also the amount of quests there are in Lower City is overwhelming. Is this a result of moving a bunch of quests that were originally intended for Upper City? No way to find out.
Of course it’s perfectly normal to cull content that seems too ambitious, time consuming etc., Larian just didn’t properly cauterize what was left after removing all that stuff, which made the story flow really weird in some cases.
Also in the release Panel From Hell (timestamp here) it was mentioned that Crystal, the associate writing lead spent 6 months working on various ending permutations, and now we don’t get to see most of them because they’re too long. Oof.
I didn’t follow the game in early access before this year, but this is the first misstep I’ve seen from them on messaging so far. Having a large section of the game ship with scripting issues and following it up with an abbreviated ending wasn’t what was “planned long ago.”
If I’m being totally honest, this reads like someone high up was annoyed (or embarrassed, more likely) by the cut content discussion and felt the need to respond. The rest of the paragraph is where they should have left it, because they’re right: there’s enough content, and every game has cuts. The number of loose ends that weren’t tied up makes it a little more obvious than usual, sure, but that’s the game that was shipped. Developers usually don’t comment on this sort of thing, and for good reason.
They’re doing everything right with what they have at this point in the release cycle. That doesn’t need to be accompanied by a ham-fisted attempt to spin the cut content discussion into fixes for Minthara, or borderline arrogant messaging in general. Just lay out what you have planned. People will be happy.