Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Rhobar121]

Mintharra hating on you for breaking up with Bhaal is absurd. Bhaal is the Absolute, all that shit that she's bitching about non-stop happened while the brain was under control of the Dead Three. Now she's fine with selling out TDU's ass (and hers, and everyone else's in the world) to the same guy? To what end? Bhaal's endgame is a worldwide free-for-all, where the last living human climbs a mountain of corpses, looks to the sky and yells "I've won!", and this is is the future that Bhaal-controlled TDU will bring about.
Once again, the game would be considerably better if TDU was the Banespawn, not Bhaalspawn. In that case, Mintharra's logic would kind of make sense - at least Bane's ideal world is consistent with hers.

I feel like the only reason Dead Three is even a thing in this game is so people don't cry that it's not a sequel

 

[Fedora Master]

Bhaal is the Absolute

Wut

 

[Fedora Master]

Mintharra hating on you for breaking up with Bhaal is absurd. Bhaal is the Absolute, all that shit that she's bitching about non-stop happened while the brain was under control of the Dead Three. Now she's fine with selling out TDU's ass (and hers, and everyone else's in the world) to the same guy? To what end? Bhaal's endgame is a worldwide free-for-all, where the last living human climbs a mountain of corpses, looks to the sky and yells "I've won!", and this is is the future that Bhaal-controlled TDU will bring about.
Once again, the game would be considerably better if TDU was the Banespawn, not Bhaalspawn. In that case, Mintharra's logic would kind of make sense - at least Bane's ideal world is consistent with hers.

I feel like the only reason Dead Three is even a thing in this game is so people don't cry that it's not a sequel

Exactly

 

[Larianshill]

Wut

Until act 3, the brain was under total mind control and was powerless to make any decisions. So any of it and the cult's actions (such as capturing and mind controlling Mintharra) before that point are not it's own, but that of Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul. Mintharra is mad at the puppet, but seems to love the puppetmaster.

 

[Fedora Master]

Until act 3, the brain was under total mind control and was powerless to make any decisions

No it wasn't

 

[jf8350143]

Dark Urge doesn't need to be good to reject Bhaal. There is even a line says something like "from now on all of the murders are on you own, not Bhaal".

It's already proven not only by the first two games but also in this game that being baalspawn doesn't necessarily means you have to do what Bhaal wants. You can tell him to go fuck himself.

I'd argue that only a retard would choose to be Bhaal's little bitch, evil or not.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You guys spend much more time on thinking about this games main quest and writing than Larian...

 

[Fedora Master]

The entire plot was orchestrated by the Brain, this is explained right around the end of the game.
Unsurprising really since the Chosen are complete blithering idiots.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Wut

Until act 3, the brain was under total mind control and was powerless to make any decisions. So any of it and the cult's actions (such as capturing and mind controlling Mintharra) before that point are not it's own, but that of Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul.

No, the Idiot 3's plan was flawed and the Brain was just pretending to be controlled to get them to do the work for it.

It also respected the Dark Urge for some reason (before he got a lobotomy from Orin) and considered him it's equal. After his fall it lost any respect for him and just wanted him as it's slave.

 

[Jeskis]

So Larianshill hasn’t finished the game?

 

[Larianshill]

No, the Idiot 3's plan was flawed and the Brain was just pretending to be controlled to get them to do the work for it.

We explicitly know it isn't true, because the Brain's plan involved getting some of the Chosen killed (by an outside party, because it could not have done it itself) and getting the netherstones into its posession. It was a long con that paid off, but it very well could not have, and in the middle of the plan the brain was enslaved and vulnerable. There's a whole mini-game in the act 2 that reveals that its plan has been hijacked.

 

[Stoned Ape]

No, the Idiot 3's plan was flawed and the Brain was just pretending to be controlled to get them to do the work for it.

We explicitly know it isn't true, because the Brain's plan involved getting some of the Chosen killed (by an outside party, because it could not have done it itself) and getting the netherstones into its posession. It was a long con that paid off, but it very well could not have, and in the middle of the plan the brain was enslaved and vulnerable. There's a whole mini-game in the act 2 that reveals that its plan has been hijacked.

This is probably the most comprehensive thread about the terrible plot problems in BG3. Everything which is not in italics is compiled from information given in game (either from cut scene, dialogue, or in game texts), the stuff which is in italics is speculation based on that information.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=898808&page=1

Now, with the Dead Three united, they can place the Crown atop the Elder Brain beneath Moonrise. Specifically, Durge places the Crown atop the Brain, which will quickly become important... One unknown factor to Gortash and Ketheric was that the Brain itself - likely thanks to the netherese infusion - could have easily broken free if it so wished, but it began revering Durge and calling him it's master willingly. The Brain claims it is because Durge gave it "everything" and that his plan was devious, his cruelty unparalleled.

 

[Sunri]

Did they add mating press in the new update?

 

[MerchantKing]

Did they add mating press in the new update?

No. They had to delete the animations from their forum due to legal concerns. You can still see them on archive though.

 

[KeAShizuku]

Black Isle wrote a fairly simple story for BG1 and 2 and told it well.

Larian went of the deep end and worse: they bit off more than they could chew.

 

[jf8350143]

Anything revolves around emperor makes no sense and full of plot holes, another reason why act 3 is so awful.

It's pretty obvious they shoehorned him into the story last minute and didn't put much thought into it. The writers probably think themsleves pretty clever and proud of this character since they decided you need to work with him or go fuck yourself.

 

[Lambach]

Anything revolves around emperor makes no sense and full of plot holes, another reason why act 3 is so awful.

Maybe I was just too much of an idiot to pick up on clues and foreshadowing, if there were any, but

Spoiler

the Emperor actually being Balduran

was by far the dumbest and most cringeworthy thing about him, because it just came out of nowhere and didn't really serve any narrative purpose other than being a "shocking" revelation just for the sake of being a "shocking" revelation.

 

[Itoh]

The revelation changed very little about

Spoiler

the emperor himself, but it did add context to the dragon sidequest and provided an adequate pretext for why there is a zombie dragon and why you have to kill him

so despite that, I can't be too mad at it

 

[Lambach]

The revelation changed very little about

Spoiler

the emperor himself

That's probably my biggest issue with it. You'd think that learning something like that should be a really big deal instead of being brushed aside and never brought up again (AFAIK) after the Quest is done.

 

[Jeskis]

1. The writers probably think themsleves pretty clever and proud of this character since they decided you need to work with him or go fuck yourself.

Aye, it’s one of those fake alternatives this game seemingly offers, but if you choose the wrong one it’s just nah man it’s scripted gameover kek.

Black Isle wrote a fairly simple story for BG1 and 2 and told it well.

Larian went of the deep end and worse: they bit off more than they could chew.

I agree, their story is all over nuanced and branched with lots of backstory yet somehow lame.

That's probably my biggest issue with it. You'd think that learning something like that should be a really big deal instead of being brushed aside and never brought up again (AFAIK) after the Quest is done.

Yep. The game’s world overall exists separately from the narrative you experience. This was very nicely handled in BG1 where the most of the story was concealed from the naked eye and the world lived without knowing all the action. It only experienced the top of the iceberg which were iron crisis, Amn threat and the bandits and it reacted properly to the major events while being justifiably oblivious to the underlying shenanigans.

 

[gurugeorge]

Basically it's a villain soup, which makes it unfocused and all over the place. You could have had either Thorm or the 3 or the Brain or the Emperor or Raphael as major antagonists, maybe at the most two (an earlier big bad leading to a later big bad pulling the strings of the first), but all of them together is just a complete mess.

I do think it's fairly innocent, it was just Larian being nervous of not making the game "epic" enough to honour the legacy, leading to them feeling they had to throw in the kitchen sink, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. But some restraint would have been better - for us and for them, so they could have had an even more polished game with less stress. It's not like the villain overload actually added to the kudos the game has received - that was all gotten from the impressive density and immersive-sim-like quality of Act I, which is fairly simple and straightforward plot-wise (although even there, it still has evidence of lots of reworking).

 

[Larianshill]

All of this reminds me of Divinity 2, where we have the Voidwoken and the God-King, and Dallis, and bishop Alexander, and Lucian out of nowhere (and Lucian is not even the finall boss, a different surprise villain is). And as a result not a lot of these storylines get developed. Like, bishop Alexander gets established as an immortal villain early-on, sort of like Ketheric. His immortality is specifically noted to be weird and out of there, and you'd think they'd do something with it, or at least explain it, but they don't.
I agree with the fact that that absolutely nothing about the Emperor is good, and the game would be better without him and his sexual harassment.

 

[Fedora Master]

Again, they wanted an Illithid story (which they got wrong) but had to do a Dead Three story too because brand recognition.

 

[jf8350143]

I have to disagree. They planned the dead three from the very beginning. There are already the dead 3 symbol in the very first trailer they show.

Also can Dead 3 even considerred an iconic part of the first two games? I doubt people would care if they are not in there.

Then again I doubt they can make a good story even without the whole dead 3 thing. Their writing of the Elder Brain is awful as well(especially when it interacted with Dark Urge, it feels like fanfiction from AO3)

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

The other isssue is that you go from the most interesting villain to blandest one. Ketheric is intriguing when you first see him and has some actual depth. Orrin is a psycho, Gortash is just a clown, and the The Netherbrain is just a sci-fi b-movie villain. An evil floating brain who wants to establish an evil empire? Seriously? That's probably one of the dumbest endbosses in the genre's history.