Baldur's Gate III News

[Antimatter]

So, not only Minsc (& Boo) and Jaheira, but also them as recruitable companions!



Summoning German-speaking @Urdnot_Wrex to translate the pcgames.de bit.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

"As you would have it."

I doubt you're interested in the full translation of the contents of the Collector's Edition, so I'll focus on the information we have all been waiting for:

*******

Minsc (+Boo) and Jaheira will both be recruitable as companions!
They just won't be playable as origin characters, which makes absolute sense.

Minsc hasn't aged because he was a statue, of course, while Jaheira is older.

Instead of recruiting them, you can also make them your enemies, which means more antagonists and an impact on the story, because Swen wants player choice to have a meaning, to matter.

*******

So it should be interesting to compare playthroughs!

I think this information should satisfy our nostalgia, the player complaints that there isn't enough connection to the old games, the wish for more non-evil companions and meaningful choices with a story impact, also but not only for playing "evil".

After the long time of little information, I'm now very much looking forward to this game again!

 

[Chronicler]

I've gotta be honest, the Minsc as an enemy sounds like a pretty fun opportunity to see him in a new light.

 

[Chronicler]

If they added a classic evil comanion like that, where they can be your friend or your enemy depending on your choices, who do you think you'd want?

 

[O_Bruce]

For the first time since the reveal trailer, I actually feel excited for BG3. Plus, Jaheira.

 

[Chronicler]

For the first time since the reveal trailer, I actually feel excited for BG3. Plus, Jaheira.

Jahiera's great. I wonder how she plays under 5e?

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I wonder if they'll let us romance Jaheira. She was my all-time favourite in BG2, and it would be great for devs to acknowledge that not every player is 20 or wants to date people who look like 20.

 

[Chronicler]

Apparently, from what I've been reading, this is the first we've heard of companions that won't be origins. Everything up till now has seemed pretty committed to every companion having their own fleshed out arc as the main character.

So I kind of suspect they're scrambling to include this stuff for release at this point. Probably questions like romance just depend on how much they can get done before august.

 

[alice_ashpool]

If they added a classic evil comanion like that, where they can be your friend or your enemy depending on your choices, who do you think you'd want?

Korgan

 

[alice_ashpool]

Korgan was one of my favourite dwarf depictions - a "typical dwarf" but through a mirror darkly. He had everything the stereotype of a dwarf has, but just reprehensibly twisted into korgan bloodaxe. There's no one else i would choose to stand on charnames right hand as she ascends to become the new goddess of murder.

 

[Chronicler]

I really liked Montaron, but after BG2 I'd be nervous about another appearance. They did him and Xzar dirty in that game.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

If they added a classic evil comanion like that, where they can be your friend or your enemy depending on your choices, who do you think you'd want?

To me, none of the evil recruitable companions from Baldur's Gate 2 were charismatic enough to feel that I really want to see them again so badly and could say that it would enrich the experience for me either as a companion or an adversary.
I also don't think they should limit themselves by adding too many characters that restrict writing because of previous information.

If we're talking pure theory though, I could maybe imagine Viconia. She had some character development at least.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

So I kind of suspect they're scrambling to include this stuff for release at this point.

I don't think Minsc and Jaheira were added later and are now being written in a hurry to fit in until release. There have been hints about them for ages. I assume they have simply been revealed at a late point for suspension, to have something new to tell before release, to draw the "old" fans back, and maybe also to leave room to get to know the new companions and potential origin characters first instead of constantly comparing.

About Jaheira romance, I don't honestly expect it, I think she will most likely be handled as an ageing wise woman, l just meant it would be cool, because as much as I appreciate that we have a lot of equality in games (and RL, at least in the place I live) nowadays considering the choices for protagonist and main character of gender, race (or species), orientation and all, but age is still a criminally underrated factor there.
And mind you I'm not talking about some grandmother kink or sugar daddy stuff. I'm talking about the simple fact to acknowledge that people don't stop having romantic feelings or sexual attraction as soon as they cross the "first grey hairs and laugh lines" threshold.
And that the target group for video games are growing and ageing too. I for example have children who would meet my country's age rating for BG2, and in a few years the one for BG3. I doubt we would be interested in the same characters.

 

[Chronicler]

I don't think Minsc and Jaheira were added later and are now being written in a hurry to fit in until release. There have been hints about them for ages. I assume they have simply been revealed at a late point for suspension, to have something new to tell before release, to draw the "old" fans back, and maybe also to leave room to get to know the new companions and potential origin characters first instead of constantly comparing.

About Jaheira romance, I don't honestly expect it, I think she will most likely be handled as an ageing wise woman, l just meant it would be cool, because as much as I appreciate that we have a lot of equality in games (and RL, at least in the place I live) nowadays considering the choices for protagonist and main character of gender, race (or species), orientation and all, but age is still a criminally underrated factor there.
And mind you I'm not talking about some grandmother kink or sugar daddy stuff. I'm talking about the simple fact to acknowledge that people don't stop having romantic feelings or sexual attraction as soon as they cross the "first grey hairs and laugh lines" threshold.
And that the target group for video games are growing and ageing too. I for example have children who would meet my country's age rating for BG2, and in a few years the one for BG3. I doubt we would be interested in the same characters.

The target demographic for videogames in general might be aging, but it seems like an especially relevant concern when reviving a 20 year old gaming franchise.

You have to be especially aware that a lot of the people who picked up BG1 when they were twenty, are forty now and picking up BG3.

But honestly it hasn't really seemed like Larian has been all that interested in catering to classic Baldur's Gate fans. Even this newest announcement is a pretty shallow, service level piece of fanservice, though of course I'm eating it up, because I really like Minsc and Jaheira and I'm excited to see them in a new adventure.

 

[Chronicler]

Though, for what it's worth, my dad who introduced me to the games is nearing 60. I think even back then, their playerbase wasn't necessarily as young as they might assume. PC gaming was pretty inaccessible back then, easier to get into as like an established adult with disposable income and a certain amount of technological knowhow, and the 2e rule set was pretty unintuitive on top of that, long-ass game manual, so on and so forth.

Corporate media tends to have an obsession with youth. If you can hook them young, you'll have a customer for life, and they're always chasing that.

 

[O_Bruce]

If you can hook them young, you'll have a customer for life, and they're always chasing that.

All it takes to lose a "customer for life" is to consistently provide bad content, and show no respect or understanding to the franchise you work with. And many companies/corporations are guilty of exactly that nowadays, without a hint of awareness of that. Instead, they prefer to insult the audience they are making products for.

 

[Chronicler]

All it takes to lose a "customer for life" is to consistently provide bad content, and show no respect or understanding to the franchise you work with. And many companies/corporations are guilty of exactly that nowadays, without a hint of awareness of that. Instead, they prefer to insult the audience they are making products for.

Corporations definitely do that, but I don't know that it really hurts them all that bad.

Sonic had like what, a decade of borderline unplayable games? But every time they release a game that's halfway decent all the fans come clamoring out of the woodwork desperate for the series to make a comeback.

 

[Chronicler]

I've been a pretty big doubter for BG3, but I am just unironically so excited about the Minsc and Jaheira announcement.

Been thinking lately about how it's been 100 years since we last saw Jaheira. She's spent 100 years learning and changing. She's probably grown strange to us in some ways. She's not the person we knew, she's a distant progression of that person.

And how that contrasts with Minsc, who literally it's like we pressed pause on him at the end of Throne of Bhaal and started him up again just in time for this adventure. He's become some Peter Pan figure, whimsically unaware of the passing of seasons, every bit the man he was last time we talked.

 

[Antimatter]

A great analysis by Wolfheart and @HarbsNarbs! (the video has timely spoiler alerts for those who don't want to watch them).

 

[Zaxares]

Hey everyone. (Arvia dragged me over here. ;P)

So, since I'm a bit out of the loop with regards to BG3 news, I mostly have two questions.

Firstly, with the reveal that Minsc and Jaheira are going to be potential companions (or enemies, which is pretty interesting news) in BG3, has Larian given any more information about whether or not we'll be able to have a bigger say in who Gorion's Ward was? I'm not expecting it to play a major role (if that) in the story of BG3 at all, but just being able to have some input on basic things like their race, class, alignment, whether or not they had a love interest and what was their ultimate destiny (godhood or remain a mortal) would mean a LOT to me.

Secondly, has Larian mentioned anywhere about whether the CE will be available to Asian players? Currently there's only 3 regions available, NA, EU and Oceania (with Australia and New Zealand being the only two options). There doesn't seem to be any way for you to place a shipping address if you live elsewhere in Asia or SE Asia, which is deeply disappointing.