Baldur's Gate 3 is a masterpiece,
there's no denying that. The uncertainty of every action,
reaction and events heightens the excitement of your interactions.
Every new enemy type, environmental hazard and ability you face forces you to
be present and focused on the task at hand. Despite an engaging story intertwined
with bits of lore from side quests, notes and world design I believe Baldur's Gate 3
gets its addictive nature from its characters. This video will include minor spoilers
from the first part of the game. Just to be clear I won't and can't spoil the
ending or all of the story beats. BG3 might seem scary, the size of its world
is massive, there's like a million names to remember and any failed roll can change the
trajectory of your playthrough entirely. The game takes place in the Dungeons and Dragons
world, and without prior knowledge you get to learn about different races, religions,
cities, hell, even different universes. Amidst the chaos that might be your first couple
of fights, failed checks or untimely demise there are only a few things that exist as constants.
And those things are the characters. The game is divided into three acts, what
happens in the second act depends on how you choose to play the first act and so on.
Act one, while partially about you learning how to deal with the mechanics, also serves the purpose
to introduce you to the main cast of characters. How you meet these characters can depend on
what, who or when you interact with someone or something. If you don't find the party members
you can even end up missing them entirely. The world design naturally guides you to the
characters so you'd most likely find all of them one way or another. But even if you were to
miss one of the potential party members there are hundreds if not thousands of NPCs with fun
interactions and their own stories to tell. While not every character you see has a larger
story, all of them have voiced reactions to your presence. Some of them even have
their own smaller confined stories, allowing you to explore and engage with
a full character beat sometimes within the span of 20 minutes.
Take the case of Glut. You find him in the circle of
sovereign Spaw, lost and alone. Glut was a sovereign myconid whose circle, that
is his colony, was eliminated. You can be tasked with avenging his fallen colony and he will help
you take out the duegar who's responsible. Once you carry out your task Glut will ask for your
help once more, this time to end Spaw's reign. Here you have the choice to help Glut
be the new sovereign or to take him out before he hurts any of the other myconids.
Glut is just one of the many characters who you can get to know. The entire ordeal might take you
less than 20 minutes and in the grand scheme it has no impact on the rest of the story.
But, it has an impact on you. Knowing that any character at any point in the
game could have a short story of their own, that every interaction might change
your future quests and choices is not only fun and exciting, but it's enthralling.
As you travel the map you might stumble into fights, cutscenes or private conversations
that not only enhances your understanding of the world but also gives you insight
to this small corner of the universe. Depending on your choices and how you
interact with the characters around you, the story will unfold in completely different
ways. Sometimes luck is a factor in how you get by because of the dice roll mechanic, critical
hits or misses or even through enemy ai. Zevlor is a tiefling you meet early on in
the game as you are tasked to help him defend Emerald Grove. After a bit of exploring there's
a chance that the attackers, a bunch of goblins, come for the grove and anyone inside. If you fend
off the invasion and Zevlor survives I assume you get to have many conversations with him and
learn about what drives him. However I have no clue because he was pushed from a ledge and
surrounded by the enemies in my playthrough. While I couldn't create a strong bond with
Zevlor there are many of the tiefling who were just bystanders of which I've gotten
to know and understand more deeply. Rolan, Cal and Lia are siblings, they end up arguing
quite a bit but after talking with them at multiple points through a playthrough you get to
see how deeply they really care for eachother. Arabella, a tiefling child, is in danger after
attempting to steal the Idol of Silvanus which would keep the tieflings in the grove
safe. If you're able to save her you'll learn that she has gained powers, powers
of which you get the chance to receive. Dammon, the blacksmith, has a good heart and
while we don't necessarily learn too much about him he can help you and one of your companions.
Your party, the main cast of characters are the foundation of what keeps you coming back to
Baldur's Gate 3. The variety of backgrounds, themes and motivations allows you to always find
new intriguing directions for each character. Not only do they all have their own lore, but they
will grow as people during the story. Depending on your relationship with each of the characters
they will behave and react differently. Certain rolls can increase or decrease in difficulty
depending on your approval rate, you get to complete character specific quests depending on
the choices you make, and if the characters like you enough you have a chance to romance them.
I previously mentioned how the game builds upon the D&D universe. The first party member you meet
is Lae'Zel a githyanki. Her githyanki heritage makes her a bit high strung and aggressive
as well as making her obsessed with being the strongest warrior. By journeying together with
Lae'Zel you get to learn about githyanki customs such as what a Créche is, who their goddess
is and potentially how they prove themselves to a mate. Baldur's Gate 3 allows someone like
myself, who before the game had no knowledge of the githyankis existence, to dive deep into an
entire race's history, beliefs and philosophy. Each of the 6 main party members all have
this kind of depth, their upbringing, previous adventures and personalities
are all different and impact how they interact with the world around them.
You gain approval based on your choices, but appeasing one of the characters may displease
another. The way you interact with the characters can depend on what race you've chosen, your
class as well as the personality you decide your characters should have. Because of the DnD
framing your interactions with other characters usually allows for multiple dialogue options which
can highlight your characters personality. You can choose to be aggressive and attack first, ask
questions later. You can try to be sneaky and trick your enemies into a false sense of security.
Or you could be kind and modest, potentially making you more friends along your travels.
There are 11 races you can choose from, some of them have subraces such as the elves who can
be high elves or wood elves. Counting all the subraces there are 21 different backgrounds to
choose from. Further there are 12 classes with their own subclasses, and together with the 42
feats you can choose from when you gain a level, Baldur's Gate 3 allows for a massive amount of
variation between characters and playthroughs. The variation impacts everything
from your ability to hit good rolls, create meaningful bonds with the other characters
and how you position yourself in battle. And all this variation without even taking into
consideration the potential weapons, armour or spells you can pick up during the playthrough.
In BG3 you're not roleplaying as one character, you're roleplaying all the members in your party.
You choose their loadout, how they level up and what specialties they should focus on. You have
to make sure your warrior has a strong sword, your tank has good armour and that your
mages have a variety of useful spells. It's very easy to fall in love with all of the
party members, and even if there's one you like less there's always something about their history,
how they carry themselves or in what ways they grow over the game's runtime that you can find
interesting. Sometimes starting a new playthrough with a completely different character can help
you connect more with a teammate who you might not have loved with your previous characters. For
me that was Astarion, other than the fact that he killed me while I tried to be nice I just couldn't
get over his narcissism and rude remarks. However, with a second character whose personality
was more aligned with Astarions I was able to learn about him and I slowly started to like
him more and more. It also helps that Neil Newbon goes really fucking hard as Astarion.
Baldur's Gate 3 is filled with so many different interactions, every situation can be
dealt with in numerous ways and with a little bit of creativity you can achieve anything.
The world is vast not only in area but also in biomes and inhabitants. Entering a new region
can be a bit overwhelming. With all the branching paths, subareas and hidden spots it's easy
to miss major parts, characters and quests. Act two expands upon the vast environment and
depending on your choices in act one you will have more or less quests to do. Here you have the
opportunity to meet a mix of different characters, some with quests, some who try to kill you
and some who can become new party members. The only person who you will always travel with
other than yourself is Shadowheart. Shadowheart is a half-elf cleric of Shar, Shar being the deity
of darkness. While working your way through act two you will hear about "The Nightsong". The
nightsong is a weapon from Selûne, Selûne being the sister of Shar, her neverending opponent.
Shadowheart, being a follower of Shar wants to get rid of The Nightsong despite it maybe being
your best option for completing your mission. This is what Baldur's Gate 3 does best, through your interactions with Shadowheart,
through exploration and through world building you have the ability to change the outcome of events.
Pitching your goals against those of your party members creates tension and forces you to take
everything into account before you make a choice. Building up that relationship, understanding
the characters needs and wants and learning what actually drives them can make or break the story.
Without the party members, the characters you deeply care about, the game would lose
tension and intrigue. It would be harder to envelope yourself in the world, feel
like your choices matter and appreciate the work put into the massive universe.
Side characters can create just as strong bonds to you as the main cast and they are given
the chance to evolve at a faster pace and hook you in because of their limited screen time.
The combination of intriguing characters, a large number of variations and the amount
of creative solutions that are present is what gives Baldur's Gate 3 its addictive nature.
If you've enjoyed my characters during this video, why not subscribe or leave a like. Feel
free to comment your thoughts down below.
My name's TurtleKun, remember to eat well,
sleep well and I'll see you in the next video.
