Though many games have tried to capture the essence ofDungeons & Dragonsin a video game format,Baldur’s Gate 3has arguably done it the best. Its noteworthy success is largely due to its fantastic cast of characters and the vast array of paths players can choose to follow. Despite this, every great game has its flaws, and one aspect ofBG3’scharacterization has gradually become more and more frustrating when it comes to staying immersed in the setting.
After a few playthroughs of the game, it’s become increasingly hard for me to ignore the biggest limitation of its approach to party relationships. No matter what relationships you personally build with the companions, you don’t really see any proper friendships bloom among the rest of the cast, especially after Act One. This has left certain areas ofBaldur’s Gate 3to feel strangely empty or lacking.
Companions In Baldur’s Gate 3 Only Form Meaningful Bonds With The Player
Character Development Depends On Keeping Companions In The Party
When certain companions are in the party with each other, they will occasionally have lines of “banter” with each other. Outside of this, however,players will very rarely see friendships or relationships develop between the characters. For example, you likely wouldn’t be able to confidently describe what type of dynamic Gale has with most other party members, despite him being one of the most consistent and important characters in the game. If you attempt to force interaction by controlling two non-player characters to talk to each other, then you’ll usually only get dry responses.
All Baldur’s Gate 3 Companions Ranked By Their Best Quotes
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive game that has many different voice lines from both enemies and allies, but some companions have truly iconic lines.
For a good example of what I would have liked to see,Dragon Age: The Veilguardfeatures companions who will end up romancing each other and actual conversations that play out between the main cast. Though I understand thatthis would have been trickier to implement intoBaldur’s Gate 3since it has more of an open story, I would enjoy being able to see which characters get along the best outside the player’s influence. This could really help to flesh out all the characters, especially those who aren’t in the active party.
Karlach & Wyll Develop The Best Friendship In Baldur’s Gate 3
Even The Standout Friendship Is A Bit Underdeveloped
The one friendship that visibly develops is between Wyll and Karlach, and even then, their bond could use some improvement.Past Act One, Wyll and Karlach barely have any dialogue together. More group or one-to-one conversations could go a long way in making the friendship believable. If the you decide to go down an evil route where they slaughterthe Emerald Grove in Act 1, you’ll see little of both Wyll and Karlach after, so any development they may have gone through ends up being even more unsubstantial.
All Baldur’s Gate 3 Companions Ranked By Importance In The Main Story
Baldur’s Gate 3 has an amazing and expansive story that has tons of different characters, but some are way more important to the story than others.
If you decide tokill Karlach instead of recruiting her, then there obviously won’t be any relationship built between her and Wyll at all. This may contribute to the sense that evil campaigns can be unrewarding or boring inBG3—if the companions feel static in a good campaign, then an evil campaign where a lot of the content is underdeveloped or lacking is going to be a lot worse.Exploring the dynamics between Minthara, Ascended Astarion, and Dark Justiciar Shadowheart could’ve been a way to make different routes ultimately more engaging.
Though players can still meet Minsc in Act Three, they can only recruit him if they also recruited Jaheria in Act Two.
Minsc and Jaheria have the most natural friendship,but sinceBG3is not their first appearance and the prior games were able to set the foundation, I’m hesitant to include them in the discussion.Shadowheart and Lae’zel’s rivalryearly on is also an interesting dynamic, but even if the player decides to side with one over the other, nothing really comes of it later in the story. Even having their rivalry permanently stick for the rest of the story would have been interesting, but the narrative doesn’t take this plot point in any direction.
BG3 Could Have Benefited From Exploring More Character Dynamics
The Game Could’ve Been Massively Improved With Some Extra Animations
Baldur’s Gate 3is already a gigantic game, but it didn’t need very much more to make the characters feel alive. Lae’zel has a few different idle weapon animations, and Shadowheart can talk to Scratch or the Owlbear cub, but othercompanions seem to spend most of their time at camp standing around, just waiting for the player.Some simple interactions could have gone a long way to show how they like to spend their downtime. While it wouldn’t have to be anything big, scenes or animations of them talking or sitting together could’ve made the camp much more dynamic.
Larian took this approach for the tiefling party, so it’s not hard to imagine what the camp could’ve been like if they had done it on a smaller scale.
UserDuhbloonson Reddit pointed out thatthis is a particular issue in the Elfsong Tavern “campsite.“Despite this being the location where companions should feel the most comfortable, they appear to be rigidly shoved into random corners. It would be natural for a few companions to be lounging on their beds, or to be sitting down next to a fireplace, but the only way to make characters interact with the furniture is manually.Insektikor’s reply might summarize the situation the best; it’s almost “depressing” how lifeless the companions can feel at times.
With the attention to detail in other areas of the game, the lifelessness of companions in camp feels a little jarring. At the end of the day, however, this is quite a minor nitpick for such a revolutionary product.Larian already had to cut a few corners, and realistically, including many of these suggestions would have interfered with the development of more important features. However, futureBaldur’s GateorD&D-inspired games could still take note of whereBaldur’s Gate 3fell relatively flat and showcase more camaraderie in their gameplay.
